The Actual Jewish Death Toll

For more adversarial interactions
f
fireofice
Posts: 306
Joined: Sun Sep 29, 2024 6:31 am

The Actual Jewish Death Toll

Post by fireofice »

Since we revisionists have rejected the 6 million, it would probably be good to be clear on how many we think actually did die. Here is Jurgen Graf's estimate from his book Giant With a Feet of Clay:
Hilberg’s figure of approximately 150,000 deaths of Jews in German concentration, labor and transit camps – to be clearly distinguished from ‘extermination camps’ – may be a little bit too high, but is at least in the correct range. Jews who died in Auschwitz and Majdanek of sickness, exhaustion and so on, should also be included in this number. Of the maximum 180,000 deaths incurred at these two camps, some 60% were probably Jewish. Under no circumstances, therefore, could considerably more than about 350,000 Jews have met their death in German concentration camps. The mass shootings in the Soviet Union, the misery in the ghettos, and the evacuations of the camps in the last months of the war probably cost the lives of several hundred thousand Jews. In addition, there were the Jews deported by the Germans to the occupied Soviet territories, whose losses, in view of the extremely harsh conditions of war, probably also amounted to several hundred thousand. Under these circumstances, the total number of Jewish victims of Nazi persecution is probably between one and one and a half million.
I think this number he gave of 1-1.5 million is about right. I've seen other estimates, like 271k, based on the Red Cross, which I don't believe are correct at all. The Red Cross number is from the International Tracing Service (ITS). The problem is that this number is not complete by any means and doesn't purport to be. Deaths from the Reinhard camps and Einsatzgruppen are not included. The number the ITS gives for Auschwitz is also way below what Mattogno found in the documentation. More can be read here:

https://holocaustencyclopedia.com/legal ... olsen/885/

https://holocaustcontroversies.blogspot ... crossstats

This is one of those "denier memes" that should be avoided if you don't want to look stupid by someone from the other side who knows what they're talking about.
User avatar
Stubble
Posts: 3159
Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2024 10:43 am
Location: 5th Circle of Hell

Re: The Actual Jewish Death Toll

Post by Stubble »

Around 2,300,000 'missing' and 602,511 missing presumed dead under the stewardship of 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔗𝔥𝔦𝔯𝔡 ℜ𝔢𝔦𝔠𝔥

https://holocaustencyclopedia.com/conce ... ewish/489/

Natural attrition from the conditions based on other cohorts indicates roughly one and a quarter million were expected to die during the war.

A Video From The Alt Hype;
If I were to guess why no t4 personnel were chosen to perform gassing that had experience with gassing, it would be because THERE WERE NONE.
User avatar
Nazgul
Posts: 799
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2024 6:41 am
Location: райо́н Я́сенево
Contact:

Re: The Actual Jewish Death Toll

Post by Nazgul »

Stubble wrote: Tue Feb 24, 2026 5:44 am Around 2,300,000 'missing' and 602,511 missing presumed dead under the stewardship of 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔗𝔥𝔦𝔯𝔡 ℜ𝔢𝔦𝔠𝔥

Natural attrition from the conditions based on other cohorts indicates roughly one and a quarter million were expected to die during the war.
While these figures focus on those 'missing,' it is crucial to recognize that genocide, as defined by the UN Genocide Convention (1948), does not only mean immediate murder. It also explicitly includes:
  • Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about a group's physical destruction, such as the systematic deprivation of food, clean water, and medical care.
  • Measures intended to prevent births, such as the forced segregation of sexes and the separation of families.
What is often categorised as 'natural' attrition was, in the context of the Shoah, a manufactured catastrophe. By the end of the war, the Nazi regime prioritized all remaining food and infrastructure for the Heer (military), leaving those in the camps to face total collapse. The collapse was not merely an accident of war; it was a policy choice. Late-war decrees, such as the Nero Decree and the WVHA ration cuts, formalised a hierarchy where the Heer consumed all remaining resources, effectively using starvation and infrastructure collapse as a passive method of genocide.

