Seated second from right is Dr. Azriel Eisenberg of New York (1903 - 1985), the hero of this blog post.
In the introduction to his 1981 book Witness to the Holocaust, a collection of over 100 eyewitness accounts, Eisenberg writes:"This is not just another book on a heart-rending chapter of modern history; it is a scroll of agony and heroism. As such, it must be studied with awe and reverence."
In chapter 11 "The Death Camps: Auschwitz", he informs us that at Auschwitz:"When transports arrived, an estimated 60-90 percent of the deportees were driven from the train directly to the gas chambers. They were told that they were to be disinfected. Women and children were the first to die; the strong and fit were used for slave labor until the "normal conditions" of camp life destroyed them.
It is estimated that the ovens "processed" as many as seven million people. This number does not include those who were killed by other means—starvation, disease, and other afflictions."
source: Thanks to L. A. Rollins and his 1983 review of this book published in the JHR.