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#Auschwitz began its operation on 14 June 1940, when a transport of 728 Polish political prisoners arrived. Poles were sent to the camp from all parts of German occupied Poland until fall of 1944. Up until mid-1942 they were the majority of prisoners. lekcja.auschwitz.org/en_1/ 
A large group of prisoners were members of the Polish intelligentsia, who were considered dangerous by the German authorities on account of the authority they had among compatriots. The Germans considered these people the most likely to organise and direct a resistance movement.
The camp also held other Poles involved in conspiratorial activities, people arrested during street roundups, peasants evicted from the Zamość region as well as Warsaw inhabitants sent to Auschwitz during that city’s uprising.
Moreover, Poles were deported to Auschwitz for breaking work discipline. In the camp they were given a different category, that of correctional prisoners (Erziehungshäftlinge − EH) and, unlike other inmates, they served limited sentences of 6 to 8 weeks.
Auschwitz was also where Poles not registered as inmates were executed on the basis of security police court-martial death sentences. From Feb 1943 such a court-martial was also held within the camp. The police prisoners (Polizeihäftlinge) were awaiting the trial in Block 11.
It has been estimated that some 140–150,000 Poles were sent to the German Nazi Auschwitz camp and that at least half of them were killed there.
