Oswiecim

Oświęcim , Ger. Auschwitz, town (1992 est. pop. 45,100), Małopolskie prov., SE Poland. It is a railway junction and industrial center producing chemicals, leather, and agricultural implements. There are coal deposits in the vicinity. In World War II the Germans organized a concentration camp system there, consisting of 3 main and 30 forced-labor camps. At the Brzezinka (Ger. Birkenau ) extermination camp as many as 4,000,000 prisoners, mostly Jews, were killed.

Auschwitz (Pol. Oświc̨cim) Town in s Poland. It was the site of a German concentration camp during World War II. A group of three main camps, with 39 smaller camps nearby, Auschwitz was Hitler's most “efficient” extermination centre. Between June 1940 and January 1945 more than 4 million people were executed here, mostly Jews, and comprising about 40 different nationalities, principally Polish. The vast majority were gassed in its chambers, but many others were shot, starved or tortured to death. The buildings have been preserved as the National Museum of Martyrology. Together with the world's largest burial ground at Birkenau, one of the other two main camps, Auschwitz is a place of pilgrimage. Pop. (1999) 43,700.

http://www.auschwitz-muzeum.oswiecim.pl/html/eng/start