January 2025

Report of June 22, 1943 on Unfit Jews, Exhumation and Cremation at Kulmhof (Chełmno)
Contemporary Source

1943-06-22 Nazi Secret Service Classified Report: Unfit Jews, Exhumation and Cremation at Kulmhof (Chełmno)

On June 22, 1943, the Forschungsstelle A Litzmannstadt – a local intelligence branch under Hermann Göring’s Secret Service – issued a classified report on the dissolution of the Kulmhof (Chełmno) extermination camp by April 1, 1942. The camp served a destination for “Jews unfit for labor from the Warthegau, especially from the Litzmannstadt Ghetto”. The document further notes that”the police guards there were ordered to exhume the Jews buried in a small forest near Kulmhof and to burn them in specially constructed ovens”.

Order of September 22, 1943 by Himmler on Aktion Reinhard accounting
Contemporary Source

1943-09-22 Directive By Himmler on the Accounting of the “Reinhard 1” Account

On September 22, 1943, the Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler issued a directive on the accounting of the “Reinhard 1” account due to the transfer of SS-Gruppenführer Odilo Globocnik to Trieste / Italy. Himmler ordered that Globocnik, who was responsible for the Operation Reimhardt in the General Gouvernement, oversee the Reinhard 1 account until December 31, 1943, at which point it would be handed over to a representative of SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl, head of the SS-WVHA.

Form sheet dated July 18, 1942.
Contemporary Source

1942-07-18 Secrecy and Silence: The Declaration of Obligation of Operation Reinhardt

A form sheet by SS-Sturmbannführer Hermann Höfle dated July 18, 1942, on the individual’s responsibilities and strict secrecy surrounding their assignment “for carrying out tasks in connection with the Jewish resettlement as part of ‘Operation Reinhardt'”. The document mandates that “under no circumstances am I to communicate … any information regarding the course, execution, or incidents of the Jewish resettlement”. It further emphasizes that all operations associated with Jewish resettlement are classified as “a Secret Reich Matter” and “prohibits any photography within the camps of Operation Reinhardt”.

Interrogation of September 1, 1942 Dirlewanger Jews
Contemporary Source

1942-09-01 Dirlewanger’s Testimony to an SS Investigator on the Poisoning of Jews

In 1942, the SS Main Office pursued an investigation into Oskar Dirlewanger, commander of the notorious penal unit, Sonderkommando Dirlewanger. The charges, raised by the SD and the SS and Police Court in Cracow, included racial defilement, abuse of his men, extortion, illegal hunting and confiscations, unlawful arrests, and unauthorized killings within the General Government. During his interrogation on September 1, 1942, Dirlewanger told the SS court martial officer that the KdS Lublin was overwhelmed by the volume of Jews to be executed. He stated that, in November 1941, Odilo Globocnik, SS and Police Leader of the Lublin district, ordered that these detainees be transferred to him for execution. Initially, Dirlewanger “had these Jews shot”; however, later “they were then injected with strychnine by the SS doctor, and their teeth were extracted”.

Letter of March 4, 1942 on SS-Obergruppenführer von dem Bach "Suffers from Thoughts of the Executions of Jews He Himself Oversaw"
Contemporary Source

1942-03-04 The Psychological Toll of Atrocity: Bach-Zelewski “Suffers From Thoughts Related to the Executions of Jews He Himself Oversaw”

In this letter dated March 4, 1942, the Reichsarzt SS Ernst-Robert Grawitz describes the medical condition and recovery process of the Higher SS and Police Leader for the central zone in Russia Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, whose role in leading executions in the East left mental scars. Grawitz notes that von dem Bach suffered from “severe nervous exhaustion…from thoughts related to the executions of Jews that he himself oversaw”.

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