A New Revisionist Interpretation of Operation Reinhardt

[bombsaway]

Since 22.7. a train with 5 000 Jews goes daily from Warsaw via Malkinia to Treblinka. Furthermore there is a train with 5 000 Jews going from Przemysl to Belzec twice a week. Gedob is constantly in touch with the security service in Cracow, who agrees that the transports from Warsaw via Lublin to Sobibor (near Lublin) rest as long as the conversion works on this line make transports impossible (until October 1942)" The trains are agreed with the commander of the Security Police in the General Government. The Head of SS and Police for the Lublin district, SS-Brigadeführer Globocnik, has been informed.

This is particularly damning to your theory that these camps didn't process Jews. Belzec and Sobibor are also named as final destinations of people. As for the notion that maybe it wasn't very many Jews. 35,000 a week, and 10,000 a week isn't a lot?

[Diver Down]

Not all that knowledgeable about this one because I haven’t researched these camps very deeply. But the Holocaust Encyclopedia says these are transit camps. Yet Prudent Regret seems to imply these are property sorting centers…? Is there a consensus on this? Is Prudent Regret on to something new?

Of the "hard revisionists" (those who believe there was no systematic mass killing program) most take the Korherr report at face value. Korherr reports speaks of 1.5 million Jews being "transported into the Russian East". The numbers match up with the figures from the Hoefle Telegram, which was a report on Action Reinhard.

If you're new to this subject, I would say wrapping your head around these two documents would be one of the best things you could do.

http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org ... rherr.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B6fle_telegram

Thank you, I looked those over and I read your response. I went over the documents you listed in your reply and they suggest that deportation and not property was the goal.

I went over to this “Skeptic’s Forum” (what an argumentative bunch!!!) and someone named “Hans” pointed this out:

The entire Aktion Reinhardt is divided into 4 areas:
A) the resettlement itself
B) the utilization of labor
C) the property utilitization
D) gathering of hidden values and real estate

Which suggests that resettlement was the primary driver and not property collection.

PR believes the Korherr report is a lie, essentially. I believe it is a lie as well, that the 1.5 million weren't transported to Russia, they were killed. This is corroborated in document form by a previous version of the Korherr report that said 1.5 million were given "special treatment", and also Himmler's quote here

“I hold this report, at best, as material for later times, to
be sure quite good for camouflage purposes. At the
moment, it may neither be published or circulated."

Maybe PR thinks Himmler was trying to hide things from Hitler. Maybe he thinks Korherr report and all these other documents were fabricated.

But as far as I know he doesn't believe in a mass resettlement of Polish Jews in Russia. It is a new theory, in my mind born out of the deep problem with the mass resettlement theory, that the evidence for this mass resettlement is scant bordering on non-existent.

Thank you, I will look this over in more detail.

[PrudentRegret]

One aspect which has been ignored is the utilization of the codename "Operation Reinhardt" at Auschwitz, where it denoted the administration of confiscated property as admitted by the mainstream:

There was also "Aktion Reinhardt" in Auschwitz, but even the mainstream position admits that this did not refer to the extermination orders, it referred to the processing of confiscated property. This operation was handled in Auschwitz-Birkenau in the large section of the camp called "Kanada." That's right, even the orthodox position concedes that Aktion Reinhardt was purely an economic policy at Auschwitz. I am merely saying that it was also purely describe an economic policy in the General Government which was chiefly administered by Globocnik.

There's even a document from Auschwitz with the header- Betrifft: Umsiedlungs-Aktion und Aktion Reinhard which means "Resettlement Action and Aktion Reinhard", and the body of the letter pertained to the storage of confiscated property at Auschwitz. But if AR is the code-name for resettlement, this header would make no sense. On the other hand, this shows that Aktion Reinhardt was an initiative for the administration of confiscated property:

• The NMT Trial concluded AR was an economic initiative
• The Mainstream admits that AR at Auschwitz referred to an economic initiative for administering confiscated property, not resettlement or extermination
• Same as Auschwitz, the Katzmann report makes a distinction between the resettlement action (Umsiedlung) and Operation Reinardt, with the latter pertaining to Globocnik's staff and the administration of confiscated property.
• The Mainstream claims that AR had a different meaning at Auschwitz and in General Government, I am saying it meant the same thing in both, which is the same meaning concluded by the NMT.
• The name of the operation was derived from the State Secretary Reinhardt of the Ministry of Finance, as suggested in testimony in the Pohl Trial:
  

  Q. [sic] Therefore, I assume from your answer that from the type of watches which were being repaired here one could not draw the conclusion that these watches had been taken away from inmates who had been killed?
  
