Fatal Months: Auschwitz and the End of the Second World War

The 2020 Alfred Wiener Holocaust Memorial Lecture Series

2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the most lethal of all Nazi camps. 

This lecture looks back at its final months, from the time the camp reached its murderous peak, after the mass deportations of Jews from Hungary, to the arrival of Soviet soldiers in January 1945. But liberation did not put an end to Nazi murder – it continued elsewhere, until the final German defeat in spring 1945. 

The lecture follows the fate of former Auschwitz prisoners forced to other camps and the crimes of former Auschwitz SS staff in camps like Bergen-Belsen.

This lecture is presented in partnership with the Wiener Holocaust Library, the Holocaust Research Institute (Royal Holloway), The University of Huddersfield, and the Holocaust Survivors’ Friendship Association.