Konzentrationslager, vol. 1, Munich, 2005, pp. 300–301.
87. Karin Orth, Das System der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager: Eine politische Organisationsgeschichte, Hamburg, 1999, pp. 272–3.
88. No explicit written order to this effect has been found (other than for prisons in the General Government of Poland).—Paul, pp. 550–51 and nn. 31–3; Gabriele Hammermann, ‘Die Todesmarsche aus den Konzentrationslagern 1944/45’, in Arendes, Wolfrum and Zedler, pp. 122–3, 125; Blatman, ‘Die Todesmarsche’, pp. 1068–70, 1086; Eberhard Kolb, ‘Die letzte Kriegsphase: Kommentierende Bemerkungen’, in Herbert, Orth and Dieckmann, p. 1131; DZW, 6, p. 643.
89. Kommandant in Auschwitz: Autobiographische Aufzeichnungen des Rudolf Hoss, ed. Martin Broszat, pb. edn., Munich, 1963, p. 145 n. 1; Saul Friedlander, The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939–1945, London, 2007, p. 648; Daniel Blatman, ‘The Death Marches, January–May 1945: Who Was Responsible for What?’, YVS, 28 (2000), pp. 168–71, 198–9.
90. Rudolf Hoss gives a vivid impression of the chaos in Kommandant in Auschwitz, pp. 145–7.
91. Walter Schellenberg, Schellenberg, pb. edn., London, 1965, pp. 167–70; Peter R. Black, Ernst Kaltenbrunner: Ideological Soldier of the Third Reich, Princeton, 1984, pp. 228–30; Friedlander, pp. 621–5, 647–8; Peter Longerich, Heinrich Himmler: Biographie, Munich, 2008, pp. 728–30; Heinz Hohne, The Order of the Death’s Head, London, 1972, pp. 524–5; Hammermann, p. 126; Yehuda Bauer, Jews for Sale? Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933– 1945, New Haven, 1994, pp. 239–51; Simone Erpel, Zwischen Vernichtung und Befreiung: Das Frauen-Konzentrationslager Ravensbruck in der letzten Kriegsphase, Berlin, 2005, pp. 97–154 (where the number of camp prisoners saved by such action by the end of the war, most notably through the Swedish initiative, is given as 15,345, of whom 7,795 were Scandinavians—a proportion which, however, as she points out, underrates the number of non-Scandinavians rescued). Intelligence reports to the western Allies claimed that the negotiations about the liberation of a number of Jews had caused a ‘sensation’ in Berlin, and had been condemned by leading Nazis, including Julius Streicher.—NAL, WO219/1587, fo. 734, SHAEF report, 25.2.45.
92. Blatman, ‘Die Todesmarsche’, pp. 1069–72; and Daniel Blatman, Les Marches de la mort: La derniere etape du genocide nazi, ete 1944-printemps 1945, Paris, 2009, pp. 96–100, 127–31.
93. Orth, p. 279.
94. Wachsmann, pp. 324–5.
95. Wachsmann, pp. 325–33.
96. Laurence Rees, Auschwitz: The Nazis and the ‘Final Solution’, London, 2005, p. 301, based upon figures supplied by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum.
97. Sybille Steinbacher, Auschwitz: A History, London, 2005, p. 124.
98. Andrzej Strzelecki, ‘Der Todesmarsch der Haftlinge aus dem KL Auschwitz’, in Herbert, Orth and Dieckmann, p. 1103; Danuta Czech, Kalendarium der Ereignisse im Konzentrationslager-Auschwitz- Birkenau 1939–1945, Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1989, pp. 966–7.
99. Kommandant in Auschwitz, p. 146 (where Hoss also used the term ‘columns of misery’).
100. ITS, Tote 80, fo. 00030a, Haftlingstransport von Birkenau nach Gablonz, 2.4.46. See also Kommandant in Auschwitz, p. 146; and Czech, p. 968.
101. Monika Richarz, Judisches Leben in Deutschland: Selbstzeugnisse zur Sozialgeschichte 1918–1945, Stuttgart, 1982, pp. 443–6 (account by Paul Heller based on diary jottings kept at the time).
102. Richarz, pp. 448, 450–51.
103. Strzelecki, p. 1102; Blatman, Les Marches de la mort, pp. 112, 140.
104. Richarz, p. 452.
105. ITS, Tote 80, fo. 60282a, Marches de la Mort, Gro?-Rosen—Leitmeritz, 4.4.46.
106. Isabell Sprenger, ‘Das KZ Gro?-Rosen in der letzten Kriegsphase’, in Herbert, Orth and Dieckmann, pp. 1113–24. On one march alone (p. 1122), 500 out of 3,500 died.