  A. No, that assumption could not be drawn. I myself tried on one occasion to see an order according to which these watches had been confiscated. As far as I can recall, I talked to Melmer about that on one or two occasions. As far as I remember, it was Melmer told me at that time that these watches had been confiscated by virtue of a decree which the State Secretary Reinhardt in the Reich Ministry of Finance had issued, and that was the reason why this action had been given the name of Action Reinhardt.

Contrary to the suggestion by Bombsaway- the "T" in the Hoefle telegram does not prove the number of arrivals at the facility we call T-II and which Erbel calls a Work Camp. He is begging the question. Treblinka was the name of a civilian station some distance away, and the name of the Treblinka village. There is no documentary evidence at all to suggest the "T" in that document established the number of Jews who set foot into what we call T-II.

Of course Resettlement was related to Aktion Reinhardt, with the latter dealing with the confiscation and administration of mobile property throughout the course of resettlement. But in documents, as in the Katzmann document and at Auschwitz, the Jewish Resettlement means what it says, and Operation Reinhardt means a parallel, economic initiative for the administration of confiscated Jewish property. And Globocnik himself described Aktion Reinhardt and its origins and confirms it was an economic initiative. This is part of the final report he sent Himmler of Aktion Reinhardt:

Report On the Administrative Development of the Action Reinhardt

All the assets acquired as a result of this Action were centrally mustered by an administration set up by me, duly classified and booked. The muster extends to the entire Government-General. The personnel came from the SS Economic and Administrative Head Office (WVHA).

The utilization and winding up of the assets was carried out on the basis of directives by the Reichsfuehrer SS. During the course of the Action this was summed up in a directive of 9/26/1942 and 12/9/1943, and the SS Economic and Administrative Head Office was given the task of winding up with regard to the Reich authorities.

The assets I collected were regularly delivered to the SS Economic and Administrative Head Office against receipts, and they in turn passed on the assets to the Reichsbank, the Reich Ministry of Finance, textile concerns, etc.

On the orders of the Reichsfuehrer SS, necessary articles could be removed for the maintenance of persons of the German race. The Reichsfuehrer SS forbade any appropriation for the purposes of the SS.

What is remarkable about the accounting is that no hard and fast basis for the amount collected existed, as the collection of the assets was carried out under orders and only the decency and honesty, as well as the surveillance, of the SS men used for this purpose could guarantee a complete delivery. Nevertheless what was seized and collected and received by the Department Reinhardt was listed and delivered without error and with the greatest accuracy. A preliminary examination up to 4/1/1943 by SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Vogt of the SS Economic and Administrative Head Office has already taken place and has revealed perfect order. For the balance, the preliminary examination has still to be carried out.

In accordance with an agreement with the Reich Ministry of Finance, this preliminary examination is final and the vouchers and data will be destroyed in accordance with Security regulations, cutting out the Reich Accounting Office.

...

Individual valuables of a special kind, such as stamps, coins, and such like were sorted and delivered to the SS Economic and Administrative Head Office; worthless articles were destroyed.

Globocnik states that the operation handled assets according to this directive by the WVHA (NO-724), and note the coordination with the Reich Ministry of Finance. The State Secretary was Reinhardt.

Globocnik was tasked with setting up an office to handle the GG-wide administration of confiscated property that fell under the purview of this order. This was "Aktion Reinhardt" according to the man himself. Note that Globocnik's report "On the Administrative Development of Aktion Reinhardt" refers to the administration of confiscated property and creation of economic workcamps, and not on the resettlement action itself although it related to the operation for obvious reasons.

Bombsaway, can you explain why at Auschwitz "Operation Reinhardt" denoted an economic operation for the administration of confiscated property and NOT resettlement or extermination? Obviously AR was an economic initiative parallel to the resettlement actions, which were not handled by Globocnik across the entire General Government. But Globocnik did handle all the confiscated property that fell under the purview of NO-724 linked before across the entire GG. This was his special task, not secret extermination.

[bombsaway]

So in regards to this

Since 22.7. a train with 5 000 Jews goes daily from Warsaw via Malkinia to Treblinka. Furthermore there is a train with 5 000 Jews going from Przemysl to Belzec twice a week. Gedob is constantly in touch with the security service in Cracow, who agrees that the transports from Warsaw via Lublin to Sobibor (near Lublin) rest as long as the conversion works on this line make transports impossible (until October 1942)" The trains are agreed with the commander of the Security Police in the General Government. The Head of SS and Police for the Lublin district, SS-Brigadeführer Globocnik, has been informed

.

your understanding is they were sent to the villages of Treblinka, Belzec, and Sobibor, where other transit camps existed, or were they housed in the actual villages?

