page_title: Sonderbehandlung
section_title: Sensitivity
hierarchical_section_title: Sonderbehandlung / Sensitivity
context_page_description: Sonderbehandlung is any sort of preferential treatment, but is known primarily as a euphemism for mass murder used by Nazi functionaries and the SS, who commonly used the abbreviation S.B. in documentation. It first came to prominence during Action T4, where SS doctors killed mentally ill and disabled patients between 1939 and 1941, and was one of a number of nonspecific words the Nazis used to document mass murder and genocide. Another notable example was Sonderbehandlung 14f13.
  This term was also used to imprecisely refer to the equipment used to perpetrate their crimes, such as gas chambers and Zyklon B. The true meaning of Sonderbehandlung was widely known in the SS, and in April 1943, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler was so concerned about the security of it that he had it redacted in a secret report.
context_section_description: Heinrich Himmler became increasingly concerned about the security of documenting the destruction of the Jews. On April 9, 1943, he wrote a secret letter to Heydrich's successor as chief of the Gestapo and SD, SS-Obergruppenführer Ernst Kaltenbrunner, concerning the Korherr Report. Himmler considered the report "well executed for purposes of camouflage and potentially useful for later times." The next day, SS-Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Brandt passed a message to the author of the report, Richard Korherr, stating:
  The Reichsführer-SS has received your report on "The Final Solution of the European Jewish Question". He wishes that "special treatment of the Jews" not be mentioned anywhere. On page 9, it must be formulated as follows:
  "They were guided:
  through the camps in the General Government
  through the camps in the Warthegau"
  No other formulation is to be employed.
  Himmler was so sure that almost everyone knew what "special treatment" meant, and ordered for it to be replaced with the even more vague "durchgeschleust" (guided through), even though the document in question was top secret. The camps in question in the General Government were Treblinka, Sobibor and Belzec extermination camps, and Majdanek concentration camp. The only camp in the Warthegau was Chełmno extermination camp.
caption: Kaltenbrunner with Himmler and Ziereis
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