Air Photos

In modern warfare, air superiority is crucial. It allows one to know where the enemy is, what he is doing, and to attack him at will with minimal repercussions. Taking air photos to explore enemy territory was, therefore, a top priority during World War II. Many of these photos, however, disappeared after the war into…

Auschwitz Album

During the deportation of Jews from Hungary to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp, the camp administration decided to document what was happening with these deportees at their camp with a series of photographs. Hence, on 26 May 1944, photographers Bernhard Walter and Ernst Hofmann took a series of photographs of the fate of Hungarian Jews who arrived…

Auschwitz Death Books

The Auschwitz Death Books (German: Sterbebü­cher) are death registers prepared under the responsibility of the Political Department of the Auschwitz Camp (comprising the Main Camp, Birkenau, and all the subcamps). These books contained the death certificates of the inmates who had been admitted and registered at the camp, and who subsequently died for whatever reasons,…

British Radio Intercepts

In 1941, British Intelligence analysts cracked the German “Enigma” code used to encrypt radio traffic between German forces and their headquarters. This gave the British access to top-secret German data, among them for example the positions of German U-boats. This was an ingenious breakthrough which contributed considerably to Britain and the Western Allies winning World…

Commissars Order

Judging by the scale and scope of civil-rights violations and atrocities committed, the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin was a terrorist state second probably only to Pol Pot’s Cambodia. The primary Soviet organization implementing and enforcing this rule of terror was the terrorist organization NKVD, later renamed to NKGB. Within the Red Army, the…

Corpse Photos

Bodies of typhus victims at the Bergen-Belsen Camp being pushed by a British bulldozer into a mass grave. To this day, these piles of dead bodies are falsely portrayed as the result of a deliberate German policy of extermination. (Click on image to enlarge.) In the majority, these are victims of an Allied air raid…

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Frank, Anne

Despite her status as perhaps the most famous Holocaust victim, the story of Anne Frank has little direct bearing on the larger Holocaust narrative. In one sense, she was just one more Jewish victim of the evil Nazis. And yet, there is so much controversy around her famous diary that it threatens to expose deeper…

Hitler Order, Final Solution

The former commandant of the Auschwitz Camp Rudolf Höss, after having been coerced to sign various absurd “confessions” dictated to him by the British after severe torture, testified on 15 April 1946 at the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal. Among other things, he claimed that Heinrich Himmler had told him in the summer of 1941 about…

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Höfle, Hans

Hans Höfle (19 June 1911 – 21 Aug. 1962), SS Sturmbannführer, was Odilo Globocnik’s deputy chief of staff. As delegate for Jewish resettlement in the Lublin District, he was deeply involved within the Aktion Reinhardt in organizing the deportation of Jews from German-occupied Poland to the Majdanek Camp and through the camps at Belzec, Sobibór,…

Jäger Report

The so-called Jäger Report was presumably authored in early December 1941 by Karl Jäger, then commander of Ein­satz­kom­man­do 3a of Ein­satz­grup­pe A. This unit operated mainly in Lithuania. This document was allegedly discovered by the Soviets in Lithuania after the reconquest of Lithuania by the Red Army in 1944. For inscrutable reasons, they hushed up…

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Korherr, Richard

Dr. Richard Korherr (30 Oct. 1903 – 24 Nov. 1989) was a statistician, and from late 1940, the head of the SS’s statistical office. In early 1943, Himmler ordered him to compile a report on the trends of European Jewish population developments since the National Socialists’ rise to power. After several discussions and some correspondence…

Polish Underground Reports

During the German occupation of Poland between 1939 and 1944, the Polish Government-in-Exile in London managed to organize a well-functioning shadow government inside Poland working completely underground. To one degree or another, it could count on the support of almost the entire Polish population. This underground government had informants almost everywhere. Apart from active acts…

Schindler’s List, movie

The 1993 movie Schindler’s List, directed by Jewish-American director Steven Spielberg, is loosely based on Thomas Keneally’s novel Schindler’s Arc. The imprint of the 1982 edition of this book states: “This book is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to…

Stahlecker Reports

During his time as commander of Einsatzgruppe A since Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, SS Brigadeführer Walter Stahlecker compiled two extended reports on the structure, personnel and activities of his task force. The first of these so-called Stahlecker Reports covers events and activities since the outbreak of hostilities until and including 15 October 1941….

Szlamek Report

The so-called Szlamek Report is a text written in 1942 by Jewish underground fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto, and deposited there in the ghetto’s unofficial archive, where it was found after the war. The text describes in diary form alleged experiences made at the Chełmno Camp during a fictitious inmate’s stay there for ten days….

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Wannsee Protocol

Several scholars have raised doubts about the authenticity of the so-called Wannsee Protocol. This document is alleged to have been written by Adolf Eichmann after the so-called Wannsee Conference of 20 January 1942. For a discussion of the contents of the Wannsee Conference as laid out in its protocol, see the previous entry. The point…

War Refugee Board Report

The War Refugee Board was an organization established by Roosevelt in January 1944. It was the result of Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau lobbying for an official government agency assisting minorities, in particular Jews, persecuted by the Third Reich. This would have been within the area of responsibility of the State Department. Morgenthau pushed…

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