Meldung 51 (NO-1128)
A single Nazi document—Meldung Nr. 51 (29 December 1942, Nuremberg NO-1128)[1]—is often cited as ironclad proof of the Holocaust: 363,211 "Jews executed" in four months across "Russland-Süd, Ukraine, Bialystok." Historians like Raul Hilberg and Yitzhak Arad link it to the near-total murder of ~300,000 Jews in Ukraine's Volhynia-Podolia region.[2] But scrutinize its military framing, demographics, and logic: this is an exaggerated tally of Eastern Front anti-partisan operations targeting Soviet irregulars and suspected Jewish collaborators—not a racial extermination ledger.[3] Part of ~80 "Reports to the Führer on Bandit-Fighting," it reflects brutal total war, not premeditated genocide.
Military Context: Partisan War, Not Civilian Slaughter
Meldung 51 summarizes "Bandenbekämpfung" (anti-partisan efforts) under SS leader Odilo Globocnik-Prützmann:
- 447 combat engagements, 262 rail sabotages, 54 bridges/communication stations destroyed, 40 other attacks.
- 140 Soviet defections via German propaganda.
- A footnote admits undercounting: "Since the Russian drags away his fallen or buries them immediately, the loss figures... are considerably higher according to prisoner statements."
Categories are combat-focused:
- Bandits: 1,337 killed in fights; 737 prisoners executed immediately; 7,828 after interrogation (~9,902 total).
- Helpers/suspects: 16,553 arrested; 14,257 executed (86% rate).
- Jews executed: 363,211, nested under suspects (monthly: Aug. 31k; Sep. 165k; Oct. 96k; Nov. 71k).
Pripyat Marshes and Bialystok were NKVD hotspots. Himmler's Pinsk order (Oct. 1942) explicitly targets the ghetto as a "partisan center" threatening rail lines, sparing 1,000 laborers despite "economic objections." No gas chambers, extermination euphemisms, or Hitler orders — just shootings ("exekutiert") of threats.
Demographics: Feasible Pool Without "Totality"
No need for impossible civilian annihilation. Mid-1942 German reports (Meldungen aus den besetzten Ostgebieten No. 5) counted 326,000 Jews in GK Volhynia-Podolia—a patchwork of regions:
- Polish Volhynia (Volyn/Rivne): ~171,000 victims (Kruglov).
- Soviet Podolia: ~75,000.
- Belarusian Polesie (Brest/Pinsk): ~86,000 (Gerlach).
- Border extras (Kremenez): ~18,000.
- Bialystok salient: ~100,000 ghettos.
- Ukraine-Süd rear: ~100-200,000 stragglers/POWs (e.g., Voroshilovgrad remnants).
Static pool: 500-700,000
Add dynamic inflows: Höfle Telegram peaks (1.27M Reinhard "arrivals" Sep-Dec) suggest ~100-200,000 Generalgouvernement Jews transited via Bialystok for forced labor (e.g. OT roads/rails amid sabotages).
Result: 600-900,000 suspects → 363k = 30-60% targeted cull (males/helpers), ~3,000/day with 10,000+ troops (Police Bns. 310/315/320 + Ukrainian aux).
Evidence Gaps and Hyperbole
The following suggest probable inflation by the SS:
- Battalion diaries (Police Bn. 310): ~700 verified kills vs. claimed 41,000.
- Bialystok Nov.: 25,000+ deportations to Auschwitz/Treblinka (Auschwitz Chronicle) — not "executions."
- No mass graves matching scale (Aktion 1005 partial, small sites like Brest).
- The reported figure of 363,211 is considered a "manifest exaggeration" by early Holocaust researcher Gerald Reitlinger[4]
Orthodox Claims Unravel
Bottom-up studies (USHMM Vol. II: 135 ghettos) reach ~350,000 via flawed sources:
- Yizkor books and Soviet ChGK reports (propaganda-prone).
- Dubious Polish transcripts (e.g., Lutsk "100% cleanup" order).[5]
Logistics strain: 91,000/month with minimal German losses? Gaps persist; double-counting rampant.
Conclusion: Total War Toll, Not Hitlerian Genocide
Meldung 51 captures desperate defense against Bolshevik subversion—Jews as prime suspects in reprisals. Toll horrific (tens of thousands executed), but military necessity, not racial doom. Forensic voids, hyperbole, and context demand reevaluation: no premeditated wipeout, just wartime brutality inflated by victors. The Holocaust narrative falters here—evidence favors scrutiny over myth.
Translated Document Images (from NMT Vol. XIII) [6]
- ↑ Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10, Nuernberg, October 1946-April 1949, pp. 269-272
- ↑ Hilberg 2003, Vol. III, p.1312; Arad 2009, p.263 (Mattogno, The Einsatzgruppen, pp.252-253)
- ↑ Mattogno, The Einsatzgruppen, pp.252-259
- ↑ Gerald Reitlinger, "The Final Solution: The Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe 1939-45," Jason Aronson, 1987, p. 226, originally published 1953
- ↑ Carlo Mattogno, "The Einsatzgruppen in the Occupied Eastern Territories," Holocaust Handbooks, Volume 39, 2nd revised edition, 2024, pp. 250-259, https://holocausthandbooks.com/book/the-einsatzgruppen-in-the-occupied-eastern-territories/
- ↑ Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10, Nuernberg, October 1946-April 1949, pp. 269-272