KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps

by Nikolaus Wachsmann

    99. H. Haubner to his wife, January 5, 1945, in KZ-Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg, Flossenbürg, 185. See also OdT, vol. 4, 53.

  100. OdT, vol. 3, 321–22.

  101. Stein, “Funktionswandel,” 188.

  102. Haulot, “Lagertagebuch,” 185.

  103. Wagner, Ellrich, 97, 108, quotes on 96, 98; Sellier, Dora, 212–13. See also Cohen, Human, 55–56; Strebel, Ravensbrück, 194.

  104. Kupfer-Koberwitz, Tagebücher, 331, 372; JVL, JAO, Review of Proceedings, United States v. Weiss, n.d. (1946), 132, 138; Güldenpfenning, “Bewacher,” 72.

  105. Wagner, Produktion, 472–73, quote on 473.

  106. Vogel, Tagebuch, 93; Rousset, Kingdom, 160; Bárta, “Tagebuch,” 94, 138; Kolb, Bergen-Belsen, 147.

  107. For example, see LBIJMB, MM 32, P. Heller, “Tagebuchblätter aus dem Konzentrationslager,” October 1945, p. 11.

  108. For this and the previous paragraph, see Nansen, Day, 541–48, quotes on 541, 548; OdT, vol. 3, 227; BStU, MfS HA IX/11, RHE 15/71, vol. 4, Bl. 23–28: Vernehmung Wojciech C., January 17, 1969.

  109. Bárta, “Tagebuch,” 81–82, 182.

  110. Rost, Goethe, quote on 253.

  111. Orth, System, 260–62; Wagner, Produktion, 494.

  112. Hördler, “Schlussphase,” 223–24; idem, “Ordnung,” 410; Erpel, Vernichtung, 94.

  113. Quotes in Rost, Goethe, 237; YIVO, RG 104, MK 538, reel 6, folder 749, testimony F. Uhl, January 4, 1947; Nansen, Day, 578 (Nansen also uses the phrase “waiting room of death”). More generally, see Siegert, “Flossenbürg,” 474–75; Bárta, “Tagebuch,” 92–94; Szita, Ungarn, 120–21.

  114. For this and the previous paragraph, see Semprun and Wiesel, Schweigen, 7–8, quote on 11; Greiser, “‘Sie starben’”; Hördler, “Schlussphase,” 235–37; OdT, vol. 3, 323–25; ibid., vol. 4, 49–50, 300–301; Hackett, Buchenwald, 318–19.

  115. Megargee, Encyclopedia, vol. 1/A, quote on 784; Raim, Überlebende, 17; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 337.

  116. Wagner, Produktion, 264–65, 271–72, 475, 482, 495–96, 506–509, quote on 496; idem, Ellrich, 104, 153–54; OdT, vol. 7, 320–21; NARA, M-1079, roll 7, Bl. 1849–67: examination of H. Maienschein, September 18, 1947, Bl. 1857–58.

  117. Lévy-Hass, Vielleicht, 53–54, quote on 53; OdT, vol. 7, 204; Stiftung, Bergen-Belsen, 217.

  118. Wenck, Menschenhandel, 343–47; OdT, vol. 7, 202–203; Kolb, Bergen-Belsen, 112–17; Lasker-Wallfisch, Inherit, 159; Gutman, Enzyklopädie, 472–76.

  119. Lévy-Hass, Vielleicht, quotes on 43–44; Wenck, Menschenhandel, 268–71; Koretz, Bergen-Belsen, 127.

  120. Wenck, Menschenhandel, 347–49, 351–60.

  121. Wagner, Ellrich, 162–63, quote on 157–58; OdT, vol. 7, 340–41. By early April 1945, Delaunois had been transferred from Ellrich to Woffleben (my thanks to Jens-Christian Wagner for this information).

  122. Wenck, Menschenhandel, 351–61; OdT, vol. 7, 190, 204–207. In early 1945, women made up eighty-five percent of the prisoner population in the Ravensbrück complex, and sixty-four percent in Stutthof; IfZ, Fa 183, Bl. 6–7, n.d.

  123. Herzberg, Between, 203; Van Pelt, “Introduction,” 41.

  124. Koretz, Bergen-Belsen, quote on 155; Kolb, Bergen-Belsen, 137–40; Wenck, Menschenhandel, 349, 371–74; Obenaus, “Räumung,” 517; WL, P.III.h. No. 839, Dr. P. Arons, “Faelle von Kannibalismus,” December 1957.

