Himmler to Grawitz

[ThomasDDB]

Can anyone help me find Himmler's letter to Grawitz concerning cancer of inmates of the AR camps. The letter is dated 1945. I saw the following source in a book: T175, Roll 86, Frames 536–37.

I searched on the internet but couldn't find this one. I would appreciate it if anyone could post this document.

[steve248]

Bit of a problem here.
If "AR" refers to Aktion Reinhardt (the camps of Belzec, Treblinka, Sobibor) then a letter dated 1945 seems unlikely.
The AR camps were all closed down by the end of 1943 and I do not believe anyone was conducting tests for cancer there.

So AR might mean something else.

Looking through "Himmler's Diary" for 1945 - still available on amazon - Grawitz crops up in March 1945 corresponding with Himmler's office about the outbreak of typhus at Bergen Belsen. I do not have the book to hand just a few entries from the manuscript (being one of the authors).

[ThomasDDB]

Bit of a problem here.
If "AR" refers to Aktion Reinhardt (the camps of Belzec, Treblinka, Sobibor) then a letter dated 1945 seems unlikely.
The AR camps were all closed down by the end of 1943 and I do not believe anyone was conducting tests for cancer there.

So AR might mean something else.

Looking through "Himmler's Diary" for 1945 - still available on amazon - Grawitz crops up in March 1945 corresponding with Himmler's office about the outbreak of typhus at Bergen Belsen. I do not have the book to hand just a few entries from the manuscript (being one of the authors).

Thanks for your reply

I found the following quote on p. 234 in the book ‘The State of Health: Illness in Nazi Germany’ by Geoffrey Cocks:

“One bizarre and obscene illustration of the distance between Nazi perceptions and Jewish realities was the grotesque and absurd question Himmler floated to SS physician Ernst Grawitz in 1945 as to why there were ‘no people with cancer’ in the concentration camps. Himmler wanted Grawitz to find out as a service to science!”

He gives the following sources for this quote:
Himmler to Grawitz, 1945, T175, Roll 86, Frames 536-37, NA; Proctor, Nazi War on Cancer, 260, 346 n.31: Keneally, Schindler’s List, 259-260; Christopher R. Browning, Remembering Survival; Inside a Nazi Slave-Labor Camp (New York, 2010), 296-7

Years ago I read somewhere that it referred to all camps, including the AR camps. Perhaps the author was simply mistaken or maybe I misread it. I don’t have access to Proctor’s book ‘Nazi War on Cancer’ and I have looked into the book you mentioned. Grawitz is mentioned a few times, but on something else.
I would really appreciate it if anyone could post the original document.

[Mori]

He gives the following sources for this quote:
Himmler to Grawitz, 1945, T175, Roll 86, Frames 536-37, NA; Proctor, Nazi War on Cancer, 260, 346 n.31: Keneally, Schindler’s List, 259-260; Christopher R. Browning, Remembering Survival; Inside a Nazi Slave-Labor Camp (New York, 2010), 296-7

I have a way to get the original document, if you can wait for a few weeks.

[ThomasDDB]

He gives the following sources for this quote:
Himmler to Grawitz, 1945, T175, Roll 86, Frames 536-37, NA; Proctor, Nazi War on Cancer, 260, 346 n.31: Keneally, Schindler’s List, 259-260; Christopher R. Browning, Remembering Survival; Inside a Nazi Slave-Labor Camp (New York, 2010), 296-7

I have a way to get the original document, if you can wait for a few weeks.

That would be great. Thank you

[Mori]

Could you double check the reference?

T175 R86 has fewer than 536 frames. There are just 512, actually. Also, seems to be almost nothing from 1945. Here's the index:

https://zupimages.net/viewer.php?id=20/06/7v8z.jpg

https://zupimages.net/viewer.php?id=20/06/8q4z.jpg

[Boby]

It is, see Folder 17. Must be Frames 2610536-37.

Boby,

[Mori]

Here they are:
https://zupimages.net/up/20/06/39tp.jpg
https://zupimages.net/up/20/06/0fll.jpg
https://zupimages.net/up/20/06/stjt.jpg
https://zupimages.net/up/20/06/7zu3.jpg

[ThomasDDB]

Here they are:
https://zupimages.net/up/20/06/39tp.jpg
https://zupimages.net/up/20/06/0fll.jpg
https://zupimages.net/up/20/06/stjt.jpg
https://zupimages.net/up/20/06/7zu3.jpg

Thank you very much