Auschwitz Memo on secrecy, 1943[1]
Reich Security Main Office IV B 4 (signed Guenther)
to Commanding Officer of Security Police in France
attention SS-Lieutenant Colonel Knochen, Commanding Officer of Security Police in the Netherlands
attention SS-Major Zoepf Commanding Officer of Security Police in Belgium
attention SS-Major Ehlers
Copy to Commander of Security Police in Metz
April 29, 1943
Immediate concern has prompted camp Auschwitz to renew a request that Jews about to be evacuated receive no disturbing revelations of any kind about the place or manner of the utilization which is in store for them.
May I ask for your attention and cooperation in this matter.
In particular, I should ask you to take pains to instruct the accompanying guards before every journey not to instill thoughts of resistance in the Jews by voicing in their presence suppositions about types of quarters etc. Auschwitz is most desirous that in view of urgent construction programs the receipt of the transports and their further distribution may be carried out as smoothly as possible.
[1] Documents of Destruction: Germany and Jewry, 1933-1945, ed. Raul Hilberg (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1971), 222-223. From Israel Police document 1209.
