Auschwitz concentration camp

German forces occupying Poland set up Auschwitz in 1940 as a labour camp for Polish prisoners, gradually expanding it into a vast labour and death camp.

Between 1.2-1.5 million people died at the camps, of whom about 1 million were Jewish.

 Other groups of people who died included Polish political prisoners, Soviet prisoners of war, Gypsies, homosexuals, people with disabilities and prisoners of conscience or religious faith.