Operation Reinhard

Operation Reinhard (Aktion Reinhard or Einsatz Reinhard in German) was the code name given to the Nazi plan to murder Polish Jews in the General Government, and marked the beginning of the most deadly phase of the Holocaust, the use of extermination camps. During the operation, as many as two million people were murdered in Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka and Majdanek, almost all of them Jews.

The name
It is hypothesized that the operation was named in memory of SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, the coordinator of the Endlösung der Judenfrage (Final Solution of the Jewish Question) - the extermination of the Jews living in the European countries occupied by the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War. After the plans for the Final Solution were laid down at the Wannsee conference, Heydrich was attacked by members of the Czech underground resistance on May 27, 1942. He died of his injuries eight days later. This hypothesis has been disputed by some researchers, who argue that since the more mainstream designation of the operation was "Aktion Reinhardt" (with "t" after "d"), it could not have been named after Reinhard Heydrich. They argue that it has been named after State Secretary of Finance Fritz Reinhardt. But in many official documents Heydrich's name was written as "Reinhardt". And historians Witte and Tyas concluded: ...The only interesting reference to the Reich Ministry of Finance to be found in the archives of the IfZ is a Declaration on Oath by Bruno Melmer, Nürnberg, 11th February 1948 (NG-4983). Fritz Reinhardt is not mentioned at all. Another serious problem is that Melmer reported important events for May 1942 which actually took place in mid-August 1942. It will be difficult to explain why Einsatz or Aktion Reinhardt should have been named after a State Secretary whose ministry first became involved in the Aktion over two months after the first known occurrence of the code name...

Extermination process
The extermination process in Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka was similar to the method used in the six euthanasia killing centers in Germany and Austria, but hugely scaled up for killing whole transports of people at a time.

Victims would hand over their valuables, which became property of the German Reichsbank. They then undressed, and their clothes were searched for jewelry and other valuables. Victims were then marched into the gas chamber and packed tightly to minimize the available fresh air. An engine created carbon monoxide gas which was then discharged through gaspipes, killing the occupants. Their corpses were cremated after any gold dental fillings were removed. The mass murder was carefully tracked and documented. For example, the intercepted Höfle Telegram sent by SS-Sturmbannführer Hermann Höfle on January 11, 1943 to SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann in Berlin listed 1,274,166 total arrivals to the four camps of Aktion Reinhard through the end of 1942, as well as the total arrivals by camp for the last two weeks of 1942.

The structure of all camps was nearly identical. From the reception area with ramp and undressing barracks, the Jews entered a narrow, camouflaged path (called sluice or tube) to the extermination area with gas chambers, pits and cremation grids. The SS and Trawnikis stayed in a separate area. Barbed wire fences, partially camouflaged with pine branches, surrounded the camp and separated the different parts. Unlike Auschwitz, no electric fences were used. Wooden watchtowers guarded the camp.

Approximately 2 million Jews lost their lives in Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka and Majdanek in the course of Operation Reinhard. Approximately 178,045,960 German Reichsmark worth of Jewish property (today's value: around 700,000,000 USD or 550,000,000 euro) was stolen. This money went not only to German authorities, but also to single individuals (SS and police men, camp guards, non-Jewish inhabitants of towns and villages with ghettos or adjacent camps).

Aftermath
Operation Reinhard ended in November 1943. After their work in the German concentration camps established in occupied Poland, most of the staff was sent to northern Italy for actions against remaining Jews and partisans. Many of the perpetrators turned up again in the concentration camp of San Sabba near Trieste.

The group disintegrated after the surrender of the German Wehrmacht in Italy. Some of them were tried after the war, but others continued to work in Germany and elsewhere throughout the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.