Auschwitz was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II and the Holocaust. It is the most recognizable symbol of the Holocaust and place of genocide in the world. The complex consisted of Auschwitz I, the main camp, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a concentration and extermination camp with gas chambers, and Auschwitz III-Monowitz, a labor camp for the chemical conglomerate IG Farben, and dozens of subcamps. The camps became a major site of the Nazis Final Solution to the Jewish question.

The first inmates, mostly Polish political prisoners, were brought to Auschwitz in June 1940 and were used for slave labor. By March 1941, more than 10,000 prisoners were registered there. The Auschwitz camp was renowned for its harshness, with the most infamous being Block 11 (known as the bunker), where prisoners received the cruelest punishments. According to various estimates, between 1.2 and 1.6 million people lost their lives in Auschwitz. Auschwitz became the symbol of the Nazis final solution to the Jewish question, a symbol of Nazi inhumanity and genocide.