Auschwitz Death Tolls in Western Sources
Research: Brian Harmon
Further Research: John Drobnicki
“Auschwitz.” The World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago: World Book, 1980. | (2.5 million) |
Bauer, Yehuda. A History of the Holocaust. New York: F. Watts. 1982. p. 215. | (1.5 to 3.5 million.) |
______. “Danger of Distortion, Poles and Jews alike are supplying those who deny the Holocaust with the best possible arguments,” Jerusalem Post, 30 Sep 1989. | (1.6 million) |
______. “Foreword,” in Müller, Filip. Eyewitness Auschwitz. New York: Stein and Day, 1979, p. xi. | (exact figure unknown, but estimated 3.5 million) |
Billig, Joseph. Les camps de concentration dans l’economie du Reich hitlerien. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1973. pp. 101-102. | (2 million) |
Dawidowicz, Lucy. The War Against the Jews. New York: Bantam Books, 1979, p. 191. | (1.1 million) |
Encyclopedia Judaica, Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, 1974. p. 855. | (1 to 2.5 million) |
Friedman, Filip. This Was Oswiecim: The Story of a Murder Camp. Translated from the Yiddish original by Joseph Leftwich. London: The United Jewish Relief Appeal, 1946, p. 14. | (4 to 5 million) |
Gilbert, Martin. Atlas of the Holocaust. New York: Pergamon Press, 1988. | (Total Polish dead 3 million) |
Hilberg, Raul. The Destruction of the European Jews. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1961, p. 572. | (1 million) |
Höss, Rudolf. Death Dealer: The Memoirs of the SS Kommandant of Auschwitz. ed. by Steven J. Palusky, trans. by Andrew Pollinger. Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1992, p. 391. | (1.13 million) |
Kamenetksy, Ihor. Secret Nazi Plans for Eastern Europe. New Haven: College and University Press, 1961, p. 174. | (About 2.5 million) |
Lane, Arthur Bliss. Saw Poland Betrayed: An American Ambassador Reports to the American People. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1948, p. 39 | (Over 3 million) |
Kogon, Eugen. Der SS Staat. Berlin, 1974, p. 157. | (3.5 to 4.5 million) |
Piper, Franciszek. “The Number of Victims” in Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp. Washington D.C and Bloomington: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Indiana University Press, 1994, pp. 68-72. | (1.1 million) |
Polaikov, Leon. Harvest of Hate Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1956, p. 202. | (2.3 million) |
Reitlinger, Gerald. The Final Solution: The Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945. South Brunswick: T. Yoseloff, 1968, p. 500. | (0.8 to 0.9 million) |
Sofsky, Wolfgang. The Order of Terror: The Concentration Camp. Trans. William Templer. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997, p. 43 in Galleys. | (1.1 million) |
Sweibocka, Teresa. Auschwitz: A History in Photographs. Bloomington and Warsaw: Indiana University Press and Ksiazka I Wiedza, 1993, pp. 287-288. | (1.1 to 1.5 million) |
Weiss, A. “Categories of Camps, Their character and Role in the Execution of the Final Solution of the Jewish Question,” in The Nazi Concentration Camps, Jerusalem: Yad Veshem, 1984, pp. 132. | (1.2 to 2.5 million) |
Wellers, Georges. “Essai de determination du nombre de morts au camp d’Auschwitz” Le Monde Juif, Oct-Dec 1983, pp. 127-159. | (1.6 million) |
Studies from Poland, former East Germany, and former Czechoslovakia
These generally cite the findings of the Soviet Commission (4 million), the Supreme National Tribunal in Poland (2.8 to 4 million) or the testimony of Auschwitz Kommandant Rudolf Höss (3 million).
“Brestrafung der Verbrecher von Auschwitz,” in Auschwitz: Geschichte und Wirklichkeit des Vernichtungslagers. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowolt, 1980, p. 211. | (2.5 to 4 million) |
Czech, D. “Konzentrationslager Auschwitz: Abriss der Geschichte,” in Auschwitz: Geschichte und Wirklichkeit des Konzentrationslagers. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowolt, 1980, p. 42. | (2.5 to 4 million) |
Dunin-Wasowicz, Krzysztof. Resistance in the Nazi concentration camps, 1933-1945. Warsaw: PWN-Polish Scientific Publishers, 1982, p. 44. | (2.5 to 4 million) |
Madajczyk, Czeslaw. Polityka III Rzeszy w okupowanej Polsce; okupacja Polski, 1939-1945. Warsaw: Panstwowe Wydawn Naukowe, 1970, pp. 293-94. | (2.8 to 4 million) |
Obozy hitlerowskie na ziemiach polskich 1939-1945: informator encyklopedyczny. Warsaw: Panst. Wydaw. Naukowe DSP, 1979, p. 369. | (2.5 to 4 million.) |
Click here for a breakdown of estimated deaths and their causes.