Auschwitz-Birkenau timeline

September 1: Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland begins World War II in Europe. The Nazis massacre Polish Jews or force them into ghettos, begin to displace Polish elites and try to stop resistance.

April 27: Schutzstaffel (SS) commander Heinrich Himmler selects a site for barracks at Oświęcim in southern Poland, which is renamed Auschwitz.
June 14: Arrival of first 728 Polish political prisoners.
Autumn: The resistance movement informs the Polish government in exile in London about the Auschwitz camp, which in turn informs the Allies.

March 1: Himmler inspects Auschwitz, orders expansion.
June 22: Germany invades the Soviet Union, breaking the 1939 pact, sends prisoners of war to the Auschwitz camp.
September 3: First mass gassing in Auschwitz with Zyklon B of 600 Soviet POWs and 250 Poles.

January 20: Nazis set plans for „Final Solution,” genocide of European Jews.
January: Mass gassing of Jews at Auschwitz begins.
March 1: Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp opens.
March: First mass deportation of foreign Jews to the Auschwitz camp, 69,000 from France, 27,000 from Slovakia.
May: 300,000 Jews sent from Poland, 23,000 from Germany and Austria.
May 4: Birkenau’s first „selection” of incoming prisoners, separating those who were destined for captivity from those who were to be gassed.
June 10: Revolt at Birkenau – seven prisoners escape from Auschwitz camp, 300 are killed.
July: 60,000 Jews shipped to Auschwitz camp from the Netherlands.
August: 25,000 Jews from Belgium, 10,000 from Yugoslavia.
October 30: industrial camp „Auschwitz III-Monowitz” opened.
October: 46,000 Jews sent from present-day Czech Republic.
December: 700 Jews sent from Norway.

May: Allied planes photograph the camp, spot gas chambers and smoke. Britain and the United States later bomb Monowitz.
May: 438,000 Jews sent from Hungary.
August: 67,000 Jews sent from the Lodz ghetto in Poland.
August 2: 3,000 Roma are gassed.
August: 13,000 Poles sent among the Warsaw Uprising.
October 7: Revolt of „Sonderkommando,” Jews forced to burn bodies from gas chambers. Three SS men are killed, 450 Sonderkommando prisoners.
November: Mass gassing ends.

January 17: „Death March” – SS forces 60,000 prisoners to flee west while Soviets advance.
January 21-26: Germans blow up gas chambers and crematoria at Birkenau, retreat as Soviet scouts approach.
January 27: Soviet troops arrive and find 7,000 survivors.