LETTER FROM HIRCHE, ADMINISTRATOR OF THE MENTAL INSTITUTION BERNBURG, TO CAMP COMMANDANT OF THE GROSS-ROSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP, 19 MARCH 1942, WITH LIST OF INMATES TRANSFERRED FROM THE CONCENTRATION CAMP TO BERNBURG

Enclosed you will find a list of the camp inmates who arrived here on 19 March 1942 from your concentration camp.

Heil Hitler!

[Signed] Hirche

1 Enclosure

List of the camp inmates transferred on 19 March 1942 from the Gross-Rosen concentration camp to Bernburg

EXTRACT FROM LETTER FROM DR. FRITZ MENNECKE TO HIS WIFE, 25 NOVEMBER 1941, CONCERNING HIS ACTIVITIES AS PHYSICIAN SELECTING INMATES OF CONCENTRATION CAMP BUCHENWALD FOR EUTHANASIA

Letter No. 8

At 7 o’clock tomorrow morning we will be awakened. At about 8 o’clock we will have our coffee and then we will drive out in Schmalenbach’s car, but he himself will soon leave for Dresden again. On Thursday and Friday a meeting will be held in Pirna in connection with the action in which problems of the future will be discussed and in which Schmalenbach will take part as the medical adjutant of Herr Brack (Jennerwein). No experts will be present * * *. The first working day at Buchenwald is over. At 8:30 this morning we were out there. At first I introduced myself to the authoritative leaders. The deputy of the camp commandant is SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Florstaedt; camp physician is SS Obersturmfuehrer Dr. Hoven. At first another 40 reports of a first portion of Aryans had to be completed. The two other colleagues worked on these yesterday already. Out of these 40 I worked up about 15. After this whole portion had been worked up, Schmalenbach left for Dresden. He will not return until our work here is done. Following this, the “examination” of the patients was carried out, i. e., a presentation of the individuals and a comparison with the entries taken from the files. We did not finish this work until noon, because the other two colleagues worked only in theory yesterday, so that I had to “re-examine” those whom Schmalenbach (and I myself this morning) had prepared and Mueller did his people. At 12 o’clock we stopped for lunch * * *.

Afterwards we continued our examination until about 4 o’clock. I myself examined 105 patients, Mueller 78 patients, so that finally a total of 183 reports were ready as a first group. As a second group a total of 1,200 Jews followed, all of whom do not need to be “examined”, but where it is sufficient to take the reasons for their arrest from the files (often very voluminous!) and to transfer them to the reports. Therefore, it is merely theoretical work which will certainly keep us busy until next Monday inclusive, perhaps even longer. Of this second group (Jews), we completed today. I myself did 17, and Mueller 15. At 5 o’clock sharp, “we threw away the trowel” and went for supper * * *.

Exactly as the day I described above, the following days will pass—with exactly the same program and the same work. After the Jews, another 300 Aryans follow as a third group who will again have to be “examined”. Therefore, we are busy here until the end of next week. Then on Saturday, 6 December, we shall go home.

CIRCULAR FROM GLUECKS TO CONCENTRATION CAMP COMMANDANTS, 27 APRIL 1943, STATING THAT IN THE FUTURE ONLY INSANE PRISONERS SHOULD BE USED FOR ACTION “14 F 13” (EUTHANASIA)

Re: Our Order—D I/1/File No. 14 f 13/Ot/S.—Secret Diary No.

[Stamp]

Top Secret

——th copy

Copy to: Chief of Amt DII, III in the building.

The Reich Leader SS and Chief of the German Police has decreed that in future only insane prisoners can be selected for the Action 14 f 13 by the medical commissions appointed for this purpose.

All other prisoners unfit for work (persons suffering from tuberculosis, bedridden invalids, etc.) are definitely to be excluded from this action. Bedridden prisoners are to be given suitable work which can be performed in bed.

The order of the Reich Leader SS must be strictly observed in the future.

Requests for gasoline for this purpose will therefore be discontinued.

[Signed] Gluecks

SS Brigadefuehrer and Generalmajor of the Waffen SS

DIRECTIVE OF THE REICH MINISTER OF THE INTERIOR, 6 SEPTEMBER 1944, ORDERING EUTHANASIA EXTENDED TO INSANE EASTERN WORKERS

1. Due to the considerable number of Eastern workers and Poles brought into the German Reich for employment, the assignment of mental cases among them to German asylums is constantly increasing. The purpose of such assignments must be in any case the speediest possible recovery to working ability. Thus every means of modern therapy must also be applied to those mentally insane people. But due to lack of space in German institutions there can be no justification for patients who are considered incurable and, therefore, unable to work again in a reasonably short time to remain permanently or for a long time in German institutions. In order to avoid this, the following is ordered:

2. In the following list I have established for each district in the Reich a collective list for incurable mentally insane Eastern workers and Poles. They should be assigned to those institutions immediately if possible. If this is impossible due to urgency or to transportation difficulties, the institution in question should deliver their Eastern or Polish patients to the collecting institution in their respective district within one month at the most. It is not necessary to carry out the removal if the patient is considered able to leave the institution within 6 weeks at the latest.