Regarding Auschwitz, we know one sphere of Reinhardt involved property acquisition. Reinhardt also predated the killing actions at Auschwitz. So they used staff and directives to handle goods taken from the Jews who arrived there.

[bombsaway]

Thank you, I looked those over and I read your response. I went over the documents you listed in your reply and they suggest that deportation and not property was the goal.

I went over to this “Skeptic’s Forum” (what an argumentative bunch!!!) and someone named “Hans” pointed this out:

The entire Aktion Reinhardt is divided into 4 areas:
A) the resettlement itself
B) the utilization of labor
C) the property utilitization
D) gathering of hidden values and real estate

Which suggests that resettlement was the primary driver and not property collection.

I agree with your assessment here. This is another major document that contradicts PR's interpretation.

http://www.deathcamps.org/reinhard/arloot.htm

One additional thing that stands out to me is the secrecy of this operation

Globocnik "The equipment which was provided for this action from seized goods, which however are to be considered as Reich property, have been removed completely. For reasons of surveillance in each camp a small farm was created which is occupied by an expert.

An income must regularly be paid to him so that he can maintain the small farm."

Not only did they destroy the camps completely, and all "vouchers and data" related to the operation, but they hired people to watch over the remains for surveillance purposes.

[Nessie]

...The only evidence that hundreds of thousands of Jews arrived at T-II is witness testimony. Which is a very weak body of evidence that is not corroborated by documents.

Every Nazi, German and Ukrainian who worked at TII, all of the Jewish witnesses who were on transports and the local Poles who worked on the railways of loved locally to TII, reports seeing regular mass transports. When so many witnesses, who are not normally cooperative, agree, that is strong corroborative evidence in itself. If you had such a body of evidence for mass transports back out of TII, you would consider it to be proof of such transports.

Those witnesses are corroborated by the Hofle Telegram. Hofle worked on AR and records the numbers of arrivals at the AR camps, as the ghettos were being emptied. TII was the AR camp at Treblinka. It was staffed by former T4 euthanasia project workers, drafted to work on AR. It was under a separate command structure to the TI labour camp, which was used as a penal camp, including Polish civilian prisoners. The Ganzemueller Letter specifically references regular transports from Warsaw via Malkinia to Treblinka. It also refers to transports to the other AR camps at Sobibor and Belzec. There are ghetto transport timetables that record shuttle transports to and from Treblinka via Malkinia. The Stroop Report specifically references TII as the destination of the Jews from Warsaw.

The reason why you suggest the evidence is weak, is to defect from your inability to evidence your claim that property rather than people went to TII. You have no witnesses, no documents, nothing.

The witnesses themselves seem thoroughly confused as to exactly what the "Treblinka Extermination Camp" was supposed to be, as indicated by the huge variation in the maps of "Treblinka". T-II became "the" extermination camp due to the material culture there found from Operation Reinhardt.

Could you be more specific with that claim? What witness, what maps, what is the "huge variation"? As I have shown above, your general description of what is evidenced, is not reliable.

But, similar to Majdanek, a bunch of clothes and shoes being at a place is not evidence that a million people went to a place.

There needs to be a rational, evidenced explanation as to what happened to the people who had all their personal possessions taken from them. They had been told to bring basis as they were being resettled. There is witness and photographic evidence of people with their one suitcase, being loaded onto the carriages used for the transports. The circumstantial evidence of AR is that it was the operation to empty and close the ghettos, and the people were told to bring one suitcase with necessary personal items for resettlement.

To then remove everything, including required items such as spectacles, walk sticks, all clothing including underwear, their suitcases and even the gold from their teeth and their hair, prior to resettlement, makes no sense. There is also, no evidence of resettlement. Anyone who arrived at TII and who was selected to work, went to a labour camp still within the General Government area, west or south of TII.

[Diver Down]

Thank you, I looked those over and I read your response. I went over the documents you listed in your reply and they suggest that deportation and not property was the goal.

I went over to this “Skeptic’s Forum” (what an argumentative bunch!!!) and someone named “Hans” pointed this out:

The entire Aktion Reinhardt is divided into 4 areas:
A) the resettlement itself
B) the utilization of labor
C) the property utilitization
D) gathering of hidden values and real estate

Which suggests that resettlement was the primary driver and not property collection.

