On 27th April 1940 Heinrich Himmler ordered the establishment of the Auschwitz-Birkenau (Oświęcim-Brzezinka) death camp. It is estimated that during the whole period of its functioning, approximately 1.1 million Jews from all over Europe were killed there. Almost 150,000 Poles, about 23,000 Roma, 12,000 Soviet prisoners of war and other nationalities were also killed in this German Nazi concentration camp complex. The total number of victims of the camp is approximately 1.3 million.