Updated 27/07/2025
One word is omitted from the opening lines above. The title of this story is actually “The Nazi Murder Factories,” according to a new book I recently received. Why then not the word “Nazi” in the title? The answer is simple because, in this day and age, numerous regimes and commanders are still killing people at will, or driving large groups of people out of their homes and countries. Countries like China with the Uighurs, Russia with Navalny, and more recently Ukraine, North Korea, Saudi Arabia with Khashoggi, Miranmar with the Rohingyas, ISIS with the Yazidis, Syria, and many more. Where fear reigns supreme, and where one wrong word can lead to you being taken from your home and never heard from again. And then there are our African warlords. In the Central African Republic alone, where over 70% of the country is occupied by heavily armed militias involved in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and plunder.
Yet, everything pales in comparison to what Adolf Hitler and his cronies devised during World War II. Never in history, in terms of both wars and epidemics, had so many victims been suffered in such a relatively short period. Deportations and mass executions of Jews in Eastern Europe had been in full swing since the German invasion of Poland (1939). From the Nazi perspective, the terror was haphazardly organized. Various agencies were working against each other, ghettos became overcrowded, while new arrivals were arriving daily. In the autumn of 1939, approximately two million Polish Jews came under German rule in the conquered territories. From day one, they were brutally persecuted. At the invitation of Reinhard Heydrich (the Butcher of Prague) and on the orders of Heinrich Himmler, the infamous Nazi meeting, the Wannsee Conference , took place on January 20th. This meeting marked the official turning point in the Nazi plan for the Final Solution and meant the deaths of millions of Jews. Earlier, on October 15, 1941, Heinrich Himmler met with Odilo Globocnik in Lublin to discuss and implement Aktion Reinhard . Everything had already been arranged by January 20, 1942, and the Wannsee Conference was a mere formality. SS and police chief Globocnik was in charge of the operation. Coordination of the deportations fell under SS Major Herman Höfle, while SS officer Christian Wirth ( Christian der Grausame ) was responsible for the construction and management of the Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka concentration camps.
It’s often claimed that the Nazi leaders were simply populists, but nothing could be further from the truth. Of the 15 high-ranking Nazi officials present at the Wannsee Conference, 10 had university degrees, and of those 10, 8 held doctorates. Adolf Eichmann was also present, representing Hermann Göring, who had already requested a resolution of the Jewish question once and for all in July 1941.
Heydrich outlined the Final Solution Policy , which called for the evacuation of 11 million Jews from Europe (the Madagascar Plan). However, this plan was never implemented. Present were: Reinhard Heydrich, Reichsprotektor Bohemia und Moravia und Obergruppenführer SS , envoy of Himmler, Heinrich Müller, Gestapo und Gruppenführer SS , envoy of Heydrich, Otto Hofmann, Rasse und Siedlungshauptamt SS , envoy of Himmler, Karl Eberhard Schöngarth, Sicherheidsdienst und Security Police NSDAP , representative of Heydrich, Gerhard Klopfer, Untersekretär Parteikanzlei NSDAP , representative of Bormann, Adolf Eichmann, Head of the Jewish Affairs Department, SS, Rudolf Lange, Security Police and SD , Einsatzgruppen SS , Alfred Meyer, State Secretary for Eastern Europe, Georg Leibbrandt, Undersecretary of State for Eastern Europe, Josef Bühler, Deputy Governor General of the General Government, Wilhelm Stuckart, State Secretary for the Interior, Roland Freisler, State Secretary for Justice, Erich Neumann, Deputy State Secretary for the Four Year Plan – Ministry of Armaments and War Production, envoy of Göring, Martin Luther, Deputy State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and finally Wilhelm Kritzinger, General Secretary of the Reich Chancellery .
Heydrich was adamant that the Jews had to be exterminated efficiently. The term “extermination” was never actually used during the conference; instead, they spoke of “evacuation.” However, the use of the poison gas Zyklon-B was discussed. Other options, such as imprisonment, execution, or sterilization, were also discussed, but ultimately, Heydrich managed to win over all the participants, and they unanimously agreed to the gassing and murder of the Jewish people.
In November 1941, Himmler signed the detailed plans for the construction of the Auschwitz concentration camp, including the Entlausungsanlage mit Gaskammer .
