Auschwitz

Your Attractive Heading 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 way that the Jews were sent into a room which was then closed behind them. Then Zyklon B was poured through two openings in the roof".

Your Attractive Heading 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.

Your Attractive Heading 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 opening".

Your Attractive Heading 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).

Your Attractive Heading Daily construction report from the firm W. Riedel & Sohn, dated 2 March 1943, detailing the work carried out on Crematorium IV at Auschwitz. The document records the number of workers present, the hours they worked, and the tasks completed that day—from plastering walls and fitting ventilation elements to “concreting the floor in the gas chamber.”

Your Attractive Heading In this secret directive (telex dated 25 October 1942), SS-Obersturmbannführer Arthur Liebehenschel instructed SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Aumeier that any inspection of the Auschwitz camp’s “special installations” for “special accommodation” (Sonderunterbringung) was strictly prohibited, and that "escape shootings" were to be avoided during the visit of a French construction commission inspecting the labor facilities of the Auschwitz complex.

Your Attractive Heading On April 19, 1943, SS statistician Richard Korherr submitted a shortened version of his Korherr Report – the SS’s statistical account of the “Final Solution of the European Jewish Question” – to the personal staff of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, for presentation to Adolf Hitler. In the report, Korherr estimated that “the reduction of Jewry in Europe from 1937 to the beginning of 1943 is to be estimated at 4½ million” and noted that “only part of the deaths of Soviet-Russian Jews in the occupied eastern territories could be recorded, while those in the rest of European Russia and at the front are not included at all.” He concluded that “European Jewry since 1933 has probably lost almost half of its total population,” of which “only about half has flowed to other continents.”

Your Attractive Heading On January 29, 1943, the Central Construction Office of the Waffen-SS at Auschwitz reported to SS-Brigadeführer Hans Kammler on the near-completion of Crematorium II. Despite severe frost and construction difficulties, the ovens were tested and confirmed operational in the presence of Topf & Sons engineer Kurt Prüfer. The document also notes delays in the delivery of the ventilation system and explicitly refers to the use of the "gassing cellar" in the crematorium.

Your Attractive Heading Copy of a report dated 5 July 1945 by Wilhelm Boger, given while in U.S. custody, on his personal background, his rise through the ranks of the Nazi security apparatus, and his period in the Auschwitz concentration camp. In December 1942, Boger was transferred to Auschwitz, where he served in the camp’s Political Department, responsible for interrogations, internal investigations, and handling escape cases. He also provides an account of the SS trial of Maximilian Grabner, the head of the Political Department in Auschwitz, at which Boger testified as a witness. During the proceedings, he stated that "Grabner had ordered the killing of people." In the report, Boger claims that, according to SS-Oberscharführer Erber, "the total number of inmates killed at Auschwitz – by gassing, shooting, hanging, and disease, including also SS members – […] clearly exceeds four million".

Your Attractive Heading In correspondence dated September 5, 1944 SS-Standartenführer Wolfram Sievers discusses the fate of Nazi's "Jewish skeleton collection" housed in Strasbourg’s anatomy institute. As Allied forces advanced, Sievers requested a decision from the Personal Staff of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler on whether to preserve or “dissolve” the collection. He noted to Rudolf Brandt that one "can proceed with defleshing the bodies, thereby rendering them unrecognizable, but this would make much of the overall work pointless and result in a major scientific loss for this unique collection". By October 1944, SS-Hauptsturmführer Bruno Beger claimed to Brandt that the collection had been "completely dissolved".

Your Attractive Heading This post reproduces the so called Korherr Report, a statistical report on the "Final Solution of the European Jewish Question" up to 1943 and its accompanying cover letter from April 1943. Authored by SS statistician Richard Korherr for Heinrich Himmler, the report presents – through a veneer of euphemism and bureaucratic precision – the numerical decline of European Jewry via excess of deaths over births, emigration, deportation and so-called "evacuations" and "special treatement". The report concludes that "European Jewry since 1933 … likely lost nearly half of its population". A substantial portion of this loss is attributed to 1,274,166 Jews "processed through camps in the General Government" (i.e. Belzec, Treblinka, Sobibor), 145,301 Jews "processed through camps in the Warthegau" and 633,300 Jews "evacuated in the Russian territories".

Your Attractive Heading In June 1943, SS officials completed a selection process at Auschwitz and choose 115 prisoners – mostly Jews – for execution and use in an anatomical collection in Strasbourg. SS anthropologist Bruno Beger and Ahnenerbe director Wolfram Sievers coordinated the operation authorised by the Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and pressed the Reich Security Main Office to conduct the victims’ transfer to Natzweiler for killing. In a letter dated June 21, 1943, Sievers informed Adolf Eichmann that "79 Jewish men, 2 Poles, 4 Inner Asians, and 30 Jewish women" had been selected and requested "their immediate transfer to Natzweiler concentration camp" along with arrangements for "short-term housing accommodations."

