- Headline
-
German Death Camp Toll Put At 1,715,000
- Sub-Headline
- Geneva Relief Chiefs Tell of Extermination
- Publication Date
- Monday, July 3, 1944
- Historical Event
-
First Public Reports on ‘Extermination Camp’ at Auschwitz
This database includes 694 articles about this event - Article Type
- Newspaper
- Page Section and Number
- 1
- Author/Byline
- Daniel T. Brigham (New York Times Foreign Service)
- Article Text
- GENEVA — Authenticated information reaching two internationally known European relief committees with headquarters in Switzerland has just revealed the confirmed existence in Auschwitz and Birkenau in Upper Silesia of two giant "extermination camps" where "under the most modern conditions" as described in a German version more than 1,715,000 Jewish refugees have been slain in a two-year period, April 15, 1942, to April 15, 1944.
The two committees referred to are the International Church Movement Ecumenical Refugee Commission, with headquarters in Geneva, and the Fluchtlingshilfs of Zurich, whose[sic] head, the Rev. Paul Vogt, has placed at the disposal of this correspondent a voluminous report on the affair.
According to the report, national "cleanups" periodically are ordered by the Nazis in various occupied countries, and when they are enforced Jews are shipped under inhuman conditions to one of the camps.
TOTAL BY COUNTRIES
Tabulated figures available, giving totals up to two months ago, show the following number of Jews "eradicated."
Poland, 900,000; Holland, 100,000; Greece, 45,000; France, 150,000; Belgium, 50,000; Germany, 60,000 (this figure as that of Poland is exclusive of several hundred thousand exterminations effected in other camps); Yugoslavia, Italy and Norway, 50,000; Bohemia-Moravia and Austria, 30,000 (also exclusive of other camps): Slovakia, 30,000, and "Jews of foreign extraction from various camps in Poland," 300,000.
To this total must now be added 400,000 Hungarian Jews, some 30 per cent of whom have already been slain or have died en route to Upper Silesia. The revelation of their fate apparently uncovered the exsistence of the two camps.
DENOUNCE NAZI BRUTALITY
The Conservatice Ecumencial organization, in a statement addressed to world opinion, denounced the "malicious, fiendish, inhuman brutality" of the Germans after first declaring that statement was issued only after the authenticity of the atrocity reports had been proved. The statement reads:
"The aim of this committee has been and is to procure and dispense material aid to refugees whatever their religious beliefs, or absence of it. Its principal task therefore is to relieve the sufferings of thousands all over the world today, rather than protest such treatment as may be inflicted upon them—protests much better left to more qualified organizations to deal with.
But there are cases where the only assistance which can be given to bring about an improvement is to incite the openly and solemnly expressed indignation of world opinion. Such a case is brought to your attention today.
CASE OF 400,000
"According to authenticated information now at hand, some 400,000 Hungarian Jews among hundreds of thousands of others already done in, have been deported from their homeland since April 6, this year, under inhuman conditions to Upper Silesia.
Those who did not die en route were delivered to the camps of Auschwitz and Burkenun[sic] in Upper Silesia, where during the past two years it has now been learned many hundreds of thousands of their co-religionaries have been fiendishly done to death.
"We Christians can no longer remain silent when confronted with such a crime. Primarily we address our protests to our Christian brothers in Hungary and call upon them to raise their voices in common with ours to prevent the continuation of these monstrous activities.
CALL ON CHRISTIANS
"But the entire procedure is so foul that we cannot let it remain there. We therefore call upon Christianity throughout the world to make heard its indignant protest and unite in common prayer to call upon God to have pity upon the persecuted people of Israel."
Details of the Auschwitz and Birkenau camps state that both "extermination establishments" cover approximately two square
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Learn More about this Historical Event: First Public Reports on ‘Extermination Camp’ at Auschwitz
- Auschwitz (Encyclopedia Article)
- Auschwitz: Chronology (Encyclopedia Article)
- Auschwitz Report (Timeline of Events)
Bibliography
Berenbaum, Michael, and Yisrael Gutman, eds. Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1998.
Cywinski, Piotr, Piotr Setkiewicz, and Jacek Lachendro. Auschwitz from A to Z: An Illustrated History of the Camp. Oswiecim: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, 2013.
Dlugoborski, Waclaw, et al. Auschwitz, 1940–1945: Central Issues in the History of the Camp. Oswiecim: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, 2000.
Gilbert, Martin. Auschwitz and the Allies. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1981.
Langbein, Hermann. People in Auschwitz. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.
Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault on Humanity. New York: Collier Books, 1986.
Neufeld, Michael J., and Michael Berenbaum, editors. The Bombing of Auschwitz: Should the Allies Have Attempted It? New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000.
Rees, Laurence. Auschwitz: A New History. New York: Public Affairs, 2005.
Swiebocka, Teresa, ed. Auschwitz: A History in Photographs. Bloomington: Indiana University Press; Warsaw: Ksiazka i Wiedza, 1993.
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