Much of the debate between revisionists and the mainstream centers around the purpose of the so-called "Operation Reinhardt" camps which are designated in common parlance (but not in Documents) as Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. This is a thread to take a step back and nail down exactly what Aktion Reinhardt was: what it denoted, who was in charge, how it was carried out. The mainstream interpretation of Operation Reinhardt is wrong and untenable.
I spent some time discussing the issue of Aktion Reinhardt with some people from the Skeptic Forum/Holocaust Controversies blog. The thread is here, although I do not exactly recommend reading through the whole thread as there is a lot of back-and-forth and the Skeptic forum has since removed the ability to embed images in the thread, removing a lot of context of the original discussion: Aktion Reinhardt discussion on Skeptic Forums
What was Operation Reinhardt?
The mainstream position is that Aktion Reinhardt denoted the secret plan to exterminate the Jews of General Government. The story goes, this policy was assigned by Himmler directly to Globocnik, the SS and Police Leader (SSPF) of the District Lublin, and it was named in honor of Reinhard Heydrich who had been assassinated by partisans in Prague.
The position which will be proposed here is that Aktion Reinhardt denoted a large-scale operation for the collection, sorting, delousing, transportation, and distribution of confiscated Jewish property in the General Government. This interpretation is not exactly new. It was in fact identified as such in the General Findings of the WVHA trial from the NMT (1950):
The latter interpretation has also been accepted by a few mainstream historians, which I'll discuss shortly, but the consensus among historians is fervently that AR was the name of the policy to exterminate the Jews. This position is untenable, but it's a big problem for the mainstream because they lack any alternative policy framework to point to in order to explain how the extermination operation was supposedly organized.The purpose of the action [Reinhardt] was to gather into the Reich all the Jewish manpower and wealth which could be reached.
Lastly, some Revisionists including Carlo Mattogno have briefly acknowledged the revised interpretation of AR, the interpretation concluded by the NMT, and presented a mild endorsement of it without digging too deeply or analyzing the implications of this being true, especially as this pertains to Globocnik's camps.
Reinhard or Reinhardt?
One of the core controversies surrounding the meaning of "Operation Reinhardt" has been the debate over who this operation was named after. The mainstream consensus is that this operation was named after Reinhard Heydrich. I mentioned earlier that some historians acknowledge that this operation was named after the State Secretary of the Reich Ministry of Finance, Reinhard Heydrich. For example, mainstream historian Joseph Poprzeczny who wrote a fairly recent biography on Globocnik:
Why is this an important issue? The orthodox DeathCamps website notes (my emphasis):In fact, the term "Aktion Reinhardt" was originally the codename for the seizure of Jewish wealth and property. However, this is complicated by the fact that this robbing of the victims was sometimes even referred to as "Eisatz R," with the word Reinhardt stemming not from Reinhard Heydrich's given name but from a Fritz Reinhardt, a senior Reich Finance Ministry official.
...
I accept that the name was taken from Fritz Reinhardt, a Reich Finance Ministry official, not from the SS-Gruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich, as so many contend. Professor Ian Kershaw says of Fritz Reinhardt that he "hinted at the regime's interest in the material outcome of the mass murder of around 1.75 million Jews (mainly from Poland).... Mistakenly, SS-men involved in the 'Action' attributed the name to Reinhard Heydrich."
Essentially the mainstream admits that if AR was named after Reinhardt then that implies AR was not an extermination policy. So they really cannot concede this point. But logically there are many, many points in favor of the fact that it was named after Reinhardt:
3. Another work has suggested that the code name was taken from the name of the State Secretary in the Reich Finance Ministry, Fritz Reinhardt. Mistakenly, SS men involved in the "Aktion" attributed the name to Reinhard Heydrich.
4. This theory has been strenuously disputed. "The notion that Operation Reinhard was a program for collecting and exploiting Jewish property and was named after the State Secretary of the Finance Ministry, Fritz Reinhardt, is seemingly without foundation and finds no support in the surviving documents."
5. It does seem inherently unlikely that a murderous operation of the complexity of "Aktion Reinhard" would be named after an economist. The implication of naming the "Aktion" after Fritz Reinhardt is that the prime motivation was the expropriation of Jewish property.
