Waffen-SS Angora Project

Cover of the "Angora" album. The cover of the album is of woven rabbit wool bore. The two Sig Runes included on the cover were the insignia of the Schutzstaffel (SS).

 

Himmler, who began the angora project, with Rudolf Hess at Dachau in 1936, viewing a scale model of the Dachau concentration camp. (This photo was not part of the SS Angroa book.)

 

 

Original German site plan dated 21 June 1942 reads, in part [verbatim translation]: "No. 11: Stables, including an Angora rabbit breeding facility; it was an old dilapidated stone building". Trawniki concentration camp established during World War II by Nazi Germany on the territory of occupied Poland in Trawniki near Lublin, initially to hold Soviet prisoners of war, and from June 1942 also Jews brought in from Lublin and from all over Europe. Between September 1941 and July 1944, the camp was also used for training Holocaust executioners known as "Hiwi". The site of Aktion Erntefest massacre. (This site plan was not part of the SS Angora book.)

Key to Site Plan

Nr. 1 und 2: Unterkünfte der Ukrainer
Nr. 3: Garage
Nr. 4: Unterkünfte der Esten und Letten
Nr. 5: Duschbad und Entlausung
Nr. 6: Küche und andere Wirtschaftsräume
Nr. 7: Unterkünfte für deutsches Personal
Nr. 8: Werkstätten des Ausbildungslagers
Nr. 9: Krankenrevier
Nr. 10: Kommandantur
Nr. 11: Ställe, u. a. eine Angorakaninchenzucht; es handelte sich um ein altes etwas verfallenes Steingebäude
Nr. 12: Werkstätten
Nr. 13: Unterkünfte
Nr. 14: M-Lager
Nr. 15: Wohn- und Dienstgebäude von Franz Bartetzko
Nr. 16: vorgesehen als Büro der Fa. Schultz
Nr. 17: Wohngebäude der Betriebsangehörigen der Fa. Schultz
Nr. 18: das Wohngebäude von Karl Streibel außerhalb des Planungsbereichs
Nr. 19: vorgesehen für 10 bis 20 Jüdinnen, die im Ausbildungslager beschäftigt waren
Nr. 20: Exekutionsgräben
Nr. 21: Verbrennungs rost

 

The following photographs are of each page of the book. There were no captions as such to the photographs, merely an occasional comment or an indication of the location of the scene.

The SS Angora Rabbit Project

by Arnold Hammer

In 1945 the Nazi War Crimes Commission heard repeated testimony about a mysterious SS project called “Angora.” They never were able to locate any personnel or records of the thirty-some rabbit raising projects which were supposedly located in concentration camps in Germany, Latvia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Holland.

In 1945 a Chicago Tribune war correspondent visited Himmler’s villa at Lake Tegernsee and found a large gray photo album hidden in a trunk. Some years later this was presented to the Wisconsin Historical Society to add to their communications history center records and proved to be a priceless record of SS economic activity. This hand-crafted book turned out to be the only tangible record of the Angora project ever located. The two major centers for the documentation of the Nazi era, the Weiner Library in London and the Institut für Zeitgeschichte in Munich has no documentary evidence of Angora.

In 1937 Himmler offered the services of his SS to administer the first six concentration camps. Within two years his personal power and SS income was derived from the operation of seventeen camps including the three Auschwitz complexes. This inexhaustible supply of human labor caused the SS to become a vast commercial enterprise known as SS Wirtshafts Verweltungshaupt¬amtes or Amtes for short. This Amtes organization operated thousands of small shops, factories and agricultural enterprises in and around the camps. The Amtes eventually controlled over 150 firms in mining, quarrying, food processing, manufacturing of textiles and clothing, chinaware, armaments and bottling of mineral water, night clubs, baby farms, publishing houses, rubber plant production, raising medicinal herbs, and somewhere way down in the maze of SS bureaus, sections and sub-sections, was Amtes W-V—also known as the Angora Project.

