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Several villages were pulled down. The Anniversary of the Expulsion of the Residents of Brzezinka

A memorial plaque was unveiled near the site of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp on the sixtieth anniversary of the deportation by the Nazis of the residents of Brzezinka. During his first visit to Auschwitz in March 1941, Heinrich Himmler decided to expand the Auschwitz Main Camp and to build a new camp, Birkenau, with a capacity of 100,000 prisoners. Over the next two months, the civilian residents of the villages of Pławy, Babice, Broszkowice, Brzezinka, Budy, Harmęże, and Rajsko were evicted from their homes.

The zone of expulsions (also including areas near the Auschwitz camp from which civilians had been expelled earlier) was designated as the camp "Interest Zone" (Interessengebiet), and covered an area of forty square kilometers. The whole area was constantly patrolled by SS men from the camp garrison, as well as local police and Gestapo.

The ceremonial unveiling of the plaque was preceded by an outdoor mass near the Church of Mary Queen of Poland in Brzezinka.