COPY OF COPY Chief of Security Police and SD No. IV—656/42 Secret
Berlin, 17 December 1942 SECRET [Stamp]
[pencil note—Increased recruitment for concentration camps]
To be sent "Secret"
To all commanders of the Security Police and SD.
To all Inspectors of the Security Police and SD.
To all unit commanders of the Security Police and SD.
To all directors of State Police Headquarters.
For the information of: SS Lieutenant General Pohl Chief of the
Main Office for Economics and Administration.
To all higher SS & Police Officials.
To all Inspectors of Concentration Camps.
For reasons essential to the war effort but which cannot be discussed here, Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police has ordered as of the 14 December 1942 that until the end of January 1948 at least 35,000 inmates who are able to work are to be inducted, into concentration camps.
In order to reach this quota the following is necessary:
1. Effective immediately (provisionally until 1 November 1943) workers from the East and other foreign labor who are runaways or have broken their contract and are not members of Allied, friendly, or neutral countries are to be sent as quickly as possible to the nearest concentration camp whereby the necessary formalities as described in No. 3 are to be observed. In order to avoid apd in any case adjust complaints it is essential in dealing with other agencies that in every case each one of the above directives is explained as an essential security measure of the police, whereby a reasonable explanation based upon the case at hand should be given.
2. The commanders and unit commanders of the Security Police and SD and the directors of the State Police Headquarters are to inspect immediately:
a. All areas of detention.
b. All workers' correction camps whereby especially strict and high standards should be set.
All inmates able to work are to be sent if it is physically and
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humanly at all possible according to directives cited below to the nearest concentration camps even where a ban suit has been or is to be brought against the individual. Only such inmates who in the interest of further investigation, are to remain without fail in solitary confinement, may remain.
Every Individual Laborer is Essential
This inspection is to be started immediately. To withhold any inmates capable of work is forbidden. Exceptions need my approval.
3. Inmates who are delivered to a concentration camp up to the 1 November 1943 are to be listed solely in rosters, reference to be made to this decree (serial number, first and family name, date and place of birth, domicile, reason for apprehension in catch words). One copy of this roster is to be sent to the Chief Office of Reich Security, and counts as a collection requisition for protective custody as well as for the transfer into a concentration camp; it can be assumed in advance that these requisitions will be granted.
For workers from the East, that is, those who carry the emblem "Ost" the indication of the number of arrestees is sufficient. One copy is to be sent with the shipment to the commanding officer of the concentration camp. A further copy is to remain with the agency from which the shipment originated.
In order to simplify procedure all rosters should only be written on one side and there should be sufficient space between each individual record of the inmate that names can be cut out.
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The rosters are to be sent to the Chief Office or Reich Security Sect. IV C-2.
By order:
(signed) Mueller (LS)
Certify:
[signed]: Helmuth Chief Police Secretary Certified copy:
[signed] Kolberg Chancellery employee - Certified copy:
[signed] : Jahr
Chancellery employee
785
COPY
Berlin, 23 March 43
The Chief of the Security Police and the SD IV C 2 General No. 656H2 Secret
a. All Commanders of the Security Police and the SD
b. All Inspectors of the Security Police and the SD
c. Unit Commanders of the Security Police and the SD
d. All Directors of State Police (district) offices
For information, to:
e. Chief of SS economics and Administration Main Office,
SS Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl.
f. All higher ranking SS and Police officers.
g. SS Economics and Administration Main Office Section D,— Concentration Camps—at Oranienburg.
(with 30 copies for the Camps)
Subject: Increased transfer into the Concentration Camps. Reference: My decree dated 17 Dec. 1942 IV 656/42 secret.
The measures ordered in the above-mentioned decree which were originally limited to a period ending 1 February, can be carried out until further notice—for the moment, however, only until 30 April 1943.
Care must, however, be taken, that only prisoners who are fit for work are transferred to concentration camps and adolescents only in accordance with the given directions; otherwise, the concentration camps would become overcrowded and this would impair the intended aim. With regard to any adolescents who have already been transferred who are not covered by the directions for the transfer into camps, (Reich Germans of over 18 years of age, Poles and workers from the East of 16 years of age) application for removal must be made without delay. These prisoners are to be restored to their former place of employment in cooperation with the employment office concerned, unless a request for institutionalization in a camp for juvenile delinquents seems necessary. In each case an action report is to be given.
Shipments of prisoners eligible for concentration camps are not necessary if the prisoners are already engaged in armament industry, or actually with war essential work or are occupied in the occupied territories of the East with urgent tasks, for the
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supply system of the eastern front. In case the removal of such labor forces would endanger the productivity of any plants or would even cause work stoppages or would hamper transport facilities of supplies for the Eastern front; individuals are to be put into concentration camps in order to safeguard the interests of the Wehrmacht.
Transfer is always to be made into the nearest concentration camp which is also a reception camp. The Herzogenbosch concentration camp is for prisoners from the Dutch area but it is only suitable to receive prisoners from that area, while the Sachsenhausen concentration camp which is quite full at the moment, is barred to all larger transports for the time being.
No prisoners can be transferred to the Niederhagen Concentration Camp (not a reception camp), while transfer to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp (also not a reception camp) can be undertaken only after direct inquiries have been made.
Female prisoners are to be sent either to the Ravensbrueck Concentration Camp for women, or to the sections for women in the Lublin or Auschwitz Concentration Camps. Members of the Eastern countries are to be sent preferably to the two last-named camps.
If these directives concern prisoners on whom special orders have been issued or which represent special problems, the sections concerned are to be informed with reference to this and the previous decree and if necessary they are to be asked for a decision, in advance or afterwards which ever the case may be.
Poles capable of Germanization and prisoners for whom special petitions have been made are not to be sent into concentration camps, but are to be disposed of according to the individual decision made or pending.
In order to avoid overcrowding of concentration camps short reports are to be submitted on the fifth of April and the fifth of May indicating: The number of prisoners sent in February 1943 and during the past months due to the above order. The number of Eastern workers contained in the above number who are still not—[words evidently missing]. Further facts are not necessary.
For workers from the East who according to the decree of 17 December 1942 are only to be reported by numbers; in no case— as has partly happened—are lists or forms to be submitted for them. Neither should protective custody file cards be sent.
This answers numerous individual questions, which were asked on this subject.
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This decree is not for district or local police authority.
For and on behalf of:
(signed): Mueller Certified copy
[sgd.] Kolberg .
Chancellery employee Witnessed:
[sgd.] Bleeck Chancellery employee [Rubber stamp: Security Police Special Purpose Unit l/II Chancellery 4]