Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution

Over a million Jewish people died there – but Auschwitz was originally made for a different purpose. Part one of this landmark series looks at how the camp was first built to imprison and terrorize anyone who resisted Germany’s occupation of Poland. But Auschwitz was expanded and became integral to the Nazis’ ‘Final Solution’ – and is now a byword for the mass-murder of an ethnoreligious group.

By 1942, Auschwitz was established as a place to murder thousands of people – but the horrific Nazi regime demanded yet more killing at the camp. The second part of this landmark series looks at how the Germans involved Poland’s Jewish Ghetto leadership in choosing who would go to Auschwitz to be murdered, and how commanders at the camp struggled to organize mass-murder on a terrible scale.

In 1942, events in northern Europe led to the largest number of annual killings in the ‘Final Solution’. Part three of this landmark series looks at how France became the first Western country to deport its resident Jewish people to Auschwitz and the nearby Treblinka camp. As the murders increased, the likes of German officer Albert Battel risked his own life to save those of detainees.

In 1943, life was good for those in power at Auschwitz. Many of the SS stole wealth from Jewish inmates as brothels were opened at the camps. Part four in the series also looks at physician Josef Mengele, who carried out horrific pseudo-scientific experiments on inmates at Auschwitz. He was particularly interested in children and twins, using them to research the power of genetic inheritance.

1944 was the most frenzied period of killing in Auschwitz’s grim history, with Germany’s occupation of Hungary leading to the deportation of its Jewish people. This episode examines how the Western Allies considered bombing the camp, and Adolf Eichmann made an offer to one of the most politically involved members of the Jewish community – a million Jewish lives saved for providing certain goods.

The final part of the series. On January 27, 1945, the Red Army liberated Auschwitz. They were utterly shocked by what they saw: walking skeletons, remains of gas chambers and piles of human hair. The episode also follows the stories of Jewish people who sought revenge on the Nazis after the war ended, and a former SS garrison member who, near the end of his life, confronted Holocaust deniers.