  125. Vogel, Tagebuch, 99–102, 109, quotes on 113; Wenck, Menschenhandel, 349–50, 371–72; Koretz, Bergen-Belsen, 161; MacAuslan, “Aspects,” 37.

  126. Herzberg, Between, 201–202, quote on 201.

  127. WL, P.III.h. No. 494, A. Lehmann, “Im Lager Bergen Belsen,” 1946; Wenck, Menschenhandel, 373–74; Koretz, Bergen-Belsen, 165.

  128. Niedersächsische Landeszentrale, Bergen-Belsen, 164–65.

  129. Testimony of L. Jaldati, ibid., quote on 130; Shephard, Daybreak, 17.

  130. At one stage, Oswald Pohl apparently considered closing the camp to further transports, but this plan came to nothing. Testimony O. Pohl, June 7, 1946, in NCA, supplement B, 1604; NAL, WO 235/19, statement of J. Kramer, May 22, 1945, p. 13.

  131. Kramer to Glücks, March 1, 1945, in Niedersächsische Landeszentrale, Bergen-Belsen, 160–63.

  132. My assumption that Kramer wrote his letter with an eye on postwar exculpation rests on the text (which includes a telling reference to the catastrophe in Bergen-Belsen as something for which “surely no one wants to take responsibility”), and on the fact that Kramer apparently left a copy among the private papers in his apartment.

  133. Herzberg, Between, quote on 207; Kolb, Bergen-Belsen, 137–38, 141, 145, 195–97; Lévy-Hass, Vielleicht, 58.

  134. Hördler, “Schlussphase,” 234–35, 239; Erpel, Vernichtung, 78; Strebel, Ravensbrück, 466. On WVHA orders, see Orth, System, 288–89, 298–99; Blatman, Death, 213; Strebel, Ravensbrück, 464. In Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrück alone, ten thousand or more prisoners were murdered; Orth, System, 299; Tillion, Ravensbrück, 367. More generally, see Hördler, “Ordnung,” 135, 203, 360–61 (though with less emphasis on the significance of the impending evacuations).

  135. For one example, see Maršálek, Mauthausen, 106.

  136. Many of the victims were recent arrivals. Another two thousand victims were gassed following selections elsewhere in the Ravensbrück complex. See Buchmann, Frauen, quote on 32; Strebel, Ravensbrück, 475–88; Erpel, Vernichtung, 74, 85–88; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 310; Tillion, Ravensbrück, 279–99, 367–92; LULVR, interview No. 449, May 7, 1946. More generally on Uckermarck, see Strebel, Ravensbrück, 356–83, 460–61, 468–75; Erpel, Vernichtung, 80–85.

  137. Keller, Volksgemeinschaft; Bessel, 1945, 48–66; Kershaw, End, 392; Wachsmann, Prisons, 319–23; Wegner, “Ideology.”

  138. Fröhlich, Tagebücher, II/4, May 24, 1942, p. 361; Wachsmann, Prisons, 210–11.

  139. OdT, vol. 4, 54; Siegert, “Flossenbürg,” 478–80; KZ-Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg, Flossenbürg, 206–11.

  140. Orth, System, 296–98; StANü, Erklärung H. Pister, July 2, 1945, p. 37, ND: NO-254.

  141. Keller, Volksgemeinschaft.

  142. NAL, HW 16/15, GPD Headlines, April 7, 1945.

  143. Quotes in Müller to Stapo(leit)stellen, March 4, 1944, in Maršálek, Mauthausen, 263–65; YUL, MG 1832, Series II—Trials, 1945–2001, Box 10, folder 50, Bl. 1320–23: statement J. Niedermayer, February 6, 1946. See also Kaltenbrunner, Flucht, 11–12, 21–99; Maršálek, Mauthausen, 266–67; LaB, B Rep. 057–01, Nr. 296, GStA Berlin, Abschlußvermerke, November 1, 1970, pp. 178–85. Kaltenbrunner argues that the first victims of Action “Bullet” in February 1944 were eastern European civilian workers, not POWs.

  144. JVL, DJAO, United States v. Altfuldisch, RaR, March 1946, quote on 42; Maršálek, Mauthausen, 267–70; ASL, Kam 5539, L4, Bl. 37–44: Bericht V. Ukrainzew, n.d.; Horwitz, Shadow, 124–43; Kaltenbrunner, Flucht, 99–168.