I agree with your assessment here. This is another major document that contradicts PR's interpretation.

http://www.deathcamps.org/reinhard/arloot.htm

One additional thing that stands out to me is the secrecy of this operation

Globocnik "The equipment which was provided for this action from seized goods, which however are to be considered as Reich property, have been removed completely. For reasons of surveillance in each camp a small farm was created which is occupied by an expert.

An income must regularly be paid to him so that he can maintain the small farm."

Not only did they destroy the camps completely, and all "vouchers and data" related to the operation, but they hired people to watch over the remains for surveillance purposes.

That is an odd thing for a transit camp or a sorting center. Why bother? The Germans didn’t hide the deportations and they certainly didn’t hide confiscating Jewish possessions.

[bombsaway]

One additional thing that stands out to me is the secrecy of this operation

Globocnik "The equipment which was provided for this action from seized goods, which however are to be considered as Reich property, have been removed completely. For reasons of surveillance in each camp a small farm was created which is occupied by an expert.

An income must regularly be paid to him so that he can maintain the small farm."

Not only did they destroy the camps completely, and all "vouchers and data" related to the operation, but they hired people to watch over the remains for surveillance purposes.

That is an odd thing for a transit camp or a sorting center. Why bother? The Germans didn’t hide the deportations and they certainly didn’t hide confiscating Jewish possessions.

Revisionists might claim that they did. Basically the arguments are that they wanted to hide

a) poor (but not genocidal) treatment of Jews being resettled

b) the property seizure

I agree that this doesn't make sense. Even if we say they wanted to cover these up, why was an "expert" placed at the farm? If I'm trying to be extremely extremely generous to the revisionists I would say this is in response to the reports circling worldwide that Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka were extermination facilities. If 10% of the Jews passing through died and were buried there, maybe they didn't want people digging around and taking pictures for anti-Nazi propaganda purposes.

Documents from the last page touch upon this secrecy,

Goebbels description of a barbaric procedure "not to be described here more definitely." and of Globocnik carrying it out with circumspection and "according to a method that does not attract too much attention"

The secrecy pledge about Reinhard where the "obligation to maintain secrecy continues even after I have left the Service."

Most interesting to me is the letter by the T4 main man Brack to Himmler, who after lending his euthanasia experts to Globocnik remarked "On this occasion Brigadeführer Globocnik stated his opinion that the whole Jewish action should be completed as quickly as possible so that one would not get caught in the middle of it one day if some difficulties should make a stoppage of the action necessary. You, yourself, Reich Leader, have already expressed your view, that work should progress quickly for reasons of camouflage alone."

Revisionist state that all these measures were designed to conceal resettlement/illegal property seizure, and I've also encountered argumentation that the Nazis covered up actual resettlement, in part that is why there's no documentation (the Allies also destroyed resettlement documents, for obvious reasons -- it contradicted Holocaust claims of a systematic campaign of mass killing ). I can't really find any intellectual reasons for why the Nazis would conceal resettlement, especially when extermination rumors were rampant.

[Diver Down]

One aspect which has been ignored is the utilization of the codename "Operation Reinhardt" at Auschwitz, where it denoted the administration of confiscated property as admitted by the mainstream:

There was also "Aktion Reinhardt" in Auschwitz, but even the mainstream position admits that this did not refer to the extermination orders, it referred to the processing of confiscated property. This operation was handled in Auschwitz-Birkenau in the large section of the camp called "Kanada." That's right, even the orthodox position concedes that Aktion Reinhardt was purely an economic policy at Auschwitz. I am merely saying that it was also purely describe an economic policy in the General Government which was chiefly administered by Globocnik.

There's even a document from Auschwitz with the header- Betrifft: Umsiedlungs-Aktion und Aktion Reinhard which means "Resettlement Action and Aktion Reinhard", and the body of the letter pertained to the storage of confiscated property at Auschwitz. But if AR is the code-name for resettlement, this header would make no sense. On the other hand, this shows that Aktion Reinhardt was an initiative for the administration of confiscated property:

• The NMT Trial concluded AR was an economic initiative
• The Mainstream admits that AR at Auschwitz referred to an economic initiative for administering confiscated property, not resettlement or extermination
• Same as Auschwitz, the Katzmann report makes a distinction between the resettlement action (Umsiedlung) and Operation Reinardt, with the latter pertaining to Globocnik's staff and the administration of confiscated property.
• The Mainstream claims that AR had a different meaning at Auschwitz and in General Government, I am saying it meant the same thing in both, which is the same meaning concluded by the NMT.
• The name of the operation was derived from the State Secretary Reinhardt of the Ministry of Finance, as suggested in testimony in the Pohl Trial:
  

  Q. [sic] Therefore, I assume from your answer that from the type of watches which were being repaired here one could not draw the conclusion that these watches had been taken away from inmates who had been killed?
  
