Mass Killing Unit of Warthegau
Sonderkommando Lange in German Documents:
Sonderkommando Kulmhof in German Documents:
Part I: Origin and Foundation
Part II: The Extermination of 100,000 Jews
Part III: Body Disposal (Appendix)
Part IV: Pabianice Sorting Camp
Part V: Funding
Part VI: The Polish Working Detail
Part VII: Motor Pool and Fuel (Appendix)
Part IX: Farewell (1943)
On 9 January 1942, when the killing of the Sinti and Roma of the Ghetto Litzmannstadt was completed, [1] the commandant Herbert Lange received a bar cheque for 20,000 RM from the Ghetto Administration "as special assignment for the gipsies' camp" (Document 105). The payment may have been a danger bonus for the Sonderkommando men because of typhus cases among the Sinti and Roma.
Apart from that, the extermination camp was apparently funded by the Provincial Government in Posen in this initial period of December - February 1942. The cash confiscated in Kulmhof was delivered to Posen, as shown by the transfer of a "surplus of Sonderkommando Kulmhof" of about 176,000 RM in late April 1942 from the Reich Governor's office to the Litzmannstadt Ghetto Administration, which had been "accumulated at Sonderkommando Lange and [was] partly retained here" (Document 109). The transactions of the Sonderkommando were carried out with the postal cheque account 14551 of the "Landesversicherungsanstalt Wartheland" (State Insurance Institution) (Document 159). [2] Such cover up account - possibly related to the Health Insurance Department of Landesversicherungsanstalt Wartheland - might have been a relict of camouflaging the Euthanasia operations of Sonderkommando Lange.