The Holocaust Historiography Project

The Auschwitz Death Registers — A Summary

The discovery of the “death books” in a Soviet archive lends yet more credence to the revisionist position that there were no mass gassings at Auschwitz. As you will see in the table below, not all the death books were found, and so some of the data must be extrapolated. For reasons of time, I have not shown the methods of extrapolating the missing data, but neither the extrapolated data nor the method used in the extrapolation is needed to illustrate the revisionist viewpoint.

Consider the years 1942 and 1943, for which we have nearly complete records in the death books. We know that during these years, there were typhus epidemics that ravaged the camps. Although the Nazi high command ordered that all steps be taken to end the epidemics and save prisoner lives, this same high command also planned to expand the size of the Auschwitz camp greatly (in itself an argument against the extermination thesis). Using as their basis the number of deaths in 1942 and 1943, Nazi planners set out to build sufficient crematory capacity to handle the “normal” number of deaths through typhus at the camp. In these plans, we see that the number of crematories planned for Auschwitz was actually lower than the number planned for “ordinary” camps (that is, camps not now claimed to have been extermination centers) such as Dachau and Buchenwald, in terms of the ratio of corpses per crematory.

Thus, the crematories that were built would have had no excess capacity to handle the hundreds of thousands (let alone millions) of victims claimed to have been killed in mass exterminations. As it has been pointed out, if there were in fact homicidal gas chambers for mass murder, they would have to have had as an accomplice enough crematory capacity to dispose of the corpses. Without the crematory capacity, there could have been no mass gassing program.

As shown in the table below, the bottom line is that there are 67,227 recorded deaths in the partial set of Auschwitz death registers found (or at least made available) so far. To these are added an additional 63,069 extrapolated deaths, for a total death toll at Auschwitz/Birkenau of 130,296. Of course, toward the end of the war when conditions were chaotic, there could easily have been additional unrecorded deaths, but almost certainly the total death toll at Auschwitz/Birkenau is less than 150,000.

Summary of the Auschwitz Death Books
Start End Known deaths Extrapolated deaths Total deaths No. of days Deaths per day Totals
5/1/40 12/31/40   2000 2000 245 8  
Total for 1940   2,000
1/1/41 8/3/41   4000 4000 215 19  
8/4/41 9/10/41 1498   1498 38 39
9/11/41 10/20/41   1500 1500 40 38
10/21/41 11/22/41 1490   1490 33 45
11/23/41 12/31/41   1500 1500 39 38
Total for 1941   9,988
1/1/42 1/2/42   69 69 2 35  
1/3/42 2/23/42 1500   1500 52 29
2/24/42 3/21/42 1496   1496 26 58
3/22/42 4/7/42 1490   1490 17 88
4/8/42 4/30/42 1429   1429 23 62
5/1/42 5/15/42   1500 1500 15 100
5/16/42 5/29/42 1473   1473 14 105
5/30/42 6/13/42 1500   1500 15 100
6/14/42 6/25/42   1500 1500 12 125
6/26/42 7/6/42 1499   1499 11 136
7/7/42 7/15/42 1498   1498 9 166
7/16/42 7/27/42 1460   1460 12 122
7/28/42 8/5/42 1498   1498 9 166
8/6/42 8/16/42 1472   1472 11 134
8/17/42 8/21/42 1489   1489 5 298
8/22/42 8/27/42 1498   1498 6 250
8/28/42 9/1/42 1492   1492 5 298
9/2/42 9/6/42 1498   1498 5 300
9/7/42 9/10/42 1498   1498 4 375
9/11/42 9/15/42 1492   1492 5 298
9/16/42 9/21/42 1404   1404 6 234
9/22/42 9/27/42 1488   1488 6 248
9/28/42 10/1/42 1442   1442 4 361
10/2/42 10/11/42 1438   1438 10 144
10/12/42 10/21/42 1482   1482 10 148
10/22/42 11/2/42 1484   1484 12 124
11/3/42 11/12/42 1490   1490 10 149
11/13 /42 12/4/42   3000 3000 22 136
12/5/42 12/14/42 1230   1230 10 123
12/15/42 12/31/42   1500 1500 17 88
Total for 1942   44,309
1/1/43 1/15/43 1492   1492 15 99  
1/16/43 1/28/43 1484   1484 13 114
1/29/43 2/7/43 1486   1486 10 149
2/8/43 2/15/43   1500 1500 8 188
2/16/43 2/22/43 1442   1442 7 206
2/23/43 3/1/43 1442   1442 7 206
3/2/43 3/6/43 1488   1488 5 298
3/7/43 3/12/43 1498   1498 6 250
3/13/43 3/17/43 1492   1492 5 298
3/18/43 3/23/43 1460   1460 6 243
3/24/43 4/1/43 1428   1428 9 159
4/2/43 4/13/43   1500 1500 12 125
4/14/43 5/13/43 1480   1480 30 49
5/14/43 6/16/43   3000 3000 34 88
6/17/43 7/1/43 1465   1465 15 98
7/2/43 7/28/43 1480    1480 27 55
7/29/43 8/29/43 1494   1494 32 47
8/30/43 10/12/43   3000 3000 44 68
10/13/43 11/11/43 1490   1490 30 50
11/12/43 12/10/43 1414   1414 29 49
12/11/43 12/28/43 1500   1500 18 83
12/29/43 12/30/43 1494   1494 2 747
12/31/43 12/31/43 970   970 1 970
Total for 1943   36,499
1/1/44 12/31 /44   36000 36000 366 98  
Total for 1944   36,000
1/1/45 1/18/45   1500 1500 18 83  
Total for 1945   1,500
Totals 1941-1945 67,227 63,069 130,296   130,296