Your Attractive Heading In 1942, the Reichsführer-SS, Heinrich Himmler, authorized the killing of 150 prisoners – primarily Jews – from Auschwitz to create an anatomical skeleton collection for the SS-Ahnenerbe. On November 2, the Ahnenerbe’s executive director Wolfram Sievers formally requested Himmler’s directive to the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), stating that "150 skeletons of prisoners or Jews […] are to be made available by the Auschwitz concentration camp." Just four days later, on November 6, Himmler’s Personal Administrative Officer, Rudolf Brandt, conveyed the order in a letter to Adolf Eichmann: "On behalf of the Reichsführer-SS, I therefore request that the establishment of the planned skeleton collection be enabled."

Your Attractive Heading In February 1943, RSHA chief Ernst Kaltenbrunner reported to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler on the recent deportation of 5,000 able-bodied Jews from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz. He also "urgently" requested to "remove 5,000 Jews over the age of 60 from Theresienstadt and to transport them to Auschwitz or to the General Government". Kaltenbrunner described these elderly individuals as "who are primarily carriers of disease and who also bind a large number of able-bodied Jews that could be used more purposefully for labor deployment".

Your Attractive Heading Carbon copy of letter issued by the Central Construction Office at Auschwitz, dated March 31, 1943, mentions "three gas-tight doors" (misspelled in the original) for Crematoria 4 and 5, as well as a "gas door" with "peephole made of double 8 mm glass" for Crematoria 2 and 3. This letter confirms the use of gas-tight installations within the crematoria at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Your Attractive Heading A radio message from the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office (SS-WVHA) to the Auschwitz concentration camp, dated 26 August 1942, shows how SS officials used euphemistic language to arrange the delivery of Zyklon-B supplies. In the message, the SS camp administration was granted authorization for a 5-ton truck to travel from Auschwitz to Dessau and back to collect "material for special treatment" (Material für Sonderbehandlung). The phrase "special treatment" was an euphemism for extrajudicial killings carried ou by Nazi police and security forces.

Your Attractive Heading This post presents the testimony of SS-Unterscharführer Richard Böck, recorded on February, 5 1959 by the Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police. Böck, who served as a driver at Auschwitz, recounts his observations of executions, prisoner mistreatment, and extermination. He testified that "Dr. Mengele oversaw the extermination operations on the ramp at Birkenau", and "Moll killed prisoners who did not enter the gas chambers quickly enough by shooting them in the neck with a 9mm air rifle".

Your Attractive Heading In October 1958, Wilhelm Boger, a former SS officer known for his role at Auschwitz, was arrested and interrogated by Stuttgart police. Over two days, Boger gave a lengthy statement about his background, duties at the camp, and the charges brought against him. Boger served in the camp’s Political Department, dealing with criminal investigations, escape attempts, and intelligence gathering. He admitted to overseeing and participating in “enhanced interrogations” involving beatings and suspension torture – a method prisoners later dubbed the “Boger swing.” Though Boger repeatedly denied involvement in selections or executions, he acknowledged being present during some shootings and described how prisoners unfit for labor were sent to the crematoria for gassing. He also confirmed his presence at the Birkenau ramp in to investigate SS theft of prisoner belongings. Boger claimed he was assigned to Auschwitz for "further probation" after being deemed unfit for frontline military service. He…

Your Attractive Heading On September 16, 1942, SS-Obergruppenführer Oswald Pohl, head of the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office, sent a letter to Heinrich Himmler summarizing a recent meeting with Albert Speer, Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production. Among the topics discussed was the planned expansion of Auschwitz concentration camp and its role to supply the armaments industry with Jewish forced labor. Pohl reported that Auschwitz was to be enlarged to accommodate up to 132,000 prisoners and that "the labor force available in concentration camps must now be used for large-scale armaments tasks." He explained that the primary source of this labor would be Jews drawn from deportation transports to Auschwitz: "Able-bodied Jews designated for eastern migration will have to interrupt their journey and perform armaments labor." Pohl also stressed that the deployment of Jewish laborers already cleared of Jews "must under no circumstances take place." The already sealed fate of Jews deemed unfit for…

Your Attractive Heading A telex dated February 20, 1943 from SS-Obersturmführer Heinrich Schwarz, head of labour deployment in Auschwitz, to the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office (WVHA) in Oranienburg on selection and categorization of 5,042 Jews deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz. According to the report, nearly 73% of the total arrivals in Auschwitz were considered unfit for work and were "accommodated specially" – a Nazi euphemism to camouflage killing. The report states that many of the men were "accommodated specially" due to "excessive infirmity", while the women were selected for special accommodation because most had children.

