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Letter dated March 31, 1943 gas tight door Auschwitz
Contemporary Source

1943-03-31 / Order of Central Construction Office Auschwitz: “Gas door with peephole made of double 8 mm glass” for Crematoria 2 and 3

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.

Letter dated October 27, 1942 by Himmler to Prützmann on the extermination of the Ghetto Pinsk
Contemporary Source

1942-10-27 / Himmler’s Order to Exterminate the Pinsk Ghetto

On October 27, 1942, Heinrich Himmler issued an order to Hans-Adolf Prützmann, the Higher SS and Police Leader in Ukraine, commanding to “immediately clear and annihilate the Ghetto in Pinsk”. The only exemption was to be 1,000 Jewish forced laborers, who were to be handed over to the Wehrmacht. However, if their secure confinement could not be guaranteed, they too were to be “annihilated.”

Radio message dated August 26, 1942, driving permit on materials for special treatment
Contemporary Source

1942-08-26 / The Auschwitz Radio Message of 26 August 1942: “Special Treatment” and Zyklon B

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.

Interrogation of Richard Böck on Auschwitz dated February 5, 1959
Post-War Testimony

1959-02-05 / The 1959 Interrogation of Auschwitz SS Driver Richard Böck on Auschwitz

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”.

Interrogation of Wilhelm Boger on Auschwitz dated October 8, 1958
Post-War Testimony

1958-10-08 / The 1958 Interrogation of SS Officer Wilhelm Boger on Auschwitz

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 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.” 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.

Report dated March 19, 1942
Contemporary Source

1942-03-19 / German Report on “resettlement action” in Lviv, March 1942: “30,000 elderly and otherwise non-working Jews”

German military report from March 19, 1942 on the mood and conditions of the civilian population in Lemberg (now Lviv, Ukraine) located in the General Gouvernement during the Nazi occupation. The document mentions that “among the Jewish population of Lemberg, noticeable anxiety has arisen in connection with a resettlement action that has begun, by which approximately 30,000 elderly and otherwise non-working Jews of Lemberg are being gathered and, according to reports, transported to the Lublin area. To what extent this evacuation will amount to a decimation remains to be seen.” The deportations were the beginning of mass transports to the Bełżec extermination camp as part of Operation Reinhard.

Letter dated September 16, 1942 from Oswald Pohl to Heinrich Himmler on Auschwitz
Contemporary Source

1942-09-16 / Pohl’s September 1942 Report on the Auschwitz Expansion and the “Eastern Migration” of Able-Bodied Jews

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 labor was not addressed in the official discussion.

Meeting transcript dated June 8, 1943
Contemporary Source

1943-06-08 / Erich Koch, Reichskommissariat Ukraine: “The Jews Are All Gone”

Transcript from June 8, 1943, of a meeting between Adolf Hitler and Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the Wehrmacht High Command. Hitler recounted a conversation with Erich Koch, Reichskommissar for Ukraine. Koch stated, “I am losing 500,000 Jews here. I have to remove them, because the Jews are the element of unrest,” and went on to explain, “there are no craftsmen left. The Jews are all gone.”

Contemporary Source

1942-03-06 / Power Struggles in the Nazi Occupation: Minsk Prison Mass Shooting of January 1942

In a report dated 6 March 1942, Oberregierungsrat Paul Haensel presented findings from his inspection trip to Minsk. According to prison officials and legal personnel, “approximately 280 civilian prisoners were taken from the prison in Minsk by the SD, led to a pit, and shot”, with another 30 prisoners executed shortly afterwards “since the pit’s capacity had not yet been fully used”. Haensel concluded there was “no justification for this mass shooting without any due process”. The killings were “allegedly carried out to combat typhus”, yet, as Haensel noted “there were no cases of typhus in the prison either before or after the incident”. The Minister for the Eastern Territories, Alfred Rosenberg, protested the executions to Heinrich Himmler, prompting a written response from Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), on 25 March. Heydrich claimed the situation had been misunderstood. According to him, 328 prisoners were shot on January 28, 1942 as the prison was a typhus hotspot. Heydrich closed his letter by warning Rosenberg’s deputy and Gauleiter Alfred Meyer to be cautious about believing reports coming from Minsk, also citing as example “the accusation of improper Jewish evacuations”.

Telex dated February 20, 1943 on Selection of unfit Jews in Auschwitz, Transport from Theresienstadt
Contemporary Source

1943-02-20 / SS Report on “Special Accommodation” of Jews Unfit for Work at Auschwitz

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.

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