CommemorationThe
Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum endeavors, through its research,
educational, and exhibition work, to commemorate all victims of
Auschwitz Concentration Camp by pointing out not only historical facts
and figures, but also specific individuals with their names and life
stories. This is also the purpose of the data base created from the
partially preserved records of Auschwitz prisoners. Doing so, we wish
to address the concerns of all those for whom it is important to
preserve the memory of the victims of Nazism. About the available dataThe
online data presented here comes from two of dozens of extant corpuses
of camp documents: Death Books and Record Books of the so-called Gypsy
Family Camp.
We should remember that the Nazis destroyed most
of the documents they created and that a list with the names of all
Auschwitz victims does not exist. If the name of a person looked for
does not appear in this database there is still a chance it is included
in other documents, which are not online yet. To find out more you
should contact the Office for Information on Former Prisoners. Death Books This
data base uses the partially preserved Death Books (Sterbebücher) of
Auschwitz Concentration Camp prisoners. The 46 volumes of political
department (camp Gestapo) record the deaths of almost 69,000 prisoners
who were registered in the camp and who died between July 29, 1941 and
December 31, 1943. Their names have been entered in the data base.
Limited number of records When
using the data base, please remember that the death certificates cover
only registered prisoners who died in the period mentioned in the
previous paragraph. The overwhelming majority of victims, mostly
Jewish, perished in the gas chambers immediately after arrival, without
being entered in the camp records, and without their deaths being noted
in the German documents (see FAQ - frequently asked questions). Sample death certificate Below
is the death certificate issued by the Politische Abteilung (camp
Gestapo) for Auschwitz Concentration Camp prisoner Janusz Pogonowski.
Prisoner no. 253, Pogonowski (who went by the name “Skrzetuski” in the
camp) arrived on the first transport of political prisoners from the
prison in Tarnów on June 14, 1940. He was an active member of the
underground camp resistance. He was hanged during a public execution,
along with eleven other prisoners from the surveyors labor detail, on
July 19, 1943. This was a reprisal for the escape of four prisoners
from this labor detail and for contacts with civilians outside the
camp. His heroic behavior at the time of his execution remained
etched in the memory of the prisoners. Without waiting for camp
commandant Rudolf Höss to finish reading out the sentence, Janusz
Pogonowski kicked the stool out from under his feet and hanged himself.
He was 21. The death certificates contain the following fields: | Death certificate of Janusz Pogonowski |
- Certificate no.
- date of issue
- first and last names
- denomination
- place of residence
- date of death, time of death, place of death – always Kasernestrasse Auschwitz (Barracks Street, Auschwitz), not the camp (!)
- date and place of birth
- father’s first and last names
- mother’s first and last names
- spouse’s first and last name
- pronouncing physician
- date
- signature
- reason of death (fictitious)
The
“denomination” field in the death certificate of Janusz Pogonowski
reads “Katholisch”, other documents may contain one of the following
religious affiliations: - Bibelforscher - Jehovah’s Witness
böhmisch-mährische Religion - Czech-Moravian religion - buddhistisch - Buddhist
- evangelisch - Ewangelical-Lutheran
- glaubenslos - Atheist
- gottgläubig - Believes in God
- grekokatholisch - Greek Catholic
- griechischorthodox - Greek Orthodox
- husit - Hussite
- katholisch - Catholic
- konfessionslos - Unaffiliate
- mosaisch - Mosaic (i.e., Jewish)
- moslemisch - Muslim
- orthodox - Eastern Orthodox
- religionslos - Agnostic
- russischorthodox - Russian Orthodox
- unbekannte Religion - Religion unknown
An
analysis of the “denomination” item shows that the majority of the
registered prisoners in the Death Books were Roman Catholic (31814
persons - 46,8%) and Jewish (“Mosaic”) (29125 persons - 42,8%). Others
belonged to the following denominations: Greek Orthodox (3,6%),
Evangelical-Lutheran (3,4%), and Greek Catholic (1,6%). This item is
left blank on 1,275 (1,9%) death certificates. The Gypsy Family Camp Record Books The
Nazis entered information on the Roma prisoners in sector BIIe of the
Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp in two Record Books. The
origins of this so-called Zigeunerfamilienlager are connected with the
deportation by the Nazis of the first transport of Roma from Germany on
February 26, 1943.
