KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps

by Nikolaus Wachsmann

    14. Most recently, OdT, vol. 5, 140.

    15. For this and the previous paragraphs on the genesis of the Holocaust, see Longerich, Holocaust; Browning, Origins; Pohl, Holocaust; Friedländer, Jahre. On the death camps, see Berger, Experten; Montague, Chełmno; Krakowski, Todeslager; OdT, vol. 8, 301–28.

    16. Arad, Belzec; Berger, Experten, 71, for the reference to the Warsaw ghetto.

    17. Paradigmatically, Arad, Belzec.

    18. For Majdanek, see Witte and Tyas, “Document.” For Auschwitz, see Perz and Sandkühler, “Auschwitz.” As the latter two authors point out, the link between the KL and Operation Reinhard is confirmed by the itinerary of Pohl’s visit to Auschwitz in September 1942. Here, the barracks used for sorting and storing the property of murdered Jews (Canada I) are referred to as “Disinfestation & Effect Chamber/Action Reinhard,” while the gas chambers at bunker 2 are referred to as “Station 2 of Action Reinhardt [sic]”; USHMM, RG-11.001M.03, reel 19, folder 19, Besichtigung durch SS Obergruppenführer Pohl am 23.9.1942. For another example, see NAL, HW 16/21, GPD Nr. 3, October 22, 1942.

    19. Quotes in Browning, “Final Hitler Decision,” 7; IfZ, F 13/6, Bl. 359–68: R. Höss, “Globocnik,” January 1947. More generally, see Pohl, “Judenpolitik”; Longerich, Himmler, especially pages 361–64.

    20. For this and the previous paragraph, see Berger, Experten, quote on 41; Arad, Belzec; Kogon et al., Massentötungen, 146–86; Rieß, “Wirth.” The T-4 organization of the Chancellery of the Führer was also involved in the management of the death camps.

    21. According to SS statistics intercepted by British intelligence, 2,024 prisoners were classified as Jews in January 1942. However, these statistics only covered around seventy-five to eighty percent of all KL prisoners; Schulte, “London,” 210, 227. Also, the statistics did not account for Jews among Soviet POWs.

    22. Wannsee conference minutes, in Noakes and Pridham, Nazism, vol. 3, 535–41, quote on 538. See also Longerich, Politik, 466–72; Friedländer, Jahre, 367–71; Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz, Wannsee-Konferenz; Berger, Experten, 79. For the term “annihilation through labor” (not used in the official minutes), see Wachsmann, “‘Annihilation.’”

    23. For IKL awareness of the poor health and high mortality of Soviet POWs in the KL, see BArchB, NS 4/Gr 9, Bl. 63: Glücks to LK, January 23, 1942; KL Gross-Rosen to IKL, January 27, 1942, referenced in Sprenger, Groß-Rosen, 194.

    24. IfZ, Fa 183, Bl. 61: Himmler to Glücks, January 26, 1942. See also Van Pelt, “Site,” 148–49; Allen, “Anfänge,” 568–69; Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 356–62.

    25. Quotes in Jochmann, Monologe, 229; Witte et al., Dienstkalender, 326–27.

    26. ITS, KL Buchenwald GCC 2/313, Ordner 519, IKL to LK, January 19, 1942; ibid., IKL to all [LK], January 26, 1942. The only camps excluded from the initial IKL order were the small KL Natzweiler and Stutthof. Few, if any, of the selected Jewish prisoners had been sent to Majdanek by the time the order was rescinded; on February 3, 1942, there were no registered Jewish prisoners in Majdanek; Schulte, “London,” 224.

    27. IfZ, Fa 183, Bl. 61: Himmler to Glücks, January 26, 1942. Deportations of Jews from the Greater German Reich resumed in mid-March 1942, but none of the transports over the coming weeks went to the KL; Longerich, Politik, 483–86.

    28. Longerich, Politik, 491–95.

    29. Initially, there may have been plans to select some skilled prisoners among the Jews deported to Auschwitz and Majdanek, and transfer them to other KL earmarked for armaments works; StANü, K.-O. Saur, Niederschrift über Besprechung, March 17, 1942, ND: NO-569.