  A. No, that assumption could not be drawn. I myself tried on one occasion to see an order according to which these watches had been confiscated. As far as I can recall, I talked to Melmer about that on one or two occasions. As far as I remember, it was Melmer told me at that time that these watches had been confiscated by virtue of a decree which the State Secretary Reinhardt in the Reich Ministry of Finance had issued, and that was the reason why this action had been given the name of Action Reinhardt.

Contrary to the suggestion by Bombsaway- the "T" in the Hoefle telegram does not prove the number of arrivals at the facility we call T-II and which Erbel calls a Work Camp. He is begging the question. Treblinka was the name of a civilian station some distance away, and the name of the Treblinka village. There is no documentary evidence at all to suggest the "T" in that document established the number of Jews who set foot into what we call T-II.

Of course Resettlement was related to Aktion Reinhardt, with the latter dealing with the confiscation and administration of mobile property throughout the course of resettlement. But in documents, as in the Katzmann document and at Auschwitz, the Jewish Resettlement means what it says, and Operation Reinhardt means a parallel, economic initiative for the administration of confiscated Jewish property. And Globocnik himself described Aktion Reinhardt and its origins and confirms it was an economic initiative. This is part of the final report he sent Himmler of Aktion Reinhardt:

Report On the Administrative Development of the Action Reinhardt

All the assets acquired as a result of this Action were centrally mustered by an administration set up by me, duly classified and booked. The muster extends to the entire Government-General. The personnel came from the SS Economic and Administrative Head Office (WVHA).

The utilization and winding up of the assets was carried out on the basis of directives by the Reichsfuehrer SS. During the course of the Action this was summed up in a directive of 9/26/1942 and 12/9/1943, and the SS Economic and Administrative Head Office was given the task of winding up with regard to the Reich authorities.

The assets I collected were regularly delivered to the SS Economic and Administrative Head Office against receipts, and they in turn passed on the assets to the Reichsbank, the Reich Ministry of Finance, textile concerns, etc.

On the orders of the Reichsfuehrer SS, necessary articles could be removed for the maintenance of persons of the German race. The Reichsfuehrer SS forbade any appropriation for the purposes of the SS.

What is remarkable about the accounting is that no hard and fast basis for the amount collected existed, as the collection of the assets was carried out under orders and only the decency and honesty, as well as the surveillance, of the SS men used for this purpose could guarantee a complete delivery. Nevertheless what was seized and collected and received by the Department Reinhardt was listed and delivered without error and with the greatest accuracy. A preliminary examination up to 4/1/1943 by SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Vogt of the SS Economic and Administrative Head Office has already taken place and has revealed perfect order. For the balance, the preliminary examination has still to be carried out.

In accordance with an agreement with the Reich Ministry of Finance, this preliminary examination is final and the vouchers and data will be destroyed in accordance with Security regulations, cutting out the Reich Accounting Office.

...

Individual valuables of a special kind, such as stamps, coins, and such like were sorted and delivered to the SS Economic and Administrative Head Office; worthless articles were destroyed.

Globocnik states that the operation handled assets according to this directive by the WVHA (NO-724), and note the coordination with the Reich Ministry of Finance. The State Secretary was Reinhardt.

Globocnik was tasked with setting up an office to handle the GG-wide administration of confiscated property that fell under the purview of this order. This was "Aktion Reinhardt" according to the man himself. Note that Globocnik's report "On the Administrative Development of Aktion Reinhardt" refers to the administration of confiscated property and creation of economic workcamps, and not on the resettlement action itself although it related to the operation for obvious reasons.

Bombsaway, can you explain why at Auschwitz "Operation Reinhardt" denoted an economic operation for the administration of confiscated property and NOT resettlement or extermination? Obviously AR was an economic initiative parallel to the resettlement actions, which were not handled by Globocnik across the entire General Government. But Globocnik did handle all the confiscated property that fell under the purview of NO-724 linked before across the entire GG. This was his special task, not secret extermination.

Looking at this it seems to me you have three separate entities (the Finance Ministry, the IKL/WVHA and the ARC under Globocnik). But only one (The Finance Ministry) would be responsible for handling confiscated property. Auschwitz came under the WVHA for labor exploitation but its confiscated property came under the Finance Ministry. So it makes sense that Auschwitz would have this economic aspect (Aktion Reinhardt).

