Himmler Visits 

“Aktion Reinhard” Facilities

The preparation for the extermination of the Jews of the Generalgouvernement had actually started months before the "Wannsee Conference". A special organisation was formed which came to be called “Aktion Reinhard”, probably named in honour of Reinhard Heydrich after his assassination in Prague.

This organisation was established under the command of SS and Police Leader Lublin Odilo Globocnik, who had been appointed by Himmler, to manage the murder programme.  

On 20/21 July 1941, Himmler visited Globocnik in Lublin and decided to enlarge and extend the SS economic enterprises there. In an official note, Himmler instructed the SSPF Lublin to establish a concentration camp in the city for 25,000 to 50,000 prisoners, with a view to employing them in the workshops and on the building sites of the SS and Police.

Towards the end of 1941 it was decided that the KL Majdanek would also serve as a camp for Soviet POWs. He also ordered the expansion of the work camp 7 Lipowa Street, and the settlement of Germans in the Zamosc region.
 

On 19 July 1942, on the eve of the Great Action concerning the Jews of Warsaw, Himmler visited Sobibor, one of the “Aktion Reinhard” death camps in the Lublin area. On the same tour he also visited the SS Training Camp at Trawniki, where a number of photographs were taken.

He ended his tour with a visit to the “Aktion Reinhard” headquarters in Lublin, and following discussions with Globocnik, concluded that with the completion of the death camps, the Jews of the Generalgouvernement could be exterminated.

 
While still in Lublin on 19 July 1942, Himmler issued an order to “HSSPF Ost”, Friedrich Wilhelm Krüger, to complete the deportation of all of the Jews of the Generalgouvernement by 31 December 1942.
 

In early March 1943, Himmler once again visited the “Aktion Reinhard” Headquarters and the death camps of Sobibor and Treblinka. In anticipation of Himmler’s visit the camps were thoroughly cleansed. Karl Frenzel (Sobibor), testified at his trial regarding this visit:

"The visit was announced a few days ahead. The leadership of the camp took steps to make order in the camp… I was ordered, toget

her with some Unterführer’s and Ukrainian guards, to take over the outside security of the camp and guarantee Himmler’s personal security. When Himmler visited the gassing installation in Camp III, I guarded the surrounding area.

I remember that afterwards all the Unterführer were assembled in the canteen, and Himmler delivered an address to them…”

In honour of Himmler’s visit a special gassing of several hundred young Jewish girls took place. This is confirmed by the testimony of SS-Oberscharführer Hubert Gomerski who served at Sobibor: