The first Soviet prisoners of war in Auschwitz concentration camp: July, 1941
The first Soviet prisoners of war were brought to Auschwitz in July 1941 and killed within a few days.
The exact number of these prisoners is missing. They had never been registered. Presumably there had been a few hundreds of them and they fell into the category of ‘political officers and commissars’. Nowadays, judging by the uniform of these prisoners, the researchers believe that they used to be tankmen.
The prisoners of war were allocated to block №11 and were executed by shooting or beaten to death within the following days.
The view of Block 11 from the fence side. Spring 1946
From the memoirs of Rudolf Höss
"…before they started killing the Jews en-mass, in almost all concentration camps in 1941-42 Soviet political officers and commissars were killed… The first, smaller transports were shot by special execution squads."
(Quote: ‘Auschwitz through the lens of SS’. Oswiecim. 2008 P 62)