Fatherland

providing an opportunity for comparison. On November 30, one thousand Berlin Jews had been shot in the forest near Riga. On December 8, his men had organized a special treatment at Kulmhof with gas trucks. In the meantime, commencing in October, experiments had been conducted at the Auschwitz camp on Russian prisoners and Polish Jews using Zyklon B. Results here were especially promising from the point of view of both capacity and security.
    Against this, in the margin, Heydrich had written "No!" March checked the final version of the minutes. This entire section of the conference had been reduced to a single phrase:
    Finally, there was a discussion of the various types of solution possibilities.

    Thus sanitized, the minutes were fit for the archives.
    March scribbled more notes: October, November, December 1941. Slowly the blank sheets were being filled. In the dim light of the attic room, a picture was developing: connections, strategies, causes and effects ... He looked up the contributions of Luther, Stuckart and Buhler to the Wannsee conference. Luther foresaw problems in "the Nordic states" but "no major difficulties in southeastern and western Europe." Stuckart, when asked about persons with one Jewish grandparent, "proposed to proceed with compulsory sterilization." Buhler, characteristically, toadied to Heydrich: "He had only one favor to ask—that the Jewish question in the General Government be solved as rapidly as possible."
    * * * *

    He broke off for five minutes to smoke a cigarette, pacing the corridor, shuffling his papers, an actor learning his lines. From the bathroom: the sound of running water. From the rest of the hotel: nothing except creaks in the darkness, like a galleon at anchor.

6

    Notes on a visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau by Martin Luther; Under State Secretary, Reich Ministry for Foreign Affairs
    [Handwritten; 11 pages]
    July 14, 1943
    At last, after almost a year of repeated requests, I am given permission to undertake a full tour of inspection of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp on behalf of the Foreign Ministry.
    I land at Krakau airfield from Berlin shortly before sunset and spend the night with Governor-General Hans Frank, State Secretary Josef Buhler and their staff at Wawel Castle. Tomorrow morning at dawn I am to be picked up from the castle and driven to the camp (journey time: approximately one hour), where I am to be received by the commandant, Rudolf Hoess.
    July 15, 1943
    The camp. My first impression is of the sheer scale of the installation, which measures, according to Hoess, almost 2 km. X 4 km. The earth is of yellowish clay similar to that of eastern
    Silesia—a desertlike landscape broken occasionally by green thickets of trees. Inside the camp, stretching far beyond the limits of my vision, are hundreds of wooden barracks, their roofs covered with green tar paper. In the distance, moving between them, I see small groups of prisoners in blue-and-white-striped clothing—some carrying planks, others shovels and picks; a few are loading large crates onto the backs of trucks. A smell hangs over the place.
    I thank Hoess for receiving me. He explains the administrative setup. This camp is under the jurisdiction of the SS Economic Administration Main Office. The others, in the Lublin district, fall under the control of SS-Obergruppenführer Odilo Globocnik. Unfortunately, the pressure of his work prevents Hoess from conducting me around the camp personally, and he therefore entrusts me into the care of a young Untersturmführer, Weidemann. He orders Weidemann to ensure I am shown everything, and that all my questions are answered fully. We begin with breakfast in the SS barracks.
    After breakfast: we drive into the southern sector of the camp. Here: a railway siding, approx 1.5 km. in length. On either side: wire fencing supported by concrete pylons, and also wooden observation towers with machine-gun nests. It is already hot. The smell is bad here, a million flies buzz. To the west, rising above trees: a square red-brick factory chimney, belching smoke.
    7:40 a.m.: the area around the railway track begins to fill with SS troops, some with dogs, and also with special prisoners delegated to assist them. In the distance we hear the whistle of a train. A few minutes later: the locomotive pulls slowly through the entrance, its exhalations of steam throw up clouds of yellow dust. It draws to a halt in front of us. The gates close behind it. Weidemann: "This is a transport of Jews