
The mission of liberating the city of Oswiecim and the Auschwitz camp fell to the soldiers of the 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front, who advanced along the left bank of the Vistula from Cracow towards Upper Silesia. The 100th Lvov Infantry Division, under General-Major Fyodor Krasavin, was directly involved in the Oswiecim operation.
Soldiers crossed the Vistula on January 26. The next day, Saturday morning, division reconnaissance entered the grounds of the Monowitz sub-camp. They liberated the center of Oswiecim at noon. After a brief skirmish with the retreating Germans, they simultaneously entered the grounds of Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau, about 3 kilometers away, at 3:00 p.m.
Soviet losses in the liberation of Auschwitz, Birkenau, Monowitz, and the city of Oswiecim amounted to 231 officers and men, including Lt. Col. Semen Byesprozwanniy, commander of the 472nd Battalion, who was posthumously awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Polish Republic by Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski in 2000.
A total of about 7,000 prisoners were liberated in Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Monowitz. The Red Army also freed about 500 prisoners in several sub-camps.
The last general roll call in Auschwitz held on January 17, 1945 (10 days before liberation) reported 67,012 prisoners
http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/m/

Of the more than 230,000 children whom the Germans deported to Auschwitz, 700 were alive at liberation.

General Fyodor Krasavin, commanding officer of the 100th infantry division which took Auschwitz on January 27, 1945 is on the right.

Sweet Revenge! A Russian soldier threw my uncle a rifle and asked what he wanted to do to an SS guard who had beaten him.

Truth of Life By Tatiana Kosterova, age 16 Moscow, Russia PDF
Recent Russian article on the liberation and cover-up
My uncle Harry Lawsky (born Chaskel Wroclawski) may be one of the last survivors of the Chaim Rumkowski orphans.
The Story of Chaim Rumkowski and the Jews of Lodz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Chaim_Rumkowski_and_the_Jews_of_Lodz
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/lodz/video/