Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp is Liberated by the Red Army and the Polish 2nd Infantry Division of Ludowe Wojsko Polskie
Soviet forces liberated the Sachsenhausen camp itself on April 22, 1945.
They found only about 3,000 ill and weak prisoners in the camp. Camp records indicate that the SS deported more than 140,000 prisoners to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Though a Soviet investigation commission estimated that over 100,000 prisoners died at Sachsenhausen, new research shows that a more realistic estimate is between 30,000 and 50,000 deaths. The SS also deported to Sachsenhausen tens of thousands of unregistered prisoners. The SS authorities interned an estimated number of 200,000 prisoners in Sachsenhausen during the camp's operation.
With the advance of the Red Army in the spring of 1945, Sachsenhausen was prepared for evacuation. On April 20–21, the camp's SS staff ordered 33,000 inmates on a forced march northeast. Most of the prisoners were physically exhausted and thousands did not survive this death march; those who collapsed en route were shot by the SS. On April 22, 1945, the camp's remaining 3,000 inmates, including 1,400 women were liberated by the Red Army and Polish 2nd Infantry Division of Ludowe Wojsko Polskie.
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US Holocaust Memorial Museum
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