In mid-January 1945, as Soviet forces approached the Auschwitz
camp complex, the Nazi SS began evacuating Auschwitz and its
satellite camps. Thousands had been killed in the camps in the
days before these death marches began. Nearly 60,000 prisoners,
mostly Jews, were forced to march west from the Auschwitz camp
system to the city of Wodzislaw in the western part of Upper
Silesia. SS guards shot anyone who fell behind or could not
continue. Prisoners also suffered from the cold weather,
starvation, and exposure on these marches. More than 15,000 died
during the death marches from Auschwitz. On today’s date, the
Soviet army entered Auschwitz and liberated more than 7,000
remaining prisoners, who were mostly ill and dying. It is
estimated that at minimum 1.3 million people were deported to
Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945; of these, at least 1.1 million
were murdered. Today Auschwitz is considered a World Heritage
Site, and its grounds and structures, still mostly intact, serve
as a living holocaust museum. In 2