Korherr, Richard

Dr. Richard Korherr (30 Oct. 1903 – 24 Nov. 1989) was a statistician, and from late 1940, the head of the SS’s statistical office. In early 1943, Himmler ordered him to compile a report on the trends of European Jewish population developments since the National Socialists’ rise to power. After several discussions and some correspondence with Himmler, Korherr submitted a 16-page long version for Himmler (Nuremberg Document NO-5194), and a 6½-page short version meant for Hitler (NO-5193).

These two reports and a few accompanying letters are seen by the orthodoxy as a smoking gun for the Holocaust. They claim that these documents prove that some two million Jews had been murdered up to early 1943. The subsequent discussion will focus on the long version.

The data used by Korherr to compile these statistics were provided to him by various SS offices. For instance, the number of Jews listed in the long version (p. 9, Point 4) as passed through the camps in the General Government, meaning occupied Poland, is identical with the number given by SS official Hans Höfle in a radio message sent in early 1943 to the SS headquarters. Höfle listed this number as a total of individual arrival figures (Zugang) of all the camps located in that area: Belzec, Lublin (meaning Majdanek), Sobibór and Treblinka. While Höfle had the inmates arrive at these camps, Korherr listed them as passed through (durchgeschleust), suggesting that these camps served as transit camps.

An earlier draft of Korherr’s report used the term special treatment of the Jews here (Sonderbehandlung der Juden). In a letter, Himmler asked Korherr not to use that expression anywhere, and to headline Point 4 of page 9 instead: Transportation of Jews from the Eastern provinces to the Russian East. Some 35 years later, in a letter to the editors of the German news magazine Der Spiegel (No. 31, 1977, p. 12), Korherr explained that he was perplexed by the term special treatment, hence had inquired about it with the German Department of Homeland Security (Reichssicherheitshauptamt). He was told that it referred to resettlements. That phone call probably triggered Himmler’s letter giving instructions on what term to use instead. This supports Korherr’s postwar statement that these camps had been presented to him as transit camps for Jews getting resettled.

Korherr’s report also has 145,302 Jews passed […] through the camps in the Warthegau (ibid.). However, there was only one camp in that area: Chełmno. This figure gives a maximum number of Jews deported to that camp. While the orthodoxy claims that they were all killed there in gas vans, Korherr’s report again suggests a mere transit camp.

The orthodoxy claims that the original term used (special treatment) was a euphemism for murder (through gassing). However, the largest of all claimed mass-murder centers — Auschwitz — is not included in that number. Most Jews deported to Auschwitz are instead listed in the next entry of that list (Evacuations of Jews from other countries, Point 5, pp. 9f.), which evidently never had the term special treatment attached to it, hence was in no need of any changes. Therefore, if special treatment meant murder, then Jews evacuated to Auschwitz were not murdered according to the Korherr Report.

On the other hand, Höfle’s radio message proves that the camps in the General Government included the Majdanek Camp. In this case, the rich extant documentation allows us to ascertain that Jews sent to this camp were not murdered there. (See the entry on that camp). Hence, special treatment did not mean murder in this case. By analogy, it may not have meant murder for Jews sent to the other three camps either (Belzec, Sobibór, Treblinka).

When summing up all evacuation figures on page 10 (for which Himmler had not requested any change), all single items are tallied, including special treatment. That instance of this term’s use had been overlooked by Himmler and Korherr. It was a back reference to Point 4 on page 9, but after its text had been changed, this reference pointed nowhere.

We know from numerous Auschwitz documents that the evacuation of Jews to and through Auschwitz was indeed labeled special treatment. (See the entry on that term.) However, this referred not to murder, but to the special treatment Jews were getting in comparison to all other groups of people who were arrested, incarcerated and/or deported by the Third Reich. Everyone else had to have committed — or be suspected of having committed — some infraction to get arrested. The Jews, however, got arrested and deported simply because they were Jews. That was their special treatment.

Furthermore, the report lists a little over 1.6 million Jews who are said to have been evacuated or transported from Germany, the Protectorate (occupied Czechia) and the eastern provinces to the East or the Russian East (meaning the then-occupied Soviet territories; p. 9, Points 2 and 4.). It then states that these evacuations […] are counted here as part of the decrease (p. 15), although mere transfers to the European part of Russia, strictly speaking, did not remove them from Europe, which is what this report was all about. However, if they had been killed in the East, they would not just count as decreases, but be irreversible population declines.

Hence, in this regard as well, Korherr believed — or wrote as if he believed — that mass relocations to Russia happened, and that these relocated Jews were very much alive and kicking. Not a single word, expression or inkling in this document indicates that mass murder was being perpetrated against the Jews.

The orthodoxy insists that all this is a game of smoke and mirrors, where euphemisms are used to hide the ugly truth of genocide. The problem is that this report was not meant to be published or spread. It was for Himmler’s and Hitler’s eyes only. So why use lies, euphemisms and code language in top-secret documents to be seen only by the nation’s top leaders? Who was Korherr or Himmler trying to dupe?

(For more details, see Graf/Kues/Mattogno 2020, pp. 311-330.)