August Hirt: Deadly Collector of the Victims of the Holocaust by Anne S. Reamey S.S.-Hauptsturmführer Prof. Dr. August Hirt was born April 28, 1898 in Mannheim, Germany1 to an old Strasbourg family. Little is known of the life of August Hirt prior to his involvement with the Ahnenerbe leading up to and during World War II, but due to his role in several radical medical experiments and collections, his works during the war have been closely examined. He joined the Institute of Anatomy at the Reichsuniversität (initially the University of Strasbourg, overtaken and turned to the Anatomisches Institut der Reichsuniversität2) early in 1941 where he became the chairman of the anatomy department3. When Hirt became employed at the University4 he was already an established member of the S.S. and the Ahnenerbe Society5 (the Society for the Heritage of the Ancestors).6 August Hirt, like many Nazi doctors, is most closely associated with his role in the medical experimentation on and gassings of groups of Jewish prisoners. What makes him unique was motive: instead of seeing the gassing of prisoners as a quick and effective method of extermination, Hirt wanted to significantly expand the skull and skeleton collection for his institute at the University of Strasbourg.7 He wanted to create a museum of "sub-humans, in which proofs of the degeneracy and the animality of the Jews would be collected." Hirt considered it to be a task of upmost importance and extremely time-sensitive since soon the Jewish population would be completely exterminated, at which point Jewish "skeletons would be as rare and precious as a diplodocus� "." 8 The Report of Death: Catalyst for the Collection of Medical Research Attached to a letter from Ostuf. (Obersturmführer - First Lieutenant) Wolfram Sievers (Reich Secretary of the Ahnenerbe Society) to Stbf. (Sturmbannführer - Major) Dr. Rudolf Brandt,9 was a report written by Hirt in February 1942 describing the minimal amount of Jewish skulls existing at the Strasbourg Reich University (Reichsuniversität Strasbourg), and how to best procure the desired number of additional skulls through the assistance of the field Military Police ("Feldpolizei").10 It should be noted that in the report, the skulls requested for procurement were those of "Jewish Bolshevik Commissars". Historian Heather Pringle points out in her book, The Master Plan: Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust, that "by "commissars," the army actually meant "Jews." Nazi propagandists had skillfully portrayed Soviet political officers and officials as Jews for years, and so deeply engrained was this notion in the minds of many SS and Wehrmacht officers that they simply accepted it as fact."11 In addition to Hirt's personal interest in the collection of skulls he hoped to obtain, it has also been suggested that Hirt himself had considered getting into the skull mail-order business12 as an additional source of income. Himmler's Response to Hirt's Deadly Proposal Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler received Hirt's report with great enthusiasm. He was "prodigiously interested" in the project, considering it to be of "enormous value,"13 and according to Jean-Claude Pressac, he "unceasingly gave his entire support to Professor Hirt's proposal."14 Soon after his receipt of the report, Himmler sent Wolfram Sievers15 of the Ahnenerbe Society to meet with Hirt personally, and agreed to the importance of his research. Sievers then worked with Hirt to determine the best method of transportation of his victims. A letter used as evidence during the war crime trials at Nuremburg, includes an attachment with a report on "securing skulls of Jewish-Bolshevik Commissars for the purpose of scientific research," which initially allowed Dr. August Hirt to begin his gassings of Auschwitz Jews at Natzweiler - Struthof. A reproduction can be found here. The Compounding of Hate: Multi-faceted Anti-Semitism Meets the "Final Solution" So what was it in Hirt's report that caught the eye of Himmler and caused him to be supportive of the proposed "scientific" endeavor? While the Jews were on the top of Hitler's list for extermination, Himmler and Hirt brought together two strands of anti-Semitism: rumors of Jewish conspirators and racism. During the proceedings of the fourth Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, Robert Jay Lifton explained, "On one hand, there is the mystical tradition of anti-Semitism and racism as exemplified by the Protocols of the Elders of Zion - the notorious forgery around the idea of a Jewish world conspiracy involving Jewish Bolsheviks and Jewish capitalists. On the other, there is the "scientific" racism that his study of these skulls directly reflects."16 In the case of Hirt's proposed skull collection enhancement, timing was everything: Only a month prior to Hirt's proposal, a new policy had been secretly adopted at a villa overlooking Großer Wannsee17 that would be known as the "Final Solution." In addition to their decision to exterminate the Jews of Europe, and eventually the world, was the debate of what to do with the Mischlinge ("part-Jews"). "Himmler was keen to take action. He wanted the SS Race and Settlement Office (Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt-SS (RuSHA)) to racially evaluate all children of mixed marriages and their progeny for three or four generations, just as agriculturalists did when attempting to breed superior varieties of plants and animals. Descendants who exhibited Jewish traits could then be at least sterilized, if not murdered. For this, the SS needed a much clearer picture of the Jewish Race." 18 The Beginning of the End for the Prisoners of Auschwitz After receiving permission from Himmler, Hirt began the task of selecting his victims from the prisoners of Auschwitz (although there is some debate as to whether Hirt himself made the selection, or if it was done by SS members Dr. Hans Fleischhacker [Tübingen] and SS-Hauptsturmführer Dr. Bruno Berger19 [Munich], who arrived in Auschwitz the first half of 1943 )20, as indicated by Tübingen Professor, Dr. Hans-Joachim Lang21, with the initial selection totaling 115 people - 79 Jewish men, 30 Jewish women, 2 Poles, and 4 "Asians" (most likely Soviet POWs). Once his selections were made, SS-Hauptsturmführer Dr. Bruno Berger collected personal data and biometrical measurements from the prisoners, completing his task by June 15, 1943.22 Although the Ahnenerbe supported Hirt by instructing all members working in the concentration camps to collect "any particularly interesting and demonstrative"23 anatomical specimens, the only known victims for the Institute's skeleton collections came directly from Auschwitz-Birkenau. Robert J. Lifton explained that "there were apparently difficulties in rounding up Jewish-Bolshevik commissars and possibly in severing heads, so that it was decided to make use of full skeletons rather than merely skulls and to collect specimens in the place where any such task could be accomplished - namely, Auschwitz." 24 While there were killings in such substantial numbers at Auschwitz that an extra hundred here or there would make relatively little difference, the fate of Hirt's victims was not a well-kept secret among the camp doctors. "Dr. L. had seen enough of Auschwitz to suspect the terrible truth ("I told myself immediately,�. 'They are going to a museum' "), though she and others refrained in saying so because they "lacked the courage," felt it would be more kind to remain silent, and could not in any case be certain of their suspicion." 25 Meanwhile, the collection of potential victims wasn't the only problem to be dealt with. In a memo from Sievers to Brandt, Sievers quotes the concerns of Hirt: the preparations of Natzweiler-Struthof were going too slowly. More importantly, the camp's administration demanded that Hirt's Institute pay for the prisoners throughout their stay at the camp. This spurred great debates as to who was to pay for the project, and how payments were to be made. The reproduction of a letter that describes the relationship between Dr. Hirt and the Natzweiler-Struthof camp administration, including the attempt to attach a price to each victim gassed as part of Hirt's "research" as compensation to the camp, can be found here. Death at Natzweiler-Struthof Following the initial selection, the prisoners were held inside of the quarantine office at Auschwitz due to the outbreak of a typhus epidemic26 before being relocated to Natzweiler-Struthof, the only extermination camp on French territory.27 Both prior to and following the second World War, Natzweiler-Struthof (31 miles outside of Strasbourg), perched 2,500 feet up on the top of a mountain in the Vosges Mountains, was used as a ski resort for tourists. It is only during WWII that the now-serene location (ironically one that mimicked the German Schwarzwald across the Rhine River) was used as a concentration camp. Originally the camp, known as "Le Struthof" to the French, was not intended as a death camp for mass exterminations, but rather to house Anti-Fascist resistance-fighters and convicted German criminals,28 often referred to as the "Nacht und Nebel" (Night and Fog) operation because fighters were arrested without warning, and without notification to their families, making them appear to simply disappear into the fog. 29 The camp itself, holding only about 1,500 prisoners at a time30 (one of the smaller camps constructed by the Germans), was run by the "brutality incarnate" Joseph Kramer 31 (condemned to death and executed, 10th Military Region archives). Instead of being located immediately within the camp, the building was located about a mile away off a small side road, making the location almost peaceful.32 Due to the local quarries filled with red granite, the prisoners of Struthof were subjected to manual labor in order to create new monuments for Germany.33 The building eventually used as the gas chamber was originally used as a refrigerator room with cold storage chambers by the Struthof hotel, and converted in April 1943 to a site to test the gas masks of SS recruits34 by filling the building with tear-gas35 to help prepare the recruits for the dangers of chemical warfare. The gas experimentation chamber was modified in August of 1943 to allow for the gassings at the suggestion of Kramer. He considered the similarities