The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

Shofar FTP Archive File: camps/auschwitz//auschwitz.faq2


Newsgroups: alt.revisionism,soc.history,alt.answers,soc.answers,news.answers
Subject: HOLOCAUST FAQ: Auschwitz-Birkenau: Layman's Guide (2/2)
Summary: Research guide to the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex
From: Nizkor Project 
Reply-To: kmcvay@nizkor.org
Followup-To: soc.history
Organization: The Nizkor Project, Vancouver Island, CANADA
Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.edu
Keywords: Auschwitz

Archive-name: holocaust/auschwitz/part02
Last-modified: 1999/12/23

         Auschwitz: A Layman's Guide to Auschwitz-Birkenau
                            Part Two

  5.0 Administration.............................................15
  5.1   Command Staff............................................15
  5.2   Medical Staff............................................17
  5.3   Selection................................................18
  5.4   Tattooing................................................18
  5.5   Medical Experimentation..................................19
  5.5.1   Clauberg...............................................21
  5.5.2   Mandel.................................................21
  5.5.3   Mengele................................................22
  5.5.4   Oberhauser.............................................22
  5.5.5   Schumann...............................................23
  6.0 Research Sources & Other Useful Appendices.................23
  6.1   Recommended Reading......................................24
  6.2   Abbreviations Used in Citations..........................27
  6.3   Glossary.................................................27
  6.4   Works Cited..............................................28

[Auschwitz]                                                     [Page 15]

   According to Snyder, Adolf Eichmann reported to Himmler, in 1944, that
   four million had been killed in the camps, and another million had been
   shot or killed by mobile units.  (Encyclopedia of the Third Reich.
   1989) Eichmann's report, which referenced _all_ the camps (most of which
   were in Nazi-occupied Poland), may have been the source of the Polish 
   Communist government's figures. (Snyder is a Professor of History at 
   the City College and the City University of New York.)

   During the war crimes trials, Hoess was asked if it was true that
   he had no exact numbers because he had been forbidden to compile them,
   and he agreed. He also agreed that Adolf Eichmann had told him that
   two and one half million people had been exterminated there. 
   (von Lang, 120, and 'Wspomnienia Rudolfa Hoessa komendanta obozu 
   oswiecimskiego,' Warsaw, 1965.)

   The Institut Fuer Zeitgeschichte, Munich, provided the following
   capsulated paragraph about Auschwitz in a March, 1992, letter of
   inquiry. 
   (http://ftp.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi?orgs/german/ifz/ifz.report)

      The extermination camp in Birkenau, established in the second
      half of 1941, was joined to the concentration camp Auschwitz,
      existing since May 1940.  From January 1942 on in five gas
      chambers and from the end of June 1943 in four additional large
      gassing-rooms gassings with Zyklon B have been undertaken.  Up
      until November 1944 more than one million Jews and at least 4000
      gypsies have been murdered by gas.  (IFZ)

   While it is admittedly difficult to compile exact figures, since the
   Nazis did not maintain registration records for those who were to be
   exterminated immediately upon arrival at Auschwitz, it seems accurate
   to assert that the number of Jews killed fell somewhere between one
   and one-point-six million.

   Jews were not the only victims of the Auschwitz killing machine -
   estimates that from 200,000 (Gilbert, 22, Kendrick, 184) to 500,000
   (Bubenickova, 190, Yoors, 34) Gypsies were ultimately destroyed are
   noted by Laska.  Himmler signed the decree sending all of them to
   Auschwitz in 1942. In addition, an unknown number of homosexuals were
   sent to Auschwitz and executed. 

   The Leuchter Report, which Foner alludes to extensively in his Spotlight
   article, has been thoroughly refuted. For detailed information about the
   report, see the Leuchter FAQ, published regularly in this newsgroup.
   (http://www.nizkor.org/faqs/leuchter/)

 4.2 Estimates of dead by nationality [Work in progress]

 4.2.3   Polish Christians

   The number of Polish Christians registered at Auschwitz is 
   given as at 137,000, and "at least" 10,000 more were put
   murdered without registration. (Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death 
   Camp, 69-70) Lucas tells us that historians disagree with
   regard to the total number of Polish Christians killed by
   the Nazis, Lukas, 88-95) and Bauer reportedly puts the figure 
   at 83,000. (Steinfels, Peter. "Auschwitz Revisionism:  An 
   Israeli Scholar's Case," New York Times, 12 Nov. 1989 
   

 5.0 Administration
 5.1 Command Staff

   Fritsch, Hauptsturmfu"hrer (Credited with the first use of Zyklon-B
   as means of exterminating human subjects. See Breitman, 202)

   Grabner, Maximillian. Head of Political Department


[Auschwitz]                                                     [Page 16]

   Hoess, Rudolf Franz (1900-1947).  Hoess joined the Nazi party in
   1922.  In 1923, he was implicated in a murder and imprisoned to serve
   a life sentence.  He was released as a result of a general
   amnesty, in 1928.  After training during service at Dachau and
   Sachsenhausen, he was rewarded for his loyalty with a promotion to the
   rank of SS-Hauptsturmfu"hrer (see Glossary) and the commandant's job
   at Auschwitz, where he remained until December of 1943, when he was
   promoted to chief of the Central Administration for Camps.  (Sachar.
   http://ftp.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi?people/h/hoess.rudolf.ferdinand/hoess.01 
   http://ftp.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi?people/h/hoess.rudolf.ferdinand/hoess.02 
   http://ftp.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi?people/h/hoess.rudolf.ferdinand/hoess.03)
   According to Snyder, " He performed his job so well that he was
   commended in a 1944 SS report that called him "a true pioneer in this
   area because of his new ideas and educational methods." 