- Although there is inconsistency in the spelling of "Reinhardt", sometimes spelled as "Reinhard" or much less commonly "Reinhart", the "Reinhardt" spelling is the most common and the one used consistently in the most official documents (i.e. stamps, official reports to Himmler, WVHA documentation, etc.)
- A priori it makes much more sense for the operation to be named after the real spelling of Reinhardt's last name than a misspelling of Heydrich's first name.
- The Reich Ministry of Finance was the ultimate recipient of the proceeds of the operation. AR was an enormous logistical challenge with the transportation, sorting, and documentation of all manner of valuables, and they were ultimately transported to WVHA headquarters and deposited into an account at the Reichsbank owned and operated by the Reich Ministry of Finance.
- High-level personnel from the Reichsbank confirmed that the ultimate management and delivery of the valuables was overseen by negotiation between the Reich Ministry of Finance, Himmler, and the Reichsbank.
- Fritz Reinhardt, the State Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, was a high-profile political figure who was deeply involved in other economic initiatives like the "Reinhardt Program", "Reinhardt Funds". Reinhardt also signed decrees directing the confiscation of Jewish property, like the Eleventh Ordinance, so Reinhardt was directly involved in policy governing the confiscation of Jewish property for years before AR. Consider this testimony from the WVHA trial:
Q. What did you think the Reinhardt Fund was?
A. The Reinhardt Fund I understood or thought to understand that the state secretary Reinhardt from the Reich Finance Ministry, who was an exponent of the Part and who was a friend of Schwerin von Krusiqk, who was Reich Finance Minister, had placed those funds at the disposal of the DWB. Reinhardt was also known to me from his work and his activity during peacetime for the very simple reason that he introduced in Germany communal administration in the big Reinhardt Reform which was the real taxation reform. He also established the Reinhardt Interest Bonuses. He compiled and wrote several books about taxation laws. Apart from that, all new taxes and finance reforms were actually taken care of by Reinhardt according to both the press and the propaganda. Furthermore, Reinhardt was written with "dt" at the end in this letter and as far as I know today Reinhard is spelled with a "d" at the end rather than a "dt". Apart from that, Herr Pohl once called me to his office, in Frank's presence, and told me that the Reich Finance Ministry wanted to give a credit to the DWB, if this would be possible.
All I could understand from this was that this was actually a fund which was placed at the disposal of the DWB by the second highest official in the Reich Finance Ministry.
BY JUDGE MUSMANNO:
Q. May I ask a question, please?
Is it customary for the name of the Minister to be attached to a purely governmental function?
A. I'm afraid the translation didn't quite get through, Your Honor.
Q. I'll put the question very specifically. The Reinhardt of whom you speak was Assistant Minister of the Treasury? Is that what I understand? Ministry of Finance, yes?
A. Yes, that's right. Graf Schwerin von Krossigk was the Minister. The State Secretary was Reinhardt. Schwerin von Krossigk was the professional man and was Reich Minister even prior to 1933, and state secretary Reinhardt was SA Obergruppenfuehrer.
Q. Anything coming out of the Ministry of Finance wouldn't bear the name of the Minister as such, would it, being a purely governmental operation?
A. Yes, but as I have stated before, the real taxation reform was also called the Reinhardt real tax reform. I have to understand from that if this fund is called "the Reinhardt Fund" that the Reich Finance Ministry placed certain monies at the disposal of the DWB.
Q. I can understand how, in the newspapers, the name could be attached to the operation, but, within the government itself, if it is a governmental action, I cannot understand why the name Reinhardt would be used.
A. Yes, Mr. Federal Judge, such names in particular were chosen. You see, series of actions received the names of leading personalities. The reason why this was done was that the Fuehrer principle was to be shown more clearly by doing that.
In Germany, even in governmental circles, one never spoke of a cabinet or a government, one always spoke of the man.
BY DR. GAWLIK:
Q. Witness, perhaps you can answer the following question.
Would you please explain to the Tribunal, witness, the personality of the Finance Minister Schwerin Krossigk and the personality of Reinhardt. Tell us which of the two was the most important person and why it was not at all difficult to understand that fund wasn't called according to the name Schwerin von Krossigk but rather according to the State Secretary? what part did von Krossigk play in social life and what was the role of Mr. Reinhardt in public life?
