Plans for French Jews and "other enemies", December 1942 to March 1943

This excellent analysis by Peter Longerich deserves to be quoted in full:

19.6(5) For a report to Hitler on 10 December 1942, Himmler set up a hand-written list of the points which he wanted to bring up. Under "II. SD and police affairs" Himmler specified as point 4 the following key word:

• Jews in France
• 6-700 000
• other enemies. 

Beyond Rumors - The Testimony of the Sonderkommando Doctor Charles Bendel

In April 2015, the Revisionist blogger "Friedrich Jansson" posted his reply ‘Hans’ attempts to evade the facts on Bendel: a reply to a controversial blogger to my blog Reply to Friedrich Jansson on Auschwitz Sonderkommando Doctor Charles Sigismund Bendel. Actually, I can reiterate again the previous conclusion: "Jansson's critique is either of minor significance for my argument, irrelevant or utterly unfounded". For him and those who are interested in all the details, I attach a point-to-point reply as a supplement to this posting.

In this main blog, I will focus only on a single point of the skirmish, but which most significant for the issue of the testimony of the Auschwitz prisoner Charles Bendel. Jansson argued that Bendel's testimony on mass extermination and the events concerning the Jewish Sonderkommando history in Auschwitz-Birkenau can be explained by rumors circulating among prisoners in Auschwitz. However, Bendel's level of knowledge far extends the details and reliability of rumors and hearsay knowledge which were present among ordinary prisoners. Hence, and despite the absurd low ceiling height of the gas chambers provided by him, he has to be considered an insider and eyewitness to the extermination sites.

Testimonies of Prisoners of the Demolition Detail on the Crematoria 2 & 3 Extermination Sites

According to the previous posting Knowledge of Mass Extermination Among Hungarian Jews Returning from Auschwitz, mass extermination in the crematoria in Auschwitz-Birkenau was kind of a black box or a box filled with rumors and vivid imagination for most prisoners. One exception to this were prisoners, who were assigned to dismantle the crematoria 2 & 3 in late 1944. Not only did the members of the demolition detail had access to the extermination sites and could inspect themselves of what remained, but they also meet there the remaining prisoners of the Sonderkommando and were introduced into the mass murder machinery. As a result, their testimonies are among the best on the technique and operation of these killing facilities, along with prisoners involved in the construction, maintenance and supply of the crematoria - only next to the Sonderkommando prisoners actually operating these sites.

Knowledge of Mass Extermination Among Hungarian Jews Returning from Auschwitz

How wide spread, detailed and reliable was knowledge of mass extermination among prisoners in Auschwitz?

I have systematically searched through more than 1000 (from more than 3500) protocols obtained by the Hungarian "National Committee for Attending Deportees" (DEGOB), which represent the testimony of 1449 Hungarian (and few Slovak) Jews returning from deportation. These testimonies were made early after the war mostly in June and July 1945, which is a crucial point as knowledge can be expected to change (in any direction) with increasing time after the event.

The vast majority of Hungarian Jews deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, more than 93%, did not or only generically report on mass extermination in the camp. The rest was limited to few details or recollected false rumours circulating among the inmates. The studied testimonies do not remotely reach the level of knowledge and reliability displayed by former Jewish Sonderkommando prisoners or some SS men in 1944-1946. The striking difference between the accounts of ordinary prisoners and insiders like the Jewish Sonderkommando prisoners is powerful confirmation of the veracity of mass extermination in Auschwitz.

More Than 100 Nazi Extermination Remarks, 1939-1944 (Updated Chronological List)

1) Wetzel and Hecht, 25.11.39: "We are indifferent to the hygienic fate of the Jews. Also for the Jews the basic principle is valid, that their propagation must be curtailed in every possible way." [Die Frage der Behandlung der Bevoelkerung der ehemaligen polnischen Gebiete nach rassenpolitischen Gesichtspunkten, 25.11.39, NO-3732].

2) Koppe, 18.10.40: "[The] so-called Sonderkommando Lange, assigned to me for special tasks, was detached to Soldau in East Prussia from 21 May to 8 June, 1940, as per agreement with the Reich Main Security Office [RSHA]. During this period, it successfully evacuated 1,558 mental patients from the Soldau transit camp" [source].

3) Goebbels 31.1.41: "Mit Bouhler Frage der stillschweigenden Liquidierung von Geisteskranken besprochen. 40000 sind weg, 60000 müssen noch weg. Das ist eine harte, aber auch notwendige Arbeit. Und sie muß jetzt getan werden. Bouhler ist der rechte Mann dazu" [source].

Tattoo Denial

When the usual methodological and historical ignorance characteristic of Holocaust denial gets further reduced to virtual complete historical ignorance and meets some more spitefulness, you get Tattoo Denial. It denies or - in its slightly less silly variant - doubts that Jewish and Soviet prisoners were crudely tattooed their prisoner number in Auschwitz. It's main advocate used to be Carlos Porter, a number of sceptic species can observed right now in the CODOH thread Doubts about Tattoos by the book author Nick Kollerstrom (by the way, the CODOH moderator Hannover delivers a particular thrilling performance in this thread when he reveals that his attention span is less than it takes to read and grasp a single book page). The failure of most Holocaust deniers in this thread to spot some historical truth related to the Holocaust even when its right infront of them says volumes about how defective and irrational the methods, arguments and concepts of this movement are also in general and how common sense is lacking or completely masked by ideological beliefs.

I attach seven German sources on the tattooing of Jewish and Soviet prisoners by the Germans to this posting:

• three testimonies of former Auschwitz SS men (Pery Broad, Wihelm Boger, Hans Stark) of the Political Department, whose admission office was responsible for the tattooing of prisoners 
• four contemporary German document: two orders by the German Armed Force High Command to mark Soviets POWs and two reports on the escape of Auschwitz prisoners with tattooed prisoner numbers