of the tear-gas testing with the requirements of a building that was to use the "hydrocyanic salts" Hirt provided to Kramer for the killings. Already lined with white tiles and kept cool by blocks of ice, the SS works doctorate named the site "Bauwerk 10" or building site 10.36 The adaptation of the building was completed between August 3 and 12, 1943.37 The wall of the chamber was perforated below and to the right of the peep-hole. A metal pipe was passed through, with the inside end opening into a small porcelain basin, and the outside wnd consisting of a 1.5 litre fullel equipped with a tap flow and safety control. According to a plan drawn up when the camp was liberated, it seems that a protective housing was installed, hiding the equipment from view� Kramer proceeded as described in his 2nd deposition of the 6 December 1945. In fact, there was no other way to carry out the operation. Water poured into the funnel flowed onto a substance previously placed in the basin, triggering the release of hydrocyanic gas ("Gas Blausäure") .38 As knowledge of the camp spread to the United States, so did the awareness of Hirt's victims, according to The Simon Wiesenthal Center and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Nuremberg IMT (International Military Tribunal) records indicate that an assistant to Dr. Hirt secretly noted the numbers tattooed on the arms of the 86 victims, making their identification possible.39 The Arrival of Hirt's Victims at Natzweiler-Struthof Although there is little information regarding the time gap between June 15, 1943 when Dr. Bruno Berger completed his part of the record-keeping and the time of the arrival of the prisoners from Auschwitz to Natzweiler-Struthof, the records that are available indicated that the 2 month gap took place during the quarantine of prisoners during the typhus outbreak at Auschwitz. Once it was considered that the prisoners could be transported, they were moved to Natzweiler-Struthof in August of 1943. Joseph Kramer, commandant of Natzweiler-Struthof, recalled, "during the month of August 1943, I received from the Supreme S.S. Commandant in Berlin an order to accept about 80 prisoners from Auschwitz. I was to get in touch with Professor Hirt." 40 Once the prisoners did arrive, we have a clear account of the events that followed given at the Military Tribunal in Strasbourg by Joseph Kramer. Kramer was instructed to meet Hirt at the Institute of Anatomy. During their meeting, Hirt provided Kramer with instructions to gas the convoy using crystals Hirt supplied for their "treatment." There is some debate as to the exact contents of the flask given to Kramer by Hirt, but it usually falls within two possible answers: Either the flask provided by Hirt, with a capacity of about 250 ml, contained an inert combination of sodium or potassium cyanide thoroughly mixed with a crystalline acid, such as citric, oxalic or tartic acid, these being two agents that react with one another only in an aqueous medium. Or the flask contained calcium cyanide, which has the peculiarity of decomposing in water with hydrocyanic acid release. It would be possible to determine exactly what substance was used by complicated calculations, based on the volume of the gas chamber (approximately 20m cubed), the quantity used (1/3 or � of 250 ml), and the expected HCN release, as a function of the amount of water added, needed to bring the room's atmosphere rapidly up to a lethal concentration for man.41 During his conversation with Hirt, Kramer was also told he was to divide the bodies into smaller groups to be delivered directly to Hirt following the gassings.42 One evening, about nine o-clock, the eighty prisoners arrived. I led about fifteen women to the gas chamber. I told them they were going to be 'disinfected.' With the help of some of the S.S. guards, I got them completely undressed and pushed them into the gas chamber. When I closed the door they began to scream. I put some of the crystals that Hirt had given me into the funnel above the observation window. I would watch everything that was going on inside through it. The women continued to breathe for half a minute and then fell to the floor. I turned on the ventilation, and when I opened the door they were lying dead on the ground, full of shit. I told some of the male S.S. nurses to put the bodies in a truck and take them to the Institute of Anatomy at 5:30 the next morning.43 Following the initial gassing, the same procedure was repeated with four or five more groups over a period of three nights.44 In total, 86 people would fall victim to Kramer's gassings. It should be noted that the discrepancy in numbers by multiple sources (86 versus 87 bodies) was due to an incident that took place at Natzweiler-Struthof. As the victims were being herded into the gas chamber, one prisoner resisted and was shot by an SS officer. Due to the pistol's bullet wound, the body was not sent to Strasbourg with the others because it was considered "spoiled."45 Extract from interrogation of Josef Kramer by Major Jadin, military investigative judge with the Military Tribunal in Strasbourg on the 26 July 1945: 'As soon as I locked the door, they started