What did the term special treatment refer to?
Several German words with the ‘Sonder’ or ‘special’ prefix have been designated as code words in the Holocaust lexicon. ‘Sonderbehandlung’ can mean many different things in German depending on the context. In many documents in the Auschwitz files, the ‘Sonder’ prefix designated something that had to do with the hygienic regimen that was instituted in the camps after the epidemics of the summer of 1942. There was ‘special action’, ‘special treatment’, ‘baths for special purpose’ and other terms which referred specifically to procedures put in place to control body lice and the spread of typhus. 25) What did the term ‘special action’ refer to? The diary of SS doctor Josef Kremer makes repeated references to his taking part in ‘special actions’ while he was assigned to duty at Auschwitz during the Fall of 1942. This was during the worst time of the typhus epidemic at that camp.
