Front row: SS-Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler (left, front row) listens to engineer Max Faust (fedora) alongside Auschwitz commander Rudolf Höss during Himmler’s two-day visit to Auschwitz, July 17–18, 1942.

VRBA & FAUST & HIMMLER

In 2025, research by Alan Twigg for a forthcoming biography, Holocaust Hero: The Life & Times of Rudolf Vrba (Firefly Books, 2025), uncovered proof that Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler did indeed visit Auschwitz in mid-July of 1942. This research effectively squelched any possible claims from Holocaust denialists that Vrba & Bestic’s opening chapter [first published in I Cannot Forgive, in 1963] could be discredited as fiction.

During ten years of negotiation to have his book finally published in Czechoslovakia, Vrba was forced to ultimately jettison his riveting chapter in order to have his memoir made available in his native land. Later, when a Czech academic and Robin Vrba oversaw re-publication of that memoir in English (in 2020), the pair cautiously deferred to the Czech version because they, too, were unable to find proof that Himmler had visited Auschwitz on July 17, 1942, as Vrba had described in his book.

In the first chapter of the original version of I Cannot Forgive Vrba describes a face-to-face encounter with Heinrich Himmler by writing “… he passed closed to me, close enough for me to touch him, and for a moment our eyes met.” Having been in Auschwitz for 17 days, Vrba was still very fit and therefore he had been placed in the front row for Himmler’s inspection.

In fact, Vrba had his facts right. Research undertaken for Holocaust Hero has uncovered inconvertible evidence that Himmler — after he had made his first visit to Auschwitz with construction chief Karl Bischoff and the SS architect Fritz Ertl in 1941 — did return in mid-July, 1942, arriving at Auschwitz I, and proceeding to inspect Auschwitz-Birkenau and, most importantly, the development of “I.G. Auschwitz,” aka Auschwitz III.

Proof has been found in the construction journal that was kept by Buna’s chief construction engineer Maximilian Faust.

Faust notes in his weekly report: “July 18. Visit from the Reichsführer SS with a big entourage, including Obergruppenführer Schmauser and Obersturmbannführer Höss, to whom the Reichsführer SS personally conveyed his promotion to Obersturmbannführer. The Reichsführer was greeted by the undersigned at the Feierabendhaus. Then we drove to the powerhouse and, from the vantage point of the high-rise bunker, gave our high-ranking visitor an overview of the entire plant, explaining the complex as a whole by using a site plan prepared for this purpose …”

[This excerpt [above] is from Wochenbericht [weekly report] No. 60/61 for the period July 13–26, 1942, sgd. Faust, NI-14551. Archive of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, Case VI, Prosecution Exhibit 1991, reel 033, pp. 353–355, here p. 354. (Transl. KL).]

Corroboration for the evidence in Faust’s notebook was then found in ‘Genesis of the Camp’, the first section of an essay by Danuta Czech called Konzentrationslager Auschwitz — A Historical Outline within Auschwitz Nazi Extermination Camp, a very detailed but seldom-cited publication by Interpress Publishers in Warsaw in 1978, supported by the Council for the Protection of Monuments of Struggle and Martyrdom. Danuta Czech (1922–2004) was a highly respected Polish Holocaust historian as well as the deputy director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim. Her essential essay on the origins of the Auschwitz concentration camp states on page 22 that Reichsführer SS Himmler came to Oswiecim for the first time on March 1, 1941 accompanied by SS-Brigadeführer Fritz Bracht, SS-Obergruppenführer Ernst Schmauser, SS-Oberführer Glicks and representatives of IG Farben. Then, on pages 27–28, Danuta Czech the states, “On 17–18 July 1942, Himmler visited Oswiecim for a second time accompanied by [SS-Brigadeführer Fritz] Bracht, [SS-Obergruppenführer Ernst] Schmauser and the chief of Amtsgruppe C of WVHA, SS-Gruppenführer Heinz Kammler, who was in charge of construction for the concentration camps, the army, the SS and Police, as well as the armaments industry.” The two-day visit is re-confirmed by Franciszek Piper, chair of the Historical Department at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, on page 115, who confirms the presence of Bracht and Schmauser but omits Kammler. There are at least three photos of Faust guiding Himmler.

