Освенцим 1940-1945 гг. Центральные проблемы истории

This extensive publication is a collection of scholarly studies illustrating the origins and functions of the concentration camp and the death camp in various aspects, some of which have been previously unknown to the research community as a whole. The authors attempt to elucidate matters that are controversial and that resist unambiguous assessments; they also correct theses and facts that have won acceptance in Polish and international historical writing.

In comparison with other studies, these volumes:

- present the history of the camp against the background of the overall policies of the Third Reich and its satellite countries in a broader fashion than has been done previously;

- recount the course of the deportations to Auschwitz from various countries, the responsibility borne for those deportations by many German and collaborationist institutions, and the fate of the victims;

- offer significant new material on the issues of mass extermination, the resistance movement, and the specific situations of the Jews, the Poles, the Roma, and victims of other nationalities;

- contribute to the little-known issue of the identity of the 7,000 men and women in the SS garrison, their backgrounds, occupations, education, age, attitudes to religion, and so on.