Himmler Attends A Mass Execution in Minsk

Himmler inspects the Shirokaya Street Labour Camp in Minsk, August 15, 1941
(Image - Wikipedia, public domain)

Himmler's visit to Minsk is known to have taken place in mid-August 1941. While he was there he observed a mass execution by shooting, carried out by Einsatzkommando B, which was under the command of SS Gruppenführer Arthur Nebe

According to Himmler's Dienstkalender (Diary) he was at Baranovichi on the afternoon of 14 August 1941. He left Baranovichi by truck and arrived in Minsk, by way of Slutsk sometime in the evening. 

His itinerary for the next day, Friday 15 August, reads as follows:

"Morning presence at an execution of partisans and Jews near Minsk.

Tour of a prisoner transit camp.

14.00 lunch, Lenin House

15.00 drive through the Minsk Ghetto – tour of the insane asylum

Subsequently, drive to Sofiose [sic] (managed by the SS)

Towards evening return to Minsk

Dinner and overnight stay at the Lenin House."

The following description of Himmler's attendance at the mass execution comes from Raul Hilberg's, The Destruction of the European Jews.

"On August 15, 1941, Himmler himself visited Minsk. He asked Einsatzgruppe B Commander Nebe to shoot a batch of a hundred people, so that he could see what one of these ‘liquidations’ really looked like. Nebe obliged. All except two of the victims were men. Himmler spotted in the group a youth of about twenty who had blue eyes and blond hair. Just before the firing was to begin, Himmler walked up to the doomed man and put a few questions to him.

Are you a Jew?

Yes.

Are both of your parents Jews?

Yes.

Do you have any ancestors who were not Jews?

No.

Then I can’t help you!

As the firing started, Himmler was even more nervous. During every volley he looked to the ground. When the two women did not die, Himmler yelled to the police sergeant not to torture them.

When the shooting was over, Himmler and the fellow spectator engaged in conversation. The other witness was Obergruppenführer von dem Bach-Zelewski, the same man who was later delivered to a hospital. Von dem Bach addressed Himmler:

Reichsführer, those were only a hundred.

What do you mean by that?

Look at the eyes of the men in this Kommando, how deeply shaken they are! These men are finished (fertig) for the rest of their lives. What kind of followers are we training here? Either neurotics or savages!

Himmler was visibly moved and decided to make a speech to all who were assembled here. He pointed out that the Einsatzgruppe were called upon to fulfil a repulsive (widerliche) duty. He would not like it if Germans did such a thing gladly. But their conscience was in no way impaired, for they were soldiers who had to carry out every order unconditionally. He alone had responsibility before God and Hitler for everything that was happening. They had undoubtedly noticed that he hated this bloody business (dass ihm das blutige Handwerk zuwider wäre) and that he had been aroused to the depth of his soul. But he too was obeying the highest law by doing his duty, and he was acting from a deep understanding of the necessity for this operation.

Himmler told the men to look at nature. There was combat everywhere, not only among men but also in the world of animals and plants. Whoever was too tired to fight must go under (zugrunde gehen). The most primitive man says that the horse is good and the bed bug is bad, or wheat is good and the thistle is bad. The human being consequently designates what is useful to him as good and what is harmful as bad. Didn’t bed bugs and rats have a life purpose also? Yes, but this has never meant that man could not defend himself against vermin.

After the speech Himmler, Nebe, von dem Bach, and the chief of Himmler’s Personal Staff, Wolff, inspected an insane asylum. Himmler ordered Nebe to end the suffering of these people as soon as possible. At the same time, Himmler asked Nebe ‘to turn over in his mind’ various other killing methods more humane than shooting. Nebe asked for permission to try out dynamite on the mentally ill people. Von dem Bach and Wolff protested that the sick people were not guinea pigs, but Himmler decided in favour of the attempt. Much later, Nebe confided to von dem Bach that the dynamite had been tried on the inmates with woeful results."

Note that the firing squad lost their nerve during the shooting of the two women. Neither of the women had been killed outright. Himmler called out to the officer in charge: ‘Don’t torture the women, go on, shoot!’

The blond youth and the other 99 prisoners were shot in the back of the head. As each line of prisoners were executed, they were covered with dirt and another group brought out from far enough away that they could not hear the gunfire. Himmler, looking closely into the trench where the bodies lay, was nauseated when brain matter and blood sprayed his uniform. 

Luftwaffe photographer Walter Frentz (August 21, 1907 - July 6. 2004) who was a favourite cameraman of the Nazis and was the cinematographer on Triumph of the Will shot film of the Minsk executions that he later destroyed.

Concerned about the impact such actions were having on the mental health of his SS men, Himmler decided that alternative methods of killing should be found and ordered Nebe to devise a new method for mass killings. As a result, it's claimed that gas vans were deployed in the eastern territories.

However, in his new book - The Einsatzgruppen in the Occupied Eastern Territories - revisionist historian, Carlo Mattogno states:

"After a thorough analysis, we find that the hypothesis of the deployment of “gas vans” in the occupied eastern territories is an unfounded and nonsensical fable, which further undermines the already-shaky foundations of the orthodox Holocaust narrative."

References: The Einsatzgruppen in the Occupied Eastern Territories by Carlo Mattogno, published by Castle Hill Publishers, PO Box 243, Uckfield, East Sussex, TN22 9AW, UK 

The Destruction of the European Jews by Raul Hilberg, published by Yale University Press, 13 June 2003