    30. Pressac, Krematorien, 31–34, 45–48; Pressac and Van Pelt, “Machinery,” 199, 210–12.

    31. Witte et al., Dienstkalender, 367–69; Strebel, Ravensbrück, 342–43.

    32. NAL, HW 16/17, GPD Nr. 3, March 10, 1942.

    33. NARA, RG 549, 000–50–11 Ravensbruck CC (Box 522), testimony J. Langefeld, December 26 and 31, 1945; Strebel, Ravensbrück, 344; Strzelecka, “Women,” 172; USHMM, RG-11.001M.03, reel 19, 502–1–6, WVHA to Bauinspektion Posen, March 18, 1942.

    34. Czech, Kalendarium, 189–93.

    35. For this and the previous paragraph, see testimony of S. Jankowski (also known as Alter Feinsilber), April 16, 1945, in SMAB, Inmitten, 25–57, quote on 32. See also YIVO, RG 294.1, MK 488, series 20, folder 542, Bl. 7–17: testimony V. Walder, n.d. (1945–49).

    36. Longerich, Politik, 584; Hayes, “Auschwitz.”

    37. Piper, Zahl, 187, 195. A further one thousand Slovak Jews arrived in May via Majdanek; Czech, Kalendarium, 215.

    38. Quote in ITS, KL Buchenwald GCC 2/313, Ordner 519, IKL to LK, January 19, 1942. This order was issued in relation to Jewish KL prisoners earmarked for deportation to Majdanek. See also IfZ, Verwaltung Auschwitz to WVHA, March 25, 1942, ND: NO-2146.

    39. SS statistics summarized in APMO, Proces Höss, Hd 6, Bl. 114–20: O. Wolken, Kommentar, n.d. (c. spring 1945).

    40. Grotum, Archiv, 255–56; Longerich, Politik, 492.

    41. Strzelecka and Setkiewicz, “Construction,” 86–87; testimony of S. Jankowski, April 16, 1945, in SMAB, Inmitten, 32–33; Schulte, “Kriegsgefangenen-Arbeitslager,” 87; Czech, Kalendarium, 206.

    42. For this and the previous paragraph, see Strzelecka and Setkiewicz, “Construction,” 78–79; Strzelecka, “Women,” 172; Strebel, Ravensbrück, 349–51; WL, P.III.h. No. 1174a, Vernehmung R. Kagan, December 8–10, 1959; APMO, Oswiadczenia, vol. 124, Bl. 152–66: testimony of M. Schvalbova, June 8, 1988; Broszat, Kommandant, 172–73; IfZ, RSHA, AE, 2. Teil, Runderlaß RSHA, July 10, 1942.

    43. Figures in Schulte, “London,” 222; Strebel, Ravensbrück, 349.

    44. Several historians have argued that sporadic murders of nonworking Silesian Jews had begun earlier, with small groups sent to Auschwitz for extermination from late 1941. Sybille Steinbacher has provided the most detailed account in her otherwise excellent study of Auschwitz. Starting in late 1941, she argues, selections were carried out among Jews in forced labor camps run by SS Oberführer Schmelt (mostly in Upper Silesia); those selected as “unfit for work” were sent to Auschwitz and murdered in crematorium I (Steinbacher, “Musterstadt,” 276–77; on the Schmelt camps, see ibid., 138–53). However, her sources do not fully bear out this conclusion. One source refers to a transport to Auschwitz in late 1940, another to small transports from mid-1941 (BArchL, B 162/20513, Bl. 83: Vermerk, October 11, 1967; ibid., Bl. 47–54: Vernehmungsniederschrift Hirsch B., September 21, 1961). As for the assumed murder of a transport of Jews from Beuthen (Upper Silesia) on February 15, 1942, in crematorium I, this information is based on erroneous data in the Auschwitz chronicle (Czech, Kalendarium, 174–75); there was no such transport at the time (Gottwaldt and Schulle, “Judendeportationen,” 393).

