View Full Version : German Concentration Camps
Network of German conentration and death camps:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4b/Majorcampseurope.gif
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/WW2-Holocaust-Poland.PNG
Auschwitz concentration camp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp
Auschwitz II-Birkenau was designated by Heinrich Himmler, Germany's Minister of the Interior, as the locus of the "final solution of the Jewish question in Europe." From spring 1942 until the fall of 1944, transport trains delivered Jews to the camp's gas chambers from all over Nazi-occupied Europe.[2] The camp's first commandant, Rudolf Höss, testified after the war at the Nuremberg Trials that up to three million people had died there (2.5 million exterminated, and 500,000 from disease and starvation),[3] a figure since revised to 1.1 million, around 90 percent of them Jews.[4] Others deported to Auschwitz included 150,000 Poles, 23,000 Roma and Sinti, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and tens of thousands of people of diverse nationalities.[5] Those not killed in the gas chambers died of starvation, forced labor, lack of disease control, individual executions, and medical experiments.[6] Denis Avey, recently named a British Holocaust hero by the government of Britain, had escaped and spoke of conditions inside the camps.[7]
Chelmno extermination camp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelmno_extermination_camp
Chełmno extermination camp, also known as the Kulmhof concentration camp, was a Nazi German extermination camp that was situated 70 kilometres (43 mi) from Łódź, near a small village called Chełmno nad Nerem (Kulmhof an der Nehr in German). After annexation by Germany Kulmhof was included into Reichsgau Wartheland in 1939. The camp was opened in 1941 to kill the Jews of the Łódź Ghetto and the Warthegau.
At least 153,000 people were killed in the camp, mainly Poles, Jews from the Łódź Ghetto and the surrounding area, along with Gypsies from Greater Poland and some Hungarian Jews, Czechs, and Soviet prisoners of war.
Bełżec extermination camp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belzec_extermination_camp
Belzec, Polish spelling Bełżec [ˈbɛu̯ʐɛt͡s], was the first of the Nazi German extermination camps created for implementing Operation Reinhard during the Holocaust. Operating in 1942, the camp was situated in occupied Poland about half a mile south of the local railroad station of Bełżec in the Lublin district of the General Government.
At least 434,500 Jews were killed at Bełżec, along with an unknown number of Poles and Roma;[1] only one[2] or two Jews are known to have survived Bełżec: Rudolf Reder and Chaim Hirszman. The lack of survivors may be the reason why this camp is so little known despite its number of victims.
Majdanek concentration camp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majdanek
Majdanek was a German Nazi concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland, established during German Nazi occupation of Poland. The camp operated from October 1, 1941 until July 22, 1944, when it was captured nearly intact by the advancing Soviet Red Army. Although conceived as a forced labor camp and not as an extermination camp, over 79,000 people[1] died there (59,000 of them Polish Jews) during the 34 months of its operation.
The name 'Majdanek' ("little Majdan") derives from the nearby Majdan Tatarski ("Tatar Maidan") district of Lublin, and was given to the camp in 1941 by the locals, who were aware of its existence. In Nazi documents, and for reasons related to its funding, Majdanek was initially "Prisoner of War Camp of the Waffen-SS in Lublin". It was renamed "Konzentrationslager Lublin" (Concentration Camp Lublin) in February 1943.
Among German Nazi concentration camps, Majdanek was unusual in that it was located near a major city, not hidden away at a remote rural location.[2] It is also notable as the best-preserved concentration camp of the Holocaust - as it was close to the former Soviet border, there was too little time for the Nazis to destroy the evidence before the Red Army arrived.[3]
Sobibor extermination camp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobibor_extermination_camp
Sobibor was a Nazi German extermination camp set up in the Lublin region of occupied Poland as part of Operation Reinhard; the official German name was SS-Sonderkommando Sobibor. Jews, including Jewish Soviet prisoners of war (PoWs), and possibly Gypsies were transported to Sobibor by rail, and asphyxiated in gas chambers that were fed with the exhaust of a petrol engine. According to various estimates, between 200,000[1] and 250,000[2] people were killed at Sobibor.
After a successful revolt on October 14, 1943 about half of the 600 prisoners in Sobibor escaped; the camp was closed and planted with trees days afterwards. A memorial and museum are at the site today.
Treblinka extermination camp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treblinka_extermination_camp
Treblinka II was a Nazi German extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II. Between July 1942 and October 1943, around 850,000 people were killed there,[1] more than 800,000 of whom were Jews,[2] including several thousand Gypsies and 2,000 Romani people. The camp was closed after a revolt during which a few Germans were killed and a small number of prisoners escaped.
The nearby Treblinka I was a forced labour camp and administrative complex in support of the death camp. Treblinka I operated between 1941 and 1944. In this time half of the 20,000 inmates died from execution, exhaustion, or mistreatment. Treblinka I inmates worked in either the nearby gravel pit or irrigation area.[3]
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergen-Belsen_concentration_camp
Bergen-Belsen (or Belsen) was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as the prisoner of war camp Stalag XI-C, in 1943 it became a concentration camp on the orders of Heinrich Himmler, where Jewish hostages were held with the intention of exchanging them for German prisoners of war held overseas[1]. Later still the name was applied to the displaced persons camp established nearby, but it is most commonly associated with the concentration camp it became as conditions deteriorated between 1943-1945. During this time an estimated 50,000 Russian prisoners of war and a further 50,000 inmates died there,[2] up to 35,000 of them dying of typhus in the first few months of 1945.[3]
The camp was liberated on April 15, 1945 by the British 11th Armoured Division.[4] 60,000 prisoners were found inside, most of them seriously ill,[3] and another 13,000 corpses lay around the camp unburied.[4] The scenes that greeted British troops were described by the BBC's Richard Dimbleby, who accompanied them:
...Here over an acre of ground lay dead and dying people. You could not see which was which... The living lay with their heads against the corpses and around them moved the awful, ghostly procession of emaciated, aimless people, with nothing to do and with no hope of life, unable to move out of your way, unable to look at the terrible sights around them ... Babies had been born here, tiny wizened things that could not live ... A mother, driven mad, screamed at a British sentry to give her milk for her child, and thrust the tiny mite into his arms, then ran off, crying terribly. He opened the bundle and found the baby had been dead for days.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Bergen_Belsen_Liberation_03.jpg
Bogdanovka
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogdanovka
Bogdanovka was a concentration camp for Jews that was established by the Romanian authorities during World War II as part of the Holocaust. The camp was near Bug river, in Golta district, Transnistria and held 54,000 people by the end of 1941.
Buchenwald concentration camp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchenwald_concentration_camp
Buchenwald concentration camp (German: Konzentrationslager (KZ) Buchenwald, IPA: [ˈbuːxənvalt]) was a Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg (Etter Mountain) near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937, one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps on German soil.
Camp prisoners from all over Europe and Russia—Jews, non-Jewish Poles and Slovenes, religious and political prisoners, Roma and Sinti, Jehovah's Witnesses, criminals, homosexuals, and prisoners of war— worked primarily as forced labor in local armament factories.[1] From 1945 to 1950, the camp was used by the Soviet occupation authorities as an internment camp, known as NKVD special camp number 2.
The SS left behind accounts of the number of prisoners and people coming to and leaving the camp, categorizing those leaving them by release, transfer, or death. These accounts are one of the sources of estimates for the number of deaths in Buchenwald. According to SS documents, 33,462 died in Buchenwald. These documents were not, however, necessarily accurate: Among those executed before 1944 many were listed as "transferred to the Gestapo". Furthermore, from 1941 forward Soviet POWs were executed in mass killings. Arriving prisoners selected for execution were not entered into the camp register and therefore were not among the 33,462 dead listed in SS documents.[10]
One former Buchenwald prisoner, Armin Walter, calculated the number of executions by shooting in the back of the head. His job at Buchenwald was to set up and care for a radio installation at the facility where people were executed and counted the numbers, which arrived by telex, and hid the information. He says that 8,483 Soviet prisoners of war were shot in this manner.[11]
According to the same source, the total number of deaths at Buchenwald is estimated at 56,545.[12] This number is the sum of:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Buchenwald-bei-Weimar-am-24-April-1945.jpg
Deaths according to material left behind by SS: 33,462[13]
Executions by shooting: 8,483
Executions by hanging (estimate): 1,100
Deaths during evacuation transports: 13,500[14]
This total (56,545) corresponds to a death rate of 24 percent assuming that the number of persons passing through the camp according to documents left by the SS, 238,380 prisoners, is accurate.[15]
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Buchenwald-J-Rouard-10.jpg
Dachau concentration camp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_concentration_camp
Opened on 22 March 1933,[1] it was the first regular concentration camp established by the coalition government of National Socialist Party (Nazi Party) and the German Nationalist People's Party (dissolved on 6 July 1933). Heinrich Himmler, Chief of Police of Munich, officially described the camp as "the first concentration camp for political prisoners."[1] Dachau served as a prototype and model for the other Nazi concentration camps that followed. Almost every community in Germany had members taken away to these camps, and as early as 1935 there were jingles warning: "Dear God, make me dumb, that I may not to Dachau come."[2]
The camp's basic organization: layout as well as building plans, were developed by Kommandant Theodor Eicke and were applied to all later camps. He had a separate secure camp near the command center, which consisted of living quarters, administration, and army camps. Eicke himself became the chief inspector for all concentration camps, responsible for molding the others according to his model.[3]
The camp was occupied from 1933 to 1960, the first twelve years as an internment center of the Third Reich. From 1933 to 1938 the prisoners were mainly German nationals detained for political reasons. In 1938 and after a significant population of German Jews were added. Subsequently the camp was used for prisoners of all sorts from every nation occupied by the forces of the Third Reich.[4] From 1945 through 1948 the camp was used as a prison for SS officers awaiting trial. After 1948 the German population expelled from Czechoslovakia were housed there and it was also a base of the United States. It was closed in 1960 and thereafter at the insistence of ex-prisoners various sorts of memorials began to be constructed there.[5]
Estimates of the demographic statistics vary but they are in the same general range. History may never know how many people were interned there or died there, due to periods of disruption. One source gives a general estimate of over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries for the Third Reich's years, of whom two-thirds were political prisoners and nearly one-third were Jews. 25,613 prisoners are believed to have died in the camp and almost another 10,000 in its subcamps,[6] primarily from disease, malnutrition and suicide. In early 1945, there was a typhus epidemic in the camp due to influx from other camps causing overcrowding, followed by an evacuation, in which large numbers of the weaker prisoners died. Toward the end of the war death marches to and from the camp caused the expiration of large but unknown numbers of prisoners. Even after liberation, prisoners weakened beyond recovery continued to expire.
Over its twelve years as a concentration camp, the Dachau administration recorded the intake of 206,206 prisoners and 31,951 deaths. Crematoria were constructed to dispose of the deceased. These numbers do not tell the entire story, however. Although there is no evidence of mass murder within the camp itself by other methods than poor sanitation, deprivation of medical care, withholding of nutrients, medical experiments, and beatings and shootings for infractions of the rules or at random, beginning in 1942 more than 3166 prisoners in weakened condition were transported to Hartheim Castle near Linz and there were executed by poison gas for reason of their unfitness. In 1941 and 1942 an unknown number of prisoners of war from the Soviet Union were executed by shooting at the camp's surrounding firing ranges, some for target practice and for sport.[4]
Together with the much larger Auschwitz, Dachau has come to symbolize the Nazi concentration camps to many people. Konzentrationslager (KZ) Dachau holds a significant place in public memory because it was the second camp to be liberated by British or American forces. Therefore, it was one of the first places where these previously unknown Nazi practices were exposed to the Western world through firsthand journalist accounts and through newsreels.
Gross-Rosen concentration camp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross-Rosen_concentration_camp
was set up in the summer of 1940 as a satellite camp to Sachsenhausen, and became an independent camp on May 1, 1941. Initially, work was carried out in the camp's huge stone quarry, owned by the SS-Deutsche Erd- und Steinwerke GmbH. As the complex grew, many inmates were put to work in the construction of the subcamps' facilities.
In October 1941 the SS transferred about 3,000 Soviet POWs to Gross-Rosen for execution by shooting.
Gross-Rosen was known for its brutal treatment of NN (Nacht und Nebel) prisoners, especially in the stone quarry. The brutal treatment of the political and Jewish prisoners was not only due to the SS and criminal prisoners, but to a lesser extent also due to German civilians working in the stone quarry. In 1942 for political prisoners the mean survival time was less than two months.
Due to a change of policy in August 1942, prisoners were likely to survive longer because they were needed as slave workers in German industries. Therefore, some prisoners who were not able to work and not yet dying within a few days, were sent to Dachau in so-called invalid transports. One of these, Willem Lodewijk Harthoorn, an inmate from the end of April to mid-August 1942, wrote an account of his experiences, Verboden te sterven (in Dutch, meaning Forbidden to Die). The largest population of inmates, however, were Jews, initially from the Dachau and Sachsenhausen camps, and later from Buchenwald. During the camp's existence, the Jewish inmate population came mainly from Poland and Hungary; others were from Belgium, France, Netherlands, Greece, Yugoslavia, Slovakia, and Italy.
At its peak activity in 1944, the Gross-Rosen complex had up to sixty subcamps located in eastern Germany and occupied Poland. In its final stage, the population of the Gross-Rosen camps accounted for 11% of the total inmates in Nazi concentration camps at that time. A total of 125,000 inmates of various nationalities passed through the complex during its existence, of whom an estimated 40,000 died on site and in evacuation transports. The camp was liberated on February 14, 1945, by the Red Army.
A total of over 500 female camp guards were trained and served in the Gross Rosen complex. Female SS staffed the women's subcamps of Bruennlitz, Graeben, Gruenberg, Gruschwitz Neusalz, Hundsfeld, Kratzau II, Oberalstadt, Reichenbach, and Schlesiersee Schanzenbau.
A subcamp of Gross-Rosen situated in the Czechoslovakian town of Brunnlitz, was a location where Jews rescued by Oskar Schindler were interned.
Herzogenbusch concentration camp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herzogenbusch_concentration_camp
Herzogenbusch concentration camp (Dutch: Kamp Vught, German: Konzentrationslager Herzogenbusch) was a Nazi concentration camp located in Vught near the city of 's-Hertogenbosch, in the Netherlands. Herzogenbusch was the only concentration camp run directly by SS in western Europe outside of Germany. The camp was first used in 1943 and held 31,000 prisoners. 749 prisoners died in the camp, and the others were transferred to other camps shortly before the camp was liberated by the Allied Forces in 1944. After the war the camp was used as a prison for Germans. Now there is a visitors center with exhibitions and a national monument remembering the camp and its victims.
Kaiserwald concentration camp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserwald_concentration_camp
Kaiserwald was a Nazi German concentration camp near the Riga suburb of Mežaparks in Latvia.
Kaiserwald was built in March, 1943, during the period that the German army occupied Latvia. The first inmates of the camp were several hundred convicts from Germany.
Following the liquidation of the Riga, Liepaja and Daugavpils (Dvinsk) ghettos in June, 1943, the remainder of the Jews of Latvia, along with most of the survivors of the liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto, were deported to Kaiserwald.
In early 1944, a number of smaller camps around Riga were brought under the jurisdiction of the Kaiserwald camp.
Following the occupation of Hungary by the Germans, Hungarian Jews were sent to Kaiserwald, as were a number of Jews from Łódź, in Poland. By March 1944, there were 11,878 inmates in the camp and its subsidiaries, 6,182 males and 5,696 females, of whom only 95 were gentiles.
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauthausen-Gusen_concentration_camp
Mauthausen Concentration Camp (known from the summer of 1940 as Mauthausen-Gusen Concentration Camp) grew to become a large group of Nazi concentration camps that was built around the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper Austria, roughly 20 kilometres (12 mi) east of the city of Linz.
Initially a single camp at Mauthausen, it expanded over time and by the summer of 1940, the Mauthausen-Gusen had become one of the largest labour camp complexes in German-controlled Europe.[1][2] Apart from the four main sub-camps at Mauthausen and nearby Gusen, more than 50 sub-camps, located throughout Austria and southern Germany, used the inmates as slave labour. Several subordinate camps of the KZ Mauthausen complex included quarries, munitions factories, mines, arms factories and Me 262 fighter-plane assembly plants.[3]
In January 1945, the camps, directed from the central office in Mauthausen, contained roughly 85,000 inmates.[4] The death toll remains unknown, although most sources place it between 122,766 and 320,000 for the entire complex. The camps formed one of the first massive concentration camp complexes in Nazi Germany, and were the last ones to be liberated by the Allies. The two main camps, Mauthausen and Gusen I, were also the only two camps in the whole of Europe to be labelled as "Grade III" camps, which meant that they were intended to be the toughest camps for the "Incorrigible Political Enemies of the Reich".[1] Unlike many other concentration camps, intended for all categories of prisoners, Mauthausen was mostly used for extermination through labour of the intelligentsia, who were educated people and members of the higher social classes in countries subjugated by the Nazi regime during World War II.[5]
Neuengamme concentration camp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuengamme_concentration_camp
Before and during World War II, Neuengamme concentration camp, a Nazi concentration camp was established by the SS in Neuengamme—a quarter of the district Bergedorf within the City of Hamburg, Germany. The name of the concentration camp became KZ Neuengamme. Over half of its 106,000 prisoners died by the end of the war.[1] One of the few concentration camps in Germany where most of the buildings have been conserved, the site serves as a memorial to the Holocaust. It is situated 15 km southeast of the centre of Hamburg in the Vierlande area.
Ravensbrück concentration camp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravensbr%C3%BCck_concentration_camp
Ravensbrück or Ravensbrueck (German pronunciation: [ʁaːfənsˈbʁʏk]) was a notorious women's concentration camp during World War II, located in northern Germany, 90 km north of Berlin at a site near the village of Ravensbrück (part of Fürstenberg/Havel).
Construction of the camp began in November 1938 by SS leader Heinrich Himmler and was unusual in that it was a camp primarily for women. The camp opened in May 1939. In the spring of 1941, the SS authorities established a small men's camp adjacent to the main camp.
Between 1939 and 1945, over 130,000 female prisoners passed through the Ravensbrück camp system; only 40,000 survived. Although the inmates came from every country in German-occupied Europe, the largest single national group incarcerated in the camp consisted of Polish women.
Stutthof concentration camp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stutthof_concentration_camp
Stutthof was the first concentration camp built by the Nazi Germany regime outside of Germany.
Completed on September 2, 1939, it was located in a secluded, wet, and wooded area west of the small town of Sztutowo (German: Stutthof). The town is located in the former territory of the Free City of Danzig, 34 km east of Gdańsk, Poland. Stutthof was the last camp liberated by the Allies, on May 9, 1945. More than 85,000 victims[1] died in the camp out of as many as 110,000 people deported there.
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachsenhausen_concentration_camp
Sachsenhausen (German pronunciation: [zaksənˈhaʊzən]) or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD special camp until 1950 (See NKVD special camp Nr. 7). The remaining buildings and grounds are now open to the public as a museum.
On the front entrance gates to Sachsenhausen is the infamous slogan Arbeit Macht Frei (German: "Work will set you free"). About 200,000 people passed through Sachsenhausen between 1936 and 1945. Some 30,000 inmates died there from exhaustion, disease, malnutrition or pneumonia from the freezing winter cold. Many were executed or died as the result of brutal medical experimentation. According to an article published on December 13, 2001 in The New York Times, "In the early years of the war the SS practiced methods of mass killing there that were later used in the Nazi death camps. Of the roughly 30,000 wartime victims at Sachsenhausen, most were Russian prisoners of war".[4][5]
Sachsenhausen was the site of the largest counterfeiting operation ever. The Nazis forced inmate artisans to produce forged American and British currency, as part of a plan to undermine the British and United States' economies, courtesy of Sicherheitsdienst (SD) chief Reinhard Heydrich. Over one billion pounds in counterfeited banknotes was recovered. The Germans introduced fake British £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes into circulation in 1943: the Bank of England never found them. Plans had been made to drop British pounds over London by plane.[6] Today, these notes are considered very valuable by collectors.
Many women were among the inmates of Sachsenhausen and its subcamps. According to SS files, more than 2,000 women lived in Sachsenhausen, guarded by female SS staff (Aufseherin). Camp records show that there was one male SS soldier for every ten inmates and for every ten male SS there was a woman SS. Several subcamps for women were established in Berlin, including in Neukölln.
Camp punishments could be harsh. Some would be required to assume the "Sachsenhausen salute" where a prisoner would squat with his arms outstretched in front. There was a marching strip around the perimeter of the roll call ground, where prisoners had to march over a variety of surfaces, to test military footwear; between 25 and 40 kilometres were covered each day. Prisoners assigned to the camp prison would be kept in isolation on poor rations and some would be suspended from posts by their wrists tied behind their backs (strappado). In cases such as attempted escape, there would be a public hanging in front of the assembled prisoners.
Towards the end of the war, 13 000 Red Army POW's arrived at Sachsenhausen. Over 10 000 were executed in the camp by being shot in the back of the neck through a hidden hole in a wall while being measured for a uniform. Their bodies were then burnt in a crematorium.
With the advance of the Red Army in the spring of 1945, Sachsenhausen was prepared for evacuation. On April 20–21, the camp's SS staff ordered 33,000 inmates on a forced march northeast. Most of the prisoners were physically exhausted and thousands did not survive this death march; those who collapsed en route were shot by the SS. On April 22, 1945, the camp's remaining 3,000 inmates, including 1,400 women were liberated by the Red Army and Polish 2nd Infantry Division of Ludowe Wojsko Polskie.
Uckermark concentration camp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uckermark_concentration_camp
The Uckermark concentration camp was a small Nazi concentration camp for girls near the Ravensbrück concentration camp in Fürstenberg/Havel, Germany and then an "emergency" extermination camp.
The camp had been opened in May 1942 as a detention camp for girls aged 16 to 21 that were considered criminal or just difficult. Girls that reached the upper age limit were transferred to the Ravensbrück women's camp. Camp administration was provided by the Ravensbrück camp. In its early years, the head overseer at Uckermark was a woman named Lotte Toberentz, and one other Aufseherin (female warden) is known today by name, Johanna Braach. Both these women were tried by a British court at the Third Ravensbruck Trial.
In January 1945, the juveniles' camp was closed and the infrastructure was subsequently used as an extermination camp for "sick, no longer efficient, and over 52 years old women".[1] Over 5,000 women were murdered there; only 500 women and children survived. Though it was shut down in March 1945 the Soviets liberated the camp on the night of April 29–30, 1945. Today only very few structures of the camp lie in ruins, barely recognizable.
Some of the responsible SS wardens of the camp, amongst them chief warden (Oberaufseherin) Ruth Neudeck, were put to trial in the Third Ravensbrück Trial, the so-called "Uckermark trial".
Vasconcelos
06-29-2010, 07:21 PM
I think you should use the word "Nazi" instead of "German", not all germans at the time were nazi or nazi sympatizers, not even in the military.
I think you should use the word "Nazi" instead of "German", not all germans at the time were nazi or nazi sympatizers, not even in the military.
If ppl like Zyklop say "Polish genocide" or "Polish concentration camp" instead of "NKVD/Soviet concentration camp" then I see no reason to exclude the word German... Particularly that Nazis were a lawful democratically elected government.
Bravo, Jarl! The jews are proud of you!:thumb001:
:rolleyes2:
poiuytrewq0987
06-30-2010, 05:33 AM
Yawn please provide scientific proof that the people were gassed or whatever they're claiming nowadays.
The Lawspeaker
06-30-2010, 11:07 AM
We can't even be sure that as close to a tenth of what we always get taught actually happened.
History is written by the victor in order to discredit the loser.
Aemma
06-30-2010, 01:23 PM
Unless you can ALL act like civilised mature adults (which I highly doubt most times) this thread is going to be closed.
Discuss the topic at hand pls and no ad hominens or personal innuendo. Please.
Bridie
06-30-2010, 01:25 PM
We can't even be sure that as close to a tenth of what we always get taught actually happened.
History is written by the victor in order to discredit the loser.As far as I'm concerned, the photos speak for themselves.
Beorn
06-30-2010, 01:34 PM
I think you should use the word "Nazi" instead of "German", not all germans at the time were nazi or nazi sympatizers, not even in the military.
I think the use of 'German' is correct and justified. Not all British were for the war against Germany, but upon the call they all signed up and did their duty.
Megrez
06-30-2010, 02:01 PM
So what? Do the sole existence of the concentration camps prove any fact of the holocaustian religion?
Wölfin
06-30-2010, 02:10 PM
So what? Do the sole existence of the concentration camps prove any fact of the holocaustian religion?
It proves that there was in fact a genocide and a holocaust that happened... however, what it does not prove was the extent to which it did or didn't happen (death tolls and so on).
Eldritch
06-30-2010, 02:19 PM
It proves that there was in fact a genocide and a holocaust that happened... however, what it does not prove was the extent to which it did or didn't happen (death tolls and so on).
An interesting coincidence is that indications of a systematic genocide were found only at camps liberated by the Soviets.
Wölfin
06-30-2010, 02:24 PM
An interesting coincidence is that indications of a systematic genocide were found only at camps liberated by the Soviets.
I did not say by who it was carried out ;)
Arrow Cross
06-30-2010, 04:07 PM
http://www.threadbombing.com/data/media/54/facepalm_statue.jpg
Day after day, you come to this forum opening your new threads, making posts the size of the Silk Road without end, on an eternal crusade desperately trying to prove just how evil those Germans were.
How about posting some countryside photos? Or pictures of a hawt Polish model or two? A thread of intresting trivia about medieval Poland, since you're such an expert on history? Because quite frankly, what you're spamming the forum with now has been flowing from the taps, word to word, in the last 70 years.
Vae victis. Your honour, I rest my case.
Svanhild
06-30-2010, 04:32 PM
http://www.threadbombing.com/data/media/54/facepalm_statue.jpg
Day after day, you come to this forum opening your new threads, making posts the size of the Silk Road without end, on an eternal crusade desperately trying to prove just how evil those Germans were.
How about posting some countryside photos? Or pictures of a hawt Polish model or two? A thread of intresting trivia about medieval Poland, since you're such an expert on history? Because quite frankly, what you're spamming the forum with now has been flowing from the taps, word to word, in the last 70 years.
