KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps

Home > Other > KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps > Page 111
KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps Page 111

by Nikolaus Wachsmann


      5. Buggeln, “Building”; idem, Arbeit, 239; idem, Bunker; OdT, vol. 5, 372–76.

      6. IfZ, Burger to Loerner, August 15, 1944, ND: NO-399; ibid., Fa 183, Bl. 6–7, n.d.; Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 402, table 6.

      7. Hördler, “Ordnung,” quote on 298; Buggeln, System, 95.

      8. Karin Orth (System, 243) coined the term “concentration camps of the relocation projects.”

      9. Wagner, Produktion, 244–59, 386; Fings, Krieg, 14, 316.

    10. Wiedemann, “Rózsa”; Jochem, “Bedingungen,” 64–69; Gerlach and Aly, Kapitel, 18, 31–35, 53. At the time, Rózsa was known under her married name, Schapira.

    11. Nansen, Day, 410; Zámečník, “Aufzeichnungen,” 220, 224; AdsD, KE, E. Büge, Bericht, n.d. (1945–46), 103, 159; StANü, EE by K. Roeder, February 20, 1947, ND: NO-2122.

    12. Quote in Kupfer-Koberwitz, Dachauer, 349 (entry for August 14, 1944). See also YIVO, RG 294.1, MK 488, series 20, folder 541, Bl. 1279–86: testimony J. Levine, n.d. (1945–46); Nansen, Day, 512–13; NAL, WO 208/3596, CSDIC, SIR Nr. 727, August 11, 1944.

    13. Estimate in Buggeln, System, 135.

    14. Boelcke, Rüstung, Hitler quote on 338; Wagner, Produktion, 89–96; Raim, Dachauer, 28–35, 37–41; Süß, Tod, 13–14.

    15. Fröbe, “Arbeitseinsatz,” 357–58; Kroener, “‘Menschenbewirtschaftung,’” 912–18; Kooger, Rüstung, 283–84; Wagner, Produktion, 94, 97; Uziel, Arming, 1–2.

    16. Wagner, Produktion, 90–91, 101–104; Fröbe, “Kammler,” 312–14; idem., “Arbeitseinsatz,” 358–59.

    17. Perz, Projekt Quarz; OdT, vol. 4, 405–408.

    18. For this and the two previous paragraphs, see Fröbe, “Kammler.” See also Wagner, Produktion, 106–10, Kammler quote on 103; Wagner, Mittelbau-Dora, 41–44, Speer quotes on 44; BArchB, Film 44563, Vernehmung O. Pohl, December 17, 1946, p. 14; IfZ, F 13/8, Bl. 462–66: R. Höss, “Dr. Ing. Kammler,” n.d. (1946–47); Broszat, Kommandant, 271–75; Fings, Krieg, passim; Schley, Buchenwald, 62–63; Buchheim, “Befehl,” 241; Kogon, Theory, 97–98; Eisfeld, Mondsüchtig, 120; OdT, vol. 3, 539–44; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 255; Megargee, Encyclopedia, vol. 1/A, 402–405.

    19. Raim, Dachauer, 41–60; OdT, vol. 2, 360–73, 389–95; Wagner, Produktion, 101, 110; Müller, “Speer,” 448–55; Buggeln, “‘Menschenhandel’”; Schalm, Überleben, 76, 154. Although the OT was officially led by Speer in his capacity as armaments minister, the powerful head of the OT, Xaver Dorsch, often acted independently.

    20. OdT, vol. 6, 461–67; Megargee, Encyclopedia, vol. 1/A, 782–83.

    21. Glauning, Entgrenzung, 101–19; Megargee, Encyclopedia, vol. 1/B, 1012–14; Bütow and Bindernagel, KZ, 77–90, 106–11, 223; Wagner, Produktion, 111–16; Freund, Zement, 451. Up to forty thousand KL prisoners may have been deployed (at any one time) for the Geilenberg Staff; Buggeln, System, 131–33.

    22. Testimony of O. Pohl, 1947, TWC, vol. 5, 445–46. Pohl spoke of approximately 600,000 KL prisoners at the end of 1944 (he meant only those prisoners classified as working). Of these, he estimated that 230,000 to 250,000 had been employed by private industry, around 180,000 by the Special Staff Kammler, another 40,000 to 50,000 by Kammler’s construction inspectorates (as part of WVHA-C), and 15,000 in Kammler’s construction and railway brigades.

    23. Quotes in Fröhlich, Tagebücher, II/11, February 29, 1944, p. 366; BArchB, NS 19/4014, Bl. 158–204: Rede des Reichsführers SS vor Generälen, June 21, 1944, Bl. 166, 162. See also Rede bei der SS Gruppenführertagung in Posen, October 4, 1943, IMT, vol. 29, ND: 1919–PS, pp. 144–45.

    24. BArchB (ehem. BDC), SSO Pohl, Oswald, 30.6.1892, Pohl to Himmler, April 5, 1944.

    25. Kaienburg, “Vernichtung,” 320–21; Buggeln, Arbeit, 131–33, 141.

    26. For example, see Glauning, Entgrenzung, 249–55, 405–406.

    27. Wagner, Produktion, 389–90; Wagner, IG Auschwitz, 265–69.

    28. For example, see Buggeln, Arbeit, 309–10.

    29. Estimates in Spoerer, “Unternehmen,” 68–69. See also idem, Zwangsarbeit, 186.

    30. Spoerer, “Unternehmen,” 70, 88–90; Buggeln, System, 58; Wagner, Produktion, 76, 394; Hayes, “Ambiguities,” 14–16.

    31. Orth, System, 248–49; Wagner, Produktion, 580; Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 406–409, 413.

    32. Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 399–403.

    33. Quotes in Strebel, Ravensbrück, 439. See also Roth, “Zwangsarbeit”; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 326; Spoerer, Zwangsarbeit, 111; Wagner, IG Auschwitz, 144, 219; Fröbe, “KZ-Häftlinge,” 652–54.

    34. Ibel, “Digitalisierung”; Römmer, “Digitalisierung,” 10–12.

    35. Naasner, Machtzentren, 454; Kershaw, End, 79.

    36. Wagner, Produktion, 116–18, 237, 240; Kroener et al., “Zusammenfassung,” 1003–1006, 1016–17; Raim, Dachauer, 138–41.

    37. Kaienburg, Wirtschaft, 1043–44, 1095. By contrast, many industrialists had a more rational agenda: they wanted to save their machines and plants into the postwar period; Fröbe, “Arbeitseinsatz,” 371–72; Wagner, Produktion, 117–18.

    38. Hayes, Industry, 367; Wagner, IG Farben, 263, 295.

    39. Glauning, Entgrenzung, 218–20; Wagner, Produktion, 116.

    40. Neufeld, Rocket, 264. See also Wagner, Produktion, 202–207, 220, 288.

    41. Wagner, Produktion, 288; Kogon, Theory, 98–99.

    42. Hördler, “Ordnung,” 9–11, 329–30, 338–40; Orth, System, 260–62.

    43. Freund, “Mauthausen,” 263; Maršálek, Mauthausen, 161–62; LG Frankfurt, Urteil, May 27, 1970, JNV, vol. 34, 219, 229; Kogon et al., Massentötungen, 77–78; Friedlander, Genocide, 149–50; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 346–58, 373. The murders in Hartheim were not a continuation of Action 14f13, as Hördler suggests, but of more limited character, largely restricted to sick prisoners from nearby Mauthausen.

    44. Hördler, “Ordnung,” 316, 398.

    45. OdT, vol. 7, 48–49; Kranz, “Erfassung,” 230; idem., “KL Lublin,” 376; Marszałek, Majdanek, 77, 133.

    46. Quote (attributed to Richard Glücks) in NAL, WO 235/19, statement of J. Kramer, May 22, 1945, p. 10. See also Wenck, Menschenhandel, 338–43; OdT, vol. 7, 200–202.

    47. Quotes in NARA, M-1079, roll 6, examination of C. Jay, August 7, 1947, Bl. 62; Zeugenaussage J. H. Mulin, May 5, 1945, in Niedersächsische Landeszentrale, Bergen-Belsen, 89–90. See also OdT, vol. 7, 200–201; Wenck, Menschenhandel, 340; Wagner, Produktion, 493.

    48. Broszat, Kommandant, 205, 208, 263–66, quote on 264; StANü, EE by K. Sommer, January 22, 1947, ND: NO-1578.

    49. OdT, vol. 4, 45; IfZ, Fa 183, Bl. 6.

    50. IfZ, Burger to Loerner, August 15, 1944, ND: NO-399; ibid., Fa 183, Bl. 6–7, n.d.; Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 402, table 6; Strebel, Ravensbrück, 349. The Buchenwald figure includes prisoners in Ohrdruf (listed separately in the SS table). The exclusion of female prisoners from Dora appears to have been deliberate, perhaps to avoid disruption to high-profile production commandos; my thanks to Jens-Christian Wagner for this point.

    51. Roth, “‘Asozialen,’” 449–53; Wachsmann, Prisons, 221–22, 319–20; Longerich, Himmler, 718–19; OdT, vol. 1, 162–63; Röll, Sozialdemokraten, 185–90. Soldmann died just weeks after liberation in spring 1945.

    52. Lotfi, KZ, 235–36; Kroener, “‘Menschenbewirtschaftung,’” 929; Kaienburg, “Vernichtung,” 302–303 (n. 37); Herbert, Fremdarbeiter, 356.

    53. Longerich, Himmler, 725–26.

    54. Sellier, Dora, 56; Strebel, Ravensbrück, 151–52.

    55. Borodziej, Geschichte, 249–51; Snyder, Bloodlands, 298–309; Strebel, Ravensbrück, 143–44; OdT, vol. 8, 109–14; IfZ, Burger to Loerner, August 15, 1944, ND: NO-399. Quotes in LULVR, interview No. 357, June 13, 1946.

    56. Bu
ggeln, System, 139; Pohl, “Holocaust,” 159–60.

    57. Browning, Remembering, 153–54, 218; Karay, Death.

    58. Pohl, “Holocaust,” 159; Piper, Zahl, 185–86; Friedländer, Jahre, 658–61.

    59. Friedländer, Jahre, 636–42; Longerich, Himmler, 711–13, 726–27; Piper, Zahl, table D; Levi and de Benedetti, Auschwitz, 32–35; Czech, Kalendarium, 730.

    60. Kárný, “Theresienstädter,” 213–15; Piper, Zahl, 192; Friedländer, Jahre, 667.

    61. Cesarani, Eichmann, 159–73; Pohl, “Holocaust,” 158; Longerich, Himmler, 714–15; Gerlach and Aly, Kapitel, 276, 375.

    62. Quote in WL, P.III.h. No. 233, E. Fejer, “Bericht aus der Verfolgungszeit,” January 1956, p. 7. More generally, see Gerlach and Aly, Kapitel, 271–73, 355–67; Pohl, “Holocaust,” 158.

    63. Fröbe, “Arbeitseinsatz,” 360–61, quote on 361; idem, “Kammler,” 314; Gerlach and Aly, Kapitel, 163–71, 251–52, 375; Wagner, Produktion, 98–99; Cesarani, Eichmann, 162.

    64. In addition, well over fifteen thousand Jewish prisoners are likely to have died in Monowitz during 1944; Wagner, IG Auschwitz, 281.

    65. For the last point, see Pohl, “Holocaust,” 158. Between May and July 1944, some 430,000 to 435,000 Jews arrived from Hungary, and another 35,000 from elsewhere, bringing the total number of deported Jews in this period to 465,000 or more. This compares to 456,450 Jews deported to Auschwitz between May 1942 and April 1944; Gerlach and Aly, Kapitel, 276, 375; Piper, Zahl, table D.

    66. Interrogation of R. Höss, April 2, 1946, in Mendelsohn, Holocaust, vol. 12, 121–27; Höss testimony and quote, January 1947, in Van Pelt, Case, 262; YVA, M-5/162, affidavit D. Wislieceny, November 29, 1945, p. 4; Stangneth, “Aufenthaltsorte,” 4; BArchK, All. Proz. 6/101, Bl. 29.

    67. StB Nr. 14/44, May 8, 1944, in Frei et al., Kommandanturbefehle, 445–46.

    68. StANü, EE by K. Sommer, April 4, 1947, ND: NO-2739, p. 3.

    69. For Liebehenschel’s reputation, see Orth, SS, 245–46.

    70. Quote in BArchB (ehem. BDC), SSO, Liebehenschel, Arthur, 25.11.01, Stellungnahme R. Baer, July 3, 1944. See also ibid., Brandt to Pohl, June 26, 1944; ibid., Pohl to Brandt, June 6, 1944; ibid., RS, Liebehenschel, Arthur, 25.11.01, Fernspruch, October 3, 1944; ibid., Ärztlicher Untersuchungsbogen, August 29, 1944; IfZ, F 13/7, Bl. 389–92: R. Höss, “Arthur Liebehenschel,” November 1946; ibid., F 13/8, Bl. 468–71: R. Höss, “Richard Baer,” November 1946; Orth, SS, 243–46. Liebehenschel was finally allowed to marry in autumn 1944, because his fiancée was about to give birth, but he never forgave Pohl; BArchB, Film 44837, Vernehmung A. Liebehenschel, September 18, 1946, p. 33.

    71. Hördler, “Ordnung,” 64, 268–70.

    72. Quotes in BArchK, All. Proz. 6/106, Bl. 25; ibid., 6/101, Bl. 29. See also ibid., 6/97, Bl. 22; ibid., 6/99, Bl. 4; Gerlach and Aly, Kapitel, 275, 296–97; Höss testimony, January 1947, in Van Pelt, Case, 262; Piper, Zahl, table D.

