Auschwitz is liberated: Otto Frank is free

Overview

On 17 January 1945, the Auschwitz camp command started emptying Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Monowitz, and the sub-camps. The SS wanted to erase the traces of the crimes it had committed there. The Soviet army had broken through the German lines five days earlier and was drawing near.

About 56,000 prisoners were forced to walk until they could be taken to camps in Germany by trains or trucks. Peter van Pels was one of them. In their poor clothing, they walked for tens to hundreds of miles through the snow. Those who could not keep up were killed along the way. The sick were left behind in the camps.

The SS demolished parts of Auschwitz-Birkenau. They blew up the crematoriums and tore down the barracks. The fleeing SS men took items they had stolen from prisoners, but most things were left behind and burned. They also took parts of the records with them, but many papers were burned haphazardly in the last days of the camp.

Otto Frank and other sick people were selected to be shot, but because the execution squad was called away, he escaped death. The SS were in a hurry to leave and by 20 or 21 January, the camp was almost unguarded. About 8,000 prisoners were left behind. They had to find their own food and try to stay warm.

Burning "Canada"-barracks. These warehouses contain goods that were taken from people when they arrived at the camp. When the camp was evicted, they were set on fire.
Auschwitz-Birkenau, January 1945.

Photo Collection: USHMM / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Mark Chrzanowski

Corpses of prisoners who died during the camp evacuation.
Auschwitz-Birkenau, January 1945.

Photo Collection: USHMM / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Mark Chrzanowski

Soviet soldiers view a crematorium, which was blown up by the SS evacuating the camp.
Auschwitz-Birkenau, januari 1945.

Photo Collection: USHMM / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Prisoners watch their liberators.
Auschwitz, January 1945.

Photo Collection: USHMM / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum courtesy NARA

Liberated prisoners in a barracks.
Auschwitz, January 1945.

Photo Collection: Yad Vashem

Liberated prisoners leave the hospital in Block 19.
Auschwitz, February 14, 1945.

Photo Collection: BeeldbankWO2 / NIOD

Freed prisoners say goodbye to a nurse at the gate of Auschwitz I.
Date unknown.

Photo: Public domain.

Otto Frank had been in the sick bay since November 1944. That was his salvation. He no longer had to do heavy work, he was not mistreated, and he was protected from the cold. Peter van Pels helped him to get extra food.

Peter van Pels was sent along on a death march. He ended up in Mauthausen concentration camp and the Melk sub-camp, where he died several months later, presumably on 10 May 1945.

The Soviet army arrived at the camp on the afternoon of 27 January, but quickly moved on. Out of pity, soldiers gave their rations to the starving, sick prisoners, who gorged on the food and would sometimes grow sicker or even die of overfeeding. A field hospital was quickly set up and before long, the Polish Red Cross constructed a hospital. The camp was visited by journalists, photos were taken, and films were shot.

Otto Frank was nursed in the camp and recovered slowly. After three weeks, he went outside for the first time. He left Auschwitz on 5 March and went on to Katowice, a city 35 kilometres away, to go home from there.