You just stole my words out of my throat. :wink As if concentration camps were a German invention. As if informations about German genocides weren't and aren't biased or politically interpreted.
Be that as it may, I'm German and proud of it. Jarl says Germans who don't lose their pride over some previous events or don't feel ashamed for things they haven't done are evil. Alright, I'm an evil German then. I can live with his subsumption. My self-esteem don't depends on what a rather infatuated individual on the internet thinks of me.
Eldritch
06-30-2010, 05:10 PM
I did not say by who it was carried out ;)
There was an element of sarcasm to that post. ;)
As far as I'm concerned, the photos speak for themselves.
The ones of people that have died of typhus? Yes, they do... And the fact that Jarl keeps posting them as proof of „extermination” also says a lot about his agenda.
Because quite frankly, what you're spamming the forum with now has been flowing from the taps, word to word, in the last 70 years.
Vae victis. Your honour, I rest my case.
You don't like it, you don't read it. As simple as that Naziboy ;)
The ones of people that have died of typhus? Yes, they do... And the fact that Jarl keeps posting them as proof of „extermination” also says a lot about his agenda.
Yes. Executions never took place, and keeping civilians in concentration camps where they die of typhoid is... normal... keep dreaming.
don't feel ashamed for things they haven't done are evil. Alright, I'm an evil German then. I can live with his subsumption. My self-esteem don't depends on what a rather infatuated individual on the internet thinks of me.
Frankly I suspect you very seldom feel ashamed... Just like Inese, Zyklop and Arrow Cross - but this has nothing to do with your being a German.
I suspect, it's rather your self-pride that seeks an excuse to boost your ego and self-esteem using your German identity. Quite common really...
As for infatuation... no. Trust me :)
poiuytrewq0987
06-30-2010, 08:57 PM
It proves that there was in fact a genocide and a holocaust that happened... however, what it does not prove was the extent to which it did or didn't happen (death tolls and so on).
No, all concentration camps have proven thus far are that prisoners of war were rounded up and sent to prisons. Please do provide evidence that gassings took place, and other methods alleged to be used by Germans to systemically kill prisoners of war.
No, all concentration camps have proven thus far are that prisoners of war were rounded up and sent to prisons. Please do provide evidence that gassings took place, and other methods alleged to be used by Germans to systemically kill prisoners of war.
What are you denying? Mass executions in death camps and ghettos? The existence of einsatzkommandos? Rounding up civilians in city raids, and sending them to labour camps?
Short article... US memorial museum:
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007271
poiuytrewq0987
06-30-2010, 09:04 PM
Short artice... US memorial museum:
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007271
Yawn, that is so typical of you and other crusaders of the Holocaust (with a capital H) religion. Why not let us investigate the camps, to see if mass killing took place with the alleged methods. Not that there'd be anything to find but that's the precisely the reason we are absolutely banned from doing anything of that sort, out of fear that the myth might be debunked. If I go to Germany, ask for scientific evidence that mass killings took place; either I'll be shown dramatic photos of piled corpses or sent off to jail. Sounds like they're afraid of something, if they're afraid of investigation it means there is something to hide and when there is something to hide, it often means whatever story they're telling us isn't exactly the truth.
Yawn, that is so typical of you and other crusaders of the Holocaust (with a capital H) religion.
Typical of amateur deniers. Words, words and words. No facts. It's nothing about religion. Don't pre-assume anything in your mind. Just reach out and search for facts yourself. You will get an image. Instead of sitting on your ass pretending you read everything and saw every evidence.
Don't label me and don't sell me bullshit. Your "crusaders" and "religion" are irrelevant here. Just read the article. The truth is out there. There is documentation. Just type in "Holocaust documentation" into google.
Why not let us investigate the camps, to see if mass killing took place with the alleged methods. Not that there'd be anything to find but that's the precisely the reason we are absolutely banned from doing anything of that sort, out of fear that the myth might be debunked. If I go to Germany, ask for scientific evidence that mass killings took place; either I'll be shown dramatic photos of piled corpses or sent off to jail. Sounds like they're afraid of something, if they're afraid of investigation it means there is something to hide and when there is something to hide, it often means whatever story they're telling us isn't exactly the truth.
Sure... coz you ALREADY KNOW the truth... very cute... but it's all a banter.
People like you are quite common in fact.
For them truth does not matter. It is all about their emotional self-esteem and their values. It's like a reversal of H-religion. You don't differ at all buddy.
- You DON'T need facts
- You pre-assume knowledge on the basis of your emotional POV
- You are reluctant to see the counter-evidence or you dismiss it
- Instead of having a factual, informed opinion you blurt out a banter of cliches, ready-made stories you overheard from others
...typical... but that is not what we call an intellectual debate. This is moronic parrotry. Repeating stuff you heard somewhere and did not even bother to check it like a mindless parrot.
poiuytrewq0987
06-30-2010, 09:12 PM
Typical of amateur deniers. Words, words and words. No facts. It's nothing about religion. Don't pre-assume anything in your mind. Just reach out and search for facts yourself. You will get an image. Instead of sitting on your ass pretending you read everything and saw every evidence.
Don't label me and don't sell me bullshit. Your "crusaders" and "religion" are irrelevant here. Just read the article. The truth is out there. There is documentation. Just type in "Holocaust documentation" into google.
It's pretty funny that you accuse me of only having words, and at the same time your "documentation" is also based on hearsay, not scientific evidence.
It's pretty funny that you accuse me of only having words, and at the same time your "documentation" is also based on hearsay, not scientific evidence.
I don't need to document anything. I just gave you an example, a fucking lead. Follow it and it will take you to hundreds, 1000s of documents, accounts and pieces evidence...
...all it takes is WILL
... but that is you problem coz you DO NOT HAVE the WILL to do it. Your intelectual activity restricts to the following:
1. You hear a random bullshit on the internet...
2. This bullshit suits your POV, your emotive self-image (coz you're a nationalist, a neo-Nazi or fuck knows what else)...
3. ... and so you mindlessly accept and repeat it like a parrot and stick to it endlessly despite counter-arguments.
It is a belief. And not a belief in Holocaust or genocide. Don't fool yourself. It is a belief in your own "omniscience", "expertise" or your own innoncence/perfection (coz being pro-Nazi or anti-Jewish you, by extension, associate yourself with the Nazis).
poiuytrewq0987
06-30-2010, 09:24 PM
I don't need to document anything. I just gave you an example, a fucking lead. Follow it and it will take you to hundreds, 1000s of documents, accounts and pieces evidence...
...all it takes is WILL
... but that is you problem coz you DO NOT HAVE the WILL to do it. Your intelectual activity restricts to the following:
1. You hear a random bullshit on the internet
2. You mindlessly accept it coz it suits your POV, your emotive self (coz you're nationalist, pro-Nazi or fuck knows what else)
3. You repeat this like a parrot and stick to it endlessly despite counter-arguments
If you knew the legal system then you'd know that hearsay isn't allowed in courts because there's no real evidence to back it up. I require evidence, real physical evidence to believe in something so serious. If you can't respect that then I'm sorry that you won't be able to.
If you knew the legal system then you'd know that hearsay isn't allowed in courts because there's no real evidence to back it up. I require evidence, real physical evidence to believe in something so serious. If you can't respect that then I'm sorry that you won't be able to.
The courts have decided long time ago about whether there was a genocide or was not. Historians can dispute the scale and size, the impact of single factors (gas chambers, Auschwitz etc), but the genocide was there and the Nazis did not make a secret out if it either. So WTF are discussing here?
poiuytrewq0987
06-30-2010, 09:27 PM
The courts have decided long time ago about whether there was a genocide or was not. Historians can dispute the scale and size, the impact of single factors (gas chambers, Auschwitz etc), but the genocide was there and the Nazis did not make a secret out if it either. So WTF are discussing here?
You mean the kangaroo trials that took place i.e. Nuremberg trials?
You need evidence? Then search for some. It all in there, have a look. It takes 5s of typing.
You mean the kangaroo trials that took place i.e. Nuremberg trials?
Already PRE-ASSUMED to be "kangaroo trials". you see? I told you - you don't bother with reasoning, you believe...
And no. I am talking about archives, about documents of the state, of Nazi government, German administration of General Government etc.
Megrez
06-30-2010, 09:39 PM
The main question is, why do people bother whether the nazis killed 6 million jews or not? What do I have to do with this? If jews are annoying today, let's kill 6 million more.
Eldritch
06-30-2010, 09:42 PM
The main question is, why do people bother whether the nazis killed 6 million jews or not? What do I have to do with this? If jews are annoying today, let's kill 6 million more.
Or rather, how many of this forum's members can tell me, right now, quickly, without Googling it, how many non-Jews did the Nazis kill?
Yeah. Thought so.
poiuytrewq0987
06-30-2010, 09:58 PM
You need evidence? Then search for some. It all in there, have a look. It takes 5s of typing.
Already PRE-ASSUMED to be "kangaroo trials". you see? I told you - you don't bother with reasoning, you believe...
And no. I am talking about archives, about documents of the state, of Nazi government, German administration of General Government etc.
You are assuming that I have assumed that the Nuremberg Trials were in fact kangaroo trials. What's where you're wrong.
Megrez
06-30-2010, 09:58 PM
Or rather, how many of this forum's members can tell me, right now, quickly, without Googling it, how many non-Jews did the Nazis kill?
One. Tom Cruise.
Oh, and that Sophie Scholl too, which makes two.
As far as I'm concerned, the photos speak for themselves.
I think the use of 'German' is correct and justified. Not all British were for the war against Germany, but upon the call they all signed up and did their duty.
Agreed.
Bravo, Jarl! The jews are proud of you!:thumb001:
:rolleyes2:
I can only but pity people who think like that. Was it supposed to be an insult? No, I am not blind enough to blame the innocent ghetto children for the crimes they have not commited, or blame the poor Polish Jews for Germany's economic problems. And no. I do not feel any guilt whatsoever admitting the truth about the sufferings that did occur. This is the least I can do.
Crimes commited by some Jews do not allow me to assert that every Jew was/is a criminal who should be exterminated. This is about the historical facts. I do not perceive this in terms of "siding with the Jews". Perhpas that sort of tribal mentality can still be viable in the forests of Romania. There you can survive with it. A sure mark of the great progress of the local ethical thought.
Unless you can ALL act like civilised mature adults (which I highly doubt most times) this thread is going to be closed.
Discuss the topic at hand pls and no ad hominens or personal innuendo. Please.
It's all in vain. The people have spoken:
So what? Do the sole existence of the concentration camps prove any fact of the holocaustian religion?
We can't even be sure that as close to a tenth of what we always get taught actually happened.
History is written by the victor in order to discredit the loser.
Bravo, Jarl! The jews are proud of you!:thumb001:
:rolleyes2:
They don't need a discussion. They ALREADY KNOW everything.
Vox populi, vox dei - that's why history always repeats itslef ;)
Yes. Executions never took place, and keeping civilians in concentration camps where they die of typhoid is... normal... keep dreaming.
The Americans bombed their supply lines... What did they think will happen?:noidea: And its not like the German civilians or soldiers were living in much better conditions.
People like you are quite common in fact.
For them truth does not matter. It is all about their emotional self-esteem and their values. It's like a reversal of H-religion. You don't differ at all buddy.
- You DON'T need facts
- You pre-assume knowledge on the basis of your emotional POV
- You are reluctant to see the counter-evidence or you dismiss it
- Instead of having a factual, informed opinion you blurt out a banter of cliches, ready-made stories you overheard from others
...typical... but that is not what we call an intellectual debate. This is moronic parrotry. Repeating stuff you heard somewhere and did not even bother to check it like a mindless parrot.
Ironically, you just described your self here... Or have you actually been on site and did your own research? :rolleyes:
Murphy
07-01-2010, 05:20 AM
The main question is, why do people bother whether the nazis killed 6 million jews or not? What do I have to do with this? If jews are annoying today, let's kill 6 million more.
I'd see you hung from the gallows first, though.
Svanhild
07-01-2010, 10:31 AM
It's all in vain. The people have spoken:
They don't need a discussion. They ALREADY KNOW everything.
They know more than you, at least. Now that you see that your bombardement of Anti-German and biased propaganda isn't very successful, could you mind to shut your trap?
Lulletje Rozewater
07-01-2010, 10:50 AM
You just stole my words out of my throat. :wink As if concentration camps were a German invention. As if informations about German genocides weren't and aren't biased or politically interpreted.
Be that as it may, I'm German and proud of it. Jarl says Germans who don't lose their pride over some previous events or don't feel ashamed for things they haven't done are evil. Alright, I'm an evil German then. I can live with his subsumption. My self-esteem don't depends on what a rather infatuated individual on the internet thinks of me.
Concentration camps and the 'horrors' were invented by the Brits in South Africa.
That is another story see Asega's thread
Lulletje Rozewater
07-01-2010, 10:58 AM
The courts have decided long time ago about whether there was a genocide or was not. Historians can dispute the scale and size, the impact of single factors (gas chambers, Auschwitz etc), but the genocide was there and the Nazis did not make a secret out if it either. So WTF are discussing here?
Do tell.:confused:
The question is not that it happened,the question is why it happened and why there is more and more anti-jewish feeling in the world.
Cause and effect
Lulletje Rozewater
07-01-2010, 11:02 AM
I'd see you hung from the gallows first, though.
Pius 12
Treffie
07-01-2010, 11:41 AM
It's pretty funny that you accuse me of only having words, and at the same time your "documentation" is also based on hearsay, not scientific evidence.
How the fuck can we get scientific evidence when all the evidence had been burned to a cinder?
Quite frankly, I don't give a shit for Holocaust deniers. They suck shit as far as I'm concerned.
How the fuck can we get scientific evidence when all the evidence had been burned to a cinder?
How very convenient, don't you think?
So you believe something without having any evidence? And some people say that Holocaust™ is not a religion...:rolleyes:
Bridie
07-01-2010, 01:28 PM
How the fuck can we get scientific evidence when all the evidence had been burned to a cinder?
Quite frankly, I don't give a shit for Holocaust deniers. They suck shit as far as I'm concerned.Whoaaa Kenny!! I don't think I've ever seen you so fired up before matey! :icon_smile:
You go boy. :swl
Smaland
07-01-2010, 01:29 PM
Dommergue comments on Hitler and the Holocaust, beginning at approximately the 4:15 point in the first video, and ending at about the 2:20 point in the third video. He speaks English with a strong French accent, so some of his comments may be difficult to understand, but the videos are still informative and useful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=purWmOFl8qc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVU3I8dRtto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqR0SHMsEMA
Megrez
07-01-2010, 02:20 PM
Anyway I don't really spend all efforts in my life trying to know what is lie and what is fact of the holocaustian religion. Maybe the germans killed some million jews (for sure it wasn't in gas chambers), maybe really not, but I don't see why I should regard it before any action in my life, put it before my own convictions. So, that's it: I don't care. I feel no sympathy. Proven the holocaust is a lie, I support nazi ideology. Proven the holocaust is true, I support nazi ideology.
I'd see you hung from the gallows first, though.
Feels good, but I am not your bitch. Go find your boy.
Now another question, what's the point in preaching the holocaust even here in this european preservationist forum? Isn't all the preachment by media and schools enough?
Treffie
07-01-2010, 04:20 PM
How very convenient, don't you think?
So you believe something without having any evidence? And some people say that Holocaust™ is not a religion...:rolleyes:
As I said earlier, I don't give a shit about there not being evidence. It's funny how witness testimony on both sides should all come to the same conclusion.
holocaust denial = mental disorder - I'm quite sure of it.
Shouldn't you be careful about what you're saying in your (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_against_Holocaust_denial#Romania)country.
Since the masses are roaring for evidence for Holocaust... let us start from the documentation of the German government and Nazi military command:
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007147
http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/browning1.htm
Evidence for the Implementation of the Final Solution
Christopher R Browning1
(2000)
Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington
Part I
Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V
Expert Opinion , written by Christopher R. Browning, currently Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, on Instructions of Davenport Lyons and Mishcon de Reya, Solicitors, for the Purposes of Assisting the Queen’s Bench Division in the High Court in London in the Case between David John Cawdell Irving, Plaintiff, and Penguin Books Limited and Deborah E. Lipstadt, Defendants.
The report reproduced here with the permission of Christopher Browning1, was introduced in the course of a libel trial brought by David Irving, which was held in London in 2000. David Irving, who has written extensively on Third Reich history2, entered the suit against the American scholar Deborah E Lipstadt, author, and Penguin Books, publisher, of Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, 1993. In that publication Lipstadt had made the claim that David Irving was a Holocaust denier. Christopher Browning's submission was one among a number3 of important reports submitted at the trial. The case was lost by the plaintiff. Further background information is available at the Holocaust Denial on Trial Web site.
Table of Contents
I. Qualifications to give historical evidence
II. Purpose of this Expert Opinion Report
III. Implementation of the Final Solution
IV. Documentary Evidence for the Systematic Mass Killing of Jews by Shooting
A. Scale of Killing
B. Escalation
C. Camouflage Language
D. Implications
V. Evidence for the Killing of Jews through Gas in Chelmno, Semlin, and the Camps of Operation Reinhard (Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka)
A. Documentary Evidence for the Emergence of a Program to Kill the Jews of Europe Europe
B. Documentary Evidence Concerning the Gassing of Jews at Semlin, Chelmno, and on occupied Soviet territory in gas vans
1. Semlin
2. Chelmno
3. Einsatzgruppen on Soviet Territory
C. Documentary Evidence concerning the Operation Reinhard Camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka
D. Eyewitness Testimony concerning Gassing at Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka
1. German Visitors
2. German Camp Personnel
3. Non-German Guards
4. Nearby Poles
5. Jewish Escapees
E. Documentary Evidence concerning Atkion Reinhard (alternatively spelled Reinhardt)
I. Qualifications to give historical evidence:
I am a Professor of History at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, where I have taught since 1974. Beginning the the fall semester of 1999, I will take up a new position as the Frank Porter Graham Professor of History at the University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill. I received my B.A. in History from Oberlin Colege in 1967, and my M.A. and Ph.D. in Modern European History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1968 and 1975 respectively.
My scholarly career has been devoted to the study of National Socialist Germany and the Holocaust. I have published four books in this field: The Final Solution and the German Foreign Office (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1978); Fateful Months: Essays on the Emergence of the Final Solution (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1985; revised and expanded edition, 1991); Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), with translations in German, Dutch, French, Italian, and Swedish; and The Path to Genocide (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), with translations in German and Italian. In addition I have published more than thirty-five articles and delivered my than thirty-five scholarly papers in the field. In early 1999 I delivered the George Macaulay Treveylan Lectures at Cambridge University.
I have been engaged as an expert witness for five cases involving accusations of "war crimes" under the Nazi regime: the Wagner case in Australia, the Grujicic and Kisluk cases in Canada, and the Serafimovich and Sawoniuk cases in the United Kingdom.
II. Purpose of the Expert Opinion Report
I have been asked to write a report the addresses the following issues:
1. What is the documentary evidence concerning the implementation of a policy to kill the Jews on German-occupied Soviet territory through shooting.
2. What is the state of evidence concerning the implementation of a policy to kill Jews by means of gas in camps other than Auschwitz, and particularly in the camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka.
3. What is the state of evidence concerning the emergence and existence of an overall plan of the Nazi regime to kill the Jews of Europe.
4. What is the state of evidence concerning the importance and purpose of the Wannsee Conference.
5. What is the state of evidence concerning the naming and purpose of "Operation Reinhard."
III. Implementation of the Final Solution
The Nazi regime implemented the Final Solution or mass murder of the European Jews caught within its empire primarily by two methods--shooting and gassing. In the territories occupied by Germany after June 22, 1941 (with the exception of the district of Bialystok and partial exception of the district of Galicia), shooting was the most common method employed to kill Jews. The Jews of central and western Poland i.e. the Polish territory held by Germany since September 1939, and those deported from all over Europe to Poland during the war for the most part perished in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka, and the gas vans of Chelmno.
The evidence for these killing operations is of four types used commonly by scholars in the writing of history and judicial authorities in the conducting of trials: 1) contemporary documentation; 2) witness testimony recorded later (from survivors, perpetrators, and bystanders); 3) material evidence; and 4) circumstantial evidence. Because the Nazi regime sought to destroy not only the Jews of Europe but also the documentary evidence and material evidence (i.e. the mass graves and death camps), the evidence with which scholars and judicial authorities can work is both less than complete and not symmetrical for the two killing methods. In particular, the documentation of mass killing by shooting in the territories occupied by Germany after June 1941 is quite extensive, while documents relating to gassing in Poland is scant. For gassing, therefore, witness testimony and circumstantial evidence play a much larger role.
IV. Documentary Evidence for Systematic Mass Killing of Jews by Shooting:
Prior to the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Reinhard Heydrich (Himmler's deputy and Chief of the Security Police and Security Service) assembled four mobile SS units known as Einsatzgruppen. They were designated A, B, C, and D for the Baltic, Central, Southern, and Romanian fronts respectively. The four Einsatzgruppen were in turn divided into smaller units referred to as Einsatzkommandos and Sonderkommandos. By agreement with the German army, these SS units were permitted to move forward with the advancing German military and operate up to the front lines.
In the rear areas police functions were exercised by the Order Police, which included rural police stations of the Gendarmerie, urban police stations of the Schutzpolizei, mobile Police Battalions, and growing auxiliary police units composed of native recruits working on behalf of the Germans called Schutzmannschaften. Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS and Chief of German Police, also designated three Higher SS and Police Leaders (North, Central, and South) to coordinate all joint police activities behind the front.
By far the richest collection of surviving documents relevant to the systematic mass murder of Jews through shooting are the reports from the Einsatzgruppen recorded in the so-called Ereignismeldungen or Event Reports compiled by Heydrich's staff in Berlin. One hundred and ninety-five Event Reports were compiled between June 23, 1941, and April 24, 1942. [1]
Eleven "Activity and Situation Reports (Tätigkeits- und Lageberichte) of the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and SD in the USSR" were also compiled by Heydrich's staff between July 31, 1941, and March 31, 1942. These Activity and Situation Reports summarized the contents of the Event Reports (bi-monthly for August and September 1941 and otherwise monthly) and were widely circulated throughout the German government. [2] Three other reports originating from the Einsatzgruppen (two by the commander of Einsatzgruppe A, Franz Stahlecker, [3] and one by his subordinate, the commander of Einsatzkommando 3, Karl Jäger, [4] as well as a series of orders from Heydrich are also significant. [5]
One reason for this extensive reporting from the Einsatzgruppen and its systematic compilation in Berlin is revealed by a message from Heinrich Müller, the head of the Gestapo within Heydrich's Security Police, to the four Einsatzgruppen on August 1, 1941. "The Führer is to be kept informed continually from here about the work of the Einsatzgruppen in the East." [6]
These collections of Einsatzgruppen documents certainly constitute the primary though not the only documentary sources for the killing operations into the spring of 1942. Thereafter, for contemporary written records, the historian is dependent upon a mixed collection of German documents originating from a number of sources, such as the Higher SS and Police, the civil administration of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, the mobile Police Battalions, the Gendarmerie stations, and the military.
This report will not attempt a complete history of the destruction of Soviet Jewry as reflected in these German documents. Rather it will focus on four issues: 1) the scale of killing; 2) the steady escalation of the categories of Jews targeted for execution; 3) the use of open and camouflage language in the documents; and 4) the implications for our wider understanding of Nazi Jewish policy and the Final Solution.
A. Scale of killing:
The various reports and documents are incomplete concerning the total number of Jews and others executed by various German and collaborator units on occupied Soviet territory. Nonetheless, if one simply adds the summary numbers contained in the surviving documents, even the partial total gives a sense of the scale on which the killing was carried out.
Einsatzgruppe A:
Einsatzkommando 2 reported having shot 34,193 people by February 2, 1942. [7]
Einsatzkommando 3 reported having killed 133,346 people by November 25, 1941. [8]
Einsatzgruppe B reported on November 14, 1941, that its "total number" (Gesamtzahl) of "liquidations" (Liquidierungen) had reached 45,467. [9]
Einsatzgruppe C:
Sonderkommando 4a reported having shot 59,018 people as of November 40, 1941, and
Sonderkommando 5 reported having shot 36,147 people as of December 7, 1941. [10]
Einsatzgruppe D reported having shot 91,678 people as of April 8, 1942. [11]
These cumulative totals do not distinguish between Jewish and non-Jewish victims. The Jäger Report (summarizing the activities of Einsatzkommando 3 in Lithuania up to December 1941), however, does identify all its victims, of which only 2,042 or barely 1.5% were non-Jewish (mostly identified as communist functionaries or mentally-ill). Einsatzgruppe D did not make this distinction in its cumulative totals, but it often did in its bi-weekly reports. For instance, on November 5, 1941, it reported killing 11,037 Jews and 31 communist officials in the previous two weeks. [12] For the period November 16-December 15, 1941, it reported executing 17,645 Jews, 2,504 Krimchaks (categorized racially as Jews), 824 Gypsies, and 212 communists. [13] For the last two weeks of December 1941, it reported shooting 3,176 Jews, 85 partisans, 12 looters, and 122 communists. [14] For the first two weeks of January 1942, it reported a rare reversal, in which 1,639 communists and partisans were reported shot along with 685 Jews. [15] For the latter half of January, it reported shooting 3,286 Jews, 152 communists, 84 partisans, and 79 looters and saboteurs, and asocials. [16]
By the estimate of Einsatzgruppe C in late October, it had "liquidated" (liquidiert) some 80,000 people, of which 75,000 were Jews. [17] Sonderkommando 4a conceded that "the total number...of those executed included, in addition to a relatively small number of political functionaries, active communists, people guilty of sabotage, etc., above all Jews...." [18] Einsatzkommando 5 occasionally offered specific breakdowns of its victims as well. For instance, for the period November 2-18, 1941, it shot 10,650 Jews, 15 political officials, 21 saboteurs and looters, and 414 hostages. [19] For the week of November 23-30, 1941, it reported shooting 2,615 Jews, 64 political functionaries, and 46 saboteurs and looters. And for the following week it reported shooting 1,471 Jews, 60 political functionaries, and 47 saboteurs and looters. [20] In short, there is compelling evidence to conclude that the overwhelming majority of the people reported executed by the Einsatzgruppen were in fact Jews.
