Soldiers in the First Army of the Ukrainian Front liberated Auschwitz on Jan. 27, 1945

Soldiers who participated in the liberation of Auschwitz

The young woman in the center of the photo above is a Communist political prisoner named Olga. This is a still shot from the Soviet movie, which is shown to tourists at the Auschwitz Museum in the main camp. Note the badge worn by the elderly woman, which indicates that she is a political prisoner, aka an illegal combatant.

The liberation of Auschwitz on January 27, 1945 was the most important event that ever happened in the entire history of the world, so it is important to correctly identify the liberators.

A  recent news article, which you can read in full here, claims that it was Ukrainians, not Russians, who liberated Auschwitz.  The photo above was taken in February 1945 because the liberating soldiers did not have cameras with them.  The liberation had to be re-enacted.

Here is the real story of the liberation of Auschwitz:

On January 18, 1945, the three Auschwitz camps, called Auschwitz I, II and III, and the 40 satellite camps had been abandoned by the German Nazis. The prisoners, who chose to leave with the Germans, were marched out of the camp.

The gassing of the Jews at Auschwitz II, also known as Birkenau, had stopped at the end of October 1944. The evacuation of the Birkenau survivors to other concentration camps in the West had already begun in early October.

Anne Frank and her sister Margo were on one of the first transports out of Auschwitz, which took them to Bergen-Belsen, where they both died of typhus.

Aerial photos taken by the Allies showed that the roofs of crematoria buildings Krema II and Krema III and Krema IV at Birkenau had been removed in November 1944, so that the cremation ovens could be lifted out with cranes and transported to Germany.

Unfortunately, the four gas chambers in the Birkenau camp had not been destroyed by the Germans at the same time that the cremation ovens were lifted out of these building.

 Ruins, allegedly found by the Soviets on Jan. 27, 1945, were photographed in Feb. 1945

My photo of the ruins of Krema II at Birkenau taken in 2005

Many people believe that Soviet soldiers really arrived shortly after the Germans left with some the prisoners on the “death march” out of the camp, and that the crematory buildings (Krema II, Krema III, and Krema IV) were actually destroyed by the Soviet soldiers before they officially liberated the camp.

Fortunately, Krema I in the main camp had been converted into a bomb shelter by the Germans, and it was not destroyed by the liberators.  The bomb shelter was later converted into a gas chamber, which is still shown to tourists.

For many years, it was claimed that the so-called gas chamber in the main camp was original, but now it is admitted that it is a “reconstruction.”

Re-enactment of child survivors marching out of Auschwitz-Birkeau

Another still photo from the movie taken at the re-enactment of the liberation of Auschwitz

Note the little girl on the far left in the front row in the first photo above. She is on the left in the front row of the second photo above, which is also a still shot taken from the documentary film made by the Soviet Union in February, after they had liberated the camp.

The first photo shows a few of the 611 children at Birkenau, who greeted the liberators. They are holding out their arms to show their tattoos. Notice that the boy in the front is wearing a prison uniform which looks as though it would fit an adult.

This same film clip is included in a film entitled “The Nazis: Nazi War Crimes,” produced by the Soviet Union in which it was claimed that this same film clip was shot by the Nazis just before these children were killed at Babi Yar, a ravine near Kiev in the Ukraine.

Photo of the ruins of one of the Birkenau gas chambers was taken by the Soviets in Feb. 1945

So now that we know that the Soviets were not above telling lies about Babi Yar, I am inclined to believe that it was the Soviets who blew up the gas chambers at Birkenau before their official “liberation” of the camp on January 27, 1945.

The photo above shows the ruins of one of the gas chambers. How did the Soviets know that the ruins, shown in the photo, are the ruins of a gas chamber?

Why were there so many child survivors of Auschwitz, which are shown in the Soviet film of the re-enactment of the liberation?  Apparently, the Soviet soldiers did not know that children under the age of 15 were gassed at Auschwitz.  There were 611 children still alive when the Soviet liberators arrived.