*

March 9, 2025

Dear Robin Vrba,

As I understand it, Rudi’s opening chapter in his memoir was not included in the 2020 edition of the book re-published in the U.S. because Rudi, in the late 20th century, had not been able prove that Himmler made a visit to Auschwitz soon after he had arrived there. In Volume One I of the biography, Holocaust Hero, I was therefore intending to write: “The latest version from Racehorse/Simon & Schuster is co-edited by Robin Vrba and Nikola Zimring, a New York University history grad student and Ph.D candidate in Prague (who met Robin Vrba when they both participated in the annual Vrba-Wetzler Trek in the second year of its existence). The newest edition accepts editorial changes that were made in 1998 when a Czech publishing house required Vrba to jettison his brilliant opening chapter ‘When the Music Stopped’.  This chapter was likewise excluded with the re-issue of Vrba’s memoir in an otherwise expanded version as I Escaped from Auschwitz: The Shocking True Story of the World War II Hero Who Escaped the Nazis and Helped Save over 200,000 Jews.” It has bothered me for years that that chapter has been nixed. It is indisputably a galvanizing piece of storytelling. I have therefore been on the lookout for years to see if I can prove that, in fact, Rudi did not make a storytelling error and that A VISIT BY HIMMLER TO AUSCHWITZ REALLY DID HAPPEN WHEN RUDI SAID IT DID. In doing the research for Holocaust Hero, I have learned to appreciate how reliable Rudi’s memory was, and we should also bear in mind that his book was written less than twenty years after the events he describes had occurred. Any accusation that Rudi was somehow not writing the truth about Auschwitz is highly problematic, for obvious reasons, so I wanted to set the record straight.

I am happy to report that I have at last found evidence that Himmler did, in fact, visit Auschwitz in 1942, precisely as Rudi said he did.

You might aware there are at least four blurry, b&w photos of SS-Reichführer Heinrich Himmler visiting Auschwitz along with the senior construction engineer [Oberingenieur] Max Faust, being guided by Rudolf Höss, but there is never a date attached to them. The three of them are seen walking together, side-by-side, with Faust in the middle, not in a uniform. He is the man in a suit, wearing a hat. I saw one of these images again recently when I bought an old paperback at a used book sale in the Jewish Community Centre, about a week ago, as an adjunct to their annual Jewish Writers Festival. I think I got it for a dollar. The book was published in English from Warsaw in 1978 (from “Interpress Publishers”) and it’s called Auschwitz Nazi Extermination Camp. The essayists are the main academic experts at the Auschwitz Museum. Again, there is no date given for the photo in the book… But something finally clicked… It suddenly occurred to me to look for information on Faust.

Lo and behold, I discovered that Faust had recorded this second tour of Auschwitz with Himmler on July 18, 1942.

In my first edition version of I Cannot Forgive, Rudi’s opening sentence begins, “When Heinrich Himmler visited Auschwitz camp on July 17, 1942….” Therefore, it stands to reason that Himmler would have likely arrived on July 17 and toured the camp [to witness gassing experiments and tour the new Buna complex] on July 18. Even if Rudi was off by one day; or if Faust’s diary entry somehow got the date wrong by one day, the calendar difference of one day borders on irrelevant. Rudi got it right. That visit by Himmler that he describes was not imaginary. Rudi — a scientist all his life — got his facts right.

My deadline for delivering the manuscript to Firefly Books quite fittingly, by a fluke, happens to be the same day of the year when Rudi and Wetzler went into hiding, April 7. By then, we can tell ourselves, “the truth shall set you free” and you should be at liberty to re-integrate the “missing chapter.”

A.T.