In addition to giving figures for the four Einsatzgruppen themselves, the Event Reports occasionally record killings by other units as well, though in a much less complete fashion. For example, a police unit operating on Soviet territory just over the border from the town of Tilsit in East Prussia was credited with liquidating 3,302 persons in the first weeks after the invasion. [21] An additional Einsatzgruppe "for special purposes" operated in the areas immediately across the demarcation line in Belarus and the Ukraine once the original four Einsatzgruppen had moved further east. For the last ten days of July, this unit was credited with 3,947 executions. [22] For several periods in August, it was credited with an additional 12,652 killings. [23] The Higher SS and Police Leader South, Friedrich Jeckeln, was reported to have killed 44,125 persons, "mostly Jews," in August. [24] (meist Juden) He was subsequently credited with 10,000 Jews in Dniepropetrovsk and 15,000 Jews in Rowno (the latter with help from EK 5). [25] Transferred to become Higher SS and Police Leader North in November 1941, the same Jeckeln was credited with reducing the Jewish population of Riga from 29,500 to 2,600 in late 1941. [26]
For the period beyond the spring of 1942, other documents provide a glimpse of continued killing of Jews on a massive scale. On July 31, 1942, the head of the civil administration in western Belarus, Wilhelm Kube, reported from Minsk that in the previous ten weeks some 55,000 Jews had been killed in his district. [27] On December 26, 1942, the Higher SS and Police Leader for South Russia, the Ukraine, and the Northeast submitted a report on the campaign against the partisans for the three-month period from September 1 to December 1, 1942. Three days later, on December 29, 1942, the report was retyped in the so-called Führer-type (especially large type that Hitler could read without his glasses) and retitled:
Reports to the Führer on combatting partisans.
Report No. 51.
Russia South, Ukraine, Bialystok.
Results of the antipartisan campaign from 1.9. to 1.12.1942.
The report was signed by Heinrich Himmler. On the top of the front page was the initialed hand-written note: "submitted 31.12.42." The report noted for August, September, October, and November in the category of "bandits" a total of 1,337 killed in battle, 737 executed immediately after battle, and 7,828 executed after interrogation. In the category of "accomplices and suspects," the report had two sub-categories: on a line for "executed," it listed 14,256. On a separate line for "Jews executed," it listed 363,211. [28]
Why would Himmler include the killing of 363,211 Jews in a report to Hitler on anti-partisan warfare? According to Himmler's appointment book, on December 18, 1941, he and Hitler had discussed the "Jewish question." The result of their conversation was noted succinctly: "to be annihilated as partisans." [29] (Als Partisanen auszurotten) In short, annihilating Jews and solving the so-called "Jewish question" under the cover of killing partisans was the agreed-upon convention between Hitler and Himmler.
1 Among his most important publications on the Holocaust are: The Final Solution and the German Foreign Office (1978), Fateful Months: Essays on the Emergence of the Final Solution (1985); Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (1992), The Path to Genocide (1992).
2 The War Path: Hitler's Germany 1933-1939 (1977), Hitler's War 1939-1942 (1977), Hitler's War 1942-1945, Göring: A Biography (1989). For a comprehensive analysis of his writings see the report by the historian Richard J Evans, submitted at the trial.
3 See Hitler's Role in the Persecution of the Nazi Regime by Peter Longerich, The Systematic Character of the Nationalist Socialist Policy for the Extermination of the Jews by Peter Longerich, and the Van Pelt Report.
Part II
Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V
B. Escalation:
The categories of Jews targeted for killing by the Germans steadily expanded. There is no surviving copy of pre-invasion orders to the Einsatzgruppen concerning the killing of Jews. The most specific document in this regard is a summary "in compressed form" (in gedrängter Form) of pre-invasion instructions to the Einsatzgruppen that Heydrich passed on to the Higher SS and Police Leaders of July 2, 1941. According to Heydrich, the Einsatzgruppen had been instructed "to execute" (zu exekutieren) communist functionaries, "Jews in party and state positions" (Juden in Partei- und Staatsstellungen), and "other radical elements (saboteurs, propagandists, snipers, assassins, agitators, etc." They were also instructed to "promote" (fördern) pogroms, euphemistically dubbed "self-cleansing attempts" (Selbstreinigungsversuchen), by local anti-Jewish elements but "without trace" (spurenlos) of German involvement. Finally, Heydrich noted that Himmler had explicitly ordered that he be kept continuously and fully informed of the activities of the Einsatzgruppen. [30] On July 17, 1941, Heydrich issued another written order for the execution of all Jews found in German POW camps. [31]
From the very beginning it was clear these instructions did not limit the shooting of Jews to those strictly in "party and state positions" but rather were understood and interpreted broadly to encompass the shooting of large numbers of adult male Jews. Moreover, this interpretation was immediately approved by Himmler and Heydrich. On June 24, 25, and 27, the Security Police in Tilsit organized three mass executions totalling 526 victims who were "primarily Jews." (vorwiegend Juden) The reason given was that the Jewish population had supported the Red Army, and that in two incidents four Germans had been shot at from behind. In one execution every male Jew in the town of Krottingen was shot, and "only Jewish women and children were left." (nur jüdischen Frauen und Kinder verblieben sind) Further executions were carried out in Augustowo. "The Reichsführer-SS [Himmler] and the Gruppenführer [Heydrich], who by coincidence were present there, had themselves briefed on the measures implemented by the Tilsit Security Police and approved them completely." [32] By early July the Tilsit Security Police and its subordinate border police stations reported shooting a total of 1,743 people, and one week later this figure had increased to 3,302. [33]
Numerous Einsatzgruppen reports of July indicate that adult male Jews, and particularly professionals and community leaders, were targeted. For example, for Einsatzgruppe C: "Leaders of Jewish intelligentsia (in particular teachers, lawyers, Soviet officials) liquidated." [34] For Einsatzgruppe A: "Actions against the Jews are going on in an ever-increasing number. ...The Latvians drive the Jewish families out of town, while they arrest the men. ...The arrested Jewish men are shot without delay and interred in previously prepared graves." [35] And for Einsatzgruppe B: "In Minsk, the entire Jewish intelligentsia has been liquidated (teachers, professors, lawyers, etc. except medical personnel)." [36] And: "The emphasis of the operational activity was directed first of all against the Jewish intelligentsia." [37] As noted already, the Tilsit commando killed all the adult male Jews of Krottingen but not the Jewish women and children. Only Einsatzkommando 3, however, gave an exact statistical breakdown between male and female Jewish victims. For the period July 22-August 3, 1941, it reported killing 1,349 male Jews and 172 female Jews. [38]
The escalation of the killing campaign to include Jewish women and children began in early August 1941, with clear impetus from the top SS leaders. When the 2nd SS Cavalry Regiment was preparing to sweep the Pripet Marshes, it received an "explicit order" (ausdrücklicher Befehl des RF-SS) from Himmler on August 1, 1941: "All Jews must be shot. Drive the female Jews into the swamp." [39] The reply of SS-Sturmbannführer Magill demonstrated that he fully understood the purpose of Himmler's order, namely the killing of Jewish women and children through drowning, and he explained the inadequacy of the method: "Driving women and children into the swamps did not have the intended success, because the swamps were not so deep that a sinking under could occur." [40]
The War Diary of Police Battalion 322 shows a similar transition. In early August its third company carried out executions of all adult male Jews but still spared Jewish women and children on its march from Bialystok to Minsk. Then the chief of the Order Police met with Higher SS and Police Leader von dem Bach-Zelewski in Minsk on August 29, and the following day Police Battalion 322 was assigned to a "thorough Jewish action" (gründliche Judenaktion) or roundup in the Minsk. On September 1 third company took part in the execution of the Jews who had been seized, including 64 Jewish women. The inclusion of Jewish women was justified by their alleged failure to wear the Jewish star. By early October the Battalion was shooting Jews "of both sexes" (beiderlei Geschlechts) without providing any explanation or rationalization. [41]
Once again the detailed statistics of Jäger's Einsatzkommando provide the clearest evidence of the transition. On August 6, 1941, Jäger was informed by Stahlecker that the latter had received "general orders from above that cannot be discussed in writing." [42] Beginning on August 15, 1941, Jäger's statistics demonstrate a sharp increase in the number of Jews being shot and the inclusion of large numbers of Jewish women and children. [43]
Beginning in late September, the killing campaign escalated once again when entire communities of Jews (with the exception of indispensable skilled workers) were killed in so-called "large-scale actions." (Grossaktionen) On September 19, following a decision "to liquidate the Jews of Zhitomir definitively and radically," the ghetto was emptied and 3,145 Jews were shot. The massacre of over 33,000 Jews in Kiev followed on September 29-30. [44] "On November 6 and 7, 1941, the action against Jews that had been prepared for some time was carried out in Rovno, where about 15,000 Jews were shot." [45] Beginning on November 30, 1941, the Higher SS and Police Leader North reduced the Jewish population of the Riga ghetto from 29,500 to 2,600. [46] In December Einsatzgruppe B reported the elimination of the Bobruisk and Vitebsk ghettos through the shooting of 5,281 and 4,090 Jews respectively. [47] In early December 1941 Einsatzgruppe D noted that some 10,000 Jews lived in Simpferpol; two months later, it noted that almost 10,000 Jews had been executed there. [48] Such actions aiming at total extermination of the Jewish population were not limited to large cities. Following killing actions in smaller cities and rural areas, entire towns and then even entire regions were repeatedly proclaimed "free of Jews." [49]
In early 1942, Heydrich reported: "While the Jewish question in the Ostland (by which he presumably meant the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) can be seen as practically solved and cleansed, progress continues to be made on the clarification of this problem on other occupied territories in the east." [50] Outside the Baltic the pace of killing slowed temporarily in the winter of 1941-42 for two reasons. As SS-Sturmbannführer Hofmann, head of the Security Service in Minsk, explained to a meeting of officials from the civil administration:
At present a complete liquidation of the Jews is not possible due to the frost, because the ground is too frozen to dig pits which would then be available as mass graves for the Jews. A complete eradication of the Jews was also not possible, because workers were still needed from among the ranks of the Jews.
Nonetheless, Hofmann assured his listeners that "in the spring large-scale executions would be initiated again." [51]
With the warming weather in the spring of 1942, large-scale killing did indeed begin again. On March 2-3, 1942, 5,721 Jews were executed in Minsk, Vileyka, and Baranovichi, and later in the month 15,000 Jews were killed in Chevron. [52] As noted from the Kube's report of July 31, 1942, on the killing of 55,000 Jews in six weeks in the Minsk region, and "Report No.51 for the Führer" on the execution of 363,211 Jews in the Ukraine and Bialystok in the four months of August through November, the killing was particularly intense in the summer and fall of 1942.
At this point, even the Jewish skilled workers important to the German war economy were no longer spared, as can be seen from documentation relating to the killing of the Jews in the region of Brest-Litovsk in the fall of 1942. Informed of the impending "overall resettlement of the Jews" (generelle Umsiedlung der Juden), the SS and Polizeistandortführer in Brest-Litovsk, Friedrich Wilhelm Rohde, pleaded: "Insofar as the Jewish question is solved in Brest, I foresee severe economic damage resulting from the lack of lab or." He was supported by the local commissioner (Gebietskommissar) Franz Burat: "Although the total resettlement of the Jews from the Kreisgebiet is desirable from the political standpoint, from the standpoint of labor mobilization, I must plead unconditionally for leaving the most needed artisans and manpower." [53]
These appeals were in vain. On October 15-16, 1942, the 20,000 Jews of Brest, including 9,000 workers, were shot. [54] The war diary and reports of Police Regiment 15 show that the Jews working in camps and on state farms in the region were also executed. [55] The totality with which Jewish labor was executed in this region can be seen from a subsequent report of the military armaments commando: "Then, in October 1942, there were large-scale Jewish evacuations in Volhynia as a result of which every Jew was removed from all the factories, and the factories came to a complete standstill for a shorter or longer time, or production dwindled to a mere fraction." [56]
In late July 1942 Himmler wrote emphatically: "The occupied eastern territories will be free of Jews. The carrying out of this very difficult order has been placed on my shoulders by the Führer. No one can take this responsibility from me." [57] In the end, this included even the skilled Jewish workers providing irreplaceable manpower for the German war economy.
C. Camouflage Langauge:
The documents concerning the killing of Jews on occupied Soviet territory contain both open and camouflage language. Often the documents speak frankly of shootings, executions, extermination, liquidation, etc. Elsewhere they use words such as "special treatment," "evacuation," "deportation," and "resettlement." Many times one or more rationalizations are given to justify the mass killing of Jews as a response to or "reprisal" for some alleged provocation, and sometimes the documents claim that the Jews were "convicted" and the executions were carried out "according to martial law." On other occasions, however, the goal of making these territories "free of Jews" through killing is openly admitted, and Jews are killed for no other reason than being Jewish. The large number of surviving documents for this region allows a more careful examination of this use of language.
The implication that Jews were investigated, convicted, and shot "according to martial law" (standrechtlich) for alleged individual offenses is dispelled by Einsatzgruppe C's own reporting. It noted that by late October 1941, 80,000 persons had been "liquidated." However, only 8,000 of these were persons "who on the basis of investigation could be proven guilty of anti-German or bolshevik activities. The remainder were finished off on the basis of reprisal measures." In the same report, Einsatzgruppe C reported that 75,000 of its 80,000 victims were Jews. Clearly the killing of the vast majority of these 75,000 Jews was not the result of individual offenses that led to investigation, conviction, and execution "according to martial law." [58] Moreover, the claim of legal proceedings in connection with shootings was at times clearly formulaic and transparently specious. For instance, Sonderkommando 4a reported shooting 740 people in the first week of November "according to martial law." Included in the list of victims, however, were only three political functionaries and one saboteur; the rest of the victims were 137 Jews and 599 mentally ill persons. [59]
As indicated by Einsatzgruppe C, many killings of Jews were explained or justified as "reprisals," that is collective punishment of the Jewish community for some alleged transgression by unidentified individuals. This involved a variety of accusations: refusing to work, incitement and spreading rumours, looting or plundering, supporting the partisans, and sabotage. On other occasions, the shooting of Jews was justified because of insufficient food supplies or because the Jews were deemed a source of infectious disease or were simply too old and unfit for work. [60]
On two occasions in the Einsatzgruppen reports, however, the reasons for executions are spelled out systematically. Among the reasons listed by Einsatzgruppe C was quite simply: "Jews in general." [61] (Juden allgemein) Einsatzgruppe A also listed reasons for shooting: alongside participation in the communist party, sedition, partisan activity, and espionage, was quite simply: "Belonging to the Jewish race." [62] (Zugehörigkeit zur jüdischen Rasse) In short, Jews were to be killed for being Jewish, whether a pretext was listed or not. And in fact many executions were reported without any alleged justification whatsoever. Jews were killed for whom they were, not for what they had done.
The term "special treatment" (Sonderbehandlung) appears in the Events Reports for the first time in No. 21 of July 13, 1941. The report notes that by July 8 the Einsatzkommando in Vilna had "liquidated" 321 Jews. Furthermore, the report explained how this was done, namely that 150 Lithuanians were recruited "to take part in the liquidation of the Jews. ...They arrested the Jews and put them into concentration camps where they were subjected the same day to special treatment. (italics mine) This work has now begun, and thus about 500 Jews, saboteurs among them, are liquidated daily." [63] Einsatzgruppe B reported in one paragraph that 640 Jews from the Nevel ghetto had been "liquidated." In the very next paragraph it reported that in Janovichi 1,025 Jews "were subjected to special treatment." [64] (wurden...sonderbehandelt)
One month later Einsatzgruppe B reported a long list of actions, in which various terms were used interchangeably to indicate killing. In Belowchstchina 272 Jews were "liquidated." (liquidiert) In Mogilev Einsatzkommando 8 and the Order Police "led 113 Jews to liquidation." (brachte 113 Juden zur Liquidierung) In Schidow, 627 Jews were "liquidated. In a further action another 812 male and female persons were subjected to special treatment. Without exception they were racially and mentally inferior elements." (liquidiert. In einer weiteren Aktion wurden noch 812 männliche und weibliche Personen der Sonderbehandlung unterzogen. Es handelte sich durchweg um rassisch und geistig minderwertige Elemente.) In Minsk, Einsatzkommando 8 "executed" (exekutierte) 41 persons, "primarily" (vorwiegend) Jews. In Talka, "222 Jews were led to liquidation." (222 Juden zur Liquidierung gebracht wurden) Then in Marina-Gorka, "996 male and female Jews were subjected to special treatment." (wurden 996 männliche und weibliche Juden der Sonderbehandlung unterzogen) In Borisov 83 Jews were "shot." (erschossen) In Krupka and Sholpenitsche 912 and 833 Jews respectively were "liquidated." (liquidiert) "The Rayon Krupka can now be considered free of Jews." (Die Rayhon Krupka kann damit als judenfrei angesehen werden.) In Bobruisk Einsatzkommando 8 "executed" (exekutierte) 418 persons, including "rebellious Jews." (widersetzlichen Juden) Then on October 8, 1941, the "total liquidation of the Jews in the ghetto of Vitebsk began. The number of Jews handed over to special treatment came to some 3,000." (der restlosen Liquidierung der im Ghetto in Witebsk befindlichen Juden begonnen. Die Zahl der zur Sonderbehanldung gelangenden Juden beläuft sich auf etwa 3000.) In Ostrovno 169 Jews were "shot" (erschossen), and finally 52 Jews who had fled from Gorodok were "specially treated." (sonderbehandelt) [65] A subsequent report stated: "In Vitebsk, the ghetto was evacuated. During this process a total of 4,090 Jews of both sexes were shot." [66] (In Witebsk wurde das Ghetto geräumt, wobei insgesamt 4090 Juden beiderlei Geschlechts erschossen wurden.) In short, the term "special treatment" (and in this case also "evacuation") was often used interchangeably with "liquidated," "executed," and "shot" in the reports, without any serious pretense that it was supposed to camouflage what was happening.
"Resettlement" and "deportation" are also terms the appear in German documents in a similar fashion. For instance, the Gendarmerie district leader of Brest reported: "On October 15 and 16, 1942, the Jewish action was carried out in Brest-Litovsk. Simultaneously the complete resettlement of the Jews in the Kreisgebiet Brest-Litovsk also occurred. In all some 20,000 Jews have been resettled up until now." Two pages later in the same report, he explained the activities of his police station using different language. "Participation in the action against the Jews in the city and Kreisgebiet Brest-Litovsk since October 15, 1942. Up until now some 20,000 Jews have been shot." [67]
Einsatzgruppe D reported that it had begun preparations for "the deportation of 12-13,000 Jews, Krimchaks, and Gypsies" in early December 1941. [68] In a later document, Einsatzgruppe D noted that "Krimchaks...usually counted as part of the Jewish population." Thus the inclusion of the Krimchaks and Gypsies in the fate of the Jews occasioned no special notice among the population. "Their extermination, together with that of the actual Jews and the Gypsies in the Crimea, was accomplished for the most part by the beginning of December 1941." [69]
Thus SS documents for internal use openly employed terms like "special treatment," "evacuation," "resettlement," and "deportation" interchangeably with execution, shooting, liquidation, and extermination. In documents for external use, however, such language was often used to camouflage what the SS was doing or intended to do. The most blatant and cynical act of deception and camouflage can be seen by juxtaposing the internal documents of Einsatzgruppe A with its communications to the civil administration in its region in August 1941. On July 27, 1941, the Reichskommissar for the Ostland, Hinrich Lohse, had issued a set of provisional guidelines for the treatment of the Jewish population without either consulting Stahlecker or delineating any role for the SS. Higher SS and Police Leader North, Hans Adolf Prützmann, urged Stahlecker to meet with Lohse to discuss the matter. [70] Stahlecker instead sent Jäger a three-page position page, which Jäger was to transmit to Lohse orally, as they were both in Kovno. [71] Stahlecker explained that Lohse's guidelines, providing for ghettoization and forced labor of Jews at the moment and "resettlement" (Umsiedlung) later, were in conflict with the orders that had been given to Einsatzgruppe A. Instead of ghettoization in the cities, Stahlecker sketched out a plan of "Jewish reservation areas" (Judenreservatsräume) in the open spaces, where the Jews would be separated by sex to prevent further procreation. Work shops and factories would eventually be constructed there to exploit Jewish labor. The reservations would also facilitate "the later collective deportation of the Jews to a reservation outside Europe." In a handwritten note at the end, Stahlecker added that the Lohse draft "to a great extent touches on general orders from higher authority to the Security Police that cannot be discussed in writing." [72]
This scenario of deporting the Jews first to reservations in the open spaces of the Ostland and then later out of Europe was designed only for outside consumption, as Stahlecker's own documents show. In his summary report of October 15, 1941, he wrote: "It was expected from the start that the Jewish problem would not be solved solely through pogroms. On the other hand the goal of security police cleansing work, according to basic orders, was the most complete removal possible of the Jews. Extensive executions in the cities and flat lands were therefore carried out through special units, to whom selected manpower - in Lithuanaia partisan troops and in Latvia troops of the Latvian auxiliary police - were attached." [73] Indeed, the nature of the orders Stahlecker had received from higher authority but could not put in writing are suggested by Jäger's statistics: his unit began the systematic killing of Jewish women and children on August 15, just days after receiving Stahlecker's position paper. [74]
D. Implications:
The systematic mass-murder of Jews on occupied Soviet territory primarily through shooting, with the explicit goal of making these territories "free of Jews," is clearly visible in the surviving German documents. Both method and goal are transparent. The commanders in the field were explicitly told to report extensively, as both Hitler and Himmler were to be kept well informed. Clearly their reports were intended to show that government policy was being carried out with zeal and efficiency. Their actions were neither the unauthorized initiatives of a few rogue commanders nor the product of a sporadic breakdown in discipline in the heat of battle.
Such a thorough documentation does not exist concerning the fate of the Jews from the rest of Europe. What can be learned from these documents concerning the intentions and actions of the regime and its use of language is essential, however, in interpreting the scantier documentation, evaluating the credibility of eyewitness testimony, and drawing conclusions from circumstantial evidence.
Part III
Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V
V. The Evidence for the Killing of Jews through Gas in Chelmno, Semlin, Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka:
A. Documentary Evidence for the emergence of a program to kill the Jews of Europe:
The Nazi program to murder all the Jews of Europe within the German grasp was called the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" (Endlösung der Judenfrage). While historians who have done extensive archival research on Nazi Jewish policy agree that such a program was implemented by the Nazi regime, they are not unanimous in their conclusions about several important aspects of historical interpretation. In particular, they do not agree as to precisely when the Nazi regime decided upon a policy of systematic and total mass murder, and they do not agree upon Hitler's precise role in this decision-making process. Such disagreements over historical interpretation are, of course, not at all unusual. On the contrary, it is a quite normal occurence. What follows is my interpretation concerning the emergence of the Final Solution; it is not shared in every aspect by other able and learned historians of the Holocaust.
In the wake of the Kristallnacht pogrom, Hitler placed Hermann Göring in charge of coordinating Jewish policy. In turn, Göring delegated jurisdiction over Jewish policy that involved policing and emigration to the SS, and on January 24, 1939, Hermann Göring authorized Reinhard Heydrich to take charge of Jewish emigration from the Third Reich. [75] Heydrich's jurisdiction expanded to include the expulsion of Jews, Poles, and Gypsies from the Polish territories incorporated into the Third Reich in the fall of 1939. In the spring of 1941 Heydrich began organizing the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and Security Service, which spearheaded the murderous attack on Soviet Jewry that summer. Then on July 31, 1941, Heydrich expanded his jurisdiction yet further, when he procured an authorization again signed by Göring, entrusting him with the task of making "all necessary preparations" for a "total solution to the Jewish question" (Gesamtlösung der Judenfrage) within the German sphere of influence in Europe. Heydrich was to submit a "comprehensive draft" (Gesamtentwurf) of the preliminary measures for this "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" (Endlösung der Judenfrage) promptly. [76] This was not an order for the Final Solution, but Heydrich, the man who was currently in charge of the Einsatzgruppen killing campaign on occupied Soviet territory, was now authorized to draw up plans concerning the fate of all other Jews under German control.
No "comprehensive draft" for a Final Solution is among the surviving German documents found after the war. But other documents have survived that indicate a series of changes in Nazi Jewish policy in the fall of 1941 that, taken together, constituted a program for the systematic mass murder of European Jewry. The first was a reversal of Hitler's previous policy that the deportation of German Jews would not take place until after the war. On September 18, 1941, Himmler informed the Gauleiter of the Warthegau, Arthur Greiser: "The Führer wishes that the Old Reich and Protectorate be emptied and freed of Jews from west to east as quickly as possible." Thus Himmler intended, "as a first step" (als erste Stufe), to deport the Jews to the incorporated territories (especially the ghetto of Lodz) "in order to deport them yet further to the east the next spring." [77] On October 10, Heydrich in Prague announced that Riga and Minsk would also be destinations for the deportation of German Jews. [78] The deportations, first to Lodz, then began on October 15.
The second major change in German policy was the ban on Jewish emigration overseas. In August 1941 a number of Spanish Jews living in Paris had been arrested, which led the Spanish government to suggest the possibility of evacuating all Spanish Jews (some 2,000) to Spanish Morocco--a proposal endorsed by the German Foreign Office as fully in line with previous German policy of emigrating or expelling Jews overseas. On October 17, Heydrich blocked the Spanish proposal for two reasons. First, the Spanish would not effectively guard them in Morocco. Second, "In addition these Jews would also be too much out of the direct reach of the measures for a basic solution to the Jewish question to be enacted after the war." [79] On October 23, 1941, the chief of the Gestapo, Heinrich Müller, then dispatched a circular to all police agencies announcing Himmler's order that Jewish emigration was to be stopped. [80]
What did the end of Jewish emigration overseas so that even Spanish Jews would not be "too much out of the direct reach of the measures for a basic solution to the Jewish question to be enacted after the war" mean? What did the deportation of German Jews first to Lodz, Minsk, and Riga and then "yet further east the next spring" mean? Did they mean nothing more than expulsion into eastern Russia or Siberia after the defeat of the Soviet Union still expected by the spring of 1942? A combination of three documents dating from the end of October 1941 suggest otherwise.
