Was the authentic Franke-Gricksch report discovered ?

[Reviso]

In the last number of Inconvenient History, Chip Smith (in an article about David Cole's book), writes :
"the authentic Franke-Gricksch inspection report (which wasn’t discovered until 2010 and is not mentioned by Cole) explicitly discusses the eastern program as a plunder operation, makes no reference to gassing, and includes population assessments that are plainly at odds with the numbers in the “final” Korherr report (which, it should be noted, has been disavowed by Korherr himself)"

It's here :
http://inconvenienthistory.com/archive/ ... animal.php

Do you know where the authentic Franke-Gricksch report was published ? Thanks in advance.
R.

[hermod]

In the last number of Inconvenient History, Chip Smith (in an article about David Cole's book), writes :
"the authentic Franke-Gricksch inspection report (which wasn’t discovered until 2010 and is not mentioned by Cole) explicitly discusses the eastern program as a plunder operation, makes no reference to gassing, and includes population assessments that are plainly at odds with the numbers in the “final” Korherr report (which, it should be noted, has been disavowed by Korherr himself)"

It's here :
http://inconvenienthistory.com/archive/ ... animal.php

Do you know where the authentic Franke-Gricksch report was published ? Thanks in advance.
R.

Is this - http://www.deathcamps.org/reinhard/frankegricksch.html - what you're looking for?

Not to be confused with the Franke-Gricksch"Resettlement Action Report" (http://codoh.com/library/document/2347/).

[Reviso]

Thanks fo the reply. If that is the document intended by Chip Smith, it seems hat he is wrong when he says that "the authentic Franke-Gricksch inspection report (...) wasn’t discovered until 2010"...
R.

[hermod]

Thanks fo the reply. If that is the document intended by Chip Smith, it seems hat he is wrong when he says that "the authentic Franke-Gricksch inspection report (...) wasn’t discovered until 2010"...
R.

And he says that the document corroborates the numbers of the Korherr report. I haven't seen such a thing in that document.

He also says that Korherr disavowed his report. That's not true (as far as I know). Korherr only said that his report didn't deal with murdered Jews, only with population transfers.

[TheBlackRabbitofInlé]

In the last number of Inconvenient History, Chip Smith (in an article about David Cole's book), writes :
"the authentic Franke-Gricksch inspection report (which wasn’t discovered until 2010 and is not mentioned by Cole) explicitly discusses the eastern program as a plunder operation, makes no reference to gassing, and includes population assessments that are plainly at odds with the numbers in the “final” Korherr report (which, it should be noted, has been disavowed by Korherr himself)"

It's here :
http://inconvenienthistory.com/archive/ ... animal.php

Chip Smith was probably relying on what Samuel Crowell wrote in his 2011 book—Smith is Crowell's publisher after all.

Here's what Crowell wrote:

THE FRANKE-GRICKSCH REPORT

The Franke-Gricksch report that most people are familiar with is a two-page document purporting to be an "extract" from a larger report. This two-page extract is titled "Resettlement Action of the Jews," and is typed in German with several errors. It was first quoted by an American historian and then subsequently used as a centerpiece in Gerald Fleming's Hitler and the Final Solution in 1987. The value of the extract, if authentic, is that it would constitute the sole contemporaneous eyewitness document describing a gassing at Auschwitz.

Some background is necessary. Alfred Franke-Gricksch was an officer in the SS Personnel Office, working under SS General Maximilian von Herff. Together they took an inspection tour of SS camps in occupied Poland between May 4 and May 16, 1943. The two-page document about Jewish exterminations purports to be an extract of the travel diary for that tour. Revisionists have disputed the document for twenty years, the most thorough dissection of the document coming from the Canadian Brian Renk in 1991. [44]

Extracts from a purported alternative version of the Franke-Gricksch report have circulated on the Internet for several years. Finally, in 2010, the British historian David Irving located the entire report, along with a British summary analysis, and several other documents explaining the provenance of the report (it was found in von Herff's papers when he was taken into British custody in May 1945), the source of the extant English translation (a single German-language original which has vanished), and the timing of the discovery and preliminary analysis (the transfer documents are dated May 24, 1945). [45]

The surrounding documents show that the English translation is complete, since the British intelligence summary matches the report point for point. Moreover, the complete report provides exactly what one would expect to find from an inspection journal written by a personnel officer in the SS, namely, a detailed discussion, along with recommendations, concerning SS personnel issues. There is nothing in the report about mass killings, as noted in the British intelligence summary. In fact, the inspection report begins at Auschwitz on May 4, 1943—the first bombing of Auschwitz took place that night—and then moves along the southern tier of Poland to Lemberg (Lviv) in Galicia. There is no place in the report for a separate codicil or appendix to describe gassings at Auschwitz; the British intelligence officers make no reference to it, although they clearly had the entire report on hand, and furthermore a description of gassings would be completely at odds with the tenor of the report as it stands. It follows therefore that the two-page "extract" from the Franke-Gricksch report, relied upon in succession by Sydnor, Fleming, and Pressac, is a spurious document.

