Auschwitz victims and survivors are counted on the basis of many different sources rather than a single complete list. This overview explains what the sources are, how estimates are built, what we know about the murdered, and what historians mean by “survivors”. For the camp’s origins see The Origins of Auschwitz; for layout and functions see The Structure of the Auschwitz Complex and Auschwitz Monowitz and IG Farben; for clandestine activity see Auschwitz resistance. This page uses the term Auschwitz victims for those murdered in the camp complex and explains how their numbers are estimated.
On this page: What the sources are · Auschwitz victims – estimates · Auschwitz victims – who was murdered · Auschwitz survivors · How many Auschwitz victims were there? · How many Auschwitz survivors were there? · Methodology note
Authoritative overviews: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum – History · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum – Auschwitz
What the sources are – records, transports, testimonies
Historians combine multiple categories of evidence: wartime documents that survived, transport lists and railway data, registration numbers, post-war investigations, demographic studies, and testimonies. Each has gaps or biases – together they allow for carefully established ranges.
Documentation varies across the complex. Some records were destroyed as the SS tried to hide crimes in 1944–1945. Where lists are incomplete, researchers cross-check transport data with survivor accounts and traces left in different archives.
Auschwitz victims – estimates: what we know and what we do not
The best-established scholarship indicates that over one million people were murdered in the Auschwitz complex, the vast majority of them Jews. Estimates are ranges, not single-point totals, because sources differ in completeness and method. Responsible summaries of Auschwitz victims present ranges rather than a single total.
Numbers must be read alongside the camp’s changing functions – deportations and selections at Birkenau, forced labour in Monowitz and subcamps, and administrative processes in Auschwitz I. For structural context see Auschwitz map. In discussing Auschwitz victims we therefore connect figures to place and function.
Auschwitz victims – who was murdered
Jews deported from across German-occupied Europe formed the largest group of victims. Other murdered groups included Roma (Sinti and Roma), Poles and prisoners from many nations persecuted as political opponents, Soviet prisoners of war, and people targeted under Nazi policies of persecution. The proportions changed with deportation waves, notably in 1942–1944.
Reading the numbers by group helps explain how deportations were organised and why figures peak in certain periods – for example during the deportations of Hungarian Jews in 1944. In describing Auschwitz victims by group, historians show how deportations shaped the scale of murder.
Auschwitz survivors – categories, limits of data, post-war fates
“Auschwitz survivors” include people liberated on the site in January 1945 and those transferred earlier to other camps or labour sites who survived the war. Survivor numbers are also ranges: evacuation transports, death marches and transfers complicate any single tally.
Post-war fates varied – recovery, continued illness, displacement, and emigration shaped lives after liberation. Testimonies and memoirs remain essential sources: they document experience, not only totals. Accounts by survivors also explain how clandestine aid and networks affected chances of survival among Auschwitz victims selected for labour versus those murdered on arrival.
How many Auschwitz victims were there?
Historians use ranges based on transport data, surviving records and post-war research. The most widely cited syntheses indicate more than one million Auschwitz victims. Exact totals are impossible because sources are incomplete; responsible estimates explain their basis and uncertainty.
How many Auschwitz survivors were there?
Survivor figures include people liberated on the site and those transferred earlier who lived to see the end of the war. Evacuations and death marches complicate any single tally, so researchers present ranges rather than one number.
Methodology note – how estimates are built
Our figures for Auschwitz victims follow institutional syntheses and avoid false precision. We cite ranges, explain sources, and reference recognised overviews, including the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the USHMM. Figures are contextualised by function: deportations and killing facilities at Birkenau, forced labour at Monowitz and selected subcamps, administration at Auschwitz I.
Read next
The Origins of Auschwitz · The Structure of the Auschwitz Complex · Auschwitz Monowitz and IG Farben · Auschwitz resistance