I was searching for a copy of Mein Kampf when I noticed a box filled with albums of photographs showing Himmler and his staff strutting about. A grayish book at the bottom of the box caught my eye. It was covered in woven angora wool and was dedicated to Reichsführer Himmler by his Amtes W-V officers. The first picture was startling indeed; it was a huge photograph of a handsome, obviously contented angora rabbit. Other pages showed rows of hutches that were a model sanitary quarters, special equipment in which the mash for the rabbits was prepared that shown so brightly as the cooking pans in a brides’ kitchen. The tools used for grooming of the rabbits could have come out of showcases. A full page map in the book showed lines radiating out of Berlin to the various camps that were participating in Project Angora. What gave special significance to the book was that under each photograph was the name of the concentration camp where it was taken. Thus in the same compound where eight hundred human beings would be packed into barracks that were barely adequate for two hundred, the Angora rabbits lived in luxury in their own elegant hutches. In Buchenwald where tens of thousands of human beings were being starved to death the rabbits enjoyed scientifically prepared meals. The SS men who whipped, tortured and killed prisoners saw to it that the rabbits enjoyed loving care.

Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Dachau, Mauthausen and many of the other camps where millions of prisoners were exterminated or weakened for life participated in the grand project of raising rabbits with fine Angora hair to help provide wool for the soldiers of the Reich. Himmler must have thought this to be an extremely important project because it showed the prisoners who were at the mercy of the SS even a rabbit rated higher than a human being. 

In a 1943 speech Himmler said, “Whether ten thousand Russian females fall down from exhaustion while digging an anti-tank ditch interests me only insofar as the anti-tank ditch is finished for Germany. We shall never be rough or heartless, when it is not necessary, that is clear. We Germans, who are the only people in the world who have decent attitude towards animals will assume a decent attitude toward these human animals; but it is a crime against our blood to worry about these people.” 

When Himmler sent his documents to the Tegernsee cache he knew that the mass murders of prisoners had reduced the readiness of Sweden to help him arrange an armistice, but he still believed he had a chance to play a political role after the war. He had learned enough to know it was wise to remove all traces of the Angora Project because it would repel every person who had seen the concentration camps and would show the real role Himmler and his SS played in World War II.

ANGORA PRODUCTION RESULTS

Number of Animals: 1941 - 6,500 | 1942 - 13,000 | 1943 - 25,000
Weight of Wool: 1941 - 460 kg | 1942 - 1,470 kg | 1943 - 2,800 kg

The number of items manufactured using Angora wool between for the years 1941-1943 were 12,000 sweaters, 52,500 socks, and 13,100 pairs of underwear.

Addendum

The Angora project or Angora rabbit project was a Nazi SS endeavor in cuniculture during World War II that bred Angora rabbits to provide Angora wool and fur, as well as meat. The Angora rabbit's hair and pelt is known for strength and durability, and it was also "associated with luxurious evening wear, [and] would be an elegant solution for keeping SS officers and the German military warm and able to endure rough wartime conditions". Angora rabbits were raised in Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Dachau, and Trawniki.

A bound volume entitled Angora that belonged to Heinrich Himmler, chief of the Nazi SS, was discovered in a farmhouse with his other papers near the end of World War II. It tells the story of the Angora rabbit project that operated in the Nazi death camps.

Chicago Tribune war correspondent Sigrid Schultz found the book in its hiding place near Himmler's alpine villa, and described the significance of the Angora project:

In the same compound where 800 human beings would be packed into barracks that were barely adequate for 200, the rabbits lived in luxury in their own elegant hutches. In Buchenwald, where tens of thousands of human beings starved to death, rabbits enjoyed beautifully prepared meals. The SS men who whipped, tortured, and killed prisoners saw to it that the rabbits enjoyed loving care.

The rabbits were raised for their soft, warm fur, which was shaved and used for, among other things, the linings of jackets for Luftwaffe pilots. Himmler, in a 1943 speech (referring to the prisoners that endured forced labor), stated: "We Germans, who are the only people in the world who have a decent attitude towards animals[,] will assume a decent attitude toward these human animals; but it is a crime against our blood to worry about these people."

Today, Himmler's Angora book is housed at the Wisconsin Historical Society.

 

Title page "Die Angora-Zuchten des SS Wirtschafts - Verwaltungshauptamtes" =  The Angora breeding of the Economics and Administrative Department of the SS.

Angora rabbit.