Reinhard Heydrich
On May 27, 1942, two Czechs, Jozef Gabcik and Jan Kubis (trained in England), attempted to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich. Heydrich survived the attack but ultimately died a few days later of blood poisoning. In retaliation, the village of Lidice was completely destroyed and 13,000 people were arrested. Many of these detainees were killed. The Austrian Ernst Kaltenbrunner was appointed as Heydrich’s successor.
Overview of the larger labor and extermination camps with a selection of the associated camp bosses
Auschwitz/Auschwitz Birkenau/Auschwitz Monowitz: Rudolf Höss, Karl Fritz, Arthur Liebehenschel, Richard Bear, Friedrich Hartjenstein, and Josef Kramer. A total of 1,100,000 victims.
Bergen-Belzen: Adolf Haas, Josef Kramer. Total 100,000 victims.
Dachau: Oskar Müller. 25,000 victims. Majdanek
Buchenwald: Herman Pister. 50,000 victims.
Ravensbrück: Max Kögel. 92,000 victims.
Sobibor: Franz Stangl, Franz Reichleitner. 250,000 victims.
Treblinka: Irmfried Eberl, Franz Stangl. 870,000 victims.
Chelmno: Herbert Lange, Hans Bothman. 320,000 victims.
Belzec: Christian Wirth, Gottlieb Hering, Rudolf Höss and Franz Stangl. 600,000 victims.
Majdanek: Karl Otto Koch, Max Kögel, Herman Florstedt, Martin Gottfried Weiss and Arthur Liebehenschel. 360,000 victims.
Then an overview of the smaller labor and extermination camps: Breitenau-Flossenburg (30,000), Gross-Rosen (40,000), Janovska (50,000 to 200,000), Maly-Trostenets (65,000 to 200,000), Mauthausen-Gusen (+95,000), Mittelbau-Dora (+20,000), Neuengamme/Husum (+43,000), Plaszow (9000), Ravensbrück (+20,000), Risiera di San Saba (3000 to 5000), Sachsenhausen (+30,000), Stutthof (65,000), Terezin (35,000) and Warsaw (4000 to 5000).
In addition, there were assembly camps in almost every country, the most well-known of which were in the Netherlands: Amersfoort, Vught, Ommen, and Westerbork. In Belgium, there were Breendonk and Mechelen (Dossin Barracks).
Westerbork
Polizeiliches Judendurchgangslager Westerbork
Before the war began, 10,000 refugees, primarily from Germany, were admitted to the Netherlands. The newcomers were given little time to adjust to life in the Netherlands. The government refused to spend a cent on these refugees; everything had to be provided by private individuals. Suitcases had to be packed constantly, and camps were constantly being closed and opened. Even the greedy government realized they had to do something. A large, government-owned plot of land was available near Westerbork, ideal for a Central Refugee Camp. The Ministry of the Interior would manage it. The Jewish community raised 1 million guilders for the camp’s construction. On October 9, 1939, the first Jewish refugees entered Westerbork.
Concerns about Hitler’s plans were growing. Westerbork was located close to the German border. When German troops invaded on May 10, 1940, the Netherlands was far from prepared. Commander-in-Chief Winkelman capitulated on May 14, 1940. It was the Dutch authorities who decided to concentrate all Jewish refugees in Westerbork. Measures were now taken to hermetically seal off the camp from the outside world. Camp organization was increasingly conducted according to German methods. The names of the Jews were recorded separately.
In the summer of 1941, the Entjüdung of the Netherlands was secretly decided upon. Westerbork was designated as the central reception center. The Jewish Order Service (OD) was established and tasked with guarding the camp. The OD was often deployed to arrange transport by train to Westerbork. Barbed wire fences were erected around the camp, including external surveillance by an SS Guard Battalion. Albert Konrad Gemmeker was appointed camp commandant. Gemmeker’s goal was to make life as pleasant as possible for the residents, despite the fact that the barracks were overcrowded and there was no privacy or freedom of movement. Healthcare was well-organized, and much was done to keep the residents occupied. However, his girlfriend, Frau Hassel, turned out to be a ruthless, influential Nazi. Anyone who disapproved of her ended up in a punishment cell or on the next train to a labor camp . After the war, Gemmeker always maintained that he was unaware of the horrors that took place in the concentration camps to which the residents of Westerbork were sent.
