80: Vrba-Wetzler Report

 

80 years ago today (April 10, 1944) 2 Slovak Jews, Alfred Wetzler and Rudolf Vrba escaped from Auschwitz with the aim to tell the Allies about the killing process as Auschwitz so it could be stopped before the Germans murdered the Hungarian Jews, the last remaining Jews in Occupied-Europe, starting in May 1944.

(Rudolf Vrba on the left and Alfred Wetzler on the right.)

The Vrba-Wetzler Report is a 33 page Eye-Witness Account of the Auschwitz Concentration and Death Camp in German-Occupied Poland during the Holocaust.

Alfréd Wetzler (Born May 10, 1918 in Nagyszombat, Austria-Hungary – Present-Day Trnava, Slovakia – and died February 8, 1988 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia – Present-Day Slovakia.)

Rudolf Vrba (Born as Walter Rosenberg on September 11, 1924 in Topoľčany, Czechoslovakia – Present day Slovakia - and died March 27, 2006 in Vancouver, Canada.)

The Vrba–Wetzler Report contains a detailed description of the geography and management of the Auschwitz Camp and Sub-Camps, and of how the Prisoners lived and died.

It lists the Transports that had arrived at Auschwitz since 1942 (when Vrba and Wetzler arrived at Auschwitz), their place of origin, and the numbers "selected" for work or those murdered in the Gas Chambers.

The Report contains sketches and information about the layout of the Gas Chambers, describing the large room where victims were made to undress before being pushed into the Gas Chambers, as well as the attached Crematoriums.

It also detailed the killing process: How 2,000 Men, Women and Children at a time could be gassed in each of the 4 Gas Chambers in 20 minutes. Afterwards Sonderkommando (Prisoners forced to work in the Gas Chambers and Crematoriums by the Germans) had to remove the clothes, clean the Undressing Rooms, remove the dead bodies from the Gas Chambers and clean them for the next group. They also had to shave the hair off the dead bodies - which was used to make blankets for German U-Boats and any gold teeth  - which was melted down and sent to Nazi Bank Accounts in Switzerland to fund their War.

The publication of parts of the Vrba-Wetzler Report in June 1944 is credited with helping to persuade the Hungarian Regent, Miklós Horthy, to halt the Deportation of Hungary'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 credited with saving 200,000 Jewish Men, Women and Children.