Nazis Admit Murdering 6 Million Jews In Europe

The Palestine Post, Sunday, December 16, 1945:

NAZIS ADMIT MURDERING 6 MILLION JEWS IN EUROPE.

NOT ENOUGH TO SATISFY HIMMLER.

By ERIC BOURNE. NUREMBERG, Saturday.

The Nazis slaughtered 6,000,000 Jews in Europe, including 4,000,000 in extermination institutions like Auschwitz, Maj. Wilhelm Hoettl, former Adjutant to the late SS Chief Heinrich Himmler, told the War Crimes Tribunal yesterday.

The Austrian, who is appearing for the prosecution, said that in August 1944 Eichmann told him that the Nazis had already murdered 4,000,000 Jews in the various death camps and another 2,000,000 by other means.

Hoettl, who is now interned by the Americans, declared that the estimate was based on figures given to Eichmann by the Gestapo Section Chief for Jewish affairs. Hoettl said Eichmann reported to Himmler directly.

Hoettl was attached to the RSHA (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, Nazi Security Head Office) in Berlin.

Himmler, said Hoettl, was not satisfied with these reports, since he had been informed by his aides that more Jews could have been killed if not for various technical difficulties. “Even though more than 6,000,000 had been exterminated,” said Hoettl, “Himmler expressed disappointment that the figure was not higher.”

“Germanising Europe”.

When Maj. Walsh asked what their only crime was, Hoettl replied: “Their only crime consisted in the fact they were Jews.”

The witness added that he had received full details of the deportation and extermination programme as early as June 1941. The purpose of the programme, he said, was “to remove all Jews from Europe and ‘Germanise’ the territory.”

He said the plan included the destruction of Polish Jewry, and described Poland as the "testing ground" for Nazi extermination.

Hoettl, who appeared in the witness box with a heavily guarded escort, gave his testimony without emotion. He described how entire trainloads of Jews, often numbering thousands, would arrive at extermination camps like Auschwitz, where 90% would be killed immediately, the remainder being used for labour until they too were disposed of.

Poland as Test Ground.

Poland was used as a test ground, he continued, for methods of extermination and mass deportation, and that’s where the Nazis first tested gas chambers and crematoria. He said these were later used throughout occupied Europe.

Asked whether he had ever attempted to intervene, Hoettl said that in one case he raised objections to the execution of Jews, but was threatened with punishment if he persisted.

He also said that the plan was developed jointly by Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich, and that Hitler had full knowledge of the programme. The “Final Solution” was seen as a way to secure German dominance.

Jewish Children Killed.

Hoettl stated that children were not spared. “Even the very young,” he said, “were thrown into the flames or shot beside the mass graves.”

At the conclusion of his testimony, Hoettl described in detail the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto and other Jewish communities throughout Hungary, Slovakia, and Greece.

He was asked about the burning of synagogues and cultural institutions, and replied that the SS made a deliberate effort to erase all traces of Jewish existence in occupied Europe.

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Cited in:

Phillips, J. (1988). Exploring the World of the Jew. United States: Moody Press, p.108. [1]

Captured in:

Khoroshunova, I. A. (1991). Die Schoáh Von Babij Jar: Das Massaker Deutscher Sonderkommandos an Der Jüdischen Bevölkerung Von Kiew 1941 Fünfzig Jahre Danach Zum Gedenken. Germany: Hartung-Gorre, pp.569-570. [2]

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