Auschwitz Report

I just watched “The Auschwitz Report.” It is a 2021 movie about the real-life Vrba–Wetzler Report (a 33 page eye-witness account about the Auschwitz Concentration and Death Camp in German-occupied Poland during the Holocaust.)

It was written by Rudolf Vrba (1924-2006) and Alfréd Wetzler (1918-1988) two Slovakian Jews who escaped Auschwitz on April 10, 1944 and wrote the Report in Slovakian between April 25-27, 1944 Žilina, Slovakia and was given to the Slovak Jewish Council and translated into German and then sent to the Allies in London, Moscow and Washington DC.

The Allies had known that the Germans were murdering Jews as policy in places like Auschwitz since November 1942. The Vrba–Wetzler Report was an early attempt to estimate the numbers and the most detailed description of the Gas Chambers and the Murder Process to that point.

The publication 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 thus saving 200,000 Hungarian Jews.

The first full English translation of the Report was published in November 1944 by the United States War Refugee Board.

The movie is pretty accurate to what actually happened and people should watch it (especially since the vast majority of people in the US and around the world do not know much about what happened from 1933-1945.)

A September 2020 Survey found that:

63% of the respondents were not aware that six Million Jews had been killed, with 36 percent believing two Million or fewer had been murdered.

48% of the respondents could not name a single Concentration Camp, Death Camp or Ghetto where Jews were taken during the Holocaust, though there were 40,000 Concentration Camps (including Sub-Camps), 6 Death Camps and 1,000 Ghettoes.

11% believed Jews caused the Holocaust and blamed them for it.

12% don’t think they’ve heard the word “Holocaust” before.

10% think the Holocaust did not happen, or are not sure.