"Aktion 1005" - Removal of traces of Nazi mass crimes 1942 -1945

The reconstruction of a gigantic cover-up operation. Behind the code name "Operation 1005" lies one of the most outrageous and secretive actions of the Third Reich: In 1942, the highest leadership issued an order to the Reich Security Main Office to conceal all mass graves in German-occupied Europe. The task was to locate the sites of murder, exhume the bodies, burn them, and disguise the terrain. The actual work was forced upon Jews from the ghettos, prisoners of war, and inmates. Efforts were also made to destroy all incriminating documents and other information that would have documented the genocide of European Jews, the murder of Soviet prisoners of war, the extermination of the Roma, and the executions of Polish nationalists. As a result of years of research, Andrej Angrick has succeeded in reconstructing the extent of the cover-up operations as much as possible and identifying the perpetrators and involved units. Last but not least, the author aims to give a voice to the few surviving witnesses. Their statements and memoirs stand in stark contrast to the denial and cover-up efforts of the perpetrators and later Holocaust deniers.