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II. TESTIMONY OF BOTH THE FIRST AND SECOND ESCAPEES
8. Transport Arrivals at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Early 1942 – December 1942. In view of the fact that prisoners were given consecutive numbers, as we said before, we are in a position to determine with considerable exactness the order of arrival and fate of the various transports. The order of arrival ran as follows:
Numbers | Transports | c. 27,400 – 28,600 | First transport of naturalized French Jews. | c. 28,600 – 29,600 | First Jews from Slovakia, our own transport.* | c. 29,600 – 29,700 | 100 Gentile men from various transit camps. | c. 29,700 – 32,700 | Three complete Slovak Jewish transports, 3000 men. | c. 32,700 – 33,100 | 400 habitual criminals (Gentiles) from Warsaw. | c. 33,100 – 35,000 | Approximately 2000 Jews from Cracow. | c. 35,000 – 36,000 | Gentile Poles, political prisoners in protective custody. | c. 36,000 – 37,300 | 1330 Slovak Jews arriving from Lublin-Maidenek in May 1942. | c. 37,300 – 37,900 | 600 Gentile Poles, with few Jews, coming from Radom. | c. 37,900 – 38,000 | 100 Gentile Poles arriving from the Dachau reception center. | c. 38,000 – 38,400 | 400 naturalized French Jews with their families, the entire transport numbering about 1600 people. Of these only about 400 men and 200 women were assigned to the camp. The remaining thousand, including women and older men, were sent directly to the birchwood, where they were gassed and cremated without being entered on the records and assigned numbers. | After this time, all incoming Jewish transports were handled like the French transport. About ten percent of the men and five percent of the women were assigned to the camp, the remaining being immediately exterminated. Polish Jews had been handled this way even earlier. Trucks from the various Polish ghettos arrived continually for months, going directly to the birchwood, where these Jews were gassed and cremated by the thousands.
* Arrived mid-April 1942 – ed.
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