Korherr Report

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The Korherr Report, is a document on the progress of the Holocaust written by the chief inspector of the statistical bureau of the SS, Dr Richard Korherr, on instructions from Heinrich Himmler on January 18, 1943. The main report, published in March of that year, summarized the progress of the Final Solution though December, 1942, and a supplemental report covered the first quarter of 1943. Himmler accepted the report, but made Korherr change the euphemism used for the murder of the Jews in the document from the increasingly well-known Sonderbehandlung or "special treatment," to the word durchgeschleust or "processed."

The report calculated that, from the time the Nazis came to power to the end of 1942, four million Jews had been eliminated from Europe, of which 1.5 million emigrated and 2,454,000 had been killed by the Einsatzgruppen or in extermination camps, though the report admits that this death total was likely an undercount, since it specifically excludes those who died in the harsh conditions of the ghettos and concentration camps. Korherr estimated that around 6 million Jews remained in Europe. The report concludes "Since the seizure of power the number of Jews in Europe, which was over ten millions in 1933, has been halved; the decline of over four millions is due to German influence."

Adolf Eichmann, during his trial, recalled using the Korherr report to plan the progress of the Final Solution, including calculations of trains needed to transport Jews to death camps. He stated that he had given Korherr "All our top-secret stuff. That was the order. All the shipments, insofar as they had been reported to us."

Korherr himself worked for the West German Ministry of Finance after the war, claiming that he did not understand the figures in his report, or what they referred to, until he was finally dismissed from the position in 1961.

[edit] References

  • Götz Aly, Karl Heinz Roth: Die restlose Erfassung. Volkszählen, Identifizieren, Aussondern im Nationalsozialismus. Frankfurt/M. 2005, ISBN 3-596-14767-0 (germ.)
  • Gerald Roberts Reitlinger, Johann Wolfgang Brügel: Die Endlösung. Hitlers Versuch der Ausrottung der Juden Europas 1939-1945. (1. Ed. english 1953 The Final Solution: The Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945. 1987 - ISBN 0876689519)), Berlin, Colloquium 1. dt. Aufl. - 1956, 7. Ed. 1992 (ISBN 3891668708), Copress - paperb.ed 1983. 700 p. ISBN 3767804662