Kurt Gerstein’s Eyewitness Report on Mass Gassings

Abstract

Hans Rothfels Kurt Gerstein’s Eyewitness Report on Mass Gassings Editor’s Foreword The source document published here is a German version of the main text of a document originally written largely in French (PS-1553-RF-350) that was submitted to the International Military Tribunal.1 This document was subsequently admitted as evidence for the prosecution in the “Doctors’ Trial” (Exhib. 428). Afterwards, the main factual sections were read in German translation at the first session of the Military Tribunal in Nuremberg on 16 January 1947 and recorded in the minutes.2 Other portions of this document, especially the enclosed hydrogen cyanide invoices as well as the name of the person who recorded the main transcript and that of the addressee of the invoices, mining assessor (former) Kurt Gerstein, also played a significant role in the first German poison gas trial (Degesch Trial) in Frankfurt in January 1949.3 The following is not meant to be a “revelation,” rather, the intention is to make a document that has hitherto only been used for trial purposes available to the public and for historical research by publishing a critical edition with a scholarly commentary. This seems all the more necessary given the fact that, in many respects, Gerstein’s text presents a quite unique eyewitness account of the mass gassings. 1 Cited in Der Prozess gegen die Hauptkriegsverbrecher vor dem Internationalen Militärgerichtshof . Nürnberg 14. November 1945 – 1. Oktober 1946, vol. VI, Nuremberg 1947, pp. 370–71, 400–01, 467. Two invoices (see below) are printed in Der Prozess gegen die Hauptkriegsverbrecher vor dem Internationalen Militärgerichtshof. Nürnberg 14. November 1945 – 1. Oktober 1946, vol. XXVII, Nuremberg 1948, pp. 341–42. – PS 1553 was used by the French prosecution (therefore RF 350). – The editor is in possession of a photocopy of the individual pages. – Plus a handwritten draft of the French text on 10 folio pages. 2 Institut für Zeitgeschichte, MB 15/3, Military Tribunal No. 1, Trial against Karl Brandt et al. (Medical Case), 16 January 1947, pp. 1806–15. See also the excerpt in Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10, vol. I, Nuremberg 1949, pp. 865–70. – Likewise, an excerpt of the original French version, only polished a bit, is reprinted in Léon Poliakov, Bréviaire de la Haine. Le IIIe Reich et les Juifs, Paris 1951, pp. 221–24. 3 See Neue Zeitung, 22 March 1949, p. 5. 64 Hans Rothfels Dealing with these atrocious events is not pleasant. They are not being recounted here in order to plant the seeds of hate or keep them alive, but rather as part of this journal’s self-professed obligation, as stated in its first issue, “that it will not skirt around controversial issues, be it international or national, and leave room for legends to take hold.” The best place to start living up to this duty is naturally on our own doorstep. Despite the degree to which the rationalization of inhumane and subhuman acts was a specific feature of the National Socialist regime, and the degree to which the systematization of mass extermination as well as the presumptuous decision about what makes someone “worthy of living” was a particularity of this regime, we cannot ignore the merciless shadow that this has cast over our era and its latent potential as a whole. Time and time again, we have seen just how thin the veil of civilization over the dark powers below has become in other places as well. We have seen what happens if these powers are released when the bonds holding them unravel. If we were to try to forget or trivialize these experiences, which we witnessed most emphatically in the Nazi period, we would not only be exhibiting apathy and unscrupulousness towards the victims of this very period, but also this would signify the lapse of our vigilance and conscience once and for all. From this perspective, the Gerstein report is part of “con­ temporary history” in the truest sense of the word. * * * A number of preliminary technical questions had to be taken into consideration in preparing this edition. In terms of its scope...