107. Orth, pp. 282–7; Blatman, Les Marches de la mort, pp. 126–32; Blatman, ‘The Death Marches’, pp. 174–9. See also Olga M. Pickholz-Barnitsch, ‘The Evacuation of the Stutthof Concentration Camp’, Yad Vashem Bulletin, 16 (1965), pp. 37–9. According to the SS’s figures, the prisoners in Stutthof had numbered 18,436 men and 30,199 women (48,635 persons in all) on 15 January 1945.— IWM, F.2, AL 1753, SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungs-hauptamt List of Concentration Camps with numbers of guards and prisoners 1. & 15.1.45. When the evacuations began, this number had fallen to 46,331 prisoners.—Blatman, ‘The Death Marches’, p. 175, based (cf. n. 43) on the last roll-call of 24.1.45.
108. Blatman, Les Marches de la mort, p. 140.
109. Hammermann, pp. 140–41; Sprenger, pp. 120–21; Katharina Elliger, Und tief in der Seele das Ferne: Die Geschichte einer Vertreibung aus Schlesien, Reinbek bei Hamburg, 2006, pp. 71–4 (where she mentions seeing as a girl the column of misery of Auschwitz prisoners passing through her village, near Ratibor in Silesia, and throwing bread down before hastily closing her window as the guard reacted negatively).
110. See Richard Overy, Why the Allies Won, London, 1995, pp. 112–33, for an assessment of Harris and Allied bombing strategy, concluding (p. 133) that ‘the air offensive was one of the decisive elements in Allied victory’. The policy of ‘area bombing’ of cities had already been decided—following a change in tactics suggested by Churchill’s scientific adviser Lord Cherwell (earlier known as Professor Frederick Lindemann) on account of the failure of precision bombing—just before Harris took over Bomber Command on 22 February 1942. Harris, who had an excellent rapport with Churchill at this time, was the inspirational driving force behind the implementation of the policy, dedicating himself ‘to the vital necessity of striking at Germany in her homeland, where it would really hurt’.—Henry Probert, Bomber Harris: His Life and Times, London, 2001, pp. 122, 126–46; Max Hastings, Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940– 45, London, 2009, pp. 246–9.
111. Frederick Taylor, Dresden: Tuesday 13 February 1945, pb. edn., London, 2005, p. 216.
112. Lothar Gruchmann, Der Zweite Weltkrieg, pb. edn., Munich, 1975, pp. 197–8, 280–81, 414.
113. Taylor, p. 427.
114. Jorg Friedrich, Der Brand: Deutschland im Bombenkrieg 1940–1945, pb. edn., Berlin, 2004, pp. 108–9, 312–16; Taylor, p. 428.
115. Rudiger Overmans, ‘Die Toten des Zweiten Weltkriegs in Deutschland’, in Wolfgang Michalka (ed.), Der Zweite Weltkrieg: Analysen, Grundzuge, Forschungsbilanz, Munich and Zurich, 1989, p. 860; Friedrich, p. 63; DRZW, 10/1 (Boog), p. 868; United States Strategic Bombing Survey, New York and London, 1976, vol. 4, pp. 7–10.
116. Muller and Ueberschar, p. 160 (report from 1955 by Theodor Ellgering, who in 1945 was Geschaftsfuhrer des Interministeriellen Luftkriegsausschusses der Reichsregierung in Berlin, on his impressions on entering Dresden immediately after the raid to organize the grim salvage operations).
117. Based on Taylor, chs. 21–4. See also Gotz Bergander, Dresden im Luftkrieg, Weimar, Cologne and Vienna, 1994, esp. chs. 9–12; Friedrich, pp. 358–63; DRZW, 10/1 (Boog), pp. 777–98; Olaf Groehler, Bombenkrieg gegen Deutschland, Berlin, 1990, pp. 400–12; Rolf-Dieter Muller, Der Bombenkrieg 1939–1945, Berlin, 2004, pp. 212–20; Paul Addison and Jeremy A. Crang (eds.), Firestorm: The Bombing of Dresden, 1945, London, 2006, esp. pp. 18–77 (contributions by Sebastian Cox and Sonke Neitzel) and pp. 123–42 (Richard Overy’s discussion of the post-war debate); and Max Hastings, Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944– 45 (London, 2004), pp. 382–7.
118. Victor Klemperer, Ich will Zeugnis ablegen bis zum letzten, vol. 2: Tagebucher 1942–1945, ed. Walter Nowojski and Hadwig Klemperer, Darmstadt, 1998, pp. 661, 669, 675–6 (13–14.2.45, 19.2.45). Discrimination against Jews even went so far as to refuse them entry to