  145. Wagner, Produktion, 448; Maršálek, Mauthausen, 322, 330.

  146. Schwarberg, SS-Arzt, 34–55. The execution order may have come from the WVHA.

  147. Wagner, Produktion, 356; Bárta, “Tagebuch,” 83.

  148. Koretz, Bergen-Belsen, quote on 158; YUL, MG 1832, Series II—Trials, 1945–2001, Box 10, folder 50, Bl. 1330–32: statement of F. Entress, January 26, 1946, quote on 1331 (Entress took up his Mauthausen post in 1943, after almost two years in Auschwitz); Lasik, “SS-Garrison,” 332; Wagner, Produktion, 272–73, 307–308; idem, Ellrich, 153; Orth, SS, 247, 255–60; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 70, 158.

  149. Hördler, “Schlussphase,” 229–32; idem, “Ordnung,” 147–57, Erpel, Vernichtung, 86; Strebel, Ravensbrück, 61, 467–68; Broszat, Kommandant, 222. The significance of transfers from Auschwitz should not be exaggerated, however; plenty of SS men from other KL were also well versed in mass murder.

  150. Schmid, “Moll,” 133–38, quote on 134; Hördler, “Schlussphase,” 228–29, 242–43; idem, “Ordnung,” 365–66. Relentless to the end, Moll shot dozens of exhausted prisoners during the dea
th march from Kaufering in late April 1945.

  151. Evans, Third Reich at War, 467, 651–53, 714–15; Kershaw, Nemesis, 764–66; idem, End, 389; Bessel, 1945, 2, 42, 65.

  152. Buggeln, Arbeit, 447–55; Wagner, Produktion, 341–42. For the People’s Storm guarding evacuation treks, see Blatman, Death, 304, 397; Greiser, Todesmärsche, 112.

  153. Quote in Harshav, Last Days, 694. See also AGN, Ng. 7.6., H. Behncke to his wife, August 28, 1944; Kupfer-Koberwitz, Tagebücher, 314; Nansen, Day, 492.

  154. Weiss-Rüthel, Nacht, 181.

  155. Rózsa, “Solange,” 152.

  156. Langbein, Menschen, 482.

  157. Cohen, Abyss, quote on 105; Rózsa, “Solange,” 212; Naujoks, Leben, 342.

  158. OdT, vol. 4, 297; Bessel, 1945, 18–19; Kershaw, End, 220.

  159. Rózsa, “Solange,” 296, quote on 217; Maršálek, Mauthausen, 325; Glauning, Entgrenzung, 241–42; Freund, “Mauthausenprozess,” 38; Burger, Werkstatt, 189.

  160. DAP, Aussage S. Baretzki, February 18, 1965, quote on 29219; Strebel, Ravensbrück, 245, 466–67; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 150–51. The 1965 sentence against Dr. Lucas in the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial—three years’ and three months’ penitentiary—was later annulled.

  161. APMO, Proces Maurer, 5a, Bl. 114: WVHA, Chefbefehl Nr. 7, February 27, 1945.

  162. NAL, WO 253/163, examination of M. Pauly, April 2, 1946, p. 60; Orth, SS, 260–61; Buggeln, Arbeit, 642–44; Welch, Propaganda, 189–97.

  163. For this and the previous paragraph, see Kershaw, Nemesis, 751–828, quote on 819; idem, End, 79; Longerich, Himmler, 740–52; Time. The Weekly Newsmagazine, October 11, 1943.

  164. Wenck, Menschenhandel, 272–335; Longerich, Himmler, 728–30; Bauer, Jews, 145–238. In November 1944, Himmler also agreed to repatriate 200 Danish policemen and 140 sick Norwegian students; Stræde, “‘Aktion,’” 179–81; Erpel, Vernichtung, 124.

  165. Kersten’s later testimony should be approached with great care; Fleming, “Herkunft”; Neander, Mittelbau, 99; Wenck, Menschenhandel, 362–63. For Burckhardt and Bernadotte, see Favez, Red, 284–85; Erpel, Vernichtung, 128–29.

  166. Erpel, Vernichtung, passim; Bauer, Jews, 249–50; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 26, 314.

  167. NAL, WO 235/19, statement J. Kramer, May 22, 1945, p. 13; APMO, Proces Maurer, 5a, Bl. 117–20: H. Pister, “Strafen für Häftlinge,” July 21, 1945, ND: NO-256; Heiber, Reichsführer!, 387 (n. 2).

  168. Longerich, Himmler, 746–49; Jacobeit, “Ich,” 82–83.

  169. Favez, Red, 99, 258, 261, 265; Zweig, “Feeding,” 845–50. Such efforts were hampered by shortages of suitable vehicles and the breakdown of the transport network.

