On January 27, 1945, the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp was released. On the spot, the soldiers of the Red Army discover horror. Today, archive images bear witness to these atrocities.
On January 27, 1945, the Red Army soldiers entered the Auschwitz complex. This assembly of work, concentration and extermination camps caused the death of more than a million people, for the most part of Jewish confession, but also Gypsies, resistance fighters or homosexuals. On the day of the discovery of these camps, the Allies are gathered in Yalta and are concentrated on the offensive against Germany: the news of this liberation goes almost unnoticed. However, one can only be seized before the horror evidenced by vintage images, taken at the time of the discovery of this death plant.
Most of these iconographic documents were taken by the Red Army. On the spot, the Russian soldiers found “only” 7,500 survivors, due to the massive evacuation plans set up by the Nazis to hide their crime in the eyes of the courts and history. The Soviets discover in this corner of Poland the extent of the violence committed by Nazi barbarism. While soldiers help prisoners, illness and difficult return arouse other dead and other trauma. Opinion will not be aware of the horror that has been played out in what has become one of the world centers of the duty of memory. Only a few photos concretely keep the trace of the extermination policy carried out during the final solution.