On July 15 and 16, 1942, the first 1,733 Jews boarded the trains bound for Eastern Europe. The numbers were determined in Berlin by Adolf Eichmann, head of the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt) . Tuesday was transport day. The camp residents lived from Tuesday to Tuesday, trying their best to avoid being selected for the transport. On September 13, 1944, the last train departed for Bergen-Belsen. More than 100,000 Jews were deported via Westerbork. In addition, a few hundred Sinti and Roma, and a few dozen resistance fighters, were also deported.
Most trains went to Auschwitz, but also to Sobibor, Theresienstadt, Bergen-Belsen, Mauthausen, Buchenwald, and Ravensbrück. 60,330 deportees went to Auschwitz; fewer than 4,000 survived. Sobibor: 34,313 (18 survivors); Theresienstadt: 4,870 (3,000 sent on to Auschwitz); approximately 175 Dutch Jews perished; Bergen-Belsen: 3,751 (2,050 survivors); Buchenwald and Ravensbrück: 150 (fewer than 10 survivors).
Wim Aloserij
Wim Aloserij’s book “The Last Witness,” about the war period, perfectly captures the enormous, inhumane cruelties the Nazi executioners in the camps committed daily. His forced labor in Germany, which he tried to escape, his time in Euterpestraat in Amsterdam, in Camp Amersfoort, in Neuengamme and Husum, and his stay aboard the cruise ship Cap Arcona at the end of the war, where he was one of the few to survive the ship’s “mistaken” bombing. ISBN 978 90 824 7641 5, author: Frank Krake.
The Nazis distinguished between labor camps and extermination camps, but in reality, all camps were extermination camps. However, four camps were actually established as extermination camps: Chelmno, Belzec, Treblinka, and Sobibor ( Action Reinhard ).
Chelmno
Chelmno was completed in November 1941, and the extermination process began on December 8. The goal was to exterminate the Jews in the Warthegau district, where approximately 450,000 Jews lived. The first Jews arrived in mid-January 1942. An average of 1,000 people were brought in daily. In addition to the 300,000 Jews from Warthegau, another 6,000 Gypsies, Polish, and Russian prisoners of war were murdered. In 1943, four trucks carrying children from Lidice were brought in and murdered. The victims were gassed using a closed truck. Once the group had climbed into the truck, the doors were closed and the engine started. The exhaust fumes, which escaped into the cargo area, suffocated the people within five or six minutes. The truck then drove to Rzuchow Forest, where the bodies were unloaded as garbage and cremated.
By the autumn of 1944, the camp had completely disappeared, the crematoria blown up, and the huts demolished. Every trace of the crime was thoroughly removed. On January 17, 1945, the Sonderkommando executed the remaining Jewish workers in the camp. Only two Jews survived the execution.
Belzec
About five weeks after the German army invaded Russia, an existing camp was prepared as an extermination camp. Nearby stood a large locomotive shed with outbuildings that could be used to store clothes and goods. The first experiment with Zyklon-B was conducted on a group of Jews from the village of Lubycza-Krolewska. These Jews had previously participated in the construction of the camp. While working, they were suddenly herded into the newly constructed gas chamber. Within minutes, they were all gassed with Zyklon-B. The bodies were thrown into open pits nearby. The experiments continued with CO gas, and in early March 1942, a static engine was installed and tested. The test was so effective that this system became the preferred method. In April 1942, the camp was temporarily closed. The remaining Jewish workers were shot.
Upon reopening, the camp was further expanded. By mid-1942, the new gas chambers were ready for use. Three to four transports a day arrived at Belzec. The conditions were horrific. Many people were already dead upon arrival and were dumped on the platforms. On December 11, 1942, the last deportations arrived. Because the Nazis realized they were losing the war, the remaining bodies were exhumed and cremated at breakneck speed. The corpses were doused with heavy oil and set ablaze. Between 434,000 and 500,000 bodies were cremated in this way. The camp was then demolished. In the summer of 1944, Belzec was liberated by the Red Army. Approximately 50 Jews survived.
Treblinka
Treblinka 1 was a precursor to Treblinka 2, the actual extermination camp. Construction of Treblinka 2 began in May-June 1942. On July 22, 1942, the evacuation of the Warsaw Ghetto began. From that day on, 265,000 Jews from Warsaw were deported to Treblinka. In addition, tens of thousands of Jews from the Radom and Lublin districts were deported in August 1942. To handle the influx, new gas chambers were built in October 1942. Here too, a static motor was used to generate CO gas. Zyklon-B gas was not used. It is impossible to determine exactly how many people were murdered. The telegram from SS officer Herman Höfle to Adolf Eichmann provided an overview of transports up to December 1942: 713,555 Jews gassed.
