Soviet Troops Reach Auschwitz

On the morning of 27 January 1945, soldiers from the Red Army 100th Rifle Division entered the Monowitz industrial camp, marking the initial arrival of Soviet troops at the vast Auschwitz concentration camp complex. Later that afternoon, units from the 60th Army reached the main installations at Auschwitz I and the sprawling extermination center at Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The advancing forces encountered roughly 7,000 living prisoners across the three primary camps, along with about 500 survivors scattered in external subcamps and more than 600 bodies left unburied.

The soldiers discovered immense quantities of personal effects abandoned by the camp administration during its hasty departure. Among the remaining supplies were hundreds of thousands of men's suits and women's garments, tens of thousands of pairs of shoes, and about seven tonnes of human hair packed for transport. Forensic testing later identified traces of hydrogen cyanide in the collected hair, confirming its exposure to Zyklon B, the chemical formulation used by the Schutzstaffel in the facility gas chambers.