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V: ROLES OF PHYSICIANS, NURSES, AND CAREGIVERS IN THE “FINAL SOLUTION”

Professor Susan Benedict UT Health Science Center Houston, Texas, USA 77030 [email protected] 001-713-500-2039

Purpose of the Module: The purpose of this module is to describe the role of physicians, nurses, and caregivers in the plan to exterminate the of Europe.

Suggested Readings: 1. Belzec, Sobibor,Treblinka by ; 2. Into that Darkness by Gitta Sereny; 3. “Mad, Bad, or Evil: How Physician Healers Turned to Torture and Murder” by Michael Grodin. In Medicine after , edited by Sheldon Rubenfeld.

Suggested Videos: 1. “Escape from Sobibor” 2. “Shoah” by Claude Lanzmann

Objectives: 1. Describe the purpose of the “Final Solution.” 2. Describe the Aktion Reinhard death camps. 3. Explore the evolution caregivers to killers.

Discussion Points: 1. Some of the death camp staff returned to nursing jobs after the war. Could they be compassionate caregivers after being murderers? 2. What do you think about the “just following orders” defense?

Synopsis:

The Final Solution

On November 29, 1941, Reinhard Heydrich, Chief of the Security Police and the SS

Security Service, invited twelve SS men and civil servants to a meeting to be held on December

9th. The purpose of the meeting was to finally resolve who was, in fact, a Jew. This was a vexing question because in Germany there were many assimilated Jews, half-Jews, “Aryan” spouses of 2

Jews, and Jews who had served in World War I. This conference, however, had to be postponed because Germany declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941. The new date for the conference was January 20, 1942.1

The conference was held at a lakeside Villa at Wannsee and lasted between one and two hours.

By the time of the conference, the topic had changed from “who is a Jew” to how to kill the

Jews of Europe. assured that the stenographer did not include the

verbatim conversation of the meeting which included killing, elimination, and destruction.2

At his trial in Jerusalem years later, Eichmann stated:

…these gentlemen were standing together or sitting together, and were discussing the subject quite bluntly, quite differently from the language which I 3

had to use later in the record. During the conversation they minced no words about it at all…they spoke about methods of killing, about liquidation, and extermination.3

Two extermination camps were already under construction: Chelmo and Belzec.

Chelmo [Kulmhof in German] was a small town, with a population about 250 people, most of whom were Polish. In the center of this small town, an was built around the Schloss, or villa, and its surrounding grounds. The purpose of this camp was not kept a secret from the townspeople. At first, the grounds were surrounded only by wire.

Later a fence was erected to block the view. The first Jews to be killed were from surrounding communities. Arriving by trucks, the victims were led into the Schloss where they were undressed and surrendered their valuables. They were then led into a mobile van where they were killed by exhaust fumes. In January 1942, two additional vans were obtained for gassing the Jews.4 Eventually at least 152,000 Jews were killed in Chelmo.5

The second extermination camp, Belzec, was built at the same time as Chelmo; however, the killing technique differed. Stationary gas chambers like those of the euthanasia centers were used. Belzec had as its administrator from the

Bernburg euthanasia institution. Wirth was familiar with the stationary used at Bernburg but he objected to using the same type of carbon monoxide tanks. He feared that the tanks, which were produced by a private company, could arouse suspicion and, additionally, the manufacturer was located at quite a distance from Belzec. Thus Wirth opted for use of a automobile engine for producing the carbon monoxide like that used in the gas vans of Chelmo. The first transport of Jews arrived at the end of February 1942 and were used as subjects to test the killing process.6 4

Wirth developed several principles upon which Belzec was to operate. First, arriving trains were to be unloaded and the victims were to be immediately processed so that they would have no time to reflect upon what was happening. The second principle was that everything was to be carried out with the utmost speed. Victims were to be made to rush and run so that they had no time to look around. This would produce shock and paralysis of reactions so escape or resistance could not be organized. This would also maximize the efficiency of the killing process. A third principle was that Jews should do all of the physical work of the camp. Young healthy Jewish men were selected from transports and made to remove bodies from the gas chamber and bury them. These Jews also sorted the clothing and possessions of the arrivals. After a day or two, these Jews were killed and replaced with new arrivals. There was, however, a small group of Jews that were kept at the camp to provide skilled labor for the German and Ukrainian staff. Among these were carpenters, shoemakers, tailors, and other skilled laborers. These Jews, referred to as “court

