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Report by Alfred Wetzler and Rudolf Vrba, two Escapees from Auschwitz (Late April 1944)

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I soon lost my comparatively comfortable job [October 1942?] with the Aufräumungskommando, and as punishment was transferred to Birkenau, where I spent one and a half years. On 7 April 1944 I succeeded in escaping with my companion.

A CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATE OF THE NUMBER OF JEWS EXTERMINATED AT BIRKENAU FROM APRIL 1942 TO APRIL 1944, ACCORDING TO COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN (by the two escapees):

Poland (shipped by trucks)

c. 300,000

Poland (shipped by trains)

600,000

Holland

100,000

Greece

45,000

France

150,000

Belgium

50,000

Germany

60,000

Yugoslavia, Italy, Norway

50,000

Lithuania

50,000

Bohemia, Moravia, Austria

30,000

Slovakia

30,000

Various camps of foreign Jews in Poland

300,000

TOTAL

c. 1,765,000





Source of English translation: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD, Record Group 226, Records of the Office of Strategic Services, Entry 19, Box 119, File XL 8883.

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