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.”
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.”
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”.
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.
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.”
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.
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”.
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.
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.
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.