Vrba–Wetzler report
| Location | Composed in Žilina, Slovakia, 25 April 1944 |
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| Also known as | Auschwitz Protocols, Auschwitz Report, Auschwitz notebook |
| Participants | Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler |
| Outcome | The report prompted an end to the mass deportation of Hungary's Jews to Auschwitz, saving around 200,000 lives. |
| Website | "Full text of the report", German Historical Institute. |
| Part of a series on |
| The Holocaust |
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The Vrba–Wetzler report is one of three documents that comprise what is known as the Auschwitz Protocols, otherwise known as the Auschwitz Report or the Auschwitz notebook. It is a 33-page eye-witness account of the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland during the Holocaust.
Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler, two Slovak Jews who escaped from Auschwitz on 10 April 1944, wrote the report by hand or dictated it, in Slovak, between 25 and 27 April, in Žilina, Slovakia. Oscar Krasniansky of the Slovak Jewish Council typed up the report and simultaneously translated it into German.
The Allies had known since November 1942 that Jews were being killed en masse in Auschwitz. The Vrba–Wetzler report was an early attempt to estimate the numbers and the most detailed description of the gas chambers to that point. The publication of parts of the report in June 1944 is credited with helping to persuade the Hungarian regent, Miklós Horthy, to halt the deportation of Hungary's Jews to Auschwitz, which had been proceeding at a rate of 12,000 a day since May 1944. The first full English translation of the report was published in November 1944 by the United States War Refugee Board.