Between October 18 and 21, 1941, the Foreign Office expert for Jewish affairs, Franz Rademacher, and Eichmann's second deputy, Friedrich Suhr, visited Belgrade. After the trip Rademacher reported how the adult Jewish men in Serbia had been shot by the German army. Concerning the fate of the Jewish women, children, and elderly, Rademacher reported: "Then as soon as the technical possibility exists within the framework of the total solution to the Jewish question, the Jews will be deported by waterway to the reception camp in the east." [81] In short, Jews deported from Europe were not simply going to be expelled into eastern Russia, but rather they were to be interned in a German "reception camp" not yet built. Furthermore, as this reception camp was for women, children, and elderly, it clearly was not a labor camp.
A second relevant document is a short hand-written letter of October 23, 1941, that Franz Rademacher found waiting for him from the foreign editor of Der Stürmer, Paul Wurm, when he returned to Berlin. Wurm wrote:
Dear Party Comrade Rademacher!
On my return trip from Berlin I met an old party comrade, who works in the east on the settlement of the Jewish question. In the near future many of the Jewish vermin will be exterminated through special measures. [82]
What did Wurm mean by "special measures" for the destruction of Jews in the east? On October 25, 1941, Rademacher's counterpart in the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, Eberhard Wetzel, met first with Viktor Brack of the Führer Chancellery (where he was involved with the so-called euthanasia program for the killing of mentally- and physically handicapped patients in German hospitals and asylums) and then with Adolf Eichmann (Heydrich's special advisor on Jewish policy). Wetzel then drafted a letter to be sent by his boss, Alfred Rosenberg, to Hinrich Lohse, who was not happy about the imminent deportation of German Jews to Riga. According to Wetzel, Brack declared himself ready to aid in the construction of "gassing apparatuses" ("Vergasungsapparate) on the spot in Riga. Eichmann confirmed to Wetzel that Jewish camps were about to be set up in Riga and Minsk to receive German Jews. Those capable of labor would be sent "to the east" later. Under the circumstances there were no objections "if those Jews who are not fit for work are removed by Brack's device" in the meantime. [83]
In short, surviving documents show that by late October 1941 the Nazi regime:
1) had ended a longstanding policy of creating a Europe free of Jews through emigration and expulsion overseas;
2) had begun deporting German Jews to the east into ghettos where they awaited deportation further east the following spring;
3) was planning a "reception camp" in the east for non-working Jewish women, children, and elderly;
4) was planning for the destruction of Jews through "special measures";
and 5) was discussing the construction of "gassing apparatuses" in Riga, so that German Jews incapable of work could be "removed" immediately.
These documents suggest that a policy of systematic extermination, including deportation to reception camps and the use of gassing as a method of killing, was taking shape by late October 1941, even if it was not to be implemented until the following spring (after the expected end of the war). The statements of leading Nazis in the following months certainly point to a widening recognition that mass killing, not expulsion, was now the goal of the regime. On November 15, 1941, Himmler had a four-hour discussion with Alfred Rosenberg. [84] Three days later Rosenberg gave a "confidential" background report to the German press. The reporters were not yet to print the details of what was happening in the east, but they needed sufficient background so that the press could give its treatment the proper "color" (Farbe), he explained. Among the topics Rosenberg dealt with was the Jewish question.
In the east some six million Jew still live, and this question can only be solved in a biological eradication of the entire Jewry of Europe. The Jewish question is only solved for Germany when the last Jew has left German territory, and for Europe when not a single Jew lives on the European continent up to the Urals. ...for this reason it is necessary to expel them over the Urals or eradicate them in some other way. [85]
On November 28, 1941, Hitler met with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Hitler stated: "Germany was resolved, step by step, to ask one European nation after the other to solve its Jewish problem, and at the proper time, direct a similar appeal to non-European nations as well." When Germany had defeated the Soviet Union and broken through the Caucasus into the middle east, Germany would have no imperial goals of its own and would support Arab liberation, Hitler assured the Grand Mufti. But he did have one goal: "Germany's objective would then be solely the destruction of the Jewish element residing in the Arab sphere under the protection of British power." [86]
In December 1941, after the Soviet counter-offensive around Moscow, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and the German declaration of war on the United States, there could be no doubt any longer that there would be no end to the war by the following spring. Yet Hitler made clear in a speech to the top echelons of the Nazi party on December 12, 1941, that this did not change the emerging German policy of systematic mass killing.
Concerning the Jewish question, the Führer is determined to make a clean sweep. He prophesied that, if they were once again to cause a world war, the result would be their own destruction. That was no figure of speech. The world war is here, the destruction of the Jews must be the inevitable consequence. [87]
Hans Frank, who attended this meeting, returned to the General Government and explained what he had learned in Berlin to his district governors and division leaders.
We must put an end to the Jews, that I want to say quite openly. The Führer once spoke these words: If united Jewry should once more succeed in unleashing a world war, then the peoples who have been incited to this war will not be its only victims, because the Jew in Europe will also have found his end. ...Before I continue to speak I would ask you to agree with me on the following principle: we want to have compassion only for the German people, otherwise for no one in the whole world. Others have had no compassion for us. As an old National Socialist, I must also say: if the Jewish tribe were to survive the war in Europe, while we had sacrificed our best blood for Europe's preservation, then this war would be only a partial success. Thus vis-a-vis the Jews I will in principle proceed only on the assumption that they will disappear. They must go. I have entered into negotiations for the purpose of deporting them to the east. In January a large meeting will be convened in the Reich Security Main Office by SS-Obergruppenführer Heydrich. In any case a large migration of Jews will be set in motion.
But what is to happen to the Jews? Do you believe that they will be lodged in settlements in the Ostland? In Berlin we were told: why all this trouble; we cannot use them in the Ostland or the Reichskommissariat either; liquidate them yourselves! Gentlemen, I must ask you, arm yourselves against any thoughts of compassion. We must destroy the Jews, wherever we encounter them and wherever it is possible, in order to preserve the entire structure of the Reich.
Frank did not yet know how unprecedented destruction on this scale could be done, but he assured his audience that "nonetheless we will take some kind of action that will lead to a successful destruction, and indeed in conjunction with the important measures to be discussed in the Reich." [88]
What Frank called the "large meeting" in Berlin under the chairmanship of Heydrich, where "important measures" were to be discussed in January, had originally been scheduled for December 8, 1941, but was postponed until January 20, 1942. Known as the Wannsee Conference, it was attended by the State Secretaries of the ministries of the Interior (Stuckart), Justice (Freisler), the General Government (Bühler), and the Occupied Eastern Territories (Meyer and his deputy Leibbrandt), as well as the Office of the Four Year Plan (Neumann) and Party Chancellery (Klopfer), the Undersecretary of the Foreign Office (Luther), and ministerial director of the Reich Chancellery (Kritzinger). The State Secretaries, just beneath the cabinet minister level, were by protocol the highest ranking officials that Heydrich could invite to a meeting over which he--as Himmler's deputy--would preside. Also attending were the heads of the Gestapo (Müller), the Race and Resettlement Main Office (Hofmann), and the Security Police in the General Government (Schöngarth), as well as Heydrich, Eichmann, and Rudolf Lange, commander of Einsatzkommando 2 in Latvia. Heydrich's invitations to the meeting were accompanied by copies of his authorization, signed by Göring on July 31, 1941, to prepare a Final Solution to the Jewish question throughout Germany's sphere of influence in Europe. There is no record of Heydrich having chaired any other meeting with such an illustrious list of leading officials of the Nazi regime in attendance in his entire career.
Heydrich briefly reiterated his authority to prepare a European-wide Final Solution and reviewed the policy of emigration until its prohibition in the fall of 1941. Heydrich then stated: "In place of emigration, the evacuation of the Jews to the east has now emerged, after the appropriate prior approval of the Führer, as a further possible solution. A total of 11 million European Jews, including even those from neutral countries like Ireland, Switzerland, and Sweden, would be involved, according to Heydrich. The evacuations, however, were to be regarded "solely as temporary measures" (lediglich als Ausweichmöglichkeiten), for "practical experiences" (praktischen Erfahrungen) were already being gathered that would be of great significance for the "imminent" (kommende) Final Solution. Heydrich then went on to explain just what he meant by this. The Jews would be utilized for labor in the east.
Separated by sex, the Jews capable of work will be led into these areas in large labor columns to build roads, whereby a large part will doubtless fall away through natural diminution.
The remnant that finally survives all this, because it is undoubtedly a question of the part with the greatest resistance, will have to be treated accordingly, because this remnant, representing a natural selection, must be regarded as the germ cell of a new Jewish reconstruction if released.
If the protocol indicates that Jews capable of work were to be subjected to such strenuous labor that most would die, and those who did not would be "treated accordingly," it makes no mention of what was to happen to those Jews who were not capable of work to begin with. Bühler understood perfectly well that the Final Solution meant more than working Jews to death, for he urged that it begin in the General Government, because there was no transportation problem there and most of the Jews there were already incapable of work.
The protocol summarized in detail lengthy discussions about policy toward Jews in mixed marriage and their children without resolution. On one point the protocol was exceptionally brief, however, and that concerned the question Frank had raised in December, namely how were the Jews to be destroyed. Without any explanation as to actual content of the discussion, the protocol merely noted cryptically: "Finally there was a discussion of the various types of possible solutions...."
Thirty copies of the protocol of the Wannsee Conference were made, and the only surviving copy is the one that was sent by Heydrich to the Foreign Office on January 26, 1942. [89] Apparently the Reich Interior Ministry received a copy at the same time, for already at another meeting on January 29, 1942, its Jewish expert, Bernhard Lösener, made reference to the conference of January 20. [90]
One notable Nazi leader had not sent a representative to the Wannsee Conference, namely Heydrich and Himmler's disliked rival, Josef Goebbels of the Propaganda Ministry. It would appear that Goebbels received an expurgated version of the protocol only much later. He noted in his diary entry of March 7, 1942, concerning a report "from the SD and police regarding the final solution of the Jewish question." He noted the Wannsee Conference figure of 11 million Jews in Europe and then wrote: "They will have to be concentrated later, to begin with, in the East; possibly an island, such as Madagascar can be assigned to them after the war." [91] In reality, of course, the Jews were neither going to be concentrated "later," nor sent to Madagascar after the war. The Jews of the Warthegau were already being gassed at this moment, and the gassing of Serbian Jews in the Semlin camp outside Belgrade was imminent. Moreover, the "concentration" of the Jews of Poland in the three tiny villages of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka was about to begin.
B. Documentary Evidence concerning the gassing of Jews at Semlin, Chelmno, and on Soviet occupied territory in gas vans:
A surviving file of documents [92] shows that gas vans called "special trucks" (Spezialwagen and Sonderwagen) were constructed and dispatched by Office II D 3 (Friedrich Pradel's motorpool section of Walter Rauff's division for technical affairs) within Heydrich's Reich Security Main Office.
Demand exceeded supply. In one surviving letter, Rauff informed the Criminal Technical Institute that the staff doctor at the Mauthausen concentration camp had requested a gas van. However, "The special trucks constructed by us are at this time all in action in accordance with the order of the Chief of the Security Police and SD." Moreover, one would not be available for some time. Thus Rauff asked the Criminal Technical Institute, where the chief chemist Albert Widmann had earlier advised the euthanasia program on the use of carbon monoxide in gas chambers to kill mentally- and physically handicapped patients, for help. "Because I assume that the concentration camp Mauthausen cannot wait for an indefinite time for availability, I request the procurement of steel canisters of carbon monoxide or other remedies for implementation be initiated from your end." [93] No gas van was available for Mauthausen at this time, because they were all in use in three other places: Semlin near Belgrade, Chelmno (Kulmhof) near Lodz, and with the Einsatzgruppen on occupied Soviet territory.
1. Semlin
After the male adult Jews in Serbia had been shot in the fall of 1941, the women, children, and elderly were interned in a makeshift camp constructed in the old fair grounds of Semlin across the river from Belgrade. The planned deportation to a "reception camp" in the east never took place, and by late March 1942 the number of Jews in Semlin had reached 6,280. [94] On April 11, 1942, the head of the military administration in Serbia, Harald Turner, wrote to Himmler's adjutant, Karl Wolff:
Already some months ago I had everything that could be got hold of in the way of Jews in this land shot, and had all the Jewish women and children concentrated in a camp and at the same time, with the help of the SD, procured a 'delousing vehicle' that will now finally have carried out the clearing of the camp in some 14 days to 4 weeks.... [95]
The 10-day reports of the military commander in Serbia document a steady decrease in the number of Jewish inmates in the Semlin camp between early March and late May. They register a population of 5,780 Jews--"mostly women and children"--in the "Jewish camp Semlin" on March 3, 1942, and this number declined to 491 Jews as of May 22. The reports cease to mention the presence of any Jews or even the existence of a "Jewish camp" in Semlin as of June. [96] On May 29, 1942, Franz Rademacher at the Jewish desk in the Foreign Office wrote: "The Jewish question in Serbia is no longer acute." [97] Ten days later the head of the Security Police in Belgrade, Emanuel Schäfer, informed the commanding general in Serbia, Paul Bader, and the Military Commander Southeast, Walter Kuntze, that there was no longer a Jewish question in Serbia. [98] And Schäfer reported to Berlin, concerning the "special Saurer truck" (Spezialwagen-Saurer)--Saurer was the larger of the two truck models used for conversion into gas vans--that the two drivers, Goetz and Meyer, "had carried out their special task", and therefore they and the truck were being sent back. [99]
2. Chelmno:
Beginning in December 1941, Jews from the Lodz ghetto and other towns in the Warthegau were deported to the small village of Chelmno. On May 1, 1942, Arthur Greiser wrote to Himmler: "The special treatment of some 100,000 Jews in my territory in an action approved by you in agreement with the Chief of the Reich Security Main Office SS-Obergruppenführer Heydrich will be completed in the next two to three months." [100]
The completion of this task was not without incident, however, as can be seen in a report in the motor pool section of the RSHA of June 5, 1942, concerning technical alterations in the production of the "special trucks."
Since December 1941, for example, 97,000 were processed by three trucks in action, without any defects in the vehicles being encountered. The known explosion in Chelmno must be deemed an isolated case. Its cause must be traced to operator's error. [101]
The deportations from the Warthegau to Chelmno continued in 1942 until the provinces had been made free of Jews and the population of the Lodz ghetto had been reduced from more than 160,000 to less than 90,000. [102]
3. Einsatzgruppen
On May 16, 1942, Dr. August Becker submitted a secret report to Walter Rauff concerning his inspection tour of the gas vans being used by the Einsatzgruppen. The large model Saurer trucks with Einsatzgruppen C and D, he reported, could travel cross country only in dry weather but were unusable after a rain. Moreover, the rough terrain had loosened seals and rivets, so that many trucks were no longer airtight. The trucks of Einsatzgruppe D had become so well known to the civilian population that they openly referred to them as "death trucks." (Todeswagen) He had had them disguised by painting windows on the side, but he did not think this subterfuge would preserve secrecy for long.
However, the greatest problems with the gas vans, according to Becker's report, were not technical. The men suffered "enormous emotional and health injuries" (ungeheure seelische und gesundheitliche Schäden) and complained of headaches after each unloading. "The gassing is without exception not undertaken properly. In order to finish the job as quickly as possible, the drivers without exception open full throttle. For this reason those to be executed suffer death from suffocation and are not, as intended, put to sleep peacefully." The result was gashlty--horribly distorted faces and bodies covered with excrement and vomit (verzerrte Gesichter und Ausscheidungen). [103]
Despite such problems, the gas vans were still in demand. The chief of security police in Riga reported in mid-June 1942, one month after Becker's report, that in German-occupied Belarus "a Jewish transport arrived weekly that had to be subjected to a special treatment. The 3 special trucks on hand there did not suffice for this purpose!" He thus requested an additional large Saurer model to add to the other Saurer and the two small Diamond model trucks.[104]
Part IV
Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V
C. Documentary Evidence concerning the Camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka:
If the documents concerning the Einsatzgruppen and the "special trucks" speak openly about the methods of killing, i.e. shooting and gassing, such is not the case with the documents concerning the camps located in the three tiny villages of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka, to which most Polish Jews were deported. Nonetheless, the quite scant surviving documentation makes clear that these were neither labor camps nor transit camps, and Jews were sent there simply to be killed.
In March 1942 the Nazi regime began two simultaneous programs: the deportation of Jews from the Third Reich and Slovakia into the General Government, and the deportation of Jews in the General Government (initially from the districts of Lublin and Galicia) to a camp at Belzec--a small village on the Lublin side of the border between these two districts. The clearing of the Lublin ghetto began on March 16, as noted in a weekly report circulated by the propaganda division on March 21, 1942:
Resettlement of the Jews. Since Monday, March 16, the ghetto of Lublin is being cleared of Jews. Daily some 2,000 Jews are seized and sent eastward. Only a small Jewish quarter is being preserved for the Jews who still work for German agencies. It is therefore reckoned that the action will be completed by April 1, with the deportation of 35-38,000 Jews. [105]
In preparation for the simultaneous influx of Jewish transports from outside the Third Reich and Slovakia, Hermann Höfle on Globobnik's staff met with Richard Türk of the Lublin district's Department of Population and Welfare on March 16, 1942, the same day that the clearing of the Lublin ghetto began. Türk reported the results of the conversation:
1) It would be expedient to divide the Jews in the transports coming into the district of Lublin already at the departure station into those capable and those not capable of work. If this separation is not possible at the departure station, one must then switch over to dividing the transport in Lublin according to the above-mentioned viewpoint.
2) Jews not capable of work must all go to Belzec, the furthest border station in Kreis Zamosc.
3) Hauptsturmführer Höfle intends to build a large camp, in which the Jews capable of work can by classified according to profession and requisitioned.
4) Piaski will be freed of Polish Jews and become the collection point for Jews coming from the Reich.
...In conclusion he declared, he could receive daily 4-5 transports of 1,000 at the end station of Belzec. These Jews would cross over the border and would never return again to the General Government. [106]
On March 20, 1942, Türk again reported on a discussion that had taken place between Höfle and two Kreishauptmänner (county heads) in the Lublin district.
Kreishauptmann Weienmeyer has as yet been able to learn nothing about final outcome of the deportation; all that is known is the existence of a collection camp some distance from the Belzec train station on the district border, that is entirely closed off, and the arrival of a SS-commando of some 60 men. [107]
After the clearing of the Lublin ghetto, deportations were carried out in various parts of the Lublin district. For instance, the Kreishauptmann of Pulawy reported on May 13, 1941: "In the period from May 6-12 inclusive, 16,822 Jews from the Kreis Pulawy were expelled over the Bug on the instruction of the SS and Police Leader." (The Bug River was the demarcation line between the German and Soviet occupation zones in 1939-41 and formed the boundary between the districts of Lublin and Galicia thereafter.) With the exception of sick and old Slovakian Jews in the ghetto of Opole, only working Jews remained. [108]
In short, the German documents make clear that tens of thousands of Jews were being sent to the camp at Belzec in the spring months of 1942. There was no pretense that this was a work camp, for only non-working Jews were sent there. There was no pretense that such numbers of Jews could all remain in Belzec, in a tiny village guarded by a mere 60 men. Thus the explanation given by the SS was that these Jews were "expelled over the Bug," that is sent across the border into the district of Galicia, with the guarantee that they would never return. Two factors make the acceptance of such an explanation utterly untenable.
First, on March 27, 1942, shortly after the clearing of the Lublin ghetto began, Josef Goebbels confided to his diary about the fate of the non-working Jews, i.e. precisely those sent to Belzec:
Beginning with Lublin, the Jews in the General Government are now being evacuated eastward. The procedure is a pretty barbaric one and not to be described here more definitely. Not much will remain of the Jews. On the whole it can be said about 60 percent of them will have to be liquidated whereas only about 40 percent can be used for forced labor. [109]
Second, German documents from the district of Galicia make clear that not only were Jews not arriving in their district from the Lublin district via Belzec, but on the contrary, Jews were simultaneously being deported from the district of Galicia westward to Belzec. The Oberfeldkommandant in Lwow (Lemberg) reported on March 19, 1942:
Within the Jewish population of Lemberg a noticeable unrest has spread in regard to a deportation action that has begun, through which some 30,000 elderly and other unemployed Jews shall be seized and allegedly transferred to a territory near Lublin. To what extent this evacuation can be equated with a decimation remains to be seen. [110]
The Oberfeldkommandant reported the following month:
The Jewish population displays the deepest depression, which is completely understandable because on the one hand in various locations in the district the well-known actions against the Jews occur again and on the other hand in Lemberg the temporarily interrupted resettlement of Jews resumes; in the meantime it is whispered also among the Jews that the evacuees never reach the resettlement territory that is alleged to them as the destination. [111]
The deportations from Galicia broke off during the months of May, June, and July 1942, but resumed in August. In October the Oberfeldkommandant reported again:
The resettlement actions continue undiminished. The Jews are informed of their fate. Indicative is the statement of a member of the Lwow Jewish council: We all carry our death certificates in our pocket--only the date of death is not yet filled out. [112]
The trains deporting Jews from Galicia did indeed go to Belzec, as can be seen in the report of Reserve Lieutenant Westermann of the 7th company of Police Regiment 24, whose men helped round up the Jews in Kolomyja and nearby towns and then guarded two transports to Belzec on September 7 and 10, 1942. The first contained 4,769 Jews in 50 train cars and went without incident. The second involved 8,205 Jews. Many had been held for days without food and force-marched 35-50 kilometers to the train in blistering heat. They were then packed into train cars, in many cases 180-200 per car, virtually without ventilation. As Lieutenant Westermann concluded: "The ever greater panic spreading among the Jews due to the great heat, overloading of the train cars, and stink of the dead--when unloading the train cars some 2,000 Jews were found dead in the train--made the transport almost unworkable." Nevertheless the train that left Kolomyja at 8:50 pm. on September 10 finally crawled into Belzec at 6:45 pm on September 11. [113]
As in the rest of Hitler's Europe, the Germans in Galicia were busy insuring that their district was becoming free of Jews. The SS and Police Leader, Friedrich Katzmann, reported that as of November 10, 1942, 254,989 Jews had been resettled. By June 23,1943, the total had reached 434,329 Jews "resettled" (ausgesiedelt) with only 21,000 Jews still in labor camps. [114] In short, the allegation that Belzec was a transit camp through which Jews were expelled from Lublin into Galicia is totally disproven by German documentation. Month after month, in train after train, tens of thousands of Jews were taken to the little village of Belzec, and the trains came from both Lublin and Cracow to the west and Galicia to the east. If Höfle clearly lied about the purpose of Belzec, in one regard he told the truth: with the exception of a handful of escapees, the Jews sent to Belzec never returned.
The camp at Treblinka was located in a tiny village just off the main railline between Warsaw and Bialystok near the eastern border of the General Government. Massive deportations from Warsaw to Treblinka began on July 22, 1942, as can be seen in the letter from the State Secretary for the Transportation Ministry, Albert Ganzenmüller, to Himmler's adjutant, Karl Wolff: "Since July 22, one train with 5,000 Jews departs daily via Malkinia to Treblinka. Moreover, twice per week a train with 5,000 Jews departs Przemysl for Belzec." [115] When deportations from the city and surrounding district of Warsaw came to an end in early October, the district governor Fischer reported that a total of 400,000 Jews had been deported. [116] Surviving fragmentary train schedules also show that Jews were deported from northern Lublin district, Radom district, and the Bialystok district to Treblinka as well. [117] The deportations from Bialystok, a district east of Treblinka, are of special significance for two reasons. First, these deportations from Bialystok make clear that Treblinka was not a transit camp for the expulsion of Jews eastward from the General Government. Rather the tiny village of Treblinka, like Belzec, was a point at which transports of Jews converged from east and west. Moreover, the fate of the Bialystok Jews in the fall of 1942 was clearly stated in Himmler's report to Hitler of December 31, 1942. The Jews of Bialystok were among the 363,211 "Jews executed." The fate of the Jews sent to Treblinka is also reflected in a report noted in the October 10, 1942, entry to the War Diary of the Oberquartiermeister of the military commander in Poland.
OK Ostrow reports that the Jews in Treblinka are not adequately buried and as a result an unbearable smell of cadavers pollutes the air. [118]
Ostrow, it should be noted, was some 20 kilometers from Treblinka.
The documentary evidence makes clear that Belzec and Treblinka were camps to which hundreds of thousands of Jews were sent to be killed, though without specifying the method of killing. The scant surviving documentary evidence concerning the purpose of Sobibor indicates that the Germans considered it in the same category as Treblinka and Belzec, but that it was inaccessible due to railline repairs during the peak months of the killing campaign of July-October 1942. Like Belzec, Sobibor received transports of Jews deemed incapable of work, as can be seen in the report of Lieutenant Fischmann of June 20, 1942. Fischmann commanded the police guard that accompanied a train that departed Vienna with 1,000 Jews from Vienna for the Lublin district. SS-Obersturmführer Pohl of Globocnik's staff met the train in Lublin on June 16 and selected 51 Jews between the ages of 15 and 50, who were deemed capable of work. On June 17 Lieutenant Stangl took delivery of the remaining 949 Jews in Sobibor. [119] In the same letter in which Ganzenmüller informed Wolff of the daily transports from Warsaw to Treblinka and the twice-per-week transports from Przemysl to Belzec, he also noted that further transports to Sobibor were not possible until October due to construction on the railline. [120] The protocol of a meeting in Berlin on September 26 and 28, 1942, to plan allocation of transportation for the future "evacuation of 600,000 Jews" of the General Government noted:
After the completion of the restoration of the line Lublin-Chelm, probably from November 1, 1942, the other urgent transports can also be carried out, namely: 1 train per day from the district of Radom to Sobibor; 1 train per day from the northern Lublin district to Belzec and 1 train per day from the central Lublin district to Sobibor.... [121]
And in his promotion recommendations to Himmler's chief of personnel, Herff, Globocnik included Franz Stangl, the commandant at Sobibor who was then transferred to Treblinka. According to Globocnik, Stangl was "the best camp commander, who had the greatest share of the entire action...." Included on the list of promotion recommendations for the SS-Sonderkommando "Einsatz Reinhard" were personnel from all three camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. [122] Clearly, Sobibor was a camp no different in purpose than Belzec and Treblinka.