[PrudentRegret]

Looking at this it seems to me you have three separate entities (the Finance Ministry, the IKL/WVHA and the ARC under Globocnik). But only one (The Finance Ministry) would be responsible for handling confiscated property. Auschwitz came under the WVHA for labor exploitation but its confiscated property came under the Finance Ministry. So it makes sense that Auschwitz would have this economic aspect (Aktion Reinhardt).

Globocnik was responsible for transporting all those confiscated valuables from the General Government to WVHA Headquarters. Then, the valuables were transported to the Reichsbank where they were deposited into accounts owned by the Finance Ministry.

The Finance Ministry was the ultimate beneficiary of the confiscations.

Globocnik's office was responsible for handling confiscated property throughout the entire general government throughout the course of resettlement and delivering it, ultimately, to the Finance Ministry. This was "Operation Reinhardt."

The Pabianice Sorting camp was also a secret camp. So there is already precedent for these sorting camps being regarded as secret Jewish workcamps.

If you look at the document NO-724, this was sent to the SS-Garrison Administration in Lublin that was incorporated as Department IVa - "Einsatz Reinhardt."

i.e.

In preparation for the impending deportation of 300,000 Jews from the Warsaw ghetto, Globocnik ordered Höfle, his deportation expert, and SS-Sturmbannführer Georg Wippern, the administrative manager of Operation Reinhard (my note: the recipient of the NO-724 WVHA order), to establish a central file card index in which Wippern’s clerks would record all valuables obtained during the course of the “resettlement of the Jews.” Globocnik instructed Wippern to issue monthly status reports.123 On September 16, 1942, Globocnik issued more detailed instructions that required Operation Reinhard personnel to identify and record cash, foreign exchange, precious stones, clothing and other valuables obtained “during the course of the ‘resettlement’” in a consistent, systematic fashion, regardless of where the material was sorted. The central file index, including all entries of material coming into the recently established sorting centers in Lublin and Trawniki, would be maintained by Department IVa of the office of the SSPF.124 As indicated in these instructions, a storage and evaluation station for the clothing of the Jews murdered during Operation Reinhard was established at Trawniki in the summer of 1942 and guarded by Trawniki men

The deportation of 300,000 Jews from Warsaw was not "Operation Reinhard." Globocnik's responsibility for the confiscated property- sorting it and transporting it to the Reich Ministry of Finance - was Operation Reinhardt. This was named after the State Secretary Reinhardt of the Finance Ministry which was the ultimate recipient of the confiscated valuables.

[PrudentRegret]

The Eleventh Ordinance:

Text 31

Eleventh Ordinance supplementing the Reich Citizenship Law, dated November 25, 1941

[.....]

& 2

A Jew loses German citizenship

a) assoon as this ordinance becomes effective, if, once this ordinance becomes effective, his regular domicile is abroad,

b) if and when he subsequently moves his regular domicile abroad.

& 3

(1) The property of a Jew will accrue to the German Reich once he loses his German citizenship pursuant to this ordinance. [....]

& 4

(1) Persons whose property has accrued to the Reich in accordance with & 3 will be unable to inherit anything from a German citizen who has died.

(2) Gifts by German citizens to persons whose property has accrued to the Reich in accordance with & 3 are prohibited. [...]

& 7

(1) All persons in possession of a portion of property that has been forfeited, or who still owe a debt to the accumulated property must report the possession of this portion of property or, respectively, the debt they owe to it to the Senior Finance Director in Berlin within six months after the property has been forfeited (& 3) [...]

& 10

(1) All subsequent claims [Verfolgungsansprüche] by Jews who, pursuant to & 2 have lost their German citizenship will be null and void at the end of the month in which loss of citizenship becomes effective. [...]

Berlin, November 25, 1941

Reich Minister of the Interior
Frick

Head of the Party Chancellory
M. Bormann

Reich Ministry of Finance
Acting as deputy
Reinhardt [my emphasis]

Reich Minister of Justice
The authorised representative in charge of affairs
Dr. Schlegelberger

This legal basis for the sequestration of property was applied to deported Jews of German nationality and, later, deported Jews of Polish nationality and eventually deported Jews from German-occupied territory. Note the signature of State Secretary Fritz Reinhardt, who represented the Reich Ministry of Finance.

It would make sense for Operation Reinhardt- an operation dictating the administration of property confiscated throughout the course of the resettlement of the Jews, to be named after a man who was involved in these laws from the very beginning. By law, Globocnik was strictly ordered to transport all these valuables straight to the custody of the Finance Ministry. It makes sense this operation was named after someone involved in property confiscation from well before "Operation Reinhardt" ever appears in documents.

