Les exécuteurs de l’Aktion Reinhardt : les SS-Sonderkommandos de Belzec, Sobibor et Treblinka

Abstract

Nazi genocidal policy was essentially carried out in the context of the Final Solution by special groups called SS-Sonderkommandos. These groups were formed by “ordinary men” from modest backgrounds that gradually became involved in the euthanasia program, and later with the mass extermination of Jews via actions in Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka. Judiciary sources from Zentrale Stelle in Ludwigsburg demonstrate that although a number of SS-Sonderkommandos originally did not choose to take part in the genocidal policy, they ultimately did not refuse to carry out their murderous task, while performing atrocities. On the other hand, the path that brought them from euthanasia centers to mass extermination camps stresses the existence of a central genocidal policy in Nazi Germany, despite the fragmentary state of historical sources on the subject.