Liberation on the Auschwitz camp

The transcript of the podcast

On 27th January 1945, Red Army soldiers liberated over 7000 prisoners of Auschwitz. The 1689 day history of this concentration and extermination camp came to an end. Dr. Jacek Lachendro of the Museum Research Centre tells us what the last days of Auschwitz looked like, and what happened immediately after the liberation.

There were approximately 9,000 prisoners remaining in the camp complex. Most of them were in the Birkenau camp, some in the main camp, some in Monowice and others in several sub-camps. They were primarily prisoners so sick and debilitated that they could not leave the barracks on their own feet, let alone the camp. Along with them remained a group of prisoners who still had strength left and who, for various reasons, did not want to leave the camp. They hid somewhere in the barracks while the prisoner columns were being led out and emerged once the SS men had left the camp. Some of them tried to get hold of their lives independently and assist the sickest and most debilitated, either by going to the camp's food storage facilities and bringing back flour or porridge so they could cook whatever food they could or by melting the snow to get water for cooking. They chopped down bunk beds or wooden elements to light the cooker, heat the rooms, or cook the food. And they awaited the arrival of the Red Army. Every day, they heard the sounds of the approaching front. And finally, on 27th January, they witnessed the arrival of the Soviet soldiers. However, before I talk about the liberation from the prisoners' perspective, let me make a few introductory remarks about the Red Army operation.

In southern Poland, the military operation was conducted by soldiers constituting the First and Fourth Ukrainian Fronts. Units of the first Ukrainian front operated in this range near Kraków and further towards Oświęcim and Upper Silesia, a little further south of the fourth front, along the base of the Carpathian and Beskid Mountains. The first Ukrainian front included, among others, the 60th Army, whose units operated along the Vistula from Kraków to Oświęcim, with the primary objective of occupying the southern part of Upper Silesia. Besides, the first Ukrainian front aimed to capture Upper Silesia, the major industrial basin of this part of Europe, particularly in the first stage of the fighting. When one reads various military documents of the Red Army from that period, one is struck by the fact that they do not contain any information about any concentration camp that should have been liberated. The soldiers are tasked with occupying successive towns, and these towns are mentioned, namely the city of Oświęcim and the village of Brzezinka. However, there is no mention of the camp because the main objective of the soldiers, operating under the 60th Army, was to reach and occupy the southern part of Upper Silesia as quickly as possible. The 100th and 322nd Rifle Divisions were active in the vicinity of Auschwitz, and their soldiers participated in the operations that ultimately resulted in the liberation of the prisoners.

Before noon on 27th of January, soldiers of the 100th Division entered the Monowitz camp and liberated several hundred prisoners whom the SS had left behind. At about midday, with practically no heavy fighting, the soldiers of this division occupied the town of Oswiecim. After suppressing a brief resistance from the Germans, they entered the Birkenau camp in the afternoon. On the other hand, their colleagues from the 322nd Division advanced along the range a little more to the south on their left flank. They forced their way across the Soła River, crossed the bridge near the sub-camp that the Germans had damaged but did not destroy entirely, and in the afternoon, between 15.00 and 17.00, captured the entire main camp complex.

One thing that could be deduced from the accounts of the prisoners who lived to see the Red Army soldiers is that these soldiers were astonished and surprised by what they saw. It indicates that they didn't quite know where they were and what acts they had accomplished. Besides, these front-line soldiers who entered the grounds of the Birkenau camp, or the main camp, had brief conversations with the prisoners who genuinely welcomed them as liberators and after sharing tobacco and food, they left the camp premises since their task was not to conquer, or occupy, or liberate one or another part of Auschwitz, but to establish bridgeheads on the other side of the Vistula River a few kilometres from Oświęcim. It, therefore, shows that the soldiers and the officers were unaware of the existence of the camp. The mere seizure of the camps and the liberation of the prisoners was not the main objective of their operations that day.

An intriguing and well-preserved document was published several years ago on the website of the archives of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation. The document shows the demographics of the 60th army, whose units took part directly in the operations in and around Oświęcim and the Auschwitz camp complex. It contains, among other things, figures and a breakdown by nationality of the soldiers of this army. Most of them were Russians, with over 42,000 being soldiers and officers of Russian nationality, and just over 38,000 were Ukrainians; so the difference is not that significant, and the liberators of Auschwitz were not only Russians but also Ukrainians. As heroes in this regard, the Russians should share this glory for the liberation of Auschwitz with the Ukrainians.

As I said, after short talks and emergency assistance, the first soldiers who entered the camp left the area. Those who came in the second line offered a bit more organised and significant help, albeit still very short-term. One may speculate that the staff of the Army, the 60th Army, or the first Ukrainian front in general, were not fully aware of the nature of the site right after the occupation of the Auschwitz camp complex. We know from Soviet military documentation that it was only when representatives of the general staff and war correspondents began to arrive that the situation was ascertained and initial reports relayed to the command headquarters. One example of this lack of insight is an excerpt from a report prepared by the war correspondent Sergei Krushinsky, who visited the camp areas on 29th and 30th January 1945 and wrote the following in his report to which shows this lack of insight, lack of knowledge about the camp.

I quote: "In the old camp, proper Auschwitz, and in the new one on the site of the demolished village of Brzezowica [which should be Brzezinka, the correspondent's error], there are still between 3,000 and 4,000 prisoners of all nationalities, with few exceptions the sick and the disabled. The Germans intended to annihilate them but failed to do so due to the swiftness of our offensive. These people are all on their own. They do not receive food aid from us. Their survival depends on how much enterprise and strength they have shown in stripping products from warehouses. We did not inspect the camps in terms of medical aid".

The medical assistance was not organised until late January/early February 1945, when two Red Cross Army field hospitals were installed on the site of the former main camp, and several dozen people attempted to provide medical care to several thousand surviving prisoners. At the time of the liberation of Auschwitz, the three parts of the camp: Monowitz, Birkenau, the main camp, and several sub-camps, 7,500 prisoners were still present at the site. Those who remained in relatively good physical condition left the camp area fairly quickly. However, up until the arrival of medics, Red Army medical personnel, and the PCK volunteers from Kraków who set up another hospital on 6th February, between 4,500 to 4,800 prisoners requiring immediate medical care were still in the camp complex. Thus, these several dozen medical personnel, Soviet and several dozen Polish Red Cross personnel, were faced with the enormous task of effectively helping these patients. They had great difficulty providing aid to the sickest and most debilitated, particularly in the first weeks of the hospital's operation. And it was also during this first period that most survivors died, several hundred of them. The situation only improved somewhat after about two months, so much so, that there were far fewer deaths of patients.