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Mauthausen, May 1945: survivors cheer soldiers of the US 11th Armored Division. The banner of the Spanish Republican prisoners reads “The Spanish anti-fascists salute the liberating forces”. The archive records that the scene was photographed a day after the actual liberation and, by the account of the survivor and historian P. Serge Choumoff, recreated at General Eisenhower’s request.Photo: Cpl. Donald R. Ornitz, US Army Signal Corps, 6 May 1945 (NARA 111-SC-206395). Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

The liberation of the camps

Reached from both ends: the camps were freed east to west and west to east, and the last was reached the day after Germany surrendered

The Red Army reached Majdanek on 23 July 1944. The last camp, Stutthof, was reached on 9 May 1945, 290 days later. In between, the Red Army stood on the Vistula for 173 days, and nearly everything else fell in the last weeks of the war, as the two fronts closed on Berlin.

15
main camps, each marked with the day the liberating units arrived
173
days the Red Army stood on the Vistula after reaching Majdanek
290
days from the first camp reached, Majdanek, to the last, Stutthof
200,000–250,000
died on the death marches (Yad Vashem)

01From the first camp to the last

The first camp and the last were both reached by the Red Army, 290 days apart

Soviet troops entered Majdanek, on the edge of Lublin, in July 1944. Then the front stopped. For 173 days the Red Army stood on the Vistula, and the next camp anyone reached was in the far west: Natzweiler-Struthof in Alsace, found empty by an American patrol 125 days after Majdanek. The Red Army’s own next was Auschwitz, 188 days after Majdanek.

11 of the 15 camps followed in 28 days of April and May 1945, as the armies closed on Berlin from the east and the west. At almost every one, the SS had already marched the prisoners out.

The last camp, Stutthof, in the Vistula delta, was reached on 9 May 1945: the day after the German surrender took effect.

15 main camps, July 1944

A map of Central Europe with the borders of 31 August 1939 and the main Nazi camps at the positions of their memorials. As you read, each camp is marked with the day the liberating units arrived, in blue for the Red Army and yellow for the Western Allies, and a time line beneath it fills from July 1944 to May 1945.
Nazi camp, still heldReached by the Red ArmyReached by the Western Allies
A wide concrete path leads to a large round domed mausoleum; a wooden watchtower stands to the right.

Majdanek, Lublin: the mausoleum at the end of the former camp road, with a watchtower (2007). Photo: MesserWoland, 2007. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.

23–24 July 1944

The Red Army reaches the first camp, and finds it almost emptied

Fewer than 500 found (USHMM) · around 1,000 Soviet invalids and hundreds of Poles (memorial). On 22 July the SS marched out about 1,000 — 800 from the camp, over 200 from the Lipowa camp.

1st Belarusian Front (memorial)

A dirt road leads to a wooden gate between barbed-wire fences and a watchtower; two armed men and a car stand at the gate; forested hills behind.

Natzweiler-Struthof, 2 December 1944: the camp gate, guarded by two men of the French resistance (US Army photograph, USHMM). Photo: Emanuel Greenhaus, US Army, 2 December 1944. USHMM. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

25 November 1944 (memorial) · 23 November (USHMM)

The front stops on the Vistula. The next camp is found in the far west, empty

From 23 July to 12 January 1945 the Red Army stood on the Vistula: 173 days.

Found empty — the first camp discovered in the West (memorial; USHMM dates the arrival 23 November).

A patrol of the US 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division (memorial)

A tall stone monument of stacked blocks rises above a row of inscribed plaques laid in the paving, under a grey sky.

Auschwitz II-Birkenau: the International Monument between the ruins of crematoria II and III, with its plaques in the languages of the deported. Photo: Jorge Láscar from Australia, 2012. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 2.0.

27 January 1945

At Auschwitz the SS had marched the prisoners out ten days before

About 7,000 found in Auschwitz I, Birkenau and Monowitz; about 500 more in seven sub-camps.

