File:Auschwitz I-22.jpg

English: Auschwitz concentration camp was a network of concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II. It was the largest of the German concentration camps, consisting of Auschwitz I (the Stammlager or base camp); Auschwitz II–Birkenau (the Vernichtungslager or extermination camp); Auschwitz III–Monowitz, also known as Buna–Monowitz (a labor camp); and 45 satellite camps.

Auschwitz had for a long time been a German name for Oświęcim, the town by and around which the camps were located; the name "Auschwitz" was made the official name again by the Germans after they invaded Poland in September 1939.

One of those who died at Auschwitz was a non-Jewish Polish woman, Anna Grodyńska, born 8 October 1891. On 30 October 1941 Anna (née Rutowska, widow of Major Jan Kanty Grodyński brother of Jerzy Grodyński (pl) who was one of the founders of the Polish Scout movement and active in Sokół and Eleusis (pl)) was arrested at her apartment in Kraków at 1 Batory street, where apparently a gun and papers linking her to the ‘Polish Resistance’ were found (she was associated with ZWZ (pl) and PPS-WRN (pl) ‘Freedom Equality Independence’), along with her younger sister Zofia Żyborską and daughter Magdalena. After imprisonment in the detention centre on Montelupich street Anna and her sister were transported to Auschwitz (#6816) on 27 April 1942 and on 30 August Anna was executed (probably at the notorious wall between Blocks 10 & 11 following months of “brutal interrogation”). Zofia died in Auschwitz one year later on 23 August 1943 but Magdalena, born 25 May 1926 and who bravely endured interrogation at Gestapo Headquarters in Kraków at 2 Pomorska street, survived the war and pursued a successful career as a dramatic actress in the theatre before being laid to rest on 19 October 1984.
The Scotch Mist Gallery contains many photographs of historic buildings, monuments and memorials of Poland.