First mass transport to Auschwitz concentration camp

Not to be confused with First mass transport of Jews to Auschwitz concentration camp.
Prisoners of the first transport at the railway station in Tarnów. 14 June 1940
The gates to Auschwitz I

The first mass transport of prisoners by Nazi Germany to Auschwitz Concentration Camp was organized in occupied Poland on 14 June 1940 during World War II. The transport departed from the southern Polish city of Tarnów, and consisted of 728 Poles.[1] They were dubbed 'political prisoners' and members of the Polish resistance. Most were Catholics, since the mass deportations of Jews had not yet begun.[2] All were sent to Auschwitz by the German Sicherheitspolizei Security Police. They were transported there from a regular prison in Tarnów, where they had been incarcerated as enemies of the Nazi regime. Numbers were tattooed on the prisoners' arms in the order of their arrival at Auschwitz. These inmates were assigned the numbers 31 through 758,[3] with numbers 1 through 30 having been reserved for a group of German criminals, who were brought to Auschwitz from Sachsenhausen,[1] on 20 May and became the first Auschwitz kapos.[4]

  1. ^ a b Hermann Langbein, People in Auschwitz, page IX
  2. ^ Andrew Nagorski, A Tortured Legacy
  3. ^ Auschwitz/Birkenau and subcamps
  4. ^ Shoah, Auschwitz