HITLER & THE HOLOCAUST
Did Hitler knew about the Holocaust ? |
| SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydric, chief of the Reich Security Main Office (which included the Gestapo, SD and Kripo Nazi police agencies) and Reich governor of Bohemia and Moravia, was a cold-blooded killer of Jews.. |
| Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer-SS (RF-SS) (Reich Leader of the SS) in the NSDAP (1929-1945) was a fanatical antisemite who was convinced to act for the supreme interest of the Reich. |
| Hermann Goering, chief of the Four Years Plan and of the Luftwaffe, signed the first orders concerning the concentration camps. Although not a rabid antisemite himself, his ferocious ambitions and his lust for power pushed him to apply every piece of Nazi legislation to the extreme. . |
| SS-Obersturmführer Adolf Eichmann was with Alois Brunner one of the most hateful Nazis in charge of the extermination process. His vindictiveness and his commitment to the Holocaust are responsible for the death of millions of Jews. He was captured by the Israelis in Argentina and hung in 1962 after a trial held in Jerusalem. |
| This is the most debated question of all times. Some revisionist historians like David Irving argued that he was not. In his book, Hitler's War, published in 1977, Irving stated that Hitler was unaware of the Holocaust until 1942. Irving was accused of being an Holocaust denier in 1993 by the American scholar Deborah Lipstadt in her book "Denying the Holocaust". Irving sued her before a British Court, lost the trial and was ruined in the process. But the question is still extremely controversial and a lot of rather aggressive revisionists argue that Hitler never ordered the Holocaust. So who did ? Everybody but with Hitler's assent. |
Effectively, there is no trace of a written order by Hitler to kill the Jews in
mass and to exterminate them as a race. But, in the same way, we have
no written orders by Stalin to kill in mass the Christian opponents to his
Revolution. You do not give such order. You make it clear that it is what
you want but you prudently abstain from giving such orders. As a tyrant,
you are worried about your image for the posterity and you try to delete all
traces of your infamies because you know that History is written by
victors.
One must never forget that the first concentration camps (Koncentration
lagers or KL ) were opened by Himmler as soon as March 1933.
Dachau was then not yet aimed at killing but only at suppressing
opposition to the Nazi policies and, according to Himmler, to re-educate.
During the 30s, several other camps were opened and they received an
extended category of population gypsies, homosexuals, members of the
clergy, Jehowah's Witnesses and of course Jews who were de facto put
in the category of public enemies as soon as 1935 by the Nuremberg
Laws.
The Buchenwald camp was established on July 16, 1937, when the
first group of prisoners, consisting of 149 persons, mostly political
detainees and criminals, was brought to the site. The name was given
to it by Heinrich Himmler on July 28, 1937. Large groups of prisoners
began to arrive in the camp shortly after its foundation and by the end of
1937 their number reached 2,561, most of them politicals. In the spring
of 1938 the number of prisoners rose rapidly as a result of the
operation against asocial elements, the victims of which were taken to
Buchenwald ; by July 1938 there were 7,723 prisoners in the camp.
Another 2,200 from Austria were added on September 23, 1938, all of
them Jews. A further 30,000 Jews were imprisoned after Kristallnacht
(November 9 - 10, 1938), and at the end of November the camp’s
prison population exceeded 38,000. By the end of the year, most of the
Jewish prisoners were released, and the camp population dropped to
11,000.
Sachsenhausen camp was established in September 1936,
Buchenwald in July 1937, Flossenberg and Mauthausen in 1938
(Austria), Ravensbrück in May 1939 (Women’s camp). Between 1933
and 1939, Jews were encouraged to emigrate even at the cost of
losing everything in the process : their properties or their businesses
were auctioned off at a reduced price and an emigration tax was
imposed on them. In the end, they were lucky to get some 30-60% of the
global value of their assets but at least they were safe in another country
although it was very often for a limited period of time. As soon as April
1938, more than 80% of the Jewish business were closed (1). By the
Autumn of 1938, only 150,000-170,000 Jews had fled Germany, ie 30%
of those who had been counted in May 1933. Most of them could not
imagine or believe what Hitler and his henchmen had in the making for
the Jewry of Germany. It is only after 1941 and the first massacres in
Poland and Ukraine that the Jews of Germany realized what was
expecting them at home. But by then they were trapped and it was too
late.
mass and to exterminate them as a race. But, in the same way, we have
no written orders by Stalin to kill in mass the Christian opponents to his
Revolution. You do not give such order. You make it clear that it is what
you want but you prudently abstain from giving such orders. As a tyrant,
you are worried about your image for the posterity and you try to delete all
traces of your infamies because you know that History is written by
victors.
One must never forget that the first concentration camps (Koncentration
lagers or KL ) were opened by Himmler as soon as March 1933.
Dachau was then not yet aimed at killing but only at suppressing
opposition to the Nazi policies and, according to Himmler, to re-educate.
During the 30s, several other camps were opened and they received an
extended category of population gypsies, homosexuals, members of the
clergy, Jehowah's Witnesses and of course Jews who were de facto put
in the category of public enemies as soon as 1935 by the Nuremberg
Laws.