to scream..Once the door was locked, I placed a fixed quantity of the salts in a funnel attached below and to the right of the peep-hole.... I illuminated the chamber's interior by means of a switch located near the funnel, and I observed what was happening inside the chamber through the outside peep-hole.... I felt no emotion while accomplishing these tasks, because I had received an order to execute the 80 [actually 87] prisoners in the manner that I have described to you. That is simply how I was brought up.' 46 In addition to Hirt's specially-selected victims, many other prisoners were held and executed at Natzweiler-Struthof from May 1941 to September 1944. A total of over 50,000 people from more than 30 countries were brought to Struthof, of which almost 22,000 were killed.47 Final Transport: Natzweiler-Struthof to the Institute [They] were given a sham physical examination for reassurance, then gassed� the corpses were immediately transported to the anatomy pavilion of the Strasbourg University Hospital. A French inmate, who had to assist the project's director� told how "preserving began immediately," with the arrival of bodies that were "still warm, the eyes� wide open and shining." There were two subsequent shipments of men, from each of whom the left testicle had been removed and sent to Hirt's anatomy lab.48 With large groups of bodies being brought into the doors of the Institute, Professor Hirt's assistants, Otto Bong and Henri Herypierre, began placing the bodies into the vats of synthetic alcohol they had prepared the evening before at 55�.49 During the War Crimes trials at Nuremberg following the war, Herypierre took the stand. He gave testimony on the condition of the bodies as they were brought into the Institute: "They were still warm. Their eyes were wide open and shining. They appeared congested and red, and protruded from the socket. There were traces of blood around the nose and mouth. There was no rigor mortis. It is my opinion that these victims had been poisoned or asphyxiated."50 It was later reported that when Herypierre passed Hirt in a hallway the following day Hirt abruptly warned Herypierre, "If you don't hold your tongue, that's where you'll go too."51 Although at the time Hirt appeared both interested and extremely protective of his developing "collection," Hirt never again visited the Institute to check on the process of performing autopsies and soaking the bodies for preservation purposes. Over a year passed with nothing more being done with the bodies than the occasional adding of alcohol to the storage vats by an assistant. It is unclear whether Hirt simply lost interest, or if the Ahnenerbe's direction for Hirt to focus his research on combat gas was the sole cause, but whatever the reason, the bodies remained abandoned for more than a year. After a year, however, the collection was again brought to the forefront of the minds of the leaders of the Ahnenerbe. With the Allies swiftly approaching, many projects and records were quickly burned or abandoned, and Hirt's vision was never fully realized. Only once the Allies began approaching Strasbourg did Hirt seem to recall the collection. In a letter addressed to Rudolf Brandt from the director of the Ahnenerbe, Brandt included Hirt's concerns regarding the bodies: By reason of the considerable scientific work required, the preparation of the skeletons has not yet been completed.Hirt is wondering what to do with the collection in the event that Strasbourg is endangered. He could macerate them and make them unrecognizable. But in this case a part of the work of the entire project would have been performed in vain, and that would result in a great scientific loss for this unique collection for casts would no longer be possible. The collection, as it now exists, attracts no attention. We could say that these were the remains of cadavers taken from the Institute of Anatomy, where the French had left then, and we would burn them.52 While we do not know what the director's response was to Brandt's letter, soon after Hirt demanded that the laboratory assistants remove the bodies from the Institute. They were then to cut up the bodies (to help prevent identification) and incinerate them in the city's crematory ovens. Due to the speed of Leclerc's men, fifteen bodies were left behind in the bottoms of the alcohol vats.53 A part of Hirt's skull collections said to have been moved to the Mittersill castle in the fall of 1944. Hirt was captured at Strasbourg by French troops, who found "many wholly unprocessed corpses," many "partly processed corpses," and a few that had been "defleshed� late in 1944," and their heads burned to avoid any possibility of identification.54 The bodies of Hirt's victims comprised some of the gruesome evidence left behind. The relatively limited number of Hirt's victims allows us to investigate what it was that caused him to choose that particular group of people, and what happened to their bodies following their deaths. Hirt's selections were based primarily on racial characteristics: he wanted the most prominent examples for his collection that would be used both in anthropological studies, as well as to "demonstrate