himmler s speech on the extirpation of the jewish race washington a stark reminder of the holocaust a speech by nazi ss leader heinrich himmler that refers to the extermination of the jewish race went on display friday at the national archives the documents including handwritten notes by himmler are among the best evidence that exists to rebut claims that the holocaust is a myth archivists say the notes give them their authenticity said robert wolfe a supervisory archivist for captured german records he was supposed to destroy them like a lot of bosses he didn t obey his own rules the documents moved out of berlin to what himmler hoped would be a safe hiding place were recovered by allied forces after world war ii from a salt mine near salzburg austria himmler spoke on oct in posen poland to more than german secret police generals i also want to talk to you quite frankly on a very grave matter among ourselves it should be mentioned quite frankly and yet we will never speak of it publicly i mean the clearing out of the jew the extermination of the jewish race this is a page of glory in our history which has never been written and is never to be written emphasis mine rje the german word himmler uses that is translated as extermination is ausrottung wolfe said a more precise translation would be extirpation or tearing up by the roots in his handwritten notes himmler used a euphemism judenevakuierung or evacuation of the jews but archives officials said extermination is the word he actually spoke preserved on an audiotape in the archives himmler who oversaw adolf hitler s final solution of the jewish question committed suicide after he was arrested in the national archives exhibit on display through may is a preview of the opening of the united states holocaust memorial museum here on april the national archives exhibit includes a page each of himmler s handwritten notes a typed transcript from the speech and an offical translation made for the nuremberg war crimes trials from p a of saturday s l a times associated press revans math ucsd edu
