KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps (167 page)

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Authors: Nikolaus Wachsmann

BOOK: KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps

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202
. For WVHA support, see Glücks to KL Buchenwald, April 7, 1945, in Tuchel,
Inspektion
, 215; Broszat,
Kommandant
, 280. Many historians suggest that Himmler himself ordered an end to all KL evacuations in mid-March (Neander,
Mittelbau
, 106–109; Orth,
System
, 302–308; Blatman,
Death
, 137, 154, 199–200). This supposition is largely based on the account of Himmler’s masseur Felix Kersten, a notoriously unreliable witness (see above, note 165). A supposed Himmler order is
also mentioned in postwar accounts of former SS officers like Walter Schellenberg and Rudolf Höss (IfZ, ED 90/7, W. Schellenberg, “Memorandum,” n.d., Bl. 30; IfZ, G 01/31, Zeugenaussage R. Höss,
IMT
, April 15, 1946). But the former’s testimony is unreliable and self-serving (Breitman et al.,
Intelligence
, 113–14, 447), while the latter is inconsistent on this point (cf. Broszat,
Kommandant
, 280).
All considered, it seems unlikely that Himmler issued a blanket stop-order. The former head of the KL system, Oswald Pohl, made no mention of such an order in his extensive postwar testimony. Also, KL evacuations continued without interruption after Himmler’s supposed order (see below). Most likely, Himmler had made some promises to his foreign interlocutors—perhaps about ending
all
evacuations—but
never intended to keep them (he lied persistently during meetings with foreign representatives in spring 1945; NAL, FO 188/526, Report N. Masur, April 1945).

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