The Vrba–Wetzler report,
also known as the Auschwitz Protocols, the Auschwitz Report and
the Auschwitz notebook, is a 40-page document about the Auschwitz
concentration camp in German-occupied Poland
Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler, two Slovak Jews who escaped from Auschwitz on 10 April 1944, wrote the report by hand or dictated it, in Slovak, between 25 and 27 April, in Žilina,Slovakia
Rudolf Vrba in 1946
Alfred Wetzler
The Allies had known since November 1942 that Jews were being killed en masse inAuschwitz .
The Vrba-Wetzler report was an early attempt to estimate the numbers and the
most detailed description of the gas chambers to that point. The publication of
parts of the report in June 1944 is credited with helping to persuade the
Hungarian regent, Miklós Horthy, to halt the deportation of that country's Jews
to Auschwitz , which had been proceeding at a
rate of 12,000 a day since May 1944. The first full English translation of the
report was published in November 1944 by the United States War Refugee Board.
The Vrba-Wetzler report is sometimes referred to as the Auschwitz Protocols, although in fact the Protocols incorporated information from three reports, including Vrba–Wetzler.
Under the title "German Extermination Camps—Auschwitz and Birkenau," the Auschwitz Protocols was first published in full in English on 25 November 1944 by the Executive Office of the United States War Refugee Board. Miroslav Kárný writes it was published on the same day the last 13 prisoners, all women, were gassed or shot in crematorium II in Auschwitz-Birkenau. The document combined the material from the Vrba–Wetzler report and two others, which were submitted together in evidence at the Nuremberg Trials as document no. 022-L, exhibit no. 294-USA
The Protocols included a seven-page report from Arnost Rosin and Czesław Mordowicz, who escaped from Auschwitz on 27 May 1944, and an earlier report, known as the "Polish Major's report", written by Jerzy Tabeau. Tabeau escaped fromAuschwitz on 19 November 1943 and compiled his report
between December 1943 and January 1944. This was presented in the Protocols
as the 19-page "Transport (The Polish Major's Report)". The full text
of the English translation of the Protocols is in the archives of the
War Refugee Board at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
in New York
Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler, two Slovak Jews who escaped from Auschwitz on 10 April 1944, wrote the report by hand or dictated it, in Slovak, between 25 and 27 April, in Žilina,
The Allies had known since November 1942 that Jews were being killed en masse in
The Vrba-Wetzler report is sometimes referred to as the Auschwitz Protocols, although in fact the Protocols incorporated information from three reports, including Vrba–Wetzler.
Under the title "German Extermination Camps—Auschwitz and Birkenau," the Auschwitz Protocols was first published in full in English on 25 November 1944 by the Executive Office of the United States War Refugee Board. Miroslav Kárný writes it was published on the same day the last 13 prisoners, all women, were gassed or shot in crematorium II in Auschwitz-Birkenau. The document combined the material from the Vrba–Wetzler report and two others, which were submitted together in evidence at the Nuremberg Trials as document no. 022-L, exhibit no. 294-
The Protocols included a seven-page report from Arnost Rosin and Czesław Mordowicz, who escaped from Auschwitz on 27 May 1944, and an earlier report, known as the "Polish Major's report", written by Jerzy Tabeau. Tabeau escaped from
Vital Contents of the Report
The Vrba-Wetzler
report contains a detailed description of the geography and management of the
camps, and of how the prisoners lived and died. It lists the transports that
had arrived at Auschwitz since 1942, their
place of origin, and the numbers "selected" for work or the gas
chambers. Kárný writes that the report is an invaluable document because it
provides details that were known only to prisoners, including, for example,
that discharge forms were filled out for prisoners who had been gassed,
indicating that death rates in the camp were actively falsified.
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