  170. Erpel, Vernichtung, 104–105, 111; Favez, Red, 268.

  171. Stræde, “‘Aktion,’” 176, 183; Erpel, Vernichtung, 131.

  172. Nansen, Day, 570–82, quotes on 572, 582; Grill, “Skandinavierlager,” 196–206; Erpel, Vernichtung, 131–34; Obenaus, “Räumung,” 519–44.

  173. Nansen, Day, quote on 592; Jacobeit, “Ich,” 32–35, 40, 77, de Lauwe quote on 41; Erpel, Vernichtung, 114–19, 128–29, 134–54; Bernadotte, Fall, 45–46, 53, 58–59; Stræde, “‘Aktion,’” 182–84; Grill, “Skandinavierlager,” 206–15; Longerich, Himmler, 749–50; Hertz-Eichenrode, KZ, vol. 1, 125–28; Maršálek, Mauthausen, 323.

  174. See also Longerich, Himmler, 752.

  175. Favez, Red, 265–66; Breitman et al., Intelligence, 111.

  176. Orth, System, 302–303; Erpel, Vernichtung, 138; StANü, Erklärung H. Pister, July 2, 1945, p. 15, ND: NO-254; StANü, Erklärung R. Höß, March 14, 1946, p. 6, ND: NO-1210; ibid., testimony O. Pohl, June 13, 1946, p. 20, ND: NO-4728; NAL, FO 188/526, report N. Masur, April 1945.

  177. Fabréguet, Mauthausen, 186–87; Maršálek, Mauthausen, 325.

  178. Longerich, Himmler, 746–49; NAL, FO 188/526, report N. Masur, April 1945; Erpel, Vernichtung, 148.

  179. This makes it hard to take seriously Himmler’s alleged offer in November 1944 of negotiating the release of six hundred thousand Jews; Bauer, Jews, 225.

  180. Quote in Maršálek, Mauthausen, 136. Pohl also said that Himmler had wanted to use Jews “for bargaining purposes in the peace negotiations”; testimony O. Pohl, June 7, 1946, in NCA, supplement B, 1596.

  181. Wenck, Menschenhandel, 362–71; WL, P.III.h. No. 842, J. Weiss, P. Arons, “Bergen-Belsen,” June 20, 1945; Hájková, “Prisoner Society,” 5, 279.

  182. Calculation based on OdT, vols. 2–8 (I am grateful to Chris Dillon for pulling these figures together, which I have used throughout this section).

  183. Rózsa, “Solange,” 180, 184, 187, 196, 199–200, 225, 240–41, quote on 238. See also Buggeln, Arbeit, 294; Greiser, Todesmärsche, 77.

  184. The number of KL prisoners fell from 715,000 (mid-January 1945) to around 550,000 (beginning of April), which would mean a “loss” of 165,000 prisoners. The total “loss” is closer to 200,000, since the KL still admitted new inmates. Several tens of thousands of them had been released or liberated or escaped. But the great majority of “lost” prisoners—perhaps 150,000—had perished.

  185. For satellites, see note 182 above.

  186. Aussage A. Harbaum, March 19, 1946, IMT, vol. 35, 493, ND: 750–D.

  187. Estimate based on Wenck, Menschenhandel, 362; Stein, “Funktionswandel,” 187; DaA, ITS, Vorläufige Ermittlung der Lagerstärke (1971); Wagner, Produktion, 648; OdT, vol. 5, 331; ibid., vol. 6, 48–190, 223–473; Strebel, Ravensbrück, 182; Maršálek, Mauthausen, 127; USHMM, Encyclopedia, vol. 1/B, 1423, 1471; AS, JSU 1/101, Bl. 84: Veränderungsmeldung, April 1, 1945 (my thanks to Monika Liebscher for this reference); AGFl to the author, May 17, 2011.

  188. See figures in Comité, Dachau (1978), 207; Wagner, Produktion, 648; Stein, “Funktionswandel,” 187–88; OdT, vol. 4, 52–53, 316; ibid., vol. 5, 331.

  189. Figures for some camps in OdT, vol. 4, 316; ibid., vol. 7, 265; Comité, Dachau (1978), 206 (my thanks to Dirk Riedel for this reference); Stein, “Funktionswandel,” 187. The total number of Jewish prisoners was somewhat higher than SS figures suggest, as a number of Jews succeeded in hiding their identities.