Treblinka 2 remained in operation for a little longer. The total number of deaths is estimated at between 870,000 and 925,000, both Jews and non-Jews. On August 2, 1943, the remaining 850 Arbeitsjuden revolted and attempted to escape. More than half were killed. Few managed to evade the Nazis. Only about forty prisoners survived the war. On October 20, a train carrying the last Jews left Treblinka to be deported to Sobibor, where they were immediately killed. Approximately 25 prisoners remained in the camp, where they were shot a few days later. Shortly afterward, the guards left Treblinka.
Josef Hirtreiter, just one of the SS monsters who had free rein in the camp, specialized in murdering children. With enormous physical strength, he would suddenly snatch a child from the crowd, swing it back and forth like a club, and then slam its head into the ground. Hirtreiter was arrested in July 1946 and sentenced to 10 years in a labor camp. After further testimony about the abuse and killing of children, he was resentenced to life imprisonment with forced labor. He was released due to illness in 1979 and died a few months later.
Sobibor
In the spring of 1942, the Sobibor extermination camp was built in a remote location. Sobibor was in use for only 18 months. The name of the lane leading directly to the gas chambers was ironically called Himmelfahrtstrasse . An uprising in October 1943 put an end to the camp’s existence. Only a few dozen prisoners survived. Sobibor played a significant role in the extermination of Dutch Jews. Between March 2, 1943, and July 20, 1943, 34,313 Jews were deported from Westerbork to Sobibor. Nineteen returned to their homeland after the war. A stationary diesel engine was used here to generate the CO gas.
Jules Schelvis
Jules Schelvis, author of the books “A Train Rode naar Sobibor,” “Sobibor,” “Verlage Sobibor,” and “Inside the Gates,” was deported to Sobibor on June 1st. He was declared “fit for work” and sent to the Dorohucza labor camp, later to the Radom ghetto, the Szkolna concentration camp in Radom, Auschwitz, and finally to Vaihingen an der Enz, where he helped build an underground airplane hangar. He was one of the Dutch people who survived Sobibor.
Initially, the gassed bodies were buried in mass graves. From late summer 1942, the mass graves were reopened and the remains cremated. The reason for the cremation was, firstly, the unbearable stench of the corpses, and secondly, the Nazis feared that the high groundwater level would contaminate the drinking water and lead to typhus outbreaks. From that date on, cremation became routine.
SS-Scharführer Groth was notorious . He was the most extreme sadist at Sobibor and enjoyed playing games with the prisoners. He made them jump from roofs with umbrellas. Prisoners who were injured were immediately shot. Another game involved running Jews gauntleted by whips past rows of Ukrainians. His dog, Barry, was trained to attack and tear prisoners to pieces. Another “entertainment” involved tying up a prisoner’s trouser legs and throwing a hungry rat down them. If the prisoner moved, he was shot.
The Einsatzgruppen
In addition to the labor and extermination camps, special units were formed, the Einsatzgruppen , death squads that, following in the wake of the Wehrmacht on the front lines, were tasked with tracking down and murdering “undesirable elements.” These “undesirable elements” could include Jews, communists, Roma, homosexuals, intellectuals, the disabled, and partisans. The victims were primarily civilians who were murdered without trial. Between 60,000 and 80,000 executions were carried out between September 1939 and April 1940 alone. Of the 6 million victims of the Holocaust, a quarter to a third were murdered by the Einsatzgruppen . The remains were cremated or buried in mass graves. Reinhard Heydrich (and later his successor Ernst Kaltenbrunner) effectively issued the operational orders and were accountable only to Himmler and Hitler.
Babi Yar massacre
Responsible for the destruction of the Jews (and later others) were General Kurt Eberhard, Friedrich Jeckeln, Otto Rasch and Paul Blobel (hanged in 1951 at Landsberg prison as a result of the Einsatzgruüppen trial).