the superiority of the Nordic race.55 A Gruesome Discovery After the march of Strasbourg began on November 23 at 7:03,56 it wasn't long before the columns of soldiers (the French First and the American Seventh57) began to move across the city and make prisoners of those who had previously been the captors. While some SS officers made a feeble attempt to hold off Leclerc and his officers, they soon realized their attempts were in vain and fled. Some had even hidden civilian clothes in advance to aid themselves in their own escape. Others, including Professor Hirt, had fled as early as several weeks before. Hirt himself had told his assistants "they'll never take me alive," a fate that ultimately would prove to be true, although certainly not in the way Hirt had expected. Hirt was captured by French troops in Strasbourg, but committed suicide before he could be made to stand trial. We had known. The world had vaguely heard. But until now no one of us had looked on this. Even this morning we had not imagined we would look on this. It was as though we had penetrated at last to the center of the black heart, to the very crawling inside of the vicious heart.58 Meyer Levin, war correspondent 86 Remembered David Akouni Bella Alaluf Israel Albert Elvira Amar Emma Amar Palomba Arnades Aron Aron Nety Aruch Martin Ascher Esra Asser Allegra Attas Ernestine Baruch Joachim Basch Joachim Behrendt Gunther Benjamin Allegre Beracha K. Bezsmiertny Samuel Bluosilio Harri Bober Sara Bomberg Sophie Boroschek Nisin Buchar Rebeca Cambeli Sarica Cambeli Elei Cohen Juli Cohen Hugo Cohen Gunter Dannenberg Sabi Dekalo Kurt Driesen Aron Esformes Arom Eskaloni Ester Eskenazi Maurice Frances Abraham Franco Heinz Salo Frischler Benjamin Geger Fajsch Gichman Brandel Grub Hugo Haarzopf Charles Hassan Alfred Hayum Rudolf Herrmann Jacob Herschfeld Albert Isaac Israel Isak Sabetaij Kapon Maria Kempner Levei Khan Elisabeth Klein Jean Kotz Paul Krotoschiner Else Leibholz Kurt Levy Ichay Litchi Michael Marcus Maria Matalon A. Matarasso Lasas Menache Katerina Mosche Regina Nachman Siniora Nachmias Dario Nathan Sarina Nissim Hch. Osepowitz Jeanette Passmann Hermann Pinkus Jacob Polak Israel Rafael Samuel Rafael Siegbert Rosenthal Frank Sachnowitz Marie Sainderichin Albert Saltiel Maurice Saltiel Maurice Saporta Mordochai Saul Gustav Seelig Alice Simon Emil Sondheim Sigurd Steinberg Nina Sustil Menachem Taffel Martha Testa Maria Urstein Walter Wollinski 59 Pictured above (top to bottom): Brandel Grub, Elisabeth Klein, Frank Sachnowitz, Hugo Haarzopf, Jeanette Passmann, Maria Kempner, Maurice Frances Following the War August Hirt committed suicide on June 2, 1945, in Schonenbach, in the Neustadt district.60 Due to his self-inflicted death, he was never brought to trial for his atrocious crimes. Many of his collaborators, however, did stand trial for their crimes at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany. Wolfram Sievers, originally a book dealer before WWII, served as the Executive Secretary of the Ahnenerbe and the director of the Institute for Military Scientific Research during the war after working at the Dachau concentration camp.61 In addition to his role with Hirt's skeleton and skull collection, Sievers also participated in the high altitude and freezing experiments on concentration camp inmates, killing between 280 and 300 prisoners.62 During his trial at Nuremberg, he pled not guilty, but was found guilty on August 20, 1947, and hanged for his crimes on June 2, 1948.63 Rudolf Brandt, originally certified as a lawyer,64 served as Heinrich Himmler's Personal Administrative Officer, as well as acting as administrator to a number of medical experiments including high altitude and freezing experiments and extermination of prisoners with tuberculosis65 (his official title was Ministerial Councilor and Head of the Minister's Office in the Reich Ministry of the Interior ).66 During the war crime trails, Brandt was found guilty and was sentenced to death. He was hanged in Landsberg on June 2, 1948. Heinrich Himmler served as a Nazi German politician and head of the SS (Schutzstaffel). Next to Hitler himself, Himmler was one of the most powerful and influential players of World War II. He was individually responsible for giving the orders and organizing the extermination of millions of people.67 Showing no remorse for his crimes, Himmler stated, "We had the moral right, we had the duty to our people, to destroy this people which wanted to destroy us. Altogether, however, we can say that we have fulfilled this most difficult duty for the love of our people. And our spirit, our soul, our character has not suffered injury from it."68 Himmler, who committed suicide after being captured in 1945, would be referred to as the "architect of the Holocaust"69 following the war. Photos below: overview of the main courtroom at the Palace of Justice, Nuremberg, Germany; the 23 defendants in the trial, Honoring the Victims With the horrors of the Holocaust farther behind us, the victims of August Hirt's skeleton collection have been honored across the world through publications, articles and memorials. On December 11, 2005, a memorial was unveiled at the anatomy institute of Strasburg hospital, and at the Cronenbourg Jewish Cemetery in France. The unveiling was attended by relatives of Hirt's victims from Thessalonica, London, Germany, Israel and France. The plaque reads: "Souvenez-vous d'elles pour que jamais la medecine ne soit devoyée" (Remember them so that medicine never be corrupted again).70 Jean-Claude Faugere, (L) chief of police of Bas-Rhin and Alsace region, Jean Kahn (C), president of France's Central Jewish Consistory, and senator and mayor Fabienne Keller (R) unveil a plaque carrying names of 86 Jews, victims of Nazi professor August Hirt of Reichsuniversität, formerly Strasbourg University. Notes "August Hirt." Wikipedia. 