I Shall Live (18 page)

BELOW LEFT:
Appel
(roll call) in the Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg Concentration Camp near Berlin. Author was a prisoner there in 1945.
BELOW RIGHT
: A group of S.S. men who carried out the “
Aktion
” in the Lublin district.

Second Letter (from Himmler to Pohl)

TRANSLATION

To: SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl

Berlin:

Concerning the Jews, whom we now have from Hungary, as well as other prisoners in our concentration camp, there are without doubt, a lot of physicists, chemists and other scientists.

I am assigning SS-Uppergruppen commander Pohl, to a concentration camp that is for scientific research, to assess the knowledge of these people for the demanding and time consuming calculation of formulae, technical preparation for one time construction, for the foundation of research work. The ancestor inheritance recovery of assets is to be considered in cooperation with the main office of Reich security, which furnished a similar solution among the Russian prisoners to place them in the science and armaments industry since it was urgent from orders to catch up. Total responsibility: SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl, research leadership; Inheritance, SS-Oberfuehrer Wuest; representing: SS-Standartenfuehrer Sievers. The valuable suggestion of this complex issue originates from SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Koppe.

As to the special contract for the inheritance giving immediately in the event of outbreak of war from Dr. Scultetus has already begun for the basis of a long term prediction of war but were suspended in the year 1939 because of reasons related to war. Dr. Scultetus is at this time reachable at the address: SS-Stubaf. Oberregierunggenrat (council) Dr. S., Koenigsberg-Devau (5b) Airbase-Weatherstation.

Sent H. Himmler

SECRET
!

URGENT
!

9/8/44

To Reichsfuehrer-SS

H. Himmler

Field Command Quarters

Subject: Scientific Work in Concentration Camp Płaszów for War Economy

My Reichsfüehrer:

We have in Concentration Camp Płaszów in a separate scientific section put together Jewish prisoners who have worked in recent months under the leadership of the German scientists of the Institute for the German Eastwork with good results regarding the solution of various important war economy scientific projects.

In the meantime the Institute for the German Eastwork [
Ostarbeit
] has been moved to Castle Zandt over Cham in Austria [
Ostmark
]. The Institute considers it important that the combined effort [
gemaess
] of the individual groups of experts in chemistry, mathematics, physics, and bacteriology in work groups of assembled Jewish scientists of the various specialties be made useful in furthering the continuation in the interest of arms production and war economy.

I recommend, therefore, that the scientific section in the Concentration Camp Płaszów be transferred to the Concentration Camp Flossenbrueck, so that the German scientists of the Institute for the German Eastwork can continue their efforts based on the work done to date, and the already planned expansion of the scientific tasks given to the Jews in making use of the experience to date of the Institute for the German Eastwork can be continued.

[Wilhelm] Koppe

Group Leader of SS and

General of the Police

[in Poland                       ]

Dr. Lucjian Dobroszycki's comments on the Himmler letter

One of the most revealing stories in Henry Orenstein's memoirs is an account of his participation in the “Chemical Kommando” of phony scientists composed of Jewish prisoners in the concentration camps of Budzy'n, Majdanek, Płaszów, Ravensbrück, and Sachsenhausen. The existence of the “Chemical Kommando” was, until Mr. Orenstein's account, entirely unknown. Although the author's truthfulness has not been challenged by anyone, historians look for at least one document that corroborates oral history of this kind. Such a document came to my attention after Henry Orenstein's book was published.
*

This document—or I should say the letter quoted opposite, in extenso—is indeed of extraordinary value, because of the man who wrote it, as well as the addressee and its subject matter. The letter, marked “Urgent!” (
Dringend!
) and “Secret!” (
Geheim!
), was written by Wilhelm Koppe, the Highest SS and Police Leader in occupied Poland, and is addressed to his immediate superior, Heinrich Himmler, the SS Reichsleader and Chief of the German Police, whom Hitler made responsible for the destruction of European Jewry. Koppe informs Himmler of three crucial facts: first, that he has established a scientific department in the concentration camp of Płaszów consisting of some of the Jewish scientists imprisoned there. Second, that those Jewish specialists, under the leadership of German scientists from the Institute for German Advancement in the East (
Institut für Deutsche Ostarbeit
) in Cracow, had achieved good results in solving various important scientific problems related to the war economy and armament. Third, Koppe asks Himmler to allow the Institute, which had already been evacuated from Poland to Austria (following the Red Army's summer 1944 offensive), to have the Jewish scientists evacuated as well since this would permit the Institute to expand its important work.

The work done by the “Chemical Kommando” was transparently phony and thinly disguised. One might wonder who really was behind this bizarre enterprise. Koppe and Himmler should be excluded from any consideration. It is extremely unlikely that either would have bothered with inventing such a cover-up. Was the “Chemical Kommando” the invention of certain German professors who, fearful of being drafted and sent to the Eastern Front, set up sinecures for themselves? If so, did they act alone, or with the consent of people in the Nazi power structure in Cracow or Berlin? These and other questions might be answered if additional documents on the subject come to light.

Author's concentration camp certificate card issued in Landsberg, Germany.