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| 1st and last page of the report (B&W scan) |
On 29 December 1942, the Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler reported to Adolf Hitler that "Jews executed: 363,211" between August to November 1942 in the area of the Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) Russia-South, Ukraine, and North-East. The report is one of the most explicit known individual high-level documents on the extent and intensity of the extermination of the European Jews (see also Nazi Document on Mass Extermination of Jews in Auschwitz-Birkenau: The Franke-Gricksch Report).
We publish here for the first time colored photographs of the original, a copy for the files and the report of the HSSPF providing the data to Himmer's staff (see below).
Historical Context
On 26 December 1942, the Higher SS and Police Leader Russia-South, Ukraine, and North-East, Hans-Adolf Prützman, issued a statistical summary report on the "success" figures of the "bandit fighting" in his territory between August to November 1942 (Document 1). Under the section "bandit helpers and bandit suspects", it lists that "363,211 Jews" had been "executed" in this period. On 27 December 1942, he added a detailed report on the "situation of bandits in the area of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine and the area of Bialystok". The statistical summary was enclosed to this report, which did not elaborate on the actions against Jews.
In the afternoon of 29 December 1942, Prützmann visited Himmler at his headquarters "Hochwald" in East-Prussia to discuss the "situation":
Tuesday, 29 December 1942(Witte et al., Der Dienstkalender Heinrich Himmlers 1941/42, p. 657)
Hochwald
1:30 pm SS-Obergruppenführer Prützmann
SS-Sturmbannführer v. Thermann
Situation
Lunch
3 pm Discussion with SS-Obergruppenführer Prützmann, SS-Standartenführer Rode, SS-Sturmbannführer v. Thermann, SS-Hauptsturmführer Grothmann
5 pm SS-Standartenführer Rode
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| Figure 1 |
On the same day, on 29 December 1942, Himmler's staff copied the figures provided by Prützmann into "report no. 51" to the Führer on "bandit fighting". Document 2 is a carbon of a copy of the report. It misspelled "Bialystok" as "Byalistok", which was corrected with a pen. According to the handwritten registration line by Himmler's secretary Werner Grothmann, it was the 7th copy of the report and classified as "Geheime Kommandosache" - the highest level of secrecy in the military.
Document 3 is the original report personally signed by Himmler. It was typed on the so-called Führer typewriter with especially big letters so that he could read it also without his glasses. The report was shown to Hitler, as follows from the handwritten remark "submitted 31.12.42" by his adjutant, Hans Pfeiffer. He returned the document to Grothmann, who signed with his initials before it was put to the files.
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| Figure 2 |
Prützmann's area of responsibility in late 1942 is shown in Figure 3: the district of Bialystok (blue), the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (yellow), and the Army Group B Operation and Rear area (red); in total about 700,000 m². The location of killing sites with more than 1,000 victims is also indicated on the image. Most of the death toll occurred in a comparable narrpw, 150 km wide and 600 km long corridor between Bialystok in East Poland and Kamianets-Podilskyi in the Ukraine.
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| Figure 3: Google Earth image with the area of the Distrikt Bialystok (blue), the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (yellow), the Army Group B Operation and Rear Area (red) and the North Caucasus (green), and individual killing actions greater than 1000 victims, which took place in the period mid-July to mid-November 1942. |
Table 1: Holocaust deaths in the period mid-July to mid-November 1942 in the relevant area (data extracted from Kruglov et al., Kholokost v Ukraine, vol. 1; Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde; Arad, The Operation Reinhard Death Camps).
