Aktion 1005

Report dated April 5, 1942
Contemporary Source

1942-04-05 / German Army in Mariampol (Lithuania): Reinforce “Jewish Graves With an Additional Covering of Earth”

Medical Services Report issued by the Ortskommandantur in Mariampol (Lithuania) on 5 April 1942. the report notes the need to reinforce “the Jewish graves at the edge of the barracks grounds with an additional covering of earth, because runoff from precipitation and flooding (the graves are located directly on the bank of the Sesupe River and are covered only by a 50 cm layer of earth) have washed away the covering layer and exposed the corpses”.

Situation report dated January 13, 1944
Contemporary Source

1944-01-13 / Security Police Kovno Situation Report: “64 Laborers Deployed At Fort IX As Part Of Operation 1005 B Broke Out”

Situation report dated 13 January 1944 from the Commander of the Security Police and SD in Kovno. According to the report, on 25 December 1943, “64 laborers deployed at Fort IX as part of Operation 1005 B broke out”. Subsequent search operations resulted in the recapture of “37 of the escapees” of whom “5 were shot while fleeing”. The escape involved Jewish prisoners assigned to the Sonderkommando 1005 body-disposal site at Fort IX. The incident was later reported up the chain of command to Himmler, including discussion of how to deal with the guards held responsible.

Contemporary Source

1944-01-21 / Secrets at Kaunas Fort IX: “Told Me About Your Kommando 1005 B, Even Giving Me Concrete Figures”

A series of wartime letters from early 1944 shows how knowledge of Sonderkommando 1005 circulated within German military and SS circles. In this correspondence, Oberleutnant Willy Schell threatens SS-Obersturmführer Radif – who was at the time in custody in connection with the escape of Jewish prisoners from the Sonderkommando 1005 site at Fort IX in Kaunas- “to report to your superiors the careless manner in which you told me about your Kommando 1005 B, even giving me concrete figures.” Schell sought to pressure Radif into retracting his testimony that Schell had disclosed an unspecified incident involving homosexual conduct. In his reply, the Commander of the Security Police in Kaunas stated that “I will in any case hold SS-Obersturmführer Radif accountable in this matter, although I would note that the confidential matter you refer to has long been generally known and has even been described in detail in illegal Lithuanian propaganda leaflets”. The defensive tone of the response – the Security Police refrained from reporting Schell to the legal authorities as this “could have unforeseeable consequences” – underscores the sensitivity of the information. So what makes these documents particularly interesting is the tension they reveal: on the one hand, Sonderkommando 1005 was an operation surrounded by extreme secrecy; on the other, fragments of its purpose – exhumation and destruction of bodies – were clearly leaking beyond strictly controlled channels.

Contemporary Source

1942-02-28 Letter from Heinrich Müller to Martin Luther: “Geheime Reichssache (1005)…alleged incidents in the course of the solution of the Jewish question in the Warthegau”

On February 6, 1942, Martin Luther of the German Foreign Office forwarded an anonymous letter to Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller. The letter concernced “alleged incidents in the course of the solution of the Jewish question in the Warthegau”. In his response to Luther two weeks later, classified under the reference number “Geheime Reichssache (1005)”, Müller acknowledged misconduct against Jews in the Warthegau, noting that “where the axe falls, chips will fly”. However, he pointed out that these “measures” were often exaggerated to elicit sympathy and foster hope for an end to them. Müller emphasized that “the Jew tries to escape his well-deserved fate.” The letter is considered as a starting point for the later operation known by the codename “Aktion 1005.”

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