Auschwitz (POW and concentration camp)

Auschwitz was a complex of Nazi concentration and extermination camps established during World War II in Poland. It primarily functioned to imprison, exploit, and systematically murder Jews, along with Roma, political opponents, and others deemed undesirable by the Nazi regime. The camp included Auschwitz I (a concentration camp), Auschwitz II (Birkenau, a major extermination camp), and Auschwitz III (a labor camp). Victims faced inhumane conditions, forced labor, and mass killings, making Auschwitz a symbol of the Holocaust’s horrific human rights violations. It is now remembered as a site of atrocity and a reminder of the consequences of hatred and intolerance.