by Yitzhak Arad
Then came a long, detailed list of coins, rings, watches, and other valuables, subdivided into gold, silver, and other metals—all this in kilograms. Further on was a list of currencies, mainly foreign, collected in bank notes.12
On January 5, 1944, Globocnik submitted to Himmler a report summarizing the money, gold, and valuables taken from the Jews in Operation Reinhard. The summary was given in Reichsmarks; it included money from forty-eight countries; gold coins from thirty-four countries; 2,910 kg gold bars; 18,734 kg silver bars; 16,000 diamond carats, and more. The total value of all the valuables (money, valuables, and belongings) taken from the Jews by Operation Reinhard headquarters was also listed in the report’s summary:
Money in zlotys and German marks
RM 73,852,080.74
Precious metals
8,973,651.60
Foreign currency in bills
4,521,224.13
Foreign currency in gold
1,736,554.12
Precious stones and other valuables
43,662,450.00
Fabric
46,000,000.00
Total in German marks
178,745,960.5913
(2.5 German marks were equal to $1 at that time.)
All the written reports contain only what was transferred by Operation Reinhard headquarters to the higher authorities of the Reich, but they did not contain the money, gold, valuables, and belongings that the SS pilfered for themselves while they were serving in the camps or as commanding officers in Lublin, Warsaw, and Berlin. A rough estimate would be in the millions. The treasures that the victims left were a source of enrichment for the SS and German institutions and caused internal struggles among the various organizations.
The extermination of the Jews by the German Nazis stemmed from Nazi racial ideology; the resultant control over the Jews’ property, money, and valuables should be seen as an important by-product of this ideology.
While Dr. Eberl was commander of Treblinka, the money and valuables were not sent through Operation Reinhard headquarters or to the higher authorities of the SS, but directly to those in charge of the euthanasia program in Hitler’s Chancellery. Since Eberl and some of his advisers had originally come from the ranks of the euthanasia program, they retained their connections there. Franz Suchomel, the SS man in charge of the “gold Jews” in Treblinka, tells of a messenger from Hitler’s Chancellery who came to the camp with an order from SA Oberführer Werner Blankenburg, one of the heads of the euthanasia program, instructing the SS to hand over to him one million marks. “We filled his suitcase with a million marks, and he returned with it to Berlin,” relates Suchomel.14 Stangl confided to Globocnik his suspicion that his direct superior, Christian Wirth, together with Dr. Eberl, had decided to bypass Operation Reinhard headquarters and transfer the money and valuables from Treblinka directly to Berlin. Stangl promised he would ensure that all property and valuables would be transferred to Globocnik’s headquarters. Stangl related that when he reached Treblinka, he chatted with the SS men serving there: “They said they had great fun: shooting was ‘sport’: there was more money and stuff around than one could dream of, all there for the taking: all one had to do was help oneself.”15
And, indeed, the SS men and Ukrainians in the camp did help themselves to large amounts of money, gold, valuables, and belongings. Abraham Kszepicki, a prisoner in Treblinka, relates:
Some of the Germans enjoyed collecting all sorts of “curios.” They made no effort to hide it from us, but among themselves, the Germans were wary of each other. They would come right over to us and take away a nice gold watch which they would immediately take to one of the six Jewish watchmakers to put in working order. Or they would pick out a particularly unusual ring or some other item of women’s jewelry, no doubt as a gift to their sweethearts in the Fatherland. All of them, both Germans and Ukrainians, had so much money that they did not even bother to touch it. I think that they all became millionaires in Treblinka.16
Stanislaw (Shlomo) Szmajzner, a jeweler, was put to work in Sobibor making jewelry for the SS officials. He made a monogrammed ring for Stangl, the commander of the camp, and other SS men liked the idea and also began bringing him gold rings for monogramming. But despite his expert work, Szmajzner was constantly subjected to threats on his life by various SS personnel who wanted the work kept secret from other SS men and from the prisoners. Once Gustav Wagner was already in the process of leading Szmajzner to the gas chambers because another prisoner had revealed his knowledge of Szmajzner’s work. Only by a miracle was he saved that time.17