D. Eyewitness Testimony concerning Gassing at Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka:
While surviving German documentation reveals that hundreds of thousands of Jews not considered essential for labor were sent to the three small villages of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka from areas both to the east and west and were never seen again, and moreover that the military 20 kilometers from Treblinka complained about the pestilential smell caused the inadequate burial of the Jews there, no contemporary document specifically states how the Jews sent to these three camps were killed. A very large body of testimony--from numerous German, Jewish, Polish, and Ukrainian eyewitnesses--provides evidence that the Jews sent to Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka were killed in gas chambers with carbon monoxide from engine exhaust. As in any body of eyewitness testimonies, there are errors and contradictions as well as both exaggerations and apologetic obfuscation and minimization, but in this case there is above all overwhelming concurrence on three facts: gas chambers existed in these camps, they were used to kill Jews, and the corpses of the murdered Jews were first buried and then later cremated.
It is not possible in the framework of this report to identify, summarize, and analyze the individual testimony of each of more than one hundred relevant eyewitnesses. I will instead identify five categories of eyewitnesses and then provide examples of testimony from each category.
Category I: German visitors to the camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka.
Category II: German personnel stationed in the camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka.
Category III: Ukrainian auxiliaries taken from POW camps, trained at Trawniki, and assigned as guards to these three camps.
Category IV: Poles living in the immediate area of these three camps.
Category V: Jewish escapees from these three camps.
First Category: German Visitors
The first category, testimonies of German visitors, is easily the smallest. The testimonies of three such visitors are very important, however. The first is Adolf Eichmann. In the late 1950's he gave an interview to a Dutch journalist Willem Sassen and corrected the resulting transcript. A brief summary of the interview was published in Life Magazine. [123] After his arrest, he was interrogated extensively in Israel. [124] He composed his hand-written "Meine Memoiren." [125] He prepared notes for his defense attorney, Servatius, that remained in the private papers or Nachlass of the latter that were donated to the Bundesarchiv. [126] He gave testimony in court. [127] And his widow, with the editorial help of the lawyer Rudolf Aschenauer, had a posthumous memoir published in 1980, entitled Ich Adolf Eichmann. Ein historischer Zeugenbericht, based primarily upon the Sassen transcripts. [128] In all of these testimonies, Eichmann confirmed that he had been in charge of organizing the deportation of Jews from all over Europe, in order for them to be killed in the death camps in Poland as part of the Final Solution. In several accounts he also described his visits to Auschwitz, Chelmno, Treblinka, and one other camp in the fall of 1941 whose name he did not remember (he remembered only that it had a more Polish-sounding name than Treblinka) but which fits the description of Belzec at that time.
According to Eichmann, he was sent by Heydrich to Globocnik in Lublin to report on how Hitler's order to kill the European Jews was going to be carried out. It was the fall of 1941, when the autumn colors were at their peak. Hermann Höfle on Globocnik's staff drove him out of Lublin to a site where he was introduced to an Order Police captain. Eichmann and his escort then crossed the highway to a place where 2-3 wooden buildings were under construction. The Order Police captain explained to Eichmann that one building had to be made airtight to serve as a gas chamber, in which Jews would be killed by carbon monoxide exhaust from a Russian U-boat motor that would be attached. The camp was still empty and the motor was not yet there. In the following summer of 1942, Eichmann visited another camp, where he remembered the railway station with the sign Treblinka. Here he saw naked Jews standing in line behind the barbed wire about to be driven into the gas chambers. By his own account, he also witnessed the gassing of Jews in a gas van at Chelmno. In his hand-written notes to his attorney Servatius, he designated Chelmno as a "permanent gassing camp" (Ständiges Vergasungslager). Also in his hand-written notes in the Servatius papers, Eichmann noted that he had seen the two peasant huts converted to gas chambers at Birkenau, though here as elsewhere he vehemently denied the claim of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss that he had played a key role in the selection of the gas chamber sites and gassing method there.
The second German visitor was Kurt Gerstein, a covert anti-Nazi who infiltrated the SS and became head of the Disinfection Services of the Waffen-SS. According to his testimony, [129] he was ordered by Eichmann's deputy, Rolf Günther, to take 100 kilos of prussic acid to Globocnik in Lublin. They were accompanied by a Professor of Hygiene at the University of Marburg/Lahn, Wilhelm Pfannenstiel. They arrived on August 17, 1942, and met with Globocnik, who boasted (falsely) of a recent visit by Hitler. According to Gerstein, Globocnik also claimed (with great exaggeration) that in Belzec, Treblinka, Sobibor respectively 15,000, 25,000, and 20,000 Jews were killed daily with "diesel exhaust gas." (Dieselauspuffgasen) Gerstein's task was to disinfect the huge amounts of clothing taken from the Jews, and on August 19, he and Pfannenstiel travelled to Belzec and were shown around the camp by SS-Hauptsturmführer Obermeyer. [130] On the following morning, August 20, they witnessed the arrival of a 45-wagon transport from Lwow (Lemberg) with 6,700 Jews, of whom 1,450 were already dead. The Jews were forced to undress (the piles of shoes were allegedly 25 meters high), the women's hair was cut off, and then the naked Jews were driven between two barbed wire fences to the gas chambers by Ukrainian guards. An SS man offered soothing assurances that they should inhale deeply to prevent lung infection, and then the men would be sent to work. Approximately 750 Jews were driven into each of four gas chambers, measuring 5 x 5 meters apiece. For 2 hours and 49 minutes, SS Sergeant Heckenholt [131] struggled to start the engine. Pfannenstiel, looking through glass peep hole in the door of one of the gas chambers, commented that the Jews were weeping "as they do in the synagogue." Finally, the engine started, and the gassing took 32 minutes. Then Jewish workers opened the outside doors to the gas chambers and took out the bodies. Before the corpses of the Jews were tossed into a large trench, they were searched for valuables and gold dental work was broken out.
The following day Gerstein drove to Treblinka, where the gassing facilities were larger, and he saw "veritable mounds of clothing and underwear, 115 to 130 feet high." At a dinner in the visitors' honor, Pfannenstiel made a speech about "the greatness of the work" being done there. On the night of August 21-22, Gerstein travelled by train from Warsaw to Berlin, and accidently encountered the Secretary to the Swedish Embassy in Berlin, Göran von Otter. In a feverish conversation lasting hours, Gerstein told the Swede all he had just seen and urged him to make it known to the outside world. Von Otter later confirmed this encounter with Gerstein. [132] Gerstein wrote one handwritten French and two type-written German versions of this report in April 1945 and died in a French prison cell the following July. His death was ruled a suicide by French prison officials.
A third eyewitness account is that given by Professor Wilhelm Pfannenstiel in a series of depositions he gave to judicial authorities in Germany in the 1950's. [133] Pfannenstiel claimed that Gerstein's version was "false" and "full of exaggerations." Günther did not accompany them to Lublin. He did not go to Treblinka after visiting Belzec and thus did not give a speech there. The gassing at Belzec had taken only 18 minutes, not 32 minutes, and he had not made any remark about the Jews weeping as they do in a synagogue. He did confirm that the Jews had to strip naked, the women had their hair cut, an SS officer made soothing remarks, the Jews were driven into four of six gas chambers in the building, exhaust gas from an engine was piped in, and gold teeth were taken from the corpses before they were stacked in a trench by Jews who did the "dirty work."
Many aspects of Gerstein's testimony are unquestionably problematic. Several statements he attributes to Globocnik are clearly exagerrated or false, and it is not clear whether Gerstein or Globocnik was the faulty source. In other statements, such as the height of the piles of shoes and clothing at Belzec and Treblinka, Gerstein himself is clearly the source of exaggeration. Gerstein also added grossly exaggerated claims about matters to which he was not an eyewitness, such as that a total of 25 million Jews and others were gassed. But in the essential issue, namely that he was in Belzec and witnessed the gassing of a transport of Jews from Lwow, his testimony is fully corroborated by Pfannenstiel. It is also corroborated by other categories of witnesses from Belzec.
Footnotes to: Evidence for the Implementation of the Final Solution. Christopher Browning.
[111] . Report of OFK 365, 18.4.42, in National Archives, T-501/216/203. (Die jüdische Bevölkerung zeigt tiefste Niedergeschlagenheit, was auch durchaus erklärlich ist, da einmal in verschiedenen Orten des Distrikts die bekannten Aktionen gegen die Juden wieder einsetzten und zum anderen in Lemberg die vorübergehend unterbrochene Aussiedlung von Juden ihren Fortgang nimmt; es dürfte sich inzwischen auch bei den Juden herumgesprochen haben, dass die Evakuierten das Ansiedlungsgebiet, das ihnen als Reiseziel angegeben wird, niemals erreichen.)
[112] . [/b]Report of OFK 365, 17.10.42, in National Archives, T-501/216/1129. (Die Umsiedlungsaktionen gehen unvermindert weiter. Das Judentum ist über sein Schicksal unterrichtet. Bezeichnend ist der Ausspruch eines Mitgliedes des Lemberger Judenrates: Wir tragen alle unseren Totenschein in der Tasche--es ist nur der Sterbetag noch nicht ausgefüllt.)
[113] . Westermann report to KdO Lemberg, 14.9.42. Copy in: Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen, Ludwigsburg, USSR Ord. No. 116/508-10. (Die immer grosser werdende Panik unter den Juden, vorgerufen durch starke Hitze, Überfüllung der Waggons und den Leichengestank--es befanden sich beim Ausladen der Waggons etwa 2000 Juden tot im Zuge--machten den Transport fast undurchführbar.) A more legible, retyped copy of this document contains the figure 200 rather than 2,000.
[114] .Katzmann to Krüger, 30.6.43, printed in: IMT, vol. 37, pp. 398 and 401.
[115] . Nürnberg Document NO-2207, Ganzenmüller to Wolff, 28.7.42. (Seit dem 22.7 fährt täglich ein Zug mit 5000 Juden von Warschau über Malkinia nach Treblinka, ausserdem zweimal wöchentlich ein Zug mit 5000 Juden von Przemysl nach Belzek.)
[116] . August/September report of the Warsaw district governor to
Bühler, in YVA, O-53/113/348-61.
[117] . Facsimile copies of these train schedules are printed in the appendices of: Raul Hilberg, Sonderzüge nach Auschwitz (Mainz, 1981), pp. 183-86, 198-202, 208-212, 216-17, 222-23, 228.
[118] . War Diary of the Oberquartiermeister, Mbfh Polen, 1.5..41-31.12.43, in National Archives, T-501/219/461. (OK Ostrow meldet, dass die Juden in Treblinka nicht ausreichend beerdigt seien und infolgedessen ein unerträglicher Kadavergeruch die Luft verpestet.)
[119] . Fischmann report, 20.6.42, copy in YVA, O-51/163/42-43.
[120] . NO-2207, Ganzenmüller to Wolff, 28.7.42.
[121] . Protocol of conference of September 26 and 28, 1942, concerning the evacuation of Jews, copy in: Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen Ludwigsburg, 8 AR-Z 151/59, p. 31-32. (Nach der Beendigung der Wiederinstandsetzung der Linie Lublin-Chelm, wahrscheinlich ab 1. November 1942, werden auch die anderen dringenden Transporte durchgeführt werden können, nämlich: 1 Zug pro Tag vom Distrikt Radom nach Sobibor; 1 Zug pro Tag von Distrikt Lublin Nord nach Belzec und 1 Zug pro Tag vom Distrikt Lublin Mitte nach Sobibor....)
[122] . Globocnik to Herff, with promotion list, printed in Faschismus-Getto-Massenmord, pp. 301-2. (der beste Lagerleiter, der den grössten Anteil an der ganzen Aktion hatte)
[123] . "Eichmann tells his own damning story," Life Magazine 49/22 (28.11.60). Copies of the transcripts of Eichmann's taped conversations with Sassen, corrected in Eichmann's hand, can be found in the Israeli State Archives.
[124] . Copies of these interrogations can be found in six volumes in: Bundesarchiv Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/1-6. Excerpts have been published in: Eichmann Interrogated: Transcripts from the Archives of the Israeli Police, ed. by Jochen von Lang.
[125] . Bundesarchiv Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/119.
[126] . Bundesarchiv Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/169.
[127] . The Trial of Adolf Eichmann: Record of Proceedings in the District Court of Jerusalem (Jerusalem, 1993), and Bundesarchiv Koblenz, All. Proz. 6/54-60.
[128] . Published by Leoni am Starnberger See.
[129]. Nürnberg Document PS-1553/RF-350. An edition of the Gerstein report was published by Hans Rothfels in the Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte (1953), pp. 177-194. Rothfels omitted some of Gerstein's allegations of Pfannenstiel's conduct as "purely personal notes." See also: Saul Friedländer, Kurt Gerstein: The Ambiguity of Good (New York, 1969), in which many excerpts from the Gerstein report and other correspondence are published.
[130] . Wirth's adjutant was named Josef Oberhauser, not Obermeyer.
[131] . A man named Lorenz Hackenholt, not Heckenholt, was in charge of the gas chambers at Belzec.
[132] . Aide memoire, written for the Swedish Foreign Office on August 7, 1945, published in: Steven Koblik, The Stones Cry Out: Sweden's Response to the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945 (New York, 1988), pp. 198-99, and several interviews with Koblik, pp. 58-59. Otter also recounted the meeting in an interview, Rheinischer Merkur, July 24, 1964.
[133] . Zentrale Stelle, 8 AR-Z 252/59, vol. I, pp. 41-44
(Pfannenstiel testimony, 6.6.50), and pp. 135-41 (testimony of 9.11.59). Excerpts from a deposition of 9.2.51 are also printed in Friedländer, Kurt Gerstein, pp. 120-21. Excerpts of the
testimony of 9.11.59 are printed in: Nationalsozialistische Massentötungen durch Giftgas, ed. by Eugen Kogen, Hermann Langbein, and Adalbert Rückerl (Frankfurt/M., 1983), pp. 173-74.
[134] . The 29 indicted personnel of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka were: Josef Hirtreiter, Hubert Gomerski, Johann Kleier, Erich Bauer, Kurt Franz, Heinrich Matthes, August Miete, Willi Mentz, Gustav Münzenberger, Otto Stadie, Franz Suchomel, Erwin Lambert, Franz Rum, Otto Horn, Joseph Oberhauser, Werner Dubois, Robert Jührs, Heinrich Unverhau, Ernst Zierke, Karl Alfred Schluch, Heinrich Gley, Erich Fuchs, Kurt Bolender, Karl Frenzel, Franz Wolf, Alfred Ittner, Hans-Heinz Schütt, Erich L., and Franz Stangl. Brief sketches of most of the defendants, as well as a list of the trials, can be found in: Dick de Mildt, In the Name of the People: Perpetrators of Genocide in the Reflection of their post-War Prosecution in West Germany: The 'Euthanasia' and 'Aktion Reinhard' Trial Cases (The Hague, 1996). An earlier study of the Aktion Reinhard trials is: Adalbert Rückerl, NS-Vernichtungslager im Spiegel deutscher Strafprozesse: Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Chelmno (Munich, 1977).
[135] . London, 1974.
[136] . Additional testimony of the Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka camp personnel has been printed in: Nationalsozialistische Massentötungen durch Giftgas, pp. 146-193.
[137] . ZStL, 208 AR-Z 252/59, vol. 8, pp. 1512-13 (testimony of Alfred Schluch). Portions of Schluch's testimony are also printed in: Nationalsozialistische Massentötungen durch Giftgas, pp. 167-68. (Die gehfähigen Juden hatten sich nach der Entladung an den Sammelplatz zu begeben. Bei der Entladung wurde den Juden gesagt, dass sie zur Umsiedlung kämen und zuvor noch gebadet und desinfiziert werden sollten. Die Ansprache wurde von Wirth, aber auch von seinem Dolmetscher, einem jüdischen Kapo, gehalten. Daran anschliessend wurden die Juden zu den Entkleidungsbaracken geführt. In der einen Baracke mussten sich die männlichen und in der anderen die weiblichen Juden und Kinder entkleiden. Nach der Entkleidung wurden die Juden getrennt nach Männern und Frauen mit Kindern durch den Schlauch geführt. ...Mein Standort am Schluch war in unmittelbarer Nähe der Entkleidungsbaracke. Wirth hatte mich deswegen dort eingewiesen, weil ich seiner Meinung nach beruhigend auf die Juden einwirken konnte. Nach Verlassen der Entkleidungsbaracke musste ich den Juden den weg zur Gaskammer weisen. Ich glaube, dass ich den Juden den Weg dorthin erleichterte, denn sie mussten aus meinen Worten oder meinen Gesten zur Überzeugung kommen, dass sie tatsächlich gebadet werden sollten. Nachdem die Juden die Gaskammern betreten hatten, wurden die Türen von Hackenholt selbst oder von den ihm zugeteilten Ukrainern fest verschlossen. Sodann setzte Hackenholt den Motor in Betrieb, mit dem die Vergasung ausgeführt wurde. Nach etwa 5 bis 7 Minuten--und diesen Zeitraum schätze ich nur--wurde durch ein Guckloch in die Gaskammer hineingeschaut, um festzustellen, ob bei allen der Tod eingetreten ist. Erst dann wurden die Aussentore geöffnet und die Gaskammern gelüftet. ...Nachdem die Gaskammern gelüftet worden waren, kam ein jüdisches Arbeitskommando unter Leitung eines Kapos und holte die Leichen aus den Kammern heraus. Auch an dieser Stelle habe ich gelegentlich Aufsichtsdienst gehabt. Die Vorgänge kann ich also genau schildern, weil ich alles selbst gesehen und miterlebt habe.
Die Juden waren in die Gaskammern sehr eng eingepfercht worden. Aus diesem Grunde lagen die Leichen nicht am Boden, sondern sie hingen kreuz und quer durcheinander, die eine zurück-, die andere vorgebeugt, eine zur Seite liegend, eine andere knieend, je nach dem, wie der Platz war. Die Leichen waren wenigstens teilweise mit Kot und Urin, andere zum Teil mit Speichel besudelt. Bei den Leichen konnte ich z.T. sehen, dass die Lippen und auch Nasenspitzen blaulich verfärbt waren. Bei einigen waren die Augen geschlossen, bei anderen waren die Augen verdreht.
Die Leichen wurden aus den Kammern herausgezogen und von einem Zahnarzt sogleich untersucht. Der Zahnarzt entfernte Fingerringe und zog etwa vorhandene Goldzähne heraus. Die auf diese Weise anfallenden Wertgegenststände wurden von ihm in einen bereitstehenden Karton geworfen. Nach dieser Prozedur wurden die Leichen in die vorhandenen grossen Gräber geworfen.)
Zyklop
07-01-2010, 06:39 PM
Shouldn't you be careful about what you're saying in your (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_against_Holocaust_denial#Romania)country.
Are you trying to threaten members here regarding the legal situation in their home countries?
holocaust denial = mental disorder - I'm quite sure of it.
That sounds like a rational conclusion...:rolleyes2:
Shouldn't you be careful about what you're saying in your (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_against_Holocaust_denial#Romania)country.
Not really. That's one of the things I love about my country - we have more freedom than you poor westerners...;)
Part V
Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V
Second category:German Camp Personnel
The second category of eyewitnesses is comprised of Germans who were stationed at Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. Twenty-nine such German camp personnel were indicted and brought before German courts in the 1950's and 1960's. They all gave pre-trial depositions. Many claimed that they had had no choice but to carry out the duties that they had been assigned, and many denied that they had committed any harmful or malicious acts beyond routine compliance with their obligatory duties. But none of them denied that the camps were equipped with gas chambers, in which hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed. At least 26 of the 29 had prior experience in the so-called "euthanasia" program, in which German mentally- and physically handicapped were gassed in one of six "institutes" or killing centers in Germany. [134]
Of these 29 men, Franz Stangl held the highest rank as commandant of first Sobibor and then Treblinka. Outside of judicial proceedings, he also gave extensive testimony in long interviews with the British journalist, Gitta Sereny, that are easily accessible in her book, Into That Darkness. [135] The testimony of Franz Suchomel, a guard at Treblinka, who was interviewed at length on hidden camera by Claude Lanzmann, can be seen and heard in latter's documentary film Shoah. Among the judicial testimonies of the other 27 camp personnel brought to trial in Germany were those of Alfred Schluch, Hermann Gley, Erich Fuchs, Erich Bauer, and Heinrich Matthes. [136]
Alfred Schluch had worked at the euthanasia institutes of Grafeneck and Hadamar prior to his assignment to Belzec in February or March 1942. He described the routine killing procedure of the Belzec camp as follows:
After unloading, the ambulant Jews proceeded to the assembly place. At the unloading the Jews were told that they were going to be resettled and before that had to be bathed and disinfected. The speech was given by Wirth and also by his translator, a Jewish capo. Next the Jews were then led to the undressing barracks. In one of the barracks the men and in the other the Jewish women and children had to undress.
After undressing the male Jews and the women with children were led separately through the tube. ...My position in the tube was quite near the undressing barracks. Wirth had installed me there, because in his opinion I could have a pacifying effect on the Jews. I had to direct the Jews along the path to the gas chamber after they left the undressing barracks. I believe that I made the way to the gas chambers easier for the Jews, because they must have been convinced from my words or gestures that they were actually to be bathed. After the Jews had entered the gas chambers, the doors were tightly closed by Hackenholt himself or by the Ukrainians assigned to him. Then Hackenholt started the motor that was used for the gassing. After about 5 to 7 minutes--and I only estimate the length of time--the peephole into the gas chamber was looked through to establish whether everyone was dead. Only then were the outer doors opened and the gas chambers aired out. ...After the gas chambers were aired out, a Jewish work commando under the direction of a capo arrived and took the corpses out of the chambers. I was also occasionally assigned to supervise at this place. Thus I can exactly describe the procedures, because I saw and experienced everything myself.
The Jews had been very tightly packed into the gas chambers. For this reason the corpses did not lie on the ground, but all leaned in a jumble this way and that, the one backwards, the other forwards, one prone to the side, the other kneeling, each according to the space around. The corpses were at least partially besmirched with excrement and urine, others in part with saliva. The lips and nose tips of some of the corpses had turned blue. With some the eyes were closed, with others the eyes had rolled.
The corpses were pulled out of the chambers and immediately examined by one of the dentists. The dentist removed rings from the fingers and pulled out gold teeth. The valuables recovered in this way were tossed into a box that had been provided. After this procedure the corpses were thrown into the large graves nearby. [137]
Heinrich Gley arrived in Belzec in the summer of 1942 and was eventually assigned to the "cremation commando." (Verbrennungskommando) Concerning the burning of the corpses, he testified:
As I remember the gassing was stopped at the end of 1942, when there was snow already on the ground. Then the general exhumation and cremation of the corpses began; it might have lasted from November 1942 until March 1943. The cremation was carried out day and night without a break, and indeed at first at one and then later at two fire sites. It was possible to cremate some 2000 corpses at one fire site within 24 hours. About 4 weeks after the beginning of the cremation operation the second fire site was constructed. On average, therefore, some 300,000 corpses were cremated at the first site over 5 months, at the second site some 240,000 over 4 months. Naturally this is a matter of estimates based on averages. To figure the total number of corpses at 500,000 could be correct. [138]
Erich Fuchs, who was stationed first at Belzec, gave the following testimony concerning the construction of the gassing facilities at Sobibor.
On Wirth's instructions I drove to Lemberg in a truck and picked up a carburator engine, that I transported back to Sobibor. ...We unloaded the motor. It was a heavy Russian gasoline engine (probably a tank engine or tractor engine) with at least 200 PS (V-motor, 8 cylinder, water-cooled). We placed the motor on the a concrete base and installed the connection between the exhaust and the pipeline. Then we tested the motor. At first it did not work. I repaired the ignition and the valve with the result that the motor finally started up. The chemist, whom I already knew from Belzec, went into the gas chamber with a measuring instrument in order to test the concentration of gas. In conclusion a test gassing was then conducted. As best I remember, some 30-40 women were gassed in the chamber. [139]
Erich Bauer testified to the gassing procedure at the Sobibor camp, where he served from April 1942 to November 1943.
Perhaps 3 or 4 times I also led certain groups through the tube to the gas chambers. After all no member of the permanent staff in Sobibor could exempt himself over the course of time from having to perform this and all other functions occuring during the destruction process.
It may sound astonishing that the Jews went unsuspecting to their death. Resistance occurred extremely seldom. The Jews only became suspicious when they were already in the gas chambers. At this point in time, however, there was no turning back. The chambers were densely packed. ...The doors were sealed airtight and immediately the gassing procedure commenced. After some 20-30 minutes there was complete silence in the gas chambers; the people were gassed and dead. Then the chambers were opened, work Jews dragged the people who had been killed out of the gas chambers and transported the victims by means of lorry to the graves. Later the victims were cremated. [140]
Heinrich Matthes was assigned to Treblinka in the summer of 1942. He testified:
The entire time that I was in Treblinka, I served in the upper part of the camp. The upper part of the camp was that part of Treblinka in which the gas chambers were located and in which the corpses of the Jews who had been killed were at first put in graves and later were cremated.
Matthes' job was to supervise the Jewish workers in the upper camp. "These had to carry away the corpses and later to cremate the corpses. There were also work Jews, who had to break out the gold teeth of the corpses." [141]
All of these above testimonies of camp personnel were given to German judicial authorities in the course of pre-trial investigation. The testimonies were given under oath and signed, and those testifying had been advised of their right not to give self-incriminating testimony.
Third category: Non-German Guards
Approximately 30 Germans were stationed at each of the camps and held the key supervisory positions. More numerous were the guards, about 120 per camp, who were for the most part Ukrainians recruited out of the POW camps for captured Soviet soldiers and sent to a special SS training facility at Trawniki southeast of Lublin. Some of these men, having returned to the Soviet Union, gave testimony to German judicial investigators who were collecting evidence for the trial of Karl Streibel, the commandant of Trawniki. Others emigrated abroad, including to the U.S., where some of them faced judicial investigation by the Office of Special Investigations in the U.S. Department of Justice.
Aleksandr Illarionwitsch Semigodow testified that he was captured at the outbreak of war in June 1941 and volunteered to serve with the Germans to escape a very probable death by starvation in the POW camp at Cholm. He was sent to Trawniki in March 1942, and then served at Belzec from August 1942 to March 1943. At first trains arrived daily, and in some cases even twice daily, and then the number of incoming transports gradually diminished. The Jews were killed in the six gas chambers, and the bodies were buried. Then in late fall, the graves were opened, and the burning of the corpses began. This was not finished until March 1943. [142]
Captured in August 1941, Peter Petrowitsch Browzew was taken to Trawniki at the end of 1941 and assigned to Belzec in June 1942. About his experiences in Belzec, he gave the following testimony about procedures after the first small wooden building with three gas chambers had been replaced with a larger cement structure with six chambers:
Upon the arrival of a train, several train cars at a time were uncoupled and brought into the death camp. In the camp the train car doors were opened, and the Jews were told that they had come to work and that now they would be taken to the bath and should hand over their valuables.
