Himmler reports to Hitler on anti-Partisan warfare, December 29, 1942

We invite comments from our readers on the above document with its horrifying figures for "Jews executed" (paragraph 2 (c)). As stated in David Irving's biography Hitler's War, the original of the laconic report by Himmler that 363,211 Russian Jews had been executed will be found on US National Archives microfilm T175/124. The original is now in file NS19/291, Bundesarchiv, Koblenz.

Paul Fritz Nemeth submits, Thursday, July 22, 1999:

This is but one page of a report and so it is difficult to give an objective opinion. One thing is clear, that if these figures are correct, the Germans did execute Jews wholesale in the Ukraine. What I find somewhat questionable though is that why would the report contain the execution of Jews when it is supposedly about Partisan fighting. It seems most unlikely that over 300,000 Jews took part in fights, where captured and then executed.

My question, therefore, is first of all, is this document authentic? Did you see the document yourself, if so, could you establish if it was authentic?

[...] I think it is probably authentic. The initial is "Gr.," Werner Grothmann, Himmler's adjutant [see right for a 1989 signature on a letter to David Irving]. As for the figure for Jews executed: perhaps

(a) it is a deliberately inflated body count submited by subordinates a la Vietnam War, designed to impress Himmler. But I have nowhere seen any evidence of Hitler demanding such body counts, or efficiency in THIS respect; or

(b) more likely, Himmler slipped the figure into a statistical table which he thought it unlikely Hitler would read in detail, to cover himself for the future. "But mein Führer, I reported this to you at the time!" This would be consonant with the episode in which he ordered cosmetic changes to the Korherr Report before it was shown to Hitler a few months later.

I have no axe to grind one way or the other, but I am interested in everybody's take on this compelling document.