01 October 2008. 14 Oct. 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/august_hirt> Henry, Diana M. "Dr. Hirt." 04 December 2008 http://www.dianamarahenry.com/natzweiler-struthof/dr.hirt.htm> "August Hirt." Jewish Virtual Library. 27 September 2008 www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/hirt.html. Copy and analysis of Prof. Dr. August Hirt's course syllabus: Patrick Wechsler, "La Faculte de Médecine de la "Reichsuniversität Strasburg" (1941-1945) a l'heure nationale-socialiste, Freiburg i.B.2005 The Ahnenerbe Society was an organization formed by H. Himmler, H. Wirth and W. Darre in 1935, and incorporated in to the SS in 1939 (Lang, Hans-Joachim. "It is through names and places that history becomes concrete." Die Namen Der Nummern: Eine Initiative zur Erinnerung an 86 jüdische Opfer eines Verbrechens von NS-Wissenschaftlern. 06 Oct. 2008 www.die-namen-der-nummern.de/html/introduction.html) with the mission of investigating "the spirit, deed, and heritage of the Nordic Indo-Germanic race." The organization included president Heinrich Himmler, and business manager Standartenführer Sievers. (Hilberg, Raul. The Destruction of the European Jews. New York: Holmes & Meier, Incorporated, 1985. 946-47.) Bernadac, Christian. Devil's Doctors: Medical experiments on human subjects in the concentration camps. Barcelona, Spain: Ferni Publishing House, 1978. 106. Friedländer, Henry. The Origins of Nazi Genocide : From Euthanasia to the Final Solution. New York: University of North Carolina P, 1997. 133-35 Bernadac, Christian. Devil's Doctors: Medical experiments on human subjects in the concentration camps. Barcelona, Spain: Ferni Publishing House, 1978. 106. PHOTO: http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Natzweiler/History/GasChamber.htm Sievers to Stubaf. Dr. Brandt, February 9, 1942, enclosing report by Hirt, NO-85 Staff Evidence Analysis, NO-098 (http://www.mazal.org/NO-series/NO-0098-000.htm) Pringle, Heather. The Master Plan : Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust. New York: Hyperion P, 2006. 246 Pringle, Heather. The Master Plan : Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust. New York: Hyperion P, 2006. 246 Bernadac, Christian. Devil's Doctors: Medical experiments on human subjects in the concentration camps. Barcelona, Spain: Ferni Publishing House, 1978. 107. quoted in document NO-085 of the 9 February 1942 (Brandt to Sievers, 27 February 1942, No-090; Himmler directive to the Ahnenherbe, 7 July 1942, No-089. Henry, Diana M. "Dr. Hirt." 04 Dec. 2008 http://www.dianamarahenry.com/natzweiler-struthof/dr.hirt.htm Wolfram Sievers (Hildesheim, July 10, 1905- June 2, 1948) was an early manager (1935) of the Ahnenerbe. Originally a bookseller, he joined the NSDAP in 1929, and later worked at the Dachau concentration camp with August Hirt and became, in 1943, deputy director/conductor of the adviser of the office for realm research. He participated in assembling a collection of skeletons for August Hirt's study at the Reichsuniversität Strasburg, and also participated in high altitude experiments and freezing experiments where concentration camp inmates were kept in ice-cold water until they lost consciousness or died. 280 to 300 prisoners died in the freezing experiments. Sievers was sentenced to death in 20 August of 1947 for crimes against humanity in the Doctors' Trial, and hanged on June 2, 1948. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfram_Sievers) Aharonov, Leah, Yisrael Gutman, and Avital Saf, eds. The Nazi Concentration Camps: Proceedings of the Fourth Yad Vashem International Historical Conference. Trans. Dina Cohen, Ina Friedman, Jeffrey Green, Witold Jedlicki, Joel Lerner, Eve Tavor-Bannet, Batya Rabin and Arnold Schwarz. Jerusalem: Daf-Chen P. 223-24. Pringle, Heather. The Master Plan : Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust. New York: Hyperion P, 2006. 247 Pringle, Heather. The Master Plan : Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust. New York: Hyperion P, 2006. 247 Bruno Berger - originally born in Switzerland, but later became a naturalized German. Berger was described as "a Nordic type with blue eyes and fair hair," an honorable and stable man even if at times "a bit impulsive," and an excellent anatomist with a promising academic career.' He was responsible for Hirt's inclusion in the Ahnenerbe society, Berger served as Hirt's assistant in the Strasbourg project. Berger was a great fan of Himmler, his level of enthusiasm seeming to increase with the outlandishness of Himmler's theories. (Lifton, Robert J. The Nazi Doctors : Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1988. 