***

DETAILS REGARDING THE SECOND HIMMLER VISIT TO AUSCHWITZ

Here is the rest of the journal entry made by Max Faust, as outlined above, in his weekly report as an engineer for the IG Farben construction site at Buna site:

“… The Reichsführer asked about the prospective start-up dates, which were given as May to August 1943. Here he asked why these dates could not be moved up by increased deployment of manpower. We pointed out to him the difficulties regarding acquisition of manpower and materials. When he asked why the mining facility had not yet been begun, we replied that we had not yet received a final mandate from the Heereswaffenamt. To his question about the reason for this, we replied that this eluded our knowledge, and that the Heereswaffenamt probably had not yet been able to decide on this, also because of the difficulties in obtaining materials.

“The Reichsführer directed one of his adjutants to make a note of the matter. Further, the Reichsführer asked whether we—now that 3 Buna plants were already operational—could not erect our manufacturing buildings in each case again, using the same plans. We replied that this already had occurred in part, but that, on the other hand, operational improvements had also necessitated changes in the structural designs. He said that if time was lost as a result, it was preferable to build more quickly, using the same plans, and accept certain handicaps in manufacturing. Special attention was paid to the ready-mixed concrete construction method, which he recommended to Obersturmbannführer Höss for emulation in the SS’s concentration camps. Upon his departure, the Reichsführer promised us all possible support and asked us to report any shortages.”

[Excerpt from Wochenbericht [weekly report] No. 60/61 for the period July 13–26, 1942, sgd. Faust, NI-14551. Archive of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, Case VI, Prosecution Exhibit 1991, reel 033, pp. 353–355, here p. 354. (Transl. KL)]

SUPPLEMENTARY BIO INFO FOR MAX FAUST (1891-1980)

Max Faust was never criminally convicted. Evidently, after agreeing to serve as a prosecution witness, he successfully pleaded that he was a humane, mere employee. Researching his weekly reports sent back to I.G. Farben headquarters [from The Crime and Punishment of I.G. Farben: The Startling Account of the Unholy Alliance of Adolf Hitler and Germany’s Great Chemical Combine by Joseph Borkin, 1978], one stumbles upon little gem that he wrote to the I.G Farben headquarters:

“We have … drawn the attention of the officials of the concentration camp to the fact in the last few weeks the inmates are being severely flogged on the construction site by the Capos in increasing measure, and this always applies to the weakest inmates who really cannot work harder. The exceedingly unpleasant scenes that occur on the construction site because of this are beginning to have a demoralizing effect on the workers [Poles], as well as on the Germans. We have therefore asked that they should refrain from carrying out this flogging on the construction site and transfer it to… the concentration camp.”

