TREBLINKA: - Holocaust Handbooks

Chapter IV: The Alleged Extermination Facilities in Treblinka 127
On March 10, 1941, Gerstein joined the SS 333 and was assigned to the SS-
Führungshauptamt (SS Main Operations Office), Amtsgruppe D, Sanitätswesen
(Office Group D, Sanitation) of the Waffen-SS, Hygiene Department. 334
Owing to his success in the field of hygiene, he was soon promoted to Leutnant
and then to Oberleutnant 335 – two ranks, which did not exist in the Waffen-SS.
336 In January 337 or February 338 of 1942, he was named head of the
Technical Disinfection Service of the Waffen-SS. In this capacity, Gerstein
received a visit on June 8, 1942, from SS-Sturmbannführer Günther of Department
IV B 4 of the SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA, SS Main Office
of Imperial Security), 339 who entrusted him with the task, a mission for the
German Reich under utmost secrecy, of taking charge of 100 kg 340 – no, 260
kg 341 – of a substance which at the same time was prussic acid (HCN) 342 and
potassium cyanide (KCN), 343 and of bringing this by car 344 – no, by a truck 345
– to a location that only the driver knew.
Günther’s assignment offered Gerstein the opportunity of inspecting the alleged
eastern extermination camps. But according to the document “Killing
Institutions in Poland,” 346 Gerstein had not been selected unsuspectingly for
his super-secret mission by the RSHA, but instead had taken the initiative on
his own: by making himself useful to SS officers in Poland, he won their confidence
and succeeded in obtaining permission to visit the ‘killing institutions.’
347
On June 8, therefore, Gerstein is given a mission by Günther orally, which
48 hours later, on June 10, is confirmed in writing. 348 Nine weeks later, Gerstein
and the driver leave for Kolin, near Prague, in order to load the toxic
333
T-1310.
334
PS-2170, p. 2.
335
T-1310, p. 5.
336
PS-2164, Dienstababzeichen der Schutzstaffeln, IMT, vol. XXIX, pp. 276f. (Table without
pagination). The ranks of Leutnant and Oberleutnant (first lieutenant) existed only in the
Wehrmacht. The according SS ranks were Hauptscharführer and Sturmscharführer.
337
PS-1553, p. 4; T-1310, p. 5.
338
PS-2170, p. 2.
339
Günther was Eichmann’s deputy.
340
T-1310, p. 5; PS-1553, p. 5.
341
PS-2170; George Wellers, “Encore sur le Témoignage Gerstein,” in: Le Monde Juif, January
to March 1980, no. 97, p. 28.
342 T-1310, p. 5; PS-1553, p. 5, PS-2170, p. 2.
343 G. Wellers, op. cit. (note 341), p. 28; T-1313-b, p. 2.
344 T-1310, p. 5.
345 PS-1553, p. 5.
346 Anonymous manuscript in the Dutch language, dated March 25, 1943. This is in all probability
the translation of a text originating from Gerstein.
347 Tötungsanstalten in Polen, published without pagination by L. De Jong, Een sterfgeval te
Auswitz, Amsterdam 1970, p. 1 of the report.
348 G. Wellers, op. cit. (note 341), p. 29.