Survivors like Peter Lantos document this in memoirs like Parallel Lines, describing how his father died of starvation and heart failure just weeks before liberation because the camps were deprived of even the most basic necessities while the military was prioritized. This 'attrition'—whether from typhus, starvation, or exhaustion—was a tool of the Shoah, ensuring the destruction of many Jewish people's past, present, and biological future. The total breakdown of infrastructure at war's end made this inevitable, especially in overcrowded camps like Bergen-Belsen.
While it is generally accepted by major historical bodies that approximately 6 million Jews were killed during the Shoah (based on pre-war versus post-war demographic data suggesting a fall from 16.5 million in 1939 to 11 million by 1945), I do not agree with this figure.

My reasons for disagreeing with the 5–6 million figure are as follows:
Much of the standard narrative relies on a pre-war Jewish population figure of roughly 16.5 million. However, if one considers that these figures may have been significantly inflated prior to the World Wars—by as much as 7 million—the 'missing' figures must be viewed differently. (I have discussed this inflated data elsewhere.)
Using linear back-extrapolation from post-war population data suggests a different starting point, which in turn suggests that the total number of deaths resulting from the Shoah is closer to 1.5 million. This perspective shifts the focus from purely mass execution to the catastrophe of total infrastructure collapse, where the Heer was prioritized for resources, and the attrition caused by the prevention of births and manufactured deprivation achieved the same genocidal end.

Note: I am using the term Shoah specifically to refer to the Jewish experience, rather than "the Holocaust," which I use to include all people who died, not just one specific group.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Research shows:

1. The "Hunger Plan" Logic (Backe-Plan)

Herbert Backe, the Reich Minister for Food, developed the Hunger Plan. Its core principle was that the German military and civilian population must be fed at all costs, even if it meant the "death of 30 million people" in occupied territories.

The Decree: As the war turned against Germany in 1944–45, this logic was applied to the camps. The SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt (WVHA), which managed the camps, issued orders that rations for "non-working" prisoners (the sick, the elderly, and children) were to be cut to the absolute minimum to ensure food for the military and "productive" labourers.

2. The Transport Hierarchy (1944–1945)
In the final months, the German railway system (Deutsche Reichsbahn) was failing.
Priority Orders: Official decrees stated that military transports (Wehrmachtstransporte) had absolute priority over "evacuation" trains (the cattle cars moving prisoners away from the front).
The Result: Prisoner trains were often left on sidings for days or weeks without food or water because the tracks were reserved for moving the Heer. This created the "natural" attrition of thousands dying of dehydration and suffocation before even reaching a destination like Bergen-Belsen.

3. The "Scorched Earth" Decree (Nero Decree)
In March 1945, Hitler issued the Nero Decree (Befehl betreffend Zerstörungsmaßnahmen im Reichsgebiet).
The Command: It ordered the destruction of all German infrastructure—transport, communication, and supply stores—to prevent them from falling into Allied hands.
The Impact: This effectively severed the last supply lines to the concentration camps. While the Heer scavenged what was left, the camp populations were left with zero incoming resources, leading directly to the "hell on earth" infrastructure collapse described by Peter Lantos.

4. Belsen’s Specific Collapse
In the case of Bergen-Belsen, the camp's commandant, Josef Kramer, actually wrote to his superiors in early 1945 complaining that he had no food to give the thousands of new arrivals from the death marches.
The Response: His requests were ignored because the food was being diverted to the collapsing Eastern Front. This confirms a point: the death of Lantos's father and thousands of others was the inevitable result of the military being prioritized over the lives of those in the camps.

By April 1945, the situation in Bergen-Belsen was so catastrophic that it became a massive liability for the retreating German forces.
Kramer’s "choice" was driven by two stark realities:

The Typhus Epidemic: The "natural attrition" mentioned had manifested as a massive typhus outbreak. The Germans were terrified the disease would spread to their own retreating troops. Turning the camp over was, in part, a desperate biological quarantine measure.

A Rare Truce: In an unusual move, a local ceasefire was negotiated specifically for the area around the camp. The Heer actually helped facilitate the handover to the British 11th Armoured Division because they didn't want thousands of starving, infected people wandering into the path of their retreating armies.