*

Here is some more basic information (from the internet) about Max Faust who was born on April 5, 1891, in Frankfurt am Main. He studied civil engineering and took a job at BASF in Ludwigshafen in 1922. He worked there in BASF’s construction division, and in 1936 he was promoted to senior engineer. Faust joined the NSDAP in May 1933. In 1941, he was made an authorized signatory at BASF. Starting in January 1940, he worked as a site manager for I.G. Farben near Breslau in Silesia, initially during the building of Farben’s third Buna plant in Rattwitz, which was discontinued in the summer of 1940, and then during the construction of the secret nerve-gas plant of I.G. Farbenindustrie in Dyhernfurth. In January 1941, Max Faust paid his first visit to the construction site in Auschwitz-Monowitz and wrote a positive expert opinion on its suitability for I.G. Farben’s purposes. During this visit, he also learned of the existing Auschwitz concentration camp. In June of the same year, Faust took on the task of construction management for the Auschwitz plant. The official plant manager of I.G. Auschwitz, Otto Ambros, entrusted Faust with the handling of day-to-day operations and made him his on-site representative. In this capacity, Faust led the negotiations with the camp commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, Rudolf Höss, on the use of prisoners from that camp at the I.G. Farbenindustrie construction site. In the I.G. Farben Trial in Nuremberg, Faust testified that he once had seen a prisoner shot by an SS man and “on various occasions, exhausted prisoners sitting around or lying down.”[1] He was aware of mistreatment of the prisoners by I.G. Farben employees; after the war, former prisoners accused him of having beaten prisoners himself. During Heinrich Himmler’s visit on July 18, 1942, Faust personally explained to him the progress of the construction work for the plant. After the war, in the I.G. Farben Trial in Nuremberg, Faust stated in his defence that he had opposed the use of prisoners for business reasons, because they “did far less work than ordinary laborers” and “besides, the mistreatment made a bad impression on the German and foreign [sic] workers.”[2] Max Faust had visited the Buna/Monowitz concentration camp three times and observed that “things were taking place there that the SS had reason to conceal.”[3] However, he did not see I.G. Farben as obligated to worry about the prisoners – from whom the firm profited, mind you, by further hiring them out to subcontractors at many times the original price. Along with plant manager, Walther Dürrfeld, he was the last to leave the I.G. Auschwitz construction site on January 23, 1945, and in the period that followed he was busy with the winding-up of the plant. After the war, he testified in Nuremberg on May 8, 1948, in the Wollheim lawsuit on December 4, 1952, and in the first Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial on March 11, 1965. In the Wollheim lawsuit, Faust testified that “the IG was not responsible for the housing, feeding, clothing, in short for the determination of the personal affairs of an individual prisoner; instead, this was exclusively the business of the SS. Any success in procuring one benefit or another for the prisoners in the course of the work in Auschwitz cost the management months of negotiations with the SS every time.”  Faust had this to say about the “costs” of a prisoner: “Because the vast majority of the deployed prisoners were working not for the IG but for outside firms, and the ratio here was about 20:80, we naturally had to invoice the outside companies for the workers’ wages and, in addition, pay the RM 3 or RM 4 to the camp. Besides, we had expenses 1) in the form of building the entire camp, 2) in the form of maintaining the camp, 3) in the procuring of foodstuffs. For these reasons we invoiced the firms 55 pfennig per hour for an unskilled laborer and 65 pf. per hour for a skilled worker.” (Then he also gives a real comparison with the standard wage: RM 1.20 to 1.30 per hour.)  (Max Faust, hearing of witness, December 4, 1952. HHStAW, Sec. 460, No. 1424 (Wollheim v. IG Farben), Vol. I, pp. 164R–172R, here p. 168R. (Transl. KL))

He died in Ludwigshafen on June 19, 1980, as an I.G. Farbenindustrie AG retiree.

Sources

Excerpt from Wochenbericht [weekly report] No. 60/61 for the period July 13–26, 1942, sgd. Faust, NI-14551. Archive of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, Case VI, Prosecution Exhibit 1991, reel 033, pp. 353–355.
Max Faust, affidavit, August 7, 1947, NI-9819. Archive of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, Case VI, Prosecution Exhibit 2349, reel 035, pp. 883–890.
Max Faust, hearing of witness, May 8, 1948. Archive of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, Case VI, Prot. (d), reel 059, Vol. 39, pp. 14263–14319.
Max Faust, hearing of witness, December 4, 1952. HHStAW, Sec. 460, No. 1424 (Wollheim v. I.G. Farben), Vol. I, pp. 164R–172R.
Max Faust, hearing of witness, March 11, 1965, Auschwitz Trial, StA Frankfurt am Main, 4 Ks 2/63. In: Der Auschwitz-Prozess. Tonbandmitschnitte, Protokolle und Dokumente. DVD-ROM. 2. Ed. Fritz Bauer Institut / Staatliches Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau, eds. Berlin: Directmedia, 2005.
Arnest Tauber, affidavit, May 3, 1947, NI-4829. Archive of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, Case VI, PDB 75 (e), pp. 111–115. Tauber, a former Monowitz prisoner, stated: “The I.G. Farben did not only have knowledge of the atrocities which were taking place, but it took an active part in them. I personally saw how Chief-Engineer Faust beat several prisoners with [a] club because the moving of loaded wagons in road construction did not function as he desired. I know that it was Chief-Engineer Faust, because I inquired for [sic] his name.”