As Soviet armies advanced in 1944 and early 1945, Nazi soldiers gradually evacuated Auschwitz. On January 18th, officers sent some 60,000 prisoners in “good” health, on what became known as “death marches“, to other concentration camps away from the front. Some 15,000 prisoners died on that journey.
Some few thousand prisoners too sick to walk remained at the camp and were found by arriving Soviet troops on this day in 1945.
Other notable events on January 27th:
In 2011, as part of the Arab Spring, the Yemen Uprising, where protesters demand the resignation of Ali Abdullah Saleh political and economic reform.
In 1973, the signing Paris Peace Accord puts an end to the Vietnam War, issuing the exchange of prisoners and the withdrawal of US forces from South Vietnam.
In 1967, the U.S., U.K. and Soviet Union sign the Outer Space Treaty, banning the deployment of nuclear weapons in outer space and limiting the use of the Moon to peaceful purposes.
In 1944 Soviet forces liberate Leningrad, after a 872-day siege and over 1 million people dead.
German concentration camp, Auschwitz I (the main camp), Poland (1940-1945). Visible old Austrian and later Polish Army barracks dated before 1939.
