Documents on Nazi Concentration Camp Mortality Rates

[David Thompson]

Document NO-1285, in Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10. Vol. 5: United States v. Oswald Pohl, et. al. (Case 4: 'Pohl Case'). US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia: 1950. pp. 374-376.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-1285

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 164

LETTER FROM POHL TO HIMMLER, 15 MARCH 1943, CONCERNING STATE OF HEALTH AND MORTALITY OF PRISONERS IN "PROTECTIVE CUSTODY"; UNDATED DRAFT OF LETTER FROM POHL TO MINISTER OF JUSTICE ON SAME SUBJECT

Personal Staff Reich Leader SS
Records Section
Secret 72/21

The Chief of the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office
D III/File No.14 h (concentration camps) 3.43 Lg/Wy
Journal 261/47 secret
Berlin 15 March 1943
Lichterfelde-West
Unter den Eichen 126-135
Telephone local calls: 765261
Long distance: 765161

Reich Leader SS

Subject: Prisoners in protective custody [Sicherungsverwahrte Haeftlinge]

[Handwritten]

Pohl: Give clear information to the Minister of Justice. Please let me have draft of letter first.

Reich Leader,

According to concurring reports received from all camps occupied by prisoners in protective custody, the state of health and thus the working capacity of the prisoners sent in by the administration of Justice is catastrophic. In all the camps a loss of between at least 25-30 percent is to be reckoned with and then this number is only reached if the prisoners are treated with consideration for a greater length of time. The camp Mauthausen-Gusen constitutes an exception; here the working in capacity and also the mortality of prisoners in protective custody is on a considerably higher level. One can definitely assume that Mauthausen received the worst material.

In the subordinate concentration camps according to the census of 1 March 1943 till now there were 10,191 prisoners in protective custody of which 7,587 were assigned to the concentration camp Mauthausen-Gusen.

From these the deaths totalled 3,853; 3,306 of them died in Mauthausen-Gusen.

The reason for the increased incapacity for work and mortality must presumably be, that the many prisoners in protective custody [S. V. Haeftlinge] who have been in prisons for years are suffering from physical debility owing to the transfer to a different milieu, so that in spite of all efforts death during labor assignment and sojourn in the open air cannot be retarded.

The consequences are especially unfavorable as a great number of tuberculosis patients were also delivered.

[Signature] POHL
SS Obergruppenfuehrer and Lt. General of the Waffen SS

[Initialed] H.H.

************************************************************

[By letter of 25 March 1943, secret, Himmler's adjutant Rudolf Brandt asks Pohl to submit draft of a "clear" report to the Reich Minister of Justice. By letter of 10 April 1943, secret, to Brandt, Pohl submits the following draft for Himmler's approval]

Personal Staff
Reich Leader SS
Records Section
Secret 72/21

The Chief of the SS
Economic and Administrative
Berlin

Reich Minister of Justice

Dear Herr Reich Minister!

I have had the camp commandants submit reports to me concerning the state of health of prisoners in protective custody taken over by the concentration camps.

The following picture is derived from the census dated 1 April 1943:

1. 12,658 prisoners in protective custody were transferred to concentration camps.
2. 5,935 of these died.
3. 6,723 present strength on 1 April 1943.

The shockingly high mortality figures are due to the fact that the prisons transferring them have literally released inmates who are in the worst possible physical condition, and who are afflicted with every possible disease.

The observations and reports of the camp doctors show unequivocally that in spite of all medical efforts the physical debility and death of the prisoners cannot be retarded. A hearty active labor assignment as is expected from the concentration camp prisoners in the munition works, is impossible with a sapped, weak body.

I do not wish to support a quarantine station in the concentration camps, because I need every space for healthy workers. The armament work assigned to the concentration camps by the Fuehrer can only be executed by laborers who are in perfect health.

I beg you, Herr Reich Minister, to support me in this matter, and to order that only healthy protective custody prisoners who are completely capable of work be sent to the concentration camps. SS Obergruppenfuehrer and General of the Waffen SS

[By letter of 16 April 1943, secret, Brandt informs Pohl that Himmler approved the draft.]

