From PRO file WO.208/3154, optically scanned. Please report obvious scanning errors. [Report]

[Extract from Interrogation of General Reinecke, CCPWE No. 32/DI.49]

[1 - 7. ...]

8. What was the reaction of army men to Party atrocities insofar as these were known?

Source [Reinecke] did not like this question, and it was put last. The gist of his answer was that atrocities on the whole were not known to the Armed Forces. To this day source still has in the back of his mind the atrocity propaganda of the First World War and doubts the full authenticity of present reports.

In 1939 source went to HITLER and told him that there was so much talk in Armed Forces circles about concentration camps that something must be done about it. He requested that they be allowed to inspect a concentration camp. HITLER received l60 officers, source included, in person at DACHAU and took them through the camp. The officers were allowed to go anywhere and were thoroughly satisfied that the inmates were well treated. The memory of this inspection still sticks in his mind and he balances this against newspaper reports, pictures etc of atrocities, thus remaining unconvinced.

The Armed Forces objected strenuously to HIMMLER'S decree forcing Jews to wear the Star of David on their clothes. But the Armed Forces were only successful in getting the soldiers exempted from this decree. In the long run, however, they lost out and all Jews and half-Jews were dismissed from the army.

Website comment: It is not believed that Adolf Hitler did ever visit a concentration camp, and this may be a misprint for Heinrich Himmler. Comments are however invited. [comment] Laurence M. suggests 6.3.03: "As the acknowledged head of the camp system, Himmler would have been the person to hold any 'reception' [of 160 officers] and not Hitler."