KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps

by Nikolaus Wachsmann

  185. For background, see G. Sorge testimony in Dicks, Licensed, 103.

  186. Quote in Gruner, Verurteilt, 90. See also JVL, DJAO, United States v. Berger, RaR, February 20, 1948, 14; Zámečník, “Aufzeichnungen,” 183; Neitzel and Welzer, Soldaten, 14–15, 101.

  187. Quote in DA, 37144, Vernehmung J. Thora, October 20, 1950.

  188. LG Cologne, Urteil, May 28, 1965, JNV, vol. 21, 127–28; JVL, DJAO, United States v. A. Berger, RaR, February 20, 1948, 8–11; Riedle, Angehörigen, 241 (n. 355). For epidemics in POW camps, see Gerlach, Krieg, 34–35, 49.

  189. Naujoks, Leben, 273–74; Major Meinel to Kommandeur der Kriegsgefangenen im Wehrkreis VII, January 12, 1942, IMT, vol. 38, 439–40, ND: 178–R; Siegert, “Flossenbürg,” 465; Zámečník, “Aufzeichnungen,” 188; LG Cologne, Urteil, May 28, 1965, JNV, vol. 21, 143; LG Kassel, Urteil, October 20, 1953, JNV, vol. 11, 443–44; BArchL, B 162/4627, OStA Cologne, Anklageschrift, November 18, 1963, 160. For task forces, see Klee et al., “Schöne Zeiten,” 64–70.

  190. Quotes in LG Bonn, Urteil, February 6, 1959, JNV, vol. 15, 453; BArchL, B 162/16613, Bl. 15–32: Vernehmung Erwin S., October 11, 1965, Bl. 21. See also LG Kassel, Urteil, October 20, 1953, JNV, vol. 11, 443; Naujoks, Leben, 274; Kühne, Kameradschaft, 272–73.

  191. For example, see Riedle, Angehörigen, 239–40.

  192. For the practice of excusing SS men from executions (though not specifically in the context of 14f14), see Langbein, Menschen, 326–27.

  193. StAMü, StA Nr. 28791/3, Bl. 114: Vernehmung K. Minderlein, July 25, 1949; Hammermann, “Kriegsgefangene,” 107–108.

  194. IfZ, Himmler, Durchführungsbestimmungen für Exekutionen, January 6, 1943, ND: NO-4631.

  195. Quotes in BArchL, B 162/16613, Bl. 15–32: Vernehmung Erwin S., October 11, 1965, Bl. 16; Vernehmung F. Ficker, August 22, 1946, in Orth, SS, 174. See also Hördler, “Ordnung,” 125–26.

  196. Quote in BStU, MfS HA IX/11 ZUV 4, Bd. 24, Bl. 207–30: Vernehmungsprotokoll P. Sakowski, August 3, 1946, Bl. 223. See also BArchL, B 162/4627, OStA Cologne, Anklageschrift, November 18, 1963, 152.

  197. JVL, JAO, Review of Proceedings, United States v. Weiss, n.d. (1946), 28; BArchL, B 162/16613, Bl. 15–32: Vernehmung Erwin S., October 11, 1965, Bl. 21.

  198. AS, J D2/43, Bl. 146–54: Vernehmung G. Sorge, May 6, 1957, Bl. 153; BArchB, NS 4/Na 9, Bl. 78: KB Nr. 3/41, May 26, 1941.

  199. For alcohol and murders during the Holocaust, see Browning, Männer, 103, 122.

  200. Quote in Riedle, Angehörigen, 241.

  201. Quote in BArchB, NS 4/Gr 3, Bl. 35: Liebehenschel to LK, November 14, 1941. See also Orth, SS, 175–76. Himmler discussed military decorations with his intimate Karl Wolff on November 14, 1941 (Witte et al., Dienstkalender, 260), the same day the telex from Liebehenschel went to the commandants.

  202. Riedel, Ordnungshüter, 273–75; Morsch, Mord, 179; Hammermann, “Kriegsgefangene,” 109–10; AdsD, KE, E. Büge, Bericht, n.d. (1945–46), 222.

  203. Riedle, Angehörigen, 241.

  204. Zámečník, “Aufzeichnungen,” 187; DaA, 6170, A. Carl to H. Schwarz, December 3, 1967.

  205. Quote in Morsch, Mord, 175.

  206. Hohmann and Wieland, Konzentrationslager, quote on 35; Naujoks, Leben, 274–75.

  207. The best analysis of the historiography of the Third Reich is still Kershaw, Dictatorship.

  208. Jäckel, Weltanschauung, 29–54; Kershaw, Nemesis, 775–76.

  209. Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 260–61, quote on 261.

