Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Chapter 4: Auschwitz
On account of this relatively well publicized interpretation of the term Sonderbehandlung,
Cohen thinks that he has read “SB” in the notes made in the Auschwitz
I hospital, but it is likely that he misread “NB,” nach Birkenau (to Birkenau).
There exists a document, apparently genuine, from the Gestapo District Headquarters
Düsseldorf, which specifies the manner in which executions of certain offending
foreign workers were to be carried out, and which uses the term “Sonderbehandlung”
as meaning execution. There is also a document, put into evidence at
Eichmann’s trial, which referred to the execution of three Jews as Sonderbehandlung.
213
Thus, it seems correct that, in certain contexts, the term meant execution, but it
is at least equally certain that its meaning was no more univocal in the SS than the
meaning of “special treatment” is in English-speaking countries. There is completely
satisfactory evidence of this. At the IMT trial prosecutor Amen led Kaltenbrunner,
under cross examination, into conceding that the term might have
meant execution as ordered by Himmler. Then, in an attempt to implicate Kaltenbrunner
personally in Sonderbehandlung, Amen triumphantly produced a document
which presents Kaltenbrunner as ordering Sonderbehandlung for certain
people. Amen wanted Kaltenbrunner to comment on the document without reading
it, and there was an angry exchange in this connection, but Kaltenbrunner was
finally allowed to read the document, and he then quickly pointed out that the
Sonderbehandlung referred to in the document was for people at “Winzerstube”
and at “Walzertraum,” that these two establishments were fashionable hotels
which quartered interned notables, and that Sonderbehandlung in their cases
meant such things as permission to correspond freely and to receive parcels, a bottle
of champagne per day, etc. 214
Poliakov reproduces some document which show that Sonderbehandlung had
yet another meaning within the SS. The documents deal with procedures to be followed
in the event of the pregnancies caused by illegal sexual intercourse involving
Polish civilian workers and war prisoners. A racial examination was held to
decide between abortion and “germanization” of the baby (adoption by a German
family). The term Sonderbehandlung was a reference either to the germanization
or to the abortion. In addition, at Eichmann’s trial, some documents were put into
evidence which dealt with the treatment of 91 children from Lidice, Bohemia-
Moravia. These children had been orphaned by the reprisals which had been carried
out at Lidice after Heydrich’s assassination. A certain number were picked
out for germanization and the remainder were sent to the Displaced Persons Center
in Lodz (Litzmannstadt), operated by the RuSHA. The commander of the Center,
Krumey, regarded the children as a special case within the Center, to be given
Sonderbehandlung while at the Center. The term or its equivalent (eine gesonderte
Behandlung) was also used in the Foreign Office in connection with special
categories of prisoners of war, such as priests. 215
213
214
215
reproduced in Poliakov & Wulf (1955), 198.
NO-4634 in NMT, vol. 4, 1166; Eichmann, sesson 79, W1-Y1.
IMT, vol. 11, 336-339.
Poliakov & Wulf (1956), 299-302; Eichmann, session 79, Y1-Bb1; session 101, Hhl-Mml; ses-
145