The Babi Yar massacre deserves special attention, especially because it took place in a relatively unknown area, in and around Kyiv, Ukraine. Because the Russians had blown up a significant number of buildings, killing many German soldiers during their capture of Kyiv, the German army decided on September 26, 1941, to execute all the Jews of Kyiv. On September 29 and 30, 34,000 Jews were herded into the Babi Yar ravine (Ravine of the Old Women). Babi Yar was located just outside Kyiv, next to the Jewish cemetery. After abandoning all their belongings, the Jews were herded into barbed-wire enclosures guarded by Einsatzgruppe C , the Waffen-SS , and Ukrainian collaborators. There, they were forced to stand on the edge of the ravine, after which they were all shot. The bodies fell into the ravine and were covered with a thin layer of earth, after which the next group was shot and laid on top. Layer by layer, 33,771 Jews were killed. A few who didn’t die were buried alive or managed to crawl out from under the corpses, seriously wounded, and seek shelter. Later, Roma and Soviet prisoners of war from other parts of Ukraine were also brought to the camp and murdered in the same way. The total number of victims exceeded 100,000.
As the Red Army approached the camp in 1943, the Nazis attempted to destroy evidence of the massacre. Prisoners were forced to dig up the bodies and set them on fire, after which the grave was sealed again. At least 29 survivors are known. One of the most frequently cited testimonies from a documentary about Babi Yar is that of Dina Pronicheva:
The policeman ordered me to undress and pushed me to the edge of the abyss, where another group of people awaited their fate. But before shots rang out, I fell into the abyss. I fell on people who had already been shot, and then people fell on top of me. I pretended to be dead. Those who had been killed or wounded lay on top of and beneath me. Many people were still breathing, others were groaning. The shooting continued, and people continued to fall. I threw bodies away from me, afraid of being buried alive. I did this in such a way as not to attract the attention of the policemen. Suddenly it became quiet and dark. Germans armed with submachine guns walked around, giving the wounded a final blow. Then I felt myself being covered with earth. I closed my eyes to keep the sand out, and when it became dark and quiet, I opened my eyes again and threw the earth away, after making sure no one was with me. I saw the pit containing thousands of dead bodies, and fear overwhelmed me. In some places the ground heaved and heaved, revealing people still alive and breathing. I got up and ran .
The ghettos of Poland
In 1939, after the German conquest of Poland, Hans Frank was appointed Governor-General of occupied Poland. In this position, he was responsible for the oppression and murder of millions of Poles. Frank was also the one who deported Polish Jews to ghettos and ultimately to extermination camps (including the Warsaw and Kraków ghettos) and was called “the butcher of Poland.” He was arrested on May 4, 1945, and pleaded guilty at the Nuremberg trials. He was sentenced to death on October 1, 1946, and hanged on October 16.
“ Jews are a race that must be totally exterminated ” – Hans Frank 1944
Some of the ghettos of Poland:
Warsaw – Minsk Mazowiecki – Tomaszow Mazowiecki – Radom – Lublin – Opole Lubelskie – Starachowice – Kielce Czestochowa – Sosnowiec – Krakow – Tarnow – Bedzin – Belchatow – Lodz – Piotrkow Trybunalski – Sosnowiec
In certain parts of the city, an area was designated to which Jews were to be relocated. Non-Jews were forced to move from this area to other parts of the city. In Warsaw, the ghetto was established in a part traditionally populated by Jews. The Judenrat (Judenrat) , headed by Czerniaków, was given administrative control of the ghetto. They were required to carry out the orders of the Germans. The ghetto ultimately housed 380,000 people, approximately 30% of Warsaw’s population, occupying 2.4% of its territory. On November 16, 1940, a wall was built around the ghetto. Law enforcement was carried out by the Germans, the Polish police, and the Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst (Jewish Order Service ). Later, Jews from smaller towns and villages were also transferred to the ghetto. Despite this increase, the population remained stable. Many residents died of typhus and malnutrition. On July 22, 1942, Grossaktion Warschau , the German codename for the liquidation of the ghetto, began, and large groups of Jews were deported to Treblinka. 6,000 Jews a day were delivered to the Umschlagplatz , the train station. Czerniaków could no longer cope and committed suicide. Approximately 300,000 people were transferred to Treblinka by September 21.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising took place on April 19, 1943. Jewish fighters fired at German patrols with inadequate equipment and also threw grenades. The Nazis responded by blowing up the housing blocks and arresting every Jew they encountered. The resistance ended on April 23, the uprising on May 16. The result: 7,000 Jewish fighters killed, 6,000 burned alive or gassed in bunkers. Most of the remaining 50,000 people were sent to Treblinka.
