On January 17, 1945, as the Soviet Army advanced towards Auschwitz, the German guards led most of the prisoners out of the camp on death marches. The last of these prisoners left at 4:00 a.m. on January 19. In their hurry to leave Auschwitz-Birkenau, the guards abandoned several thousand prisoners who were too sick to march. Hundreds of boys and girls, including Paula, were also left behind.
Later that morning, an Allied bombing raid on a nearby chemical factory cut water and power services to the camp. In the ensuing chaos and uncertainty, inmates ransacked empty barracks in search of food and medicine. The next day, an SS division was detached to Birkenau to blow up Crematorium II and Crematorium III. These officers caught and executed 200 women who had tried to flee from the women's camp, and then selected a group of prisoners to detonate cases of dynamite around the two crematoria. Upon completion of this task, the officers left.
With the SS gone once again, prisoners broke into the German guards’ storerooms and confiscated cans of preserved meat, condensed milk, and other items. They then put the Birkenau kitchen back into operation. On January 22, a division of the German “Stormtroopers” returned to Birkenau and murdered dozens of prisoners, among them 18 French men who had chosen to settle in the SS guards’ dining hall.
At 1:00 a.m. on January 26, an additional SS squad entered the camp and blew up Crematorium V, the last of the Auschwitz-Birkenau crematoria. These officers fled the camp as nearby Soviet air raids intensified.
At around 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 27, the first Soviet soldier appeared on the grounds of the Buna-Monowitz labor camp. In the afternoon, Soviet troops entered the vicinity of the Auschwitz main camp and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Near the main camp, they met resistance from retreating German units. 231 Red Army soldiers were killed in close combat during the liberation of Auschwitz. Two of them died in front of the camp gates.
Throughout Auschwitz, the Soviet liberators found more than 7,000 inmates, of whom 5,800 were at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Paula was one of 435 children who were among these prisoners.