[PrudentRegret]

Testimony from August Frank, deputy chief of the WVHA and author of that order from document NO-724 which I've been referencing:

A. This draft of an order which I am talking about now, so to speak, was literally the same as what I had signed. Globicnik, as I already said before, added this draft order to the accompanying letter in which he informed me that himmler on the occasion of a personal visit to Lublin, that must have been around that time, reached an agreement together with him, and that Himmler had told him to issue this order as an economic order, which actually happened.

Q. I shall repeat the question which I had already asked you, witness, in this accompanying letter was the nature of things to be utilized, described in detail apart from the money which was for exchange in cash from the Jewish property?

A. The nature of the things could be seen from the draft of the order.

Q. Could you enumerate them?

A. If you want me to list them in groups, all right.

Q. Yes, please?

A. First of all we have the personal property which due to lack of space were taken away from the inmates. Then the store of goods which Globocnik had confiscated in the Ghettos, and taken from there to Lublin, whatever was left from the Jews who had died in the concentration camps.

PAGE 2,285
Q. Can you say from this accompanying letter which you received from Globocnik that the WVHA was to issue the decree announcing the utilization of this property?

A. As I had already said, Himmler issued that order. That could be seen from the fact that in this particular draft of the order there was a hand written notation, by himmler which according to my recollection read as follows: "To be issued by the WVHA to be extended to Auschwitz, and with the words' Stolen property and hoarded goods' were also written down in green pencil with Himmler's handwriting, because how else was I to use the expression and I can also add how was I to know all the details because the order comprised everything what one could think of.

[PrudentRegret]

Also from the examination of August Frank, author of NO-725. "Aktion Reinhardt" pertained to a conference between Himmler and the Finance Ministry. Then Himmler gave Globocnik the order and formalized it in NO-724. This was "Operation Reinhardt"

Q. Witness, yesterday I started with asking you about Document NO-724, Exhibit 472, and we had started with the preliminary question about the problem, how the confiscation of the Jewish property came about in Germany, and you mentioned that the confiscation of the Jewish property actually was not a matter with which the SS or the WVHA dealt, but rather that it was based on laws, and that it was carried out by the Reich Finance Ministry. Where did you get your knowledge from which you told us about yesterday?

A. I get that knowledge partly from official sources and partly from my own personal knowledge. The official sources were known to every German. A whole series of laws were established, as I already mentioned yesterday. These laws began before the war, and they were continued during the war. Mostly the Reich Finance Ministry, the Reich Justice Ministry, the Four-Year Plan, participated in all these laws. I am sorry if I have to mention the Reich Finance Ministry in this particular connection. However, I owe this to both my comrades and the truth. Maybe the SS has a long criminal record, but one thing you cannot reprach the SS with, and that is that the SS enriched itself with the gold of the Jews. It was not the SS that recast the gold in the State Mint. It was not the SS that used the foreign exchange. It was not the SS either which sold the Jews' pawn shops. That, for the benefit of the truth, has to be established.

...

Q. That is sufficient, Witness, and we will leave this subject. Now, when was it that the WVHA for the first time made use of Jewish property?

A. That was in July 1942. That was when the Chief of the WVHA, Pohl, had a conference with the Reichsbank Vice-President, Puhl, P-u-h-l.

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This conference was preceded by another conference between the Reichsfuehrer Himmler and the Reichsbank president Funk who at the same time was Reich Economy Minister. Probably, at the same time, as can be seen from the documents, there was a conference Himmler-Krosigk, the Reich Finance Minister. It will be possible for me, to prove on the basis of the documents, that the WVHA a very short while before that, had not been included in the affair at all, and knew nothing at all about it.

Q. You just said that they knew nothing about it. Do you mean by this the term "Reinhardt Action"? Or do you mean the confiscation of Jewish property, generally speaking?

A. I would like to say as of now in answering this question the following: When the Action Reinhardt is mentioned, then at that particular moment when I was in the WVHA, it could never have been the extermination action. I would like to point out clearly that the Reinhardt Action, the term as such, was always known to the WVHA as an economic use action, an action where the Jewish property could be utilized. It was approximately six weeks after the conference between Pohl and Puhl when the WVHA received a draft of an order from Lublin which bore Himmler's initials and which was the authentic basis for NO-724.

So Frank outright says: "Operation Reinhardt" was "an economic use action, an action where the Jewish property could be utilized." And "it could never have been the extermination action."

[bombsaway]

PR, this is a very selective reading of witness testimony

You seem to put Frank forward as a trustworthy witness, someone who wouldn't deny personal involvement with mass murder to escape harsher sentencing.