As Peter Lantos highlights, by the time Kramer handed over the keys, the "infrastructure" wasn't just broken—it was non-existent. There was no food, no water, and no medical care left to give, as every resource had been vacuumed up by the military effort

The fact that Kramer remained at the camp to be arrested, rather than fleeing like many other SS officers, underscores how the "stewardship" of the Third Reich had reached its absolute dead end.

Sources:
[1] www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
[2] en.wikipedia.org
[3] www.iwm.org.uk
[4] www.bbc.co.uk
[5] www.ushmm.org
SPQR Vita hominis iter est, non destinatio..Hüntinger
User avatar
Stubble
Posts: 3159
Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2024 10:43 am
Location: 5th Circle of Hell

Re: The Actual Jewish Death Toll

Post by Stubble »

The UN definition is overly broad and applies to 'Ethnic Cleansing'. Note that Ethnic Cleansing need not include Genocide.

The second World War had no shortage of misery to go around. I won't argue that jews took a share of it. They weren't alone in it and it wasn't because the German Authorities were trying to exterminate the jewish people.

There is a lot of bait in your last post, but, I'm not going to take it. I will say that our perspectives on this matter differ radically and that I feel some of the above mentioned items in your post lack the proper context.
If I were to guess why no t4 personnel were chosen to perform gassing that had experience with gassing, it would be because THERE WERE NONE.
User avatar
Nazgul
Posts: 799
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2024 6:41 am
Location: райо́н Я́сенево
Contact:

Re: The Actual Jewish Death Toll

Post by Nazgul »

Stubble wrote: Tue Feb 24, 2026 6:57 am There is a lot of bait in your last post, but, I'm not going to take it. I will say that our perspectives on this matter differ radically and that I feel some of the above mentioned items in your post lack the proper context.
To understand the 1.5 million figure, one has to look at the baseline. The standard narrative relies on a pre-war 'spike' of 16.5 million that lacks a linear growth foundation. By back-extrapolating from post-war data, it becomes clear that millions of these 'victims' were likely paper inflations from the 1930s. When you remove the statistical 'ghosts' from the pre-war census, the 'missing' delta aligns much more closely with the 1.5 million deaths caused by the functional collapse and manufactured attrition I’ve described.
SPQR Vita hominis iter est, non destinatio..Hüntinger
User avatar
Stubble
Posts: 3159
Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2024 10:43 am
Location: 5th Circle of Hell

Re: The Actual Jewish Death Toll

Post by Stubble »

You are ignoring evidence that 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔗𝔥𝔦𝔯𝔡 ℜ𝔢𝔦𝔠𝔥 made extreme efforts to reduce attrition. This involves everything from trying to form Auschwitz into a medical hub to the extreme measures (tantamount to literally billions of dollars in current monetary value) for sanitation to control and eliminate epidemics.

You are just moving the slaughter from the gas chamber to the factory line.

Sure, you have the eggs out of the basket now and so don't have to explain the lack of mass graves at the mass murder sites, but, you are still peddling the annihilation of a people, just by different means.

What happened in the shoah, wasn't intentional or planned. It was a result of losing a war.
If I were to guess why no t4 personnel were chosen to perform gassing that had experience with gassing, it would be because THERE WERE NONE.
User avatar
Nazgul
Posts: 799
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2024 6:41 am
Location: райо́н Я́сенево
Contact:

Re: The Actual Jewish Death Toll

Post by Nazgul »