When the SS went on vacation to Germany, they would take suitcases and parcels full of Jews’ belongings. So as not to be too conspicuous when leaving the camp with their packages, the SS in Treblinka would send their parcels ahead with the two German railroad workers, Klinzman and Emmerich, who would bring the transports from Treblinka train station to the camp and return with the empty cars. After the SS men left the camp for their vacation, they would stop by Treblinka or Malkinia train station and pick up the packages they had forwarded. In return for this service and as a reward for their silence, Klinzman and Emmerich were bribed accordingly.18
Part of the money taken from the victims was used by the Operation Reinhard staff for purchasing camp equipment, barracks, vehicles, and other articles, as well as for financing activities connected with the implementation of the deportations and extermination.19
The money that was taken from the Jewish victims was also used by the camp commanders to improve the living conditions of the SS men in the camps. This, however, was in violation of orders. SS Oberscharführer Alfred Ittner, who was the treasurer of Sobibor, testified that the camp commander, Stangl, ordered him to buy additional food for the camp staff with part of the victims’ money. Ittner claimed that special funding had been provided for this purpose and that it was against orders and therefore he was reluctant to comply. Ittner was subsequently replaced as treasurer by another SS man.20
The Ukrainian guards and, through them, the local population also grew rich as a result of the murder of the Jews and the property that the victims had brought with them. Even the speculators of Warsaw and other cities benefited. Jerzy Krolikowski, a Polish engineer who worked in the vicinity of Treblinka, writes:
The events that I have described [the extermination of the Jews in Treblinka] caused a real revolution in the vicinity of Treblinka. The poor areas of Podlassia overflowed with gold, and riffraff from all over the country came there to get rich quickly and easily. Even among the local population there was, unfortunately, a certain group that wanted to make a fortune from the Jewish tragedy at any cost. It was our luck that as far as I know the workers in our construction company were not tempted to go along with this. I scorned the frequent offers I was made to buy watches, gold coins, and various articles for almost nothing. The Ukrainian fascists who were on the staff of the death camp were the ones who brought the gold coins, valuables, and money from the camp. At first they were not aware of the real value of the articles, and one could buy all kinds of things for next to nothing. Men’s watches were sold literally for pennies, and local farmers kept dozens of them in egg baskets to offer them for sale.
The Ukrainian fascists, who were totally corrupted by the wealth they had acquired with no effort, were contemptuous of its worth. For example, they would pay for a drink without even counting the bills. . . . The avarice that was rampant among a certain section of the local population destroyed all moral foundations. In the neighboring villages near the camp the Ukrainian fascists were welcomed by some of the local farmers. Their daughters, as it was widely known, became the girlfriends of the murderers and enjoyed the benefits of their generous hearts. It is no wonder that, even though it was wartime, one could see in the neighboring villages extensive construction on the farms and the village women wearing furs and clothes of expensive material whose source was well known. . . .21
Testimonies as to the widespread trade between the Ukrainian
s in Treblinka and the farmers and speculators in the area and even as far as Warsaw have been given by SS men Stangl and Suchomel, as well as by Jewish prisoners. They have even related that prostitutes from Warsaw, in addition to their professional “services” to the Ukrainians, also speculated for them.
The Ukrainian guards in the camps stole the money and valuables directly from the people in the transports as they were brought to the camps, as well as from the “gold Jews.” In Treblinka they would usually barge into the barracks where the “gold Jews” worked and swipe gold and valuables from them under threats to their lives if the Germans were told. Wiernik writes that once when the Germans discovered what was going on they tortured and then murdered half of the “gold Jews.”22
The true value of the property, money, and valuables taken from the Jews who were murdered in the Operation Reinhard camps can never be accurately estimated. The figures that appear in the Operation Reinhard headquarters’ report of January 5, 1944, quoted above, are only a part of the total value: these figures were what was officially submitted to the Reich authorities. A tremendous amount of Jewish property crept into the private pockets of Germans and Ukrainians who had any connection with the expulsions or who served in the camps, and through them to the local neighboring population. Moreover, large amounts of money and valuables were lost forever with the tens of thousands of Jews who died en route on the trains or who were shot when they arrived in the camps, for they were buried with their clothes.
