according to their combustibility : Müller, Eyewitness , p. 98.
Chapter 8: Big Business
back to the Old Reich : Cesarani, Final Solution , p. 653.
went hand in hand : Dole?al, Cesty Bo?ím , pp. 111–12.
regular Auschwitz fashion : Vogel, USHMM interview, p. 5.
troops on the front line : Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team, ‘The Holocaust: Economic Exploitation’。
fountain pens : Cesarani, Final Solution , p. 653.
with his boot : Vrba, Lanzmann interview, p. 26.
twenty suitcases : Cesarani, Final Solution , p. 654.
German factories : Der Spiegel , ‘Schaeffler’。
delayed-action bombs : Nyiszli, Auschwitz , p. 87.
women’s hair : Ryback, ‘Evidence of Evil’， p. 68.
‘dentists’ paused to vomit : Wachsmann, KL , p. 314.
six tons of dental gold : Cesarani, Final Solution , p. 654.
326 million Reichsmarks : The estimate was made by SS Grüppenführer and Lieutenant General of Police Odilo Globocnik. His figures show a haul of RM100 million, with a note that material equivalent to 50 per cent of the assets listed was still warehoused and yet to be processed, which would add an additional RM50 million to the yield. There were a further 1,000 wagons of textiles valued at RM13 million. That would take the total to RM163 million. But Globocnik was insistent that he had relied on ‘minimum values’ and his tally was very likely to be an underestimate: ‘the total value is most likely twice as much’， he wrote. In which case, RM326 million is probably a more reliable figure. See: Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression , Supplement A, p. 752.
splash of water : Testimony of Kitty Hart in Langbein, People , p. 140.
champagne traded for quinine : Testimony of Manca Svalbova and Krystyna Zywulska in ibid., p. 141.
printed on one side : Vrba, Testimony, pp. 1438–9.
an act of spite : Vrba, Lanzmann interview, p. 27.
ripped out the page : Vrba, ‘Preparations’， p. 246.
Wiegleb : A sharp-eyed editor of the Danish translation of Vrba’s memoirs noted that the SS man Vrba had referred to as Wiglep, and who was named as Wyklef in the Vrba–Wetzler Report was, ‘presumably, Richard Wiegleb, who is known from a number of other lists of SS personnel in Auschwitz’。 Vrba, Flugten fra Auschwitz , p. 162 n. 3. See also Strzelecki, ‘Plunder’， p. 251.
forty-seven blows : Vrba, I Escaped , pp. 152–4; Vrba, Testimony, pp. 1436–7.
The operation : An Auschwitz record shows that the surgeon was a Polish prisoner, one Dr W?adys?aw Dering. He would become the subject of a notorious London libel trial in 1964, after Leon Uris named him in his bestselling novel Exodus as one of several doctors who had performed medical experiments in Auschwitz. Among the many charges against Dering, which the court found true in substance, was the claim that he had undertaken operations in the camp without sufficient anaesthesia. The case was dramatised by Uris in the novel QB VII . APMAB, Ibid.
a week later : The ‘book of the block’ for Block 4, which is one of the few to survive, is held at the Auschwitz Museum. It records that Walter Rosenberg was released from the infirmary on 5 October 1942 and deemed fit for work. APMAB, Labour Department, vol. 7, pp. 77–8.
hospital registrar : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 163.
Chapter 9: The Ramp
ten months straight : Vrba, Lanzmann interview, p. 7.
a dozen miles away : Wachsmann, KL , p. 309.
Rollkommando : Vrba, Testimony, p. 1269.
told to get ready : Vrba, Lanzmann interview, p. 16.
twelve or thirteen minutes : Author interview with Teresa Wontor-Cichy, 6 August 2021.
fifty cattle trucks : Vrba, Testimony, p. 1271.
the dining car : Ibid., p. 1273.
gangster elite : Vrba, Lanzmann interview, p. 9.
white gloves : Vrba, Testimony, p. 1274.
