Pros And Cons Of The Gerstein Report

In my opinion, Kurt Gerstein is certainly a man with many underlying contradictions but is still a valuable source for historians as he is a key eyewitness to the most evil event in history. Kurt Gerstein was born on August the 11th 1905 in the German state of Westphalia. He was born into an upper-class, Protestant family. In his youth he was a devout Christian who often clashed with the Nazi Movement. He studied mining engineering and received a degree from the university in Marburg in 1931. As his years progressed he became a highly thought of SS officer who oversaw the largest genocide in human history. However despite his transformation, Gerstein always remained a man with a good conscience and a high moral integrity. The Gerstein Report

There are four versions of the Gerstein report. We know he wrote them because they are in his handwriting, are signed by him or their origin can clearly be traced back to Gerstein himself. The first two reports are both in French. The first is handwritten and the second is typed and they are identical. He signed both reports. The third report is in German and contains more information. Whilst the report is not signed we know it is authentic because Gerstein told his wife that he was leaving it at the hotel desk where it was later found. A final report in French is incomplete and the reasons for Gerstein stopping writing are unknown. However the content is essentially the same. In every draft Gerstein’s account of the mass murder in Belzec remained fundamentally the same. Basically, the Gerstein Report was Gerstein 's way of “confessing his sins”. Without the Gerstein Report we would not have crucial information on the evil and horrific measures used by the Nazis. The report serves to clearly illustrate what Gerstein saw and experienced during the years of the holocaust. The report is a crucial Primary source which is

Due to his medical training Gerstein was placed in the medical and technical service of the hygiene division of the Berlin SS. He later became head of the technical health department, where he oversaw the disinfection processes of highly poisonous gases, including Zyklon B.

On the 8th of June 1942, Gerstein was ordered to obtain one hundred kilograms of Zyklon B in order to examine the possibilities of using it in place of the gas the Nazis had already been using. In the Gerstein Reports, Gerstein claimed that he only complied to find out more about the killings. In August he travelled to Lublin and was told that what they were about to see was of the utmost secrecy; anyone caught speaking about it elsewhere would be