Stubble wrote: Tue Feb 24, 2026 7:26 am Sure, you have the eggs out of the basket now and so don't have to explain the lack of mass graves at the mass murder sites, but, you are still peddling the annihilation of a people, just by different means.
You say I’m "peddling annihilation," but I am actually identifying the legal and logistical reality of how it occurred.
The UN Genocide Convention (1948) defines genocide not just as "mass murder," but as the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction. When I document the lack of food, clean water, and medicine—prioritized for the Heer—and the total infrastructure collapse, I am describing a documented method of genocide often called "Genocide by Attrition". Columbia University
  • Forensic Integrity: Identifying that death was caused by a manufactured catastrophe of disease, starvation, and industrial neglect (like the T1 Quarry) isn't "peddling" a different narrative; it's providing the forensic explanation for the lack of mass graves you've mentioned.
  • The "Means" of Destruction: Whether a person perishes from a bullet or from a 20% starvation ration and typhus in a camp where the military has seized all resources, the end result for the victim is the same. I am not denying the "annihilation"; I am identifying the industrial and administrative system that made it inevitable.
  • Statistical Reality: My point regarding "paper people" is a demographic audit. If the pre-war baseline was inflated, the "missing" are a statistical artifact. Identifying the true number of victims as 1.5 million doesn't make their deaths any less of a "catastrophe" (Shoah)—it just makes the history more accurate.
I’m not "emptying the basket"; I’m showing you that the basket was filled with the victims of a functionalist genocide—one driven by the "yellow death" of neglect and the brutal prioritization of the German war machine.
SPQR Vita hominis iter est, non destinatio..Hüntinger
User avatar
Stubble
Posts: 3159
Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2024 10:43 am
Location: 5th Circle of Hell

Re: The Actual Jewish Death Toll

Post by Stubble »

It's an interesting choose your own, I'll give you that. You still didn't address the fact that the German Authorities made strides to reduce mortality in the camps.
If I were to guess why no t4 personnel were chosen to perform gassing that had experience with gassing, it would be because THERE WERE NONE.
User avatar
Nazgul
Posts: 799
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2024 6:41 am
Location: райо́н Я́сенево
Contact:

Re: The Actual Jewish Death Toll

Post by Nazgul »

Stubble wrote: Tue Feb 24, 2026 2:27 pm It's an interesting choose your own, I'll give you that. You still didn't address the fact that the German Authorities made strides to reduce mortality in the camps.
Of course they would if people were needed for the war effort. The people in some of the camps were businessmen who exploited people in their care especially HASAG. I have written posts on their exploitation.
SPQR Vita hominis iter est, non destinatio..Hüntinger
User avatar
Stubble
Posts: 3159
Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2024 10:43 am
Location: 5th Circle of Hell

Re: The Actual Jewish Death Toll

Post by Stubble »

https://www.codohforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=22346#p22346

For posterity, this is the description Herr Wraith refers to.

Herr Wraith, you have a background with explosives, do you not? What would be the result of handling TNT in the way described? By the bucket.

When I read it it was incomprehensible to me that you wrote it.

You have simply moved the 'nazi murder machine' from the gas chamber to the assembly line. It is novel, and it deals with the lack of mass graves at the 'murder sites'. You are still talking about 'a functional genocide' and outlining handling practices that wouldn't have slowly killed a group of persons over some months but would have violently killed everyone within a mile of an armament factory.

Uncovered vats? Open flames? No ventilation?

That's not 'slow death' that's a recipe for industrial scale catastrophe.

You can't even be this cavalier with fertilizer, what's less in the production of TNT...

Last edited by Stubble on Tue Feb 24, 2026 8:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
If I were to guess why no t4 personnel were chosen to perform gassing that had experience with gassing, it would be because THERE WERE NONE.
User avatar
Nazgul
Posts: 799
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2024 6:41 am
Location: райо́н Я́сенево
Contact:

Re: The Actual Jewish Death Toll

Post by Nazgul »

Stubble wrote: Tue Feb 24, 2026 3:15 pm Herr Wraith, you have a background with explosives, do you not? What would be the result of handling TNT in the way described? By the bucket.
Yes I do.
TNT 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene

Trinitrotoluene (TNT) is a potent chemical compound that presents significant health risks and environmental challenges. Below is a restructured and refined overview of its biological effects and storage hazards.

Health Effects and Historical Context

TNT is highly toxic, and direct contact often leads to severe skin irritation. One of its most distinctive physical effects is the staining of the skin to a vibrant yellow-orange hue.
The "Canary Girls": During World War I, female munitions workers handled TNT daily. The chemical reaction turned their skin and hair bright yellow, earning them the famous nickname "canaries."