The Buchenwald camp was established on July 16, 1937, when the
first group of prisoners, consisting of 149 persons, mostly political
detainees and criminals, was brought to the site. The name was given
to it by Heinrich Himmler on July 28, 1937. Large groups of prisoners
began to arrive in the camp shortly after its foundation and by the end of
1937 their number reached 2,561, most of them politicals. In the spring
of 1938 the number of prisoners rose rapidly as a result of the
operation against asocial elements, the victims of which were taken to
Buchenwald ; by July 1938 there were 7,723 prisoners in the camp.
Another 2,200 from Austria were added on September 23, 1938, all of
them Jews. A further 30,000 Jews were imprisoned after Kristallnacht
(November 9 - 10, 1938), and at the end of November the camp’s
prison population exceeded 38,000. By the end of the year, most of the
Jewish prisoners were released, and the camp population dropped to
11,000.
Sachsenhausen camp was established in September 1936,
Buchenwald in July 1937, Flossenberg and Mauthausen in 1938
(Austria), Ravensbrück in May 1939 (Women’s camp). Between 1933
and 1939, Jews were encouraged to emigrate even at the cost of
losing everything in the process : their properties or their businesses
were auctioned off at a reduced price and an emigration tax was
imposed on them. In the end, they were lucky to get some 30-60% of the
global value of their assets but at least they were safe in another country
although it was very often for a limited period of time. As soon as April
1938, more than 80% of the Jewish business were closed (1). By the
Autumn of 1938, only 150,000-170,000 Jews had fled Germany, ie 30%
of those who had been counted in May 1933. Most of them could not
imagine or believe what Hitler and his henchmen had in the making for
the Jewry of Germany. It is only after 1941 and the first massacres in
Poland and Ukraine that the Jews of Germany realized what was
expecting them at home. But by then they were trapped and it was too
late.
In the Spring of 1941 close to 3 million Jews were under German control : 675,000 in the
Reich and the annexed territories and 2,25 million in the occupied territories. Furthermore a
strong Nazi influence threatened approximately 430,000 Jews in the satellites countries of
Slovakia, Rumania and Italy. Himmler who had formed the Reichssicherheitshauptamt
(Reich Security Main Office or RSHA) in 1940 wherein Gestapo, Kripo and the SD became
departments had henceforth one immutable goal :" to create an order of good blood
capable of serving Germany, an order that is unhesitatingly and unsparing devoted. To
create an order that will spread a consciousness of Nordic blood until we draw to us all
the Nordic blood in the world."
To achieve this goal, Hitler had penned as early as the 20s when he was only an aspiring
dictator some ideas : while blaming the Jews for all the miseries suffered by Germany
after WW1, he posited in some handwritten notes the theses that :
Reich and the annexed territories and 2,25 million in the occupied territories. Furthermore a
strong Nazi influence threatened approximately 430,000 Jews in the satellites countries of
Slovakia, Rumania and Italy. Himmler who had formed the Reichssicherheitshauptamt
(Reich Security Main Office or RSHA) in 1940 wherein Gestapo, Kripo and the SD became
departments had henceforth one immutable goal :" to create an order of good blood
capable of serving Germany, an order that is unhesitatingly and unsparing devoted. To
create an order that will spread a consciousness of Nordic blood until we draw to us all
the Nordic blood in the world."
To achieve this goal, Hitler had penned as early as the 20s when he was only an aspiring
dictator some ideas : while blaming the Jews for all the miseries suffered by Germany
after WW1, he posited in some handwritten notes the theses that :
| Made responsible for the defeat in 1918, the Jews had to pay for it. Hitler and his henchmen decided as soon as 1933 that they would be excluded of German economic life and promulgated an Edict to this effect in 1939. As of 1941, they started to implement a systematic policy of mass murder that culminated in 1942 with the adoption of the final solution during the Wahnsee Conference near Berlin. Hitler was not present but his orders were carried out by Heydrich and Himmler with an amazing ferocity. |
| - racial suicide : prerequisite for this is mass madness which can be manufactured through mass misery -hunger : starvation as a weapon in all times, starvation in the service of the Jews - destroys physical strength and health and addles the brain - systematic starvation of the nation by raising the cost of living - Jews left to themselves are poor (only flourish in foreign bodies |
| Emigration to Palestine (1) |
|
So with the launching of operation Barbarossa in June 1941, Hitler and his henchmen could not
fail to implement in practice those thesis and to go from theory to reality. It all started with the
Commissar Orders (Kommissarbefehl) signed by Hitler on 6 June 1941, even prior to the
Operation. It demanded that any Soviet political officer identified among captured troops to be
shot immediately. It was an order in violation of the Geneva conventions but the Nazis did not care
very much about international laws : they were the Law. Given the space of German invasion in
Russia during 1941, there were some 3.5 million Russian POWs at the end of the year. The Nazi
propaganda made great use of them and showed hundreds of photographs of Russian POWs
described as "subhumans". The Commissars who were often Jewish were immediately shot and
mocked as "Jewish subhuman Bolshevists."
The horror was only beginning. However it is not known for sure when Hitler finally made up his
mind to systematically and industrially exterminate the Jews in order to "solve" the Jewish
problem. If Mein Kampf and early writings are to be taken literally he did think about it since the
end of the 1910s when he said that Jews should have been gassed by the thousands during
WW1 because they were traitors and profiteers in the rear. However during the Polish campaign of
September 1939, he was not too sure what to make of those thousands of Polish Jews and how
to get rid of them : it is probable that at this period he still considered that starvation, malnutrition,
diseases and hard times would do the job.
