The head of the SS administration office of the camp sent a directive dated Dec. 28, 1942, to Auschwitz and the other concentration camps:

"Camp physicians must use all means at their disposal to significantly reduce the death rate in the various camps."

"The camp doctors must supervise more often than in the past the nutrition of the prisoners and, in cooperation with the administration, submit improvement recommendations to the camp commandants... The camp doctors are to see to it that the working conditions at the various labor places are improved as much as possible."

"The Reichsfhrer SS [Heinrich Himmler] has ordered that the death rate must be absolutely reduced."

Source: Nuremberg document PS-2171, Annex 2. NC&A red series, Vol. 4, pp. 833-834