List of victims and survivors of Auschwitz
This is a list of notable victims and survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp; that is, victims and survivors about whom a significant amount of independent secondary sourcing exists. This list represents only a very small portion of the 1.1 million victims and survivors of Auschwitz and is not intended to be viewed as a representative or exhaustive count by any means.
Victims
Male victims are signified by a background. Female victims are signified by a background.Name | Born | Died | Age | Ethnicity | Notability |
Jewish | Gymnast. Member of the Gold medal winning Dutch gymnastics team at the 1928 Summer Olympics. | ||||
22 or 23 | Jewish | Composer. Deported from Theresienstadt concentration camp to Auschwitz on September 28, 1944. | |||
October 15, 1944 | Jewish | Son of Karel Ančerl and Valy Ančerl. Born while parents were in Theresienstadt concentration camp. | |||
October 15, 1944 | Jewish | Wife of Karel Ančerl, who was also at Auschwitz, but survived. | |||
59 | Polish | Noble. | |||
Polish | Lawyer, publicist, and politician. | ||||
Polish | Noble. Was a member of the Polish Ministry of Commerce and Industrial Affairs before war broke out. Belonged to the first group of people to organise the underground fight. | ||||
September 1942 | Jewish | Choreographer, founder of the Ballet de l'Opéra; brother of Léon Blum. Transferred to the camp on September 23, 1942. | |||
Jewish | Arrived at the camp on October 23, 1944, and was gassed immediately. | ||||
Czechoslovakian | Businessman from Prague. | ||||
French Jewish | Deported from Switzerland for "immorality". | ||||
Polish | Skier – 24 times Polish champion, and participant of Winter Olympics of 1928, 1932 and 1936; soldier of Armia Krajowa. | ||||
Jewish | Child actress. Born Jewish, converted to Roman Catholicism with her family on June 1941 as an attempt by her father to save the family from certain death, but still considered Jewish by Nazi racial laws. Died in the cattle wagon routed to Auschwitz. | ||||
47 | Jewish | Among last Jewish employees to leave Berlin. Put on train to Auschwitz on March 12, 1943; poisoned herself in transit. | |||
Jewish | Poet, critic, existentialist philosopher and author. | ||||
Jewish | Sister of Benjamin Fondane. | ||||
Jewish | Head Rabbi of Jewish Municipality of Zagreb, catechist, translator, writer and spiritual leader, educated in law and theology science. On last transport of Jews from Croatia. Killed at camp entrance when he protested against the inhumane procedure that was implemented against the members of his community. | ||||
Jewish | Actor and film director; was either persuaded or coerced by the Nazis to make a propaganda film showing how humane the conditions were at Theresienstadt concentration camp. After filming finished, he was deported on the final transport ever to Auschwitz, on October 28, 1944, and was gassed immediately. | ||||
Jewish | Cabaret singer and silent-film actress. | ||||
Jewish | Writer. Esperantist. | ||||
Jewish | Smuggled gunpowder into the camp to help the Sonderkommando blow up Crematorium IV during an October 7, 1944 revolt. Tortured and eventually executed by hanging along with her three conspirators, the last public hanging at Auschwitz. | ||||
23 | Jewish | Smuggled gunpowder into the camp to help the Sonderkommando blow up Crematorium IV during an October 7, 1944 revolt. Tortured and eventually executed by hanging along with her three conspirators, the last public hanging at Auschwitz. | |||
30 | Smuggled gunpowder into the camp to help the Sonderkommando blow up Crematorium IV during an October 7, 1944 revolt. Tortured and eventually executed by hanging along with her three conspirators, the last public hanging at Auschwitz. | ||||
Jewish | Composer. After arrival at the camp, Josef Mengele was about to send Karel Ančerl to the gas chamber, but weakened Haas, who stood next to him, began to cough and the death sentence was therefore chosen for him instead. | ||||
