WWII On This Day: January 17

Child survivors of Auschwitz, wearing adult-size prisoner jackets, stand behind a barbed wire fence. — USHMM

January 17, 1945 The Holocaust: Timeline and Evidence

The SS begins the final evacuation of Auschwitz

As Soviet forces approached, the SS began the final evacuation of the Auschwitz camp complex on 17 January 1945. Nearly 60,000 prisoners, most of them Jews, were forced west on foot toward Gliwice, Wodzisław Śląski and other collection points before onward rail transport. Guards murdered prisoners who could not continue, while cold, exhaustion and exposure killed many others. Thousands died during the evacuation routes from Auschwitz as the concentration-camp system was compressed westward into the remaining territory of the Reich.

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Soviet armour advancing across Poland, January 1945. — Soviet armour in Poland, January 1945 · RIA Novosti archive · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Photograph pending verification

January 17, 1945 · 12:00 The Vistula–Oder Offensive

The Vistula defensive system collapses

The Soviet fronts cleared the Vistula line from east of Kraków to west of Modlin. Konev's spearheads reached Częstochowa and Radomsko while 1st Belorussian Front entered Warsaw. The German withdrawal from Warsaw prevented another isolated fortress battle inside the already devastated city.

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January 17, 1945 · 18:00 The Vistula–Oder Offensive

The death marches begin

The SS began forcing approximately 56,000 prisoners from Auschwitz and its sub-camps toward Wodzisław Śląski, Gliwice and camps farther west. Guards shot people who fell behind or attempted to escape. Exposure, exhaustion, shootings and later rail transports killed at least 9,000 and probably as many as 15,000 prisoners.

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