The Nazi Gau Upper Silesia ; also known as in German: Gau Oberschlesien was an administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1945. Upper Silesia was part of the Prussian Province of Silesia. The Gau was created when the Gau Silesia was split into Upper Silesia and Lower Silesia on 27 January 1941. The Gau included territory annexed by Nazi Germany after the invasion of Poland.

The Nazi Gau (plural Gaue) system was originally established in a party conference on 22 May 1926, in order to improve administration of the party structure. From 1933 onwards, after the Nazi seizure of power, the Gaue increasingly replaced the German states as administrative subdivisions in Germany.

At the head of each Gau stood a Gauleiter, a position which became increasingly more powerful, especially after the outbreak of WW2, with little interference from above. Local Gauleiters often held government positions as well as party ones and were in charge of, among other things, propaganda & surveillance and, from September 1944 onward, the Volkssturm and the defense of the Gau.

The position of Gauleiter in Upper Silesia was held by Fritz Bracht [see my post on him] throughout the history of the Gau Oberschlesien, Bracht, who was not a powerful figure in the Nazi hierarchy andcommitted suicide on 9 May 1945.

The KL Auschwitz (concentration camp & extermination camp where more than 1,100,000 people were killed), was located in the Gau Upper Silesia, near Oświęcim. KL Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army in January 1945.