Along with the hundreds of thousands of victims of the Operation Reinhard camps, an inestimable amount of property, which had been earned and accumulated over a period of several generations by the Jewish inhabitants of Poland and other European countries, was lost with them. The murderers inherited all.
22
Himmler’s Visit to Sobibor
and Treblinka
In late February or early March 1943, Himmler visited Operation Reinhard headquarters and the death camps of Sobibor and Treblinka. Himmler had already paid a visit to Operation Reinhard headquarters in the first stage of the extermination action, in the middle of July 1942. The second visit also included the death camps, places he had not inspected on his first tour. The February 1943 visit was in the closing stage of Operation Reinhard, which, according to Himmler’s order of July 19, 1942, had to be accomplished by December 31, 1942.
Belzec had actually ceased its killing activity before the end of 1942, but Himmler’s deadline was extended for several months for the other two camps after the extermination of the Jews from the Bialystok General District was included in Operation Reinhard. In the middle of February 1943, this operation had also come to its end. On February 16, 1943, Himmler issued an order for the final liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto, the last large ghetto in the General Government. For him this symbolized the end of Operation Reinhard.1
Of the 1.7 million Jews murdered in the death camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka, 1,650,000 of them had been exterminated by the second half of February 1943, when Himmler came for his second visit. The aim of this visit was mainly to inspect the camps during their final stage of operation and to determine their future and that of their personnel. By that time there was no longer a need for the death camps of Operation Reinhard. Auschwitz-Birkenau had increased its killing capacity by constructing more and larger gas chambers and crematoria, and it could now meet all the needs of the Nazi extermination machine for all of occupied Europe.
In anticipation of Himmler’s visit, the camps were cleaned. The prisoners were put to work tidying the camps to impress this “most important” guest, whose arrival was imminent. Himmler was accompanied by a group of ten to fifteen dignitaries in SS or army uniforms. SS Oberscharführer Karl Frenzel testified about Himmler’s visit to Sobibor:
The visit was announced a few days ahead. The leadership of the camp took steps to make order in the camp. . . . I was ordered, together with some Unterführers [SS men] and Ukrainian guards, to take over the outside security of the camp and guarantee Himmler’s personal security. When Himmler visited the gassing installation in Camp III, I guarded the surrounding area. I remember that afterwards all the Unterführers were assembled in the canteen, and Himmler delivered an address to them. . . .2
On the day that Himmler was to visit Sobibor, no regular transport with Jews for extermination was scheduled to arrive. But the commanding authorities of Operation Reinhard, whether at their own initiative or at Himmler’s request, planned to show their guest a gassing in action. Therefore, a special group of young Jews was selected from a transport that had arrived in Sobibor a few days before Himmler’s visit. Ada Lichtman testified about what happened to this group:
During the preparations for Himmler’s visit, a transport arrived with over 1,000 people. A group of young people was taken out and kept overnight. They were given food and drinks. We did not know what was going to happen; we thought that they would be attached to us, for work. But it happened differently. These youngsters were not sent to work. . . . Himmler arrived. The commanders of the camp welcomed the important guests and toured the area with them. The youngsters were taken to Camp III for extermination. Himmler and his group attended the gassing and cremation of the youngsters. After this killing operation, all of them went to the canteen, where tables with food and flowers had been prepared for these murderers.3
According to other testimonies, there were no ordinary transports on the days of Himmler’s visit. A special group of several hundred young Jewish girls was brought to Sobibor from one of the labor camps in the Lublin district, and their gassing was carried out as a show for Himmler.4
SS Oberscharführer Hubert Gomerski mentioned this gassing in his testimony:
I remember the visit of Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler in Sobibor. All the SS men, members of the police, and the Ukrainian volunteers were lined up in a parade. I personally reported my platoon to Himmler for inspection. I know that on the day when Himmler was in Sobibor a certain number of Jews was gassed. . . . I can tell for sure that Himmler visited Camp III [extermination area]. I saw Himmler with the whole group going in the direction of Camp III. . . .5
Himmler’s visit to Treblinka is described by Tanhum Greenberg:
One day we received orders that someone extremely important was about to arrive for a visit. We were not told who the man was, but we had to clean the camp thoroughly. They ran us and beat us to make us clean quickly. There was a great commotion. Then they locked us in a hut, and we could only see through a window. Seven cars arrived, with Himmler in one of them. His entourage comprised about twenty people. The “Doll” [Kurt Franz] and the Obersturmführer [Stangl] showed them the camp. They passed by the huts quickly on their way to the Lazarett. Then they went to the extermination area, where they stayed half an hour. Later they got into their cars and drove off.6
Himmler learned from his visit to Treblinka that, in spite of his orders, the corpses of the Jews who had been exterminated in this camp had not been cremated, but buried. Immediately after this visit, the big cremating operation began in the camp. This was the main task imposed on Treblinka during the last months of the camp’s existence.
Himmler found the camps of Sobibor and Treblinka virtually idle of new transports. It was apparently his decision that, until the camps were closed, transports from Holland would be directed to Sobibor, and some transports from the annexed Bulgarian area of Yugoslav Macedonia and Greek Thrace would be sent to Treblinka. However, this did not change the decision Himmler had reached during his visit—Operation Reinhard was basically accomplished, and its camps were to be closed after the completion of their final tasks: in Sobibor, the annihilation of the transports with Jews from Holland; and Treblinka, the burning of the hundreds of thousands of corpses buried there.
Himmler, impressed with the efficiency and dedication of the Operation Reinhard staff, concluded his visit with a decision to promote the commanding officers of the operation and a group of noncommissioned officers who had excelled in the ex
termination action. In a letter written by Globocnik to SS Gruppenführer Maximilian von Herff, the head of the SS Personnel Main Office, dated April 13, 1943, he stated: “The SS Reichsführer, on the occasion of his visit to Operation Reinhard installations in March, as I have already verbally informed you, has approved the promotion of the best men and commanders who are engaged in this action. Attached is the promotion list, which I have already sent you. . . .”7
The promotion list included twenty-eight members of the SS and German Police, among them Wirth and the commanders of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. There were, however, some bureaucratic obstacles to their promotion, and Globocnik wrote a second letter to the SS Personnel Main Office on May 22, 1943: “To explain the whole matter, I would like to add the following. The above-mentioned Wirth, Hering, Reichleitner, and Stangl are the commanders who were at the forefront of the action in Operation Reinhard. . . .”8
Christian Wirth was promoted to the rank of SS Sturmbannführer and his adjutant, SS Oberscharführer Oberhauser, to the officer rank of Untersturmführer. The three camp commanders, Hering (Belzec), Reichleitner (Sobibor), and Stangl (Treblinka) were promoted to the rank of Hauptsturmführer. In his recommendation to promote Stangl, Globocnik noted that of all his subordinate extermination camp commanders, “Stangl is the best camp commander and had the most prominent part in the whole action. While still in the Austrian police, he served as an undercover SS man.” The three deputy commanders of the camps, Schwartz (Belzec), Niemann (Sobibor), and Franz (Treblinka), who held the rank of SS Oberscharführer, were promoted to SS Untersturmführer.
The decrease in the pace of extermination activities in the death camps of Operation Reinhard had begun at the end of 1942, with the cessation of the killing activities in Belzec and the reduction of these activities in the other two camps during the winter of 1942/43. Himmler’s visit to Operation Reinhard installations, in February or early March 1943, marked the beginning of the closing stage of the entire operation. The annihilation of the Jews in the General Government had almost been achieved.