But how was this spurious document created? A possible explanation lies in the fact that the British files no longer contain the German language original. We can surmise that the original was passed on to other parties who were in the process of preparing prosecution documents for the Nuremberg trials, and then someone in the chain of custody decided to withdraw the original report and substitute an inauthentic extract. Somewhere along the line the false document fell into the hands of the American who later provided it to Sydnor in the mid-1970s, and then it was conveyed to Fleming.

Although there is nothing about mass killing in the authentic Franke-Gricksch report, there is extensive commentary about Jewish forced labor, much of it accompanied by a breezy and smug anti-Semitism, with occasional flashes of hatred, as in the passage where the Jewish fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto rebellion are described as "the scum of the earth." Other parts of the report definitely support a revisionist interpretation. For example, Aktion Reinhardt is explicitly described as a plunder operation, as the British intelligence summary conceded. At one point, Franke-Gricksch remarks that Jewish deportees at Poniatowa who have recently arrived from the Warsaw Ghetto uprising "know that as long as they work and as long as they are able to work, nothing will happen to them," which does not concur with the traditional narrative.

The greatest contradiction with standard historiography comes from Franke-Gricksch's description of the number of Jewish camps and their prisoner populations, including several camps in Lublin, Lemberg (Lviv), as well as Poniatowa, where he claims that 50,000 to 80,000 Jews were imprisoned, which, remarkably, is even greater than the total population of Auschwitz, given at 54,000 in May 1943. Poniatowa and most of the other camps mentioned in the report were in the Lublin district, which directly contradicts the claim in the Korherr report, issued just one month previously, that the Jewish population in the province of Lublin could be "estimated" at 20,000.

There is further independent corroboration of the statements in the Franke-Gricksch report. In the well-known Stroop Report (1061-PS), describing the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto, the word "vernichtet" ("destroyed") is repeatedly used to describe the captured Jews, and, furthermore, groups of Jews are said to have been "vernichtet" by transport to "T II," which the American staff analysis of the document confidently but erroneously identifies as the "extermination compound of the Trawniki camp near Lublin." Yet in his postwar interrogations Stroop insisted that to his knowledge the Jews captured in Warsaw were sent to Lublin, although it is unclear whether he meant the city or the province. In fact, the survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto were distributed among Poniatowa, Trawniki, Majdanek and several other camps, and, in reference to "T II"—which actually is a reference to Treblinka—via that camp. [46] Thus the Franke-Gricksch Report, the Stroop Report, and Stroop's postwar interrogations all point to the distribution of the participants of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising to camps in Lublin province, even though they had been in violent confrontation with German troops, and even though they passed through a camp supposedly designed for their extermination.

There is a footnote to add. In 1977, Korherr wrote to Der Spiegel protesting the claim that the 1.274 million in Point #4 referred to Jews who had been killed. He claimed that he had called Himmler's offices precisely because he did not know the meaning of the phrase "special treatment" (Sonderbehandlung) in this context. He went on, "I received the answer that it referred to Jews who were to be settled in the district of Lublin." The authentic Franke-Gricksch report confirms this claim.



44. Brian A. Renk, "The Franke-Gricksch 'Resettlement Action Report': Anatomy of a Fabrication," Journal of Historical Review 11, no. 3 (Fall 1991): 261-279.

45. Franke-Gricksch report, PRO file WO 309/374; the intelligence summary, including the surrounding documentation that establishes the provenance and completeness of the report, is at PRO file WO 309/224.

46. Juergen Stroop Interrogation (NARA M1019) September 7, 1946. Barbara Schwindt, Das Konzentrations- and Vernichtungslager Majdanek, 209-220, provides detailed footnotes about all of the trains from the Warsaw Ghetto to numerous other camps, but she does not dispute that "T II" was the extermination camp Treblinka, nor does she appear to accept that the trains that ended up in other camps transited "T II."

- The Gas Chamber of Sherlock Holmes And Other Writings on the Holocaust, Revisionism, and Historical Understanding, Charleston, WV: Nine Banned Books, 2011, pp.345-347.

[Reviso]

It would be intersting to know if the authentic document was published by a mainstream historian, so that it can be quoted on mainstream sites.
IP

[TheBlackRabbitofInlé]

It would be intersting to know if the authentic document was published by a mainstream historian, so that it can be quoted on mainstream sites.

Below is my transcription of the entire 1945 translation of the FG travel report as found in WO 374/309.

