Poland puts detailed list of Auschwitz SS guards online

WARSAW, Poland – Poland’s historians have put online what they say is the most complete list of Nazi SS commanders and guards at the former German death camp of Auschwitz, in hopes some of them can still be brought to justice.

The Institute of National Remembrance said Monday that the SS KL Auschwitz Garrison list is based on data from archives in Poland, Germany, Austria, the United States and, to a limited extent, Russia.

The work of historian Aleksander Lasik, the institute and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial, it has more than 8,500 entries. It is based on a list that Lasik built in more than 30 years of his search through archives. The list is not complete and his search continues, Lasik told The Associated Press.

“The world justice system has failed and I’m doing what a historian should do: expose the responsible individuals as war criminals,” Lasik said.

Most entries include the date and place of birth, nationality, education, military service and party affiliation. Some have a photo attached. Judicial documents are included when the person stood trial. For example, the entry for Rudolf Hoess, the camp’s commander from 1940-43, has a photocopy of the death sentence handed by a court in Krakow, Poland, in 1947.

The dates of service at Auschwitz are being verified pending publication.

Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff said the publication of the names is “very important and the right thing to do” and can have “practical implications” if some of the names had not been known to special investigators in Ludwigsburg, Germany.

It is estimated that from 1940-45, Nazi Germans killed some 1.1 million people in the death camp that they operated in occupied Poland. Some 1 million of the victims were Europe’s Jews, up to 75,000 were Poles, some 21,000 were Roma and approximately 15,000 were Soviet prisoners of war.