Before the 76th anniversary of the liberation of #Auschwitz we bring together the most important facts about the last stage of the operation of this German Nazi camp. See the rest of this [THREAD] below. 1/11 #Auschwitz76

At the beginning of 1945, there were around 67,000 prisoners in the Auschwitz camp system. On 12 January 1945, the Soviets started their offensive. In mid-January head of the SS in the region, Ernst Schmauser gave the order to evacuate Auschwitz. 2/11

The final evacuation began on 17 January 1945. Around 58,000 prisoners were evacuated from the Auschwitz camp system. Columns of prisoners were leaving the camps and subcamps between 17 and 21 January. 3/11

On January 20 the SS blew up the buildings of gas chambers II (📷) and III. On January 25/26 SS units entered the camp to destroy the last one - gas chamber and crematorium V. 4/11

Some 9,000 prisoners were left by the SS in the camps. The last SS guards left the camp most probably on January 21, but there were still some SS and Wehrmacht units coming in and out. 5/11