286.) Lifton's book is available online at this site at http://www.holocaust-history.org/lifton/ "August Hirt." Jewish Virtual Library. 27 Sept. 2008 "Natzweiler-Struthof gas chamber." History of Natzweiler-Struthof Nazi concentration camp in Alsace, France. 2004. 27 Sept. 2008. www.scrapbookpages.com/natzweiler/history/gaschamber.html. "August Hirt." Jewish Virtual Library. 27 September 2008 www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/hirt.html. Bernadac, Christian. Devil's Doctors: Medical experiments on human subjects in the concentration camps. Barcelona, Spain: Ferni Publishing House, 1978. 111. Lifton, Robert J. The Nazi Doctors : Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1988. 285. Lifton, Robert J. The Nazi Doctors : Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1988. 285. "Natzweiler-Struthof gas chamber." History of Natzweiler-Struthof Nazi concentration camp in Alsace, France. 2004. 27 Sept. 2008. www.scrapbookpages.com/natzweiler/history/gaschamber.html. Bernadac, Christian. Devil's Doctors: Medical experiments on human subjects in the concentration camps. Barcelona, Spain: Ferni Publishing House, 1978. 107. "Natzweiler-Struthof gas chamber." History of Natzweiler-Struthof Nazi concentration camp in Alsace, France. 2004. 27 Sept. 2008. www.scrapbookpages.com/natzweiler/history/gaschamber.html. p 3 http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007260 PHOTOS: Diana Mara Henry, www.natzweiler-struthof.org http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007260 Bernadac, Christian. Devil's Doctors: Medical experiments on human subjects in the concentration camps. Barcelona, Spain: Ferni Publishing House, 1978. 108. "Natzweiler-Struthof gas chamber." History of Natzweiler-Struthof Nazi concentration camp in Alsace, France. 2004. 27 Sept. 2008. www.scrapbookpages.com/natzweiler/history/gaschamber.html. Abzug, Robert H. Inside the Vicious Heart : Americans and the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps. New York: Oxford UP, 1985. 3-19. Klarsfeld, Serge, ed. The Struthof Album: Study of the Gassing at Natzweiler-Struthof of 86 Jews Whose Bodies Were to Constitute A Collection of Skeletons. New York, NY: The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1985. Pg. 5. The French army often used benzyl bromide as tear-gas Klarsfeld, Serge, ed. The Struthof Album: Study of the Gassing at Natzweiler-Struthof of 86 Jews Whose Bodies Were to Constitute A Collection of Skeletons. New York, NY: The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1985. Pg. 5. This book is available online at this site at: http://www.holocaust-history.org/klarsfeld/Struthof/T001.shtml Klarsfeld, Serge, ed. The Struthof Album: Study of the Gassing at Natzweiler-Struthof of 86 Jews Whose Bodies Were to Constitute A Collection of Skeletons. New York, NY: The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1985. Pg. 5. Klarsfeld, Serge, ed. The Struthof Album: Study of the Gassing at Natzweiler-Struthof of 86 Jews Whose Bodies Were to Constitute A Collection of Skeletons. New York, NY: The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1985. Pg. 5. "Natzweiler-Struthof gas chamber." History of Natzweiler-Struthof Nazi concentration camp in Alsace, France. 2004. 27 Sept. 2008. www.scrapbookpages.com/natzweiler/history/gaschamber.html. Bernadac, Christian. Devil's Doctors: Medical experiments on human subjects in the concentration camps. Barcelona, Spain: Ferni Publishing House, 1978. 108 PHOTO: http://www.dianamarahenry.com/natzweiler-struthof/Dr.Hirt.htm Comment: Some of the bodies were left whole, others were not. As the prisoners had been brought from Auschwitz to be gassed, the Auschwitz number tattoos are visible in some of the photographs. Klarsfeld, Serge, ed. The Struthof Album: Study of the Gassing at Natzweiler-Struthof of 86 Jews Whose Bodies Were to Constitute A Collection of Skeletons. New York, NY: The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1985. Pg. 7. Based on Professor Wells Les chambers à gaz, Secret d'État ("The Gas Chambers: State Secret", Collection Arguments, Les Editions de Minuit, September 1984) Bernadac, Christian. Devil's Doctors: Medical experiments on human subjects in the concentration camps. Barcelona, Spain: Ferni Publishing House, 1978. 109 Bernadac, Christian. Devil's Doctors: Medical experiments on human subjects in the concentration camps. Barcelona, Spain: Ferni Publishing House, 1978. 