Jews” (Hofjuden), were kept separate from the arriving transports and were allowed to live considerably longer.7 At least 600,000 Jews were killed in Belzec.8

Sobibor was completed in April 1942 and Franz Stangyl, formerly of the euthanasia institutions of Hartheim and Bernburg, was appointed commandant. 5

Strangyl was advised to visit Wirth in Belzec to learn how a death camp was to be run.

Stangyl reported:

I went there by car. As one arrived, one first reached Belzec railway station…Oh God, the smell! It was everywhere. Wirth wasn’t in his office. I remember they took me to him…he was standing on a hill next to the pits…full…they were full. I cannot tell you; not hundreds, thousands, thousands of corpses…that’s where Wirth told – he said that was what Sobibor was for…9

The first Jews to be killed there were brought from Krychow labor camp for the purpose of

testing the process.10 During 1942 and 1943, at least 250,000 Jews were killed in Sobibor.11

Sobibor staff

After Belzec and Sobibor were fully operational, Treblinka was built. Using the experience gained from the operation of Belzec and Sobibor, substantial improvements were made at Treblinka. The camp itself was about 400 x 600 meters, built in a rectangle and divided 6 into 3 sections: the reception area, the living area, and the extermination area. There were 3 gas chambers, each 4 x 4 meters, which were supplied gas from a diesel engine.12 The living area consisted of barracks, a bakery, a sick bay, a dentist office, and even a zoo.13

Treblinka zoo

Treblinka map 7

Treblinka staff

Chelmo, Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka operated similarly. Jews were rounded up from the ghettos of Eastern Europe and transported by train to the death camp. Upon arrival, they were quickly unloaded and relinquished their possessions. They were told that they were there to do agricultural work but that they would first have to have a hair cut and shower in order to prevent epidemics. After the haircut, they were taken to the “shower room” where they were gassed. Jewish prisoners hauled their bodies to open pits where they were burned. The goal of the entire process was to kill as many Jews as possible in the shortest length of time.

Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka were known as the “Aktion Reinhard” death camps, named in honor of Reinhard Heydrich who had been assassinated. They were differentiated from Chelmo, one of the earliest death camps, because they used stationary gas chambers rather than the gas vans deployed at Chelmo. Because the killing operation was so massive,

Birkenau [Auschwitz II] and Majdanek were also designated as death camps to be operated simultaneously with their labor camp operations.14 8

Unloading ramp at Treblinka

Staffing the Death Camps: Nurses, Caregivers, and A Physician

Just as in the euthanasia program, nurses, caregivers, and a physician had roles in the

“Final Solution” by staffing the Aktion Reinhard death camps. When the T-4 killing program ended in August, 1941, the question arose about what to do with these “highly skilled” personnel with their unique expertise at murder. Viktor Brack not only wanted to put their experience to good use but to also have them available to start up a new euthanasia program after the war. Although most of the 400 members of the T-4 staff were likely sent to Russia to be used as medical staff, 96 were selected to work in the death camps in Poland. Many had been male nurses or caregivers in the euthanasia institutions. There was only one physician, Dr.