Scottish | Scottish missionary working in Hungary since 1932. Arrested by the Nazis in 1944 on charges of espionage and working among Jews while trying to save young Jewish girls. Arrested and sent to prisons in Fő utca and Buda, and then sent to Auschwitz in May 1944, where she was tattooed as prisoner 79467. | ||||
Jewish | Croatian first female professor of gymnastics. | ||||
Jewish | Composer; helped to organize cultural life in Theresienstadt concentration camp. | ||||
Jewish | Composer, conductor, pianist, teacher, music critic, active in Prague. Deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp on September 8, 1942, where he helped to organize cultural life. Transferred to Auschwitz on October 16, 1944. | ||||
Jewish | Composer, pianist and conductor. Helped to organize cultural life in Theresienstadt concentration camp. Died on the death march. | ||||
Jewish | Diarist and writer. | ||||
June 19, 1944 | Jewish | Doctor who gained international fame posthumously following the publication of her letters to her five children which she wrote during her imprisonment in the labor camp Breitenau. | |||
or December 12, 1944 | Jewish | First ordained female rabbi in Germany, rabbi at Neue Synagoge in Berlin, killed two months after entering the camp. | |||
Jewish | Teacher, poet, dramatist; his son Zvi Katzenelson was on the same transport and was killed the same day as Itzhak. | ||||
October 16, 1944 | Jewish | Artist, poet and librettist active in Theresienstadt concentration camp, died from infectious disease soon after arrival to Auschwitz on October 16. Wife and parents were on same transport and were killed. | |||
42 | Jewish | Hasidic orthodox rabbi, deported to Auschwitz from Drancy internment camp on Convoy No. 12 on July 29, 1942. According to survivor, he was at the camp for one year before his murder by a Kapo on a Shabbat because he refused to work. He was beaten up with a pickax and buried alive. Father of French philosopher Sarah Kofman. | |||
Polish | Saint. Conventual Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of Polish Army Sergeant Franciszek Gajowniczek, who was a stranger to him. | ||||
Jewish | Writer, used the pen name of Gertrud Kolmar. | ||||
First husband of Stephanie Helbrun. Deported to the camp with his wife in December 1943. Threw himself on the electric wire surrounding the camp in 1944. | |||||
November 23, 1887 | October 29, 1944 | 56 | Jewish | Rabbi, Czech librarian, and historian of Czech-Jewish culture | |
14 | Jewish | Teenager who wrote a diary. Her writings were posthumously published. Dubbed the "Polish Anne Frank". | |||
Jewish | Rabbi. He was deported on Convoy No. 8 to the camp on July 20, 1942. | ||||
Jewish | Painter and student of Henri Matisse. | ||||
Polish | Noble. | ||||
Polish | World War I ace; KZ Number 16301. | ||||
Jewish | Film director and actor and former head of Pathé Film Studios. Arrived at the camp on September 25, 1942 and was killed several weeks later. | ||||
Jewish | Novelist. She was classified as a Jew under the Nazi racial laws, which did not take into account her conversion to Roman Catholicism. | ||||
Husband of Irène Némirovsky. Arrived on November 6, 1942, and was gassed immediately. | |||||
Polish | Track and field athlete and participant of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. Murdered by the camp's SS guard, allegedly for trying to smuggle a letter. | ||||
Jewish | Painter. Entire family was eventually killed at the camp at different times, with the exception of one brother, who died from exhaustion at Stutthof in December 1944. | ||||
Estonian | Painter. Unknown circumstances as to why he was sent to Auschwitz. It may have been his sexuality, or possibly because he was aiding the Resistance, or helping hide Jewish friends. | ||||
Georgian | Saint. Priest, ecclesiastic figure, theologian, historian, Archimandrite, PhD of History, professor. | ||||
Polish | Economist, historian and politician connected with the right-wing National Democracy political camp. Executed by shooting for organizing the resistance movement in the camp. | ||||
