The concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest German extermination camps during the Nazi era. It was built in 1941 three kilometers from the main camp Auschwitz-I and was located near the renamed Auschwitz in Oswiecim city after the military occupation of Poland annexed and as an administrative unit built Bielsko County.

The name "Auschwitz" became a symbol of the Holocaust. Of the more than 5.6 million victims of the Holocaust, about 1.1 million people, including one million Jews were murdered in Birkenau. Approximately 900,000 of the deportees were murdered immediately after their arrival in the gas chambers or shot. Another 200,000 people were murdered by the SS due to illness, malnutrition, abuse, medical experiments or the subsequent gasification. Countries of origin of most of the victims were Belgium, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Yugoslavia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Romania, Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.

Today, many parts of two of the major concentration camps yet received or faithfully completed. They are publicly accessible part of the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial of the Holocaust and Jewish cemetery on the grounds of the former concentration camp I and II. This museum is also a memorial, international meeting and Holocaust Research. It has been a UNESCO under the name of Auschwitz-Birkenau - explains German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945) part of the world cultural heritage.

Quelle: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/KZ_Auschwitz-Birkenau