Eighty-eight pounds of eyeglasses. Hundreds of prosthetic limbs. Twelve thousand pots and pans. Forty-four thousand pairs of shoes. But though the camps that made up Auschwitz seemed silent and abandoned at first, soldiers soon realized they were filled with people—thousands of them, left to die by SS guards who evacuated the camps after trying to cover up their crimes. As they saw the soldiers, the emaciated prisoners hugged, kissed and cried. After five years of hell, Auschwitz was liberated at last.
The Germans had long known they might have to abandon Auschwitz, but they planned to use it as long as possible, further exploiting the workers whose slave labor they rented to companies that produced chemicals, armaments and other materials. As they waited, they moved forward with a preliminary evacuation, even founding a new sub-camp at a steel mill. Even as they waited to determine if a mass evacuation was needed, the Germans began to destroy evidence of their crimes.
They also took steps to move much of the material they had looted from the Jews they murdered elsewhere. Then, the Soviets broke through German defenses and began to approach Krakow. As the Red Army marched closer and closer, the SS decided it was time to evacuate. They planned what prisoners thought of as death marches—lengthy, forced journeys from Auschwitz toward other concentration and death camps. Starting on January 17, prisoners were forced into long columns and told to walk westward toward territory still held by Germany.
Only those in good health a relative term in camps racked with malnutrition and disease could participate, and those who fell were shot and left behind. The death marches , which occurred in extremely cold conditions, killed up to 15, prisoners. Those who remained were forced into open freight cars and shipped further into the Reich, where they were relocated to various camps still under German control.
The guards who remained continued to cover up evidence, including burning warehouses full of plundered possessions. By January 21, most SS officers had left for good. Most of the 9, prisoners who remained at Auschwitz were in dire health. Others had hidden in the hopes they could escape.