A total of 20,943 Roma from various
German-occupied countries are entered in the Books. They included
10,849 woman and girls and 10,094 men and boys. Over 10,000 of the
people registered in the Books were children and young people aged
under 15. Over 370 children were born in the camp; the Books note the
death of 350 of them. It is estimated that at least 21,000 of the
23,000 Roma deported to Auschwitz were murdered. The Polish
political prisoner Tadeusz Joachimowski (no. 3720), assigned to be a
“scribe” or “writer” in the “family camp,” secretly removed the Books
from the prisoners’ scribe chamber in July 1944, just before the
liquidation of the family camp on August 2, 1944. Joachimowski and two
fellow prisoners buried the documents on the grounds of the family
camp. The Books were dug up in 1949. The Gypsy camp Record Books
were thus saved from destruction by the Nazis. Now the Books have been
preserved in archival form in the Archives of the Auschwitz-Birkenau
State Museum, creating a data base that will be useful to researchers
and historians. In 1992, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the
German Sinti and Roma Documentation and Culture Center in Heidelberg,
Germany, published the Memorial Book of Gypsies in Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp
in 1992. It contains the names of all the Roma registered in the
Zigeunerfamilienlager. Information is included in the following fields:
surname, first name, date of birth, place of birth, camp number,
category, and a place for “remarks” that usually contains information
about death, but sometimes also about transfers, transports, and so on.
The original transcription has been preserved. The last field contains
information referring to the remarks.
| Fragment of the Gypsy Record Books |
Terms used in “category”and “remarks” field Data in the “category” field: - Z.D.R. - Roma from Germany
- Z.Prot. - Roma from the Protectorate
of Bohemia and Moravia - Z.Pole - Roma from Poland
- Z.stls. - Stateless Roma
- Z.Franz. - Roma from France
- Z.Holl. - Roma from The Netherlands
- Z.Belg. - Roma from Belgium
| Z.Jug. - Roma from YugoslaviaZ.Kroat. - Roma from CroatiaZ.Ung. - Roma from HungaryZ.Russ. - Roma from RussiaZ.Lit. - Roma from LithuaniaZ.Norw. - Roma from NorwayZ.Span. - Roma from SpainZ.Slov. - Roma from Slovakia |
Entries in the “remarks” field: - Au., Au.I - Auschwitz I
- Rückv., Rückverl., Rückfällig, - transferred onward
- B.A.II.d, B.II.d - men’s camp
- Gest., Gestorben, +, G. - death
- Sk - penal company
- Birk. - Birkenau
- Netzweiler - Natzweiler camp
| Quarantäne - quarantineTr., Transp., Transport - transport Verl. - transferred toB.II.f - prisoner hospitalZurück - transferred backZug. - new arrivalFKL - women’s camp |
Memorial BooksThe
Memorial Books include information on almost 60 thousand Poles deported
to Auschwitz. The contents are based on partially extant archival
documents and correspondence with former prisoners and their relatives. This
data is the fruit of years of research by Museum staff and was
published from 2000 to 2006 by the Museum in cooperation with the
Auschwitz Preservation Society in three Memorial Books: Księga Pamięci. Transporty Polaków z Warszawy do KL Auschwitz 1940-1944
[Memorial Book: Transports of Poles from Warsaw to Auschwitz 1940-1944]
was published in 2000. It contains approximately 26 thousand entries on
men, women, and children from Warsaw and Mazovia, including some 13
thousand deported to Auschwitz from Pawiak prison after being arrested
in street roundups or in operations against the resistance movement,
and another 13 thousand deported from the transit camp in Pruszków
after the fall of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.
Księga Pamięci. Transporty Polaków do KL Auschwitz z Krakowa i innych miejscowości Polski południowej 1940-1944
[Memorial Book: Transports of Poles to Auschwitz from Cracow and Other
Localities in Southern Poland 1940-1944] was published in 2002. It is
dedicated to the approximately 18 thousand Poles sent to Auschwitz by
the German Security Police from prisons in Cracow (Montelupich),
Tarnów, Wiśnica Nowy, Rzeszów, Muszyna, Nowy Sącz, Sanok, Nowy Targ,
and Zakopane. The list opens with the first transport of political
prisoners from the prison in Tarnów, made up of 728 people, mostly
young Polish patriots. The date of its arrival in Auschwitz, June 14,
1940, is regarded as the date when the camp was founded.
Transporty Polaków do KL Auschwitz z Radomia i innych miejscowości Kielecczyzny 1940-1944
[Memorial Book: Transports of Poles to Auschwitz from Radom and Other
Localities in the Kielce Region 1940-1944] was published in late 2005
and contains information on approximately 16 thousand Poles deported to
Auschwitz from the occupation-era Radom District, mainly from the
prisons in Radom, Kielce, Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Piotrków, Końskie,
Sandomierz, and Pińczów, where they were held after being arrested
during roundups, searches, and entrapment operations on the streets, on
trains, and at train stations.
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