Alles raus! : Ibid., p. 1275.
wolf down its contents : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 166.
Halva and olives : Vrba, ‘Preparations’， p. 241.
Ladino : Vrba, Lanzmann interview, p. 23.
any deviation : Vrba, Testimony, p. 1284.
the dead from the dying : Vrba, Lanzmann interview, p.15.
marched off first : Vrba, Testimony, p. 1282.
corporal of the sanitation service : Ibid., p. 1277.
good-looking women : Ibid., p. 1278.
crook of his walking stick : Ibid., p. 1277.
the camp’s resources : Wachsmann, KL , p. 311.
nervousness and depression : Wetzler, 1963 testimony, p. 35.
different show : Vrba, Lanzmann interview, p. 12.
load them : Vrba, Testimony, pp. 1304–5
flower beds : Ibid., p. 1548.
‘What is your trade?’ : D?ugoborski and Piper, Auschwitz , vol. III, p. 130.
‘Afterwards you won’t have to waste time’ : Greif, We Wept , p. 228.
‘coffee and something to eat’ : Wachsmann, KL , p. 318.
shoes of murdered children : Dole?al, Cesty Bo?ím , p. 112.
Crematorium II : Author interview with Teresa Wontor-Cichy, 6 August 2021.
‘Which gangster said this to you?’ : Vrba, Testimony, p. 1279.
‘Silence, everybody!’ : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 165.
easier to slaughter lambs : Vrba, Lanzmann interview, p. 4; Dole?al, Cesty Bo?ím , p. 109.
Chapter 10: The Memory Man
‘Just leave everything’ : Vrba, World at War , part I, p. 40.
beyond the outer perimeters : Vrba, Testimony, p. 1271; Vrba, I Escaped , p. 255.
everything was permissible : The phrase, a version of which is usually attributed to Dostoevsky, was used by Rudolf Vrba in conversation with Robert Krell. See Krell, Sounds from Silence , p. 260.
making a dog of her young son : Aderet, ‘The Mystery of the Jewish Boy Who Was Forced to Be Mengele’s “Dog”’。
that prisoner was dying : Langbein, People , p. 97.
it could be eaten raw : Ibid., p. 98.
around that man’s neck : Vrba, Lanzmann interview, p. 5.
all this murder around him : Ibid., p. 6.
torture block : Vrba, Testimony, p. 1316.
justify his own survival : Vrba, Lanzmann interview, p. 6.
child’s memory game : Vrba to Martin Gilbert, 12 August 1980, FDRPL, Vrba collection, box 2.
between 27400 and 28600 : Vrba–Wetzler Report , p. 8.
‘civilians’ : Vrba, Lanzmann interview, pp. 6–7; Vrba, Testimony, p. 1529.
He was able to step inside : Vrba, Testimony, pp. 1475–6.
smooth process of destruction : Vrba, Lanzmann interview, p. 5.
bodies on board : Ibid., p. 21.
a mirage : Ibid.
Chapter 11: Birkenau
forty-two kilograms : Vrba, Lanzmann interview, p. 37.
‘He’s one of us’ : Vrba, I Escaped , p. 182.
withstand torture : Vrba, Lanzmann interview, p. 37.
social democrats or communists : Vrba, Testimony, p. 1343.
his comrades remembered : Author correspondence with Robin Vrba.
clear out a horses’ stable : Vrba, Testimony, pp. 1314–15.
six yards wide : Ibid., p. 1316.
the heads of children : Ibid., p. 1315.
sing it properly : Ibid., pp. 1455–6.
festive gifts : Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, ‘Christmas Eve in Auschwitz as Recalled by Polish Prisoners’， http://www.auschwitz.org/en/museum/news/christmas-eve-in-auschwitz-as-recalled-by-polish-prisoners,47.html
15 January 1943 : Vrba, Testimony, p. 1246.