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The Anniversary of the First Transport to Auschwitz
Museum staff members and former prisoners honored the 67th anniversary of the first deportation of 728 Polish political prisoners to the Auschwitz Nazi German concentration camp. They laid wreathes and lighted candles at the Death Wall outside Block no. 11, where the Germans shot at least several thousand people.
The first transport reached Auschwitz on June 14, 1940. It included soldiers who had fought against the German invasion in September 1939, members of underground independence organizations, secondary-school and university students, and a small number of Polish Jews.
From 1940-1945, the Nazis deported approximately 150,000 Poles to Auschwitz. They were the second-largest group of prisoners, after the Jews. At least half of the Poles died in Auschwitz, and many more died after being transferred to other camps. 239 of the prisoners in the first transport survived the war.
By an Act of the Polish sejm (parliament), June 14 has also been published as Nazi Concentration Camp Victims Remembrance Day since last year.
