Höfle Telegram

The Höfle Telegram (or Hoefle Telegram) is a document discovered in 2000 among recently declassified World War II materials from the Public Record Office in Kew, England. The document consists of two messages, one to SS Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann in Berlin, and one to SS Oberststurmbannführer Heim, in Cracow, sent by SS Sturmbannführer Hermann Höfle on January 11 1943. It gave arrivals in the prior fortnight, and arrivals for the year, for the camps of Einsatz Reinhardt (later more commonly called Aktion Reinhard) to December 31, 1942.

Translation
The translation of the decoded message that British intelligence intercepted. Note that the interception and decoding was not 100% accurate, as indicated by "?" and the remarks in square brackets. 12.  OMX de OMQ         1000          89 ? ?                State secret! To the Reich Security Main Office, for the attention of SS Obersturmbannführer EICHMANN, BERLIN [gap, rest missed] 13/15.  OLQ de OMQ         1005          83 234 250 State secret! To the commander of the Security Police, for the attention of SS Obersturmbannführer HEIM, CRACOW. Re: 14-day report operation REINHARD. Reference: radio telegram from there Recorded arrivals until 31 December 42, L 12761, B 0, S 515, T 10335 totaling 23611. Situation [gap] 31 December 42, L 24733, B 434508, S 101370, T 71355, totaling 1274166. SS and police leader of Lublin, HÖFLE, Sturmbannführer.

For clarity the figures may be arranged as a table:

Recorded arrivals for the 2 weeks until 31 December 1942       Sum total as of 31 December 1942 L (Lublin Majdanek)    12 761                                      24 733 B (Belzec)                  0                                     434 508 S (Sobibor)               515                                     101 370 T (Treblinka)          10 335                                     713 555 Total                  23 611                                   1 274 166

Importance of the document
According to the US National Security Agency, "It appears the British analysts who had decrypted the message missed the significance of this particular message at the time. No doubt this happened because the message itself contained only the identifying letters for the death camps followed by the numerical totals. The only clue would have been the reference to Operation Reinhard, the meaning of which – the plan to eliminate Polish Jewry that was named after the assassinated SS General Reinhard Heydrich – also probably was unknown at the time to the codebreakers at Bletchley."

This document is only the second to detail the numbers involved in the execution of Einsatz Reinhardt (the other is Korherr’s report, which makes use of the figures in this radio telegram).

Apart from indicating the numbers for 1942, it also indicates that the camp at Lublin (Majdanek), was part of Odilo Globocnik's "Einsatz Reinhardt", a fact that historians previously had not realised.

The discovery of these exact numbers has raised questions as to where the Jews that were admitted to the respective camps came from. At this stage it is still speculative.

Footnotes / references
מברק הפלה