The death camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau is the most widely known. It is located in Poland, in the town of Oświęcim. This death camp was and is the largest and most technologically advanced of the six camps, and is one of the two death camps which still stand today. The camp was built on an area of 15 square miles and killed over 1 million people. These were mostly Jews, but there were also Roma, homosexuals, asocials, political prisoners, Poles, people of other nationalities and many others killed. Auschwitz consisted of three main camps.
In 1942, to ease pressure, Auschwitz II - Birkenau was built. It was capable of holding 200,000 prisoners. When the 'Final Solution' was decided upon, the purpose of the camp was changed to a concentration/death camp. 90% of people went straight to the gas chambers.
Victims were transported in poor conditions by cattle trains. Many died during the journey. Auschwitz-Birkenau was disguised to look like a railway station, so not all people realised their fate. The victims were taken out onto a platform and made to line up. A doctor selected the fittest people for work, while most were told to go into the shower rooms for 'disinfection'. This was a lie. The showers were, in fact, gas chambers, and the people were killed. Anyone selected for work was allowed to live as long as they were able to do their job, which was increasingly hard since they weren't provided with enough food to survive for long. The Germans didn't really care anyway - after all, more trains would come...