Yet he affirmed the existence of a genocidal program at the trials

Q Witness, after you heard Himmler's speech in Posen, you had no doubt that the policy of the Reich and the policy of the SS were committed to the extermination of the Jews, did you?

A Yes, quite.

JUDGE PHILLIPS: Was that in '42 or '43?

MR. ROBBINS: '43; Your Honor, October.

BY MR. ROBBINS:

Q You say you did not have any doubt?

A It was in October 1943 when I heard Himmler's speech at Posen and I heard it as Chief of the Administration of the Police.

Q And at that time it became clear to you that the policy of the Reich was the extermination of the Jews? I did not quite get your answer?

A No doubt could be possible anymore after that. As a man of thinking faculties I had to deduce from Himmler's speech what he wanted to say.

I don't think you can have it both ways. From wikipedia

Frank's lawyer claimed Frank "did not work for the political aims of National Socialism." This position was rejected by the court:

It is futile to claim that the program of extermination of the Jews, or the ravaging of the Eastern countries, or the program of enforced slave labor, or the devastation of conquered territory, stemmed from National Socialist policy but not from the Reich. The SS, in which Frank attained the high rank of Obergruppenfuehrer, was a National Socialist agency, and anyone who worked, as Frank did, for 8 years in the higher councils of that agency cannot successfully claim that he was separated from its political activities and purposes.[1]

In particular, Frank at his trial claimed he only became aware of the Jewish extermination program after hearing Himmler's Posen speech on 4 October 1943, a month after he had left the WVHA. By this time, the Nazis had nearly completed the mass killings of the Jews of Poland and nearby areas of Eastern Europe in what has become known as Action Reinhard, also known as Operation Reinhard and the Reinhard action. Frank handled the huge amount of personal property that was either robbed from the Jews while they were alive or stolen from their bodies (there were 2,000 car loads of textiles, for instance[1]). In his 26 September 1942 memorandum, Frank had chosen to designate this property as "Jewish concealed and stolen goods."[1] The court rejected Frank's claim that he couldn't have known of the source of these goods:

But even if we were to give Frank's contention full faith and credit (which we do not), we come to the inescapable conclusion that if he was not a confederate in murder he certainly was in larceny. By what process of law or reason did the Reich become entitled to one hundred million Reichsmarks' worth of personal property owned by persons whom they had enslaved and who died, even from natural causes, in their servitude? Robbing the dead, even without the added offense of killing, is and always has been a crime. And when it is organized, planned, and carried out on a hundred-million-mark scale, it becomes an aggravated crime, and anyone who takes part in it is a criminal.[1]

Frank claimed that he didn't know and had no reason to know that the people from whom the property had come from had been murdered en masse; he testified that he thought all the property accumulating from Operation Reinhard had come from Jews who had died naturally in concentration camps. The court rejected this contention, relying again on the categories of property Frank had dealt with in his 26 September 1942 memorandum :

It is difficult to imagine a convoy of Jews from the East, packed so tightly into freight cars that many died, carrying with them for their comfort and convenience such items as electric razors, feather beds, umbrellas, thermos jugs, and baby carriages. It is equally incredible that they would be able to keep such articles in the concentration camps until they died of natural causes. It is fair to assume that the prisoners who froze to death or who died from exhaustion and exposure were not equipped with feather beds, quilts, and woolen blankets. Nor can it be believed that before being herded off to Auschwitz or Lublin they were given an opportunity to gather up their collections of old coins and stamps with which to amuse themselves during their idle time.[1]

Acquitted of mass murder
Although the court had ruled that Frank was criminally answerable for the slave labor program and the looting of Jewish property, he escaped criminal liability for the murders themselves, as the court viewed him as generally being only involved after the people had already been murdered.[1]

he testified that he thought all the property accumulating from Operation Reinhard had come from Jews who had died naturally in concentration camps.

PR, is this your belief as well?

Also I should point out that there has been no response from you to my posts on the previous page, maybe you missed them.

[Nessie]

...

The deportation of 300,000 Jews from Warsaw was not "Operation Reinhard." Globocnik's responsibility for the confiscated property- sorting it and transporting it to the Reich Ministry of Finance - was Operation Reinhardt. This was named after the State Secretary Reinhardt of the Finance Ministry which was the ultimate recipient of the confiscated valuables.

What was the operation that resettled 300,000 Jews from Warsaw in the east, once AR had seized all their property? Which ministry ran that operation? Who was the overall commander? Is there any record of Globocnik meeting that person to coordinate his role with seizing all of their property, with the other's role of resettling the people?