| Operation Reinhard | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | General Government inGerman-occupied Poland |
| Date | March 1942 – November 1943[2] |
| Incident type | Mass deportations toextermination camps |
| Perpetrators | Odilo Globočnik,Hermann Höfle,Richard Thomalla,Erwin Lambert,Christian Wirth,Heinrich Himmler,Franz Stangl and others |
| Organizations | SS,Order Police battalions,Sicherheitsdienst,Trawnikis |
| Camp | Belzec Sobibor Treblinka Additional: Majdanek Auschwitz II |
| Ghetto | European andJewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland includingBiałystok,Częstochowa,Kraków,Lublin,Łódź,Warsaw and others |
| Victims | Around 2 million Jews |
Operation Reinhard orOperation Reinhardt (German:Aktion Reinhard orAktion Reinhardt; alsoEinsatz Reinhard orEinsatz Reinhardt) was the codename of the secretGerman plan inWorld War II to exterminatePolish Jews in theGeneral Government district of German-occupied Poland. This deadliest phase ofthe Holocaust was marked by the introduction ofextermination camps.[3] The operation proceeded from March 1942 to November 1943; about 1.47 million or more Jews were murdered in just 100 days from late July to early November 1942, a rate which is approximately 83% higher than the commonly suggested figure for the kill rate in theRwandan genocide.[2] In the time frame of July to October 1942, the overall death toll, including all killings of Jews and not just Operation Reinhard, amounted to two million killed in those four months alone.[4] It was the single fastest rate of genocidal killing in history.[5]
During the operation, as many as two million Jews were sent toBełżec,Sobibór, andTreblinka to be murdered in purpose-builtgas chambers.[3][6] In addition, facilities for mass-murder usingZyklon B were developed at about the same time at theMajdanek concentration camp[3] and atAuschwitz II-Birkenau, near the earlier-establishedAuschwitz I camp.[7]
After theGerman–Soviet war began, the Nazis undertook their European-wide "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". In January 1942, during asecret meeting of German leaders chaired byReinhard Heydrich, Operation Reinhard was drafted; it was soon to become a significant step in the systematic murder of the Jewsin occupied Europe, beginning in theGeneral Government district of German-occupied Poland. Within months, three top-secret camps (atBełżec,Sobibór, andTreblinka) were built to efficiently murder tens of thousands of Jews every day.
These camps differed fromAuschwitz andMajdanek, which initially operated asforced-labour camps before facilities for mass death were installed (gas chambers, crematoria etc.) Even after becomingdeath camps fitted with crematoria,konzentrationslager like Auschwitz remained largely dedicated to forced labor.[8] Unlike "mixed" extermination camps, the extermination camps of Operation Reinhard kept no prisoners, except as needed to advance the camp's industrial-scale murder. Very few Jews escaped death (notably, only two at Bełżec).[9] All other victims were murdered on arrival.[10]
The organizational apparatus behind the new extermination plan had been put to the test already during the "euthanasia"Aktion T4 programme ending in August 1941, during which more than 70,000 Polish and German disabled men, women, and children were murdered.[11] TheSS officers responsible for theAktion T4, includingChristian Wirth,Franz Stangl, andIrmfried Eberl, were all given key roles in the implementation of the "Final Solution" in 1942.[12]
The origin of the operation's name is debated by Holocaust researchers. Various German documents spell the name differently, some with "t" after "d" (as in "Aktion Reinhardt"), others without it. Yet another spelling (Einsatz Reinhart) was used in theHöfle Telegram.[13] It is generally believed thatAktion Reinhardt, outlined at theWannsee Conference on 20 January 1942, was named after Reinhard Heydrich, the coordinator of the so-calledFinal Solution of the Jewish Question, which entailed the extermination of the Jews living in theEuropean countries occupied by Nazi Germany.Heydrich was attacked by British-trainedCzechoslovakian agents on 27 May 1942 and died of his injuries eight days later.[14] The earliest memo spelling outEinsatz Reinhard was relayed two months later.[13]
On 13 October 1941,SS and Police LeaderOdilo Globočnik headquarteredin Lublin received an oral order from Himmler – anticipating thefall of Moscow – to begin the construction of the first extermination camp atBełżec in the General Government territory of occupied Poland. The order preceded the Wannsee Conference by three months.[15] The new camp was operational from 17 March 1942, with leadership brought in from Germany under the guise ofOrganisation Todt (OT).[15]
