Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution

Over one million were killed in a camp that ended up as a byword for the mass murder of Jews. However, the camp was originally constructed for a very different purpose than the genocide that eventually occurred there.

By 1942, the camp is established as a place where thousands of people have been murdered, but the horrific regime demands yet more be killed. The Nazis involve the Jewish Ghetto leadership in Lodz to select those who will be sent there.

France is the first western country to deport resident Jews to Auschwitz and nearby Treblinka. This leads to the biggest killing year in the history of the Nazis' 'Final Solution', prompting people like German officer Albert Battel to risk their lives to save the lives of the detainees.

By 1943, life was good for many of those in charge at the camp. SS eyewitness accounts recall how those in power at Auschwitz lined their pockets with wealth stolen from Jewish inmates, while they also engaged in illicit affairs by opening a brothel.

The German occupation of Hungary leads to the deportation of Jews living there. The Western Allies debate whether to bomb the camp. More people are murdered at Auschwitz in 1944, than in all previous years.

The reality of life in the concentration camps was revealed upon the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen in 1945. The final days of war and its immediate aftermath is a story as shocking as it is surprising.