    73. Gerlach and Aly, Kapitel, 276, 285–86, 289–96, 375, 413 (these figures contradict the often-repeated suggestion that no more than ten percent of Hungarian Jews were selected as fit for slave labor in Auschwitz; most recently, Longerich, Holocaust, 408). See also Braham, “Hungarian Jews,” 463–64; Dirks, “Verbrechen,” 111; StANü, EE by K. Sommer, April 4, 1947, ND: NO-2739, p. 3; Strzelecka and Setkiewicz, “Construction,” 91, 98–99; Browning, Survival, 234–35, 240; WL, P.III.h. No. 562, Protokoll Dr. Wolken, April 1945, p. 13; Wagner, Produktion, 419.

    74. StB Nr. 14/44 (May 8, 1944), StB Nr. 15/44 (May 11, 1944), StB Nr. 20/44 (July 29, 1944), all in Frei et al., Kommandanturbefehle, 445–46, 475; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 65. Baer had led the old main camp (Auschwitz I) since May 11, 1944.

    75. Iwaszko, “Reasons,” 17; LSW, Bl. 44–66: Vernehmung S. Dragon, May 10, 11, and 17, 1946, Bl. 59; Van Pelt, Case, 187, 262; Citroen and Starzyńska, Auschwitz, 78; Vaisman, Auschwitz, 39; WL, P.III.h. No. 867, “Eine polnische Nicht-Jüdin in Auschwitz,” August 17, 1957, p. 8; “Bericht von Czesław Mordowicz,” summer 1944, 303; Gilbert, Music, 177–78; Gutman, Auschwitz Album.

    76. Pressac and Van Pelt, “Machinery,” 237–38; Piper, Mass Murder, 178, 184–85, 193; Van Pelt, Case, 188, 256, 262; LSW, Bl. 44–66: Vernehmung S. Dragon, May 10, 11, and 17, 1946, Bl. 56, 58; USHMM, RG-11.001M.03, reel 19, folder 21, Aktenvermerk, Besuch des Hauptamtschefs, June 20, 1944. The Camp SS later erected a large empty barrack to obscure the open-air cremations; Perz and Sandkühler, “Auschwitz,” 295.

    77. Schmid, “Moll,” 129–32; APMO, Proces Höss, Hd 6, Bl. 38–45: O. Wolken, “Lager-Bilder,” n.d. (c. spring 1945), Bl. 44; LSW, Bl. 44–66: Vernehmung S. Dragon, May 10, 11, and 17, 1946, Bl. 52; NARA, RG 549, 000–50–9, Box 440A, statement P. Lazuka, April 23, 1945; Aussage S. Jankowski, April 16, 1945, in SMAB, Inmitten, 49–50; Höss testimony, January 1947, in Van Pelt, Case, 262–63.

    78. DAP, Vernehmung S. Baretzki, February 18, 1965, 29223–38, quote on 29237; Strzelecka and Setkiewicz, “Construction,” 98–99; Strzelecka, “Women,” 174; Langbein, Menschen, 66–67; Rózsa, “Solange,” 100–108.

    79. Iwaszko, “Reasons,” 40–41.

    80. Piper, Zahl, 103; Bauer, “Gypsies,” 453.

    81. See chapter 8.

    82. For this and the previous three paragraphs, see Zimmermann, Rassenutopie, 326–38, 340, letter quote on 335; Winter, Winter, 45–53, quote on 47; Guttenberger, “Zigeunerlager,” quote on 132; Langbein, Menschen, 52, 271–73; Kubica, “Children,” 289; WL, P.III.h. No. 795, “Gipsy-Camp Birkenau,” January 1958; ibid., No. 664, “… Juden und Zigeuner,” September 1957; Fings, “‘Wannsee-Konferenz,’” 333; Strzelecka and Setkiewicz, “Construction,” 84–85, 90–91, 93–94; Szymański et al., “‘Spital’”; Grotum, Archiv, 261; Piper, “‘Familienlager,’” 297; Świebocki, “Sinti,” 332, 341.

    83. Drawing on the testimony of a Polish political prisoner, several historians suggest that the local Camp SS—keen to empty the Gypsy camp for incoming Hungarian Jews—entered on May 16, 1944, but were driven back by the prisoners, leading the SS to abandon its first attempt to exterminate the remaining Gypsies (Zimmermann, Rassenutopie, 340; Lewy, Nazi Persecution, 163; Czech, Kalendarium, 774–75). However, this account is not corroborated by former inmates from the Gypsy camp (testimonies by Paul Morgenstern, Aron Bejlin, and Max Friedrich, all in DAP; accounts by Winter and Guttenberger, cited above).

    84. Quotes in DAP, Vernehmung J. Glück, August 20, 1964, 15108; WL, P.III.h. No. 795, “Gipsy-Camp Birkenau,” January 1958, p. 8. See also Strzelecka and Setkiewicz, “Construction,” 91; Zimmermann, Rassenutopie, 336; Winter, Winter, 83–84.

    85. Broszat, Kommandant, quote on 163; DAP, Vernehmung A. Bejlin, August 28, 1964, 16314–18, quote on 16318; ibid., Vernehmung J. Mikusz, April 26, 1965, 32386; APMO, Proces Höss, Hd 6, Bl. 46–50, O. Wolken, “Frauen u. Kinderschicksale,” February 18, 1945, Bl. 49; ibid., Hd 5, Bl. 24–38: testimony of Dr. B. Epstein, April 7, 1945; Zimmermann, Rassenutopie, 343–44; Świebocki, Resistance, 42; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 63; Broad, “Erinnerungen,” 186.

    86. See Świebocki, “Sinti,” 332–35, quote (from 1943) on 335; Zimmermann, Rassenutopie, 339–47; WL, P.III.h. No. 795, “Gipsy-Camp Birkenau,” January 1958, p. 8; Winter, Winter, 85–88; Wagner, Ellrich, 71–73; idem, Produktion, 648; idem, “Sinti,” 103.

    87. Quotes in BArchB, Film 14428, Pohl to Himmler, April 5, 1944, underlined in original (letter drafted by Maurer); ibid., Himmler to Pohl, April 22, 1944. For Alderney and Loiblpass, see OdT, vol. 5, 347–49; ibid, vol. 4, 400–404.

    88. Glauning, Entgrenzung, 121–23.

    89. Schalm, “Außenkommandos,” 58–59.

    90. WVHA figure in BArchB (ehem. BDC), SSO, Glücks, Richard, 22.4.1889, O. Pohl, Vorschlagsliste, January 13, 1945. According to the data in OdT, there were 557 satellite camps in January 1945 (my thanks to Chris D
illon for compiling these figures for me).

    91. Satellite camps held prisoners on permanent sites outside the main KL, but remained administratively attached to it. They differed from outside labor details, whose prisoners returned to the main camp in the evenings; Buggeln, Arbeit, 105.

    92. This point has been made by, among others, Sabine Schalm, who proposes a separate term (satellite commando) for small camps with fewer than 250 prisoners; Schalm, Überleben, 45–50.

    93. For an influential typology of satellite camps, see Freund, “Mauthausen,” 225.

    94. Buggeln, Arbeit, 152–55; Wagner, Produktion, 480; Megargee, Encyclopedia, vol. 1/A, 346–48.

    95. Wagner, Ellrich, 57.

    96. Fings, Krieg, 247–70.

    97. For a different interpretation, seeing the emergence of a new period of order and rationalization of the KL system in 1944, see Hördler, “Ordnung.”

    98. Buggeln, Arbeit, 105–106, 113–14, 118, 121–23; Wagner, Produktion, 472; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 253–54, 263.

    99. Strebel, Ravensbrück, 450.

  100. Stein, “Funktionswandel,” 170, 178, 184.

  101. Buggeln, Arbeit, 45; idem, System, 117–18, 133.

  102. OdT, vol. 8, 48–49; Buggeln, Arbeit, 164–65; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 333.

  103. Wagner, Produktion, 498, 537; Schalm, Überleben, 309.

  104. Buggeln, Arbeit, 117–21, 136, 152, 159–62, 396–99, 407–408, 416–17; idem, “Schulung,” 189–90; Glauning, Entgrenzung, 149–58, 404; Wagner, Ellrich, 124, 127–28; idem, Produktion, 328; Freund, “Mauthausen,” 270; BArchL, B 162/7995, Bl. 214–44: Vernehmung J. Hassebroek, March 16–22, 1967, Bl. 222.

  105. Buggeln, Arbeit, 394.

  106. Hördler, “Ordnung,” 161.

  107. BArchB (ehem. BDC), SSO, Harbaum, August, 25.3.1913, Bl. 119: R. Glücks, Personal-Antrag, April 24, 1944 (the figure of 22,000 WVHA-D staff given here does not include female guards, presumably, as they were not SS members); IfZ, Fa 183, Bl. 6–7, n.d. (the often-cited figure of 39,969 Camp SS guard personnel on January 1, 1945, is incomplete, as it omits thousands of men transferred to the KL from the military; Buggeln, Arbeit, 392–93).

 

‹ Prev