The death marches
By the end of 1944, Nazi Germany was surrounded by the Allies and was closing in on the concentration camps. The SS wanted to eliminate the traces of these camps. To this end, the SS devised the death marches. Before the death marches even began, thousands of prisoners had already been murdered, gassed, or starved to death.
First, the prisoners were moved to other concentration camps in Nazi Germany. They had to walk dozens of kilometers to a train station, and then they were transported for days without food or water. Upon arrival, they had to walk another distance to a camp. Sick or exhausted prisoners who succumbed during the march were often executed, shot or simply beaten to death. Later, death marches were organized to the Baltic Sea, where the prisoners were murdered. Death marches continued even after Hitler’s suicide. In April 1945, a large group of prisoners was deported to ships in the Baltic Sea, where they were bombed by the Allies on May 3, 1945. Survivors were almost all shot by the SS.
Between 700,000 and 800,000 prisoners, the majority Jewish, were forced on death marches. 250,000 died of exhaustion and frostbite or were shot by the SS.
In my first article, I stated that I only wanted to write about exceptional matters. The number of casualties of World War II is unprecedented in history and will hopefully never be equaled again. Military casualties amount to between 21,000,000 and 25,000,000, atrocities against humanity between 29,000,000 and 31,000,000, and hunger and disease between 19,000,000 and 28,000,000. This brings us to a total of at least 70,000,000 casualties worldwide during the entire period of World War II.
Below is a small selection from the very large stock of Nazi criminals:
Adolf Eichmann and Alois Brunner
Adolf Eichmann, the Third Reich’s office assassin, was put in charge of the Reich Security Main Office in 1939 and became one of the most important architects of the Holocaust. Eichmann was ordered by his direct superior, Reinhard Heydrich, to draw up an authorization document, which Heydrich presented to Göring on July 31, 1941:
In addition to the task of resolving the Jewish question in the best possible way under the current circumstances through evacuation and emigration, I hereby order you to make all necessary organizational, practical, and material preparations for the comprehensive solution of the Jewish question. Furthermore, I instruct you to send me, as soon as possible, a comprehensive plan for realizing the Final Solution ( Endlösung ) of the Jewish question.
From 1942 onward, Eichmann, in his role as logistics manager, made several visits to extermination camps to monitor their efficiency and progress. Auschwitz was of particular interest to him. He visited Auschwitz several times to evaluate the extermination process with camp director Rudolf Höss and witnessed several gassings.
After the war, Eichmann was captured by the Americans. However, he managed to escape and, in 1950, obtained a stateless passport from the Red Cross under a false name, with which he fled to Argentina. On May 11, 1960, he was abducted from Argentina by the Israeli intelligence services Mossad and Shin Bet, transported to Israel, and tried. He was hanged and cremated in June 1962 at the age of 56.
Alois Brunner became Eichmann’s right-hand man within the Central Office for Jewish Emigration . After the outbreak of war in September 1939, Brunner organized the deportation of Jews from Vienna and Moravia to Nisko, Poland. On January 1, Brunner succeeded Eichmann as head of the emigration department in Vienna. By then, emigration policy had become deportation policy. Jews were forcibly moved into ghettos and ultimately to extermination camps. In July 1941, there were still 50,000 Jews living in Vienna. Brunner was tasked with solving this “problem.” On October 9, 1942, Vienna, thanks to Brunner, was declared Judenfrei (Jewish-Free ). Eichmann promoted Brunner to “problem solver.” Berlin was declared Judenfrei (Jewish-free) in June 1943 , followed by the deportation of 50,000 Greek Jews from Thessaloniki to Auschwitz. Thessaloniki was also declared Judenfrei (Jewish-free ). His next assignment was Paris. When Brunner left Paris in August 1944, 24,000 Jews had been deported from France. His final assignment was in Bratislava, Slovakia. Between 12,000 and 14,000 Jews were deported to Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, and Theresienstadt. In total, Brunner was held responsible for the deportation of 120,000 to 130,000 people.
After the end of the war, Brunner was eventually extradited to the Americans after various detours and got a job as a driver. After various detours, arrests, and releases, he arrived in Cairo in 1954. After his visa expired, he traveled to Syria and started working for the secret service. “The enemy of our enemy is our friend.” Brunner, with all his experience, was employed to teach the Syrians the Nazi torture methods. In a 1985 interview with the German magazine Bunte, Brunner declared he had no regrets about getting rid of “the dirty scum” and regretted that there were still Jews living in Europe. Various attempts to convict him failed. In 1996, it was rumored that he had died.