The report is reproduce as is, I've the left in the abbreviations and not added any explanation of them. Any typos not followed by "[sic]" are likely my own, with the exception of the very frequent absence of umlauts within people's names and ranks. The practise of capitalising the names of people and places was mostly ignored in this translation, but if a name was capitalised in the translation it is also capitalised here:

Report on the Duty Journey through POLAND from. the 4th to 16th May 1943
by SS- Sturmbannführer FRANKE GRICKSCH.
-----------------------------------------------------------

I. Description of Journey Page 1 to Page 10

II. Experiences on personnel policy, Page 10

The Journey.
On Tuesday 4th May 1945 at 9.15, the plane left the Tempelhof Aerodrome. We landed at the aerodrome at KRAKOW at 1140 hrs after having had a pleasant trip from KOTTBUS and BRESLAU. The Commandant of the Aerodrome reported to SS Gpf HERSS. SS Ostbf HESS [sic] Commandant of the Concentration Camp at AUSCHWITZ reported immediately after.


AUSCHWITZ.
We carried on immediately and went to AUSCHWITZ Camp. At 1300 hrs we arrived at AUSCHWITZ, the leaders of the Camp were assembled and introduced to the Gpf. Amongst those were Oberführer. CAESAR who is in charge of all agricultural work as Stbf. After the Gpf had addressed the leaders and informed them of the purpose of his visit, he joined them at dinner.

In order to set a clear picture of the camp, its structure purpose, SS Ostbf HESS drove us round the whole camp area. The camp itself was an old Austrian hutted camp which had been extended to a small town by the work of SS Ostbf HESS. AUSCHWITZ camp in Germany. It covers about 18,000 morgen [sic] and has at the moment 54,000. Out of these 18,000 morgen, 8,000 are arable, 4,000 are fishbreeding and 3,000 are used for market gardening and green houses. They are breeding their own horses and keeping their own poultry farms. In 1932 (should probably read 1942) [sic] the breeding measures have produced 32,000 chicks. Besides, the camp has its own kennels with 500 picked animals specially trained to guard prisoners. The camp is to be gradually extended to hold 200,000 prisoners. It has got its own leather tannery, a factory for brushes, a butchers shop, bakery, cobblers shop, blacksmiths, a place for breeding pheasants, their own research institute (e.g. a research [sic] for diseases of plants) nurseries, plants of rubber, testing field for different kinds of corn, suitable for Eastern purposes. The best methods to get the most out of the soil are tried out in the camp in order to gain experience for the settlement. Special coal resisting fruit trees are being planted, and corn usually used in Kauhasus is being developed for the East.

The actual concentration camp is sub-divided into blocks for 10,000 each, and the Ustbf is to be in charge of each block. The inmates are jews, gypsies, poles [sic] and women. The camp has its own orchestra, which is conducted by the former Warsaw Radio Orchestra conductor.

The whole Polish Intelligentsia remain in this camp for life, and will be employed in laboratories and science research institutes, according to their knowledge. The jewish women who work in the chemical laboratories are students from the Sorbonne University.

Because of the Krupp-works in ESSEN having been practically destroyed, the transfer of these to Poland and the Auschwitz district has taken place. Three new factory sheds have been created in a comparatively short time in the camp which will after a month take over two-thirds of Krupp production of matches and will be run entirely by prisoner labour. The sheds are constructed in accordance with modern principles and give a clean and friendly impression.

In the agricultural sphere, they have succeeded in producing nice large fields by creating a large network of draining systems. This does not only enable them to work these fields very extensively but also to work it on a profitable basis. The small Polish farms and villages have been expropriated and the Polish farmers settled in different areas.

Near the completely neglected fishponds, dykes are being built by women, and in that way thousands of morgens of swampy meadow have been drained and the foundations for a new fishbreeding ground have been laid.

The guarding of the prisoners is done by a "Wachkommando" consisting of 13 companies each having 200 men. Each company has got a leader (an officer) and the 13 companies form a so-called. Lager-sturmbann which is commanded by a Stbf and one assistant.

The personnel reports of the Camp Commandant are very interesting. It is a very difficult task to cope with the individual groups of prisoners. The gypsies have to be treated differently from Poles, and the Poles differently from the Ukrainians. The hygiene question is a very heavy responsibility for the Administration, nearly all the inmates, especially the jews from the East and South-East have to be trained in this respect for they show a particular fear of keeping themselves clean. In parts there have to be very strict measures in order to train the prisoners out of superstition. When having a shower bath they wrap up their lice in a piece of paper and hide it in their mouth in order to have them in their new clothes as they are of the opinion that whoever has lice will not become ill.

After the inspection of the camp we drove through AUSCHWITZ. It is a completely neglected small town which had at one time 11,000 of which 8,000 were jews who have left now. The town has changed completely under German leadership. It is typical of Polish mismanagement, the sanitary conditions at AUSCHWITZ. An Artillery Regiment was stationed there for six years. There was neither light nor water laid on but only open wells which are dug near the latrines. These latrines were closed up when they were full and new ones opened a few yards further on so a rather interesting circulation, sewer, drinkwater, sewers, was a consequence. Neither the Polish Military authorities nor the medical officers have ever drawn the attention to the danger for the health of the troops.

Not far from AUSCHWITZ we saw a wonderful sign of the German strength in the 4th year. The HG built in a very short time, industrial works which extended over 12 kms square. These works were run mainly on foreign labour with the aid of prisoners. This establishment is one of largest chemical works in Germany and will commence production within a few months. They produce Buna (artificial rubber) petrol and a considerable amount of gases.