Your Attractive Heading A decree dated February 24, 1943 issued by Walter Springorum, President of the Government District of Kattowitz, reports a incident on February 7, 1943, in which a large number of Jewish prisoners escaped from a halted deportation train bound for Auschwitz in Tarnowitz. According to the decree, four escapees were recaptured, while one Jewish woman was shot and another was run over. Springorum also noted that between January 18 and 20, 1943, "several Jewish corpses were found along the railway", apparently thrown from moving trains. He was concerned about "politically undesirable unrest among the population" that may be caused by such deportation transports.

Your Attractive Heading On July 5, 1944, Horst Wagner, head of Jewish affairs at the German Foreign Office, sent critical information in a letter to SS-Obergruppenführer Ernst Kaltenbrunner, chief of the Security Police and SD. Wagner shared an intercepted radio message between the British Embassy in Bern and the Foreign Office in London. According to the intercepted communication, a Hungarian official had reported that "nearly half of the total 800,000 Jews in Hungary have already been deported" and were "being sent to the death camp at Birkenau near Oswiecim in Upper Silesia." The message urged immediate military action – "bombing of the railway lines from Hungary to Birkenau" and "strikes on the facilities of the death camps" to disrupt the extermination operations.

Your Attractive Heading In late 1942, several thousand Poles were deported from Zamosc, Poland, following Nazi racial classifications that determined their fate. This process was part of Himmler’s directive on November 12, 1942, to make Zamosc the "first German settlement area in the Generalgouvernement". Those deemed racially "inferior" were sent to Auschwitz, with a transport of 644 individuals departing Zamosc on December 10, 1942. On December 16, SS-Untersturmführer Heinrich Kinna from the migration central offic, wrote a report on the transport. He summarized his conversation with Auschwitz deputy commandant Hans Aumeier, who disclosed that "Imbeciles, idiots, cripples, and sick people must be removed from the camp promptly through liquidation to unburden the camp. This measure, however, encounters complications, as per RSHA orders, Poles, unlike Jews, must die a natural death."

Your Attractive Heading Memo on a telephone call on 17 February 1943 between Topf engineers Karl Schultze and Fritz Sander, in which Sander noted that the "ventilation blower No. 450 for the gas cellar" (Gaskeller) of the crematorium 2 in Auschwitz- Birkenau could not be located. Schultze requested that the blower should be produced on an expedited basis and dispatched, as it "is urgently required" in Auschwitz.

Your Attractive Heading According to a radio message from September 15, 1942 and a trip report dated September 17, 1942, on 16 September 1942, a delegation from Auschwitz — consisting of Commandant SS-Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höß, SS-Untersturmführer Franz Hößler, who was responsible for clearing mass graves, and SS-Untersturmführer Walther Dejaco from the Central Construction Office — visited Litzmannstadt to inspect "the test station for field ovens as part of Aktion Reinhard", i.e. the open air cremation furnaces at the Kulmhof / Chełmno extermination camp The group examined the "special facility" and discussed its implementation at Auschwitz with SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel. Blobel also ordered the delivery of "construction materials" and reserved a "ball mill for substances for Auschwitz concentration camp."

Your Attractive Heading On June 28, 1943, the Central Construction Office Auschwitz wrote a report addressed to the SS-WVHA on the completion of the third crematorium at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The document was written by SS-Untersturmführer Josef Janisch and prepared for the signature of SS-Sturmbannführer Karl Bischoff, head of the office. According to the report, Crematoria II and III each had the ability to cremate "1,440 persons" per day, while Crematoria IV and V could handle "768 persons" per day. Combined with the older crematorium at Auschwitz I, the camp’s total daily capacity reached "4,756 persons".

Your Attractive Heading Report by Topf & Söhne engineer Fritz Sander, dated September 14, 1942, on the new construction of incineration ovens for concentration camps. Sander points out the "high demand for cremation ovens" especially in Auschwitz", where "they resort to using a large number of ovens or muffles and overloading the individual muffles with multiple corpses". Furthermore, the practice that "multiple corpses must be packed into the muffle simultaneously…will likely cause damage to the relatively delicate muffle brickwork."

Your Attractive Heading Memo by Topf & Söhne engineer Kurt Prüfer regarding a phone call with the SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt (SS Economic and Administrative Main Office) on September 8, 1942. Prüfer reports that the Auschwitz concentration camp is planning for cremation ovens with a total capacity to incinerate 2,650 corpses per day. However, he notes that "this number of muffles is still not sufficient; we are to deliver more ovens as quickly as possible."

Your Attractive Heading Report of SS-Untersturmführer Fritz Ertl, dated August 21, 1942 about a meeting with engineers Kurt Prüfer and Robert Köhler in Auschwitz from August 19 and 20, 1942. The report discusses the "installation of two 3-muffle ovens at the bathing installations for special actions", an euphemism for the Bunker extermination sites.

Your Attractive Heading The Franke-Gricksch Report was written by SS officer Alfred Franke-Gricksch following his visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp in May 1943. It describes in detail the processes involved in the mass extermination of Jews, including the use of gas chambers and crematoria.