60th Army, 1st Ukrainian Front (museum) · marches began 17 January

A tall tapering stone monument on a stepped stone terrace, with a flame bowl in front; a flag and pine forest behind.

Gross-Rosen, Rogoźnica: the memorial on the former camp ground (2005). Photo: Lzur, 2005. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.

13 February 1945

Gross-Rosen is found abandoned

Found abandoned. In early February the SS had moved at least 44,000, mostly by rail; the last transport left on 13 February.

Soviet forces

A bronze group of gaunt standing figures, one holding a flag, before a tall stone bell tower; autumn trees behind.

Buchenwald: Fritz Cremer’s figure group before the bell tower of the memorial on the Ettersberg above Weimar. The camp was reached on 11 April 1945. Photo: Friedrich K., 2013. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.

11 April 1945

Two camps reached on one day: Mittelbau-Dora and Buchenwald

4 April: Ohrdruf, a Buchenwald sub-camp: the first camp reached by US troops.

Mittelbau-Dora. Only a few prisoners found; some 250 taken to hospital.

Buchenwald. 21,000 found alive, among them some 900 children. Cleared from 7 April: 28,000 marched out.

3rd Armored Division and 104th Infantry Division
US Third Army; 4th and 6th Armored Divisions (memorial) · marches began 7 April

A stone memorial with Hebrew and English inscriptions stands on the heath, wreaths in blue and white and red laid at its base.

Bergen-Belsen: the Jewish memorial on the former camp ground, erected by the Central Jewish Committee of the British Zone and inscribed for the first anniversary of the liberation, 15 April 1946. Photo: Drow69, 2012. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.

15 April 1945

Bergen-Belsen is handed over after a ceasefire

At least 53,000 found (memorial) · around 55,000 (USHMM). Handed over without a fight after several days of ceasefire talks.

British troops (memorial); 63rd Anti-Tank Regiment and 11th Armoured Division (USHMM)

A tall concrete obelisk seen from below against a deep blue sky, marked near the top with a column of red triangles.

Sachsenhausen: the obelisk raised by the GDR on the former roll-call ground at Oranienburg. The camp was reached on 22 April 1945. Photo: Alex Walker, 2010. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.

22 April 1945

North of Berlin, the SS had marched the Sachsenhausen prisoners off just before

About 3,000 sick prisoners, nurses and doctors found. The camp had been cleared on the night of 20–21 April: more than 30,000 marched off (memorial) · 33,000 (USHMM).

Units of the Soviet and Polish armies (memorial)

Six low stone crosses on a green lawn, bushes and bare trees behind.

Flossenbürg: stone crosses in the cemetery of honour at the memorial (2013). Photo: Pfalzer / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

23 April 1945

Flossenbürg: most prisoners had been marched away a week earlier

Just over 1,500 found.

358th and 359th Infantry Regiments, 90th Infantry Division · marches began 15 April

Two young officers, one in an American helmet and one in a Soviet uniform, embrace and grin in front of a painted sign reading “East meets West”.

The two armies meet: 2nd Lt William Robertson of the US Army and Lt Alexander Silvashko of the Red Army before an “East meets West” sign near Torgau on the Elbe, April 1945 (NARA). Photo: Pfc. William E. Poulson, 1945. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

25 April 1945 · Torgau

The two fronts meet on the Elbe at Torgau

Soviet and US forces meet on the Elbe at Torgau. 4 days earlier: Berlin encircled. The camps the SS still held now lay in what remained of the Reich, north and south of the meeting point.

Men and boys in striped camp clothing and caps crowd behind a barbed-wire fence, smiling and waving their caps.

Dachau, 29 April 1945: young and old survivors cheer approaching US troops (US Army photograph, USHMM / NARA). Photo: US Army photograph, 29 April 1945. USHMM, courtesy of NARA, College Park. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

29 April 1945

Dachau: the US Seventh Army finds the main camp still crowded

Over 30,000 found in the main camp (memorial) · about 32,000 (USHMM); 67,665 registered across the camp system three days earlier. From 26 April, 7,000 marched out of the main camp.

