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

Report dated March 19, 1942
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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
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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
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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.”

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