Klaus Barbie
From 1940 to 1942, he worked for the SD in Amsterdam, where he participated in targeted actions against Dutch Jews. From 1942 onwards, he became head of the Gestapo in Lyon. This quickly earned him the nickname “the butcher of Lyon.” Resistance fighter Jean Moulin was brutally tortured to death by Barbie himself. During a raid on April 6, 1944, he transported 44 Jewish orphans to Auschwitz, where they and their companions were immediately murdered. At his trial in 1947, he was suspected of single-handedly killing 4,000 people. He was sentenced to death in absentia. A bitter detail; until 1951, he worked for the American Counter Intelligence Corps and against the communists. In 1951, he emigrated to Bolivia with permission from the CIC . There, he worked for various dictators as an “interrogation specialist.” He was eventually recaptured and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987. He never showed any remorse and died in 1991, aged 77.
Josef Mengele
Infamous for his medical experiments on prisoners without any form of anesthesia at Auschwitz, he also selected prisoners for the gas chambers there. His nickname: “Angel of Death.” Along with camp director Rudolf Höss, he ordered the contents of 10 truckloads of young children to be dumped into a pit of burning gasoline. Children who managed to climb out were pushed back into the pit without mercy. After the war, he lived for several years under an alias in Germany. He then escaped to South America, financially supported by his family. In 1957, Mengele was arrested in Argentina and accused of committing one hundred abortions and causing the deaths of young women during abortions. Mengele fled to Paraguay and later to Brazil. He died in 1979 of a heart attack or stroke.
Oskar Dirlewanger
He commanded the SS Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger , one of the Sonderkommandos . He was the leader of large-scale war crimes in Belarus and during the Warsaw Uprising. Oskar was a psychopathic murderer and sadist who surrounded himself with similar criminals. The group eventually grew to 4,000 men and consisted of 200 poachers, 600 Waffen SS/Polizei convicts, 2,000 Wehrmacht convicts, and 1,200 criminals. He ordered the Wola massacre in Warsaw. 40,000 civilians, including 500 children, were murdered in the most sadistic manner with rifle butts and bayonets. In 1945, Oskar was wounded for the 12th time, and Fritz Schmedes took over command. On May 3, 1945, Schmedes surrendered to the Americans. Oskar Dirlewanger died on June 7, 1945. He was beaten to death by Polish guards while in French captivity in revenge for his actions in Poland.
Adolf Diekmann
Infamous for the murder of 643 inhabitants of the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane. As revenge, all the men were executed in a barn. All the women and children were locked in the local church. The church was then blown up with explosives. Only a few of the victims could be identified. The youngest child killed was only 8 days old. All the men who participated in the massacre belonged to the 3rd Company of the SS Regiment Der Führer , part of the 1st Panzer Division Das Reich , led by General Lammerding. Diekmann led the operation, assisted by Kahn and Barth.
There are several theories about the reason for the retaliation and why Oradour-sur-Glane was chosen. The most widely accepted theory is that it was retaliation for the resistance’s blowing up of a railway bridge in Saint-Junien, near Oradour, killing two German soldiers, including Helmut Kämpfe, a personal friend of Diekmann. Another theory is that a German garrison was attacked by the French Resistance on June 8th, killing 60 German soldiers. On June 9th, 99 civilians were hanged in the streets of Tulle in retaliation. On June 9th, Kämpfe was captured by the French Resistance near Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat and Moisannes. Kämpfe’s group had recently fought with the Resistance, where 31 resistance members were executed on the spot. It is possible that the Germans mistaken the place names and thought Kämpfe’s capture took place in Oradour. When Lammerding heard about the kidnapping, he proposed an exchange of captured resistance fighters in Limoges for Kämpfe. By the time this proposal reached the resistance leader, Oradour was already in ruins, and almost all its civilians had been killed. It therefore appears that the Oradour massacre was a personal settling of scores by Diekmann, who likely felt the execution of the 31 resistance fighters was insufficient and sought revenge. Especially since it involved his personal friend Kämpfe, he wiped Oradour and its citizens off the map with even greater fanaticism.
Diekmann was killed on 29 June 1944 during frontline fighting in Normandy during Operation Overlord.
Maria Mandl
Worked in Ravensbrück and Auschwitz/Birkenau. Nickname: “the beast of Auschwitz.” Inventor of the “Auschwitz orchestra” to humiliate the prisoners. If anyone looked at her during the assembly point, the prisoner was immediately shot. With her help, 500,000 women and children were killed.