45th Division of the 7th US Army, with the 42nd Division and 20th Armored Division (memorial) · marches began 26 April

A brass plaque with Czech and German text, headed Milena Jesenská, fixed to a brick wall.

Ravensbrück: a memorial plaque to Milena Jesenská, one of more than 2,200 Czech women held in the camp, on the wall of the former camp prison at Fürstenberg (from the plaque). Photo: Wald1siedel, 2015. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

30 April 1945

Ravensbrück: the sick were left behind

Around 2,000 sick prisoners found — the memorial also gives 3,000. More than 20,000 had been marched off in late April; some 7,500 taken out earlier by the Red Cross.

Red Army (memorial; USHMM: vanguard 30 April, main units 1 May)

A grey clad building with a single open doorway, its interior lit red; a path leads to it across the grass.

Neuengamme, Hamburg: the House of Remembrance at the memorial (2019). Photo: Pauli-Pirat / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

4 May 1945

Neuengamme is found empty

Found empty. The prisoners had been taken to Lübeck Bay — see the marches below.

British forces · marches began 19 April

A wide empty paved square between long low barracks, a stone wall and gatehouse at the far end, under a blue sky.

Mauthausen: the roll-call square, where the 1945 photograph was taken, as it is today (2023). Photo: Hangman'sDeath / Wikimedia Commons / CC0

5 May 1945 (memorial: reconnaissance; full liberation 6 May)

Mauthausen and Gusen, in Austria: the last camp reached by the Western Allies

Around 40,000 found in the two camps when the main units arrived on 6 May; a reconnaissance patrol had reached them the day before.

A reconnaissance patrol of the 11th Armored Division, then units of the 3rd US Army (memorial)

A painting of a crowd of people with bundles walking through a gate in a high wall, watched by guards, in muted browns and greys.

Theresienstadt: “A Transport Arrives in the Terezín Ghetto”, gouache painted in the ghetto by the prisoner Ferdinand Bloch, 1942–44. Bloch was murdered in 1944. Ferdinand Bloch · Ghetto Fighters' House · public domain · Wikimedia Commons

8 May 1945 (memorial) · 9 May (USHMM)

Theresienstadt: the Red Cross holds the ghetto until the Red Army passes through

More than 30,000 in the ghetto, nearly 17,000 of them there before 20 April; the Red Cross had held it since 2 May. USHMM dates the Soviet entry 9 May.

First units of the Red Army passing towards Prague (memorial; USHMM 9 May)

A long low stone relief wall and a tall stone pillar on a lawn, with dark pine trees behind.

Stutthof, Sztutowo: the Monument of Struggle and Martyrdom at the museum (2007). Photo: Wisnia6522, 2007. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

9 May 1945

Stutthof, the day after the surrender: the last camp reached

About 150 found (memorial) · about 100 (USHMM). The day after the surrender took effect.

48th Army, 3rd Belorussian Front (memorial) · marches began 25 January

The German surrender had taken effect the evening before, on 8 May 1945.

02April and May 1945

11 camps in 28 days: the last weeks of the war, day by day

From the first April days the camps fell one after another, reached from the east and the west as the fronts converged. Each camp is set on the day the liberating units arrived, as its memorial gives it; where the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum gives another day, that is noted.

Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
1 April
2 April
3 April
4 AprilOhrdruf, a Buchenwald sub-camp: the first camp reached by US troops
5 April
6 April
7 April
8 April
9 April
10 April
11 AprilMittelbau-DoraBuchenwald
12 April
13 April
14 April
15 AprilBergen-Belsen
16 April
17 April
18 April
19 April
20 April
21 AprilBerlin encircled
22 AprilSachsenhausen
23 AprilFlossenbürg
24 April
25 AprilSoviet and US forces meet on the Elbe at Torgau
26 April
27 April
28 April
29 AprilDachau
30 AprilRavensbrück
1 May
2 MayGerman units in Berlin surrender
3 May
4 MayNeuengamme
5 MayMauthausen and Gusen
6 May
7 May
8 MayTheresienstadt *The German surrender takes effect
9 MayStutthof

Blue: reached by the Red Army. Yellow: reached by the Western Allies. Mauthausen and Gusen: 5 May 1945 (memorial: reconnaissance; full liberation 6 May). Theresienstadt: 8 May 1945 (memorial) · 9 May (USHMM).

03Who was still there

Most camps were reached after the SS had emptied them

What the soldiers found depended on what the SS had left. Natzweiler-Struthof, Gross-Rosen and Neuengamme were found empty or abandoned. Elsewhere the counts below are of people found alive in the camp named, not in its sub-camps. Where the memorial and the USHMM give different numbers, both are drawn.

Men and boys in striped camp clothing and caps crowd behind a barbed-wire fence, smiling and waving their caps.
Dachau, 29 April 1945: young and old survivors cheer approaching US troops (US Army photograph, USHMM / NARA).Photo: US Army photograph, 29 April 1945. USHMM, courtesy of NARA, College Park. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Found alive in the camp when the liberating units arrived

Two numbers where two institutions disagree: Majdanek — Fewer than 500 found (USHMM) · around 1,000 Soviet invalids and hundreds of Poles (memorial); Bergen-Belsen — At least 53,000 found (memorial) · around 55,000 (USHMM); Dachau — Over 30,000 found in the main camp (memorial) · about 32,000 (USHMM); 67,665 registered across the camp system three days earlier; Ravensbrück — Around 2,000 sick prisoners found — the memorial also gives 3,000. Theresienstadt was a ghetto, not a concentration camp. Mittelbau-Dora: only a few prisoners found; the figure is those taken to hospital.

04The death marches

Before the soldiers came, the SS marched the prisoners away

As the fronts closed in, the SS emptied camp after camp and drove the prisoners on foot, by rail and by sea towards camps still inside the shrinking Reich. Yad Vashem counts 700,000 camp prisoners in 1945, at least 250,000 sent on death marches in March and April 1945, and 200,000 to 250,000 died on the marches; 25% to a third of them Jewish.

CampMarches beganMarched outDiedFreed where
Auschwitz17 Januaryabout 56,000 (museum) / nearly 60,000 (USHMM)at least 9,000, more probably 15,000 (museum)into the Reich’s camps
Stutthof25 Januarynearly 33,000 (memorial) / nearly 50,000 in the whole system (USHMM)about 17,000 (memorial) / over 25,000, one in two (USHMM)the main camp’s last prisoners by sea, 25–27 April: of about 5,000, nearly half died (memorial)
Gross-Rosenearly Februaryat least 44,000, mostly by rail (USHMM)——
Buchenwald7 April28,000 from the main camp (memorial, USHMM)about one in three (memorial) / 15,000–25,000 (Yad Vashem)—
Flossenbürg15 April9,300, joined by 7,000 from Buchenwald (USHMM)perhaps 7,000 (USHMM)the last columns on 8 May (memorial)
Neuengamme19 April (USHMM) / 21 April (memorial)9,000 / 10,000 to Lübeck BayCap Arcona, 3 May: 6,600 or over 7,000 died — the memorial’s two pages give both; about 450 survived (memorial) / about 600 (USHMM)—
Sachsenhausennight of 20–21 Aprilmore than 30,000 (memorial) / 33,000 (USHMM)“thousands” (memorial)early May, between Parchim, Schwerin and Ludwigslust (memorial)
Dachau26 April7,000 from the main camp (memorial, USHMM); at least 25,000 from the camp system from 23 April“several thousand” (memorial)early May, near Waakirchen (memorial)
Ravensbrücklate Aprilmore than 20,000 (memorial)——
Mauthausenfrom 14 Aprilthe tent camp to Gunskirchen; more than 20,000 held there (memorial)about 6,000 at Gunskirchen (memorial)Gunskirchen, 5 May, US 71st Infantry Division

05Bergen-Belsen · April 1945

Bergen-Belsen was handed over without a fight, and thousands died after liberation

Belsen was a major camp handed over: after several days of ceasefire talks, British troops entered on 15 April 1945. The memorial gives at least 53,000 found, the USHMM around 55,000 found; the report written in the first days by Lieutenant Colonel Taylor gives approximately 40,000. Liberation did not end the dying: around 14,000 died by June 1945 (the memorial), more than 13,000 within three months (the USHMM).

