Reich

Post-War Testimony

1945-11-03 / Otto Moll’s 1945 Dachau Statement

Sworn statement of Otto Moll, taken at Dachau by U.S. investigators on November 3, 1945. At the center of his account is his role in the Kaufering subcamps of the Dachau concentration camp system during the final months of the war (end phase atrocities). On his earlier service at Auschwitz, Moll made a notably brief and misleading claim that “From 1941 until January 1945, I likewise managed a gardening unit of the Economic and Administrative Main Office in the Auschwitz concentration camp, in which concentration camp prisoners were also employed.”

Short version of KOrherr report
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1943-04-19 / The Short Version of the Korherr Report: “European Jewry has probably lost almost half of its total population”

On April 19, 1943, SS statistician Richard Korherr submitted a shortened version of his Korherr Report – the SS’s statistical account of the “Final Solution of the European Jewish Question” – to the personal staff of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, for presentation to Adolf Hitler. In the report, Korherr estimated that “the reduction of Jewry in Europe from 1937 to the beginning of 1943 is to be estimated at 4½ million” and noted that “only part of the deaths of Soviet-Russian Jews in the occupied eastern territories could be recorded, while those in the rest of European Russia and at the front are not included at all.” He concluded that “European Jewry since 1933 has probably lost almost half of its total population,” of which “only about half has flowed to other continents.”

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
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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
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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 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.”

D5 - Letter of 30 December 1944 on Kaltenbrunner's proposal to Himmler to kill with carbon monoxide
Contemporary Source

1944-12-30 Kaltenbrunner’s Execution Proposal to Himmler: “Carbon Monoxide Introduced Via an Apparatus Operated From the Driver’s Seat”

After the shooting of Generalleutnant Fritz von Brodowski while in Allied captivity on 28 October 1944, the Nazis retaliated by executing French Major General Gustave Mesny “while attempting to escape” on 19 January 1945. In a letter dated 30 December 1944, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, chief of the Security Police, officially proposed to Himmler also the option that “carbon monoxide be introduced into the sealed rear compartment of the vehicle via an apparatus operated from the driver’s seat”.

Letter by Himmler of September 18, 1941 on the deportation of German Jews to the Litzmannstadt Ghetto
Contemporary Source

1941-09-18 Clearing the Reich: Himmler’s Order for the Deportation of 60,000 German Jews to the Litzmannstadt (Łódź) Ghetto

On September 18, 1941, Heinrich Himmler sent a letter to Arthur Greiser, Gauleiter of the Warthegau, conveying Hitler’s request that the Old Reich and the Protectorate be “cleared and freed from Jews from west to east as soon as possible.” In line with this policy, Himmler ordered the deportation of 60,000 Jews from the Old Reich to the Litzmannstadt Ghetto in occupied Poland.

Contemporary Source

1945-01-26 The Inspector of the Security Police and SD Düsseldorf on “Special Treatment” of Foreign Workers: “Discreetly, Including by Shooting”

In a directive dated January 26, 1945, SS-Standartenführer Walter Albath, Inspector of the Security Police and SD in Düsseldorf, issued orders to the Secret State Police Offices concerning the “special treatment” of foreign workers in Wehrkreis VI. Albath instructed that “requests for special treatment in a concentration camp should no longer be submitted” and authorized the State Police Offices to carry out such measures “discreetly, including by shooting.”

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