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Letter dated September 5,1944 on the Nazi's Jewish skeleton collection
Contemporary Source

1944-09-05 / The Nazi’s Jewish Skeleton Collection: Dissolution

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”.

Cover Letter to Korherr report on Final Solution of the Jewish Question dated April 28, 1943
Contemporary Source

1943-04-28 / The Korherr Report: Nazi Statistics on the “Final Solution” Through Early 1943

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”.

Letter dated 21 June, 1943 by Sievers to Eichmann on Nazi Skeleton collection from prisoners in Auschwitz
Contemporary Source

1943-06-21 / The Nazi’s Jewish Skeleton Collection: Selection and Transfer Auschwitz to Natzweiler

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.”

Letter dated July 11, 1943 (NS 6) Bormann 1943 circular Jewish Question Nazi secrecy
Contemporary Source

1943-07-11 / Bormann’s Secret Instruction on Public “Handling of the Jewish Question”

A classified Nazi Party circular dated July 11, 1943, on the “Handling the Jewish Question” issued by Martin Bormann and distributed among Nazi party and state officials. In this document, Bormann instructs that any public mention of “a future final solution must be avoided”. Instead, officials were to state that Jews were being “brought in collectively for appropriate labor deployment.”

Letter dated November 2, 1942 from Sievers to Brandt on skeleton collection
Contemporary Source

1942-11-02 / The Nazi’s Jewish Skeleton Collection: Order to Eichmann

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.”

Letter dated February 1943 from Kaltenbrunner to Himmler on deportation of elderly Jews from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz
Contemporary Source

00-02-1943 / Theresienstadt to Auschwitz: Kaltenbrunner Letter on the Deportation of Elderly Jews

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”.

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”.

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