Next they were told to undress. Then the Jews were led through a gate surrounded by barbed wire into a wooden barracks, where they undressed and where their hair was cut. No difference was made between men and women. They all had to undress in one room.
Next they were led through the same gate to the gas chambers.
There were six gas chambers, three on each side of the entrance. In general the chambers were usually crammed with some 200 Jews.
The people were locked in the chambers for 10-15 minutes. Next the chambers were opened, and a Jewish work commando had to take the corpses to a grave already dug near the gas chambers on the grounds of the camp.
However, before the corpses were removed from the gas chambers, one worker from the Jewish work commando tore out the gold teeth from the dead.
The incoming transports of Jews came to an end in late 1942, and the burning of the buried corpses began. "The corpses were pulled out of the graves, they were decomposed. There were metal rails, wood, and everything was burned. 24 hours through, day and night, the corpses burned." Then on February 3, 1943, Browzew escaped from Belzec and joined a partisan band. [143]
Feodor Federenko gave sworn, pre-trial testimony on May 25, 1976, to American investigators in Hartford, Connecticut. He was captured by the Germans in July 1941 and eventually was sent to the large POW camp in Cholm. Here he was picked out of the camp and sent to Trawniki for training. In late August or early September 1942, he was assigned to Treblinka. He was asked: "Were you aware of the fact that thousands of Jews were being exterminated in Treblinka?" He answered, "Yes, I knew." Asked if he was assigned to the forced labor camp or the camp "where they had gas chambers," he replied: "I was where the gas chambers were." [144]
At his subsequent denaturalization hearing in June 1978, Fedorenko testified over three days in greater detail. He denied that he had actually entered the section of the camp where the gas chambers were located but admitted that he had once been posted on a guard tower overlooking this section of the camp. "I saw how they were loading up dead people, loading them on the stretchers. ...And they were loading them in a hole." Later in his testimony, he reconfirmed that this part of the camp "is where there was the workers that took the bodies and buried them or stacked them in the holes. This is where the gas chambers were." Concerning the unloading of Jews from the trains, he testified: "Some were picked for work and the others, they went to the gas chambers." [145]
Fourth category: Nearby Poles
Many Poles in the villages around these camps saw the endless flow of transports, smelled the terrible odors of the camps, and heard all kinds of rumors of how the Jews were killed, including not only by gas but also by steam and electricity. Some Polish witnesses had particular vantage points, which enabled them to know much more about the camps than other Poles in the surrounding areas. For instance, between November 1 and December 23, 1941, a small force of Polish workers was employed to construct the initial buildings, including the first small gas chamber with only three rooms, at Belzec. Stanislaw Kozak and Edward Ferens both testified immediately after the war about their construction work in Belzec. [146] According to Kozak sand was poured between the double walls of one small building, whose interior was partially covered with zinc sheeting. The building had three rooms, each with two doors, one entering from a interior corridor and the other exiting to the outside. The doors were very strong and covered with rubber; they opened outward and were secured with crossbars on the outside. When Edward Ferens asked the German supervisor the purpose of the building, the latter merely laughed.
While the Poles worked on these buildings, the black-uniformed auxiliaries dug a large pit behind it. Beginning in March 1942 transports began arriving, sometimes 2-3 per day. In the fall the transports stopped, and an excavator was employed to open and empty the mass graves. For the next three months the terrible smell of burning bodies pervaded the area and could be detected up to 15 kilometers away. The camp was then dismantled.
Jan Jrzowski and Jan Piwonski worked at the train station in Sobibor, directly across from the ramp where the transports for the camp were unloaded. [147] Three German officers arrived in the fall of 1941 and measured the station ramp. Construction on the camp began March 1942, and the observant Poles wondered about the arrival and unloading of large, heavy doors covered with rubber. The transports began arriving in April, and by fall the smell of decaying corpses was detectable. In October 1942 an excavator arrived. The graves were opened and the corpses burned. The smell of burning bodies reached Wlodawa 9 kilometers away. The fire within the camp could be seen clearly at night. On October 14, 1943, an uprising occurred in the camp, after which it was closed.
Fifth category: Jewish Escapees
Concerning the last category of eyewitnesses, due to prisoner uprisings and breakouts in Treblinka and Sobibor, approximately 50 Jews from each camp survived the war. [148] Some testimonies were recorded even before the end of the war, [149] and one Treblinka survivor, Samuel Rajzman, testified very briefly before the International Military Tribunal at Nürnberg. [150] The testimonies of many others have subsequently been collected, especially at Yad Vashem, and many have been published. [151]
The situation regarding Belzec is much different. Perhaps as many as six prisoners escaped individually from Belzec, [152] but only one, Rudolf Reder, has given extensive post-war testimony. [153] In his very early testimony of December 1945, Reder recounted how he had been deported from Lwow to Belzec on August 17, 1942, in a train of 50 cars, each crammed with 100 Jews. He was only one of eight prisoners selected as skilled workers to join the Jewish labor force in the camp that day. Working in the camp as a mechanic, for several months he operated the excavator that dug graves behind the gas chamber. He could see the gas chambers even more closely when he delivered "gasoline" (Benzin) to the engine room at the end of the corridor that ran between the three gas chambers on each side. He gave the following description:
In these chambers the people were packed so tightly together, that even after death they were found in standing position. As soon as all chambers were crammed full, all the doors were tightly shut; ....then the motor was started. The work of the motor was watched over by the prisoner Moniek, a cabman from Cracow. The motor was always run exactly for 20 minutes, after which Moniek gave one of the machinists the signal to turn it off. After the motor had been turned off, on the order of Moniek the prisoners opened all the doors wide and pulled the dead in pairs out of the chambers with the help of straps placed around the hands of the corpses; the corpses were then pulled to the mass graves already dug out beforehand by machine. On the way between the ramp of the chamber and the grave, dentists pulled gold teeth from the corpses.
In November 1942 Reder escaped his captors and survived in hiding in Lwow until the arrival of the Red Army. He emigrated to Canada in 1953.
Once again, human memory is imperfect. The testimonies of both survivors and other witnesses to the events in Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka are no more immune to forgetfulness, error, exaggeration, distortion, and repression than eyewitness accounts of other events in the past. They differ, for instance, on how long each gassing operation took, on the dimensions and capacity of the gas chambers, on the number of undressing barracks, and on the roles of particular individuals. Gerstein, citing Globocnik, claimed the camps used diesel motors, but witnesses who actually serviced the engines in Belzec and Sobibor (Reder and Fuchs) spoke of gasoline engines. Once again, however, without exception all concur on the vital issue at dispute, namely that Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka were death camps whose primary purpose was to kill in gas chambers through the carbon monoxide from engine exhaust, and that the hundreds of thousands of corpses of Jews killed there were first buried and then later cremated.
E. Documentary Evidence concerning Aktion or Einsatz (Operation) Reinhard (alternatively spelled Reinhardt)
The deportation of Jews to and killing of Jews in the camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka, as well as the confiscation of their property, became known as Operation Reinhard, under the command of Odilo Globocnik, the SS and Police Leader in the district of Lublin. The expression Operation Reinhard appears in only a few German documents. So little documentary evidence explicitly dealing with Operation Reinhard survived because it was intentionally and systematically destroyed in 1943 and 1944. This is clearly revealed in a letter from its director, Odilo Globocnik, to Heinrich Himmler of January 5, 1944. It was a cover letter for Globocnik's submission of a final financial accounting of the program, for which Globocnik wanted a quick confirmation of financial propriety, given the "odium" (Globocnik's own expression) that attached to his past reputation in financial matters. Globocnik gave another reason for urgently concluding an audit of the financial side of Operation Reinhard, namely that its "records must be destroyed as soon as possible, after the documents of all other work in this matter have already been destroyed." [154]
An early document mentioning "Einsatz Reinhard" dates from July 18, 1942. It is a form on which the personnel specially authorized "for the carrying-out of the work of the Jewish resettlement within the framework of 'Operation Reinhard' with the SS and Police Leader in the Lublin district" acknowledged having been oriented to specific rules of secrecy by SS-Hauptsturmführer Höfle on Globocnik's staff. They were forbidden to make any communication, verbal or oral, concerning the "Jewish resettlement" (Judenumsiedlung) under any circumstances to anyone outside of Operation Reinhard. Moreover, there was "an explicit prohibition against photography in the camps of 'Operation Reinard.'" [155]
One surviving file of Aktion Reinhard documents (partially burned) concerns the camp personnel at Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. [156] Two letters date from April 13, 1943. The first of these, addressed to SS-Obersturmführer Kuno Ther of the SS Central Office for Personnel, proposed promotions of the officers and men of Aktion Reinhard. It noted: "The Reichsführer-SS [Himmler] had approved in principle the promotion of the most deserving officers and men after his visit to the Sobibor camp." It identified Christian Wirth as Inspector and Gottlieb Hering, Franz Reichsleitner, and Franz Stangl as "camp commanders." (Lagerführer) The remaining non-commissioned officers on the list "had been employed in Aktion 'Reinhard' since the beginning and had proven themselves in the best possible manner." [157]
A second letter of the same date, from Globocnik to Gruppenführer von Herff of the SS Central Officer for Personnel of the same day and sent by courier, was slightly rephrased. It did not mention Himmler's visit to Sobibor specifically but stated that Himmler "on the occasion of his visit in March had visited installations of Aktion 'Reinhard'" and approved promotions. The enclosed promotion list was for "members of the SS-Special Commando 'Einsatz Reinhard'." [158] Subsequent correspondence in the file concerning the recommended promotions of Aktion Reinhard personnel confirmed Himmler's visit and inspection of Sobibor but dated it precisely to February 12, 1943. [159]
On October 27, 1943, Globocnik confirmed to Herff in the SS Central Office for Personnel that included on his staff of 434 men were 92 men "from the Führer's Chancellery for the carrying out of Aktion Reinhard." [160] These were the men who formerly staffed the institutes of the "euthanasia" program for killing mentally- and physically handicapped Germans and were subsequently assigned to the camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka, where they could continue to use their expertise in gassing.
Another surviving file of documents that mention Aktion Reinhard concern the audit of Operation Reinhard following Globocnik's transfer from the General Government to Triest in the fall of 1943. On September 22, 1943, Himmler wrote to Oswald Pohl, head of the Economic and Administrative Main Office of the SS, and Globocnik that, in view of Globocnik's transfer, the latter should turn over an audit of the "'Reinhard' account" (Konto 'Reinhard') to Pohl. [161] On November 4, 1943, Globocnik wrote Himmler from Triest: "As of October 19, 1943, I have terminated Aktion Reinhardt, which I directed in the General Government, and dissolved all camps." [162] It is only at this point in the fall of 1943 that the alternative spelling of "Reinhardt" rather than "Reinhard" first appeared in the documents. [163]
On January 5, 1944, Globocnik submitted his final report on the "economic part of Aktion Reinhardt." (Wirtschaftlicher Teil der Aktion Reinhardt) This report made clear that alongside the seizure and utilization of Jewish property, Aktion Reinhardt also dealt with "the evacuation itself" (die Aussiedlung selbst) and "the utilization of labor." (die Verwertung der Arbeitskraft) In a brief section of the report devoted to the evacuation, Globocnik reported that the "installations" (Einrichtungen) created for the operation had been "entirely cleared away." (zur Gänze weggeräumt) Moreover, "for purposes of surveillance a small farmstead had been founded in each camp," and the occupants had to be paid continuously to maintain the farmsteads. Concerning the utilization of labor, Globocnik noted that he had had a workforce of some 52,000 working in 18 enterprises, but on November 3, 1943, all the manpower had been withdrawn from the work camps, and the factories had been idled. [164] (In this regard it should be noted that on November 3-4, 1943, some 42,000 Jews in the work camps of Lublin, Trawniki, and Poniatowa were shot in an SS killed action code-named "Fall Harvest" or Erntefest.) Among the recipients of the Jewish property collected during Operation Reinhard were the Ministry of Economics and Reichsbank as well as the Ministry of Finance.
Several conclusions can be drawn from this miniscule remnant of Operation Reinhard documents. Operation Reinhard was directed by Odilo Globocnik, the SS and Police Leader of Lublin, and the SS "special commando" of Operation Reinhard was made up of personnel who staffed the death camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka and who had earlier worked in the gassing institutes of the "euthanasia" program in Germany. The deportation of Jews to and the gassing of Jews in these camps was the central purpose of Operation Reinhard, and every effort was made to erase all physical traces of the three camps. The exploitation of Jewish labor and property were collateral aspects of Operation Reinhard, and the Finance Ministry was only one of a number of recipients of Jewish property. Staatssekretär Fritz Reinhardt of the Finance Ministry is not mentioned in any of the documents, and the spelling of Operation Reinhardt with a "t" as in his name begins only in late 1943. The notion that Operation Reinhard was a program for collecting and exploiting Jewish property and was named after the state secretary of the Finance Ministry, Fritz Reinhardt, is farfetched and finds no support in the surviving documents. Nothing in the surviving documents, however, explicitly indicates that Operation Reinhard was named for the assassinated Reinhard Heydrich.
Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V
Second category:German Camp Personnel
The second category of eyewitnesses is comprised of Germans who were stationed at Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. Twenty-nine such German camp personnel were indicted and brought before German courts in the 1950's and 1960's. They all gave pre-trial depositions. Many claimed that they had had no choice but to carry out the duties that they had been assigned, and many denied that they had committed any harmful or malicious acts beyond routine compliance with their obligatory duties. But none of them denied that the camps were equipped with gas chambers, in which hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed. At least 26 of the 29 had prior experience in the so-called "euthanasia" program, in which German mentally- and physically handicapped were gassed in one of six "institutes" or killing centers in Germany. [134]
Of these 29 men, Franz Stangl held the highest rank as commandant of first Sobibor and then Treblinka. Outside of judicial proceedings, he also gave extensive testimony in long interviews with the British journalist, Gitta Sereny, that are easily accessible in her book, Into That Darkness. [135] The testimony of Franz Suchomel, a guard at Treblinka, who was interviewed at length on hidden camera by Claude Lanzmann, can be seen and heard in latter's documentary film Shoah. Among the judicial testimonies of the other 27 camp personnel brought to trial in Germany were those of Alfred Schluch, Hermann Gley, Erich Fuchs, Erich Bauer, and Heinrich Matthes. [136]
Alfred Schluch had worked at the euthanasia institutes of Grafeneck and Hadamar prior to his assignment to Belzec in February or March 1942. He described the routine killing procedure of the Belzec camp as follows:
After unloading, the ambulant Jews proceeded to the assembly place. At the unloading the Jews were told that they were going to be resettled and before that had to be bathed and disinfected. The speech was given by Wirth and also by his translator, a Jewish capo. Next the Jews were then led to the undressing barracks. In one of the barracks the men and in the other the Jewish women and children had to undress.
After undressing the male Jews and the women with children were led separately through the tube. ...My position in the tube was quite near the undressing barracks. Wirth had installed me there, because in his opinion I could have a pacifying effect on the Jews. I had to direct the Jews along the path to the gas chamber after they left the undressing barracks. I believe that I made the way to the gas chambers easier for the Jews, because they must have been convinced from my words or gestures that they were actually to be bathed. After the Jews had entered the gas chambers, the doors were tightly closed by Hackenholt himself or by the Ukrainians assigned to him. Then Hackenholt started the motor that was used for the gassing. After about 5 to 7 minutes--and I only estimate the length of time--the peephole into the gas chamber was looked through to establish whether everyone was dead. Only then were the outer doors opened and the gas chambers aired out. ...After the gas chambers were aired out, a Jewish work commando under the direction of a capo arrived and took the corpses out of the chambers. I was also occasionally assigned to supervise at this place. Thus I can exactly describe the procedures, because I saw and experienced everything myself.
The Jews had been very tightly packed into the gas chambers. For this reason the corpses did not lie on the ground, but all leaned in a jumble this way and that, the one backwards, the other forwards, one prone to the side, the other kneeling, each according to the space around. The corpses were at least partially besmirched with excrement and urine, others in part with saliva. The lips and nose tips of some of the corpses had turned blue. With some the eyes were closed, with others the eyes had rolled.
The corpses were pulled out of the chambers and immediately examined by one of the dentists. The dentist removed rings from the fingers and pulled out gold teeth. The valuables recovered in this way were tossed into a box that had been provided. After this procedure the corpses were thrown into the large graves nearby. [137]
Heinrich Gley arrived in Belzec in the summer of 1942 and was eventually assigned to the "cremation commando." (Verbrennungskommando) Concerning the burning of the corpses, he testified:
As I remember the gassing was stopped at the end of 1942, when there was snow already on the ground. Then the general exhumation and cremation of the corpses began; it might have lasted from November 1942 until March 1943. The cremation was carried out day and night without a break, and indeed at first at one and then later at two fire sites. It was possible to cremate some 2000 corpses at one fire site within 24 hours. About 4 weeks after the beginning of the cremation operation the second fire site was constructed. On average, therefore, some 300,000 corpses were cremated at the first site over 5 months, at the second site some 240,000 over 4 months. Naturally this is a matter of estimates based on averages. To figure the total number of corpses at 500,000 could be correct. [138]
Erich Fuchs, who was stationed first at Belzec, gave the following testimony concerning the construction of the gassing facilities at Sobibor.
On Wirth's instructions I drove to Lemberg in a truck and picked up a carburator engine, that I transported back to Sobibor. ...We unloaded the motor. It was a heavy Russian gasoline engine (probably a tank engine or tractor engine) with at least 200 PS (V-motor, 8 cylinder, water-cooled). We placed the motor on the a concrete base and installed the connection between the exhaust and the pipeline. Then we tested the motor. At first it did not work. I repaired the ignition and the valve with the result that the motor finally started up. The chemist, whom I already knew from Belzec, went into the gas chamber with a measuring instrument in order to test the concentration of gas. In conclusion a test gassing was then conducted. As best I remember, some 30-40 women were gassed in the chamber. [139]
Erich Bauer testified to the gassing procedure at the Sobibor camp, where he served from April 1942 to November 1943.
Perhaps 3 or 4 times I also led certain groups through the tube to the gas chambers. After all no member of the permanent staff in Sobibor could exempt himself over the course of time from having to perform this and all other functions occuring during the destruction process.
It may sound astonishing that the Jews went unsuspecting to their death. Resistance occurred extremely seldom. The Jews only became suspicious when they were already in the gas chambers. At this point in time, however, there was no turning back. The chambers were densely packed. ...The doors were sealed airtight and immediately the gassing procedure commenced. After some 20-30 minutes there was complete silence in the gas chambers; the people were gassed and dead. Then the chambers were opened, work Jews dragged the people who had been killed out of the gas chambers and transported the victims by means of lorry to the graves. Later the victims were cremated. [140]
Heinrich Matthes was assigned to Treblinka in the summer of 1942. He testified:
The entire time that I was in Treblinka, I served in the upper part of the camp. The upper part of the camp was that part of Treblinka in which the gas chambers were located and in which the corpses of the Jews who had been killed were at first put in graves and later were cremated.
Matthes' job was to supervise the Jewish workers in the upper camp. "These had to carry away the corpses and later to cremate the corpses. There were also work Jews, who had to break out the gold teeth of the corpses." [141]
All of these above testimonies of camp personnel were given to German judicial authorities in the course of pre-trial investigation. The testimonies were given under oath and signed, and those testifying had been advised of their right not to give self-incriminating testimony.
Third category: Non-German Guards
Approximately 30 Germans were stationed at each of the camps and held the key supervisory positions. More numerous were the guards, about 120 per camp, who were for the most part Ukrainians recruited out of the POW camps for captured Soviet soldiers and sent to a special SS training facility at Trawniki southeast of Lublin. Some of these men, having returned to the Soviet Union, gave testimony to German judicial investigators who were collecting evidence for the trial of Karl Streibel, the commandant of Trawniki. Others emigrated abroad, including to the U.S., where some of them faced judicial investigation by the Office of Special Investigations in the U.S. Department of Justice.
Aleksandr Illarionwitsch Semigodow testified that he was captured at the outbreak of war in June 1941 and volunteered to serve with the Germans to escape a very probable death by starvation in the POW camp at Cholm. He was sent to Trawniki in March 1942, and then served at Belzec from August 1942 to March 1943. At first trains arrived daily, and in some cases even twice daily, and then the number of incoming transports gradually diminished. The Jews were killed in the six gas chambers, and the bodies were buried. Then in late fall, the graves were opened, and the burning of the corpses began. This was not finished until March 1943. [142]
Captured in August 1941, Peter Petrowitsch Browzew was taken to Trawniki at the end of 1941 and assigned to Belzec in June 1942. About his experiences in Belzec, he gave the following testimony about procedures after the first small wooden building with three gas chambers had been replaced with a larger cement structure with six chambers:
Upon the arrival of a train, several train cars at a time were uncoupled and brought into the death camp. In the camp the train car doors were opened, and the Jews were told that they had come to work and that now they would be taken to the bath and should hand over their valuables.
Next they were told to undress. Then the Jews were led through a gate surrounded by barbed wire into a wooden barracks, where they undressed and where their hair was cut. No difference was made between men and women. They all had to undress in one room.
Next they were led through the same gate to the gas chambers.
There were six gas chambers, three on each side of the entrance. In general the chambers were usually crammed with some 200 Jews.
The people were locked in the chambers for 10-15 minutes. Next the chambers were opened, and a Jewish work commando had to take the corpses to a grave already dug near the gas chambers on the grounds of the camp.
However, before the corpses were removed from the gas chambers, one worker from the Jewish work commando tore out the gold teeth from the dead.
The incoming transports of Jews came to an end in late 1942, and the burning of the buried corpses began. "The corpses were pulled out of the graves, they were decomposed. There were metal rails, wood, and everything was burned. 24 hours through, day and night, the corpses burned." Then on February 3, 1943, Browzew escaped from Belzec and joined a partisan band. [143]
Feodor Federenko gave sworn, pre-trial testimony on May 25, 1976, to American investigators in Hartford, Connecticut. He was captured by the Germans in July 1941 and eventually was sent to the large POW camp in Cholm. Here he was picked out of the camp and sent to Trawniki for training. In late August or early September 1942, he was assigned to Treblinka. He was asked: "Were you aware of the fact that thousands of Jews were being exterminated in Treblinka?" He answered, "Yes, I knew." Asked if he was assigned to the forced labor camp or the camp "where they had gas chambers," he replied: "I was where the gas chambers were." [144]
At his subsequent denaturalization hearing in June 1978, Fedorenko testified over three days in greater detail. He denied that he had actually entered the section of the camp where the gas chambers were located but admitted that he had once been posted on a guard tower overlooking this section of the camp. "I saw how they were loading up dead people, loading them on the stretchers. ...And they were loading them in a hole." Later in his testimony, he reconfirmed that this part of the camp "is where there was the workers that took the bodies and buried them or stacked them in the holes. This is where the gas chambers were." Concerning the unloading of Jews from the trains, he testified: "Some were picked for work and the others, they went to the gas chambers." [145]
Fourth category: Nearby Poles
Many Poles in the villages around these camps saw the endless flow of transports, smelled the terrible odors of the camps, and heard all kinds of rumors of how the Jews were killed, including not only by gas but also by steam and electricity. Some Polish witnesses had particular vantage points, which enabled them to know much more about the camps than other Poles in the surrounding areas. For instance, between November 1 and December 23, 1941, a small force of Polish workers was employed to construct the initial buildings, including the first small gas chamber with only three rooms, at Belzec. Stanislaw Kozak and Edward Ferens both testified immediately after the war about their construction work in Belzec. [146] According to Kozak sand was poured between the double walls of one small building, whose interior was partially covered with zinc sheeting. The building had three rooms, each with two doors, one entering from a interior corridor and the other exiting to the outside. The doors were very strong and covered with rubber; they opened outward and were secured with crossbars on the outside. When Edward Ferens asked the German supervisor the purpose of the building, the latter merely laughed.
While the Poles worked on these buildings, the black-uniformed auxiliaries dug a large pit behind it. Beginning in March 1942 transports began arriving, sometimes 2-3 per day. In the fall the transports stopped, and an excavator was employed to open and empty the mass graves. For the next three months the terrible smell of burning bodies pervaded the area and could be detected up to 15 kilometers away. The camp was then dismantled.
Jan Jrzowski and Jan Piwonski worked at the train station in Sobibor, directly across from the ramp where the transports for the camp were unloaded. [147] Three German officers arrived in the fall of 1941 and measured the station ramp. Construction on the camp began March 1942, and the observant Poles wondered about the arrival and unloading of large, heavy doors covered with rubber. The transports began arriving in April, and by fall the smell of decaying corpses was detectable. In October 1942 an excavator arrived. The graves were opened and the corpses burned. The smell of burning bodies reached Wlodawa 9 kilometers away. The fire within the camp could be seen clearly at night. On October 14, 1943, an uprising occurred in the camp, after which it was closed.
Fifth category: Jewish Escapees
Concerning the last category of eyewitnesses, due to prisoner uprisings and breakouts in Treblinka and Sobibor, approximately 50 Jews from each camp survived the war. [148] Some testimonies were recorded even before the end of the war, [149] and one Treblinka survivor, Samuel Rajzman, testified very briefly before the International Military Tribunal at Nürnberg. [150] The testimonies of many others have subsequently been collected, especially at Yad Vashem, and many have been published. [151]
The situation regarding Belzec is much different. Perhaps as many as six prisoners escaped individually from Belzec, [152] but only one, Rudolf Reder, has given extensive post-war testimony. [153] In his very early testimony of December 1945, Reder recounted how he had been deported from Lwow to Belzec on August 17, 1942, in a train of 50 cars, each crammed with 100 Jews. He was only one of eight prisoners selected as skilled workers to join the Jewish labor force in the camp that day. Working in the camp as a mechanic, for several months he operated the excavator that dug graves behind the gas chamber. He could see the gas chambers even more closely when he delivered "gasoline" (Benzin) to the engine room at the end of the corridor that ran between the three gas chambers on each side. He gave the following description:
In these chambers the people were packed so tightly together, that even after death they were found in standing position. As soon as all chambers were crammed full, all the doors were tightly shut; ....then the motor was started. The work of the motor was watched over by the prisoner Moniek, a cabman from Cracow. The motor was always run exactly for 20 minutes, after which Moniek gave one of the machinists the signal to turn it off. After the motor had been turned off, on the order of Moniek the prisoners opened all the doors wide and pulled the dead in pairs out of the chambers with the help of straps placed around the hands of the corpses; the corpses were then pulled to the mass graves already dug out beforehand by machine. On the way between the ramp of the chamber and the grave, dentists pulled gold teeth from the corpses.