   Hoess was captured on March 11, 1946, and was a key witness at Nuremberg
   (Kaltenbrunner, I.G.  Farben et al). On May 25, he was extradited
   to Poland. During this period, he wrote his autobiography, "Commandant 
   of Auschwitz: Autobiography of Rudolf Hoess." (Cleveland: World 
   Publishing, 1959) His statement is available in the original German 
   text, and in English translation. (Get       
   http://ftp.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi?people/h/hoess.rudolf.ferdinand/hoess.statemen)

   According to Sachar, he, "...took pride in his exemplary family life,
   the devotion to his children and his pets.  He recalled, wistfully,
   how he had been obliged to tear himself away from a Christmas
   gathering to attend to duties at the gas chambers.  The daily death
   quota then was still a mere 1,500, but he was eager to make sure it
   was met.  When one of his lieutenants was condemned to death for his
   part in the Auschwitz murders, Hoess and his family lamented `Such a
   compassionate man, too.  When his pet canary died, he tenderly put
   the body in a small box, covered it with a rose, and buried it under
   a rose bush in the garden.'(Hoess, 25)(Sachar)

   During his trial, the evidence "...repeated...what he had written..."
   in his autobiography.  "He described, with the dispassion of a robot,
   how he had gradually stepped up executions, beginning with a few
   hundred a day and then, as methods were perfected, rising to 1,200.
   By mid-1942, facilities had been sufficiently enlarged to dispatch
   1,500 people over a twenty-four-hour period for the smaller ovens,
   and up to 2,500 for the larger ones.  By 1943, ...  a new daily peak
   of 12,000 was achieved.  Hoess described the final routines of the
   extermination process.  These were assigned to squads of Jewish
   prisoners, the Sondercommandos.  They marched the victims to the gas
   chambers, helped to undress them, removed the corpses after the
   gassing, extracted gold from their teeth and rings from their
   fingers, searched the orifices of their bodies for hidden jewelry,
   cut off the hair of the women, and then carted the bodies to the
   crematoria.  Usually after several weeks of such service they were
   executed, first because they were Jews but also so that they would
   not be witnesses if ever testimony were required." (Sachar)

   Hoess was tried in Warsaw, in March, 1947, and condemned to death.
   (Hanged on April 16, 1947, at Auschwitz.)


[Auschwitz]                                                     [Page 17]

   Kramer, Josef. Commandant at Birkenau. 

   Mandel, Maria.  Head of the women's camp at Auschwitz after serving
   at Ravensbruck.  

 5.2 Medical Staff

   Testimony from German court records relating to the trials of SS men
   charged with medical killing at Auschwitz is now available from our
   archives. The source for this data, Nauman, is listed in Section 6.1,
   Recommended Reading. 
   (http://ftp.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi?camps/auschwitz/auschwitz.010)

   Clauberg, Karl.  Pursued his experiments on live specimens in
   Auschwitz. Involved in sterilization projects there. (Laska, 222)

   Dr. Wladyslav Dering. Dering was a Polish prisoner
   Dr. Entress

   Gebhardt, Karl. Involved in vivisection projects at both Ravensbruck
   and Auschwitz. Shot as war criminal in 1948. (Laska, 225)

   Hantl
   Klehr

   Kremer, Johannes Paul. Vivisection. Sentenced to death in a Crakov
   trial, but later recieved amnesty.

   Mengele, Josef (1911- ?). Mengele was appointed chief doctor at
   Birkenau by the Camp Garrison Doctor in 1943. He joined Drs. Klein, 
   Koenig, and Thilon in running the selection process. Bibliography: 
   Gerald L.  Posner and John Ware, "Mengele: The Complete Story", New York, 
   McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1986.(Snyder) Mengele is believed dead,
   but his fate remains unknown. (See the 1991 "Children of the Flames,"
   for citations regarding Mengele's experimentation on twins)

   Muench, Hans. SS Untersturmfuehrer.

   The doctor and former SS-Untersturmfuehrer Hans Muench was among 
   the 40 members of the Auschwitz camp personnel indicted and tried 
   in Krakow in Poland 1946-1947. The trial led to some 20 death 
   sentences, but Muench was acquitted. 