As Himmler was entrusted with the task to implement the racist plans of Hitler as they have been
defined in an Edict of January 1939 (2) , it was he who masterminded the exchange of populations
and the deportations that began in 1941. As soon as March 1941, Himmer told his SS men that "in
the course of the war, 20 to 30 million Slavs and Jews will perish because of war activities and
food shortages." However Himmler was not the sole Nazi taking a leading part in this monstrousity
: in July 1941, Reinhard Heydrich received an ordinance from Hermann Göring charging him "to
prepare the organizational, practical and financial aspects for an overall solution (Gesammtlösung)
of the Jewish question." And he concluded that Heydrich was also in charge of the overall plan of
the preliminary measures for the execution of the intended final solution (Endlösung) of the same
question.
fail to implement in practice those thesis and to go from theory to reality. It all started with the
Commissar Orders (Kommissarbefehl) signed by Hitler on 6 June 1941, even prior to the
Operation. It demanded that any Soviet political officer identified among captured troops to be
shot immediately. It was an order in violation of the Geneva conventions but the Nazis did not care
very much about international laws : they were the Law. Given the space of German invasion in
Russia during 1941, there were some 3.5 million Russian POWs at the end of the year. The Nazi
propaganda made great use of them and showed hundreds of photographs of Russian POWs
described as "subhumans". The Commissars who were often Jewish were immediately shot and
mocked as "Jewish subhuman Bolshevists."
The horror was only beginning. However it is not known for sure when Hitler finally made up his
mind to systematically and industrially exterminate the Jews in order to "solve" the Jewish
problem. If Mein Kampf and early writings are to be taken literally he did think about it since the
end of the 1910s when he said that Jews should have been gassed by the thousands during
WW1 because they were traitors and profiteers in the rear. However during the Polish campaign of
September 1939, he was not too sure what to make of those thousands of Polish Jews and how
to get rid of them : it is probable that at this period he still considered that starvation, malnutrition,
diseases and hard times would do the job.
As Himmler was entrusted with the task to implement the racist plans of Hitler as they have been
defined in an Edict of January 1939 (2) , it was he who masterminded the exchange of populations
and the deportations that began in 1941. As soon as March 1941, Himmer told his SS men that "in
the course of the war, 20 to 30 million Slavs and Jews will perish because of war activities and
food shortages." However Himmler was not the sole Nazi taking a leading part in this monstrousity
: in July 1941, Reinhard Heydrich received an ordinance from Hermann Göring charging him "to
prepare the organizational, practical and financial aspects for an overall solution (Gesammtlösung)
of the Jewish question." And he concluded that Heydrich was also in charge of the overall plan of
the preliminary measures for the execution of the intended final solution (Endlösung) of the same
question.
| The very same man who was fawning over little kids cold bloodedly decided that young Jews should be murdered with their parents for the good of Germany |
(1) In The Holocaust by Leni Yahil, Oxford
University Press
(2) The Decree for the Elimination of Jews
from German Economic Life took effect in
January 1939
University Press
(2) The Decree for the Elimination of Jews
from German Economic Life took effect in
January 1939
In July 1941, the Germans are the victors everywhere in Europe. The millions of Jews with whom they had come into
contact in occupied Poland were now augmented by close to 4 million more in the newly occupied territories : 2 million in
the Soviet Union, 250,000 in the Baltic States, 1 million in the regions formerly controlled by the Poles. What to do with
them ? Himmler and Heydrich devised a very simple formula and divided the region stretching from the Baltic sea to the
Black Sea in 4 areas, each one being assigned one task force (Einsatzgruppe). Each task force was attached to an army
corps. Even before the Germans commenced to march into Soviet Russia, the Army received orders at a conference in
Pretz to exterminate the Jews and Communist functionaries in addition to the regular professional work of the Security
Police and SD.
The Einsatzgruppen (A, B, C, D) moved systematically from place to place with the Army Corps, assembled the Jews,
conveyed them outside towns and villages and murdered them beside antitank trenches or pits dug for this purpose
(picture to the left). The SS called that the "sardine method" because they were forced to align themselves in the pits
head to toe alternately. In January 1942, the chief of Einsatzgruppe A sent its report for the period July 23 to October 15,
1941 : 135,567 Jews had been murdered in 83 days, i.e. over 1600 per day. Einsatzgruppe B claimed to have been
killing 45,467 Jews up to mi-November 1941. Even the Wehrmacht brought some support to the exactions of the SS. In
October 1941, Marshal Walter von Reichenau issued an order stating that "the main objectives of this campaign
against the Jewish-Bolshevik system is to totally destroy the potential for power and to extirpate Asiatic influence on
European cultural life."
contact in occupied Poland were now augmented by close to 4 million more in the newly occupied territories : 2 million in
the Soviet Union, 250,000 in the Baltic States, 1 million in the regions formerly controlled by the Poles. What to do with
them ? Himmler and Heydrich devised a very simple formula and divided the region stretching from the Baltic sea to the
Black Sea in 4 areas, each one being assigned one task force (Einsatzgruppe). Each task force was attached to an army
corps. Even before the Germans commenced to march into Soviet Russia, the Army received orders at a conference in
Pretz to exterminate the Jews and Communist functionaries in addition to the regular professional work of the Security
Police and SD.