In November 1942 Reder escaped his captors and survived in hiding in Lwow until the arrival of the Red Army. He emigrated to Canada in 1953.
Once again, human memory is imperfect. The testimonies of both survivors and other witnesses to the events in Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka are no more immune to forgetfulness, error, exaggeration, distortion, and repression than eyewitness accounts of other events in the past. They differ, for instance, on how long each gassing operation took, on the dimensions and capacity of the gas chambers, on the number of undressing barracks, and on the roles of particular individuals. Gerstein, citing Globocnik, claimed the camps used diesel motors, but witnesses who actually serviced the engines in Belzec and Sobibor (Reder and Fuchs) spoke of gasoline engines. Once again, however, without exception all concur on the vital issue at dispute, namely that Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka were death camps whose primary purpose was to kill in gas chambers through the carbon monoxide from engine exhaust, and that the hundreds of thousands of corpses of Jews killed there were first buried and then later cremated.
E. Documentary Evidence concerning Aktion or Einsatz (Operation) Reinhard (alternatively spelled Reinhardt)
The deportation of Jews to and killing of Jews in the camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka, as well as the confiscation of their property, became known as Operation Reinhard, under the command of Odilo Globocnik, the SS and Police Leader in the district of Lublin. The expression Operation Reinhard appears in only a few German documents. So little documentary evidence explicitly dealing with Operation Reinhard survived because it was intentionally and systematically destroyed in 1943 and 1944. This is clearly revealed in a letter from its director, Odilo Globocnik, to Heinrich Himmler of January 5, 1944. It was a cover letter for Globocnik's submission of a final financial accounting of the program, for which Globocnik wanted a quick confirmation of financial propriety, given the "odium" (Globocnik's own expression) that attached to his past reputation in financial matters. Globocnik gave another reason for urgently concluding an audit of the financial side of Operation Reinhard, namely that its "records must be destroyed as soon as possible, after the documents of all other work in this matter have already been destroyed." [154]
An early document mentioning "Einsatz Reinhard" dates from July 18, 1942. It is a form on which the personnel specially authorized "for the carrying-out of the work of the Jewish resettlement within the framework of 'Operation Reinhard' with the SS and Police Leader in the Lublin district" acknowledged having been oriented to specific rules of secrecy by SS-Hauptsturmführer Höfle on Globocnik's staff. They were forbidden to make any communication, verbal or oral, concerning the "Jewish resettlement" (Judenumsiedlung) under any circumstances to anyone outside of Operation Reinhard. Moreover, there was "an explicit prohibition against photography in the camps of 'Operation Reinard.'" [155]
One surviving file of Aktion Reinhard documents (partially burned) concerns the camp personnel at Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. [156] Two letters date from April 13, 1943. The first of these, addressed to SS-Obersturmführer Kuno Ther of the SS Central Office for Personnel, proposed promotions of the officers and men of Aktion Reinhard. It noted: "The Reichsführer-SS [Himmler] had approved in principle the promotion of the most deserving officers and men after his visit to the Sobibor camp." It identified Christian Wirth as Inspector and Gottlieb Hering, Franz Reichsleitner, and Franz Stangl as "camp commanders." (Lagerführer) The remaining non-commissioned officers on the list "had been employed in Aktion 'Reinhard' since the beginning and had proven themselves in the best possible manner." [157]
A second letter of the same date, from Globocnik to Gruppenführer von Herff of the SS Central Officer for Personnel of the same day and sent by courier, was slightly rephrased. It did not mention Himmler's visit to Sobibor specifically but stated that Himmler "on the occasion of his visit in March had visited installations of Aktion 'Reinhard'" and approved promotions. The enclosed promotion list was for "members of the SS-Special Commando 'Einsatz Reinhard'." [158] Subsequent correspondence in the file concerning the recommended promotions of Aktion Reinhard personnel confirmed Himmler's visit and inspection of Sobibor but dated it precisely to February 12, 1943. [159]
On October 27, 1943, Globocnik confirmed to Herff in the SS Central Office for Personnel that included on his staff of 434 men were 92 men "from the Führer's Chancellery for the carrying out of Aktion Reinhard." [160] These were the men who formerly staffed the institutes of the "euthanasia" program for killing mentally- and physically handicapped Germans and were subsequently assigned to the camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka, where they could continue to use their expertise in gassing.
Another surviving file of documents that mention Aktion Reinhard concern the audit of Operation Reinhard following Globocnik's transfer from the General Government to Triest in the fall of 1943. On September 22, 1943, Himmler wrote to Oswald Pohl, head of the Economic and Administrative Main Office of the SS, and Globocnik that, in view of Globocnik's transfer, the latter should turn over an audit of the "'Reinhard' account" (Konto 'Reinhard') to Pohl. [161] On November 4, 1943, Globocnik wrote Himmler from Triest: "As of October 19, 1943, I have terminated Aktion Reinhardt, which I directed in the General Government, and dissolved all camps." [162] It is only at this point in the fall of 1943 that the alternative spelling of "Reinhardt" rather than "Reinhard" first appeared in the documents. [163]
On January 5, 1944, Globocnik submitted his final report on the "economic part of Aktion Reinhardt." (Wirtschaftlicher Teil der Aktion Reinhardt) This report made clear that alongside the seizure and utilization of Jewish property, Aktion Reinhardt also dealt with "the evacuation itself" (die Aussiedlung selbst) and "the utilization of labor." (die Verwertung der Arbeitskraft) In a brief section of the report devoted to the evacuation, Globocnik reported that the "installations" (Einrichtungen) created for the operation had been "entirely cleared away." (zur Gänze weggeräumt) Moreover, "for purposes of surveillance a small farmstead had been founded in each camp," and the occupants had to be paid continuously to maintain the farmsteads. Concerning the utilization of labor, Globocnik noted that he had had a workforce of some 52,000 working in 18 enterprises, but on November 3, 1943, all the manpower had been withdrawn from the work camps, and the factories had been idled. [164] (In this regard it should be noted that on November 3-4, 1943, some 42,000 Jews in the work camps of Lublin, Trawniki, and Poniatowa were shot in an SS killed action code-named "Fall Harvest" or Erntefest.) Among the recipients of the Jewish property collected during Operation Reinhard were the Ministry of Economics and Reichsbank as well as the Ministry of Finance.
Several conclusions can be drawn from this miniscule remnant of Operation Reinhard documents. Operation Reinhard was directed by Odilo Globocnik, the SS and Police Leader of Lublin, and the SS "special commando" of Operation Reinhard was made up of personnel who staffed the death camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka and who had earlier worked in the gassing institutes of the "euthanasia" program in Germany. The deportation of Jews to and the gassing of Jews in these camps was the central purpose of Operation Reinhard, and every effort was made to erase all physical traces of the three camps. The exploitation of Jewish labor and property were collateral aspects of Operation Reinhard, and the Finance Ministry was only one of a number of recipients of Jewish property. Staatssekretär Fritz Reinhardt of the Finance Ministry is not mentioned in any of the documents, and the spelling of Operation Reinhardt with a "t" as in his name begins only in late 1943. The notion that Operation Reinhard was a program for collecting and exploiting Jewish property and was named after the state secretary of the Finance Ministry, Fritz Reinhardt, is farfetched and finds no support in the surviving documents. Nothing in the surviving documents, however, explicitly indicates that Operation Reinhard was named for the assassinated Reinhard Heydrich.
I don't give a shit about there not being evidence.
That is a very interesting way of approaching history.
holocaust denial = mental disorder - I'm quite sure of it.
Are there a significant number of credible mental health professionals who support your claim?
This might be interesting:
http://www.holocaustdenialontrial.org/en/learning/myth-fact
Myth/Fact Sheets
"Gas Chambers" could not have been used for gassing
CLAIM: Holocaust deniers argue that if there were no holes in the roofs then the structures were not gas chambers and Auschwitz was not an extermination camp. If Auschwitz was not an extermination camp, then the Holocaust did not happen.
RESPONSE: However, extensive evidence of the gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau remains. Cremas 2 and 3 had holes in the roof for the introduction of Zyklon-B into the gas chamber below. Eyewitness and photographic evidence documents these holes, and a recent study has proved their precise location.
There were no holes in the roof of the gas chambers
CLAIM: Brian Renk, of the deniers' Institute for Historical Review, claims that no one has been ". . . able to find physical evidence of Zyklon-induction holes at the site, or a single reference to them in the camp's voluminous design and construction records . . ."
RESPONSE: Despite the fact that the wire-mesh introduction columns can't be found today, their existence is confirmed by eyewitness accounts-both perpetrator and survivor-and by a surviving German documents that lists them in an inventory.
Auschwitz "Gas Chambers" were really air raid shelters
CLAIM: The gas chambers at Auschwitz were just air raid shelters equipped with gas-tight doors to protect the people sheltering inside from poison gas.
RESPONSE: However, closer examination of the materials on order and in use inside the gas chambers and the immense distance between the SS barracks and the gas chambers in Birkenau belie the claims of deniers. These were homicidal gas chambers.
Auschwitz-Birkenau was not a killing center
CLAIM: Auschwitz-Birkenau was not a killing center. Collections of camp death certificates (Auschwitz Death Books) list a total of only 69,000 deaths -- all from natural causes.
RESPONSE: The Auschwitz Death Books only list 69,000 deaths because they do not include the more than 900,000 men, women and children who were sent directly to the Auschwitz gas chambers from the railroad car transports without being registered.
Hitler never ordered the Holocaust
CLAIM: No order signed by Adolf Hitler authorizing the 'Final Solution' has ever been found. Since Hitler as supreme ruler signed other orders, the absence of a "Holocaust" order proves that it never happened.
RESPONSE: Although it is true that no document signed by Hitler authorizing the entire murderous campaign we call the Holocaust has been found, historians point to the convergence of evidence from all levels of the Nazi hierarchy that demonstrate Hitler's complicity in every facet of this murderous undertaking.
Scientific tests prove the "Gas Chambers" never existed
CLAIM: Objective science, represented by the Leuchter Report: The End of the Line? The First Forensic Examination of Auschwitz proves the non-existence of the Holocaust.
RESPONSE: Despite claims to objective truth, the Leuchter Report isn't "exact science." Leuchter's methods were fatally flawed and his conclusions false. The fact that even "insignificant traces" were found in the ruins of the gas chambers after all these years of being exposed to the elements is proof that there WERE gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The "Gas Chamber" in Auschwitz I is a fake for tourists
CLAIM: Auschwitz Museum officials have confirmed that the alleged gas chamber in Auschwitz I (the Main Camp) is a fake.
RESPONSE: Crematorium 1 (Crema 1) in the Main Camp is not a "fake" but an authentically restored space meant to be a memorial and symbolic representation of all the gas chambers and crematoria in the Auschwitz camp complex.
Crematory Capacity
Breakdowns and Maintenance must have reduced the Nazi's ability to cremate bodies
CLAIM: The crematory ovens at Auschwitz-Birkenau were inoperable for long periods of time due to maintenance and breakdown, thereby reducing the number of bodies that could be burned in total.
RESPONSE: the ovens did suffer breakdowns and they did need maintenance. The use of some ovens was discontinued by German decision and others were destroyed in a prisoner uprising. However, when there were more bodies than could be burned in the crematoria, the Germans used open air pits which could burn thousands of bodies at once.
No authentic contemporary documents speak about the capacity of the ovens at Birkenau
CLAIM: There are no authentic, contemporary documents that speak about the capacity of the ovens at Birkenau.
RESPONSE: Holocaust deniers refuse to accept the Germans' own documentation about the capacity of the ovens. They denounce this authoritative evidence as forgeries.
No evidence of open-air burning pits has ever been found in Auschwitz-Birkenau
CLAIM: Carlo Mattogno, an Italian Holocaust denier, used complicated calculations to allegedly 'prove' the ovens at Auschwitz-Birkenau couldn't possibly have cremated some 1.1 million bodies.
RESPONSE: Historical evidence shows that when the available ovens at Auschwitz-Birkenau couldn't handle the load, open-air pit burning was used. Photographs from the air and on the ground show the open-air pit burning process and eyewitness evidence supports them.
The crematoria ovens at Auschwitz couldn't have disposed of the remains of the 1.1 million Jews
CLAIM: A major denier theorized that since modern crematoria ovens can cremate one body in 1.25 hours, or 19.2 bodies in 24 hours that must mean it was the same at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Based on this observation and allowing for down time for maintenance and repairs, he concluded that 'only' 85,092 bodies could have been cremated.
RESPONSE: The authorities in Auschwitz were not concerned about respect for the dead and clearly did not abide by civilian laws of cremation. They burned multiple bodies at one time, continuously pushing in more to keep the fires hot.
There never was enough coke (coal) at Auschwitz-Birkenau for cremating over 1,000,000 bodies
CLAIM: While questioning Robert Jan van Pelt during his slander trial against Professor Deborah Lipstadt, David Irving pointed to a plastic water bottle and asked, "Do you really, sincerely believe that you can burn one body with enough coke that you could fit into one of these waters bottles, is that what you are saying?"
RESPONSE: We will probably never know exactly how much coke was delivered to Auschwitz or how much was required in the cremation process. Furthermore, the cremation of multiple bodies at the same time, continuous usage of the ovens, the use of alternate fuels and open-air burning pits make the question irrelevant.
Anne Frank
Parts of Anne Frank's diary are written in ball point pen
CLAIM: Parts of Anne Frank's diary are written in ball point pen, while that technology was not available until after the war.
RESPONSE: Anne wrote the body of her diary with a fountain pen. The only ball point pen ink traces are two loose notes written by someone else and put with the papers later and some page numbers written on the sheets during the compilation process.
The Diary of Anne Frank is a Forgery
CLAIM: Anne Frank's diary is a forgery written by her father, Otto Frank, for monetary gain. One denier, calling her diary a "novel," wonders how a teenage girl could have written that "maturely."
RESPONSE: Physical testing of the notebooks, papers, and ink Anne used found that they are all authentic to the time. Furthermore, the handwriting and printing in the diary is the same as that in other writings known to have been penned by Anne Frank.
The living situation in the Secret Annex as described in Anne Frank's diary was impossible
CLAIM: The living situation in the Secret Annex as described in Anne Frank's diary was impossible.
RESPONSE: Hidden in a landing accessed by a swinging bookshelf in a small office, the residents had some close calls during their 25 months in hiding, but they took care to be quiet and give no signs to the outside world that they were living there during the times people were present in the building.
Kristallnacht
'International Jewry' caused the Kristallnacht pogrom
CLAIM: 'International Jewry' funded Herschel Grynszpan's assassination of Ernst vom Rath and then used vom Rath's death as an excuse to start the Kristallnacht pogrom. They did so for the purpose of embarrassing the German government and to get international sympathy to open the doors for Jewish immigration, especially to Palestine.
RESPONSE: Herschel Grynszpan wasn't supported by 'International Jewry' or LICA. He bought the gun with his own money and went to the embassy where he shot vom Rath on his own. His first lawyer was provided by LICA at the request of his relatives and paid for by a defense fund raised in the United States. It was initiated by Hitler, set in motion by Goebbels, executed by the Gauleiters and the Stormtroopers under their control.
Adolf Hitler didn't know about and didn't authorize the Kristallnacht pogrom
CLAIM: Hitler did not approve of the Kristallnacht pogrom and did not know about it until it was well under way.
RESPONSE: Given the verifiable fact that Hitler was informed about the earlier disturbances at his meeting with Goebbels, he must have authorized the larger attacks on Jews, their property and their businesses.
Kristallnacht violence and damage were greatly exaggerated by the Jews themselves in order to get sympathy
CLAIM: Deniers consistently downplay the loss of Jewish life, the savage assaults on their persons, and the extent of the destruction of Jewish property in order to minimize the suffering of the Jews.
RESPONSE: Between November 9 and 10, 1938, however, hundreds of synagogues were burned, thousands of Jewish businesses and homes were destroyed, at least 91 Jews were murdered and many others were assaulted and seriously injured. Over 20,000 male Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps where they were maltreated and terrorized.
Kristallnacht perpetrators were appropriately punished in courts of criminal law
CLAIM: Rudolf Hess, the head of the Nazi party and a member of Hitler's inner circle, "ordered the Gestapo and the party's court to delve into the origins of the night's violence and to turn the culprits over to the public prosecutors."
RESPONSE: In fact, Nazi leaders successfully prevented the vast majority of offenders from being prosecuted. Only the cases of two men were sent to the criminal court system, both for the crime of 'race mixing' which the Nazis found repugnant. All other crimes-up to and including the murder of Jews-were simply forgiven or ignored.
When Hitler found out about the Kristallnacht pogrom he tried to stop it
CLAIM: When Hitler found out about theKristallnacht pogrom he was "livid with rage." He summoned Josef Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda, to his apartment and "made a terrible scene."
RESPONSE: Adolf Hitler did not try to stop the pogrom. He authorized Goebbels to get it started. Other Nazi officials in Hitler's inner circle and their subordinates sent out clarifying instructions throughout the night giving directions on how best to conduct the pogrom -- not stop it.
Dresden
As many as 250,000 people were killed in the Dresden air raid
CLAIM: Between 100,000 and 250,000 people died in allied air raids on the historic German city of Dresden. This is at least as criminal as Auschwitz.
RESPONSE: Definitive research shows that the death toll in Dresden was around 25,000. Irving exaggerates the death toll in Dresden while minimizing the death toll in Auschwitz in an attempt to make Allied and Nazi atrocities seem equivalent. They were not.
Dresden was an undefended cultural city of no of military or industrial importance
CLAIM: the Allied bombing of Dresden was a war crime and an atrocity because it was an undefended cultural city of no military or industrial importance.
RESPONSE: However, Dresden was a legitimate military target. It was a key railroad junction and therefore an important transit point for military traffic.
Gerstein Report
Allies Tortured Kurt Gerstein to Extract False Confession
CLAIM: The facts about Gerstein’s death and the disposition of his body are uncertain.
RESPONSE: Rassinier deliberately misleads his readers about the facts of Gerstein’s death in order to try to indict the Allies in a sinister plot of forgery, torture, murder and cover-up with the ultimate aim of discrediting Gerstein’s eyewitness testimony.
Kurt Gerstein is an Unreliable Witness
CLAIM:The "story" of mass murder of Jews in the Operation Reinhard camps in gas chambers using engine exhaust is based solely on the unbelievable post-war testimony of Kurt Gerstein, an SS officer who observed a mass gassing in Belzec.
RESPONSE: In order to erase the deaths of some 1.5 million Jewish men, women and children in Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka, the Holocaust deniers must discredit Gerstein and his report at any cost.
Gerstein Report is Filled With Impossibilities: Therefore it is a Lie
CLAIM: Gerstein’s report is so filled with absurdities and impossibilities that the entire report must be dismissed as a fabrication.
RESPONSE: The Holocaust deniers are desperate to discredit Gerstein’s account, so they hammer away at any minor points they can find so they can claim it must be discarded as incredible. But Gerstein’s story is remarkably consistent across all the versions that are known to be in his own hand when it dealt with things he saw with his own eyes: the mass gassing he observed at Belzec.
The Gerstein Report was Refused At Nuremberg
CLAIM: The Gerstein report was such a "clumsy forgery" that when the French text of it was presented as evidence at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg on January 30, 1946 the Tribunal refused to consider it as evidence.
RESPONSE: Rassinier is lying in an attempt to discredit Gerstein’s report as evidence. The judges did not "throw out" Gerstein’s report. Once the supposedly missing certificate was pointed out, it was entered into evidence the same day.
Gerstein's Report is a Forgery and all Other Eyewitness Evidence is Flimsy or Tainted
CLAIM: Gerstein’s report about the mass gassings in Belzec and Treblinka is such an obvious "forgery" that the whole story cannot be believed. The testimony of Jewish survivors and SS perpetrators follows Gerstein’s account and so cannot be believed either.
RESPONSE: Responsible history is written by comparing eyewitness and documentary evidence to each other to determine the most reasonable interpretation between all the sources and work out errors and speculation. In this case, the evidence of perpetrators survivors corroborates Gerstein’s account and each other on all the major points of the process of mass murder.
Gas Vans
Documents Proving The Existence of the Gas Vans Are Forged
CLAIM: Documents that explicitly discuss the construction and use of gas vans are "not credible" and of "dubious" origin.
RESPONSE: The letters about the gas vans are not "uncertain" or "dubious" and they are not forged. The Holocaust deniers fail to tell their readers the whole story. The testimonies of the men who designed, built and used the gas vans corroborate the information in them.
Eyewitnesses To The Existence of Gas Vans Are Unreliable
CLAIM: Eyewitness evidence about the use of gas vans in the death camp of Chelmno and by the Einsatzgruppen units in the East is based on hearsay that originated in questionable trials in the Soviet Union during the war. That "evidence" then influenced the trials held in Germany after the war.
RESPONSE: Weckert uses a common Holocaust denial technique for discrediting any eyewitness evidence that negates their thesis. She selects tiny, out-of-context examples from the large body of eyewitness evidence available, and then minutely picks each of them apart looking for any inconsistencies, no matter how small or inconsequential. The fact is that minor inconsistencies aide the overall credibility and convergence of the eyewitnesses accounts, since identical descriptions would seem rehearsed.
The Gas Vans Did Not Exist
CLAIM: There are no contemporaneous documents proving the existence of gas vans. Therefore, they did not exist.
RESPONSE: Weckert is wrong. The gas vans did exist. The surviving documentations shows that they were designed and constructed in Berlin in late 1941 and early 1942 and sent to the Chelmno death camp and Einsatzgruppen units in the East to assist in the mass murder of Jews and others.
Mass Graves
80,000 People Cannot Be Buried In A Grave The Size Of A Henhouse
CLAIM: It is impossible that the Germans "buried roughly the equivalent to the stadium spectators of the Rose Bowl game" (about 80,000 people) in an area corresponding to the "size of a henhouse."
RESPONSE: Legal and modern forensic evidence show that the videomaker’s insinuations that the mass graves in Sobibor were about the same size as a "hen house" on the site are false. The facts are that there was plenty of room for both the graves and the incineration grills.
There Are No Mass Graves At Treblinka
CLAIM: There are no graves at all in the death camp of Treblinka in Poland.
RESPONSE: Krege’s assertion that the soil in Treblinka is undisturbed so there are no mass graves is false. He has only provided one image that purports to show the undisturbed ground at Treblinka but it has never been documented. Without the proper documentation we have no proof that the image was even taken at Treblinka.
Not Enough Room In The Camps For The Mass Graves
CLAIM: "At Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor an estimated 1.38 million bodies were allegedly buried . . . The problem is that there isn’t enough burial space in the maps and models for that many bodies."
RESPONSE: The American Holocaust denier video-maker’s calculations are deliberately exaggerated to achieve his final goal of "proving" Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor were transit camps and not death camps. His conclusions are based on faulty assumptions and as a result his conclusions are wrong.
There are no Mass Graves in Belzec
CLAIM: The excavations that located and mapped 33 mass graves at the Belzec death camp from 1977 to 2000 revealed only traces of whole human remains in them. These traces are the result of death by disease and hardship of a handful of Jews as they were being deported farther to the East-not a program of mass murder.
RESPONSE: The facts show that two separate investigations 60 years apart show that the remains of the bodies of at some 450,000 Jewish men, women and children are buried in Belzec. Their deaths were part of a campaign of systematic mass murder by the Germans and not just the result of death by disease or hardship during the deportation process.
Diesel Exhaust
Diesel Exhaust Contains Too Much Oxygen to Kill via Asphyxiation
CLAIM: Diesel engine exhaust contains 18% oxygen so that a human being cannot die from asphyxiation from exposure to the fumes.
RESPONSE: The key to the ability to kill a person with diesel engine exhaust is that, in addition to flooding the atmosphere with a soup of toxic gases including carbon monoxide, it robs the atmosphere of oxygen. The very study deniers cite as proof that diesel engine exhaust always contains 18% oxygen, shows the exact opposite is possible if the engine is run just slightly outside the manufacturer’s specifications. Berg distorts, manipulates and omits evidence to arrive at his foregone conclusion that diesel engine exhaust cannot kill people.
Diesel Engines Simply Were Not Appropriate Murder Devices
CLAIM: The idea of having used diesel engine exhaust to murder 1.5 million Jews in the gas vans and the gas chambers of the three death camps of Operation Reinhard in southeastern Poland is "idiotic" and "simply incredible."
RESPONSE: Carbon monoxide is deadly in very small concentrations-as little as 4/10 of one percent (0.4%) or 4,000 parts in 1,000,000. Although diesel engines do produce less carbon monoxide in their exhaust than do gasoline engines, they are equally as deadly as we will see in Part 2 of this series.
Germans Would Have Used Producer Gas Rather than Diesel Engines
CLAIM: The Germans would have used "producer gas" engines to murder people in the gas chambers and gas vans since they produce much more carbon monoxide in their exhaust than do diesel engines.
RESPONSE: In practice, producer gas engines or generators were too dangerous and ultimately less efficient than using readily available and easily-used gasoline or diesel engines. It does not follow that because the Germans chose to use gasoline or diesel engines and not producer gas engines or generators that the murder of some 1.5 million Jews never happened.
Only Gasoline Engines Would Run Dirty Enough to Kill
CLAIM: As the result of the work of Friedrich Berg, an American Holocaust denier, the "holocaust pundits" are "desperate" because they have "precious little" evidence regarding the murder of 1.5 million Jews in the Operation Reinhard camps using diesel engine exhaust.
RESPONSE: What the Holocaust deniers decry as the "holocaust specialists" changing their story in the middle of the stream in response to the challenges of the Holocaust deniers, is simply the normal and necessary correction of the historical record as more accurate information becomes available.
