​AUSCHWITZ, or OSWIECIM, a town in Galicia, Austria, on the right bank of the Sola, a tributary of the Wechsel, 33 miles W.S.W. of Cracow. It has a population of upwards of 3800, and carries on a trade in salt. Previous to the first partition of Poland in 1773, it was the seat of a dukedom, which had been united by Sigismund Augustus with the duchy of Zator in 1564.