  • 12 AprilCeasefire agreement: the camp to be surrendered peacefully
  • 13 AprilLt Col Taylor receives written orders to take control of the area
  • 15 AprilHanded over to British troops without a fight
  • 16–17 AprilAbout 500 deaths in the camp hospitals in one night; 500 to 1,000 in every 24 hours
  • 19 AprilRichard Dimbleby’s report from the camp is broadcast by the BBC
  • by JuneAround 14,000 of the liberated have died
  • AfterwardsAfter the camp was emptied, British soldiers burned the huts to stop the epidemics (memorial).
Black smoke towers over a burning wooden hut; a long line of soldiers and civilians watches from an open field, a flagpole between them and the fire.
Belsen, May 1945: crowds watch the last hut burn, set alight by a British flamethrower two days after the camp was finally evacuated (Imperial War Museum BU 6674).Photo: Bert Hardy, No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, 1945. Imperial War Museum BU 6674. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain (Crown copyright expired).

06Who reached which camp

7 camps were reached by the Red Army, 8 by the Western Allies

The unit that arrived first, and what it found, as each memorial records it. Where the USHMM gives a different date or count, both are shown.

Red Army

DateCampUnitFound
23–24 Jul 1944Majdanek1st Belarusian Front (memorial)fewer than 500 (USHMM) / about 1,000 and hundreds more (memorial)
27 JanAuschwitz60th Army, 1st Ukrainian Front (museum)about 7,000
13 FebGross-RosenSoviet forcesabandoned
22 AprSachsenhausenunits of the Soviet and Polish armies (memorial)about 3,000
30 AprRavensbrückRed Army (memorial; USHMM: vanguard 30 April, main units 1 May)about 2,000 / 3,000
8 MayTheresienstadtfirst units of the Red Army passing towards Prague (memorial; USHMM 9 May)more than 30,000
9 MayStutthof48th Army, 3rd Belorussian Front (memorial)about 150 / about 100

Western Allies

DateCampUnitFound
25 Nov 1944 (USHMM: 23 Nov)Natzweiler-Struthofa patrol of the US 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division (memorial)empty
4 AprOhrdruf (Buchenwald sub-camp)4th Armored Division and 89th Infantry Division, US Third Armythe dead; prisoners marched out
11 AprMittelbau-Dora3rd Armored Division and 104th Infantry Divisiona few prisoners
11 AprBuchenwaldUS Third Army; 4th and 6th Armored Divisions (memorial)21,000
15 AprBergen-BelsenBritish troops (memorial); 63rd Anti-Tank Regiment and 11th Armoured Division (USHMM)at least 53,000
23 AprFlossenbürg358th and 359th Infantry Regiments, 90th Infantry Divisionjust over 1,500
29 AprDachau45th Division of the 7th US Army, with the 42nd Division and 20th Armored Division (memorial)over 30,000
4 MayNeuengammeBritish forcesempty
5–6 MayMauthausen and Gusena reconnaissance patrol of the 11th Armored Division, then units of the 3rd US Army (memorial)around 40,000

The first camp was reached in July 1944. The last was reached on 9 May 1945, the day after the war in Europe ended.

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Berlinfographics (2026). “The end of the camps: liberation dates, 1944–45”. Berlin Experiences. https://berlinfographics.com/camp-liberation-dates/

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{{cite web |title=The end of the camps: liberation dates, 1944–45 |url=https://berlinfographics.com/camp-liberation-dates/ |website=Berlinfographics |publisher=Berlin Experiences |date=2026-11-05 |access-date=2026-11-05}}