Here are some excerpts from a sweet letter Irmfried Eberl, the first Kommandant of the extermination camp at Treblinka wrote to his wife on July 30, 1942. Eberl was a doctor, as in physician, and had started killing people in the framework of the T4 “euthanasia” programme, the killing of disabled people in Germany. After this programme was publicly suspended because of growing protest within Germany, many of its perpetrators were transferred to Poland to apply their expertise to the murdering of Jews in the Operation Reinhard death camps at Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka.

Eberl was spectacularly inept and was unable to handle the daily influx of trains with thousands of Jews to be gassed and buried. Corpses were lying around, trains with dying Jews were left standing for days on the railway line approach to Treblinka and the camp was in chaos. He was dismissed in late August 1942, about one month after writing this sweet letter to his wife in which he complains about being too busy to write, and how proud he is of his work.

I'll leave it to the reader to decide whether we can describe this person as a man who “had to” kill and was full of “humanity”.

And if you are wondering why his wife sent him her measurements: the SS in the camps were in the habit of sending items of clothing and jewelry they looted from the murdered Jews home to their wives and sweethearts.

The letter can be found in Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden durch das nationalsozialistische Deutschland 1933 – 1945: Band 9 Polen: Generalgouvernement August 1941 – 1945, Munich 2014.

"Meine liebe Ruth!

Herzlichen Dank für Deinen lieben Brief und für die Maße. Der Brief kam aber reichlich spät. Ich habe Tage darauf gewartet. [...]

Daß ich in der letzten Zeit etwas wenig geschrieben [habe,] weiß ich, konnte dies aber nicht ändern, da die letzten Warschauer Wochen von einer Hetze begleitet waren, die unvorstellbar war, ebenso hat hier in Treblinka ein Tempo eingesetzt, das geradezu atemberaubend ist. [...] Du kannst überzeugt sein, daß ich viel und oft an Dich denke, aber einfach nicht die Zeit und die Muße habe, um zu schreiben. [...]

Ich habe nun mit der Zeit Nerven aus Stahl bekommen. Daß meine Nerven versagen können, kommt nicht in Frage. Noch viel weniger, daß ich physisch versagen könnte.

Es ist mir, allerdings unter rücksichtslosem Einsatz meiner Person, gelungen, in den letzten Tagen mit nur dem halben Personal meine Aufgabe zu meistern. Allerdings habe ich auch meine Leute rücksichtslos überall eingesetzt, wo es nötig war, und meine Leute haben wacker mitgezogen. Und auf diese Leistung bin ich froh und stolz.

[…] Wenn mich nachts die Flöhe piesacken, dann denke ich oft an mein schönes Heim in Berlin. Und wenn ich mir tagsüber die Kehle heiser schreie, an die Ruhe und an den Frieden zu Hause. Aber die Aufgabe, die mir gestellt ist, wird restlos geschafft, und das ist die Hauptsache.

Und, meine liebe Katze, sei mir nicht böse, wenn ich mal schweige, ich denke oft und viel an Dich, aber man kann sich nicht immer hinsetzen und Briefe schreiben. Denn da Du die schöne Seite in meinem Leben darstellst, sollst Du von allem nichts wissen.

Herzliche Grüße und viele, viele Küsse

von Deinem Teddy"

Translation

"My dear Ruth!

Thank you very much for your lovely letter and for the measurements. But the letter came rather late. I had been waiting for days. [...]

I know that I have written but little recently, but I couldn't help that, because the last few weeks in Warsaw were unimaginably hectic, and here in Treblinka the pace has been breathtaking , [...] You can be sure that I think about you a lot and often, but just don't have the time and leisure to write. [...]

I have now acquired nerves of steel. That my nerves can fail is out of the question. Even less that I could physically fail.

However, with the ruthless dedication of my person, I have managed to accomplish my task in the last few days with only half the staff. In any case, I also used my people ruthlessly wherever it was necessary, and my people bravely followed suit. And I'm happy and proud of this achievement.

[…] When the fleas torment me at night, I often think of my beautiful home in Berlin. And when I scream my throat hoarse during the day, of the peace and quiet at home. But the task that I have been given is completely accomplished, and that is the main thing.

And, my dear kitten, don't be angry with me if I am quiet, I think about you a lot and often, but you can't always sit down and write letters. Because you represent the beautiful side of my life, you shouldn't know anything about all these things.

Kind regards and many, many kisses

from your Teddy"