  (abridged) We analysed eight XMM-Newton observations toward the Small
Magellanic Cloud (SMC), performed between October 2006 and June 2007, to
investigate high mass X-ray binary systems. We found new X-ray binary pulsars
with periods of 202 s (XMMU J005929.0-723703), 342 s (XMMU J005403.8-722632),
645 s (XMMU J005535.2-722906) and 325 s (XMMU J005252.1-721715), in the latter
case confirming the independent discovery in Chandra data. In addition we
detected sixteen known Be/X-ray binary pulsars and six ROSAT-classified
candidate high mass X-ray binaries. From one of the candidates, RX
J0058.2-7231, we discovered X-ray pulsations with a period of 291 s which makes
it the likely counterpart of XTE J0051-727. From the known pulsars, we revise
the pulse period of CXOU J010206.6-714115 to 967 s, and we detected the 18.37 s
pulsar XTE J0055-727 (= XMM J004911.4-724939) in outburst, which allowed us to
localise the source. The pulse profiles of the X-ray pulsars show a large
variety of shapes from smooth to highly structured patterns and differing
energy dependence. For all the candidate high mass X-ray binaries optical
counterparts can be identified with magnitudes and colours consistent with Be
stars. Twenty of the Be/X-ray binaries were detected with X-ray luminosities in
the range 1.5x10^35 erg/s - 5.5x10^36 erg/s. The majority of the spectra is
well represented by an absorbed power-law with an average power-law index of
0.93. The absorption (in addition to the Galactic foreground value) varies over
a wide range between a few 10^20 H cm^-2 and several 10^22 H cm^-2. An overall
correlation of the absorption with the total SMC HI column density suggests
that the absorption seen in the X-ray spectra is often largely caused by
interstellar gas.