After a short talk with the Camp Commandant in his flat, we left AUSCHWITZ and arrived in KRAOW after a two hours trip


Weds 5 May 43 KRAKOW.
After a discussion in which SS Ogpf KRUGER [sic] and SS Gpf HEIFF [sic], and the officials concerned with personnel matters of the HSSPF and the Stabsfuhrer participated, we went to see the office of the HSSPF. SS Ogpf KRUGER gave us a report on the political situation in Poland and a report on the activities of his emissories.

After this report we went to see the SS and Police fuhrer of Cracow SS O/Fuhrer Scherner and then paid a visit to the Reichscommissar for consultation and Germinisation, then the SS Main Hospital at Cracow. SS Gpf Herff went through the different wards and talked to the wounded and received a report from the SMO on the work of the hospital. The first day of our visit was rounded off then by a party at the Castle where the people who work with the O/Gpf and the Commander of the Orpo, General Becker, Minister Rumelin and O/Stbf Schellin and the Governor of Cracow took part.


Thursday 6th May 1943
In the morning we visited first the Pioneer Bn stationed in Cracow. All five companies are led by young U/Stf who passed the Junker's School quite recently. The Bn is led by a H/Stf and the present strength is 1,200.

After the inspection of the Pioneer Bn, a man on the reserve who was a Professor of History in civil life showed us round the Castle, church, the grave of Pilsudsky and the locality of the Castle itself and the cathedral.

...............................

After we had seen the rooms of the Governor of Poland we went to the Department of O/Gruppenfuhrer Kruger which is situated in another part of the Castle. We had dinner in a small circle and in the afternoon we inspected farms and hospitals at Kobeircyn, near Cracow.

This plates was at one time a Mental Home which is very beautifully situated and is excellently suited for the purpose of looking after wounded. A small farm is attached to the hospital. The whole of the hospital is requisitioned by the HSS & PF. The 400 mental cases were evacuated and the buildings were placed at the disposal of the different organisations. The former SS Medical Officer has unfortunately not accepted the offer of the O/Gpf to use the hospital exclusively as a SS Home and Hospital. That is why the HJ and other organisations occupy part of it. It would have been most suited for a SS Convalescent Deport and Hospital with its own farms. The farm, which was formerly run by the Clergy and had been terribly neglected, has been changed into a model estate through the efficiency of the SS men. The Polish peasants who owned an adjoining estate were thrown out and now the whole estate, with its big grounds, is situated round the farm. The SS Fuhrer himself is very proud of his estate and this is an SS stronghold which has an agricultural task as well as a Germanic mission.

After that we spent the afternoon at the house of the leader in Cracow and discussed the political situation of the Gouvernement Poland, which is very critical at the moment. Single raids on Germans become more and more frequent. In the area of Lublin there are stronger activities of partisans. On 20th April there was an attempt on the life of O/Gpf Kruger and only because he was driving very fast did he escape. His car was hit is the back. In spite of traces of blood one could not detect the evildoers. The general public object to Frank and his Government because they see the only way to supply the civilian population with food, at least to a certain extent, is on the black market system. Everything is bought on the black market; even the Germans take part in that Black market, with the exception of the SS. They are well trained and strictly disciplined by SS O/Gpf Kruger. He has made it possible with the aid of his requisition drive to secure at least the essential food supplies for his men. The situation of the Poles is governed by the food situation. Even those Poles who are eager to be on good terms with the Germans have to come to the black market in order to obtain food. If a Pole earns only 150 zloty and has to pay 40 zloty for bread and 1,000 zloty for a pair of shoes, it goes without saying that the readiness to work for the Germans does not increase and that this Pole will hope for an improvement if the situation chances. The key to the Polish problem is therefore a definite organisation of the economic conditions and the food policy. Frank is completely incompetent. He has nursed the entire Polish aristocracy and moves in Polish circles who used him as a tool to hold their positions in [sic] the entire situation in the Gouvernment Poland is exactly the same an was the situation in the Protectorate (Czecho-Slovalcia) when Neurath was replaced by Heydrich.

As Gpf Herfe had to go to Berlin for the funeral of Stabschief Lutze we leave Cracow on Thursday at 1800 hrs for Berlin.

Sat 8 May 43, Cracow.
On Saturday we arrived 1830 in Cracow and are being met by SS Ogf Kreiger and Hptstf Timme. We continue our journey through Poland. In view of the very tense situation in the Gouvernment it is necessary that a car from the Special Escort Commando follows us.