   He had taken part in gassings but had refused to assist in the 
   so-called selections. Some ex-prisoners also testified in his 
   favour. After his release, Muench returned to Germany where he 
   continued his medical practice. In 1964 he testified at the 
   Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt am Main. He agreed to an interview 
   with Swedish television in 1981, against the wish of his family. 
   It has been broadcasted twice on Swedish TV, in 1982 and 1992. 
   A translation of this television interview may be found at 
   ftp.nizkor.org, in the directory pub/people/m/muench.hans, as
   swedish-television-interview (our thanks to a Swedish user for
   providing this text). Snippets from court testimony are
   also available in the same directory.

[Auschwitz]                                                     [Page 18]

   Oberhauser, Herta.

   Scherpe

   Schumann, Horst. 

 5.3 Selection

   In a report entitled "Resettlement of Jews," SS-Sturmbannfu"hrer
   Gricksch provided the following information for SS-Col. von Herff
   and Reichsfu"hrer-SS Himmler, after inspection between the 14th. and
   16th. of May, 1943. (Fleming, 142)

      The Auschwitz camp plays a special role in the resolution of the
      Jewish question.  The most advance methods permit the execution
      of the Fuehrer-order in the shortest possible time and without
      arousing much attention.  The so-called "resettlement action"
      runs the following course: The Jews arrive in special trains
      (freight cars) toward evening and are driven on special tracks
      to areas of the camp specifically set aside for this purpose.

      There the Jews are unloaded and examined for their fitness to
      work by a team of doctors, in the presence of the camp
      commandant and several SS officers.  At this point anyone who
      can somehow be incorporated into the work program is put in a
      special camp.  The curably ill are sent straight to a medical
      camp and are restored to health through a special diet.  The
      basic principle behind everything is: conserve all manpower for
      work.  The previous type of "resettlement action" has been
      thoroughly rejected, since it is too costly to destroy precious
      work energy on a continual basis.

   The report then describes the fate of those unlucky enough to have
   been considered incurably ill or unfit for slave labour, and provides
   some details with regard to the killing process.  

      The results of this "resettlement action" to date: 500,000 Jews.
      Current capacity of the "resettlement action" ovens: 10,000 in
      24 hours.

 5.4 Tattooing

   Buszko (see above), writing in the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust,
   explains why some prisoners were tattooed, while others were not:

      Prisoners were registered and received numbers tattooed on
      their left arm upon leaving the quarantine in Birkenau for
      forced labor in Auschwitz or in one of the subcamps.  The same
      procedure applied to those prisoners who were directed straight
      to Auschwitz I: 405,000 prisoners were registered in this way.
      [Ed.  Note: Buszko later notes that only 65,000 of those so
      registered and tattooed survived.  knm] Not included in any
      form of registration were the vast majority of the Auschwitz

[Auschwitz]                                                     [Page 19]

      victims, those men and women who, upon arrival in Auschwitz II,
      were led to the gas chambers and killed there immediately.
      Also not included in the registration were those prisoners who
      were sent to work in other concentration camps not belonging to
      the Auschwitz system.  ...  Still another group of unregistered
      prisoners were those who were designated for execution after a
      short stay in the camp.  That group consisted mainly of
      hostages, Soviet army officers, and partisans." (Encyclopedia,
      Vol. I, 110-111)

  5.5 Medical Experimentation

   Several of the seventy or more medical-research projects conducted by
   the Nazis between the fall of 1939 and spring of 1945 were conducted
   at Auschwitz.  These projects involved experiments conducted with
   human beings against their will, and at least seven thousand were so
   treated, based upon existing documents and personal testimonies;
   there were undoubtedly many more for which no documentation or
   personal testimony remains. 

   About two hundred German medical doctors were involved in the
   concentration camp experiments, conducting 'Selektionen,' medical
   services, and research.  They maintained close professional ties with
   the German medical establishment, and used the universities and
   research institutes in Germany and Austria in their work.

   Dr.  Ernst Robert Grawitz, SS Chief Medical Officer, received all
   requests for authority to perform experimentation, and obtained two
   opinions before passing them to Himmler with his recommendation.

   Grawitz used Dr.  Karl Gebhardt, Himmler's personal physician, for
   one opinion, and Richard Glu"cks and Arthur Nebe for the other.  He
   then passed his report to Himmler, who took great interest in the
   experiments and often interfered with them.

   There were three broad classes of experiments.  The German Air Force
   conducted experiments at Dachau (and elsewhere) dealing with survival
   and rescue, including research into the effects of high altitude,
   freezing temperatures, and the ingestion of seawater.

   Medical treatment constituted a second class, and involved research
   into the treatment of battle injuries, gas attacks, and the
   formulation of immunization compounds to treat contageous and
   epidemic diseases.

   Finally, there were racial experiments, including research into
   dwarfs and twins, serological research, and skeletal examination.  It
   is this class of horrors that returns us to Auschwitz.
   (Encyclopedia, Vol.  3, 957-958)


[Auschwitz]                                                     [Page 20]

   During his interrogation of Adolf Eichmann, Israeli police Captain
   Avner Less brought up the subject of Eichmann's complicity in medical
   'research' projects which had been approved by the Reichsfu"hrer-SS,
   Heinrich Himmler, and read three documents to him. What follows is
   the text of Less's interrogation at that point...