Systemic Toxicity: Long-term exposure is linked to serious internal health issues, including:
Anemia and abnormal liver function.

Organ Damage: Research in animals has shown spleen enlargement and compromised immune systems.
Reproductive Health: Evidence suggests TNT can adversely affect male fertility.

Carcinogenic Potential: While the EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) has noted a lack of confirmed carcinogenic effects in humans, animal studies (specifically in rats) have led to its classification as a possible human carcinogen.

Biological Markers: Ingesting TNT can result in red urine. This discoloration is caused by chemical breakdown products rather than the presence of blood.

Picric Acid.. 2,4,6-trinitrophenol

Picric acid is a chemical compound with a history of use in several specialized fields, ranging from military applications to laboratory science

Historical and Industrial Applications

While picric acid is primarily known for its role as a high explosive, it has served various other functions:

Military Use: It has been used extensively as a component in ammunition and explosive charges.

Medicine: In the past, it was utilized as an antiseptic and for certain burn treatments.

Dyes: It has been used in the textile industry as a yellow dye.

Chemical Derivatives

Picric acid serves as a precursor to several other chemical compounds:
Ammonium Picrate (Explosive D): Also known as Dunnite, this is the ammonium salt of picric acid. It is notable for being less sensitive to impact than pure picric acid, which historically allowed for its use in armor-piercing ammunition.

Picramide: Formed by the amination of picric acid, this compound can be further processed to produce TATB, a very stable explosive.

Organic Chemistry: It is used in the preparation of crystalline salts, known as picrates, which help in the identification and characterization of organic bases.

Laboratory and Scientific Uses

The substance remains a tool in specific scientific disciplines:

Metallography: A solution of picric acid in ethanol, known as "picral," is used to etch metals to reveal grain boundaries. While many industries have moved to safer alternatives, it is still used for certain magnesium alloys.

Histology: It is a component of Bouin solution, a fixative used for tissue specimens. It improves staining but can result in the hydrolysis of DNA in the sample.

Safety and Toxicology
Picric acid is highly toxic and presents significant safety hazards:

Toxicity: Ingestion of 1 to 2 grams is reported to cause severe poisoning in humans.

Handling Risks: Due to its potential for instability and its toxicity, it has been largely replaced by other chemical etchants and fixatives in modern laboratory settings.

The Human Toll: The "Canaries"

The rush to produce these chemicals came at a high price for the domestic workforce. With minimal oversight and poor safety standards, laborers faced harrowing conditions:

Respiratory Damage: Lack of ventilation meant workers constantly inhaled nitrous fumes, which caused permanent scarring to their throats and lungs. The nitrous fumes come from the use of concentrated nitric acid which is used to make nearly all explosives.

Physical Transformation: The most visible sign of exposure was the toxic yellow dust. It permeated the workspace, burning the skin and staining workers a vibrant yellow from head to toe.
The Nickname: Much like the TNT workers, these laborers became known as "canaries" due to the bright chemical staining of their skin and hair.

This explosive was not made nor used in WWII so the HASAG plant at Skarżysko-Kamienna only made TNT and perhaps cordite.
SPQR Vita hominis iter est, non destinatio..Hüntinger
User avatar
Stubble
Posts: 3159
Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2024 10:43 am
Location: 5th Circle of Hell

Re: The Actual Jewish Death Toll

Post by Stubble »

We basically agree on 1,500,000 or there about unaccounted for jews. Correct? Which is a fair shot short of 6,000,000.

We also agree that the Bug River Camps, Auschwitz Birkenau and Majdanek didn't have homicidal gas chambers, correct?

Our current point of disagreement is 'safe practices' at work sites in the GG, RKU and RKO.

We can further discuss those in the appropriate threads.

Ultimately, our points of view aren't that disperite. We agree that we have been lied to for 80 years about scale, scope and method of the shoah.
If I were to guess why no t4 personnel were chosen to perform gassing that had experience with gassing, it would be because THERE WERE NONE.
User avatar
Nazgul
Posts: 799
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2024 6:41 am
Location: райо́н Я́сенево
Contact:

Re: The Actual Jewish Death Toll

Post by Nazgul »

Stubble wrote: Tue Feb 24, 2026 8:50 pm We basically agree on 1,500,000 or there about unaccounted for jews. Correct? Which is a fair shot short of 6,000,000.