  190. OdT, vols. 2–7.

  191. In April and early May, an estimated 90,000 prisoners were liberated from satellite camps, and around 155,000 from main camps. See data in OdT, vols. 2–7; USHMM, Encyclopedia, vol. I.

  192. OdT, vol. 5, 339; KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme, Ausstellungen, 129. The SS fully evacuated well over 260 satellite camps in April and May 1945 (see note 182 above).

  193. Greiser, Todesmärsche, 136–37.

  194. Blatman, Death, 7, 10, 411.

  195. In addition to frequent escapes on transports, many daily routines in camps—with fixed schedules revolving around forced labor—were absent on trains and marches.

  196. For Kapos as escorts, see NARA, M-1204, roll 6, Bl. 4607–87: examination of A. Ginschel, October 4 and 7, 1946.

  197. Greiser, Todesmärsche, 52; Erpel, Vernichtung, 140–44; Blatman, Death, 155.

  198. Many historians have argued that Hitler issued a general order in March 1945 to destroy every camp and its prisoners as the Allies approached. However, the source basis for this supposed order is unsatisfactory; Neander, Mittelbau, 97–106, 289–308. For Hitler’s “scorched earth” order, see Kershaw, Nemesis, 784–86.

  199. Wachsmann, Prisons, 323–24, 331.

  200. Released prisoners included some German priests, long-term inmates (including Margarete Buber-Neumann), and Polish women arrested after the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Strebel, Ravensbrück, 460, 498–500; Distel, “29. April,” 5.

  201. Klausch, Antifaschisten, 316–26; Fröhlich, Tagebücher, II/15, March 1, 1945; ITS, KL Dachau GCC 3/998–12 II H, folder 162, Freiwillige für den Heeresdienst, March 5, 1945.

  202. For WVHA support, see Glücks to KL Buchenwald, April 7, 1945, in Tuchel, Inspektion, 215; Broszat, Kommandant, 280. Many historians suggest that Himmler himself ordered an end to all KL evacuations in mid-March (Neander, Mittelbau, 106–
109; Orth, System, 302–308; Blatman, Death, 137, 154, 199–200). This supposition is largely based on the account of Himmler’s masseur Felix Kersten, a notoriously unreliable witness (see above, note 165). A supposed Himmler order is also mentioned in postwar accounts of former SS officers like Walter Schellenberg and Rudolf Höss (IfZ, ED 90/7, W. Schellenberg, “Memorandum,” n.d., Bl. 30; IfZ, G 01/31, Zeugenaussage R. Höss, IMT, April 15, 1946). But the former’s testimony is unreliable and self-serving (Breitman et al., Intelligence, 113–14, 447), while the latter is inconsistent on this point (cf. Broszat, Kommandant, 280). All considered, it seems unlikely that Himmler issued a blanket stop-order. The former head of the KL system, Oswald Pohl, made no mention of such an order in his extensive postwar testimony. Also, KL evacuations continued without interruption after Himmler’s supposed order (see below). Most likely, Himmler had made some promises to his foreign interlocutors—perhaps about ending all evacuations—but never intended to keep them (he lied persistently during meetings with foreign representatives in spring 1945; NAL, FO 188/526, Report N. Masur, April 1945).

  203. StANü, Erklärung H. Pister, July 2, 1945, p. 34, ND: NO-254; Greiser, Todesmärsche, 52. Following Himmler’s orders, the Buchenwald commandant apparently promised some German prisoners that the KL would not be evacuated; Overesch, “Ernst Thapes,” 638. Around the same time, the WVHA may have given similar instructions not to evacuate Flossenbürg; Zámečník, “Kein Häftling,” 224–25.

  204. Pister to WVHA-D, April 6, 1945, in Tuchel, Inspektion, 214; NAL, HW 16/15, GPD Headlines, April 6, 1945; Greiser, Todesmärsche, 57.

  205. Between mid-March and mid-April 1945, the SS evacuated well over 160 satellite camps across nine of the ten remaining KL complexes; see note 182 above.

  206. Buggeln, Arbeit, 626–34, 655–57.

  207. For the following, see also Neander, Mittelbau, 152–61.

  208. This was the main reason why the SS forced Jewish KL prisoners from Buchenwald satellites (and elsewhere) onto transports to Theresienstadt; Greiser, Todesmärsche, 55–56; Blatman, Death, 177.

  209. Broszat, Kommandant, 218; Fröbe, “Kammler,” 316; Wagner, Produktion, 277.