  Christopher Browning also dates the first gassings of Jews “no longer capable of work” in crematorium I to autumn 1941 (Browning, Origins, 357). In addition to Steinbacher’s work, Browning relies on another piece of evidence: the postwar account of SS man Hans Stark. Testifying before German legal officials, Browning recounts, Stark stated that small groups of Jews were brought to Auschwitz on trucks in October 1941 and gassed there (Browning, Origins, 527, n. 211). Stark was among the accused of the first Frankfurt Auschwitz trial, where he was sentenced to ten years in prison. In his first pretrial interrogation, Stark did indeed state that he had participated in the gassing of small groups of Jewish men, women, and children, deported to Auschwitz for immediate extermination in crematorium I in autumn 1941 (DAP, Vernehmung H. Stark, April 23, 1959, 4537–50). However, in a subsequent interrogation Stark corrected himself, stating that the date he had given previously was wrong. He was unaware of any gassings in autumn 1941, he now said, adding that the murders of Jewish men, women, and children he had described could only have occurred after he returned to Auschwitz in spr
ing 1942 from a period of study leave (the Frankfurt court found that Stark had been on leave until March 15, 1942; DAP, 36765). Stark gained no advantage from changing these dates, as he still admitted his participation in the gassings. Most likely, therefore, he corrected what he regarded as a genuine mistake (DAP, Vernehmung H. Stark, July 24, 1959, 4578–79). During his later trial testimony in 1964, Stark reiterated that the first transports of Jews gassed in crematorium I as “unfit for work” had arrived in April–May 1942. He also admitted to his participation in the gassing of a group of 150 to 200 Polish and Jewish men and women in October 1941. However, these victims had not been selected as “unfit for work” as part of the Nazi Final Solution. Rather, Stark testified, they had been sentenced to death by court martial (DAP, Aussage H. Stark, January 16, 1964, 4813–26). This seems plausible, given the practice of mass executions in Auschwitz in late 1941 at the behest of Summary Courts.

    45. Browning, Origins, 421, though with different dating (see above).

    46. Schulte, “Vernichtungslager,” 65.

    47. Orth, “Höß”; Gerlach, “Eichmann”; Wojak, Memoiren.

    48. Quotes by Eichmann in his postwar talks with W. Sassen, in BArchK, All. Proz. 6/97, Bl. 24–25. See also ibid., Bl. 22–27; ibid., 6/106, Bl. 23; State of Israel, Trial, vol. 7, 371–72; Broszat, Kommandant, 199.

    49. Broszat, Kommandant, 191, 238. The former Auschwitz camp compound leader Aumeier testified that Eichmann (whom he wrongly called Hildebrand) appeared at the time when the first RSHA transports arrived; NAL, WO 208/4661, statement of H. Aumeier, July 25, 1945, p. 2.

    50. Quote by Eichmann in his postwar talks with W. Sassen, in BArchK, All. Proz. 6/99, Bl. 31.

    51. For the date of Pohl’s visit, see USHMM, RG-11.001M.03, reel 19, folder 19, R. Höss, Bericht über Schlussbesprechung des Hauptamtschefs am 23.9.1942; NARA, RG 549, 000–50–11 Ravensbrück CC (Box 522), testimony of J. Langefeld, December 26 and 31, 1945.

    52. Witte et al., Dienstkalender, 397–98; Longerich, Himmler, 582–83.

    53. Piper, Zahl, 183; Steinbacher, “Musterstadt,” 286–87, 290; Gottwaldt and Schulle, “Judendeportationen,” 393–94; Fulbrook, Small Town, 2, 31, 222–24.

    54. Broad, “Erinnerungen,” 170–73, quote on 172; DAP, Aussage F. Müller, January 5, 1964, 20489–20507, quote on 20494. See also Müller, Eyewitness, 30–39; Van Pelt, Case, 224–25; Piper, Mass Murder, 128–33; DAP, Vernehmung H. Stark, April 23, 1959, 4517–62; NAL, WO 208/4661, statement of H. Aumeier, July 25, 1945, p. 6.

    55. For the perspective of the SS, see Broad, “Erinnerungen,” 173; NAL, WO 208/4661, statement of H. Aumeier, July 25, 1945, pp. 6–7 (with erroneous dates).

