Those who merely skim this post may see terms like Gaskammer and immediately assume I am promoting the standard Holocaust narrative. I am not. My focus is on the intersection of multiple primary-source realities: the FPLO (Fahrplanordnung) railway documents, the manufacture of the Muselmänner through state-managed starvation, and the administrative 'culling' of the terminally ill.
This research moves past the blame-centric narratives of both sides. Whether caused by total war, military food rationing, or the systematic breakdown of transport logistics, the result was a massive population of terminally ill people that the state had to 'process.' By examining the 14f13 protocol and the 1939 Euthanasia Memorandum, we see that 'Special Treatment' was not a desperate invention of genocide, but a clinical, bureaucratic response to a human catastrophe manufactured by state incompetence and indifference.
I have made a more extensive post at RODOH
The Administrative and Medical Reality of Sonderbehandlung
The Legal Shield: Hitler’s 1939 Memorandum
The foundation of the camp "culling" system was not an explicit order for mass murder, but a Legal Immunity Memorandum. Signed by Adolf Hitler on his private stationery and backdated to September 1, 1939, this document was a "small match" intended to grant medical practitioners immunity for the "mercy killing" (Gnadentod) of incurably sick children and the disabled. It created a legal vacuum, shielding doctors from murder charges (Mord). This limited decree was subsequently hijacked and expanded by the SS into Aktion 14f13—an industrial protocol used to liquidate "unproductive" inmates.
Manufactured Terminal Illness: The Corfu Case Study
The "Special Treatment" (Sonderbehandlung) of the Corfu Jews in June 1944 is the primary example of this administrative evolution. Due to state incompetence and the prioritization of military logistics over "non-productive" cargo, the Reichsbahn (documented in FPLO Da 204) conducted an 18-day transport involving near-total dehydration.
Biological reality dictates that acute renal failure begins after 72 hours without water. By the time the transport reached its destination, the majority were in a state of terminal physical collapse—they were Muselmänner before they even hit the ramp.
The Responsibility Vacuum
The FPLO (Fahrplanordnung) schedules prove these transports had the lowest priority, often sitting for days on unshaded sidings while military trains passed. A catastrophic "responsibility vacuum" existed:
SS Guards: Viewed their role as security-only, not quartermasters.
Reichsbahn Staff: Viewed the train as discrete units of cargo with no mandate for life support.
No "due care" protocols existed. The guards felt providing water was not their responsibility, and the state provided no budget for it.
The Clinical "Solution" at Birkenau
Upon arrival, medical officers were confronted with approximately 1,200 people in terminal collapse. They could not walk; their organs had shut down; they would be dead in hours. Shooting them on the ramp was not a "medical" option. Under the legal protection of the 1939 Memorandum, these victims were carried to the morgue facilities (gas chambers if you like) and subjected to a small amount of pesticide (Zyklon B). In their metabolic fragility, they succumbed instantly. This was the clinical "hastening" of an inevitable death—the 14f13 "mercy killing" of a population the state had already broken.
Why Himmler Hid the Word from Hitler
The most damning evidence of this "culling" is the Korherr Report (1943). Himmler ordered the term Sonderbehandlung removed (Nuremberg Document NO-5193) and replaced with durchgeschleust ("processed"). He hid the word because the RSHA (Sept 20, 1939) had explicitly defined it as "Execution" (d.h. Exekution).
Himmler wasn't hiding "missing Jews" in the Russian interior (the revisionist "Lost in Russia" fallacy); he was hiding the fact that the "small match" of Hitler's memorandum had become an industrial forest fire. He hid the Special Treatment because it was an admission of industrialised killing to cover up the results of state-managed starvation and neglect.
Conclusion: Shovels vs. Furnaces
The standard narrative of a "deliberate genocide" ignores the reality of systemic incompetence, indifference, and a shocking lack of culpability. Nearly all Greek Jews underwent similar grueling journeys and suffered the same medical fate as the Corfu Jews.
By 1944, the SS had replaced the shovel with the furnace and the industrial current of the Sola and Vistula. The "mass grave" obsession is irrelevant for a system designed to leave only ash. To ask for a grave for a victim of "Industrial Culling" is to admit a failure to understand the very mechanism of Sonderbehandlung. The false dichotomy between "Revisionist" and "Exterminationist" is unnecessary for those genuinely concerned with the logistical and biological reality of the times.
Primary Sources Referenced:
FPLO Da 204: Reichsbahn Transport Schedules (Greek Transports).
RSHA Decree (20 Sept 1939): Definition of Sonderbehandlung.
Nuremberg PS-1151: IKL Guidelines for 14f13 Selection.
Nuremberg NO-5193: Himmler’s Directive to Korherr.
1939 Euthanasia Memorandum: Hitler’s legal immunity decree.
