The Techniques of Holocaust Denial: List of historical texts and the numbers they cite for the Auschwitz death toll

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, RudolfDeath 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.