Nazi Mass Murder

Joint interrogation of Otto Moll and Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höß on April 16, 1946. Höss stated that it "was the responsibility of the subordinates, like Moll, to see that the people actually got into the gas chambers under the doctors and then to see that their bodies were burned" and that"those that were too weak to be moved to the gas chamber, or who could not be moved for some other reason, were shot thru the neck by him". Moll testified that "we put between 30,000 and 40,000 people in those mass graves" of the Bunker extermination sites in 1942, whereas Höss gave a higher figure, "the people buried in the two big mass graves of the so-called dugouts: one and two, amounted to 106,000 or 107,000 people".

Sworn statement of Otto Moll, taken at Dachau by U.S. investigators on November 3, 1945. At the center of his account is his role in the Kaufering subcamps of the Dachau concentration camp system during the final months of the war (end phase atrocities). On his earlier service at Auschwitz, Moll made a notably brief and misleading claim that "From 1941 until January 1945, I likewise managed a gardening unit of the Economic and Administrative Main Office in the Auschwitz concentration camp, in which concentration camp prisoners were also employed."

On May 16, 1942, SS-Untersturmführer August Becker submitted a report to the head of RSHA department II D, Walther Rauff, on his inspection of the operation of the homicidal gas vans at the Einsatzgruppen. Becker noted that the vehicles had become widely recognized, “that not only the authorities but also the civilian population referred to them as ‘death vehicles’ as soon as one of them appeared”. He also observed “various units have their own men unload the vehicle after the gassing,” and warned the commanders of “what enormous psychological and physical harm this work can cause to the men.” He states that “the gassing is generally not carried out correctly,” as drivers “consistently apply full throttle,” with the result that victims “die of suffocation.”

Interrogation of notorious Auschwitz perpetrator Otto Moll, conducted on April 15–16, 1946. In his statements to U.S. prosecutors at Nuremberg, Moll acknowledged supervising the cremation of bodies at Birkenau in the Summer of 1944. He described the arrival of transports from Hungary, the selection process carried out by SS doctors, and the transfer of those deemed unfit for work to the crematoria. At the same time, he maintained that responsibility for the killings themselves rested with doctors and higher-ranking SS officials. He denied committing any atrocities.

In March 1943, the Swiss Legation in Germany forwarded a transcript of a report from Alfred Rosenberg’s Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories dated May 13, 1942, on the public sentiment in German-occupied Ukraine during the Second World War. Among other observations, the report noted that "the exemplary conduct of the German soldiers dispelled the initial concerns about the alleged brutality of our troops. If we disregard the executions of Jews, which have not improved our reputation—however much Jewry is hated there—the hardships necessary in war have not greatly impressed the Russian people, for they are accustomed to such things".

Einsatzgruppen Report No. 88, dated 19 September 1941, constitutes contemporaneous evidence of systematic Nazi mass murder in the occuopied Soviet Union. Under the heading “liquidations,” Einsatzgruppe A reported that “districts are now free of Jews,” and that “the number of persons liquidated by Einsatzkommando 3 together with Lithuanian partisans has risen to 46,692. The total number of executions amounts to approximately 85,000.” It further mentions that “544 mentally ill patients from the asylum in Aglona were liquidated with the assistance of Latvian self-defense units.” Einsatzgruppe B similarly documented mass shootings. It reported that Sonderkommando 4a “shot 1,107 adult Jews, and the Ukrainian militia shot 561 juvenile Jews. Thus, Sonderkommando 4a has, up to 6 September 1941, de…

Telex from the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) Russia South, Friedrich Jeckeln, to the Kommando Stab RF-SS, dated 26 August 1941. The situation report records that the 1st SS Brigade reported “82 Jews shot,” Police Regiment South reported “549 Jews shot,” Police Battalion 314 recorded “69 Jews shot,” and the staff company of the HSSPF reported “546 Jews shot.” Taken together, the figures in the telex amount to the reported shooting of 1,269 Jews.

A confidential report dated April 7, 1942, issued by the Lublin Labor Office, documents labor allocations for March 1942, including transfers of workers to the Reich, SS construction projects, and the reorganization of Jewish forced labor during the early phase of Operation Reinhard. The report explicitly records the onset of mass deportations in Lublin that "in mid-month a larger resettlement action of Jews was initiated by the SS and Police Leader, which is still ongoing and during which the ghetto was sealed off. Of the 40,000 Jews residing in Lublin, all but approximately 2,000 are being removed from the city. These 2,000 consist of approximately 800 skilled workers and their family members." The document further states that "The resettlement action is also to be carried out in the tow…

Radio message from the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) Russia South, Friedrich Jeckeln, to the Kommando Stab RF-SS, dated 28 August 1941. The situation report records that Police Regiment South reported “369 Jews shot,” while Police Battalion 320 stated that, “approximately 5,000 Jews were shot” during the "special action" in Kamenets-Podolsky (Kamianets-Podilskyi).