Mandl was sentenced to death by hanging on 22 December 1947 and executed in Kraków on 24 January 1948.
Irma Grese
Worked in Ravensbrück and Auschwitz/Birkenau. Nicknames: “the blond angel” and “the beautiful beast.” Ordered prisoners to be shot without any reason. Trained her hungry dogs to kill defenseless prisoners.
On November 17, 1945, Grese was found guilty of all charges. On December 13, 1945, Grese was hanged, only 22 years old.
Ilse Koch
Worked in Buchenwald, Majdanek, and Sachsenhausen. Wife of camp commandant Karl Otto Koch. Nicknamed “the witch of Buchenwald.” Ordered the murder of prisoners with tattoos. The skin of the murdered prisoners was added to her collection and used, among other things, as a lampshade.
After the war, Koch was sentenced to life imprisonment, which was later commuted to four years in prison due to lack of evidence. Upon her release in 1951, she was immediately re-arrested and re-sentenced to life imprisonment by a German court. She committed suicide in prison on September 1, 1967.
Traveling to concentration camps
Although I’m not a fan of group travel, I had the opportunity, just before the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic, to travel to Buchenwald, Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Plaszów, and Terezin. I assume everyone is more or less familiar with the stories of the extermination camps described above. I felt the need to see and, more importantly, experience the places.
Our first stop was Buchenwald. We were the only ones there with our small group. It was windy, gray, and above all, cold. A few buildings are still standing; the barracks have disappeared, except for one replica. The atmosphere, the silence, and the cold gave me a good idea of what it must have been like there. It wasn’t hard to imagine the prisoners moving around the camp, dressed only in their striped suits. I stood there with my jacket fully buttoned up, and it was still icy cold.
Auschwitz I was a disappointment for me. Too many tourists, all sorts of groups of different origins wandering around with their guides, often lacking any semblance of modesty or respect. I’d love to go back there again if there weren’t 10,000 visitors.
The experience at Auschwitz-Birkenau was essentially the same as that of Buchenwald. It’s easy to imagine what happened there.
The stop in Plaszow was remarkable. Virtually nothing remains of the camp. However, they have begun installing information boards. The Jewish cemetery was impressive, where the headstones had been removed from the graves to pave the main road through the camp. Only a single stone remained standing. The atmosphere in the former camp was ominous. To understand what happened in Plaszow, I recommend watching the film “Schindler’s List .” The film’s atmosphere accurately captures what transpired there. The camp was run by Amon Göth, an SS psychopath who considered it a sport to shoot prisoners without warning. He didn’t do this from the balcony of his house, but simply while walking through the camp. The house still exists and has been fully restored; it also has a balcony like the one in the film, but it’s located far from the camp.
The last stop was Terezin (Theresienstadt). A camp used by the Nazis to show the outside world how well the prisoners were treated. It was a kind of marketing tool, of course. This was just a sham, of course; prisoners were murdered daily near the wall behind the swimming pool for the staff and their families. The distance between the swimming pool and the execution site was approximately 15 meters.
In February 2024, I made another trip to Poland and visited the camps of Sobibor, Majdanek, and again Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and the Auschwitz-Monowitz memorial. Sobibor used to be practically empty, but now a new museum has been built, and the camp has been impressively recreated with white stones and some small remains. Majdanek was very impressive; the camp, just outside Lublin, is almost entirely in its original state. The advantage of both camps is that the number of visitors is small, so you can really grasp what happened there.
We arrived at Auschwitz I as one of the first groups of visitors. A relief. But after just an hour, the camp transformed into (yet another) column of hundreds of people. Once again, I wished I could visit Auschwitz I without this horde of people. Auschwitz-Birkenau remains very impressive. Nothing remains of Auschwitz-Monowitz. A monument has been placed just outside the site.
Can ordinary normal people turn into monsters?
We all have the potential to become a monster
All people are capable of doing things
Which they cannot imagine themselves
(Documentary The Ordinary Men)
Source: The Nazi Murder Factories – Ton Roozenboom, various Wikipedia articles
Oradour-sur-Glane, The slaughter of our village – André Desourteaux and Robert Hébras
Alois Brunner – TracesOfWar.nl
Adolf Eichmann – TracesOfWar.nl
Westerbork – Remembrance Center