Globočnik was given control over the entire programme. All the secret orders he received came directly from Himmler and not fromSS-GruppenführerRichard Glücks, head of the greaterNazi concentration camp system, which was run by theSS-Totenkopfverbände and engaged inslave labour for the war effort.[16] Each death camp was managed by between 20 and 35 officers from theTotenkopfverbände (Death's Head Units) sworn to absolute secrecy,[17] and augmented by theAktion T4 personnel selected by Globočnik. The extermination program was designed by them based on prior experience from theforced euthanasia centres. The bulk of the actual labour at each "final solution" camp was performed by up to 100 mostly UkrainianTrawniki guards, recruited bySS-HauptsturmführerKarl Streibel from among the Soviet prisoners of war,[18] and by up to a thousandSonderkommando prisoners whom the Trawniki guards used to terrorise.[19][20] TheSS called their volunteer guards "Hiwis", an abbreviation ofHilfswillige (lit."willing to help"). According to the testimony ofSS-OberführerArpad Wigand during his 1981 war crimes trial in Hamburg, only 25 percent of recruited collaborators could speak German.[18]
By mid-1942, two more death camps had been built on Polish lands:Sobibór (operational by May 1942) under the leadership ofSS-Hauptsturmführer Franz Stangl, andTreblinka (operational by July 1942) underSS-Obersturmführer Irmfried Eberl.[21]
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TheSS pumped exhaust fumes from a large internal-combustion engines through long pipes into sealed rooms, murdering the people inside bycarbon monoxide poisoning. Beginning in February–March 1943, the bodies of the dead were exhumed and cremated in pits. Treblinka, the last camp to become operational, used knowledge learned by theSS previously. With two powerful engines,[a] run bySS-ScharführerErich Fuchs,[21] and the gas chambers soon rebuilt of bricks and mortar, this death factory had murdered between 800,000 and 1,200,000 people within 15 months, disposed of their bodies, and sorted their belongings for shipment to Germany.[29][30]
The techniques used to deceive victims and the camps' overall layout were based on a pilot project of mobile killing conducted at theChełmno extermination camp (Kulmhof), which entered operation in late 1941 and usedgas vans. Chełmno was not a part of Reinhard.[31] It came under the direct control ofSS-StandartenführerErnst Damzog, commander of theSD inReichsgau Wartheland. It was set up around a manor house similar toSonnenstein. The use of gas vans had been previously tried and tested in the mass murder of Polish prisoners atSoldau,[32] and in the extermination of Jews on theRussian Front by theEinsatzgruppen. Between early December 1941 and mid-April 1943,[33] 160,000 Jews were sent to Chełmno from the General Government via theGhetto inŁódź.[34] Chełmno did not have crematoria; only the mass graves in the woods. It was a testing ground for the establishment of faster methods of murdering andincinerating people, marked by the construction of stationary facilities for the mass murder a few months later. The Reinhard death camps adapted progressively as each new site was built.[35]
Taken as a whole, Globočnik's camps at Bełżec, Sobibór, and Treblinka had almost identical design, including staff members transferring between locations. The camps were situated within wooded areas well away from population centres. All were constructed nearbranch lines that linked to theOstbahn.[36] Each camp had an unloading ramp at a fake railway station, as well as a reception area that contained undressing barracks, barber shops, and money depositories. Beyond the receiving zone, at each camp was a narrow, camouflaged path known as theRoad to Heaven (calledHimmelfahrtsstraße order Schlauch by theSS),[37] which led to the extermination zone consisting of gas chambers, and the burial pits, up to 10 metres (33 ft) deep, later replaced by cremationpyres with rails laid across the pits on concrete blocks; refuelled continuously by theTotenjuden. Both Treblinka and Bełżec were equipped with powerfulcrawler excavators from Polish construction sites in the vicinity, capable of most digging tasks without disrupting surfaces.[38][39] At each camp, theSS guards and UkrainianTrawnikis lived in a separate area from the Jewish work units. Wooden watchtowers and barbed-wire fences camouflaged with pine branches surrounded all camps.[40]