| Region | Deaths |
|---|---|
| Volyn | 87,066 |
| Zhytomyr | 704 |
| Luhansk | 1,800 |
| Rivne | 55,102 |
| Khmelnytskyi | 31,965 |
| Vinnytsia | 10,060 |
| Brest | 86,235 |
| Bialystok | 26,630 |
| Voronezh | 1,000 |
The table summarises for each region the figures for the individual killing actions mentioned in the literature. The numbers have been calculated for mid-July to mid-November 1942 for the following reasons:
The report was compiled of monthly summaries from the 1st day of the following month, as can be inferred from header date 1 September to 1 December 1942 and the monthly break-downs for August to November 1942. However, a report issued on the 1st of a month was unlikely to have included the numbers from the previous days. Therefore, the figures did probably not cover the full month, but only part of the month plus part of the previous month. The Holocaust historian Alexander Kruglov also arrived to this conclusion and wrote in a chronology of the Holocaust in the Ukraine on the report to Hitler that "given the specifics of German reporting, these Jews were executed from mid-July to mid-November 1942". The explanation is confirmed comparing the monthly totals computed from the individuals killing actions for the period August to November and for the period mid-July to mid-November. The latter follows the trend of the monthly totals reported by Prützmann (Figure 4).
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| Figure 4: Comparison of the totals counting from the 1st or the mid of a month. |
The total for the four months period is about 302,000 murdered Jews in the area of the HSSPF Bialystok, Ukraine and Russia-South. Thus about 83% of the killings reported by Prützmann can be readily explained with other sources. The largest part of the victims was shot. Only the victims from the Biaylstok district were largely gassed after deportation to Treblinka extermination camp.
On 6 August 1942, Gerret Korsemann, who had been assigned to Prützmann, was appointed as HSSPF of Kaukasien. In August to October 1942, Einsatzgruppe D killed about 24,000 Jews in the North Caucasus (Angrick, Besatzungspolitik und Massenmord. Die Einsatzgruppe D). The killings might have been also reported to Prützmann's staff and were possibly erroneously included in the data as well (see Figure 3 for the area of the HSSPF Kaukasien). In this case, about 90% of Prützmann's figure could be assigned to known killing actions.
The Documents
1.) Report by Hans-Adolf Prützmann of 26 December 1942
DOCUMENT
TRANSCRIPTION
Der Höhere SS- und Polizeiführer Russland-Süd, Ukraine u. Nordost
den 26.12.1942
Meldung über Bandenbekämpfungserfolge vom 1.9. bis 1.12.1942
August September Oktober November insgesamt
1. Banditen:
a) festgestellte Tote nach 227 381 427 392 1337
Gefechten (x)
b) Gefangene sofort exekutiert 125 282 87 243 737
c) Gefangene nach längerer
eingehender Vernehmung 2100 1400 1596 2731 7828
exekutiert
2. Bandenhelfer und Bandenverdächtige:
a) festgenommen 1343 3078 8337 3795 16553
b) exekutiert 1198 3020 6333 3706 14257
c) Juden exekutiert 31246 165282 95735 70948 363211
[...]
TRANSLATION
The Higher SS and Police Leader Russia-South, Ukraine, and North-East(BArch NS 19/2566, p. 78)
26.12.1942
Message about successes in bandit fighting from 1.9. to 1.12.1942
August September October November total
1. Bandits:
a) dead after battle (x) 227 381 427 392 1337
b) prisoners executed
immediately 125 282 87 243 737
c) prisoners executed after
long in-depth interrogation 2100 1400 1596 2731 7828
2. Bandit helpers and bandit suspects:
a) arrested 1343 3078 8337 3795 16553
b) executed 1198 3020 6333 3706 14257
c) Jews executed 31246 165282 95735 70948 363211
[...]
2.) 7th copy of the report of Heinrich Himmler to Adolf Hitler of 29 December 1942
DOCUMENT
TRANSCRIPTION
Der Reichsführer-SS Feld-Kommandostelle
[67/42 g.K. 7 Ausftg. den 29. Dezember 1942
[4]
Betr.: Meldungen an den Führer über Bandenbekämpfung.
Meldung Nr. 51
Russland-Süd, Ukraine, Byalistok [handschriftlich korrigiert zu Bialystok]
Bandenbekämpfungserfolgt vom 1.9. bis 1.12.1942
1.) Banditen:
a) festgestellte Tote nach Gefechten (x)
August: September: Oktober: November: insgesamt:
227 381 427 392 1337
b) Gefangene sofort exekutiert
125 282 87 243 737
c) Gefangene nach längerer eingehender Vernehmung exekutiert
2100 1400 1596 2731 7828
2.) Bandenhelfer und Bandenverdächtige:
a) festgenommen
1343 3078 8337 3795 16553
b) exekutiert
1198 3020 6333 3706 14257
c) Juden exekutiert
31246 165282 95735 70948 363211
3.) Überläufer a.G. deutscher Propaganda:
21 14 42 63 140
(x) Da der Russe seine Gefallenen verschleppt bzw.sofort verscharrt, sie die Verlustzahlen auch nach Gefangenenaussagen erheblich höher zu bewerten.
