I WAS in the bookstore tonight and happened upon a book on the Wannsee Conference by an individual named Ron Rosenman. Wasn’t tremendously impressed, but one thing seemed very interesting. Apparently, and I did not know this, it was Robert Kempner (right) who “discovered” the Wannsee papers after the war and took them to Telford Taylor.

It is curious that the person who “lost” the later documents (PS-4025: the Schlegelberger Memorandum) indicating that Hitler wanted to wait until after the war to launch the “Final Solution” is the same person who found the “earlier orders” for it, especially after British intelligence intercepted Hitler’s orders that the Jews should be innoculated and saved for construction gangs in the Soviet Union only days before the Wannsee Conference of January 20, 1942.

This gives new light to the fact that Arno Mayer puts the final meeting between Heydrich and Göring on March 26, 1942 and the I.G. Farben Corporation cancelled the development of the crematoriums at Auschwitz on February 26, 1942 because the expense was too great and they weren’t needed in their estimation.

Apparently, Mr. Kempner wanted much more from the documents than was there, and his puzzlement as to whether he had “discovered” the orders for the “Final Solution” was, in this historical light, misguided indeed. It’s a real shame too that General Thomas‘ diaries disappeared, given the fact that Arno Mayer tells us that he had meetings for the Final Solution on both July 31, 1941 and January 20, 1942, both “historical” days in the “history” of the “Final Solution”.

Take care,

Frank Lowe Jr

 Our latest dossier on Auschwitz | previous dossier

 Himmler and Wannsee

 Percy Spilberg on Wannsee and the Hitler Order for the Holocaust

 Frank Lowe on Hitler’s order, Wannsee; and the Typhus War

 Intercepted signal of Jan 15, 1942 shows that Hitler really did intend the Jews to build roads in The East

David Irving replies:

THE daughter in law of Generalmajor Georg Thomas (Chef des Wehrwirtschaftsführungsstabs), Jutta Thomas, worked for me for twenty years as a secretary in London before she told me who her Schwiegervater was. The name Thomas did not ring a bell!