The killing centres had no electric fences, as the size of the prisonerSonderkommandos (work units) remained comparatively easy to control – unlike in camps such as Dachau and Auschwitz. To assist with the arriving transports only specialised squads were kept alive, removing and disposing of bodies, and sorting property and valuables from the dead victims. TheTotenjuden forced to work inside death zones were deliberately isolated from those who worked in the reception and sorting area. Periodically, those who worked in the death zones would be killed and replaced with new arrivals to remove any potential witnesses to the scale of the mass murder.[41]
DuringOperation Reinhard, Globočnik oversaw the systematic murder of more than 2,000,000 Jews from Poland,Czechoslovakia,France, theReich (Germany and Austria), theNetherlands,Greece,Hungary,Italy and theSoviet Union. An undetermined number ofRoma were alsomurdered in these death camps, many of them children.[42]
To achieve their intended purpose, all death camps used subterfuge and misdirection to conceal the truth and trick their victims into cooperation. This element had been developed inAktion T4, when disabled and handicapped people were taken away for "special treatment"by theSS from "Gekrat" wearing white laboratory coats, thus giving the process an air of medical authenticity. After supposedly being assessed, the unsuspecting T4 patients were transported to killing centres. The same euphemism "special treatment" (Sonderbehandlung) was used inthe Holocaust.[43]
TheSS used a variety of ruses to move thousands of new arrivals travelling inHolocaust trains to the disguised killing sites without panic. Mass deportations were called "resettlement actions"; they were organised by special Commissioners and conducted byuniformed police battalions fromOrpo andSchupo in an atmosphere of terror.[44][45] Usually, the deception was absolute; in August 1942, people of theWarsaw Ghetto lined up for several days to be "deported" to obtain bread allocated for travel.[46] Jews unable to move or attempting to flee were shot on the spot.[47] Even though death in the cattle cars from suffocation and thirst was rampant, affecting up to 20 percent of trainloads, most victims were willing to believe that the German intentions were different.[48] Once alighted, the prisoners were ordered to leave their luggage behind and march directly to the "cleaning area" where they were asked to hand over their valuables for "safekeeping". Common tricks included the presence of a railway station with awaiting "medical personnel" and signs directing people to disinfection facilities. Treblinka also had a booking office with boards naming the connections for other camps further east.[49]
At times, the new arrivals who had suitable skills were selected to join theSonderkommando. Once in the changing area, the men and boys were separated from the women and children and everyone was ordered to disrobe for a communal bath: "quickly – they were told – or the water will get cold".[50] The old and sick, or slow, prisoners were taken to a fake infirmary named theLazarett, that had a large mass grave behind it. They were killed by a bullet in the neck, while the rest were being forced into the gas chambers.[51][52][53]
To drive the naked people into the execution barracks housing the gas chambers, the guards used whips, clubs, and rifle butts. Panic was instrumental in filling the gas chambers because the need to evade blows on their naked bodies forced the victims rapidly forward. Once packed tightly inside (to minimize available air), the steel air-tight doors with portholes were closed. The doors, according toTreblinka Museum research, originated from the Soviet military bunkers aroundBiałystok.[54] Although other methods of extermination, such as the cyanic poisonZyklon B, were already in use at other Nazi killing centres such as Auschwitz, theAktion Reinhard camps usedlethal exhaust gases from captured Soviet tank engines.[55] Fumes would be discharged directly into the gas chambers for a given period, then the engines would be switched off.SS guards would determine when to reopen the gas doors based on how long it took for the screaming to stop from within (usually 25 to 30 minutes). Special teams of camp inmates (Sonderkommando) would then remove the corpses on flatbed carts. Before the corpses were thrown into grave pits, gold teeth were removed from mouths, and orifices were searched for jewellery, currency, and other valuables. All acquired goods were managed by theSS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt (MainSS Economic and Administrative Department).