3. It is the task of the collecting institution to decide whether the restoration of working ability might be considered within a reasonable period of time.

4. The expenses from the date of registration in the collecting institution are to be taken over by the head of the Central Financial Clearing Office of the sanatorium in Linz/Upper Danube, P. O. Box 324, which has to be informed immediately of such assignments. The fixed rate for patients of the general class will be paid to the institutions. The Eastern workers and Poles already assembled in collecting institutions are to be reported on a list immediately to the Central Financial Clearing Office. The expenses for those patient are transferred as from 1 October 1944 to the Central Accounts Office.

5. After 4 weeks, at the latest, of the registration in the collecting institution a short report on the prognosis of the case and on the question of working ability has to be sent to the head of the Central Financial Clearing Office. It is the task of that office to direct the transportation of patients from the collecting institutions to nearby special asylums in their home district.

6. Only those people are to be considered as Poles who were brought into the Reich for employment. This decree does not apply to the local Polish population.

7. The leaders of mental institutions in the districts, etc., are to be informed by their superior officials, and the leaders of welfare and private institutions by their competent higher administrative authorities. The required copies are enclosed herewith.

List of the collecting institutions

1. For East Prussia, Danzig, and West Prussia and Wartheland: Mental Institution Tiegenhof.

2. For Upper and Lower Silesia and the Sudetengau: Mental Institution Lueben.

3. For Pomerania, Mecklenburg, Kurmark, and Berlin: Mental Institution Landsberg-Warthe.

4. For Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg: Mental Institution Schleswig.

5. For Bremen, Weser-Ems, Hanover-East, Hanover-South, and Brunswick: Mental Institution Lueneburg.

6. For the Rhine province, Westphalia, and Lippe: Mental Institution Bonn.

7. For Baden, Westmark, Wuerttemberg, and Hohenzollern: Mental Institution Schussenried.

8. For Bavaria: Mental Institution Kaufbeuren.

9. For Kurhesse, Nassau, and Land Hesse: Mental Institution Hadamar.

10. For Thuringia-Land and Province Saxony, Anhalt: Mental Institution Pfaffenrode.

11. For the Alps [Alpen] and Danube districts: Mental Institution Mauer-Oehling.

By Order:

11a One copy to the County Mental Institution, Eichberg.

With the request to acknowledge and to take further steps.

By Order:

Landesrat

EXTRACT FROM THE FIELD INTERROGATION OF KURT GERSTEIN, 26 APRIL 1945, DESCRIBING THE MASS GASSING OF JEWS AND OTHER “UNDESIRABLES”

Deposition of Kurt Gerstein

Hearing of the massacres of idiots and insane people at Grafeneck, Hadamar, etc., shocked and greatly affected me, having such a case in my family. I had but one desire—to gain an insight into this whole machinery and then to shout it to the whole world! With the help of two references written by the two Gestapo employees who had dealt with my case, it was not difficult for me to enter the Waffen SS.

From March 10 to June 2, 1941, I was given elementary instruction as a soldier at Hamburg-Langehorn, Arnhem, and Oranienburg, together with 40 doctors. Because of my twin studies—technology and medicine—I was ordered to enter the medical-technology branch of the SS Fuehrungshauptamt (SS Operational Main Office)—Medical Branch of the Waffen SS—Amtsgruppe D (Division D), Hygiene Department. Within this branch, I chose for myself the job of immediately constructing disinfecting apparatus and filters for drinking water for the troops, the prison camps, and the concentration camps. My close knowledge of the industry caused me to succeed quickly where my predecessors had failed. Thus, it was possible to decrease considerably the death toll of prisoners. On account of my successes, I very soon became lieutenant. In December 1941 the tribunal which had decreed my exclusion from the NSDAP obtained knowledge of my having entered the Waffen SS. Considerable efforts were made to remove and to persecute me but, due to my successes, I was declared sincere and indispensable.

In January 1942 I was appointed chief of the technical branch of disinfection, which also included the branch dealing with strong poison gases for disinfection. On 8 June 1942 SS Sturmbannfuehrer Guenther of the RSHA entered my office. He was in plain clothes and I did not know him. He ordered me to get a hundred kilograms of prussic acid and to accompany him to a place which was only known to the driver of the truck. We left for the potassium factory near Collin (Prague). Once the truck was loaded, we left for Lublin (Poland). We took with us Professor Pfannenstiel, Professor for Hygiene at the University of Marburg on the Lahn. At Lublin, we were received by SS Gruppenfuehrer Globocnik. He told us, “This is one of the most secret matters there are, even the most secret. Whoever talks of this shall be shot immediately. Yesterday, two talkative men died.” Then he explained to us that at the present moment—17 August 1942—there were three installations: