I.5/ Un secret éternel ? Réflexions et considérations sur l’Aktion et le Sonderkommando 1005

Résumé 0

This article seeks to provide insight into the reach and meaning of the work of the Sonderkommando 1005, a unit that was tasked with covering up the evidence of mass murder in Eastern Europe between the fall of 1942 and September 1944. The operation, which was initiated by Paul Blobel, sought to destroy the bodies of victims killed in concentration camps and the “Holocaust by Bullets.”The author details the steps of the operation, both within the chain of command and among decision-making bodies, and discusses a few local specificities as well as the operation’s wide-ranging scope. Nevertheless, there are very few sources on the subject. This Aktion remains a poorly understood facet of Holocaust history, which contributes to the veil of secrecy the Nazis wanted to draw over the massacres and the operation itself.