  210. Quote in Picker, Tischgespräche, 93. See also ibid., 94–95; Jochmann, Monologe, 63, 90.

  211. H. Johst, Ruf des Reiches—Echo des Volkes (Munich, 1940), translated in Van Pelt, “Site,” 101–103. See also Longerich, Himmler, 33–65; Düsterberg, Johst.

  212. Erlaß zur Festigung deutschen Volkstums, October 7, 1939, IMT, vol. 26, 255–57, ND: 686–PS.

  213. Aly, “Endlösung,” 29–203; Aly and Heim, Vordenker, 125–256.

  214. Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 261.

  215. Witte et al., Dienstkalender, 179.

  216. For background, see Aly and Heim, Vordenker, 394–440; Roth, “‘Generalplan Ost’”; Madajczyk, Generalplan Ost.

  217. Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 296–99, 311, 345; Allen, Business, 158, 176.

  218. Quotes in BArchB, NS 19/2065, Bl. 8–9: Himmler to Pohl, January 31, 1942. See also ibid., Pohl to Himmler, (mid) December 1941; ibid., Bl. 20–32: Kammler, Aufstellung von SS Baubrigaden, February 10, 1942; ibid., Bl. 36–37: Himmler to Pohl, March 23, 1942.

  219. BArchB, NS 19/2065, Bl. 8–9: Himmler to Pohl, January 31, 1942.

  220. Maršálek, Mauthausen, 189.

  221. BArchB, NS 4/Na 103, Bl. 147–49: Glücks to LK, September 29, 1941. More generally, see Allen, Business, 117–22; Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 381–84. The KL labor representatives, who now reported to their local commandant and the IKL, remained marginal figures. See BArchB, NS 4/Na 103, Bl. 140–42: Burböck to SlF E, November 28, 1941; Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 385–86.

  222. IfZ, Himmler to Pohl et al., December 5, 1941, ND: NO-385. See also BArchB, NS 19/2065, Bl. 8–9: Himmler to Pohl, January 31, 1942.

  223. IfZ, Dienstanweisung für SlF E, November 7, 1941, ND: 3685–PS, underlined in the original. See also BArchB, NS 4/Na 103, Bl. 26: WVHA to LK, April 14, 1942.

  224. Even before the war, Himmler had envisaged a role for the Camp SS in the internment of POWs; Himmler to Hess, July 23, 1938, in IfZ, Akten, vol. 3, 230.

  225. Streit, Kameraden, 192–95; Herbert, Fremdarbeiter, 132–40; Keller, Kriegsgefangene, 158–72; Gruchmann, Krieg, 120.

  226. Keller and Otto, “Kriegsgefangene,” 23.

  227. Witte et al., Dienstkalender, 208–10. For Himmler’s conversation with Pohl about “prisoners” on September 15, 1941, missing from this publication of his official diary, see BArchB, Film 3570.

  228. Witte et al., Dienstkalender, 215; IKL to LK Flossenbürg, September 15, 1941, in Tuchel, Inspektion, 73.

  229. Streit, Kameraden, 220–21. The initial OKW order on September 25 had earmarked up to one hundred thousand POWs for a project around Lublin.

  230. Otto, Wehrmacht, 187–88, quote on 188; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 113; Schulte, “Kriegsgefangenen-Arbeitslager,” 82–83; USHMM, RG-11.001M.03, reel 19, 502–1–13, H. Kammler, Bericht des Amtes II, December 1941, p. 4; IKL to LK Flossenbürg, September 15, 1941, in Tuchel, Inspektion, 73 (similar messages must have gone out to other KL).

  231. At first, Majdanek was called a POW camp, even though it was subordinated to the IKL and belonged to its system of concentration camps; it was officially designated as a KL on February 16, 1943. See Kranz, “KL Lublin,” 363–69; Kranz, “Konzentrationslager,” 237–39; OdT, vol. 7, 33–36, 39; Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 332–36; White, “Majdanek”; IfZ, Himmler Vermerk, n.d., ND: NO-3031. For the SS economy in Lublin, see Kaienburg, Wirtschaft, 529–63. Frank quote in Präg and Jacobmeyer, Diensttagebuch, 219.

