Nazis who worked in the death camps were prohibited from stealing the goods of murdered camp victims. They were also sworn to secrecy about their jobs.
Continuing with the "evacuation" euphemism, German workers at Auschwitz were required to sign a secrecy document. What happened if they violated their obligation? "Ich mit dem Tode bestraft werde." Or, in English, they would be punished with death.
Dr. Sigmund Rascher, an SS physician assigned to the Dachau concentration camp, wrote a
letter to Himmler on August 9, 1942. In it he discusses the possibility of testing combat gasses on the people who will be heading into the chambers. Here is the English translation:
As you know, the same installation as in Linz is to be built in Dachau. As the “invalid transports” terminate in the special chambers anyway I wondered if it would be possible to test the effects of our combat gasses in these chambers using the persons who are destined for those chambers. The only reports which are available so far are for experiments on animals or of accidents in the manufacture of these gases.
On September 2, 1942, Dr. Johann Paul Kremer witnessed people being gassed at Auschwitz. He wrote the following in his
diary:
For the first time, at 3:00 A.M. outside, attended a special action. Dante’s Inferno seems to me almost a comedy compared to this. They don’t call Auschwitz the camp of annihilation for nothing!
With workers sworn to secrecy and officers privately discussing plans, methods and actual "special actions," what further evidence does one need of Nazi intent to exterminate human beings? General Eisenhower, surveying the death camps at the end of the war, thought he may need to demonstrate more proof.