Jewish | Photographer. | ||||
Jewish | Painter. Was transported to the camp on May 18, 1944 and was killed soon afterwards. | ||||
Jewish | Painter. Killed with his wife Else Berg. | ||||
Jewish | Psychologist and professor, formulated the first nonassociationist theory of thinking, in 1913. Was transported to the camp on August 24, 1943. | ||||
76 | Jewish | Known Bjelovar industrialist. | |||
German | Saint. Philosopher and nun. Born into a Jewish family, considered a "Catholic Jew". | ||||
Jewish | Nazi-appointed head of the Judenrat while he lived in the Łódź Ghetto in Poland. He was known to abuse his power, such as by molesting young Jewish women within the ghetto. Family was also killed at the camp. | ||||
Jewish | Composer, conductor and pianist. From Galicia, active in Prague. Taube, his wife Erika and their child were deported from Prague to Theresienstadt concentration camp on December 10, 1941. They were deported to Auschwitz on October 1, 1944, where all three were killed immediately. | ||||
30 | Jewish | Wife of Carlo Taube. | |||
Polish | Automobile engineer and the designer of the first Polish serially-built automobile, the CWS T-1. Arrested on July 3, 1940, and sent to the camp. | ||||
Jewish | Father of Gisella Perl. Brought his prayer book into the gas chamber. | ||||
36 | Jewish | Husband of Anna Dresden-Polak and father of Eva Dresden, both of whom were killed at Sobibor on July 23, 1943. | |||
Smuggled gunpowder into the camp to help the Sonderkommando blow up Crematorium IV during an October 7, 1944 revolt. Tortured and eventually executed by hanging along with her three conspirators, the last public hanging at Auschwitz. | |||||
Jewish | Daughter of Han Hollander and Leentje Hollander-Smeer, both of whom were killed at Sobibor on July 9, 1943. | ||||
or 1877 | 64 | Polish | Noble. | ||
Polish | Right-wing politician, director of the nationalist organization All-Polish Youth and member of political party National Radical Camp. Killed for helping Jews in the camp. | ||||
Jewish | Football player and manager. | ||||
39 | Jewish | Mother of Elie Wiesel. Gassed immediately. | |||
Jewish | Younger sister of Elie Wiesel. Gassed immediately. | ||||
Jewish | Deported to the camp on Transport #10 on September 15, 1942. Inmate #19880. Her proficiency in several languages allowed her to work as an interpreter in the camp. Publicly executed at the camp after an escape attempt, with her lover, Edward Galiński. | ||||
Polish | Publicly executed at the camp after an escape attempt, with his lover, Mala Zimetbaum. | ||||
Jewish | American soccer right winger. | ||||
Jewish | Wife of Anton Stallbaumer; both were members of the Austrian Resistance. | ||||
Jewish | German-born French cartoonist of Jewish descent; detained in the Gurs internment camp in Vichy France on 28 October 1940; transferred to Auschwitz on 11 September 1942 and executed on the same day; best known for his comic book Mickey au Camp de Gurs he created while held in Gurs. |
- Simon Okker, Dutch Olympic fencer.
- Lion van Minden, Dutch Olympic fencer.
- Ettie Steinberg,, Only Irish person killed in Holocaust.
- Rosette Wolczak,, died in KZ Auschwitz
Survivors
- Lucie Adelsberger, German-Jewish physician
- Leo Bretholz, Austrian Jew who escaped from train en route, author of Leap into Darkness.
- Laure Diebold, French resistant, Compagnon de la Libération.
- Xawery Dunikowski, Polish sculptor and artist, best known for his Neo-Romantic sculptures and Auschwitz-inspired art, survived.
- Kurt Epstein, Czechoslovak Jewish Olympic water polo competitor
- Hans Frankenthal, German-Jewish author, survived.
- Viktor Frankl, Austrian-Jewish neurologist and psychiatrist, survived.
- Hédi Fried, Hungarian-Jewish, author of The Road to Auschwitz: Fragments of a Life, survived.
- Franciszek Gajowniczek, Polish Army Sergeant whose life was spared when Maximilian Kolbe took his place. Survived and died in 1995.