      LESS: I have some photostats of documents that were submitted in
      the first Nuremberg war crimes trial, the trial of the
      physicians.  The sender of this letter is the business manager
      of Ahnenerbe.  I'll read it to you.  "Berlin, November 2, 1942.
      Secret.  To SS-Obersturmbannfu"hrer Dr.  Brandt.  Dear Comrade
      Brandt: As you know, the Reichsfu"hrer-SS gave orders some time
      ago to the effect that SS-Hauptsturmfu"hrer Prof.  Dr.  Hirt
      should be supplied with everything he requires for his research.
      For certain anthropological investigations -- I have already
      reported to the Reichsfu"hrer-SS on the subject -- 150 skeletons
      of prisoners or Jews are needed, and these are to be made
      available by the Auschwitz concentration camp." Etc.  etc.  It's
      signed: "With comradely greetings, Heil Hitler, Yours, Sievers."

      The second document is a report by this Professor Hirt.  "Re:
      Procurement of the skulls of Jewish-Bolshevistic commissars for
      scientific research at the University of Strassburg." I quote:
      "Extensive skull collections from nearly all races and people
      are in existence.  It is only of Jews that so few skulls are
      available to science that work on them admits of no secure
      findings.  The war in the East now offers us an opportunity to
      make good this deficiency.  In the Jewish-Bolshevistic
      commissars, who embody a repulsive and characteristic type of
      subhuman, we have the possibility of acquiring a reliable
      scientific document by acquiring their skulls.  The smoothest
      and most expeditious way of obtaining and securing this
      provision of skulls would be to instruct the Wehrmacht to hand
      over all Jewish-Bolshevistic commissars immediately to the
      military police.  The person charged with securing this material
      (a young physician or medical student belonging to the Werhmacht
      or better still to the military police) is to prepare a
      previously specified series of photographs and anthropoligical
      measurements.  After the subsequently induced death of the Jew,
      whose head must not be injured, he will separate the head from
      the trunk and send it, immersed in a preserving fluid, in
      well-sealed lead containers made especially for this purpose, to
      the designated address."

      And now the next document.  A letter of June 21, 1943.  From
      Ahnenerbe.  Top secret.  "To Reich Security Headquarters IVB4,
      Attention: SS-Obersturmfu"hrer Eichmann.  Re: Skeleton
      collection.  With reference to your letter of September 25,
      1942, and the consultations held since then regarding the
      above-mentioned matter, we wish to inform you that Dr.  Bruno
      Beger, our staff member charged with the above-mentioned special
      mission, terminated his work in the Auschwitz concentration camp

[Auschwitz]                                                     [Page 21]

      on June 15, 1943, because of the danger of an epidemic.  In all,
      115 persons, 79 male Jews, 2 Poles, 4 Central Asians, and 30
      Jewesses, were processed.  These inmates have been placed, men
      and women separately, in the concentration-camp sick quarters,
      and quarantined.  For the further processing of these selected
      persons, immediate transfer to Natzweiler concentration camp is
      desirable and should be effected as quickly as possible in view
      of the danger of infection in Auschwitz.  A list of the selected
      persons is appended.  You are requested to send the necessary
      instructions."

      And now for the last document.  "The Reichsfu"hrer-SS Personal
      Staff, Field Headquarters, November 6, 1942.  Secret.  To Reich
      Security Headquarters IVB4.  Attention: SS-Obersturmfu"hrer
      Eichmann.  The Reichsfu"hrer-SS has ordered that Dr.  Hirt, head
      of the Anatomy Department in Strassburg, should be supplied with
      everything needed for his research.  In the name of the
      Reichsfu"hrer-SS, I therefore request you to help establish the
      projected skeleton collection.  per.  proc.
      SS-Obersturmbannfu"hrer Brandt." (von Lang, 169-171)

   Thus the German government's full complicity in the crimes committed
   at Auschwitz under the guise of "medical research" is clear, with a
   chain of evidence reaching all the way to Himmler.  

  5.5.1 Clauberg

   Professor Carl Clauberg performed experiments into sterilization at
   both Auschwitz and Ravensbru"ck.  This was done on Hitler's
   initiative, as he had been convinced by several doctors that mass
   sterilization could provide a powerful weapon against Germany's
   enemies during total war.

   Clauberg injected chemical substances into wombs during normal
   gynochological examinations. Thousands of Jewish and Gypsy women were
   subjected to this treatment. Clauberg sought to answer Himmler's
   query about how long it would take to sterilize one thousand women,
   and eventually informed him that, using methods he developed, a staff
   of one doctor and ten assistants could do the job in a single day.
   The injections totally destroyed the lining membrane of the womb and
   seriously damaged the ovaries of the victims, which were then removed
   and sent to Berlin to test the effectiveness of the method.
   (Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, 964)

  5.5.2 Mandel 

      ...  after Ravensbruck ...  was the head of the women's camp at
      Auschwitz; the prisoners referred to her as `the beast.' For her
      share in the selections for the gas chambers and medical
      experiments and for her torture of countless prisoners, she was
      condemned to death in 1947 as a war criminal. (Laska)


[Auschwitz]                                                     [Page 22]

  5.5.3 Mengele

   Mengele promoted medical experimentation on inmates, especially
   dwarfs and twins.  He is said to have supervised an operation by
   which two Gypsy children were sewn together to create Siamses twins;
   the hands of the children became badly infected where the veins had
   been resected.  (Snyder) 

   Cohen tells us: "The only firsthand evidence on these experiments
   comes from a handful of survivors and from a Jewish doctor, Miklos
   Nyiszli, who worked under Mengele as a pathologist. Mengele subjected
   his victims - twins and dwarfs aged two and above - to clinical
   examinations, blood tests, X rays, and anthropological measurements.
   In the case of the twins, he drew sketches of each twin, for
   comparison. He also injected his victims with various substances,
   dripping chemicals into their eyes (apparently in an attempt to
   change their color). He then killed them himself by injecting
   chloroform into their hearts, so as to carry out comparative
   pathological examinations of their internal organs. Mengele's
   purpose, according to Dr. Nyiszli, was to establish the genetic cause
   for the birth of twins, in order to facilitate the formulation of a
   program for doubling the birthrate of the 'Aryan' race. The
   experiments on twins affected 180 persons, adults and children.

   Mengele also carried out a large number of experiments in the field
   of contageous diseases, (typhoid and tuberculosis) to find out how
   human beings of different races withstood these diseases. He used
   Gypsy twins for this purpose. Mengele's experiments combined

   scientific (perhaps even important) research with the racist and
   ideological aims of the Nazi regime. which made use of government
   offices, scientific institutions, and concentration camps. From the
   scanty information available, it appears that his research differed
   from the other medical experiments in that the victims' death was
   programmed into his experiments and formed a central element in it."
   (Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, 964)
   
  5.5.4 Oberhauser

      Dr.  Herta Oberhauser killed prisoners with oil and evipan
      injections, removed their limbs and vital organs, rubbed ground
      glass and sawdust into wounds.  She drew a twenty-year sentence
      as a war criminal, but was released in 1952 and became a family
      doctor at Stocksee in Germany.  Her license to practice medicine
      was revoked in 1960.  (Laska, 223)


[Auschwitz]                                                     [Page 23]

  5.5.5 Schumann

   Himmler, writing to SS-Oberfu"hrer Brack, on August 11, 1942,
   expressed an interest in sterilization experiments involving
   the use of x-rays (Get pub/camps/auschwitz/sterilization). In April
   of 1944, he received a report of the work of Dr. Horst Schumann
   "on the influence of X-rays on human genital glands" at Auschwitz.
   The report included the following statement:

      Previously you have asked Oberfuehrer Brack to perform this
      work, and you supported it by providing the adequate material in
      the concentration camp Auschwitz.  I point especially to the
      second part of this work, which shows that by those means
      castration of males is almost impossible or requires an effort
      which does not pay.  As I have convinced myself, operative
      castration requires not more than 6 to 7 minutes, and therefore
      can be performed more reliably and quicker than castration by
      X-rays.

   Schumann set up an X ray station at Auschwitz in 1942, in the woman's
   camp Bla.  Here men and women were forcibly sterilized by being
   positioned repeatedly for several minutes between two x-ray machines,
   the rays aiming at their sexual organs.  Most subjects died after
   great suffering, or were gassed immediately because the radiation
   burns from which they suffered rendered them unfit for work.  Men's
   testicles were removed and sent to Breslau for histopathological
   examination.  The frequently following ovariotomies were performed
   also by the Polish prisoner, Dr.  Wladyslav Dering.  Dering once bet
   with an SS man that he could perform ten ovariotomies in an
   afternoon, and won his bet.  Some of his victims survived.  Dering
   was declared a war criminal but eluded justice and for a time
   practiced medicine in British Somaliland. (Laska, 223. Encyclopedia, 
   Vol. 3, 965)

  6.0 Research Materials & Sources

   Vera Laska notes that there are over ten-thousand printed sources
   relating to Auschwitz alone, and offers this guidance for those pursuing 
   Holocaust research: 

      Yad Vashem Martyrs' and Heroes' Memorial Authority in Jerusalem
      is a depository of documents and memoirs on the Holocaust,
      mostly in German, Hebrew and Yiddish.  It also issues the Yad
      Vashem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and
      Resistance. (The 1991 Yad Vashem English publications guide is
      now included in the Holocaust Almanac bibliographies. Get
      pub/holocaust/bibliography/biblio.05)


[Auschwitz]                                                     [Page 24]

      The Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine in Paris and
      the Wiener Library in London are major sources of information.
      The Wiener Library's catalogue series published a bibliography,
      Persecution and Resistance Under the Nazis (London: Valentine,
      Mitchell, 1960).  ...