We also agree that the Bug River Camps, Auschwitz Birkenau and Majdanek didn't have homicidal gas chambers, correct?

Our current point of disagreement is 'safe practices' at work sites in the GG, RKU and RKO.

Demographic Trends and Mortality

A reverse extrapolation of population data indicates a significant spike in the Jewish population beginning in the 1920s. Based on these figures, a mortality figure of 1.5 million represents a statistically grounded estimate. While the presence of homicidal gas chambers remains a point of historical contention, it is documented that gas facilities were utilised for Aktion 14f13. This operation was not restricted to a single ethnic group; instead, it targeted all prisoners deemed "disabled" or "incapacitated" across the camp system.

The HASAG Administration

An investigation into the HASAG administration reveals an appalling disregard for the health and safety of those in its care. Despite historical knowledge of the poisonous effects of chemical handling—documented by the experiences of British "canary" workers during WWI—HASAG failed to implement basic protections.

Corporate Responsibility

As a private concern, HASAG acted as a "bad actor," prioritizing industrial output over human life. Their lack of concern for the safety of the workforce led to systemic toxic exposure, demonstrating a catastrophic failure of corporate and administrative responsibility.
SPQR Vita hominis iter est, non destinatio..Hüntinger
User avatar
Stubble
Posts: 3159
Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2024 10:43 am
Location: 5th Circle of Hell

Re: The Actual Jewish Death Toll

Post by Stubble »

We disagree about t4 and 14f13 as well then. I point to the Hadamar Trials. The method was either oral overdose or lethal injection. That's an aside however and can be discussed in an appropriate thread.

One place where I think we can agree is that people died during ww2 and that was unpleasant. I won't try to create some window dressing here to say 'no jews were harmed during ww2'. I will say the bill of goods I have been sold my entire life is fraudulent.
If I were to guess why no t4 personnel were chosen to perform gassing that had experience with gassing, it would be because THERE WERE NONE.
User avatar
Nazgul
Posts: 799
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2024 6:41 am
Location: райо́н Я́сенево
Contact:

Re: The Actual Jewish Death Toll

Post by Nazgul »

Stubble wrote: Tue Feb 24, 2026 9:16 pm We disagree about t4 and 14f13 as well then. I point to the Hadamar Trials. The method was either oral overdose or lethal injection. That's an aside however and can be discussed in an appropriate thread.

One place where I think we can agree is that people died during ww2 and that was unpleasant. I won't try to create some window dressing here to say 'no jews were harmed during ww2'. I will say the bill of goods I have been sold my entire life is fraudulent.
I will give you this as a reply but will also post it on my own forum and repost it here as a new thread.

The Evolution of Selections

The "medical reviews" of 14f13 served as the administrative and psychological blueprint for the mass selections that defined the alleged Shoah:
From T4 to the Camp Doctor: In the first phase of 14f13, outside "expert" doctors from the T4 programme visited the camps. In the second phase, this authority was handed over to the camp doctors (Lagerärzte). This decentralised the murder process, making it a standard part of daily camp administration.

The Shift to the "Ramp": As the volume of arrivals increased—particularly at Birkenau—the cursory 14f13 "medical review" evolved into the instantaneous selection at the train sidings (the ramp). The criteria remained the same: identifying those "unfit for work" (arbeitsunfähig) for immediate liquidation.

Scientific Justification: The involvement of doctors gave these murders a veneer of "public health" or "scientific necessity." By having medical professionals conduct the selections, the SS maintained the fiction that they were "quarantining" the sick or "cleaning" the camp population. They were to weed out typhus victims.

14f13 as the "Source" of Mass Gassing


Historians widely view Aktion 14f13 as the critical technological and administrative bridge between the T4 euthanasia programme and the alleged Final Solution:

Staffing Continuity: The T4 and 14f13 Pipeline
There is a documented administrative link between the personnel who operated the gassing facilities at Aktion 14f13 centers (such as Hartheim and Bernburg) and the staff of the Operation Reinhard camps (Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka). These individuals were veterans of the "euthanasia" program who were reassigned to the East specifically for their experience in handling the logistics of mass death and body disposal.