- Józef Garliński, Polish best selling writer who wrote numerous books in both English and Polish on Auschwitz and World War II, including the best selling 'Fighting Auschwitz'. Survived and died in 2005.
- Leon Greenman, British anti-fascism campaigner. Survived and died in 2008.
- Nicholas Hammer, Hungarian born Jew, who was placed in Auschwitz I block 6 and worked in the Kanada I section. Subject of the biography Sacred Games by Gerald Jacobs. Unusual as he was in labour, concentration and death camps before being liberated.
- Magda Herzberger, Romanian-Jewish author and poet, survived.
- Joseph Friedenson, Polish-Jewish, editor of Dos Yiddishe Vort, survived.
- Hugo Gryn, senior rabbi, London.
- Adélaïde Hautval, French psychiatrist who refused to cooperate with medical experimentation at Auschwitz.
- Stefan Jaracz, Polish actor and theater director who survived camp but died of Tuberculosis in 1945.
- Imre Kertész, Hungarian writer, Nobel Laureate in Literature for 2002.
- Stanisław Kętrzyński, Polish historian and diplomat.
- Gertrude "Traute" Kleinová, Czechoslovak Jew, 3-time table tennis world champion.
- Antoni Kocjan, Polish glider constructor and a contributor to the intelligence services of the Polish Home Army. Murdered by Gestapo in 1944.
- Rena Kornreich Gelissen, Polish-Jewish, author of Rena's Promise: A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz, survived.
- Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, Polish writer and World War II resistance fighter, co-founder the wartime Polish organization Żegota. Released through the efforts of the Polish underground.
- Henri Landwirth, Belgian philanthropist and founder of Give Kids the World.
- Joel Lebowitz, Mathematical Physicist. Survived. Honors include the Boltzmann Medal, Henri Poincaré Prize, and Max Planck Medal.
- Olga Lengyel, Hungarian-Jewish author of Five Chimneys, survived.
- Curt Lowens, German-Jewish actor and resistant, survived.
- Arnošt Lustig, Czechoslovak and later Czech Jewish writer and novelist, the Holocaust is his lifelong theme, survived.
- Branko Lustig, Croatian-American film producer.
- Filip Müller, inmate no. 29236, survivor and author of Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers.
- Alfred "Artem" Nakache, French swimmer, world record, one-third of French 2x world record, imprisoned in Auschwitz, where his wife and daughter were killed.
- Igor Newerly,, Polish novelist and educator.
- Bernard Offen, Polish documentary filmmaker working in Poland and the United States to create Second Generation Witnesses.
- Ignacy Oziewicz, Polish army officer, first commandant of Narodowe Sily Zbrojne
- Lev Rebet, Ukrainian nationalist ideologist.
- Bernat Rosner Hungarian-Jewish lawyer, co-author of An uncommon friendship. Survived.
- Vladek and Anja Spiegelman, parents of Art Spiegelman, author of Maus. Vladek Spiegelmann was the central character in Maus.
- Józef Szajna, Polish scenery designer, stage director, playwright, theoretician of the theatre, painter and graphic artist.
- Leon Schiller, Polish theater and film director, critic and theoretician. He was also a composer and wrote theater and radio screenplays.
- Menachem Mendel Taub, rabbi of Kaliv.
- Jack Tramiel,. Polish-born businessman, founder of Commodore International. Rescued by the U.S. Army in April 1945.
- Rose Van Thyn, Auschwitz and Ravensbrueck survivor who directed Holocaust education activities in her adopted city of Shreveport, Louisiana.
- Simone Veil, née Simone Annie Jacob, French politician, survived.
- Shlomo Venezia, Greek-Jewish, author of Inside the Gas Chambers: Eight Months in the Sonderkommando of Auschwitz, survived.
- Rose Warfman, a French nurse, member of the French Resistance.
- Stanislaw Wygodzki, Polish-Jewish author, survived.