Imfried Eberl, and no female nurses sent to the Aktion Reinhard death camps.15

Dr. Irmfried Eberl

At the age of 29 years, Dr. Irmfried Eberl was the head of the Brandenburg euthanasia site. There he did a cursory examination of the patients to be gassed in order to provide a plausible cause of death to be provided when notifying relatives.16 When Brandenburg closed,

Eberl became the head of another euthanasia institution, Bernburg.17 In these two sites, Eberl killed approximately 18,000 patients in about 18 months.18 In July, 1942, when Treblinka opened, Eberl became the commander at the age of 32. He was the only physician to hold such 9 a position. As commander of Treblinka, he was a failure. When the SS visited Treblinka just a few weeks after the first transport arrived, they found decaying bodies piled up, making clear their fate to the arriving Jews on the transports. Eberl’s ineptness in this position did not, however, slow the killings. In late August 1942, the trains brought in 10,000 to 12,000 Jews per day. By the end of August, 215,000 Jews had already been killed in two months. Thus in less than two months, Eberl was responsible for more than 10 times the number of deaths than he was at Brandenburg and Bernburg.19 Eberl was relieved of his position.

Franz Stangl, formerly of Hartheim and Bernburg,20 became the commandant of

Treblinka after completing a stint at Sobibor. Like Christian Wirth of Belzec, he brought his expertise from the euthanasia program to the death camps of Sobibor and Treblinka. The killings began in Treblinka on July 23, 1942.21 During 1942-1943, at least 900,000 Jews were murdered in Treblinka.22

The first group of a few dozen men who had been nurses and caregivers in the T-4 program was transferred to Lublin in November and December 1941 and these were followed by more in early 1942.23 These men became members of the SS, wearing the uniform and holding rank. However, they were still accountable to T-4 headquarters and were still eligible to take their vacations at the Attersee Lake in , 50 KM east of Salzburg, the euthanasia staff’s rest and recreation site.24 Eventually there were anywhere from twenty to thirty-five SS men at each of the Aktion Reinhard death camps and the vast majority of these were from the euthanasia program.25

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Male Nurses and Caregivers from the T-4 Euthanasia Program26

NURSE EUTHANASIA AKTION COMMENTS HOSPITAL REINHARD CAMP

Beulich, Max Sonnenstein Sobibor Unknown

Blaurock, Günter Sonnenstein Sobibor Unknown Erich Werner

Bredow, Paul Grafeneck Sobibor Clothing supervisor; Hartheim Treblinka shot prisoners for target practice – goal 50 Jews a day.

Killed in accident 1945

Eisold, Johannes Sonnenstein Treblinka In charge of excavators at extermination site.

Felfe, Hermann Sonnenstein Treblinka Guard; sentenced to Grafeneck death; committed suicide

Forker, Alfred Sonnenstein Treblinka Guard

Sobibor

Grossmann, Willy Sonnenstein Treblinka Received incoming victims

Horn, Otto Sonnenstein Treblinka Supervised burial of Sobibor corpses; reported to be 11

a decent man.

Jührs, Robert Hadamar Sobibor Guard; acquitted Belzec

Klahn, Johannes Sonnenstein Treblinka Camp I

Matthes, Heinrich Sonnenstein; Treblinka, Shot Jews at Arthur nurse the burial pit; educator Sobibor Commander of Camp II; worked as a nurse after war; sentenced to life in prison.

Michel, Hermann Grafeneck, Sobibor Wearing a white coat, he Hartheim Treblinka gave “welcoming” speech at Treblinka.

Möller, Max Hamburg Treblinka Ordinance guard

Novak (Nowak?), Sonnenstein Sobibor Supervisor of Walter Anton hair cutting; killed during revolt.

Schluch, Karl Grafeneck Belzec Guard; accompanied Hadamar Jews to the gas; worked as nurse after the war. 12

Schwarz, Gottfried Grafeneck Sobibor Deputy (“Friedl”)* Commandant of Bernburg Belzec Belzec *”Medical practititoner”

Seidel, Kurt Sonnenstein Treblinka Supervised road building

Stadie, Otto Bernburg Treblinka Administrative assistant to Commandant; sentenced to 7 years in prison; released because of poor health.

Steubel , Karl Hartheim – Sobibor Paymaster; senior male committed nurse suicide after the war.

Unverhau, Heinrich Hadamar Belzec Supervised victims’ Grafeneck Sobibor undressing; acquitted

Zaspel, Fritz Sonnenstein Sobibor

Zirke, Ernst Grafeneck, Belzec, Guard; Sobibor supervised Hadamar, undressing; Sonnenstein acquitted.

