When the Soviet army reached Auschwitz 80 years ago, on January 27, 1945, it found only about 7,000 inmates.
What they saw was beyond words -- living skeletons, lice-infested human forms with just skin and bones, barely able to stand, greeted them.
Eighty years ago, on January 27, 1945, the Soviet army freed thousands of people who had survived the largest graveyard in human history -- Auschwitz in Poland.
The world commemorates today the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the largest Nazi death camp where over a million people, mostly Jews, were butchered during World War II.
Auschwitz is a reminder of the evil, barbarism and brutality that man is capable of and the grit, determination and helplessness of those who survived.
The camp, on the outskirts of the Polish town of Oswiecim, was set up by the Nazis in 1940. Hitler had invaded Poland and the Germans renamed the town Auschwitz.
In the beginning, Auschwitz was meant mainly to confine Polish rebels who the Nazis considered to be a threat to their occupation. The Polish prisoners were subjected to horryfying treatment and within 20 months more than 10,000 prisoners died.
But more, unparalleled horrors were unleashed on January 20, 1942, at the Wannsee conference in Berlin. The Nazis came up with the 'Final Solution' for Jews -- mass murder.
During 1942 about 200,000 Jews were sent to Auschwitz from all over Europe. About 70 percent of them were murdered on arrival.
Auschwitz consited of three main camps and over 40 sub-camps. Auschwitz II or Birkenau was built in October 1941 and held more than 100,000 Jews; it was the main site of mass killings.
Birkenau was the epitome of Nazi efficiency. Gas chambers and crematoria capable of disposing of about 2,000 people a day were built there.
Jewish men, women and children were herded to Auschwitz in trains, like animals.
Those deemed too old or too weak to work were led to the 'showers' -- chambers where Zyklon B crystals, a pesticide used to kill rats, suffocated them. Then the bodies were burned in ovens designed specially for the purpose.
Rolling wagons slid in and out of the ovens so that corpses could be burned quickly.
The remains of the dead were put to industrial use.
By 1944, Auschwitz was killing 6,000 people a day.
Often, the living suffered more.
The camp had various classes of prisoners. They were distinguished by special marks and numbers tattooed on flesh; Jews were treated the worst.
The inmates were treated worse than slaves. They toiled in the extreme Polish winter with little clothing, several slept on a hard wooden bunk. They were given little to eat. They were subjected to inhuman torture as part of 'experiments'.
Disobedience was punished with starvation, hanging or shooting.
Towards the end of the Second World War, the Nazis took many Auschwitz inmates on 'death marches' through the Polish winter. No food, no water; slowing down meant bullets.
When the Soviet army reached Auschwitz on January 27, 1945 it found only about 7,000 inmates. What they saw was beyond words -- living skeletons, lice-infested human forms with just skin and bones, barely able to stand, greeted them.
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff.com
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com
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