The Einsatzgruppen (A, B, C, D) moved systematically from place to place with the Army Corps, assembled the Jews,
conveyed them outside towns and villages and murdered them beside antitank trenches or pits dug for this purpose
(picture to the left). The SS called that the "sardine method" because they were forced to align themselves in the pits
head to toe alternately. In January 1942, the chief of Einsatzgruppe A sent its report for the period July 23 to October 15,
1941 : 135,567 Jews had been murdered in 83 days, i.e. over 1600 per day. Einsatzgruppe B claimed to have been
killing 45,467 Jews up to mi-November 1941. Even the Wehrmacht brought some support to the exactions of the SS. In
October 1941, Marshal Walter von Reichenau issued an order stating that "the main objectives of this campaign
against the Jewish-Bolshevik system is to totally destroy the potential for power and to extirpate Asiatic influence on
European cultural life."
| When the SS Einsatzgruppen -sometimes with the collaboration of the Wehrmacht- began to mass murder the Polish and the Soviet Jews in 1941, the Jews of Germany and Europe realized that they were doomed. But the worst was still to come and the slaughter will end only in 1945. |
Hitler was enthusiastic about this directive and ordered that it be distributed among all the army units.
Thus it also reached the headquarters of Marshall von Manstein, the Supremer Commander of the XIth
Army. At his trial in 1945, von Manstein claimed that he had known nothing about the extermination of the
Jews. The murder of the Jews in every town and village occupied by the Germans was named "Aktion".
Some days, the amplitude of an "Aktion" could concern as much as 2,200 people. Eventually the victims of
the Einsatzgruppen in Russia only can be summarized by the chart below :
Thus it also reached the headquarters of Marshall von Manstein, the Supremer Commander of the XIth
Army. At his trial in 1945, von Manstein claimed that he had known nothing about the extermination of the
Jews. The murder of the Jews in every town and village occupied by the Germans was named "Aktion".
Some days, the amplitude of an "Aktion" could concern as much as 2,200 people. Eventually the victims of
the Einsatzgruppen in Russia only can be summarized by the chart below :
| When it came to mass murder little Jews Himmler totally forgot that thousands of fathers like him loved their daughters and sons |
|
Victims of the EinsatzGruppen 1941-42 in the USSR Source : The Holocaust, Leni Yahil, Oxford University Press, p.270 |
It was carnage and massacre every single
day in 1941 and 1942 in the East. No city
was spared the destructive hatred of the SS :
in Simferopol there were 156,000 inhabitants
in 1941 of whom 20,000 Jews. Half of them
succeeded in making their escape but
11,000 were executed by the Einsatzgruppen.
Still the Russian Jews were unaware of what
was expecting them when they were ordered
to assemble. It is only from 1942 that they
had a sense of the impeding tragedy. In the
Baltic States, the slaughter became
particularly cruel with the help of the local
population : the victims were often dragged
out their hiding places. The accounting of
these massacres were carefully held by the
Commanding SS Officers like SS
Standartenführer Karl Jäger whose
Einsatzgruppe boasted of having killed
7,766 Jewish men, 4,785 Jewish women
and 5,672 Jewish children between July and
December 1941 of whom almost 2,000 were
executed by Lithuanian partisans (1).
The killing was planned and carried out
within the framework of military operations as
part of the conduct of warfare. Eventually the
SS introduced gassing vans where 40 to 50
people were crowded and the exhaust pipes
of a tank or a diesel engine were connected
to the van. Death occurred within 20 minutes.
day in 1941 and 1942 in the East. No city
was spared the destructive hatred of the SS :
in Simferopol there were 156,000 inhabitants
in 1941 of whom 20,000 Jews. Half of them
succeeded in making their escape but
11,000 were executed by the Einsatzgruppen.
Still the Russian Jews were unaware of what
was expecting them when they were ordered
to assemble. It is only from 1942 that they
had a sense of the impeding tragedy. In the
Baltic States, the slaughter became
particularly cruel with the help of the local
population : the victims were often dragged
out their hiding places. The accounting of
these massacres were carefully held by the
Commanding SS Officers like SS
Standartenführer Karl Jäger whose
Einsatzgruppe boasted of having killed
7,766 Jewish men, 4,785 Jewish women
and 5,672 Jewish children between July and
December 1941 of whom almost 2,000 were
executed by Lithuanian partisans (1).
The killing was planned and carried out
within the framework of military operations as
part of the conduct of warfare. Eventually the
SS introduced gassing vans where 40 to 50
people were crowded and the exhaust pipes
of a tank or a diesel engine were connected
to the van. Death occurred within 20 minutes.
But when the difficulties of the invasion of Russia began to become overwhelming, Hitler's
plans for the natural solution of the Jewish problem were thwarted. Starvation, diseases,
slow death in ghettos and task forces would not suffice. By the end of 1941 summertime, it
was obvious to everybody that the fighting would continue for some more months. It is at
this time that Hitler decided to deport the German and Austrian Jews to the East. There is
no written order but only a communication from Himmler to one of his henchmen stating
the "desire of the Führer that the original Reich and the Protectorate (Bohemia &
Moravia) be cleaned out from West to East and be rid of Jews as quickly as possible."