During the early phases ofOperation Reinhard, bodies were simply thrown into mass graves and covered withlime. From 1943, to hide the evidence of the crime, the victims' remains were burned in open air pits. SpecialLeichenkommando (corpse units) had to exhume bodies from the mass graves around these death camps for incineration.Reinhard still left a paper trail; in January 1943,Bletchley Park intercepted anSS telegram bySS-SturmbannführerHermann Höfle, Globočnik's deputy in Lublin, toSS-ObersturmbannführerAdolf Eichmann inBerlin. The decodedEnigma message contained statistics showing a total of 1,274,166 arrivals at the fourAktion Reinhard camps until the end of 1942 but the British code-breakers did not understand the meaning of the message, which amounted to material evidence of how many people the Germans had murdered.[56][57]
| Extermination camp | Commandant | Period | Estimated deaths |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bełżec | SS-SturmbannführerChristian Wirth | December 1941 – 31 July 1942 | 600,000[58] |
| SS-HauptsturmführerGottlieb Hering | 1 August 1942 – December 1942 | ||
| Sobibór | SS-HauptsturmführerRichard Thomalla | March 1942 – April 1942 Camp construction | |
| SS-HauptsturmführerFranz Stangl | May 1942 – September 1942 | 250,000[59] | |
| SS-HauptsturmführerFranz Reichleitner | September 1942 – October 1943 | ||
| Treblinka | SS-HauptsturmführerRichard Thomalla | May 1942 – June 1942 Camp construction | |
| SS-ObersturmführerIrmfried Eberl | July 1942 – September 1942 | 800,000–900,000[60] | |
| SS-HauptsturmführerFranz Stangl | September 1942 – August 1943 | ||
| SS-UntersturmführerKurt Franz | August 1943 – November 1943 | ||
| Lublin/Majdanek[61] | SS-StandartenführerKarl-Otto Koch | October 1941 – August 1942 | 130,000[62] (78,000 confirmed) [63] |
| SS-SturmbannführerMax Koegel | August 1942 – November 1942 | ||
| SS-ObersturmführerHermann Florstedt | November 1942 – October 1943 | ||
| SS-ObersturmbannführerMartin Gottfried Weiss | November 1, 1943 – May 5, 1944 | ||
| SS-ObersturmbannführerArthur Liebehenschel | May 5, 1944 – July 22, 1944 | ||
In the winter of 1941, before the Wannsee Conference but after the commencement ofOperation Barbarossa, the Nazis' need for forced labor greatly intensified. Himmler and Heydrich approved a Jewish substitution policy in Upper Silesia and in Galicia under the "extermination through labour" doctrine.[64] Many Poles had already been sent to the Reich, creating a labour shortage in the General Government.[65] Around March 1942, while the firstextermination camp (Bełżec) began gassing, the deportation trains arriving in theLublin reservation from Germany and Slovakia were searched for the Jewish skilled workers. After selection, they were delivered to Majdan Tatarski instead of for "special treatment" at Bełżec. For a short time, these Jewish laborers were temporarily spared death, while their families and all others were murdered.[65] Some were relegated to work at a nearby airplane factory or as forced labor in theSS-controlledStrafkompanies and other work camps.Hermann Höfle was one of the chief supporters and implementers of this policy.[16] There were problems with food supplies and the ensuing logistical challenges. Globočnik andFriedrich-Wilhelm Krüger complained and the mass transfer was stopped even before the three extermination camps were operational.[65]
