Author: Klaus Schwensen

The “Report on Concentration Camp Sachsenhausen” (Prisoner’s Report) of 12 June 1945

One of the earliest postwar sources about Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp is the so-called “Prisoner’s Report” which was compiled under the supervision of Hellmut Bock, a communist and former inmate of the camp. The first draft was ready by 7 May, just two weeks after the SS had left the camp. The German original of this…

The Bone Mill of Lemberg

Preliminary Remarks Shortly after the Wehrmacht had occupied the Ukrainian city of Lemberg (30 June 1941), a work camp for Jews was set up on Yanovska street. At the Nuremberg tribunal, the Soviet prosecution claimed that this facility had simultaneously served as a “death camp” where huge numbers of prisoners had been murdered. When the…

The Three Photographs of an Alleged Gas Van

Between 1945 and 2012, the entire literature about the gas vans has presented exactly three photographs which allegedly show such vehicles. Sometimes it was explicitly claimed that the vehicle had been used for homicidal purposes, sometimes this was implied. In 1994, these photographs were subjected to a critical analysis by Udo Walendy[1] and Pierre Marais.[2]…

The Number of Victims of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp (1936-1945)

Every year on 22 April the liberation of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp is duly commemorated. On this occasion, the press sometimes still mentions the figure of 100,000 victims who allegedly perished or were murdered at this camp. Although Sachsenhausen does not belong to the six “classic” extermination camps (Chelmno, Majdanek, Auschwitz, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka), the epithet…

The Report of the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission on the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

The “Extraordinary State Commission” (ESC, from Russian ЧГК, an acronym for Чрезычайная Государственная Комисссия) was created in November 1942 in order to detect and investigate “crimes perpetrated by the German Fascist Invaders” and the damage caused by them. After the Red Army had reconquered Soviet territories previously occupied by the Germans, this commission became very…

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