108-109 PHOTO: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dapmapmgmp/511058242/ TRANSLATION: The Ministry of Veterans and Victims of War - Gas Chamber - Natzweller-Struthof Concentration Camp - Building Classified as an Historical Monument Jean Lemberger, a Struthof prisoner at the end of August 1943, and one of the 3 Jews still alive there when 87 people arrived from Auschwitz, saw only the group of men. They came to the camp in several convoys and were housed in hut number 10. Lemberger noticed them for the first time on front of the "Wachtstube" (guard station) at the camp's entrance. Dressed in patched "zebra" clothing with a yellow star, and being of very pale complexion, they contrasted with the camp's prisoners, who wore civilian clothing, haphazardly painted yellow in the case of Jews. They received exactly the same food as the other internees. Realizing they did not work, Lemberger wanted to have himself added to their group. His kapo dissuaded him by giving him to understand that his request was sheer folly. Then, bit by bit, the "zebra" group melted away. Until one morning, there were none left. Later on, it was Lemberger's turn to undertake the opposite journey, from Struthof to Auschwitz. (Based on a telephone conversation on 14 March 1985 between the witness and Jean-Claude Pressac, author of The Struthof Album) Klarsfeld, Serge, ed. The Struthof Album: Study of the Gassing at Natzweiler-Struthof of 86 Jews Whose Bodies Were to Constitute A Collection of Skeletons. New York, NY: The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1985. Pg. 6 Documents 107 and 1806/V/2 of the Struthof trial "Victims of Nazi doctor honoured." European Jewish Press. 12 Dec. 2005.27 Sept. 2008. http://www.ejpress.org/article/4582. "Natzweiler-Struthof gas chamber." History of Natzweiler-Struthof Nazi concentration camp in Alsace, France. 2004. 27 Sept. 2008. www.scrapbookpages.com/natzweiler/history/gaschamber.html PHOTO: Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Louis Snyder, pg. 57. Bernadac, Christian. Devil's Doctors: Medical experiments on human subjects in the concentration camps. Barcelona, Spain: Ferni Publishing House, 1978. page 109 DRAWINGS: by survivor Henri Gayot of Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp prisoners building the road to the camp and of the prisoners returning to camp, some carrying the wounded or corpses on their backs. http://www.natzweiler-struthof.org/PhotographsofNatzweilerStruthof.htm Bernadac, Christian. Devil's Doctors: Medical experiments on human subjects in the concentration camps. Barcelona, Spain: Ferni Publishing House, 1978. page 109 Bernadac, Christian. Devil's Doctors: Medical experiments on human subjects in the concentration camps. Barcelona, Spain: Ferni Publishing House, 1978. page 109 Bernadac, Christian. Devil's Doctors: Medical experiments on human subjects in the concentration camps. Barcelona, Spain: Ferni Publishing House, 1978. page 110 Bernadac, Christian. Devil's Doctors: Medical experiments on human subjects in the concentration camps. Barcelona, Spain: Ferni Publishing House, 1978. page 109 "Natzweiler-Struthof gas chamber." History of Natzweiler-Struthof Nazi concentration camp in Alsace, France. 2004. 27 Sept. 2008. www.scrapbookpages.com/natzweiler/history/gaschamber.html "Natzweiler-Struthof gas chamber." History of Natzweiler-Struthof Nazi concentration camp in Alsace, France. 2004. 27 Sept. 2008. www.scrapbookpages.com/natzweiler/history/gaschamber.html Bernadac, Christian. Devil's Doctors: Medical experiments on human subjects in the concentration camps. Barcelona, Spain: Ferni Publishing House, 1978. page 107 Abzug, Robert H. Inside the Vicious Heart : Americans and the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps. New York: Oxford UP, 1985. 3-19. Quote by novelist Meyer Levin, war correspondent; reaction to visiting Ohrdruf, the first camp to be discovered by the American armies, quoted in Inside the Viscious Heart: Americans and the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps, p.19 PHOTO: http://cemetery.innersource.com/media/11580/l/Natzweiler-Struthof-monument.jpg Lang, Hans-Joachim. "It is through names and places that history becomes concrete." Die Namen Der Nummern: Eine Initiative zur Erinnerung an 86 jüdische Opfer eines Verbrechens von NS-Wissenschaftlern. 06 Oct. 2008 http://www.die-namen-der-nummern.de/html/introduction.html "August Hirt." Jewish Virtual Library. 27 September 2008 www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/hirt.html. http://www.hedyepstein.com/history/courtroom/wolframsievers.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfram_Sievers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfram_Sievers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Brandt http://www.hedyepstein.com/history/courtroom/rudolfbrandt.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Brandt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Himmler http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-himmler.htm http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/himmler.html PHOTO (Rudolf Brandt) http://www.hedyepstein.com/history/courtroom/rudolfbrandt.htm PHOTO (Heinrich Himmler)(top) http://solair.eunet.yu/~namesz/Himmler.jpg PHOTO (Heinrich Himmler)(below) http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-himmler.htm "Victims of Nazi doctor honoured." European Jewish Press. 12 Dec. 2005.27 Sept. 2008 http://www.ejpress.org/article/4582 PHOTO (memorial unveiling) http://www.ejpress.org/article/4582 PHOTO (Courtroom Proceedings at)(Left) http://www.hedyepstein.com/history/courtroom/maincourtroom.htm PHOTO (23 Defendants)(Right) http://www.hedyepstein.com/history/courtroom/23defendants.htm
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