Interrogation of former SS-Untersturmführer Hans Stark of the Auschwitz Political Department, dated April 28, 1959, on atrocities committed at the Auschwitz concentration camp. As a former member of the admissions department, Stark testified that "newly arriving transports that were designated for shooting were not to be registered, as would have been done with others, but were to be led directly to be shot." He further described the early use of poison gas, stating that "the first gassing was carried out in the autumn of 1941 in the small crematorium. … A group of approximately 200 to 250 Jews was brought to the crematorium. They were men, women, and children of all ages. They were sent into the crematorium. I stood at the entrance and counted them. The gassings were carried out in such a…

Report by SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl, head of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office (SS-WVHA), to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, dated 6 February 1943, on “the quantity of scrap material from the Jewish resettlement that has so far been shipped out from the Auschwitz and Lublin camps.” The report states that a total of 825 railway wagons of confiscated property were collected, sorted, and dispatched from the Auschwitz and Majdanek concentration camps.

Cover letter dated 13 November 1941 and situation report dated 10 November 1941 from the Wehrmacht Commander in White Ruthenia concerning the political and military situation in the occupied territory. The report states with regard to the Jews that “since they continue to make common cause with the Communists and partisans, the complete elimination of this alien element is being carried out,” and that these actions had so far taken place “in the eastern part of the area, in the former Soviet–Russian border region and along the Minsk–Brest Litovsk railway line.” Attached to the situation report was the supplementary report on “special incidents” describing such a “cleansing action” in the Sluzk–Kleck area: "5,900 Jews were shot by Reserve Police Battalion 11".

Dated 10 November 1941 and issued by the Wehrmacht commander in occupied Belarus, this monthly report records that of 10,940 prisoners taken, 10,431 were executed, and that in a single “cleansing operation” near Sluzk, 5,900 Jews were shot by Reserve Police Battalion 11.

In an interrogation conducted by West German authorities on November 2, 1960, former SS driver Richard Böck gave further testimony about his service at Auschwitz. He provided firsthand account of mass gassing at the Bunker extermination site in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Among other details, Böck stated that "after the entire transport—there must have been about 1,000 people—was inside the building, the gate was closed. Then an SS man, I believe he was a Rottenführer, came to our ambulance and took out a gas canister. With this canister, he went to a ladder that stood on the right side of the building, as seen from the gate. I noticed that he was wearing a gas mask as he climbed the ladder. When he reached the top, he opened a circular metal flap and poured the contents of the canister into the o…

Telex from the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) Russia South, Friedrich Jeckeln, to the Command Staff RF-SS, dated 25 August 1941. The situation report states that the 1st SS Brigade recorded “283 Jews shot,” while Police Regiment South recorded “1,342 Jews shot.”

Telex (copy) from the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) Russia South, Friedrich Jeckeln, to the Kommando Stab RF-SS, dated 22 August 1941. The situation report records that Police Bataillon 45 "shot 5 prisoners, among them 3 armed women, 19 further bandits, and 66 Jews. Furthermore, in Sudylkuw 471 Jews."

Radio message (copy) from the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) Mitte, Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, to the Kommando Stab RF-SS, dated 7 August 1941. The situation report states that “by today at noon a further 3,600 have been executed” by the SS Cavalry Brigade, “so that the total number executed by the Cavalry Brigade to date amounts to 7,819.” The report concludes that “thus the figure of 30,000 in my area has been exceeded.”

On 4 May 1945, Kurt Gerstein completed a report describing his curriculum vitae and his inspection trip as SS-to the Aktion Reinhard extermination camps of Belzec and Treblinka, which took place between 17 and 19 August 1942. In this report, Gerstein provided an account of the extermination process, including the operation of the gas chambers. According to his testimony, he was sent to the camps in his capacity as an expert in disinfestation, first to assist with the disinfection of textiles collected during Aktion Reinhard and, second, to convert the gas chambers from engine exhaust to prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide).

A report submitted by the Wehrmacht’s Local Headquarters in Kerch, Crimea on 7 December 1941 recorded the extermination of the city’s Jewish population. It mentions that the “execution of about 2,500 Jews was carried out on 1, 2, and 3 December [1941]”. In the document, the word “execution” is crossed out in pencil and replaced with “resettlement,” the euphemism the Nazis used to conceal the murder of Jews. The report also noted that "additional executions are to be expected, since part of the Jewish population fled, went into hiding, and must first be apprehended".

This detachment order from SS Cavalry Regiment 1, issued on 1 August 1942, illustrates how Himmler’s earlier order that "all Jews must be shot. Jewish women are to be driven into the swamps" was integrated into daily field operations. The document notes that Himmler’s instruction “regarding the shooting of Jews is not to be taken as a reprimand, since up to now there have been no Jews” in the area. It underscores the directive to patrol leaders: “no male Jew is to remain alive; no remnant family is to remain in the localities.”

An explicit directive issued by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler transmitted via radio signal to SS Cavalry Regiment 2 on August 1, 1941 set out how the unit was to deal with Jews in its operational area. The order stated that "all [male] Jews must be shot" and that "Jewish women are to be driven into the swamps".