Here we touch the focal point. Hitler never bothered to give a written order when it came to
implement his murderous policies and homicidal obsessions, he was too much concerned
about his image in the future. As a Führer and an example for millions of Germans to whom
he had given his personal life, he cared about his reputation and his image. So he always
choosed to let his will known by his henchmen who, like faithful little dogs, were too happy to
please their master. Furthermore pleasing the Führer was the best way to increase one's power
as Himmler, Goebbels and Hess knew since long.
In October 1941, Kurt Daluege, chief of the ORPO, issued the order for deportation to the East of
the German Jews. It was the beginning of the systematic annihilation of the German Jews. At the
same time Himmler forbade all emigration from Germany for the Jews. They were trapped for
good, their only possible destination was the KL of Poland and occupied countries. After 1941,
the Jewish assets were confiscated and it was not any more question of paying their owner even a
small part of their market value : prior to deportation, the Jews were assembled into meeting
points with the permission to carry RM 100 (US $40) and 50 kilograms of baggage. The whole
thing was legalized by the Implementation order No.11 which provided the Nazi regime with the
legal formula for deporting the Jews from the Greater Reich while spoliating their property. It
stripped the deported Jews of their remaining civil rights and reduced them to mere numbers. The
regime had only one more thing to do to achieve his goal of getting rid of the Jews : building
extermination camps to perpetrate mass murder by the new techniques of gassing.
| Kurt Daluege, SS-Oberstgruppenführer und Generaloberst der Polizei, officer of the Central Reich Security Office (RSHA) and Governor of the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Daluege ordered among other things, the destruction of the villages of Lidice and Ležáky in Bohemia. After the war he was hung by decision of a Czech Court for war crimes. |
The real force of Hitler was his ability to concentrate the
anti-establishment notions present in the German society of
the 20s and to motivate a handful of henchmen in
implementing these notions into murderous policies of
revenge. Hitler's success is nothing else than the triumph
of the petit-bourgeois mind. As such Hitler was ashamed
of certain actions and did his best to conceal them or have
them endorsed by his complacent and ambitious
collaborators.
If he was not the first to propose to kill the Jews to solve
the "Jewish question", he was the first one to offer a
definitive and comprehensive fashion, the use of mass
murder techniques that would transform his anti-semitism
into a revolutionary scheme of GENOCIDE. But it would
take some time and a lot of circumvolutions. It all started in
1937 with the idea of sterbehilfe (aid to the dying) which
became rapidly the Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens
(destruction of the undeserving life), i.e. a program of
euthanasia. In September 1939, Himmler issued a written
directive charging Philipp Bouhler, head of the the
top-secret euthanasia programme, to empower physicians
to determine which incurably sick "may be accorded a
mercy death." (see picture of the letter below to the right).
anti-establishment notions present in the German society of
the 20s and to motivate a handful of henchmen in
implementing these notions into murderous policies of
revenge. Hitler's success is nothing else than the triumph
of the petit-bourgeois mind. As such Hitler was ashamed
of certain actions and did his best to conceal them or have
them endorsed by his complacent and ambitious
collaborators.
If he was not the first to propose to kill the Jews to solve
the "Jewish question", he was the first one to offer a
definitive and comprehensive fashion, the use of mass
murder techniques that would transform his anti-semitism
into a revolutionary scheme of GENOCIDE. But it would
take some time and a lot of circumvolutions. It all started in
1937 with the idea of sterbehilfe (aid to the dying) which
became rapidly the Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens
(destruction of the undeserving life), i.e. a program of
euthanasia. In September 1939, Himmler issued a written
directive charging Philipp Bouhler, head of the the
top-secret euthanasia programme, to empower physicians
to determine which incurably sick "may be accorded a
mercy death." (see picture of the letter below to the right).
| Marshal von Reichenau who paused as a good German soldier after the war was implacable in his desire to get Europe rid of "all Jewish and Asiatic influence". He saved his head thanks to his lies during his trial in 1945. More remarkable Generals like Kesselring were sentenced to death but Kesselring save his head thanks to the intervention of some Allied high ranking officers. |
| After the stalemate of Russia's invasion in 1941, Hitler became subject to feats of rages and depression |
The triumph of the petit-bourgeois mind
The first experiments were conducted in January 1940 and by August of 1941 70,273 people had
been exterminated in 5 installations set up for Sonderbehandlung (special treatment), the used
formula when people were killed by gas. However protests from the Churches against such
treatments led the Nazis to officially drop the experiments . In August 1941, Hitler gave the order to halt
the euthanasia operation. which was continued on a lower scale in a hidden way and in a more
aggressive manner, gassing being replaced by injections, starvation and sleeping pills. A lot of
Jewish patients fell victims of this new euthanasia policy, their families being told that their relative had
died in hospital. Hospital maintenance fees for the executed were put to a special account at the Bank
of Prussia.
But this method of disposing by gas of the unwanted or the undeserving life was adopted and
extended to the concentration camps. It became Operation 14 f 13. Camps like Mauthausen,
Gross-Rosen, Sachsenhausen, Neuengamme, Ravensbrück were equipped with gas installations
and as soon as November 1941 one of the physicians of Buchenwald could write to his wife:" Hurray,
we are going out on the merry hunt!!". The season was officially opened and it stopped only in 1944.
It is officially estimated that 120,000 sick Germans, Jews and non-Jews, were given that sort of
special tretament in the KL. This figure does not account for the Poles who were given as soon as
1939 such awful Sonderbehandlung.
In 1942, the first death camps were established in Poland under the supervision of Odilo Globocnik.
In doing this job he utilized the competences of the personnel who had taken part in the euthanasia
operation in Germany. In the summer of 1941 Himmler ordered Rudolf Höss to establish a
large-scale death camp at Auschwitz stating explicitly that the extermination of the Jews was being
carried out by order of the Führer.
been exterminated in 5 installations set up for Sonderbehandlung (special treatment), the used
formula when people were killed by gas. However protests from the Churches against such
treatments led the Nazis to officially drop the experiments . In August 1941, Hitler gave the order to halt
the euthanasia operation. which was continued on a lower scale in a hidden way and in a more
aggressive manner, gassing being replaced by injections, starvation and sleeping pills. A lot of
Jewish patients fell victims of this new euthanasia policy, their families being told that their relative had
died in hospital. Hospital maintenance fees for the executed were put to a special account at the Bank
of Prussia.
But this method of disposing by gas of the unwanted or the undeserving life was adopted and
extended to the concentration camps. It became Operation 14 f 13. Camps like Mauthausen,
Gross-Rosen, Sachsenhausen, Neuengamme, Ravensbrück were equipped with gas installations
and as soon as November 1941 one of the physicians of Buchenwald could write to his wife:" Hurray,
we are going out on the merry hunt!!". The season was officially opened and it stopped only in 1944.
It is officially estimated that 120,000 sick Germans, Jews and non-Jews, were given that sort of
special tretament in the KL. This figure does not account for the Poles who were given as soon as
1939 such awful Sonderbehandlung.
In 1942, the first death camps were established in Poland under the supervision of Odilo Globocnik.
In doing this job he utilized the competences of the personnel who had taken part in the euthanasia
operation in Germany. In the summer of 1941 Himmler ordered Rudolf Höss to establish a
large-scale death camp at Auschwitz stating explicitly that the extermination of the Jews was being
carried out by order of the Führer.
| The lawyer Hans Frank, Governor of the General Government (Poland) was instrumental in the extermination of hundred of thousands of Polish Jews |
The first experiments with gas Zyklon-B at Auschwitz were conducted
on Russians POWs in September 1941 and systematic operations
commenced in January 1942. The gassing by vans ran concomitantly
to the first experiments with Zyklon-B, the Nazis still searching the best
way to proceed with their extermination goal. It is only when they
realized that the war in Russia would be longer than expected and that
they mastered both techniques that they decided to implement
officially the Final Solution. It would be the goal of the Wannsee
Conference in January 1942.
| Specimen of the handwriting of Himmler. Chilling ! Please call a graphologist ! |
| Letter from Himmler on Hitler's letterhead paper giving order to Bouhler for the euthanasia operation |
On the 29th of November 1941, Himmler started to send out invitations to a meeting set out for December 9
at Wannsee, a posh suburb of Berlin. At the same time SS Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichman (pic to the
right) summoned in Austria his representatives from all over Europe for a meeting regarding "Aktionen" and
the technical problems of assembling the deported and planning railway transportation. In his letters of
invitation, Himmler cited Göring official directive of July 1941 and insisted on the need for an overall solution
to the Jewish problem in Europe and explained that he proposed to hold joint discussions of all the relevant
central agencies involved in the final solution. After the Japanese attack on Hawai, the initial date was
postponed and set for the 20th of January.
Eventually almost all invited by Himmler convened to the meeting and were present a representative of Alfred
Rosenberg for the Eastern Occupied Territories, Dr. Josef Bühler, Hans Frank's delegate for the General
Government, an agent of Göring for the Four-Year plan, the director-generals for the ministries of the Interior
and of Justice, Martin Luther for the Foreign ministry, Martin Bormann's delegate from the Chancellery of
the NSDAP, Wilhelm Krizinger from the Chancellery of the Reich and many representatives of the RSHA
including Heinrich Müller and Adolf Eichmann. Hitler was not present ; he was then at the Wolfschanze on
the Eastern Front.
In his opening statement, Himmler emphasized that the ultimate responsibility for the Final Solution rested
with the Reichsführer SS (namely himself) irrespective of geographical boundaries. For him the
extermination of the European Jews was the best mean to expand his authority and domination. Until his
death in 1945, he looked at himself as the Führer's successor and he proved it at the collapse of the IIIrd
Reich when he tried a last ditch attempt to negotiate with Einsenhower. He committed suicide only when he
realized that he did not stand a chance to be taken seriously by the Allies and that he was considered as a
war criminal and not as a possible heir to the Führer.
After his opening statement, Himmler took stock of the extermination process and described the evolution of
the Jewish problem ; so far 537,000 Jews had emigrated from Germany, Austria and the Protectorate (ex
Czechoslovakia). They had paid US $9.5 million for this emigration. But now emigration was forbidden and the
war in the East made deportation and settlements more difficult and risky. He cited the number of Jews still
living in Europe around 11 million and pointed out that Jews were still evacuated to the East in order to work
in labour units that were building roads. Insisting that this type of job implied death by "natural selection", he
went on to explain that the survivors would be dealt with "appropriately". He asked for Europe to be combed
of her Jews from West to East and mentioned that "we are already concentrating the practical experiments
(i.e. the gassings) which are of vital importance in the light of the future final solution of the Jewish
problem."
at Wannsee, a posh suburb of Berlin. At the same time SS Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichman (pic to the
right) summoned in Austria his representatives from all over Europe for a meeting regarding "Aktionen" and
the technical problems of assembling the deported and planning railway transportation. In his letters of
invitation, Himmler cited Göring official directive of July 1941 and insisted on the need for an overall solution
to the Jewish problem in Europe and explained that he proposed to hold joint discussions of all the relevant
central agencies involved in the final solution. After the Japanese attack on Hawai, the initial date was
postponed and set for the 20th of January.
Eventually almost all invited by Himmler convened to the meeting and were present a representative of Alfred
Rosenberg for the Eastern Occupied Territories, Dr. Josef Bühler, Hans Frank's delegate for the General
Government, an agent of Göring for the Four-Year plan, the director-generals for the ministries of the Interior
and of Justice, Martin Luther for the Foreign ministry, Martin Bormann's delegate from the Chancellery of
the NSDAP, Wilhelm Krizinger from the Chancellery of the Reich and many representatives of the RSHA
including Heinrich Müller and Adolf Eichmann. Hitler was not present ; he was then at the Wolfschanze on
the Eastern Front.
In his opening statement, Himmler emphasized that the ultimate responsibility for the Final Solution rested
with the Reichsführer SS (namely himself) irrespective of geographical boundaries. For him the
extermination of the European Jews was the best mean to expand his authority and domination. Until his
death in 1945, he looked at himself as the Führer's successor and he proved it at the collapse of the IIIrd
Reich when he tried a last ditch attempt to negotiate with Einsenhower. He committed suicide only when he
realized that he did not stand a chance to be taken seriously by the Allies and that he was considered as a
war criminal and not as a possible heir to the Führer.
After his opening statement, Himmler took stock of the extermination process and described the evolution of
the Jewish problem ; so far 537,000 Jews had emigrated from Germany, Austria and the Protectorate (ex
Czechoslovakia). They had paid US $9.5 million for this emigration. But now emigration was forbidden and the
war in the East made deportation and settlements more difficult and risky. He cited the number of Jews still
living in Europe around 11 million and pointed out that Jews were still evacuated to the East in order to work
in labour units that were building roads. Insisting that this type of job implied death by "natural selection", he
went on to explain that the survivors would be dealt with "appropriately". He asked for Europe to be combed
of her Jews from West to East and mentioned that "we are already concentrating the practical experiments
(i.e. the gassings) which are of vital importance in the light of the future final solution of the Jewish
problem."
| SS Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) Adolf Eichmann. Due to his organizational talents and ideological reliability, he was tasked by Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich to facilitate and manage the logistics of mass deportation to ghettos and extermination camps in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. He was captured by Israeli Mossad agents in Argentina in 1960 and indicted by Israeli court on fifteen criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes. He was convicted and hanged. He was one of the most hateful anti-semitic Nazis who performed his dreadful tasks with some sort of sadistic pleasure. |
| This Martin Luther was an early member of the National Socialist Party. He served as an advisor to Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, first in the Dienststelle Ribbentrop (Ribbentrop Bureau), and later in the Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Ministry) when von Ribbentrop replaced Konstantin von Neurath. He is perhaps most remembered for having participated in the infamous Wannsee Conference, in which the Final Solution was planned. Late in the war, with the aid of Franz Rademacher, he tried to supplant von Ribbentrop as Foreign Minister, but was thwarted and sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He was freed by Soviet troops in May 1945, but died shortly after. A year after his death, Luther's copy of the Wannsee Conference minutes was found by American investigators in the archives of the German Foreign Ministry. According to the film Conspiracy, it is the only record of the conference that survived the war. |
The other part of the Conference was devoted to the problem of
mixed marriages and to this effect the best way to learn more
about the adopted -or unadopted- solutions is to read the
diaries of Victor Klemperer written between 1933 and 1945
under the title "I will bear witness" (pic to the left).
At the concluision of the meeting, Dr Josef Bühler suggested
that it was advisable to eliminate the Jews as rapidly as
possible from the General Governement since they
represented both health and economic major hazards. During
his trial in Israel in 1962, Eichmann confirmed that the
participants at the Conference openly discussed the various
methods of killing Jews and did not mince words, referring
explicitly to extermination and liquidation. Later this year,
Eichmann was given a directive signed by Himmler that ordered
the implementation of the Final Solution. Although Eichamnn
denied this at his trial, his collaborator Dieter Wisliceny swore
during his post-war trial that Eichmann had shown him this
directive in 1942. This directive was never found.
mixed marriages and to this effect the best way to learn more
about the adopted -or unadopted- solutions is to read the
diaries of Victor Klemperer written between 1933 and 1945
under the title "I will bear witness" (pic to the left).
