Rossel, Maurice

Maurice Rossel (1917 – 2008) was a Swiss national and physician. In 1944, he worked at the Berlin branch of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). As such, he visited the Theresienstadt Ghetto on 23 June 1944 and Auschwitz Main Camp in September of that year. Both reports he wrote after his visits reflect his rather positive impressions of both locations. Rossel’s impressions of Auschwitz in mid-1944 coincide with the characterization of this camp by a former inmate and leader of the camp resistance, Bruno Baum, who described Auschwitz at that point in time as a “model camp.” (See the entry on him.) Had Rossel visited Auschwitz in 1942 or early 1943, his conclusions certainly would have been very different due to the then-rampant typhus epidemic.

Rossel is heavily criticized for his ICRC reports by orthodox historians. Yet he stood by his conclusions even when Holocaust hysteria peaked in the late 1970s and early 1980s (see e.g. Prager 2008). Rossel’s report on Auschwitz undermined the credibility of witness accounts such as those by Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, the core texts of the U.S.’s War Refugee Board Report (see these entries). Considering the mendacious nature of these testimonies, however, Rossel’s reports read like a beacon of moderation and reason in a sea of lies.