Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard (
Aktion Reinhard,
Einsatz Reinhard,
Aktion Reinhardt or
Einsatz Reinhardt in
German) was the code name given to the
Nazi plan to murder
Polish Jews in the former
General Government, and marked the beginning of the most deadly phase of the
Holocaust, the use of
extermination camps. During the operation, as many as two million people were murdered in
Belzec,
Sobibor,
Treblinka and
Majdanek, almost all of them Jews.
It is hypothesized that the operation was named in memory of
SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, the coordinator of the
Endlösung der Judenfrage (Final Solution of the Jewish Question) - the extermination of the Jews living in the European countries occupied by the German
Wehrmacht during the
Second World War. After the plans for the
Final Solution were laid down at the
Wannsee conference, Heydrich was attacked by members of the
Czech underground resistance on
May 27,
1942. He died of his injuries eight days later. This hypothesis has been disputed by some researchers, who argue that since the more mainstream designation of the operation was "Aktion Reinhardt" (with "t" after "d"), it could not have been named after Reinhard Heydrich. They argue that it has been named after State Secretary of Finance Fritz Reinhardt. But in many official documents Heydrich's name was written as "Reinhardt" [
1]. And historians Witte and Tyas concluded::"...The only interesting reference to the Reich Ministry of Finance to be found in the archives of the IfZ is a Declaration on Oath by Bruno Melmer, Nürnberg, 11th February 1948 (NG-4983). Fritz Reinhardt is not mentioned at all. Another serious problem is that Melmer reported important events for May 1942 which actually took place in mid-August 1942. It will be difficult to explain why Einsatz or Aktion Reinhardt should have been named after a State Secretary whose ministry first became involved in the Aktion over two months after the first known occurrence of the code name..."
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The Höfle Telegram lists the number of Jews killed at the Aktion Reihard Camps in 1942 (1,274,166) |
The extermination process in Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka was similar to the method used in the six euthanasia killing centers in Germany and Austria, but hugely scaled up for killing whole transports of people at a time.
Victims would hand over their valuables, which became property of the German
Reichsbank. They then undressed, and their clothes were searched for jewelry and other valuables. Victims were then marched into the gas chamber and packed tightly to minimize the available fresh air. Carbon monoxide gas was then discharged through gaspipes, killing the occupants. Their corpses were cremated after any gold dental fillings were removed. The mass murder was carefully tracked and documented. For example, the intercepted
Höfle Telegram sent by SS-Sturmbannführer Hermann Höfle on January 11, 1943 to SS-Obersturmbannführer
Adolf Eichmann in Berlin listed 1,274,166 Jews killed in the four camps of
Aktion Reinhard during 1942 alone, breaking down the number of Jews killed by week by camp.
The structure of all camps was nearly identical. From the reception area with ramp and undressing barracks, the Jews entered a narrow, camouflaged path (called sluice or tube) to the extermination area with gas chambers, pits and cremation grids. The SS and Trawnikis stayed in a separate area. Barbed wire fences, partially camouflaged with pine branches, surrounded the camp and separated the different parts. Unlike Auschwitz, no electric fences were used. Wooden watchtowers guarded the camp.
Approximately 2 million Jews lost their lives in Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka and Majdanek in the course of Operation Reinhard. Approximately 178,045,960 German
Reichsmarks' worth of Jewish property (today's value: around 700,000,000
USD or 550,000,000
Euro) was stolen. This money went not only to German authorities, but also to single individuals (SS and police men, camp guards, non-Jewish inhabitants of towns and villages with ghettos or adjacent camps).
Operation Reinhard ended in November 1943. After their work in the German concentration camps established in Poland, most of the staff was sent to northern Italy for actions against remaining Jews and partisans. Many of the perpetrators turned up again in the concentration camp of San Sabba near Trieste. The group disintegrated after the surrender of the German Wehrmacht in Italy. Some of them were tried after the war, but others continued to work in Germany and elsewhere throughout the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.
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Deathcamps.org has extensive information on Operation Reinhard, including documents