-2-
[...]
gez.: H. Himmler
TRANSLATION
The Reichsführer-SS field command post(BArch NS 19/2566, p. 87-90)
67/42 g.K. 7th copy 29 December 1942
[4]
Re: Messages to the Führer about bandit fighting.
Message No. 51
Russia-South, Ukraine, Byalistok [handwritten correction to Bialystok]
Bandit fighting from 1.9. until 1.12.1942
1.) Bandits:
a) dead after battle (x)
August: September: October: November: total:
227 381 427 392 1337
b) Prisoners executed immediately
125 282 87 243 737
c) Prisoners executed after long in-depth interrogation
2100 1400 1596 2731 7828
2.) Bandit helpers and bandit suspects:
a) arrested
1343 3078 8337 3795 16553
b) executed
1198 3020 6333 3706 14257
c) Jews executed
31246 165282 95735 70948 363211
3.) defectors due to German propaganda:
21 14 42 63 140
(x) Since the Russian carries off his fallen [men] or immediately buries them, the loss figures should be considerably higher, according to prisoner statements.
-2-
[...]
signed: H. Himmler
3.) Report of Heinrich Himmler to Adolf Hitler of 29 December 1942
DOCUMENT
TRANSCRIPTION
vorgelegt 31.12.42 [Paraphe Pfeiffer]
Der Reichsführer-SS Feld-Kommandostelle
den 29. Dezember 1942
[Paraphe Grothmann]
Betr.: Meldungen an den Führer über Bandenbekämpfung.
Meldung Nr. 51
Russland-Süd, Ukraine, Bialystok
Bandenbekämpfungserfolgt vom 1.9. bis 1.12.1942
1.) Banditen:
a) festgestellte Tote nach Gefechten (x)
August: September: Oktober: November: insgesamt:
227 381 427 392 1337
b) Gefangene sofort exekutiert
125 282 87 243 737
c) Gefangene nach längerer eingehender Vernehmung exekutiert
2100 1400 1596 2731 7828
2.) Bandenhelfer und Bandenverdächtige:
a) festgenommen
1343 3078 8337 3795 16553
b) exekutiert
1198 3020 6333 3706 14257
c) Juden exekutiert
31246 165282 95735 70948 363211
3.) Überläufer a.G. deutscher Propaganda:
21 14 42 63 140
(x) Da der Russe seine Gefallenen verschleppt bzw.sofort verscharrt, sie die Verlustzahlen auch nach Gefangenenaussagen erheblich höher zu bewerten.
-2-
[...]
[Unterschrift Himmler]
TRANSLATION
submitted 31.12.42 [Initials Pfeiffer]
The Reichsführer-SS field command post
29 December 1942
[initials Grothmann]
Re: Messages to the Führer about bandit fighting.
Message No. 51
Russia-South, Ukraine, Bialystok
Bandit fighting from 1.9. until 1.12.1942
1.) Bandits:
a) dead after battle (x)
August: September: October: November: total:
227 381 427 392 1337
b) Prisoners executed immediately
125 282 87 243 737
c) Prisoners executed after long in-depth interrogation
2100 1400 1596 2731 7828
2.) Bandit helpers and bandit suspects:
a) arrested
1343 3078 8337 3795 16553
b) executed
1198 3020 6333 3706 14257
c) Jews executed
31246 165282 95735 70948 363211
3.) defectors due to German propaganda:
21 14 42 63 140
(x) Since the Russian carries off his fallen [men] or immediately buries them, the loss figures should be considerably higher, according to prisoner statements.
-2-
[...]
[signature Himmler]
(BArch NS 19/2566, p. 83-86)