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Auschwitz is universally recognized as the ultimate symbol of evil: the world's largest death factory. It is estimated that approximately 1.1 million people were murdered there, of whom one million were Jews. From a single camp in 1940, Auschwitz was transformed into a massive complex, including 3 main camps and 40 sub-camps. The establishment of the Auschwitz complex was a project that lasted years, and was never completed. In the course of the planning phase, SS draftsmen prepared hundreds of sketches and plans of the construction sites and the various buildings. These included detailed drawings of the gas chambers and the crematoria.
The photographs in the Auschwitz Album were taken by two SS officers in late May and early June 1944, and document the arrival of Hungarian Jews at the camp. Upon arrival, the Jews underwent a selection process: those deemed fit for labor were sent into the camp, while the rest were led to the gas chambers. The personal belongings the deportees had brought with them were sorted by prisoners. The album captures the entire process except for the murder itself. The Auschwitz Album was donated to Yad Vashem by Lili Jacob-Zelmanovic Meier.
Overview and resources including photographs, video lectures, testimonies, artifacts and documents.
“[…] Many survivors […] remember that the SS militiamen enjoyed cynically admonishing the prisoners: ‘However this war may end, we have won the war against you; none of you will be left to bear witness, but even if someone were to survive, the world will not believe him […]. People will say that the events you describe are too monstrous to be believed: they will say that they are the exaggerations of Allied propaganda […]. We will be the ones to dictate the history of the Lagers.”
Primo Levi, The Drowned and the Saved
Reading Corner
Educational Materials
What was Auschwitz? What happened at Auschwitz? How was Auschwitz liberated?
The Auschwitz Album
If a stranger found your family album, what would they learn about your family?
This learning environment presents a way to use art from and about Auschwitz in teaching the subject to your students.
An educational study guide within the book “The Wagon of Birkenau”, which tells the remarkable story behind the wagon that now stands as a memorial in the camp.
In this ceremony, participants read excerpts from diaries written by children who were murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
This ceremony explores the female experience at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp as expressed by women who were inmates there in 1944.
On the Holocaust - a Yad Vashem Podcast
The Auschwitz concentration camp was one of the most horrific places ever conceived of by man – a place of constant torture. The experience was uniquely terrible for women, who were forced into some of the most unimaginable of circumstances.
A fascinating, moving and honest conversation with Holocaust survivor Sara Leicht - about longing, about unforgettable and unforgivable events, about one good German, and more.
When the planes flew over Auschwitz, most of the prisoners didn’t survive, but some did. And some even related to it in their accounts: “We saw the planes fly over. We were hopeful, we were waiting to be bombed.”
Victor "Young" Perez
Victor Perez was a talented and celebrated Jewish boxer from North Africa. With the German occupation, Victor’s fame could not prevent his arrest or deportation. Was his fighting spirit enough to help him survive?
Online Exhibitions
Majdanek and Auschwitz Liberated: Testimony of an Artist
Flickers of Light
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Blueprints
From the Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection
Spotlight
Stories of the Last Deportees, June 1944-April 1945
Stories of the Last Deportees, June 1944-April 1945
Spots of Lights: Women in the Holocaust
From Hope to Despair
"Stay together": The Fate of Jewish Families in 1944
Spots of Lights: Women in the Holocaust
Survivors Testimony Films Series
“May Your Memory Be Love“
"Notes of life"
"Hope Keeps You Going"
"From Generation to Generation"
"As Long as I Live and Breathe"
"She Was There and She Told Me"
"Continuity in Crisis"
"My Father's Last Request"
"To See Children in Auschwitz"
"Lone Melody"
Online Store
Bella Guterman
Robert Savosnick
Yehuda Bauer
Soviet Partisans and the Jews: Bogdan Musial, Sowjetische Partisanen – Mythos und Wirklichkeit.
Educational Kit
Jill Margo