      In the United States the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
      (1048 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10028) houses several
      collections of ghetto documents and related primary source
      materials.  It publishes the YIVO Annual of Jewish Social
      Science.  Since 1960, Yad Vashem* and the YIVO** Institute have
      been engaged in preparing a multivolume bibliographical series
      on the Holocaust; one of the volumes, Jacob Robinson, ed., The
      Holocaust and After: Sources and Literature in English
      (Jerusalem: Israel University Press, 1973) is most helpful.

      *  (URL: http:/yvs.shani.net/)
      ** (URL: http://www.ort.org/communit/yivo/start.html)

      The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith (823 United Nations
      Plaza, New York, N.Y.  10017) supplies teaching materials at
      reasonable prices, for instance The Record - The Holocaust in
      History, 1933-1945, published in cooperation with the National
      Council for Social Studies in 1978.

      The Library of Congress and the National Archives are rich
      sources for researchers, containing among others the
      transcripts of war crime trials.  This in itself is an immense
      documentation; for instance, the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial of
      twenty-three defendents alone takes up 11,538 pages in nineteen
      volumes.  Indexes can be consulted about various concentration
      camps.  ... 

   In addition to the massive amount of information Laska notes, additional
   bibliographic sources are available through the Holocaust bibliographic
   files available on http://ftp.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi?bibliographies and 
   elsewhere.  In particluar, see the list of major research centres listed in
   EDUCATION RESEARCH.CNTRS, which was added to our archives in December, 1994.

 6.1 Recommended Reading

   Our Holocaust archives are available via InterNet Gopher. To access
   this service, use the command "gopher jer1.co.il". The archives
   are also available via World Wide Web 
   (URL: http://www.nizkor.org) and anonymous ftp (ftp.nizkor.org).


[Auschwitz]                                                     [Page 25]

   Suggested reading related to Auschwitz, from the Encyclopedia of the 
   Holocaust and elsewhere:

   Brugioni, Dino A., and Robert G. Poirier. The Holocaust Revisited:  A 
   Retrospective Analysis of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Complex.
   (Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, D.C.) February 1979.

      The paper includes aerial photographs of the Auschwitz-Birkenau
      complex in operation during WWII.  A summary of their analysis
      is included in the paper.  These photos corroborate eyewitness
      accounts/Nazi documentation on camp operations.

      You can obtain a copy from the US gov't through the following
      sources:

        National Technical Information Service
        5285 Port Royal Road
        Springfield, VA 22161

        or:

        Photoduplication Service
        Library of Congress
        Washington, D.C. 20540

      Use the report number(#st 79-10001) and the document number
      (NTISUBE28002) to speed service along.  The document # is
      particularly important.

   Brewster, Eva. Vanished in Darkness. Edmonton: NeWest Publishers
   Limited, 1984. (First-person account of life within Auschwitz)

   Friedman, P. "Crimes in the Name of Science," in "Roads to Extinction:
   Essays on the Holocaust." Edited by A.J. Friedman. Philadelphia, 1980

   Gilbert, M. Auschwitz and the Allies. New York, 1981

   Gutman, Yisrael, and Michael Berenbaum, Ed. Anatomy of the 
   Auschwitz Death Camp. Bloomington and Indianapolis: 1994

   Gutman, Y., and A. Saf, eds. The Nazi Concentration Camps:
   Structure and Aims; The Image of the Prisoner; The Jews in the
   Camps. Proceedings of the Fourth Yad Vashem International
   Historical Conference. Jerusalem, 1984

   Hoess, R. Commandant of Auschwitz. London, 1959

   Ja"ckel, Eberhard, and H. David Kirk, trans. David Irving's Hitler.
   Port Angeles, Washington: Ben-Simon Publications, 1993

   Kielar, W. Anus Mundi: Fifteen Hundred Days in Auschwitz-
   Birkenau. New York, 1980

   Kudlien, F., ed. A"rzte im Nationalsoczialismus. Cologne, 1985


[Auschwitz]                                                     [Page 26]

   Lagnato, Lucette Matalon and Sheila Cohn Dekel. Children of the
   Flames. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1991 (Mengele's
   experimentation with twins at Auschwitz)

   Langbein, H. Auschwitz-Prozess: Eine Dokumentation. 2 Vols.
   Vienna, 1965

   Langbein, H. Menschen in Auschwitz. Vienna, 1972

   Lifton, R.J. The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychiatry 
   of Genocide." New York, 1986

   Levi, P. Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault on Humanity. New
   York, 1981

   Lukowski, J. Bibliografia obozu koncentracyjnego Oswiecim-
   Brzezinka. 5 vols. Warsaw, 1970

   Mark, B. The Scrolls of Auschwitz. Tel Aviv, 1985

   Mitscherlich, A., and F. Mielke. Doctors of Infamy: The Story of
   Medical Crimes. New York, 1949

   Mu"ller, Filip. Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers.
   New York: Stein and Day, 1979

   Nauman, Bernd.  Auschwitz: A Report on The Procedings Against Robert
   Karl Ludwig Mulka and Others Before the Court at Frankfurt. New York:
   Frederick A. Praeger, 1966

   Piper, Franciszek, and Teresa Swiebocka, Ed. Auschwitz, Nazi Death
   Camp. Oswiecim, 1996. Book supplied by the Auschwitz State Museum.

   Piper, Franciszek. Auschwitz: How Many Perished - Jews, Poles,
   Gypsies... Oswiecim 1992.

   Proctor, R. Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis. 
   Cambridge, Mass., 1988

   Keys, Laurinda. Death Books of Auschwitz. K.G. Saur, 1995. (See
   http://ftp.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi?camps/auschwitz/press/death-books.001
   and ~/002 for information concerning the release of this work.)

   See also the Transcripts of the Trial of Adolf Eichmann
   http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/transcripts/

Social Studies School Services offers an extensive list of teaching
materials dealing with the Holocaust, and Auschwitz.  For a list of
books, videotapes, and photo histories, see
http://www.nizkor.org/bibliographies/ssss.shtml.
Of particular interest are the videotapes "Kitty: Return to Auschwitz," 
"Nazi Concentration Camps," the official film record of the Nazi death 
camps as photographed by Allied liberation forces in 1945, and 
"Holocaust: Liberation of Auschwitz."


[Auschwitz]                                                     [Page 27]

 6.2 Abbreviations Used in Citations  

   The following abbreviations may be used throughout this document:

   IFZ.........Institut fu"r Zeitgeschichte, Munich
   IRR.........Investigative Repository Records
   NA..........United States National Archives
   RG 59.......NA Diplomatic Records
   RG 84.......Washington National Records Center, Diplomatic Post Records
   RG 153......Washington National Records Center, Records of the
               Office of the (Army) Judge Advocate
   RG 165......Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs,
               Washington National Records Center
   RG 208......Office of War Information Records, Washington National
               Records Center
   RG 226......Office of Strategic Services Records
   RG 238......War Crimes
     EC Series
     NG........Microfilm T-1139
     NI........Microfilm T-301
     NO Series
     NOKW Series
     PS Series
   RG 242......NA Record Group 242 - Captured German Records
   RG 319......Records of the Army Staff
   T...........NA Microfilm Series

   If you note any that are not explained above, please let me know,
   and I will try to run them down for you.
 
 6.3 Glossary
   
   Ahnenerbe: [Ancestral Heritage], The Institute for the Scientific
       Study of Ends and Purposes, located in Berlin. 
(http://ftp.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi?people/e/eichmann.adolf/eichmann.006)

   Einsatzgruppe: Battalion-sized, mobile, armed unit of police
   Einsatzgruppen: Battalion-sized, mobile, armed units of police,
       primarily Security Police and SD officials, which were used
       to attack and execute perceived enemies in conquered territories.
       (Brietman, 311)

   Einsatzkommando: Company-sized component of the Einsatzgruppen 
       (Ibid., 311)

   Gauleiter: Supreme territorial or regional party authority(-ies)
       (The term is both singular and plural). The Nazi Party divided
       Germany and some annexed territories into geographical units
       called Gaue, headed by a Gauleiter. (Ibid., 311)

   General Government: The Nazi-ruled state in central and eastern
       Poland. Headed by Governor Hans Frank. (Ibid., 311)

[Auschwitz]                                                     [Page 28]

   Final Solution: Euphemism for the extermination of European Jewry

   SD (Sicherheitsdienst): The SS Security Service

   Selektionen: (Selection) The process by which newly-arrived prisoners
       were divided into those capable of work, and those deemed unfit
       for work, i.e. those to be exterminated immediately.

   Sonderkommandos: Division of Einsatzgruppen, generally smaller than
       Einsatzkommando, but also a more general term for special
       commando units assigned particular functions. (Ibid., 311)

   Military rank - here's a list from Breitman (314) which lists SS
   ranks and the Western military equivalent:

   Oberstgruppenfu"hrer          General
   Obergruppenfu"hrer            Lieutenant General
   Gruppenfu"hrer                Major General
   Brigadefu"hrer                Brigadier General
   Oberfu"hrer                   between Brigadier & Colonel
   Standartenfu"hrer             Colonel
   Obersturmbannfu"hrer          Lieutenant Colonel
   Sturmbannfu"hrer              Major
   Hauptsturmfu"hrer             Captain
   Obersturmfu"hrer              First Lieutenant
   Unterscharfu"hrer             Corporal
   Rottenfu"hrer                 Private, First Class
   Sturmann                      Private
   SS-Mann                       no equivalent

 6.4 Works Cited

   Borkin, Joseph. The Crime and Punishment of I.G. Farben. New York: 
   The Free Press, 1978, and London: Macmillan Publishing Company. 

   Breitman, Richard. The Architect of Genocide: Himmler and the Final
   Solution. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991. 

