Editing Auschwitz concentration camp (section)

===Death toll{{anchor|numbers}}===
[[File:Arrivals and inmates on the ramp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, summer 1944 (Auschwitz Album).jpg|thumb|New arrivals, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, May/June 1944]]
At least 1.3&nbsp;million people were sent to Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945, and at least 1.1&nbsp;million died.<ref name=Piperfigures/> Overall 400,207 prisoners were registered in the camp: 268,657 male and 131,560 female.{{sfn|Strzelecka|2000c|p=171}} A study in the late 1980s by Polish historian [[Franciszek Piper]], published by [[Yad Vashem]] in 1991,<ref>{{harvnb|Piper|1991|pp=49–103}}; {{harvnb|van Pelt|2016|p=109}}; also see {{cite news |last1=Stets |first1=Dan |title=Fixing the numbers at Auschwitz |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-05-07-9202100662-story.html |work=Chicago Tribune |date=7 May 1992 |access-date=2 February 2019 |archive-date=3 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190203030723/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1992-05-07-9202100662-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref> used timetables of train arrivals combined with deportation records to calculate that, of the 1.3&nbsp;million sent to the camp, 1,082,000 had died there, a figure (rounded up to 1.1&nbsp;million) that Piper regarded as a minimum.<ref name=Piperfigures>{{harvnb|Piper|2000b|pp=230–231}}; also see {{harvnb|Piper|1998b|pp=71–72}}.</ref> That figure came to be widely accepted.{{efn|[[Robert Jan van Pelt]] (''The Case for Auschwitz'', 2002): "This figure [1.1 million] has been endorsed by all serious, professional historians who have studied the complex history of Auschwitz in some detail, by the Holocaust research institute at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C."{{sfn|van Pelt|2016|p=109}}{{pb}}
Earlier estimates included [[Raul Hilberg]]'s 1961 work, ''[[The Destruction of the European Jews]]'', which estimated that up to one million Jews had died in the camp.<ref>{{harvnb|Hilberg|1961|p=958}}; also see {{harvnb|Piper|2000b|p=214}}.</ref> In 1983 French scholar George Wellers was one of the first to use German data on deportations to calculate the death toll; he arrived at a figure of 1,471,595 deaths, including 1.35&nbsp;million Jews and 86,675 non-Jewish Poles.<ref>{{harvnb|Piper|1998b|p=67}}; {{harvnb|Piper|2000b|p=214}}.</ref>}}

The Germans tried to conceal how many they had murdered. In July 1942, according to Rudolf Höss's post-war memoir, Höss received an order from [[Heinrich Himmler]], via [[Adolf Eichmann]]'s office and SS commander [[Paul Blobel]], that "[a]ll mass graves were to be opened and the corpses burned. In addition, the ashes were to be disposed of in such a way that it would be impossible at some future time to calculate the number of corpses burned."<ref>{{harvnb|Höss|2003|p=188}}; also see {{harvnb|Friedländer|2007|p=404}}.</ref>

Earlier estimates of the death toll were higher than Piper's. Following the camp's liberation, the Soviet government issued a statement, on 8 May 1945, that four million people had been murdered on the site, a figure based on the capacity of the crematoria.{{sfn|Piper|2000b|pp=210–213}} Höss told prosecutors at Nuremberg that at least 2,500,000 people had been gassed there, and that another 500,000 had died of starvation and disease.{{sfn|The International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg|1946|p=415}} He testified that the figure of over two million had come from Eichmann.{{sfn|The International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg|1946|p=397}} In his memoirs, written in custody, Höss wrote that Eichmann had given the figure of 2.5&nbsp;million to Höss's superior officer [[Richard Glücks]], based on records that had been destroyed.{{sfn|Höss|2003|p=193}} Höss regarded this figure as "far too high. Even Auschwitz had limits to its destructive possibilities," he wrote.{{sfn|Höss|2003|p=194}}

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:98%; text-align:left; float:center; margin-left:10px;"
|-
! Nationality/ethnicity<br />(Source: [[Franciszek Piper]]){{sfn|Piper|2000b|p=230}} !! Registered deaths<br />(Auschwitz) !! Unregistered deaths<br />(Auschwitz) !! Total
|-
| [[Jew]]s || 95,000 || 865,000 || 960,000
|-
| [[Polish people|Ethnic Poles]] || 64,000 || 10,000 || 74,000 (70,000–75,000)
|-
| [[Romani people|Roma]] and [[Sinti]] || 19,000 || 2,000 || 21,000
|-
| [[German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war|Soviet prisoners of war]] || 12,000 || 3,000 || 15,000
|-
| Other [[Ethnic groups in Europe|Europeans]]:<br />[[Soviet people|Soviet citizens]] ([[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|Byelorussians]], [[Russians]], [[Ukrainians]]),<br />[[Czechs]], [[Yugoslavs]], [[French people|French]], [[Germans]], [[Austrians]] || 10,000–15,000 || n/a || 10,000–15,000
|-
| '''Total deaths in Auschwitz, 1940–1945''' ||200,000–205,000 || 880,000|| 1,080,000–1,085,000
|}

Around one in six Jews murdered in the Holocaust died in Auschwitz.{{sfn|Snyder|2010|p=383}} By nation, the greatest number of Auschwitz's Jewish victims originated from Hungary, accounting for 430,000 deaths, followed by Poland (300,000), France (69,000), Netherlands (60,000), Greece (55,000), Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (46,000), Slovakia (27,000), Belgium (25,000), Germany and Austria (23,000), Yugoslavia (10,000), Italy (7,500), Norway (690), and others (34,000).<ref name=Ethnicity>{{cite web |title=Ethnic origins and number of victims of Auschwitz |url=http://70.auschwitz.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=89 |publisher=Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190202034044/http://70.auschwitz.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=89&lang=en |archive-date=2 February 2019}}</ref> [[Timothy Snyder]] writes that fewer than one percent of the million Soviet Jews murdered in the Holocaust were murdered in Auschwitz.{{sfn|Snyder|2010|p=275}} Of the at least 387 Jehovah's Witnesses who were imprisoned at Auschwitz, 132 died in the camp.<ref>[http://auschwitz.org/en/history/categories-of-prisoners/jehovahs-witnesses/ "Jehovah's Witnesses"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190601173543/http://auschwitz.org/en/history/categories-of-prisoners/jehovahs-witnesses |date=1 June 2019 }}. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.</ref>