[David Thompson]

Document 1469-PS, in Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10. Vol. 5: United States v. Oswald Pohl, et. al. (Case 4: 'Pohl Case'). US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia: 1950. pp. 379-382.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1469-PS

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 165

REPORT BY POHL TO HIMMLER, 30 September 1943, ON DEATHS IN THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS, AND HIMMLER'S ANSWER, 8 October 1943

Berlin, 30 September 1943
Lichterfelde-West
Unter den Eichen 126-135
Telephone: Local 765261
Long distance 765101

The Chief SS Economic and Administrative Main Office

Reich Leader SS
Ch.Po/Ha.
S No.933/43
Reich Leader SS
Berlin

Subject: Deaths in concentration camps.
Reference: None
Enclosures: 3

Secret

Reich Leader:

Although in the month of December the mortality rate was still approximately 10 percent, in January 1943 it fell to 8 percent and continued to fall.

This reduction in the mortality rate is due primarily to the fact that the hygienic measures which have long been demanded have now been carried out, at least to a larger extent. Furthermore, it has been ordered in the field of nutrition that one-third of the food, raw and properly chopped, be added shortly before distribution, to the cooked food. Cooking too long has been avoided. Supplementary rations of sauerkraut and similar foods have been issued. In regard to clothing, it has been ordered that the prisoners may keep their coats on in the winter, insofar as their work permits. Unnecessary prolongation of roll calls has also been avoided. Permitting prisoners to receive food shipments individually has had a favorable effect.

The experiments with the distribution of yeast preparation were also favorable.

The above measures were aided by the fact that selected prisoners were incorporated in a special cooking course in the training kitchen at Dachau. It is intended to conduct a new cooking course in the near future.

Two tables [charts] are enclosed.

1. Comparison of deaths in the second half of 1942 with the first half of 1943 -- this comparison shows that the over-all average of the second half of 1942 was 9.89 percent while the over-all average of the first half of 1943 was only 5.72 percent.

2. Deaths in the month of August 1943 since January 1943 the death rate has fallen steadily, so that in the month of August it was only 2.09 percent.

A graph is also enclosed, illustrating the figures for the Sachsenhausen concentration camp extremely well. Sachsenhausen contains 26,500 people, 194 cases of death or 0.73 percent. Similar graphs could be obtained for all the camps.

Although when bad weather begins, an increase in the death rate must be expected, it is nevertheless certain that it will no longer exceed five or six percent.

In Stutthof also, the death rate for the month of August 1943 fell to 3.45 percent while in the previous month it was still 5.69 percent.

Only in the Lublin concentration camp did the percentage figures rise again to two or three percent. It is to be expected that when the planned hygienic measures are carried out the mortality figures here will also no longer differ from those elsewhere.

Heil Hitler
[Signed] POHL
SS Obergruppenfuehrer

[Stamp]
received 4 Oct 1943
38/133/43g

**************************************

SS Economic and administrative Main Office
Office D/III

Enclosure I

Comparison of death cases in the concentration camps, second half of 1942 and first half of 1943

1942

July; Average number of inmates: 98000; Death Cases: 8329; Percent: 8.5%.
August; Average number of inmates: 115000; Death Cases: 12217; Percentage: 10.62%.
September; Average number of inmates: 110000; Death Cases: 11206; Percentage 10.19%.
October; Average number of inmates: 85800; Death Cases: 8856; Percentage: 10.32%.
November; Average number of inmates: 83500; Death Cases: 8095; Percentage: 9/69%.
December; Average number of inmates: 88000; Death Cases: 8800; Percentage 10%.

1943

January; Average number of inmates: 123000; Death Cases: 9839; Percentage: 8%.
February; Average number of inmates: 143100; Death Cases: 11650; Percentage: 8.14%.
March; Average number of inmates: 154200; Death Cases: 12112; Percentage: 7.85%.
April; Average number of inmates: 171000; Death Cases: 8358; Percentage: 4.71%.
May; Average number of inmates: 203000; Death Cases: 5700; Percentage: 2.8%.
June; Average number of inmates: 199500; Death Cases: 5650; Percentage: 2.83%.

Over-all average 96,770, or 9.89 percent.
Over-all average 165,600, or 5.72 percent.

Field Command Post, 8 October 1943
[Stamp]
Personal Staff of Reich Leader SS
Document administration
No. Secret 64

****************************************

Oranienburg, 9/22/1943.
Field Command Post,8 October 1943
[Stamp]
Personal Staff of Reich Leader SS
Document administration

No. Secret 64

The Reich Leader SS
Journal No. 38/133/43g
RF/Bn

Subject: Deaths in concentration camps.

Reference: Your letter of 30 September 1943Ch./Po/Ha-VS No. 933/43

SECRET

I received your report of 30 September 1943 concerning death in concentration camps and can only more express to you and Your co-workers my thanks and my gratitude for the result achieved. I am convinced that the latest difficulties will also decrease to the extent when sewerage and better sanitary installations are possible.

Heil Hitler!
Your
[Signed] H. H.

**********************************************

Enclosure II

Death cases for the month of August 1943
Personal staff of Reich Leader SS
Records Section

No. Secret 67

[Concentration Camp; Average number of inmates; Deaths; Percent; Percent previous Month; Plus or minus Percent]

Camp: Dachau; Average number of inmates: 17300; Deaths: 40; Percentage: 0.23%; Percentage previous month: 0.32%; Plus or minus percent:

Camp: Sachsenhausen; Average number of inmates: 26500; Deaths: 194;
Percentage: .73%; Percentage previous month: .78%; Plus or minus percent: -0.5%.

Camp: Buchenwald; Average number of inmates: 17600; Deaths: 118;
Percentage: .67%; Percentage previous month: 1.22%; Plus or minus percent: -.55%.

Camp: Mauthausen-Gusen; Average number of inmates: 21100; Deaths: 290;
Percentage: 1.37%; Percentage previous month: 1.61%; Plus or minus percent: -.24%.

Camp: Flossenbuerg; Average number of inmates: 4800; Deaths: 155; Percentage: 3.23%; Percentage previous month: 3.27%; Plus or minus percent: -.04%.

Camp: Neuengamme; Average number of inmates: 9800; Deaths: 150; Percentage: 1.53%; Percentage previous month: 2.14%; Plus or minus percent: -.61%.

Camp: Auschwitz (men); Average number of inmates: 48000; Deaths: 1442; Percentage: 3%; Percentage previous month: 2.96%; Plus or minus percent: +.04%.

Camp: Auschwitz (women); Average number of inmates: 26000; Deaths: 938; Percentage: 3.61%; Percentage previous month: 5.15%; Plus or minus percent: -1.54%.

Camp: Gross- Rosen; Average number of inmates: 5000; Deaths: 76; Percentage: 1.52%; Percentage previous month: 2.69%; Plus or minus percent: -1.17%.

Camp: Natzweiler; Average number of inmates: 2200; Deaths: 41; Percentage: 1.87%; Percentage previous month: 1.63%; Plus or minus percent: +.24%.

Camp: Bergen-Belsen; Average number of inmates: 3300; Deaths: 4; Percentage: .12%; Percentage previous month: .39%; Plus or minus percent: -.27%.

Camp: Stutthof (men); Average number of inmates: 3800; Deaths: 131; Percentage: 3.45%; Percentage previous month: 5.69%; Plus or minus percent: -2.24%.

Camp: Stutthof (women); Average number of inmates: 500; Deaths: 1; Percentage: 0.20%; Percentage previous month: -%; Plus or minus percent: +.20%.

Camp: Lublin (men); Average number of inmates: 11500; Deaths: 882; Percentage: 7.76%; Percentage previous month: 4.62%; Plus or minus percent: +3.05%.

Camp: Lublin (women); Average number of inmates: 3900; Deaths: 172;
Percentage: 4.41%; Percentage previous month: 2.01%; Plus or minus percent: +2.40%.

Camp: Ravensbrueck (men); Average number of inmates: 3100; Deaths: 26; Percentage: .84%; Percentage previous month: .76%; Plus or minus percent: +.08%.

Camp: Ravensbrueck (women); Average number of inmates: 14100; Deaths:
38; Percentage: .27%; Percentage previous month: .24%; Plus or minus percent: +.03%.

Camp: Riga; Average number of inmates: 3000; Deaths: 1; Percentage: .03%; Percentage previous month: .33%; Plus or minus percent: -.30%.

Camp: Herzogenbusch [Hertoegenboch]; Average number of inmates: 2500; Deaths: -; Percentage: -%; Percentage previous month: -%; Plus or minus percent: -%.

Total; Average number of inmates: 224000; Deaths: 4699.