Debica Camp.
We arrived at this Camp at 1700 hrs. Gpf Herfee is met by Brif Voss. After a long report given by the Brif (equivalent to Brigadier) on the situation and the occupation of the training area, we went to the Fuherer Home where the leaders of the Kommandatur and the leaders of the local troops are being introduced. Gpf Herfe addresses them and mentions a few words about the purpose of his journey and the desire and duties of an SS Fuherer at the present moment. After dinner we discussed questions concerning the training area in a small circle and continued our journey to Lwow at about 1530 hrs. The Camp looks clean and given [sic] the impression of being well looked after. The SS training square adjoins the one which belongs to the Wehrnacht and which is of equal size. Than [sic] enables the troops to carry out exercises on a grand scale. There is a good understanding between SS and Wehrmacht. There is also a biggish estate and forest which come under the command of the Camp.

Sun 9 May 43.
Here follows a long description of the German parts of Lwow, pointing out that owing to the energy of the SS Gpf in charge, the pet idea. of Himmler to have a self-contained German colony in each of the big Eastern states had materialised.

...............................

Just beyond Lwow we left the Galician plain and reached the Podolic This is completely different in climate as Galicia seems to belong to Europe in its landscape and structure, whereas the Podolic Highlands show the first signs of an Asiatic character. A depression and unlimited width lies over the land. When, in the afternoon, it started raining this depressive atmosphere comes out stronger still and we then realised very clearly that here Europe ends and the vast steppes of Asia begin. In Brezany we visited a resettlement camp for German farmers awaiting to be settled in Poland. Talking to these people and feeling the confidence in German greatness in their words and even in their looks, one is shamed to hear of the great sacrifices which they bear so modestly and in such a natural and simple way. Twice or three times their farms were burnt down by the Bolshevik terror gangs and time and again they have succeeded by their own efforts in building them up again.

An old woman told us how she lost her sons and daughters and how they deported her old husband to Siberia but In spite of all that she is pleased to help the Fuherer in Germany with the utmost energy at her command. The people in this camp have not only made material sacrifices, but without exception one or two of their members had remained behind in Siberia or were deported by the Bolskeviks.

...............................

Pomorzany.
In Pomorzany the is the estate of the Count of Potocki, a stronghold of the SS and a model estate. On these estates decisions of policy politic have been made and their repercussions on the fate of Europe and the present war were decisive. The American Ambassador had rented this castle estate for his personal use and often gave hunting parties. It is very interesting to hear old inhabitants of the castle talk of old times, After the breakdown of the Polish Army a considerable number of Polish officers gathered there and had heated discussions as to whether they could go to Roumania, to the Bolskeviks or to Germany as prisoners of war. The bigger part decided to go to Roumania and the smaller part to go to the Bolsheviks but none of them went to Germany.

...............................

Now the SS has taken over this estate and has turned it into a model estate everything is clean and looks very habitable. The estate itself, which includes many works, is today already as productive as at the time when it was worked by the Poles but this is only the beginning. It is a pure joy to see how, with comparatively small forces at their disposal (there is only one SS Fuherer and three SS men for an estate of 10,000 hectare) they have turned this completely neglected estate into a model estate.

...............................

Mon 10 May 43
Forced Labour Camps. Lwow. This Camp stands on the grounds of an old factory and through the initiative of Gpf Katzman it has grown to its present size. Over 30,000 Jews work in this camp. There is a Jewish Police force who are picked, well-built men with rubber truncheons and a long leather whip. Time and again one can see how, with the most brutal methods, they drive their own people to work and that they feel themselves completely their superiors. It is completely beyond the understanding of German people that among the Jews some of their own men are the worst slave drivers. Jewish women who are in charge of various departments and blocks run round with enormous whips to drive their own companions to work and it could be clearly seen that they do their job mercilessly. The more one sees of Jewish people in these camps, the more one comes to loathe them. They have no composure, no self-esteem and no will to resist, not even passively, no pride, neither in their general bearing or in their looks. On the contrary, they give way and try to make the best of the position they are in. It would be impossible to keep hundreds of Germanic people under control if only two or tree policemen were in charge of them. They would never allow themselves to be put in camps where a few SS men keep about ten or twenty thousand Jews in order and enforce their will upon them.

...............................

In the afternoon we moved on to another interesting place - the department which deals with all Jewish possessions and mobile property. An SS Oberscharfuhrer is in charge of the whole affair. He handles thousands and hundreds of thousands of Marks daily. He showed us precious stones of various sizes and gives us an explanation of their value and proves by documents what huge riches these Jews posses even when they might appear to be moneyless..


Wed 12 May 43 Lublin.
Visit to the Concentration Camp and Salvage Dump in Lublin and the and the office for the disposition of salvage. There are the usual institutions such as cobblers, tailors, blacksmiths, etc. A great part of this place has been switched over to war production. In the salvage depot, all things gained from the deportation of Jews are rendered useful by the Jews.

