Selection

In a report entitled "Resettlement of Jews," SS-Sturmbannführer Gricksch provided the following information for SS-Col. von Herff and Reichsführer-SS Himmler, after inspection between the 14th. and 16th. of May, 1943. ( Fleming, Gerald. Hitler and the Final Solution. CA: University of California Press, 1987, p. 142.)

The Auschwitz camp plays a special role in the resolution of the Jewish question. The most advance methods permit the execution of the Führer-order in the shortest possible time and without arousing much attention. The so-called "resettlement action" runs the following course: The Jews arrive in special trains (freight cars) toward evening and are driven on special tracks to areas of the camp specifically set aside for this purpose.

There the Jews are unloaded and examined for their fitness to work by a team of doctors, in the presence of the camp commandant and several SS officers. At this point anyone who can somehow be incorporated into the work program is put in a special camp. The curably ill are sent straight to a medical camp and are restored to health through a special diet. The basic principle behind everything is: conserve all manpower for work. The previous type of "resettlement action" has been thoroughly rejected, since it is too costly to destroy precious work energy on a continual basis.

The report then describes the fate of those unlucky enough to have been considered incurably ill or unfit for slave labour, and provides some details with regard to the killing process.

The results of this "resettlement action" to date: 500,000 Jews. Current capacity of the "resettlement action" ovens: 10,000 in 24 hours.

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