   Bubenickova, Ruzena. Tabory utrpeni a smrti. (Camps of Martyrdom and
   Death) Prague: Svoboda, 1969

   Conot, Robert E. Justice at Nuremberg. 
   New York: Harper and Row, 1983.  ISBN 0-06-015117-X

   Encyclopedia - See Gutman

   Feig, Konnilyn G. Hitler's Death Camps. LOC D810.J4 F36, 1981

   Fenelon, Fania, with Marcelle Routier.  Playing For Time.
   New York:Athenium, 1977.  ISBN 0-689-10796-X 

[Auschwitz]                                                     [Page 29]

   Fleming, Gerald. Hitler and the Final Solution. Berkeley, 1984

   Foner, Samuel P.  "Major Historical Fact Uncovered" SPOTLIGHT
   Vol.  XIX, Number 2, January 11, 1993) 

   Gilbert, Martin. The Holocaust, Maps and Photographs. 
   New York: Mayflower Books, 1978. 

   Gutman, Israel, ed. in Chief, et al. Encyclopedia of the
   Holocaust. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1990. ISBN 0-02-
   896090-4 (set) (Referenced in this FAQ as "Encyclopedia")

   Hoess, Rudolf. Commandant of Auschwitz: Autobiography of Rudolf Hoess.
   (As quoted in Sachar)

   Hilberg, Raul.  Commandant of Auschwitz (London: Weidenfeld and
   Nicholson, 1959)

   Hilberg, Raul. The Destruction of the European Jews. Holmes & Meier,
   1985. See 967-976.

   IFZ. The Institut Fuer Zeitgeschicthe, Munich, as quoted in their
   letter to Dr. Keren, March, 1992 

   Kenrick, Donald, and Grattan Puxon. Destiny of Europe's Gypsies.
   New York: Basic Books, 1972, as cited in Laska

   Klarsfield, Serge. The Holocaust and Neo-Nazi Mythomania, as quoted
   in Feig.

   Klee, Ernst, Willi Dressen, and Volker Riess, eds. 
   `The Good Old Days' -- The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and 
   Bystanders. Forward by H. Trevor-Roper. The Free Press, A division of
   Macmillan, Inc, 1988, ISBN 0-02-917425-2

   Langbein. Der Auschwitz Prozess. Vol. I, as quoted in Pressac.

   Laska, Vera, ed.  Women in the Resistance and in the Holocaust: The
   Voices of Eyewitnesses.  London: Greenwood Press, 1983.  LOC 82-12018,
   ISBN 0-313-23457-4

   Lengyel, Olga. Five Chimneys. Chicago: Ziff-Davis, 1947, as cited in
   Hilberg. 

   Lukas, Richard C. "The Polish Experience during the Holocaust"  in
   Michael Berenbaum, ed.  A Mosaic of Victims: Non-Jews Persecuted and
   Murdered by the Nazis (New York : New York University Press, 1990)

   Mu"ller, Filip.  "Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas
   Chambers", as cited by both Feig and Hilberg.  Museum w Oswiecimu.
   "KL Auschwitz seen by the SS Hoess, Broad, Kremer," 2nd.  ed., 1978

   Naumann,. Auschwitz.

   Nurowski, Roman. 1939-1945: War Losses in Poland (Poznan, 1960),
   as cited in Lukas.

   Poliakov, Leon.  Harvest of Hate: The Nazi Program for the
   Destruction of the Jews of Europe.  Syracuse University Press.,
   1956.

[Auschwitz]                                                     [Page 30]


   Pressac, J. C. Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers.
   New York: Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1989

   Rogers, Perry M., ed. Aspects of Western Civilization

   Sachar, Abram L. The Redemption of the Unwanted. New York: 
   St. Martin's/Marek, 1983.

   Snyder, Dr. Louis L. Encyclopedia of the Third Reich. (New York: Paragon
   House, 1989.) 

   Steinfels, Peter. "Auschwitz Revisionism:  An Israeli Scholar's Case," 
   New York Times, 12 Nov. 1989 

   von Lang, Jochen, in collaboration with Claus Sibyll. Eichmann
   Interrogated: Transcripts from the Archives of the Israeli Police.
   Translated from the German by Ralph Manheim. New York: Farrar, Straus
   & Giroux, 1983

   Wiesel, Elie. Night. (New York, 1969), as cited in Hilberg.

   Yoors, Jan. A Journal of Survival and Resistance in World War II.
   New York: Simon & Schuster, 1971, as cited in Laska


Home ·  Site Map ·  What's New? ·  Search Nizkor

© The Nizkor Project, 1991-2012

This site is intended for educational purposes to teach about the Holocaust and to combat hatred. Any statements or excerpts found on this site are for educational purposes only.

As part of these educational purposes, Nizkor may include on this website materials, such as excerpts from the writings of racists and antisemites. Far from approving these writings, Nizkor condemns them and provides them so that its readers can learn the nature and extent of hate and antisemitic discourse. Nizkor urges the readers of these pages to condemn racist and hate speech in all of its forms and manifestations.