Map of concentration camps in Germany where the SS kept angora rabbits for their wool raising projects at concentration camps throughout German occupied territory.

Rabbit hutches at Thorn concentration camp.

Rabbit hutches at Thorn concentration camp.

Rabbit hutches at Buchenwald concentration camp.

Rabbit hutches at Heidelager concentration camp in Poland.

Rabbit hutches at Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Rabbit hutches at Dachau concentration camp.

Rabbit hutches at Auschwitz concentration camp.

Rabbit hutches at Goslar concentration camp.

Rabbit hutches at Ravensbrück concentration camp.

Rabbit hutches at Stettin concentration camp.

Rabbit hutches at Dresden concentration camp.

Rabbit hutches at Stutthof concentration camp in Poland.

This page documents the development of the angora rabbit for the years of 1941, along with the number of "6500," 1942, along with the number "13000," and 1943, along with the number "25000." The page is titled "Die Entwicklung des Tierbestandes (The development of the animal population)."

Male angora rabbit.

Three angora rabbits.

Three angora rabbits.

Female angora rabbit.

Three angora rabbits.

Young angora rabbits.

Young angora rabbits at the ages of 2, 4, 6, and 9 days old.

Young angora rabbits at the age of 4 and 8 weeks old.

Four angora rabbits eating in a wood hutch.

Three angora rabbits sitting in their wood hutches.

Adult and young angora rabbits sitting in their hutches.

Adult and young angora rabbits sitting in their hutches.

Men constructing angora rabbit hutches.

Men constructing angora rabbit hutches. There is also a finished row of hutches.

Men cleaning and washing angora rabbit hutches.

Angora rabbits in fenced area outdoors.

Angora rabbits in fenced area outdoors, with buildings in the background. The sign on one of the buildings has the words, "Angora-Kaninchen-Zuchstation" (Angora rabbit train station).

Angora rabbits in fenced area outdoors, with buildings in the background.

Man feeding angora rabbits in their hutches.

Woman feeding angora rabbits in their hutches.

Angora rabbits eating in their hutches.

Vat for preparation of soft food for angora rabbits. Text on page says, "Zubereitung des Weichfutters" (Preparation of the soft feed).

Man working with vats for preparation of angora rabbit food.

Man working with vats for preparation of angora rabbit food.

Two animal keepers caring for angora rabbit on examination table and medical instruments. Text on the page says, "Tierpflege" (animal care).

Medical instruments and medicine used for the care of angora rabbits.

Equipment for the grooming and shearing of angora rabbits.

Woman holding angora rabbit in her arms and grooming it with a brush. Text on page says, "Wollpflege" (wool care).

Woman grooming angora rabbit on table with a brush.

Angora rabbit being held on table by woman, in preparation for the shearing of the rabbit fur. Text on page says, "Angora-Wollschur" (Angora wool shearing).

Woman shearing angora rabbit on table. The rabbit is shown in various stages of being shaved, and there is also a group of woman shearing rabbits on a long table. A chart on the wall says, "Schurtermin" (clipping date).

Woman shearing angora rabbit on table. Shows the rabbit in various stages of being shaved.

Text on page says, "Wollertrag" (wool yield), and gives the amount, in kilograms, of angora rabbit wool yields produced for the years 1941, 1942, and 1943.

Man in lab coat weighing angora rabbit with scale outdoors. Text on page says, "Gewichtskontrolle" (weight control).

Man weighing angora rabbit with scale outdoors.

Angora rabbit fur production. A man and woman are standing near bags of angora wool to be delivered to the Reichs wool manufacturing company. Text on page says, "Ablieferung der Angorawolle an die Reichswollverwertung" (Delivery of the Angora wool to the Reichswollverwertung).

Women are shown sorting and storing angora wool. Bags of wool are shown stacked in a room. Text on page says, "Sortieren - und Lagern" (Sorting - and storing).

Angora wool production for the years 1941-1943. There are drawings of a submarine, airplane, and soldier, as well as photographs showing the clothing made out of angora wool. Text on page says, "Gesamtertrag 1941-1943, 4730 kg, Angora-Wolle, davon konnten erzeugt werden" (Total yield 1941-1943, 4730 kg, Angora wool, of which could be produced …).