Auschwitz was the Nazi concentration and extermination camp liberated by Soviet troops on January 27, 1945.
The Red Army reached the Auschwitz complex in occupied Poland during its westward advance. Soldiers from the 322nd Rifle Division arrived on January 27, while Soviet forces also liberated nearby parts of the complex, including Birkenau and Monowitz. The date is now observed internationally as Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Auschwitz was not a single camp but a large network. Auschwitz I served as the original camp, Auschwitz II-Birkenau became the largest extermination site, and Auschwitz III-Monowitz supplied forced labor to industry. About 1.1 million people were murdered at Auschwitz, the vast majority of them Jews deported from across German-occupied Europe.
Before the Soviet arrival, SS guards forced approximately 60,000 prisoners on death marches westward. Around 7,000 sick and starving prisoners remained behind. The soldiers found survivors, corpses, abandoned belongings, and evidence of mass murder. Auschwitz is often confused with Dachau, Buchenwald, or Bergen-Belsen, but those were separate camps liberated at different times.