The blankets and linen coming from Jewish households arc being collected, cleaned and repaired or reformed into material for new production of cloth. This camp alone has delivered 1800 trucks of textiles for the last big drive for old material. In the workshops they are producing blankets, bedlinen and towels for the colonies and partly for the German Army. After inspecting this camp we go on to Traviniki. Here there is a small concentration camp to which a very big training camp is attached. This training camp at Traviniki has been established to train Russian prisoners of war who, after having been specially trained, will be used as guards for the concentration camps and forced labour camps throughout Poland. The enormous shortage of SS men for guarding concentration camps gave Gpf Globochnik the idea of sorting out Russian Prisoners of war and training them to make guards for the various camps under German supervision. Gps Globochnik received permission from the German Army High Command to take 10,000 prisoners out of the PW Camps for this purpose. Out of this number 4,000 Russian prisoners have so far been called up. These Russian Prisoners who are ear-marked as guards are being trained by German NCOs. They lean how to give commands and whilst they are being trained they choose their own NCOs from their own ranks, so that a Company, which is usually 200 men strong, is led by a Company Leader, who is German, with a German Scharfuhrer and, in some cases a Wachfuhrer whereas all the other NCOs are prisoners of war. These people from Traviniki Camp (or Uskaris as they are usually called) have made a very good show of guarding concentration camps. They keep their distance from the prisoners, they are hard and lend themselves willingly to German discipline to which they get accustomed very quickly. It is a very queer experience to hear and see what is going on on the square. German commands are being given and the men have got used in a few weeks to these commands The weapons are being explained to them in Russian by their own NCOs. The commands for the training are being given in German. These men are full of good-will and they are eager to be trained. It is very comical to a certain extent when you see these companies march past singing German songs in their enthusiasm, when you can hear by the way they pronounce the works [sic] that it does not come easily to them to pronounce German, but that does not interfere with their enthusiasm and singing. These people are chosen from the Russian point of view and they are mostly tall, blue eyed, fair haired and so far experience has fully justified this new experiment. It is very typical for the development of Europe if you see on this barrack square how the SS Scharfuhrer parade their companies and take great pains to instruct the NCOs to pick up the German drill. People who a short while ago were prisoners of war and, not so long ago, faced us the other side of the tranch [sic], are now representatives of the German will to order in the last and are willing to serve the new European idea.

From Traviniki we travelled bach [sic] to Lublin to inspect the special enterprise REINHARD. This branch has had the task of realising all mobile Jewish property in the Gouvernment Poland. It is astonishing what immense fortunes the Jews have collected in their ghetto and even ragged and vermin infested dirty little Jews who look like beggars carry with them, when you strip their clothes off them, foreign currency, pieces of gold, diamonds and other valuables. We wandered through the cellars of this "special enterprise" and we were reminded of the fairy tales of the "Arabian Nights". Whole boxes full of genuine pearls, cases full of diamonds, a basket full of pieces of gold and many cwts of silver coins besides jewellery of every kind. In order to carry out a better realisation of all these valuables the gold and silver are melted into bars. We insoected [sic] the melting process in the garden of the house. There is a small foundry where gold and silver are melted and then formed into bars and then delivered to the German National Bank on certain days. "Special enterprise" REINHARD has so far delivered 2,500 kilos of gold, 20,000 kilos of silver and six and a half kilos of platinum, 60,000,000 Reichmarks in currency, 800,000 dollars in money and 144,000 dollars in gold. The huge quantity of diamonds and pearls can hardly be evaluated. The huge quantity of diamonds and pearls can hardly be evaluated. The best proof of the repercussion this enterprise has on the international market is the quotations on the Swiss Stock Exchange and the effects on the international market in diamonds and brilliants. The prices have all gone down and Switzerland could not absorb any more diamonds, because our enterprise has swamped the market. In this respect alone, the "special enterprise" REINHART gives us the means for our political struggle and would have a decisive effect on the world market. Apart from other valuables there are 60,000 watches, most of them double-cased watches of high value, very often decorated with diamonds, 800,000 wrist watches and a huge quantity of other small valuables from tobacco and cigarette cases and gold fountain pens and silver bracelets, etc. In special workshops all these treasures are sorted out and examined by specially trained jews (jewellers, bank clerks and goldsmiths). If necessary the diamonds are broken out in order to separate them and use the metal in a different way. The wrist watches will be repaired, if necessary, and will be handed out to front-line troops. When one goes through the cellar of this special branch it appears like a secret treasure and you get a very different idea of all the things for which people have sacrificed their lives and forgotten, through them, the real issues.

You get the right distance from these false values and, even if our eye is delighted by the shine of thousands of brilliants (and some of them are the size of a pea) for which the old world has paid hundreds of thousands, one recognises a people which saw its whole existence in the heaping up of such treasures. It is a pleasure to see with what indifference the Oberscharfuhrer registers these valuables as if they were bits of coal or other things of everyday life. The real values of our life which carry us as human beings and as a nation become very clear and more precious still. The treasures of these people of parasites prove that the age of the power of gold is over and a new time, which has new values, has begun.

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Here follows a description of inspection of the OSTI (abbreviation for Eastern Industry Company Limited), including a list of the works, factories and establishments which this Company has established or taken over in Poland.

