In 1942 Himmler sent a directive to the concentration camps and the SS with an order to “Don’t let the Jews die.
The Barnes Review
On December 28, 1942 the head of the SS concentration camp administrative office sent a directive to Auschwitz and other camps criticizing the high death rate among prisoners due to disease. (This directive was part of the exhibits at the Nuremberg war crimes trials. It was Nuremberg document PS-2171. Annex 2. ne & A red series, Vol. 4, pp. 833-834.)
The directive ordered that “camp physicians must use all means at their disposal to significantly reduce the death rate in the various camps….” and that “…the camp doctors are to see to it that
the working conditions at the various labor places are improved as much as possible.” The order noted that SS chief Heinrich Himmler “has ordered that the death rate absolutely must be reduced.”
Ironically, Norbert Masur, an official of the Swedish branch of the World Jewish Congress, met with Himmler on April 21, 1945. Masur’s account of the meeting, published in the December 1985 issue of Moment, revealed: “During an extended conversation, Himmler complained of the rising charges of genocide being levelled against Germany and pointed out, In order to contain the epidemics, we were forced to build crematoria where we could burn the corpses of countless people who passed away because of these diseases. And now, they want to put a noose around our necks.”
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