  232. The interest zone was designed to protect the SS and to provide it with opportunities for farming and fishing. For the above, see Steinbacher, “Musterstadt,” 238–39; Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 336–38; Strzelecka and Setkiewicz, “Construction,” 70–74, 80–81; USHMM, RG-11.001M.76, reel 421, folder 156, Erläuterungsbericht zum Vorentwurf, October 30, 1941, p. 6; ibid., Vorgang für die Erstellung eines Kriegsgefangenenlagers, October 9, 1941, pp. 1–2. Many historians have argued that Himmler ordered the construction of Birkenau earlier, on March 1, 1941. But Steinbacher and Schulte show convincingly that this did not happen until September 1941.

  233. Michael Thad Allen suggests that the new Auschwitz crematorium (in the works since October 1941, and later built as crematorium II in Birkenau) was designed from the start to include a gas chamber, a decision he links to the Nazi Final Solution (Allen, “Devil”; idem, “Not Just a ‘Dating Game,’” 186–87). This is contradicted by the research of Robert Jan van Pelt, who argues that the transformation of crematorium II to allow for gassings did not occur until 1942 (Dwork
and Van Pelt, Auschwitz, 269–71, 321–24). Even if Allen’s thesis were to prove correct, however, this would not suggest that the SS planned (in autumn 1941) to use this gas chamber to murder the Jews of Europe (Schulte, “Auschwitz,” 571).

  234. Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 338–39, 362; Steinbacher, “Musterstadt”; Dwork and Van Pelt, Auschwitz; Wegner, Soldaten, 46, 62.

  235. Stutthof was referred to as a KL by Glücks on January 7, 1942, but was only formally taken over the following month. See Orski, “Organisation”; Kaienburg, Wirtschaft, 516–22; OdT, vol. 6, 477–80; Witte et al., Dienstkalender, 271 (n. 84). For the 1940 discussions, see IfZ, Fa 183, Bl. 53–55: IKL to Himmler, January 30, 1940; BArchB, NS 19/1919, Bl. 25–27: IKL to Himmler, February 21, 1940; ibid., NS 19/3796, Bl. 2: IKL to Himmler, April 30, 1940. The initial rejection of Stutthof was probably linked to the decision to establish a camp on former Polish soil in Auschwitz.

  236. Kaienburg, Wirtschaft, 519–23; OdT, vol. 6, 479, 483–85; IfZ, Maurer, Besichtigung von Stutthof, December 11, 1941, ND: NO-2147.

  237. On January 6, 1942, there were 9,884 prisoners in Auschwitz, not counting Soviet POWs; Schulte, “London,” 222.

  238. Quotes in DAP, Vernehmung N. Wassiljew, October 23, 1964, 22443–44; Wassiljew was registered under the name Iwanow (ibid., 22437–38). See also ibid., Vernehmung A. Pogoschew, October 23, 1964, 22641–47; ibid., Vernehmung P. Stjenkin, October 29, 1964, 23066; Brandhuber, “Kriegsgefangenen,” 19; Czech, Kalendarium, 126.

  239. Quotes in DAP, Vernehmung N. Wassiljew, October 23, 1964, 22446, 22533. See also Brandhuber, “Kriegsgefangenen,” 18–20; Hałgas, “Arbeit,” 167–69; Kielar, Anus Mundi, 101–103. More generally, see Smoleń, “Kriegsgefangene”; Strzelecka, “Quarantine.”

  240. Figures in Czech, Kalendarium, 126–34; Schulte, “London,” table 7, p. 222.

  241. Otto, Wehrmacht, 188–89; Keller and Otto, “Sowjetische Kriegsgefangene,” 25–27; Kranz, “Erfassung,” 242 (n. 67). Apparently, no transports went to Niederhagen, Natzweiler, or Ravensbrück, which were also not copied into key IKL correspondence (e.g., BArchB, NS 4/Gr 2, Bl. 6–7: IKL to LK, October 23, 1941).

  242. Quotes in NARA, RG 549, 000–50–9, Box 440A, statement B. Lebedev, April 22, 1945 (Lebedev dated his arrival to October 19, 1941). See also AdsD, KE, E. Büge, Bericht, n.d. (1945–46), 182; Otto, Wehrmacht, 189.

  243. Sprenger, Groß-Rosen, 190–92; Streim, Behandlung, 116. It is unclear if the prisoners were barred because the barracks were not ready yet, or because their clothes had not been disinfected.

  244. Mailänder Koslov, Gewalt, 230–31.

  245. Quote in Świebocki, Resistance, 346. See also Hałgas, “Arbeit,” 170–71; Brandhuber, “Kriegsgefangenen,” 23–25; Dwork and Van Pelt, Auschwitz, 272.