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S.S. Barracks, Lublin.
In the late hours of the afternoon we go and inspect SS Barracks in Lublin, and we are being shown round by SS Gpf GLOBOCHNIK. In these Barracks the ideological planning for the reconstruction and colonisation. of the General Gouvernement takes place. It is gratifying to see the Whole work in this sphere is planned to every detail and people will be resettled only after this planning has been completed. This detailed planning makes it possible to occupy thousands of settlements in a few weeks and to effect the whole resettlement which means deportation of the Polish population and the settling of German farmers without great difficulty[.] The work of the SS in the sphere of preparing this resettlement is considerable. We see that the planning of the German settlements is thought out to the smallest detail, all the sanitary arrangements, canalisation, electric light, water, economic problems are being worked out by young experts. The entire decoration of the cottages is considered, halls for festivals are planned, etc. The Preparation extends even to the personal life of the settlers. A form of life is being, tried out in these settlements in small proportion which is the final object of the SS organisation for the whole of the Gentian nation in the future. We realise with joy that this huge work which is being planned and carried out under such difficult circumstances is not only theoretical but it has become a reality in the Eastern sphere. For the first time we can understand the whole colonisation plan of the Reichsfuhrer. One can see how he is building up a big belt of German settlements against the masses of the Slav nations. It is proved by statistics how much German blood can be saved out of the Polish people and these problems of the Eastern sphere are being scrutinised with German scientific thoroughness. It is delightful to sit together with these young men of the SS, who have University education, who, despite there [sic] criticism, fully recognise the big mission of the German nation in the Eastern sphere. It is a pity that a great part of these men are disappointed by an entirely wrong policy with regard to personal questions. Skilled engineers and tradesmen, experts on building and canalisation run around the rank of private and this alone gives them the feeling that the very work is welcome but ultimately not appreciated. SS Gpf Herff gets detailed information on all these matters and promises to have these things altered.

After this very interesting inspection of the SS Barracks, which gave us for the first time a clear picture of the situation of the German in the Eastern sphere, we attended a social function arranged by the SS Gpf Globochnik, General Moser, (Brigf), and his staff.


13 May 43
Early in the morning we proceeded to the Ostlager "Erlenhof" which is situated. in the vicinity of LUBLIN. On this beautiful Polish estate a school for SS men and various SS and police strongholds and SS farms are housed. In a fortnight or three weeks course the SS men are being trained and are given lectures on the special questions of the Eastern countries and particularly problems of agriculture.

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Working Camp PONIATOWA
We reached this big working camp in the a afternoon. It lies completely off the big arterial roads and has been installed for 50,000 - 80,000 Jews. These Jews work in big sheds and the larger part of the Warsaw Ghetto has been transplanted to this place and work for the German armament industry. Uniforms and furs for the German Army are being produced here on the Ford system; the results are very satisfactory. Just as we entered the camp a large consignment of Jews from the Ghetto in Warsaw are being brought in. It is an amazing thing what a turnout these people present, the women in the very best clothes, in furs and silk stockings and the men in nicely fitting suits. They walk up and down in the camp and await their fate. As the evacuation of the Warsaw ghetto took place so suddenly there are tens of thousands of newly arrived Jews for whom there are neither barracks nor anywhere to sleep. In consequence of this an open air life developed which presents itself in a most peculiar way to the spectator. The larger part of the Jews seem to be content to get out of the ghetto; as they know that they have to work here they are pleased about it because they know that as long as they work and as long as they are able to work, nothing will happen to them.

If you watch these masses of Jews, in small groups sitting round a fire, you can see how they become very fat with composure and civility. The only explanation for this is that they look upon themselves as the chosen people and with this servility and toughness they represent a danger for the world as long as they are not wither done away with completely or put in vast areas where they are completely isolated from human culture and perish slowly. In those camps in Poland now the Jews live in a Babylonian exile as in the olden days. They were suppressed by the Egyptians and they were exploited by the Romans and under the various systems of modern times which exploited them but again and again they have succeeded in surviving: and have created new positions for themselves and within a few generations made these positions into key positions. Walking through this camp and watching these people in there [sic] servile attitude, one is bound to notice that again and again they try to make the best of every situation without any dignity and self-respect and one realise the alternative with which we are faced: either this generation of ours succeeds in clearing up the Jewish problem completely and to its last consequences or, if their liquidation is not completely achieved, the Jewish people will rise again after this wave of oppression. Some individual cases may appear hard or even brutal but seeing these people in large masses and knowing how dangerous their passive attitude is to the life of the nations, one comes to the conclusion that this problem has to be cleared up completely to free the world once and for all of this pestilence.

http://fotos.fotoflexer.com/97782df85d89b46d1c3770929f548218.jpg

After having inspected the camp with all its institutions and the excellently organised munitions factories, SS Gpf Globochnik and his staff took leave of us and we proceeded to RADOM. Once more we pass through the old sleepy, formerly German, town of Kazimierz, cross the Vistula and reach Radom after two hours. Here we are being greeted by SSOf Dr. Böttcher and his staff and pass the evening with him and his staff.