    56. Pressac and Van Pelt, “Machinery,” 212; Pressac, Krematorien, 49; Piper, Mass Murder, 134.

    57. For the May date, see Pressac, Krematorien, 49. This seems the most plausible dating, given the broader historical context. By contrast, many historians favor an earlier date, March 20, 1942, for the first gassing in bunker 1, relying on the work of Danuta Czech. However, the two sources used by Czech (Kalendarium, 186–87) do not support her conclusions, a concern also raised by Schulte (“Vernichtungslager,” 64, n. 121). The first of Czech’s sources, the so-called memoirs of Rudolf Höss, is notoriously unreliable as regards dates. The second source, the account by Pery Broad, actually contradicts Czech’s dating, as Broad only arrived in Auschwitz in April 1942 and initially served with the Guard Troop, which would not have allowed him to closely observe murders in the Birkenau bunkers. It was only from around June 1942, after Broad was transferred to the political department (which was closely involved with the gassings) that he could have watched the extermination process close-up (DAP, Vernehmung P. Broad, April 30, 1959, 3424–25). Gassings in crematorium I apparently stopped in autumn 1942 (Piper, Mass Murder, 133).

    58. Piper, Mass Murder, 131–32; Friedler et al., Zeugen, 64; Broad, “Erinnerungen,” 173; Müller, Eyewitness, 16–17; NAL, WO 208/4661, statement of H. Aumeier, July 25, 1945, p. 5. Structural faults eventually forced the SS to dismantle the old chimney in June 1942 and build a new one; Pressac, Krematorien, 49–50.

    59. Himmler quote in Friedländer, Jahre, 378. See also Dannecker, Vermerk, June 15, 1942, in Klarsfeld, Vichy, 379–80; Longerich, Himmler, 586–91; idem, Politik, 495–96; Cesarani, Eichmann, 139–40. For the continuing focus on forced labor, see NAL, HW 16/19, GPD Nr. 3, WVHA-D to Auschwitz, June 17, 1942.

    60. Broszat, Kommandant, 237; interrogation R. Höss, April 1, 1946, in Mendelsohn, Holocaust, vol. 12, 81.

    61. Höss quote in USHMM, RG-11.001M.03, reel 20, folder 26, Vermerk, Besprechung mit Kammler, May 22, 1943.

    62. Kalthoff and Werner, Händler, 148–51. See also UN War Crimes Commission, Law Reports, 95. For the Zyklon B production by Degesch, and its distribution, see Hayes, Cooperation, 272–300.

    63. Witte et al., Dienstkalender, 461–62.

    64. IfZ, F 13/7, Bl. 383–88: R. Höss, “Richard Glücks,” November 1946.

    65. State of Israel, Trial, vol. 7, 392; BArchK, All. Proz. 6/99, Bl. 31; ibid., 6/101, Bl. 36; YVA, M-5/162, D. Wisliceny, Betrifft: Adolf Eichmann, October 27, 1946.

    66. O. Pohl testimony, June 4, 1946, extract in NCA, supplement B, 1590.

    67. APMO, D-AUI-1/3a, Bl. 58: Führer vom Dienst, June 16–17, 1942; ibid., Proces Höss, Hd 6, Bl. 114–20: O. Wolken, Kommentar, n.d. (c. spring 1945).

    68. An inspection of the crematorium by a high-ranking SS officer on June 17 or 18, 1942, is attested by Filip Müller (Kraus and Kulka, Todesfabrik, 131–32). Like Wolken (see previous note), Müller believed that the SS officer was Heinrich Himmler. But by the time Himmler visited Auschwitz in mid-July, Müller had already left the cremation commando in the main camp (DAP, Aussage F. Müller, October 5, 1964, 20507).

    69. For bunker 2, see Piper, Mass Murder, 134–36; Van Pelt, Case, 267; Pressac and Van Pelt, “Machinery,” 213–14; Broszat, Kommandant, 242.

    70. Quote in NAL, HW 16/19, GPD Nr. 3, KL Auschwitz to Glücks, June 24, 1942. See also ibid., WVHA-D to KL Auschwitz, June 24, 1942; ibid., Liebehenschel to KL, June 18, 1942.

    71. Piper, Zahl, 183–97; Longerich, Politik, 521. In addition, it is likely that around 1,700 Jews were deported from Germany to Auschwitz in July 1942; Gottwaldt and Schulle, “Judendeportationen,” 395–96.

    72. Piper, Zahl, 191, 198, and table D; Gottwaldt and Schulle, “Judendeportationen,” 397–98; Longerich, Himmler, 710–12; Ahnert, Vermerk, September 1, 1942, in Klarsfeld, Vichy, 447–48; NAL, HW 16/21, GPD Nr. 3, WVHA to Auschwitz, August 22 and 24, 1942.

    73. Piper, Zahl, table D and 15; Steinbacher, “Musterstadt,” 295–302.

    74. For Westerbork, see Boas, Boulevard; Hillesum, Letters. For the Slovakian camps, from an SS perspective, see YVA, M-5/162, Verhör D. Wisliceny, May 7, 1946.

    75. For Drancy, see Wellers, L’Étoile.

    76. Quotes in Stuldreher, “Konzentrationslager,” 328; WL, P.III.h. No. 573, A. Lehmann, “Das Lager Vught,” n.d., 5. See also OdT, vol. 7, 133–50; Van Pelt, “Introduction.”

    77. For this and the previous paragraph, see WL, P.III.h. No. 573, A. Lehmann, “Das Lager Vught,” n.d., quote on 15; Deen, “Wenn,” quote on 21; Koker, Edge, 20, 104, 198, 256, 294, 340, 369, quote on 341; Stuldreher, “Herzogenbusch”; OdT, vol. 7, 133–50.

    78. Figures for ghettos in BArchB, NS 19/1570, Bl. 12–28: Inspekteur für Statistik, Endlösung der Judenfrage. These figures are not always accurate and should be used with some caution. For the Schmelt camps in Silesia and parts of the Sudetenland, see Rudorff, “Arbeit”; Steinbacher, “Musterstadt,” 138–53.

    79. Around two hundred thousand Jews were deported to Auschwitz during 1942; Piper, Zahl, table D. In early January 1943, 11,112 Jewish men and 1,540 Jewish women were still alive in Auschwitz; Schulte, “London,” 223.<
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    80. Berger, Experten, 177, 254–55.

    81. Pohl, “Holocaust,” 152–54.

    82. SMAB, Inmitten, 62, 70–71; Langfus, “Aussiedlung,” 80, 87 (n. 9), 104–105, 114, 117–120; Friedler et al., Zeugen, 204–207, 374, 380; Greif, Wir weinten, 56.

    83. Langfus, “Aussiedlung,” quotes on 121. See also Steinke, Züge, 58; Gigliotti, Train, 101–10; Greif, Wir weinten, 57. More generally on profiteering during the Holocaust in Poland, see Gross, Golden Harvest.

    84. Quotes in Langfus, “Aussiedlung,” 81, 114; Fulbrook, Small Town, 288; Bacharach, Dies, 99. See also Friedländer, Jahre, 549–50; Dörner, Die Deutschen, 324–25; Koker, Edge, 256–57; Hájková, “Prisoner Society,” 283–84.

    85. RSHA, Richtlinien zur Durchführung der Evakuierung von Juden, February 20, 1943, in Gottwaldt and Schulle, “Judendeportationen,” 373–79; NAL, HW 16/21, Höss to Eichmann, October 7, 1942.

    86. Quotes in Broad, “Erinnerungen,” 174; Van Pelt, Case, 240. See also DAP, Vernehmung H. Stark, April 23, 1959, 4540–41; Iwaszko, “Reasons,” 17; Citroen and Starzyńska, Auschwitz, 57–90.

    87. For this and the previous paragraph, see Langfus, “Aussiedlung,” 121–22, quotes on 122; Greif, Wir weinten, 57–58; Czech, Kalendarium, 352. More generally on the arrival of deportation trains, see Adler et al., Auschwitz, 59–62; Gradowski, “Tagebuch,” 156–57; Friedler et al., Zeugen, 145; Gigliotti, Train, 179, 185–90. SS men acted more brutally when they expected Jews to resist; Fulbrook, Small Town, 303–304.

    88. Czech (Kalendarium, 241) dates the first selection to July 4, 1942. Even after selections at the ramp became routine, some transports were taken to Birkenau transit compounds and selected there instead; Piper, Mass Murder, 109.