Operation Reinhard

Operation Reinhard (German: Aktion Reinhard) was Nazis’ code-name for the extermination of the Jews that lived in the so-called General Government in Poland. It concerned 2 million Jews. A total of 1 ¾ million Jews from Poland, the Soviet Union and Western Europe were killed during a mere 17 months in the three Operation Reinhard extermination camps: Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka.

Operation Reinhard was named after Reinhard Heydrich, Hitler’s Chief of the Security Police and Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, as a last tribute to the man that was one of the masterminds behind the plan to exterminate the Jews in the General Government. Heydrich was shot at an assassination attempt in May 1942 and died a month later. The Operation lasted from March 1942 to November 1943 and was thus finished within 1½ years. The carrying out of the Operation took place in three extermination camps situated in the General Government (eastern part of Nazi-controlled Poland): Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka.

The camps had only one purpose: to kill the more than 2 million Jews that lived in the General Government. Later Jews from all over Europe were also transported to the camps and murdered. A small number of gypsies shared the fate of the Jews.

The three camps were not concentration camps, but pure extermination camps – also known as death camps. In many cases the time between arrival and death (and subsequent burning) was only a few hours. Only very few Jews, between 700 and 1,000, were used as workers in the camps. But they as well had to give up their lives after a brief period of time – as victims of Nazi bullets or gas.

The order to initiate Operation Reinhard, issued by SS-chief Heinrich Himmler to SS-Brigadeführer Odilo Globocnik, has never been found in writing. But following the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, where the extermination of the Jews was undeniably discussed, an organisation was established to exterminate all of the Jews in the General Government.

The organisational management of the Operation was put in the hands of Odilo ”Globus” Globocnik, SS- and Police Chief in the Lublin District of the General Government. The head of the criminal police in Stuttgart, Christian Wirth, who had gained experience in gassing people to death during his time in the Euthanasia Programme, became responsible for the practical implementation of Operation Reinhard. Lublin became the centre of the organisation, implementation and continuation of the Operation.

Each of the camps was staffed with 20-35 SS-men, of whom many came from Operation T4 (the Euthanasia Programme), and with 90-150 cruel Ukrainian or Volksdeutsche guards. The latter group acted as controllers, making sure that the Jewish workers fulfilled their tasks, and they made sure that no one escaped.

All of the camps used exhaust gas from diesel- or petrol engines. The gas was led into the gas chambers, where it killed the victims. It quickly became clear that the number of gas chambers was inadequate considering the scale of the Operation, and more gas chambers were constructed. Between 350 and 750 people could be squeezed into these terrible facilities of mass destruction. After the gassing, the bodies were thrown into large mass graves. The bodies were later burned.

Heinrich Himmler terminated Operation Reinhard on 19 October 1943 – only after it had been a great success for the Nazis. A total of 1,75 million Jews had been murdered, and there were no more Jews in the ghettos of Eastern Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Ukraine and Byelorussia.

As the Red Army advanced towards the camps, the evidence had to be destroyed before the public came aware of what had happened. The Nazis tried to erase all traces of the camps and planted trees, for instance, when they had destroyed the extermination facilities.

> Belzec
> Sobibor
> Treblinka

> 'The Operation Reinhard FAQ by The Nizkor Project' - external link
> 'Yad Vashem's material regarding Operation Reinhard on Nizkor' - external link

Literature:

Yitzhak Arad, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka. The Operation Reinhard Death Camps (Bloomington, IN, 1987).

© 2002 by Peter Vogelsang & Brian B. M. Larsen. All rights reserved