On Jan. 27, 1945, Soviet soldiers liberated the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. Photos and videos taken by the soldiers confirmed the reports of the atrocities that had taken place. Some of those photos, as well as a selection taken by Nazis stationed at the camp, have been provided by the United States Holocaust Museum. This photo captures women in the barracks of the newly liberated Auschwitz concentration camp.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park
A group of female survivors of Auschwitz-Birkenau trudge through the snow as they depart from the camp through the main gate. The women have rid themselves of their prison uniforms and taken clothes from the burning storage houses. The image is a still from film taken by Henryk Makarewicz, who was a cameraman in the Polish Berling Army when it entered the camp in January 1945.
Liberated inmates of Auschwitz behind barbed wire. This image is a still from the Soviet film taken by the First Ukrainian Front. Footage capturing the liberation was shot over several months, and was later used in the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg.
Jewish women and children who have been selected for death walk in a line toward the gas chambers. This image was from an album of photographs documenting the arrival, selection, and processing of Jews from Subcarpathian Rus (Carpatho-Ukraine), then part of Hungary, that came to Auschwitz-Birkenau in the latter half of May 1944. The photographs were taken by SS-Hauptscharführer Bernhardt Walter, who was head of the Auschwitz photographic laboratory known as the Erkennungsdienst [Identification Service] and his assistant, SS-Unterscharführer Ernst Hofmann.
The corpses of prisoners killed just prior to the evacuation of Auschwitz-Birkenau tumble out of a shed into the snow, immediately following the liberation.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Mark Chrzanowski
Liberated inmates of Auschwitz. This image is also a still from the Soviet liberation film.
Three SS officers—Richard Baer (commandant of Auschwitz), Dr. Josef Mengele, and Rudolf Hess (the former Auschwitz commandant)—socialize on the grounds of the SS retreat of Solahuette outside of Auschwitz. Photographs from this time period (June 1944 to January 1945) coincided with the deaths of 400,000 Hungarian Jews.
An accordionist leads a sing-along for SS officers at their retreat at Solahuette.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Anonymous Donor
View through the barbed wire fence of the burning Kanada barracks in Auschwitz-Birkenau immediately after the liberation. Before leaving the camp, the Germans set fire to storage houses and to piles of human clothing.
Bales of hair from female prisoners, numbered for shipment to Germany, found at the liberation of Auschwitz.
Courtesy United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park
Female Auschwitz inmates sort through a huge pile of shoes from the transport of Hungarian Jews. The looted property would be distributed throughout the various reaches of the Third Reich.
A Jewish woman walks toward the gas chambers with three young children after going through the selection process on the ramp at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Courtesy United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Yad Vashem (Public Domain)