A. Mr. Defense Counsel, if I, as a rather young person, have to give you a judgment or my opinion on these two personalities I have to say that von Krossigk was the most important one of the two because he was a sensible, professionally very skilled man who, step by step, actually worked his way up to the position of Minister. Even in the democratic regime, Herr Reinhardt, up to 1933, was nothing but a simple teacher in a business school. It was only through the help of the Party that he became a SA-Gruppenfuehrer and SA Obergruppenfuehrer. It was he then who was placed a bit higher as an exponent of the Party, and all these things which von Krossigk had done to the German Reich while working hard, the financing, etc, all this, during the war, was said to have been done by Reinhardt. You could read in the paper: "Herr Reinhardt, and Reinhardt again." Reinhardt held speeches at every conference. The people in the Finance Ministry knew that the real man behind it all was von Krossigk. Others knew that, but we all knew that Reinhardt would be the one credited with everything. That was the reason that I didn't have a single doubt that Reinhardt was the man who had given the fund. - Fritz Reinhardt was even featured in the film Triumph of the Will, demonstrating he was a high-profile figure. It makes sense that a large-scale operation directing the confiscation and utilization of Jewish property would be named after the high-profile figure involved in governing that policy and whose ministry was the ultimate owner of the valuables confiscated throughout the course of the action.
No previous discussion on the "Reinhardt" naming controversy has acknowledged this evidence and Nick Terry et al. were not aware of it, so I can say that this is a unique piece of evidence I found as I was digging into this issue.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.
Implications of Aktion Reinhardt as an economic operation
Accepting that AR was an economic initiative for the utilization of confiscated Jewish property throughout the course of resettlement provides an alternative interpretation to Globocnik's operations in the General Government.
Globocnik was given a secret assignment that covered the General Government. But this assignment was not to secretly exterminate the Jews of General Government. The assignment was for SSPF Lublin to act as the chief administrator and recipient of all confiscated Jewish property, particularly clothing and jewelry, throughout the course of resettlement. To enact this, a department under SSPF Lublin IVa, Einsatz Reinhardt (see stamp above) was created under the Administrative branch to administer confiscated Jewish property.
This was an enormous initiative. It required many camps where this property was collected, searched, sorted. Useless property was destroyed. Clothing was deloused and sent to the Airfield camp in Lublin, the chief Headquarters of the SS Clothing Works which came under the command of Christian Wirth.
The connection of the SS Clothing Works to Treblinka is established by train transport documents:
The origin is "Treblinka", the sender is the Bekleidungswerk der Waffen-SS, Aussenstelle Lublin, or the Clothing Works of the Waffen-SS, Lublin Office. But wait, why is the "Lublin office" of the SS Clothing Works sending a shipment of fur form "Treblinka" to Lublin? Obviously, it had a branch in the Warsaw district which would have been ultimately under the command of Christian Wirth. This was T-II.
Treblinka as a sorting camp of the SS-Bekleidungswerk, Lublin
Revisionists in the past have suggested that Treblinka was either an extermination camp or a transit camp, there is not other option. I have come to disagree with this claim. There is another option, which is that Treblinka II was an outpost of the SS Clothing Works under Christian Wirth. As a Jewish workcamp, it would have been a primary camp for collecting, sorting, delousing, destroying useless property confiscated throughout the course of the deportations in the Warsaw district. The sorted and processed property would then be routed to the Aktion Reinhardt headquarters in Lublin (as the document here shows). It's worth acknowledging here that the only document designating the functionality of T-II designates it as an Arbeitslager, which would fit the interpretation I am proposing.
It's important to recognize that even the mainstream admits that T-II was a property sorting camp. They claim this was a side-effect/dual purpose, and the primary purpose was a secret extermination facility. I am claiming the primary purpose of T-II was to collect and sort personal property and valuables confiscated from Jewish settlers. An important implication of this is that not all the property collected or sorted at T-II was carried on-site by deportees.
There were other sorting camps that were very similar to the property sorting operation at Treblinka, Belzec, and Sobibor. I created a post on the Axis History Forum that compares the sorting-camp functionality of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka described by witnesses to images of the Pabianince sorting camp in the Warthegau. This thread demonstrates that the functionality of the Pabianince sorting camp perfectly mirrors the functionality described at Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka.
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.
While Revisionists have suggested that T-II served as a transit camp for the Warsaw District, I am suggesting it served as a sorting camp for the Warsaw District. That would make it less like Sobibor and more like the Pabianince sorting camp.
But where did they go?