At the concluision of the meeting, Dr Josef Bühler suggested
that it was advisable to eliminate the Jews as rapidly as
possible from the General Governement since they
represented both health and economic major hazards. During
his trial in Israel in 1962, Eichmann confirmed that the
participants at the Conference openly discussed the various
methods of killing Jews and did not mince words, referring
explicitly to extermination and liquidation. Later this year,
Eichmann was given a directive signed by Himmler that ordered
the implementation of the Final Solution. Although Eichamnn
denied this at his trial, his collaborator Dieter Wisliceny swore
during his post-war trial that Eichmann had shown him this
directive in 1942. This directive was never found.
| Hitler could always counted on the diminutive club-footed and sycophant Paul Joseph Goebbels to tell him lies and flatteries in order to prop up Hitler's sometimes vacillating moral. |
| The diaries are considered important as detailed accounts of the spread of Nazism in Germany and the reception of Nazi ideals by the population. It represents the unusual perspective of a Jew throughout all twelve years of Nazi power. The diaries’ unique contribution to the field of Holocaust literature is its step-by-step presentation of the systematic dehumanization and persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany. |
But a few days after Wannsee, Himmler ordered SS Grüppenführer Richard Glücks, head of Amt D
Konzentrationslagerwesen of the WVHA, the highest-ranking Inspector of Concentration Camps, to prepare the
camps for the absorption of 100,000 men and up to 50,000 women, "Jews who would be evacuated from the
Reich".
Thus the Wannsee conference marked the beginning of a full scale, comprehensive extermination operation and
it laid the foundation for its organization. Himmler intended to start his dirty business at once and as soon as the
25th of January 1942 he gave orders in this direction : 150,000 German Jews would be deported from the Great
Reich and dealt with in Auschwitz. On 31 January 1942 Eichmann sent a letter to all the State Police stations in
the Great Reich saying that "the evacuation of the Jews to the East, recently carried out in several areas, is
the beginning of the Final solution of the Jewish problem in the original Reich, in Ostmark (Austria) and in the
Protectorate (Bohemia and Moravia)."
He went on saying that a full scale operation was now in preparation and therefore requested precise data on the
location of Jews within the Great Reich. He ordered this information to be submitted within 10 days. At a
meeting in March 6, 1942, Eichmann showed to his men the plan for the evacuation of 55,000 Jews from the
Great Reich, among them 20,000 from Prague and 18,000 from Vienna. The trains, he explained, could only
hold 700 persons, but since it was necessary to convey 1,000 Jews at the time, freight wagons for the load of
luggage and passengers carriages for the escorts should be provided.
In the Spring of 1942, all the instruments of the Holocaust were ready and there had been a wide consensus
among all government agencies on the implementation of the Final Solution. The machinery of terror and
extermination had been set in motion. Hitler did not take part in its technical details but he was the driving
although mute force behind it. He perfectly knew what his henchmen were up to and he approved of it.
Konzentrationslagerwesen of the WVHA, the highest-ranking Inspector of Concentration Camps, to prepare the
camps for the absorption of 100,000 men and up to 50,000 women, "Jews who would be evacuated from the
Reich".
Thus the Wannsee conference marked the beginning of a full scale, comprehensive extermination operation and
it laid the foundation for its organization. Himmler intended to start his dirty business at once and as soon as the
25th of January 1942 he gave orders in this direction : 150,000 German Jews would be deported from the Great
Reich and dealt with in Auschwitz. On 31 January 1942 Eichmann sent a letter to all the State Police stations in
the Great Reich saying that "the evacuation of the Jews to the East, recently carried out in several areas, is
the beginning of the Final solution of the Jewish problem in the original Reich, in Ostmark (Austria) and in the
Protectorate (Bohemia and Moravia)."
He went on saying that a full scale operation was now in preparation and therefore requested precise data on the
location of Jews within the Great Reich. He ordered this information to be submitted within 10 days. At a
meeting in March 6, 1942, Eichmann showed to his men the plan for the evacuation of 55,000 Jews from the
Great Reich, among them 20,000 from Prague and 18,000 from Vienna. The trains, he explained, could only
hold 700 persons, but since it was necessary to convey 1,000 Jews at the time, freight wagons for the load of
luggage and passengers carriages for the escorts should be provided.
In the Spring of 1942, all the instruments of the Holocaust were ready and there had been a wide consensus
among all government agencies on the implementation of the Final Solution. The machinery of terror and
extermination had been set in motion. Hitler did not take part in its technical details but he was the driving
although mute force behind it. He perfectly knew what his henchmen were up to and he approved of it.
| Birkenau concentration camp above and Majdanek below still witness today of the horrors of the KL system |
| CONCLUSION A major issue in contemporary Holocaust studies is the question of functionalism versus intentionalism. Intentionalists like Lucy Davidowicz argue that the Holocaust was planned by Hitler from the very beginning. More moderate recent intentionalist historians like Eberhard Jäckel continue to emphasize the relative earliness of the decision to murder the Jews, although they are not willing to claim that Hitler planned the Holocaust from the beginning. Functionalists like Hans Mommsen hold that the Holocaust was started in 1942 as a result of the failure of the Nazi deportation policy and the impending military losses in Russia. They claim that extermination fantasies outlined in Hitler's Mein Kampf and other Nazi literature were mere propaganda and did not constitute concrete plans. I personally stand with this third group of historians. IMHO the Holocaust was not planned since the beginning, it was in some sort an improvisation. Overwhelmed by the madness of their own madness, the Nazis recurred to mass murder and total extermination when they eventually measure the implications of their racist ideas and their territorial policies. The Nazis were monstrous political dwarfs who pretended to have ideas of grandeurs but fell victims of their own barbarism. - The Webmaster All writing on this site is Copyright Michel Cahier 2003-2100 unless indicated otherwise. All rights reserved. |
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