OPERATION REINHARD

OPERATION REINHARD was the SS organization which implemented the systematic destruction of 2,284,000 Jews in Poland's General Government and was an integral part of the Final Solution. Its headquarters was established in Lublin and the operation began in March 1942 when Belzec started to operate. There were two other OPERATION REINHARD death camps, Sobibor and Treblinka, but all three were also used to kill Jews from other parts of Europe. Chełmno, Majdenek, and Auschwitz-Birkenau were extermination camps too, but were not part of the operation.

The organization, led by SS Brigadeführer (brigadier) Odilo Globocnik and SS Hauptsturmführer (captain) Hermann Hofle, was only given its name after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in May 1942 and was so-called in his honour. In his capacity as its commander Globocnik was directly subordinate to Himmler. His remit included:1. The planning and co-ordination of deportations from the various districts in the General Government to the death camps;2. The construction of the death camps and the murder of all those who arrived at them;3. Collecting all the victims' clothing and valuables.

Globocnik's staff totalled 450, including a number of SS members who had been involved in the euthanasia programme. These proved to be the most important members of the team as only they had the knowledge and experience in murdering large numbers of people, often by gas. The method evolved was to pump carbon monoxide gas into chambers holding the victims (zyklon B gas was not used). The bodies were then buried by the Sonderkommandos. When burial proved unsatisfactory crematoriums were constructed and the bodies burnt.

Besides the three death camps the operation included the SS training camp at Trawniki and the SS clothing workshops at Lublin. Trawniki provided training for the guards running the camps and in the 2½ years of its existence between 2,000 and 3,000 of them were given guidance in how to round up Jews, organize their transportation to the death camps, and then to kill them. Most of the guards were Volksdeutsche, Red Army prisoners-of-war who volunteered for the task. Many were Ukrainian. The clothing workshops disinfected, repaired and sorted the clothing of those killed for use in Germany. Personal belongings such as watches and trinkets were distributed or sold to SS personnel, but many valuables—including gold bars and currency—worth millions of Reichsmarks were also collected. The money raised from these acquisitions was used by the Department for Volksdeutsche, an SS organization which aided Volksdeutsche living in German-occupied European countries, or was acquired by the Reichsbank or the ministry of economics.

OPERATION REINHARD was terminated in December 1943, by which time only a handful of Jews, working in Luftwaffe clothing factories, remained in the General government.

Bibliography

Arad, Y. , Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps (Indianapolis, 1987).