Smoke And Soot Can't Kill
CLAIM: The black smoke and soot in diesel exhaust, according to Friedrich Berg, an American Holocaust denier, would have ". . . annoyed the hell out of any group of intended victims, but would have given them nothing worse than a headache."
RESPONSE: The heavy smoke and soot in diesel engine exhaust can kill. While it is highly unlikely that smoke and soot would have been the sole cause of death in the gas vans and gas chambers it could have been a contributing factor taken together with the carbon monoxide, lack of oxygen, and several other toxic gases in diesel exhaust.
There is Not Enough Carbon Monoxide In Diesel Exhaust To Kill
CLAIM:Diesel engine exhaust "always" contains "less than 1% carbon monoxide."
RESPONSE: A diesel engine can easily be mistuned to produce a lethal amount of carbon monoxide.
Mass Incineration
Mass Incineration: Not Enough Room To Crush The Bones
CLAIM: There was not enough room in the extermination areas of the Operation Reinhard camps to crush the bones. The American Holocaust denier videomaker asks about Treblinka: "Where did they crush and sift the burnt remains of a population equivalent to San Francisco?"
RESPONSE: If this matter were not so gruesome and terrible, the American Holocaust denier videomaker’s scenario would be laughable. The American Holocaust denier videomaker has already demonstrated his tendency to make everything more complicated so that he can denounce it as unworkable. Sometimes the bones were crushed with machines and sometimes by hand. It was not a precision process but it worked. The contents of the mass graves in Belzec show that it happened.
Hindu Funeral Pyres Would Have Made Better Incinerators
CLAIM: If the design for the incineration grills had been similar to a Hindu funeral pyre that would have been more efficient because the remains rest directly on the wood because "as the wood sinks so does the body, the body staying close to the wood."
RESPONSE: In fact, Hindu funeral pyres are highly inefficient for the cremation of just one body, and a completely impractical model for incinerating thousands of bodies.
Mass Incineration of so many bodies would have produced too much ash to fit in the mass graves
CLAIM: The ash left over from the incineration of 600,000 bodies and the wood used to burn them would have filled the entire volume of the known mass graves with "60 railroad freight cars" left over.
RESPONSE: The amateur experiment used to recreate the scenario does not even remotely resemble the conditions in the mass incineration, and based on more accurate figures, the mass graves would have provided ample room for the ash produced.
Poland's cold and snowy weather would have inhibited the incineration process
CLAIM: The incineration grills would not have worked efficiently, given the snow, wind and rain in Poland, and there is no evidence that the Germans made any attempt to protect the incineration grills from the elements that would have slowed or entirely stopped the burning process.
RESPONSE: The reality is that Poland's climate is temperate, with average annual precipitation of only 18 to 24 inches in the region of the camps. This left ample time to burn on days that were not wet and windy. Combined with testimony of the flames reaching 30 feet into the air, the evidence points to the German incineration grills burning very effectively.
The Design of the Incineration Grills Would Not Have Worked
CLAIM: The design of the incineration grills in the death camps of Treblinka, Sobibor and Belzec was faulty and they would not have worked.
RESPONSE: The Germans built huge fixed-height grills made from concrete and steel railroad rails over a pit full of fuel soaked with gasoline or oil that were primitive but very effective.
The German Nazis would have used special alloy rails for the incineration pyres
CLAIM: The heat from the incineration fires would have melted the railroad rails used to construct the grills.
RESPONSE: Railroad rails are hardened during manufacturing to withstand the weight of heavily-loaded trains in all types of weather, and the fact that they occasionally melted during incineration supports accounts of the gruesome efficiency of the grills built by the Germans.
The bodies of Jewish victims would not have burned "on their own"
CLAIM: Witness accounts that claim that bodies burned "like wood" were wrong: bodies could not have burned on their own.
RESPONSE: Although bodies do not ignite entirely on their own, the Germans developed techniques to increase the efficiency of their process. They found, for instance, that well-nourished bodies and those with more fat content, such as women, burned better and so were put on the bottom layer of the incineration grill to increase combustion.
The incineration fires would have needed to much wood: Part 1 of 2
CLAIM: The incineration fires used to burn bodies in Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka would have required unfathomable amounts of wood to burn bodies in the numbers that are reported.
RESPONSE: In fact, half of the remains burned in the incineration fires were children and infants and a full two-thirds of all bodies were exhumed remains that had been buried for months, greatly reducing the actual mass that was burned. Therefore the estimates used by deniers to calculate the amount of wood needed were false.
The incineration fires would have needed to much wood: Part 2 of 2
CLAIM: In order to incinerate the 600,000 remains in Belzec, 96,000 tons of wood would have been needed: where did it come from?
RESPONSE: The estimates of the amount of wood needed that are used by Holocaust deniers are grossly inflated, and the actual amount of wood needed for the incineration correlates to the amount of deforestation in and around the camp site.
Where are the teeth that once belonged to that multitude of incineration victims
CLAIM: The murder of 1.8 million people in Operation Reinhard would have resulted in 55 million teeth at the grave sites, and yet no teeth have been found.
RESPONSE: Forensic dentists have found that after short periods of time in fires that are hot enough to incinerate bodies (between 1400 to 2100 degrees Fahrenheit), teeth are mostly destroyed or rendered weak enough to be easily broken down, which would have happened in the bone crushing procedure that followed the incineration fires.
Further documentation:
http://www.ushmm.org/research/center/acquisitions/
http://www.hdec.org/
Need some more? Let me know. I got some Einsatz kommando reports on mass-shootings of Jews, Poles and other ethnicities.
more documents and exceprts here:
http://fcit.usf.edu/HOLOCAUST/resource/document/document.htm
Many educators appreciate the value of using primary source materials in the classroom. The documents selected for this section provide many possibilities for classroom discussion or student activities. For additional primary source materials related to the Holocaust, see the Web link to the Nizkor archives at the bottom of this page.
A rationale for teaching with primary sources.
Nazi Statements on "The Jewish Question." Excerpts from Hitler, Himmler, and others on the destruction of European Jewry.
Hitler on Propaganda. Excerpts from Mein Kampf.
Nazi Party Program. The 25 points of the National Socialist German Worker's Party.
Munich Pact. The agreement concluded at Munich, September 29, 1938, between Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy.
Nonagression Treaty. The Nonagression Treaty concluded in Moscow, August 23, 1939, between Germany and the USSR.
Hitler Address. Address by Adolf Hitler before the Reichstag, September 1, 1939.
Hitler Proclamation. Proclamation by Adolf Hitler to the German People, September 3, 1939.
Communication from the German Government to the British Government. Communication from the German government to the British government, handed by Joachim von Rippentrop, Minister for Foreign Affairs, to the British Ambassador (Sir Neville Henderson) at 11:20 A.M., September 3, 1939.
The Wannsee Protocol. Minutes of the 1942 Wannsee Conference planning the annihilation of over eleven million European Jews.
Discriminatory Decrees Against the Jews. This list of decrees was presented as evidence at the Nuremberg Trials.
Kristallnacht. The Nazi order for the "spontaneous" violence of that evening.
Night and Fog Decree. Directives for the prosecution of offences committed within the occupied territories against the German State or the occupying power, of December 7th, 1941.
German Declaration of War with the United States, December 11, 1941.
Euthanasia. Documents related to the murder and cremation of mentally handicapped patients.
Medical Experiments. Reports on freezing, low pressure and other experiments performed on camp inmates.
Sterilization of the Jewish workers. Nazi correspondence related to the purpose and means of sterilizing Jewish and other workers.
Auschwitz. Documents related to Auschwitz' function as a death camp.
Auschwitz. Nazi testimony regarding gassing at the camp.
Belzec. Nazi testimony regarding gassing at the camp.
Treblinka. Nazi testimony regarding gassing at the camp.
Camps. Nazi testimony regarding gassing at various camps.
Gassing Vans. Nazi correspondence detailing the operation of gassing vans.
Gassing Vans. Nazi testimony about gassing vans.
The Jager Report. A chilling report by the commander of one of the Einsatzgruppen,detailing the murder of 137,346 persons in a five month period.
Documents about Mass Murder. Nazi correspondence, orders, and reports documenting mass murder.
Crematorium Construction. Court testimony made by crematorium engineers.
Life in the Warsaw Ghetto. Excerpts from Emanuel Ringelblum's description of life in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Stroop Report. Excerpts from General Stroop's report on the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Stroop Report. Complete text of General Stroop's report on the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Hans Frank. Quotes from the Governor General of Occupied Poland.
Heinrich Himmler. Quotes from the head of the SS.
Julius Streicher. Quotes from the editor of Der Stürmer.
The Eizenstat Report. U.S. and Allied Efforts to Recover and Restore Gold and Other Assets Stolen or Hidden by Germany During World War II.
Proceedings of the Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets
Robert Jackson's Opening Address at the Nuremberg Trials. This lengthy address gives an overview of Nazi activity and states the United States' case against the accused at Nuremberg. Sections include:
Opening remarks
The lawless road to power
The consolidation of Nazi power
Battle against the working class
Battle against the churches
Crimes against the Jews
Crimes against the Jews, Continued
Terrorism and preparation for war
Experiments in aggression
War of aggression
Conspiracy with Japan
Crimes in the conduct of war
The law of the case
The crime against peace
The law of individual responsibility
The political, police and military organizations
The responsibility of the Tribunal.
Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression Volume I Chapter VII:
Means Used by the Nazi Conspirators in Gaining Control of the German State
From The Chief Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington. 1946
Common objectives, methods, and doctrines of the conspiracy
Methods
The Fuehrerprinzip
Glorification of war
Nazi leadership
Legal references and list of documents
Acquisition of totalitarian political control
Nazi conspirators supported their "legal" activities by terrorism.
Control acquired
Nazi conspirators caused all political parties, except the Nazi Party, to be prohibited
Legal references and list of documents
Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression Volume I Chapter X: The Slave Labor Program
From The Chief Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington. 1946
Planning for the use of slave labor
Execution of the slave labor program
Execution of the slave labor program
Violent methods of deportation for slave labor
Violent methods of deportation for slave labor
Violent methods of deportation for slave labor
Results of Slave labor program
Conditions of deportation and slave labor
Conditions of deportation and slave labor
Conditions of deportation and slave labor
Use of slave labor in war industries
Use of slave labor in war industries
Extermination through work
Extermination through work
Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression Volume I Chapter XI: The Concentration Camp
From The Chief Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington. 1946
The beginning of protective custody
The beginning of protective custody
The beginning of protective custody
The beginning of protective custody
The beginning of protective custody
Charges against camp inmates
The use of concentration camps for prisoners of war
The concentration camp
Use of the concentration camp as an instrument of terror
The treatment of concentration camp victims
The number of concentration camp victims
Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression Volume I Chapter XII: Persecution of the Jews
From The Chief Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington. 1946
Introduction
Hate propaganda against Jews
Discriminatory decrees against Jews
Anti-Jewish boycotts, raids, and violence
The program for the complete elimination of Jewry
Segregation into Ghettos
Forced labor
Extermination
Starvation
Annihilation
Annihilation
Methods of annihilation
Annihilation
Results of the extermination program
and here:
http://www.shamash.org/holocaust/denial/nazi_doc.txt
Extract From a Report by Karl Jaeger, Commander Of Einsatzkommando 3, on the Extermination Of Lithuanian Jews, 1941
Commander of the Security Police and the SD
Einsatzkommando 3
Kovno, December 1, 1941
Reich Secret Document
Final Summary of Executions carried out in the operating area of EK [Einsatzkommando] 3 up to December 1, 1941
...I can confirm today that Einsatzkommando 3 has achieved the goal of solving the Jewish problem in Lithuania. There are no more Jews in Lithuania, apart from working Jews and their families.
These number:
in Shavli, about 4,500
in Kovno, about 15,000
in Vilna, about 15,000
I wanted to eliminate the working Jews and their families as well, but the Civil Administration (Reichskommissar) and the Wehrmacht attacked me most sharply and issued a prohibition against having these Jews and their families shot.
The goal of clearing Lithuania of Jews could only be achieved through the establishment of a specially selected Mobile Commando under the command of SS Obersturmfuehrer Hamann, who adopted my aims fully and who was able to ensure the cooperation of the Lithuanian Partisans and the Civil Authorities concerned.
The carrying out of such Aktionen is first of all an organizational problem. The decision to clear each sub-district systematically of Jews called for a thorough preparation for each Aktion and the study of local conditions. The Jews had to be concentrated in one or more localities and, in accordance with their numbers, a site had to be selected and pits dug. The marching distance from the concentration points to the pits averaged 4 to 5 kms. The Jews were brought to the place of execution in groups of 500, with at least 2 kms. distance between groups... All the officers and men of my command in Kovno took an active part in the Grossaktionen in Kovno. Only one official of the intelligence corps was released from participation on account of illness.
I consider the Aktionen against the Jews of EK 3 to be virtually completed. The remaining working Jews and Jewesses are urgently needed, and I can imagine that this manpower will continue to be needed urgently after the winter has ended. I am of the opinion that the male working Jews should be sterilized immediately to prevent reproduction. Should any Jewess nevertheless become pregnant, she is to be liquidated....
Jaeger
SS Standartenfuehrer
More on Einsatzkommandos' reprots:
http://www.holocaust-history.org/intro-einsatz/
Megrez
07-01-2010, 08:43 PM
My question still has no answer:
what's the point in preaching the holocaust even here in this european preservationist forum? Isn't all the preachment by media and schools enough?
spearofperun
07-01-2010, 09:05 PM
the whole thing surrounding the holocaust is the actual numbers most sources say arund 13 million people where killed. that includes 6 million jews then 250,000 gypsys but the vast majority of the others are Slavs MORE slavs died in the concentration camps than jews. the media never mentions this. This si why i doubt the number of jews they ahve to brainwash you about the 6 million jews but what about the 7 million slavs or the 18 million almost all ethnic Russian civilians that died or 4 million Poles ethncially cleansed this is almost never heard about.
saying that there is no way to verify actual numbers as if i showed you a pile of a million bodies and told you there were 10 million 90%+ of people would believe it as that would be a fricken big pile think of the stench etc.. most people wouldnt investiage or stck around to much. how may people here or in the world would actually count every single body??
Treffie
07-02-2010, 08:55 AM
Are you trying to threaten members here regarding the legal situation in their home countries?
Huh? I've got more pressing things to worry about than grassing up internet nazis :D
Beorn
07-02-2010, 09:01 AM
Huh? I'm got more pressing things to worry about than grassing up internet nazis :D
http://cdn0.knowyourmeme.com/i/000/035/052/original/266485575-GrammarNazi.jpg
Treffie
07-02-2010, 09:03 AM
Huh? I've got more pressing things to worry about than grassing up internet nazis :D
Fuxed! :p
Grammar nazi in teh nayburhood :D
Eldritch
07-02-2010, 09:28 AM
Zyklop and Daos have a point though. I myself have no great passions for the so-called Holocaust one way or the other (I hope that's not a crime in the EU yet), but the fact that people go to prison for asking questions tells me there's something fishy about the whole story.
As David Lane (cough, cough) put it, truth does not fear investigation.
The Lawspeaker
07-02-2010, 09:34 AM
As I said earlier, I don't give a shit about there not being evidence. It's funny how witness testimony on both sides should all come to the same conclusion.
holocaust denial = mental disorder - I'm quite sure of it.
Shouldn't you be careful about what you're saying in your (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_against_Holocaust_denial#Romania)country.
The fact that one has to treat carefully here shows that there is probably more to the subject. If it's the truth then why protect it so carefully with a web of lies and laws ?
Why lock someone up or financially ruin someone for merely questioning something that happened in the past?
Zyklop and Daos have a point though. I myself have no great passions for the so-called Holocaust one way or the other (I hope that's not a crime in the EU yet), but the fact that people go to prison for asking questions tells me there's something fishy about the whole story.
As David Lane (cough, cough) put it, truth does not fear investigation.
Let's face it. People who get prosecuted are not the people who deny existence of gas chambers, but people who deny the genocide itself. They do not ask questions, they DISMISS the evidence on false grounds. Since there is ample evidence for that, and there has never been any major issue in recoginisting that planned genocide did occured by majority of historians, denying (not debating) this fact = pretty much propaganda.
And indeed people like Irving do have an agenda. Irving was involved in Neo-Nazi organisations. Denied the Holocaust, and always one-sidedly focused on the crimes against Germans. Never the opposite.
Now, if this is a case for prosecution is another subject.
The fact that one has to treat carefully here shows that there is probably more to the subject. If it's the truth then why protect it so carefully with a web of laws ?
Since it was a crime of a magnitude unparalleled in history?
The Lawspeaker
07-02-2010, 10:04 AM
Since it was a crime of a magnitude unparalleled in history?
That would not a be a reason to ban any discussion on the subject.
I think that an independent research into the Holocaust would be most welcome. Either we see that it really happened in the way we have been taught for over 50 years or we will find out that....
Either way.. what would people have to lose.
Zyklop
07-02-2010, 11:01 AM
Huh? I've got more pressing things to worry about than grassing up internet nazis :D
If that were true, your outburst wouldn't make much sense.
As if for a Welsh guy the happening of the holocaust would be of any relevance. I could understand it were it a serious concern about the loss of innocent lives, but then again I would expect to see something similar when German victims are addressed.
Treffie
07-02-2010, 11:08 AM
If that were true, your outburst wouldn't make much sense.
As if for a Welsh guy the happening of the holocaust would be of any relevance. I could understand it were it a serious concern about the loss of innocent lives, but then again I would expect to see something similar when German victims are addressed.
Oh well, I'm happy for you - please continue with your self-obsession :thumb001:
Zyklop
07-02-2010, 11:10 AM
Oh well, I'm happy for you - please continue with your self-obsession :thumb001:Yes, it is really self-obsessed of me to wonder why someone tries to ban discussion on historic subjects.
Treffie
07-02-2010, 11:16 AM
Yes, it is really self-obsessed of me to wonder why someone tries to ban discussion on historic subjects.
Erm, but it is self-obsession or paranoia to allude to the fact that I'd want to report a holocaust denier from a nation where denial is a crime.
Zyklop
07-02-2010, 11:18 AM
Erm, but it is self-obsession or paranoia to allude to the fact that I'd want to report a holocaust denier from a nation where denial is a crime.
Then why did you mention it if not to intimidate Daos?
Treffie
07-02-2010, 11:24 AM
Then why did you mention it if not to intimidate Daos?
Because I completely agree that the Holocaust occurred. It's irrelevant that my ancestors were or were not involved. I have an opinion and I'll voice it if I wish.
Intimidation? Lol - you don't know me :D
Zyklop
07-02-2010, 12:08 PM
I don't see anyone parroting KEN.
Well, you know very well about your own stance of "you need to be critical of what you read" and "I think the truth tends to lay between two extremes.". Now suddenly people who follow this stance are mentally disordered. You are right, I am focused on the German victims. As Germans we are confronted with the holocaust from 8th grade onwards and whenever we turn on the TV or read a newspaper. There is no mentioning of war crimes against Germans at all. I consider it much more worthwhile to use internet boards for revisionism in favour of our grandparent's generation instead of swallowing the official holocaust story everyone already knows. This whole holocaust hysteria was kicked off after I dared to show a video of German civilians being shot by Czechs. Were was the outrage then?
Bridie
07-02-2010, 12:46 PM
Well, you know very well about your own stance of "you need to be critical of what you read" and "I think the truth tends to lay between two extremes.".
Yes, that stance has not changed.
Now suddenly people who follow this stance are mentally disordered.KEN was labelling those on the opposite extreme of accepting everything as mentally ill. Ie, those who deny everything.
You are right, I am focused on the German victims. As Germans we are confronted with the holocaust from 8th grade onwards and whenever we turn on the TV or read a newspaper.
Yes, well that is a pity. Time to move on.
I understand somewhat though... Australians are confronted all the time with the realities (and some exaggerations and even untruths) about the colonisation of Australia and its destructive and often cruel impact on the aboriginal populations. Yet, even so, it doesn't lead me to flat out deny everything in the face of massive amounts of evidence. Yep, terrible, inhumane actions were carried out in the name of the British Empire, this is my history and I am not proud of it. Yet I wouldn't feel justified in denying it all to save face and self-esteem. (WTF???) (In fact, I'm the first to criticise and expose it.)
If a sense of guilt or shame causes some Germans on here to take the victimist approach, I doubt they will find much sympathy.
There is no mentioning of war crimes against Germans at all.Would mentioning them somehow dismiss all that the Germans did wrong?
I consider it much more worthwhile to use internet boards for revisionism in favour of our grandparent's generation instead of swallowing the official holocaust story everyone already knows.Well obviously not everyone agrees with you.
This whole holocaust hysteria was kicked off after I dared to show a video of German civilians being shot by Czechs. Were was the outrage then?You posted it in retaliation to a member pointing out that the Germans "raped and pillaged" France at some stage, for goodness sake.
You know, it's a tactic that young children use all the time. They get caught doing something naughty so they try to divert attention and elicit sympathy in playing the victim by pointing out something naughty that someone else did to them. However, it doesn't work.
Pallantides
07-02-2010, 12:53 PM
'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses -because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened'.- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Bridie
07-02-2010, 12:55 PM
'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses -because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened'.- Dwight D. EisenhowerProphetic.
How often it is that the key to the future is found in the past.....
lei.talk
07-02-2010, 01:09 PM
Since it was a crime of a magnitude unparalleled in history?
იოსებ
ბესარიონის
ძე ჯუღაშვილი
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/Joseph_Stalin.jpg/225px-Joseph_Stalin.jpg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin)
these two had much higher numerical scores
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e8/Mao_Zedong_portrait.jpg/245px-Mao_Zedong_portrait.jpg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao)
毛泽东
and for per-centage of population-slaughter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocides_in_history),
were out-scored by several others (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocides_in_history).
Zyklop
07-02-2010, 02:43 PM
Yes, that stance has not changed.Strangely, when addressed regarding this issue you told me that your stance on Germany had changed, which doesn't explain anything at all. You mentioned these photos of starving people as being shocking, but that's what anyone would have looked like where people have been expelled in history, including the Spanish Inquisition that is considered a glorious deed by some up to this day. Talk about bias.
KEN was labelling those on the opposite extreme of accepting everything as mentally ill. Ie, those who deny everything.I actually was under the impression of being called self-obsessed by both of you for simply asking why he brings in the legal situation in member's home countries. Contrary to what Jarl claims, not only those denying everything are politically prosecuted but already those questioning the singularity of the holocaust, for example those pointing out the victims of Stalinism.
I understand somewhat though... Australians are confronted all the time with the realities (and some exaggerations and even untruths) about the colonisation of Australia and its destructive and often cruel impact on the aboriginal populations. Yet, even so, it doesn't lead me to flat out deny everything in the face of massive amounts of evidence. Yep, terrible, inhumane actions were carried out in the name of the British Empire, this is my history and I am not proud of it. Yet I wouldn't feel justified in denying it all to save face and self-esteem. (WTF???) (In fact, I'm the first to criticise and expose it.)
It's actually not so much about saving face and self-esteem but acknowledging that these soldiers, whatever they went out for in the beginning, sacrificed everything for our people and nowadays are only defamed and spat upon, most of all by Germans themselves. I consider this a worthwhile endeavour on internet boards and in real life as well. For those who are interested:
The Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. is a humanitarian organization which is charged by the Federal Republic of taking care of registering the German war dead abroad and to ensuring that it is updated and monitored. The German Public Alliance advises relatives of war grave care, supervises public and private sites, supports international cooperation and assists within the sector of war grave care and fostering the engagement of young people in the last resting-place of the war-dead.
http://www.volksbund.de/kurzprofil/homepage_en.asp
If a sense of guilt or shame causes some Germans on here to take the victimist approach, I doubt they will find much sympathy.Having been exposed to the topic so frequently, I'm emotionally quite indifferent to the holocaust actually, I feel neither guilt nor shame. I'm angry about the one-sided portrayal, though, and Germans indeed have been victims too.
Would mentioning them somehow dismiss all that the Germans did wrong?It would dismiss how the Allies are portrayed nowadays in German society and may make people wonder about their true motives, and that of a government that hides crimes against its own people. Had you bothered to read my post you would have seen that I'm thankful to the Czechs who publicised the video and the discussion it kicked off over there. Obviously I feel closer to the German victims of WW2, we had quite a few in my family.
You posted it in retaliation to a member pointing out that the Germans "raped and pillaged" France at some stage, for goodness sake.
You know, it's a tactic that young children use all the time. They get caught doing something naughty so they try to divert attention and elicit sympathy in playing the victim by pointing out something naughty that someone else did to them. However, it doesn't work.This assumption would make sense if I not at the same time had bothered to discuss the Oradour incident. It was ignored all the way.
Megrez
07-02-2010, 03:23 PM
I am of the opinion that the male working Jews should be sterilized immediately to prevent reproduction. Should any Jewess nevertheless become pregnant, she is to be liquidated....
I must say, accounts like this actually make me feel so PROUD of the nazis! This reminds me of my age 14 when I got interest in nazism and other ideological subjects. I used to believe in everything I read about the holocaust and I found the whole extermination of 6 million jews so glorious! Trust me, I really wanted the whole holocaustian evangelium to be real, but I grew up and found out that some "facts" of the holocaust are way untrustful.
Still unanswered:
what's the point in preaching the holocaust even here in this european preservationist forum? Isn't all the preachment by media and schools enough?
poiuytrewq0987
07-02-2010, 04:25 PM
That would not a be a reason to ban any discussion on the subject.
I think that an independent research into the Holocaust would be most welcome. Either we see that it really happened in the way we have been taught for over 50 years or we will find out that....
Either way.. what would people have to lose.
5BaJCRXsgt4
If it's the truth then why protect it so carefully with a web of laws ?
Since it was a crime of a magnitude unparalleled in history?
This is circular logic - your argument presupposes that the event took place. To someone who does not believe that it took place, there is no "crime of a magnitude unparalleled in history".
Aemma
07-13-2010, 02:15 PM
OK I've reposted this somewhat cleaned up thread. It is a worthwhile discussion, volatile, but worthwhile imo for those who wish to further explore in a civil and mature way the impact of decisions taken during the Second World War which have impacted many of Europe's fine countries.
Truth always lies somewhere in the middle.
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