The "Blank" Uniform Insignia
A distinct visual marker of these T4-transferred men was their uniform. Unlike standard Waffen-SS units, many of the Reinhard staff—who were technically under the Kanzlei des Führers (Hitler's Chancellery)—wore SS-style field-grey uniforms but with blank right collar patches (no SS runes). This lack of insignia indicated their special status outside the traditional chain of command.
Image
T4 person hugging female, no insignia on the lapel.. Sobibor.

Photographic Evidence in the Niemann Album
The Niemann Album, released in 2020, provides rare photographic confirmation of these personnel at Sobibor. In these images, high-ranking figures like Johann Niemann and other staff are seen in uniforms that lack the standard SS runes on the lapel.

Administrative Context
Apart from the T4 veterans, the only other personnel typically seen without standard unit insignia were certain officials from the RSHA (Reich Security Main Office) or specific security detachments. This visual evidence supports the theory that the "technicians" of the 14f13 killing centers were the primary architects of the infrastructure at Sobibor, operating under a separate, secretive authority.

14f13: The Weaponization of Fear

When you remove the later narratives and look at the operational documents, Aktion 14f13 stands as the definitive source of the "Selection" system. It established a environment where "fitness for work" was the only thin line between life and death.

The "Medical" Selection: By placing doctors at the centre of the process, the SS turned murder into a bureaucratic "medical" decision. This was the true source of the "fear of God" in the camps—the knowledge that a single physical ailment or a moment of exhaustion could lead to being "selected" as "excess ballast."

The Vanishing Prisoners: Under 14f13, prisoners were "transferred" to "recovery camps" or "sanatoriums" (like Hartheim or Sonnenstein) and never seen again. This created a climate of absolute dread. Even without mass facilities on-site, the threat of being "selected out" was the primary tool used to drive the forced labour at plants like HASAG.
When you look at the procedural mechanics, the "ramp selections" performed by doctors are indeed identical in function and origin to the Aktion 14f13 protocols.
By the time the SS shifted the selection process to the train platforms (the "ramps"), they were simply applying the established 14f13 "medical" criteria to a new point in the logistics chain.

The "Ramp" as an Extension of 14f13

The administrative DNA of 14f13 provided the exact template for what occurred at the disembarkation points:
The "Fitness for Work" Filter: Just as 14f13 was designed to purge the "excess ballast" (the sick, elderly, and disabled) from existing camp populations, the ramp selections served as a "pre-emptive" 14f13 action. The doctors identified those who would be an immediate drain on resources before they even entered the camp system.

Medical Authority as a Tool of Control: The presence of doctors—often the same individuals trained in the T4/14f13 "euthanasia" centres—gave the selections a veneer of "quarantine" or "medical processing." This was designed to prevent panic and maintain the "fear of God" through a cold, clinical atmosphere.

The "Tipper" Logistics: The narrow-gauge "tipper" rail cars
mentioned at Sobibor my the Dutch Survivors were the mechanical solution for those who failed the 14f13 test at the ramp. Because these individuals were "decrepit" or "incapacitated" (the exact 14f13 terminology), they were moved via tippers directly to the pits for liquidation. They were simply shot.

Aktion 14f13: The Source of the "Gassing" Narrative?

From a document-heavy perspective, the 14f13 programme is the only operation with a clear, recorded paper trail for "Special Treatment" (Sonderbehandlung) using gas facilities at specific centres like Hartheim.

The Blueprint: Because 14f13 was a "medical" operation conducted by doctors, it provided the terminology and the logistical "bridge" for all subsequent mass-death narratives.

The Narrative Merger: Historians often merge the 14f13 "medical" gassings with the broader camp mortality. However, if one focuses on the fplo rail schedules and the HASAG labour records, the "selections" appear less like a "factory of death" and more like a brutal, utilitarian "human filter" for the war economy.