SS Osbf Dr. Weibgen Commisar for the Germanic "Mittelstelle" in Poland came from Cracow to Radom and reported on his work to SS Gf Hauff.


14 May 43

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Description of "Mittelstelle" Sucha. The tenor of it is that all these estates, which were completely mis-managed by their Polish owners, were greatly improved and some of them turned into model estates by the SS.

Warsaw.
We, reached the outskirts of Warsaw in the early hours of the afternoon. Even from far off we could see the large dark clouds of smoke in the sky. They rise from the fires in the ghetto. SS Brigf Stroop awaits the Gf in the SS Leaders' house and reports on the situation in Warsaw ghetto. After a quick meal we drive with him to the Command Post when the Commandant of the Sipo and the SD gives a detailed report on the battles in the ghetto.

It is proved that the Jews of the ghetto not only directed the Black Market of Warsaw from their secret dumps but have used the munition factories in the ghetto to obtain economic advantages for themselves. Furthermore, the more active parties of the Jewish Youth used the workshops to manufacture explosives, so-called Molotov Cocktails and hand grenades. They procured infantry weapons on the Black Market and thought that they could thus face armed interference of the Police SS in the ghetto. When the ghetto was to be evacuated on the orders of the RFSS, the spearhead of the Waffen SS were received with small arms fire and hand grenades. The ghetto comprises several districts of the town and has cellars everywhere and extensive underground passages and gangways and these had to be combed out in a drawn-out action which lasted several weeks to apprehend the various groups of the Jewish Resistance Movement.

The whole of the ghetto affair was anything but pleasant for the SS Leaders and men engaged. If one sees these revolting types come out of the deep cellars and bunkers where our men over and over again come up against their treacherous resistance, one can understand that these SS men carry out their task with the utmost brutality. Systematically, one part of the town after the other is being combed out, evacuated and then burned down. Driving through the burning and already partly demolished districts , one meets shock troops everywhere with captured Jews who were dragged out of this notorious quarter after long searches. It is amazing that this dirty lot, when stripped, is always found in possession of considerable amounts of money and cheques. It certainly is no heroic task to clear out and destroy once and for all this ghetto of Warsaw which was for the whole Jewish world a symbol of their independent life. All the more respect is due to the SS men who dealt with this scum of the earth. Evidence from witnesses proves beyond doubt that from this ghetto attempts were made again and again (and partly successfully) to get certain privileges for the Jewish community through connections with the Wehrmant authorities. For all these reasons it was high time that this centre was liquidated. We had another look at the Wehrmacht engineers blowing up considerable blocks of houses and then left the burning, smouldering ghetto. In the evening a meeting of all SS Leaders of Warsaw takes place, and SS Gpf Herff takes this opportunity of talking to the various departmental leaders about their respective departments.


15 May 43
We drive through the town to obtain a better picture of it. It is crowded with people and one does not gain the impression of being in the fourth year of the war. It appears strange to a German that huge numbers of young people are loafing idly in the streets.

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Inspection of Panzer Grenadiers Bn "Death's Head"

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Meeting with SS Obst Bellwidt and his staff. Inspection of Army Stores and other establishments of the SS Economic Department. After a private talk with Brigf Stroop we drive to the Central Station and leave Warsaw at 1900 hrs for Berlin.

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SECOND PART of the Report

Experiences re personnel policy

The result of our journey was not so significant for gaining new fundamental conceptions but for getting confirmation of the experience that

1. The personnel policy of the SS is in a deep rut from which it can only emerge through clear leadership and central directives of a responsible department

2. All corrections of the faults caused. by the present direction of personnel policy and all measures which only partly offer a solution of the various questions in this respect can have no results unless all personnel policy is centrally directed and dealt with by one person.

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Experiences of this inspection tour can therefore be summed up as follows:

1. Personal insight into the varied agenda of the SS is essential.

2. The growing tasks of the SS lead to a tendency towards independence of various branches, a natural result of the demands of war. That makes it now more imperative than ever to give the command of the order (SS) a proper centre and gravity in the central Directorate for personnel policy. Two-thirds of the difficulties which result from the expansion of the SS would be removed by the creation of such a central authority for personnel policy.

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The expansion of various branches of the SS brings a momentary increase of power to these pranches [sic] but this increase takes place at the expense of the SS as a whole. The most urgent demand of the moment is to counteract these independent tendencies in the sphere of personnel policy by a clear central authority, an authority which will plan, act and lead, guided by the point of view of the SS as a whole.





I HEREBY CERTIFY that the above is a true translation of the relevant parts of the report on the journey through POLAND by SS Stbf FRANKE GRICKSCH.

[signature illegible]
Legal Dept
HQ 21 AG [Army Group]

[Reviso]

It would be intersting to know if the authentic document was published by a mainstream historian, so that it can be quoted on mainstream sites.

Below is my transcription of the entire 1945 translation of the FG travel report as found in WO 374/309.

Thanks for this work !
R.