This hypothesis in some ways kicks the can for the "where did they go" debate, but it still presents an important development. The mainstream, when they ask that question, are taking it for granted that the last known location of 800,000 - 1 million Jewish deportees was T-II. This is false. There is in fact no train documentation establishing that T-II itself was the primary destination of the deportees. There is in fact no documentation at all establishing this. All the mainstream does is assume that the "T" in the Hofle telegram denotes the exact camp we call T-II. That is not an assumption that should be granted because it is not supported by the evidence. The "best" evidence for it is the witness testimony, which is notoriously inconsistent and anachronistic.
"Witnesses" could not even formulate a basic layout of the what the camp was supposed to look like. There were published claims in the international press of an extermination camp at Treblinka before T-II even opened. None of the train documents specify T-II as the destination for deportation trains, and there is no documentation at all for the transport of any settlers to T-II. The "Treblinka extermination camp" seems to be an amalgamation of the nearby Malkinia junction, the Treblinka train station, Treblinka I, and Treblinka II. This inconsistent narrative coalesced around T-II due to the material culture found there- the large volume of discarded personal property. This is also what happened at Majdanek, as investigators interpreted the property delousing and storage facilities as providing the infrastructure for mass murder.
The existence of T-II is fully explained by the understanding of Aktion Reinhardt as an economic initiative for the administration of confiscated Jewish property. It explains the administrative interest of SSPF Lublin in T-II. It explains the documentary evidence, including documentation referring to this as a work camp. It also explains the archaeological evidence. It is well-known that Caroline Coll's archaelogical investigation of Treblinka uncovered no mass graves, but it did uncover a large amount of discarded personal property. The flawed assumption is that this personal property had to have been brought on-site by deportees rather than transported there specifically to be sorted and deloused as part of the GG-wide AR operation. It also explains Globocnik's extensive final reports to Himmler which are purely economic in nature and make no hint of any extermination operation.
T-II was one of many camps involved in Aktion Reinhardt. But this does not mean that it was an extermination camp or even a transit camp. There were many such camps that were composed of sorting facilities and workshops. T-II was likely a camp of that category rather than a transit facility like Sobibor.
T-II is several Km from the Malkinia junction which likely served as the "transit" hub as this is exactly what it was. It is also unlikely that all the deported settlers were even brought there. Butterfangers recently had an excellent thread which casts serious doubt on the dubious assumption that all the deportees were transported to T-II.
T-II wouldn't even be the first work camp "mistaken" as an extermination camp
The SS-Bekleidungswerk, Lublin also operated in Majdanek. The controversial delousing facilities were constructed on their work orders as shown by construction documents procured by Mattogno. It is well-known that Soviet investigators and witnesses falsely concluded that roughly 2 million people were murdered at Majdanek. If you ask Sergey Romanov why this happened, he will tell you that they came to this conclusion by observing the enormous warehouses of clothing and shoes. The "investigators" and witnesses had mistaken the warehouses of confiscated personal property as the "remains" of victims who had ostensibly been murdered on-site.
T-II, then, would just be yet another sorting camp and property storage depot mistaken as an extermination camp. The undoubtedly large piles of clothing and shoes, along with the hidden valuables which financed a well-known black market in the Treblinka area are all similar circumstances that would cause witnesses and "investigators" to assume a mass murder/cremation operation at a camp which was in fact dedicated to managing large volumes of confiscated property.
The orthodox position says that Aktion Reinhardt was the code-name for the extermination of the Jews. But if you ask them to provide a single document where "Reinhardt" was actually used as a code to describe this, they cannot provide a single document. On the other hand, there are literally thousands of documents which use the "Reinhardt" code-name to pertain specifically to the administration of confiscated property. The very first known document containing the "Reinhardt" codename pertained to a provisioning request for suitcases from a storage warehouse:
The mainstream clings to the interpretation of AR as the extermination codeword because they have no alternative. But it was in fact a secret economic operation that spanned the General Government and Auschwitz, and which was administered by SSPF Lublin and overseen by the WVHA and Himmler. The ultimate beneficiary of the financial proceeds was the Reich Ministry of Finance, of which Fritz Reinhardt was State Secretary. This economic initiative was named after him, and T-II served this purpose on behalf of SSPF Lublin in the Warsaw District.
This is a high level summary, there is a lot more detail I could go into on individual issues which I'll probably touch on later in the thread.