Approximately 178 millionGerman Reichsmarks' worth of Jewish property (equivalent to 727 million 2021euros) was taken from the victims, with vast transfers of gold and valuables to theReichsbank's "Melmer" account, Gold Pool, and monetary reserve.[66] Not only the German authorities were in receipt of Jewish property, because corruption was rife within the death camps. Many of the individualSS members and policemen involved in the murders took cash, property, and valuables for themselves. The higher-rankingSS men stole on an enormous scale. It was a common practice among the top echelon.[citation needed] Two Majdanek commandants,Karl-Otto Koch andHermann Florstedt, were tried by theSS for it in April 1945.[67]SS-SturmbannführerGeorg Konrad Morgen, anSS judge from theSS Courts Office, prosecuted so many Nazi officers for individual violations that Himmler personally ordered him to restrain his cases by April 1944.[68][69]
Operation Reinhard ended in November 1943. Most of the staff and guards were then sent to northern Italy for furtherAktion against Jews andlocal partisans. Globočnik went to theSan Sabba concentration camp, where he supervised the detention, torture and murder ofpolitical prisoners. To cover up the mass murder of more than two million people in Poland during Operation Reinhard, the Nazis implemented the secretSonderaktion 1005, also calledAktion 1005 or Enterdungsaktion ("exhumation action"). The operation, which began in 1942 and continued until the end of 1943, was designed to remove all traces that mass murder had occurred.Leichenkommando ("corpse units") comprising camp prisoners were created to exhume mass graves and cremate the buried bodies, using giant grills made from wood and railway tracks. Afterwards, bone fragments were ground up in special milling machines, and all remains were then re-buried in new pits. TheAktion was overseen by squads ofTrawniki guards.[70][71] After the war, some of theSS officers and guards were tried and sentenced at theNuremberg trials for their role inOperation Reinhard andSonderaktion 1005. Many others escaped conviction, such asErnst Lerch, Globočnik's deputy and chief of his Main Office, whose case was dropped for lack of witness testimony.[72]
Killing centers could be hidden, but the disappearance of major communities was noticed in Brussels and Vienna, Warsaw and Budapest.
First 'provisional gas chamber' was constructed atFort VII inPoznań (occupied Poland), where the bottled carbon monoxide was tested by Dr.August Becker already in October 1939.
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)Testimony ofSS Scharführer Erich Fuchs in the Sobibór-Bolender trial, Düsseldorf(quote). 2.4.1963, BAL162/208 AR-Z 251/59, Bd. 9, 1784.
{{cite book}}:External link in|quote=Protokol doprosa, Nikolay Shalayev, 18.12.1950, in the Soviet criminal case against Fedorenko, vol. 15, p. 164. Exhibit GX-125 in US v. Reimer.
On 18 August 1942,Waffen-SS officer Kurt Gerstein had witnessed at Belzec the arrival of 45 wagons with 6,700 people of whom 1,450 were already dead on arrival. The train came with the Jews of theLwów Ghetto, less than a hundred kilometres away
Two figures of the number of Majdanek victims have usually been in use—360,000 or 235,000. Kranz, director of the Research Department of the State Museum at Majdanek, asserts that approximately 59,000 Jews and 19,000 people of other ethnic backgrounds, mostly Poles and Byelorussians, died there. Kranz published his estimate in the latest edition of the journal Zeszyty Majdanka. ... However, we do not know the definitive number of prisoners who passed through the camp or the number of those whose deaths the camp administration did not register. It cannot be ruled out that new documents will come to light that alter Kranz's findings.
The Attempt to Remove Traces.
The first ever publishedeye-witness report by an escaped prisoner of the camp.
