Latest Auschwitz Death Numbers

[dwseiple]

We all know that the numbers of dead at Auschwitz as compiled by experts has been steadily shrinking over the years as more research has been done. We all know that the original number of 3.0 - 3.5 million Jewish and non-Jewish dead at Auschwitz was determined by the brutal beatings at the hands of the Soviets of Hoess, and is not accurate. So, what is the current "official" numbers of Jewish and non-Jewish dead at Auschwitz?

Thanks,
Dave

[David Thompson]

dwseiple -- You asked:

So, what is the current "official" numbers of Jewish and non-Jewish dead at Auschwitz?

You must have missed this thread:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=43317

Please use the forum search engine next time. As for your reference to

the original number of 3.0 - 3.5 million Jewish and non-Jewish dead at Auschwitz was determined by the brutal beatings at the hands of the Soviets of Hoess,

(1) the perpetrators of the alleged beating were British, not Soviet; and (2) Hoess also gave figures on the Auschwitz death count afterwards, when he was no longer in British custody.

[WalterS]

dwseiple wrote:

We all know that the numbers of dead at Auschwitz as compiled by experts has been steadily shrinking over the years as more research has been done. We all know that the original number of 3.0 - 3.5 million Jewish and non-Jewish dead at Auschwitz was determined by the brutal beatings at the hands of the Soviets of Hoess, and is not accurate. So, what is the current "official" numbers of Jewish and non-Jewish dead at Auschwitz?

The premise of this statement is false. The historical community never accepted the inflated numbers that the Soviets gave for the number of people killed at Auschwitz. Kommandant Höss testified that 2.5 million were killed but he wasn't certain as he didn't have access to the data. Only Eichmann and Eichmann's subordinates did. Höss later claimed that he regarded the figure as far too high, as even Auschwitz had its limitations.

So we see that Höss believed Eichmann to be mistaken, as he was. The various guesses about the victim count, accurate or inaccurate, in no way affected Höss' credibility when he described the gassing process itself, and other anecdotes about the camp:

By the will of the Reichsführer SS, Auschwitz became the greatest human extermination centre of all time...he himself gave me the order to prepare installations at Auschwitz where mass exterminations could take place, and personally to carry out these exterminations. [6]

Protected by a gas mask, I watched the killing myself. In the crowded cells death came instantaneously the moment the Cyclon B was thrown in. A short, almost smothered cry, and it was all over. [7]

The killing of these Russian prisoners-of-war did not cause me much concern at the time. The order had been given, and I had to carry it out. I must even admit that this gassing set my mind at rest, for the mass extermination of the Jews was to start soon and at that time neither Eichmann nor I was certain how these mass killings were to be carried out. It would be by gas, but we did not know which gas or how it was to be used. Now we had the gas, and we had established a procedure. [8]

One woman approached me as she walked past and, pointing to her four children who were manfully helping the smallest ones over the rough ground, whispered: "How can you bring yourself to kill such beautiful, darling children? Have you no heart at all?" One old man, as he passed by me, hissed: "Germany will pay a heavy penance for this mass murder of the Jews." His eyes glowed with hatred as he said this.

http://www.nizkor.org/features/techniqu ... ss-01.html

More recently there have been attempts to accurately the number dead at Auschwitz. Franciszek Piper of the Auschwitz State Museum published a study called "The Number of Victims" in Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp.[12] The study outlines his investigation intothe total Auschwitz death toll, and how he reached his estimate of1.1 million, effectively debunking the old Soviet figure.


"The four million figure was changed due to 'revisionist' findings."
This claim is clearly fallacious, as the revised figure is actually more in tune with the estimates of credible historians than the Soviet Commission's count. If anything, it was the easing of cold war tensions that allowed reexamination of the four million total rather than the research of "revisionist historians."

In fact, it was a study begun in 1980 by Franciszek Piper, head of the Historical Department at the Auschwitz State Museum that finally displaced the Museum's four million figure. [13] Piper collected all available documentation on how many deportees arrived at Auschwitz, and subtracted from this all known transfers, releases, and escapees to arrive at his estimation. Here are his calculations:

Deportees to Auschwitz: 1,300,000
Transfers: -212,820
Released prisoners: -1,500
Escapees: -500
Liberated Prisoners: -8,000
----------
Total Dead: 1,077,180


Or about 1.1 million dead, which is not that different from Hilberg's estimate of one million dead at Auschwitz.[14] Piper concluded that this figure is a minimum estimate, as this does not account for victims not listed in the records, particularly those who were killed immediately upon arrival. After the study's completion in 1986, Piper's findings were confirmed by a panel of historians appointed by Poland's Ministry of Culture.[15] Shortly thereafter, the official death toll at the State Museum was lowered to 1.1 million.

http://www.nizkor.org/features/techniqu ... on-03.html


Just as the fact of the Jewish ordeal at Auschwitz is not contingent on the use of gas chambers, so the crime of gassing does not turn upon the exact number of Jews gassed.

[David Thompson]

Let's not forget the ecumenical character of the dead -- the Gypsies, ethnic Poles, Russians and others -- either. The Nazis made Auschwitz a grave for all kinds of people.