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Why did the Nazis force prisoners out of Auschwitz as Soviet forces approached?
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Auschwitz
The entrance gates to the Auschwitz concentration camp, near Kraków, Poland; the sign reads “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work Liberates”).
As Soviet forces approached in the winter of 1944–1945, Nazi officials forced prisoners out of Auschwitz in a desperate attempt to evacuate the camp and conceal the evidence of their crimes.1
The Nazis were determined to leave no eyewitnesses to the atrocities committed during the Holocaust. Consequently, they forced approximately 60,000 prisoners to march westward toward the heartland of Germany in what became known as death marches. During these brutal evacuations, prisoners were subjected to extreme conditions with little food, water, or rest; those who could not keep up were shot, and nearly one in four prisoners died during the transit.1