  246. Ibel, “Kriegsgefangene,” 132–33.

  247. Sprenger, Groß-Rosen, 190–94, quote on 194; Keller and Otto, “Kriegsgefangene,” 25.

  248. DAP, Vernehmung N. Wassiljew, October 23, 1964, 22412–14, quote on 22415; Hałgas, “Arbeit,” 168, 171.

  249. Quote in Broszat, Kommandant, 159. See also USHMM, RG-06.025*26, File 1558, Bl. 157–75: Vernehmung G. Sorge, December 19, 1946, Bl. 167; Hałgas, “Arbeit,” 169; LG Cologne, Urteil, May 28, 1965, JNV, vol. 21, 126; Vernehmung A. Joseph, December 1, 1958, in Van Dam and Giordano, KZ-Verbrechen, 210.

  250. For one example, see BArchB, NS 4/Fl 388, Bl. 54: Lagerarzt to Kommandantur, February 15, 1942.

  251. Marszałek, Majdanek, 123.

  252. For Himmler’s views, see Süß, “Volkskörper,” 229 (n. 72).

  253. DAP, Vernehmung N. Wassiljew, October 23, 1964, 22416, 22457–58, 22465–67, 22489–91, 22501.

  254. OdT, vol. 4, 322; ibid., vol. 7, 51; Mailänder Koslov, Gewalt, 298–99.

  255. Brandhuber, “Kriegsgefangenen,” 21–22, quote on 22; Smoleń, “Kriegsgefangene,” 142–45; Otto, Wehrmacht, 193–95.

  256. BArchB, NS 3/425, Bl. 45–46: IKL to LK, November 15, 1941; Hammermann, “Kriegsgefangene,” 99.

  257. For the murder of Jews, see Longerich, Holocaust, 314–15, 429.

  258. Majdanek held 112 Soviet POWs on January 16, 1942; Schulte, “London,” table 10, p. 224.

  259. Quote in Broszat, Kommandant, 157. By January 6, 1942, Auschwitz held 2,095 Soviet POWs (Schulte, “London,” table 7, p. 222), which means that at least 7,900 of the men who had arrived in October 1941 were now dead. For the other figures, see Brandhuber, “Kriegsgefangenen,” 33, 35.

  260. AdsD, KE, E. Büge, Bericht, n.d. (1945–46), 175.

  261. Sprenger, Groß-Rosen, 194.

  262. Iwaszko, “Reasons,” 22–23; Brandhuber, “Kriegsgefangenen,” 20; Hałgas, “Arbeit,” 169. German prisoners (except for Jews) in Auschwitz were not normally tattooed; see Strzelecka, “Women,” 182, also for other exceptions. In the weeks after the November 1938 pogrom, Jews in Dachau and Buchenwald had their prisoner numbers stamped on their arms; NCC, doc. 247; Stein, Juden, 45.

  263. Bischoff quote in Dwork and Van Pelt, Auschwitz, 177. See also Piper, Mass Murder, 128; Brandhuber, “Kriegsgefangenen,” 26; Hałgas, “Arbeit,” 172.

  264. Quote in AdsD, KE, E. Büge, Bericht, n.d. (1945–46), 181.

  265. RSHA to KL, October 11, 1941, cited in Otto, Wehrmacht, 199, underlined in the original.

  266. Himmler Rede bei der SS Gruppenführertagung in Posen, October 4, 1943, IMT, vol. 29, 121–22, ND: 1919–PS; Mailänder Koslov, Gewalt, 230–31.

  267. Quote in AdsD, KE, E. Büge, Bericht, n.d. (1945–46), 95. For Knittler’s crimes, see USHMM, RG-06.025*26, File 1560, Bl. 243–58: Vernehmung M. Knittler, December 20, 1946, Bl. 252–53.

  268. For this belief among the Camp SS, see Broszat, Kommandant, 159.

  269. BArchB, NS 4/Gr 2, Bl. 6–7: IKL to LK, October 23, 1941; ibid., NS 4/Fl 389, Bl. 11: IKL to SlF E, November 29, 1941; ibid., NS 4/Na 103, Bl. 126: IKL to SlF E, October 27, 1941.

  270. IKL to LK Flossenbürg, September 15, 1941, in Tuchel, Inspektion, 73.

  271. Quote in Himmler Rede bei der SS Gruppenführertagung in Posen, October 4, 1943, IMT, vol. 29, 123. See also Dwork and Van Pelt, Auschwitz, 262–68; Streit, Kameraden, 197.

  272. Apparently, there were already plans in late autumn 1941 for further transports of Soviet POWs to the KL; Keller and Otto, “Sowjetische Kriegsgefangene,” 26–27.