Over-all average for August 1943 - 2.09%
Over-all average for July 1943 - 2.23%
[Decrease] -0.14 Percent

Personal Staff of the Reich Leader SS
Records Section
No. Secret 64
SS Economic and Administrative Main Office
Office D/III

[David Thompson]

Document NO-1558, in Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10. Vol. 5: United States v. Oswald Pohl, et. al. (Case 4: 'Pohl Case'). US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia: 1950. pp. 387-388.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-1558

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 109

CIRCULAR OF GLUECKS, 9 MAY 1944, ORDERING THAT REPORTS ON TRANSFERS AND DEATHS OF PRISONERS DELIVERED BY COLLECTIVE SHIPMENT FROM THE EAST BE DISCONTINUED

SS Economic Administrative Main Office
Chief of Amtsgruppe D, Concentration Camps
D I/File Number: 14c 3/Ot/S.-
Oranienburg, 9 May 1944

[Stamp]
REGISTERED

To: Commanders of the Concentration Camps of Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Flossenbuerg, Neuengamme, Auschwitz I-III, Gross-Rosen, Natzweiler, Stutthof,
Ravensbrueck, Herzogenbusch [Hertogenbosch], transient camp Bergen-Belsen.

Leader of Group D Riga with 1 copy each for the concentration camps Riga, Kauen [Kovno], and Vaivara,

SS Economist East, Krakow, with 1 copy each for the concentration camps Lublin, Warsaw, and Plaszow.

Subject: Persons in Protective Custody from the Occupied Eastern Territories.
Reference: Chief of the Security Police and the SS IV B 2a.
Diary No. 2257/44 (IV D 5 old) dtd 26 April 1944
Enclosures: None

The chief of the Security Police and SD has, by the letter cited in reference, given orders that

1. Persons belonging to eastern nations and delivered by collective shipment from the East into a concentration camp will not be treated according to the directives published for the Reich territory as far as processing is concerned.

2. The usual reports of changes affecting individual prisoners will particularly be discontinued at once.

3. Registration of these prisoners will take place only in the concentration camp itself.

Notification of transfers, deaths, and other changes affecting these prisoners will therefore be discontinued.

All prisoners transferred to concentration camps from the East by collective shipment will be dealt with according to the above decree.

Report on changes affecting Eastern workers inducted by offices of the State police should continue to be prepared in the usual way.

[Signature] GLUECKS
SS Gruppenfuehrer and Major General of the Waffen SS

[dbzdude87]

What do these documents say? What are you saying that they say?

Why are death totals so low (like 100 deaths out of 20000 prisoners)?

[David Thompson]

dbzdude87 -- You asked:

What do these documents say? What are you saying that they say?

Why are death totals so low (like 100 deaths out of 20000 prisoners)?

What the documents say is there to be seen. I chose not to comment on them, because they speak for themselves.

[dbzdude87]

Do they say what I think they say?

[David Thompson]

If you've got a point to make, step right up.

[dbzdude87]

Okay... is that to say that gassings did not happen? (I didn't really want to ask... forum rules get me scared that I will get banned)

[David Thompson]

dbzdude87 -- You aked:

Okay... is that to say that gassings did not happen?

No. The correspondence refers to avoidable deaths of slave laborers who might otherwise turn a profit for the SS-WVHA. Why would anyone produce a report stating that he had reduced the death rate of a group he had been ordered to murder? Note that the report to Himmler is from Oswald Pohl. Then read the thread "Gas Chambers? Ask a man who knows" at viewtopic.php?t=55101 or if you'd enjoy a longer read, try the "Auschwitz testimony of SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Oswald Pohl" at:
viewtopic.php?t=54569

[dbzdude87]

Okay. Sorry, my English is not so good

[David Thompson]

That's all right. This is an international forum.

[dbzdude87]

The correspondence refers to avoidable deaths of slave laborers who might otherwise turn a profit for the SS-WVHA.

Again my English fails me. Please quote what means that in English. Thanks.

[David Thompson]

dbzdude87 -- I said:

The correspondence refers to avoidable deaths of slave laborers who might otherwise turn a profit for the SS-WVHA.

You asked:

Again my English fails me. Please quote what means that in English. Thanks.

The correspondence (der amtliche Bericht; der übereinstimmung) refers to (betressen, über ein Thema sprechen) avoidable deaths (der vermeidlich tod) of slave laborers (zwangsarbeiter) who might otherwise (auf andere Weise) turn a profit (Borteil ziehen aus) for (für) the SS-WVHA (SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt).

[dbzdude87]

Okay I understand. Thanks!

One question more please. Where does it say that what you have just translated in the texts (or documents is a better word i think).

[Sergey Romanov]

Where does it say that what you have just translated in the texts

How about reading the documents and finding that for yourself?