Newsgroups: alt.revisionism Subject: Holocaust Almanac - I.G. Farben "labour problems" at Monowitz Summary: I.G. Farben management complains that the S.S. is killing too many Jews among those shipped to Auschwitz, and productivity is suffering because of this. Reply-To: kmcvay@nizkor.org Followup-To: alt.revisionism Organization: The Nizkor Project, Vancouver Island, CANADA Keywords: Farben Archive/File: orgs/germany/farben farben.005 Last-modified: 1996/07/10 This citation sheds some light on the discussions surrounding the effect of German economic policy upon the Jews, in that it documents I.G. Farben's complaints that too many Jews were being "selected" upon arrival at Auschwitz, i.e. sent to the extermination chambers, and that productivity was suffering as a result. In his chapter entitled "Slave Labor and Mass Murder," some of which is reproduced below, Borkin discusses the continuing conflicts between I.G. Auschwitz labor requirements and the need to resolve the "Final Solution" quickly and efficiently. Even at the risk of denying the German military machine sufficient rubber and petroleum products to support the war effort, the Jews arriving at Auschwitz must be ruthlessly destroyed... "It soon became apparent that the 'selections' were being made without sufficient regard for the urgent demands of war production. Too many skilled and reasonably strong workers were being rushed to the ovens although months of useful labor were still in them. For example, during the early months of Monowitz, those in charge of the construction of I.G. Auschwitz were promised a carefully chosen batch of workers culled from a shipment of over 5000 Jews. However, when the transports were unloaded near the crematory ovens, the camp officials, ignoring the labor needs of I.G. Auschwitz but with punctilious devotion to the Final Solution, send 4092 of the 5022 to the gas chambers. When objections were raised over such a high rate, the explanation offered was that the males were too frail and the females were mostly children, little girls incapable of construction work.<51> Sometime later, when the transports were reported to contain a more choice supply of skilled Jewish workers, and S.S. official in charge of labor allocation suggested a possible means of avoiding overzealous application of the selection process. He recommended that the trains be unloaded near the I.G. works instead of the 'usual place' near the crematory. The improvement was noticeable. On the next shipment of 4087 Jews, only 2398 were selected for extermination; this was a lower rate than before. The complaints, however, continued: 'If the transports from Berlin continue to have so many women and children as well as old Jews,' an official said, 'I don't promise myself much in the matter of labor allocation.'<52>" (Borkin, 123-124) Borkin's end notes: <51> Hilberg, Raul, p. 587; 'Dokumenty i Materialy', part I, 115-117, letter from Schwarz to WVHA D-ll, dated February 20, 1943. <52> Hilberg, p. 587; 'Dokumenty i Materialy', part I, pp. 108-110, 117, letters from Schwarz to WVHA D-ll, dated March 5 and 8, 1943, and to WVHA-D, dated March 15, 1943. Work Cited Borkin, Joseph. The Crime and Punishment of I.G. Farben. New York: The Free Press, 1978, and London: Macmillan Publishing Company.
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