  273. Streit, Kameraden, 191–208; Keller, Kriegsgefangene, 215–17, 322–23; Gerlach, Krieg, 42–43, 52–53; Herbert, Fremdarbeiter, 137–43.

  274. USHMM, RG-11.001M.76, reel 421, folder 156, Kammler to Himmler, December 19, 1941.

  275. BArchB (ehem. BDC), SSO, Koch, Karl, 2.8.1897, Koch to SS und Polizeigericht VI Krakow, August 2, 1942.

  276. Kranz, “KL Lublin,” 369; Kaienburg, Wirtschaft, 536–37.

  277. Quote in “Bericht von Rudolf Vrba,” 200. See also Brandhuber, “Kriegsgefangenen,” 25–26; Strzelecka and Setkiewicz, “Construction,” 86.

  278. Figures in Schulte, “Kriegsgefangenen-Arbeitslager,” 89; idem, “London,” 220–24; Sprenger, Groß-Rosen, 194; OdT, vol. 3, 35; Kaienburg, “Vernichtung,” 156. According to the available figures, there were around five to six thousand Soviet POWs in the KL in spring 1942. Not all were survivors of the October 1941 transports; among them were also some “commissars” temporarily spared execution.

  279. DAP, Vernehmung N. Wassiljew, October 23, 1964, 22564–66.

  280. The other main KL in early 1942 were Buchenwald, Dachau, Flossenbürg, Gross-Rosen, Mauthausen, Neuengamme, Niederhagen, Ravensbrück, and Sachsenhausen.

  281. OdT, vol. 3, 29; Pingel, Häftlinge, 301 (n. 174).

  6. Holocaust

      1. Himmler’s itinerary (also used below) in Witte et al., Dienstkalender, 491–93.

      2. Langbein, Menschen, 327; Strzelecka and Setkiewicz, “Construction,” 106–107; Longerich, Himmler, 34–66; Kaienburg, Wirtschaft, 841–42.

      3. Wagner, IG Auschwitz, 80–81; BArchB, Film 44564, Interrogation O. Pohl, Jan
uary 25, 1947, p. 17.

      4. Strebel, Ravensbrück, 352.

      5. Broszat, Kommandant, 243, quote on 275; Czech, Kalendarium, 250–51; Strzelecka and Setkiewicz, “Construction,” 86–88. For Himmler’s presence during a mass killing in Auschwitz, see also Langbein, Menschen, 327–28; Adler et al., Auschwitz, 204.

      6. Longerich, Himmler, 552.

      7. Broszat, Kommandant, 276–78, quote on 278; Laqueur and Breitman, Mann, 9–11; Mulka to Führer des Standortes Auschwitz, July 17, 1942, in Frei et al., Kommandanturbefehle, 154–55.

      8. Broszat, Kommandant, 278–79; testimony S. Dubiel, August 7, 1946, in Bezwińska and Czech, KL Auschwitz, 287–92.

      9. Himmler order, March 3, 1942, cited in WVHA Befehl, March 13, 1942, in Tuchel, Inspektion, 88; Witte et al., Dienstkalender, 369–71; Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 201. The official transfer of the IKL from the nominal control of Jüttner’s SS Leadership Main Office to the WVHA took place on March 16, 1942; Pohl to Glücks, March 11, 1942, in Tuchel, Inspektion, 89.

    10. Longerich, Himmler, 590–92; Arad, Belzec, 46–47; Witte et al., Dienstkalender, 491–93; Berger, Experten, 91; Browning, “Final Hitler Decision.” Late on July 18, Himmler also met with Pohl, who had been unable to accompany him to Auschwitz.

    11. Broszat, Kommandant, 279; BArchB (ehem. BDC), SSO, Höss, Rudolf, 25.11.1900, Bl. 258: WVHA to SS-Personalhauptamt, July 27, 1942. Several other Auschwitz SS men involved in the Holocaust were also decorated or promoted after Himmler’s visit; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 152.

    12. Hilberg, “Auschwitz”; Piper, Zahl, table D; Arad, Belzec, 370–76; OdT, vol. 8, 359–60.

    13. In a path-breaking essay, Robert Jan van Pelt coined the phrase of Auschwitz as a “site in search of a mission”; Van Pelt, “Site.” While this phrase captures the dynamic nature of the camp and its changes in function, it is still overly teleological, implying that the Holocaust was the true mission of Auschwitz. However, earlier missions—the brutal repression of the Polish opposition, say, or the lethal imprisonment of Soviet POWs—had been no less real to the Camp SS.