Even though there were small infirmaries or sick bays for the SS at the death camps, the nurses and caregivers were assigned jobs quite different from patient care.

The death camps were precisely that. Their sole purpose was to kill as many Jews in as short a period of time as possible. Unlike the concentration camps, the only prisoners allowed 13 to live were the few who were needed to support the SS staff and Ukrainian guards. As seen from the above chart, former nurses and caregivers were transformed from providers of patient care to cold-blooded murderers. Some actually returned to their nursing careers after the end of the war.

Auschwitz/Birkenau and Majdanek

In addition to Chelmo and the 3 Aktion Reinhard death camps, two concentration camps, Auschwitz/Birkenau and Majdanek, developed extermination components to keep up with the massive killing plan initiated at Wannsee.

Birkenau, also known as Auschwitz II, was located on the outskirts of Oświęcim, 50 km from Krakow and 286 km from Warsaw, in the Polish village of Brzezinka. The prisoner population reached over 135,000 in August 1944.27 The mass extermination of the Jews began in early 1942. As transport trains arrived from numerous countries of Europe - even as far away as Greece - men, women, and children were unloaded onto the ramps where SS physicians divided into them into groups fit for slave labor or for immediate gassing. Those to be gassed were not registered and thus were not counted in the prisoner population. SS physicians sent over 1,100,000 to their deaths at Birkenau.28

In addition to selecting people for death immediately upon their arrival, SS physicians also send countless thousands to their deaths during their imprisonment in

Auschwitz/Birkenau. Many others were the victims of so-called “medical experiments” discussed in Modules VII and VIII. Numerous people lived tortured lives and died heinous deaths at the hands of physicians in Auschwitz/Birkenau. 14

The Majdanek concentration camp was located just east of Lublin, Poland. In 1942, it began operations similar to Auschwitz/Birkenau as both a labor camp and an extermination center with gas chambers. Just as at Auschwitz/Birkenau, SS physicians selected people to live short times as slave laborers or to be immediately gassed. At least 60,000 people were killed at

Majdanek.29

Conclusion

Just as with the euthanasia program, physicians, nurses, and caregivers were essential for killing. In the “Aktion Reinhard” death camps, former nurses and caregivers committed murder; in some cases shooting individuals that arrived on the transports and, in others, leading groups of Jews to their death in the gas chambers. Physicians in Madjanek and

Auschwitz/Birkenau selected hundreds of thousands of individuals for death. There was no medical training required for separating the physically fit from the old, disabled, and very young.

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References:

1. Burleigh, M. (2000). The Third Reich. New York: Hill and Wang, p. 647.

2. Ibid.

3. Browning, C. (2004). The Origins of the Final Solution. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, p. 413.

4. Ibid, p. 417.

5. Friedlander, H. (1995). The Origins of Nazi Genocide. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, p. 287.

6. Arad, Y. (1987). Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, p. 24-25.

7. Ibid, p. 27.

8. Friedlander, p. 287.

9. Arad, p. 30-31.

10. Ibid, p. 31.

11. Friedlander, p. 287.

12. Ibid, p. 42.

13. Ibid, p. 38.

14. Ibid.

15. Sereny, G. (1974). Into that Darkness. New York: Vintage Books, p. 86.

16. Lifton, R. (1986). The Nazi Doctors. New York: Basic Books, p. 73.

17. Ibid, p. 123.

18. Ibid, p. 124.

19. Ibid.

20. Sereny, p. 53.

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21. Ibid, p. 43.

22. Friedlander, p. 287.

23. Arad, p. 17.

24. Ibid, p. 18.

25. Ibid, p. 19.

26.www.deathcamps.org/reinhard/completestaff.htm

27.Czech, D. (1996). Origins of the Camp, its Construction and Expansion. In Auschwitz: Nazi Death Camp. Oświęcim, Poland: The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, p. 39.

28. Friedlander, p. 287.

29. Ibid.

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