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The German Nazi concentration and extermination camp, Auschwitz, was established in the spring of 1940 in the Zasole precinct of the Polish town of Oświęcim, which after the outbreak of the war together with a part of Lesser Poland was incorporated into the Reich. Originally, it was to be a quarantine camp for 10,000 political prisoners (December 1939), then it was decided to transform it into a state concentration camp (April 1940), with an initially estimated capacity of up to 30,000 prisoners (June 1940). Construction works consisting of the adaptation of 20 brick buildings of former Polish barracks, began in mid-April 1940. The former commander of KL Sachsenhausen, Rudolf Höss, was appointed as the commandant of the camp (May 4, 1940).