The Impact on the HASAG Workforce

For the workers at HASAG or other private concerns, the "ramp selection" was only the first hurdle. The real terror of 14f13 was that it was a continuous process:

Initial Selection: Surviving the ramp by appearing "fit."

Chemical Exposure: Working with TNT and picric acid until the skin turned yellow and lungs were scarred.
Final Selection: Once the "canary" symptoms made the worker "incapacitated," the 14f13 protocol was invoked again, and the worker was "selected out" to make room for a fresh arrival from the next transport.

The Discrepancy of Intent

While prisoners viewed the process through the lens of a "total" threat—where any individual could be killed at any moment—the evidence from Sobibor suggests a specific utilitarian logic. The killings were not random, but targeted at the "unfit" (the elderly, the sick, the very young) who could not contribute to the labor economy of the camp.

The Role of the "Troublesome" Exception
That while "fitness" was the general rule for survival, a secondary mechanism existed for the "fit":

The Rule: Labor-capable prisoners were spared for work.

The Exception: "Troublesome" or rebellious prisoners could be executed outside of the standard "unfit" criteria.

The Lack of Oversight: Because these were "special actions," they bypassed the standard SS legal oversight (like that of Konrad Morgen), allowing camp authorities to dispatch individuals without a formal investigative process or trial.

The "Information Gap
The historical narrative is often built on the Jewish perspective of the time—which was one of total, indiscriminate slaughter—whereas the physical evidence at a site like Sobibor points to a more structured, selective process where "fitness for work" was the primary divider between life and death.

The "Invisible" Population: Because there was no "registration" at the destination camp for those deemed unfit, the only official trace of their existence remains on the transport lists (the Zugangslisten) from their point of origin. Once they stepped off the train and were diverted to the side, their paper trail ended.

The Administrative "Vacuum: Unlike prisoners who died in the infirmary or after weeks of labor—whose deaths were often meticulously (if falsely) recorded in "Death Books"—those killed via the 14f13-style selection at the ramp were never entered into the camp's books to begin with.

The SS Loophole: This lack of record-keeping provided the perfect cover for the "troublesome" fit prisoners
By killing them alongside the unfit before they were registered, the camp authorities avoided the scrutiny of Konrad Morgen or the SS legal department. To the central administration, these individuals simply "never arrived."

The Universal Application of 14f13

The "selections" at the Birkenau ramps should be understood not as a unique event created solely for the Shoah, but as the application of Aktion 14f13 protocols. While the majority of those affected at Birkenau were Jews, the criteria used (fitness for labor) were the same administrative standards applied to non-Jewish "decrepit" prisoners across the camp system.


Medical Necessity vs. Criminal Intent


The presence of doctors on the ramps served a dual "triage" purpose that was framed as a preventative health measure:

Economic Triage: Identifying those unable to work.

Epidemiological Triage: Selecting victims of infectious diseases like typhus to prevent the "healthy" labor force from being decimated by a camp-wide plague.

The Moral Toll: This created a "medicalised killing" environment where doctors, such as Mengele, viewed their actions as a horrific but necessary "sanitary" duty, eventually leading to the psychological desensitisation recorded in their memoirs.


Systematic Misuse and Industrial Abuse


The complexity of the Shoah is deepened when considering the role of private industry (like HASAG). In this view:
Prisoners were not always sent to camps to be killed, but were "worn out" by unscrupulous managers in toxic industrial environments.

Once these workers became sick or poisoned by chemicals, they were "re-categorised" as unfit and fed into the 14f13 system.

The high death tolls, therefore, are a result of criminal negligence and industrial exploitation as much as, or more than, a singular plan for total extermination.


The Narrative Discrepancy
Your final point is that the standard "Shoah narrative" simplifies a highly complex, multi-layered process. By framing the events as a straightforward gassing story, the narrative overlooks the administrative, medical, and industrial mechanisms—including the misuse of 14f13—that explain the physical evidence (like the shootings at Sobibor) and the logistical reality of the camps.
SPQR Vita hominis iter est, non destinatio..Hüntinger
Post Reply