30 posts tagged “shoah”

The Krakow Ghetto

When the Germans occupied Krakow on 6 September 1939, approximately 90,000 Jews lived in the city. The persecutions of the Jews began almost immediately, on the Day of Atonement 1939, Jews were apprehended in the city and forced to fill in trenches dug for the defence of the town.

German officers and ordinary soldiers would, from time to time, seize Jews in the street and maltreat them. The favourite sport of the Germans was to order Jews to run while making them stumble, to force them to jump hurdles, beating ferociously those who could not jump, or to force Jews to undertake various gymnastic exercises.

In some instances, individual Jews were killed, or arrested and sent to concentration camps, from where very few, if any survived.

In October and December 1939, searches were conducted in every house by the SS and ordinary German soldiers. During such searches a curfew would be imposed on all Jews, and those showing themselves in the streets or on balconies would be shot on sight.

The official reason for these searches was that Jews were hiding jewellery, gold and foreign currency, which they were not permitted to keep in their possession. Much damage was done to Jewish property during the searches, which were carried out very thoroughly.

German officers often confiscated various articles and food for their own personal use.

On the 23 November 1939 Hans Frank, the Governor General issued a decree ordering all Jews living in the General- Gouvernement, aged 12 or over, to wear an arm-band with the Star of David as from 1 December 1939. 

During the winter, Jews were taken to clean the streets of snow. Jews would be seized in the streets and taken for forced labour, although the Jewish Community supplied the daily quota of labourers demanded by the German authorities.

In January and February 1940, all Jewish premises and enterprises, except small shops, were confiscated by the German authorities. A special trustee institution was established in the General- Gouvernement, called ‘Zentrale Treuhandstelle, which administered the confiscated property. The more important Jewish enterprises were handed over to Germans, the smaller and less important ones to Ukrainians and Poles.

The German authorities appointed a Jewish Council, the Judenrat, to be the chief authority for all Jews and the sole body that dealt directly with the German authorities. The Chairman of this body were:

-Dr Marek Bieberstein-   -Dr Artur Rosenzweig-   -Dawid Guter-

The precise duties carried out by the Judenrat were defined in Paragraph 5 of the order issued by Hans Frank on 28 November 1939:

‘The Judenrat has to carry out, through its President or Vice President, the demands of the German authorities. It will be responsible for their strict fulfilment to the smallest detail. The orders which it issues for the purpose of fulfilling German demands must be obeyed by all Jewish men and women

At the end of January 1940, the Stadthauptmann (Town Commander) Schmied proclaimed that the number of Jews in Krakow was too large, and that all Jews who were not employed on services of importance to the Germans would have to leave the town.

The 15 August 1940 was set as the time limit by which all those Jews were to leave voluntarily. Those leaving before the fixed time would be permitted to take with them their furniture, household utensils, clothes etc.

Until the middle of August 1940, up to 30,000 Jews left the city, most of them went to Warsaw, Kielce, Bochnia etc.

The number of those who had left Krakow was however, too small for the Germans. Schmied, therefore, took matters into his own hands regarding the removal of Jews from Krakow.

He ordered the arrest of Dr Biberstein, Chairman of the Jewish Council, who was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, he was later killed in Plaszow forced labour camp in 1944.

All Jews were ordered to obtain identity cards. While issuing the cards the German authorities decided who was to stay, and who was to leave the city. At the end of August 1940, several thousands of Jews left the town, taking with them 25kgs of baggage per head.

Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/krakow/krakow.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2009

The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich

Operation Anthropoid

On the twenty-ninth of May, 1942, Radio Prague announced that Reinhard Heydrich, Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia, lay dying at the Bulovka hospital in Prague from wounds sustained in a daring ambush by Czech partisans as his car passed through the city outskirts at Holesovice, on the Rude Armady VII Kobylisky not far from the Vltava river.

The assassins attempted to kill Heydrich with automatic weapons but experienced a malfunction so a grenade was then tossed at the car by one of the Czechs. The resulting explosion caused sever damage to the right rear wing of the Mercedes, puncturing the tire and blowing a large hole in the bodywork.

The attackers then fled and, Heydrich attempted to shoot at the escaping assassins but his weapon also misfired. He then staggered back to the car and collapsed on the hood in severe pain.

He was rushed to the Bulovka emergency room shortly after 11:00 a.m. and was registered under the number 12.555/42. Heydrich's spleen had been fatally damaged and he contracted blood poisoning from grenade shrapnel, seat-spring splinters, and horse-hair used to cushion the cars upholstery.

He soon developed a fever and suffered from copious wound drainage until June 2, but the following day the fever appeared to have subsided. However, around noon, while Heydrich was sitting in bed eating a late breakfast, he suddenly went into shock and quickly lapsed into a deep coma from which he never recovered.

He died at 4:30 a.m. the next morning, June 4, 1942. The death of the Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia was recorded in the Bulovka death register as “Nr 348/1942.Reinhard Tristan Heydrich.

Cause of death: gunshot wound/murder attempt/wound infection. 

So ended the life of Reinhard "The Hangman" Heydrich, the Butcher of Prague.

Operation Anthropoid

On September 27, 1941, the Czech Press Agency released the news that the Reich Protector Konstantin von Neurath had fallen ill, and Hitler had named a substitute Reich Protector, Reinhard Heydrich. The Protectorate at that time experienced numerous acts of sabotage and assassinations of Germans and their collaborators by the Czech underground.

The low morale and starvation level rations for workers had reduced Bohemia’s industrial output of armaments, putting essential part of the German war effort at risk.

Konstantin von Neurath was sent away to recuperate and on that very same day, a plane landed in Prague with Reinhard Heydrich on board. Heydrich, as SS Police General and chief of the Reichssicherheitschauptampt (RSHA, Reich Security Main Office) was one of the most powerful and most feared Nazi leaders in the party.

Considered exceptionally intelligent, hard-working, ambitious and totally amoral, he had climbed to the top of the SS hierarchy and ruthlessly crushed his and Hitler’s domestic and foreign enemies. He was the main architect of the “Final Solution,” Hitler’s plan to destroy European Jewry.

Hitler believed with Heydrich in charge of Bohemia and Moravia, the Czechs would soon learn what it meant to live under a master of suppression. Not being a man to disappoint the Fürher, Heydrich immediately put his plan into action with the objective of annihilating all resistance in the Czech Lands.

On September 28, 1941, at 11 am, the official inauguration began at Prague Castle, the next day Heydrich announced a martial law in Prague, Brno, Moravská Ostrava, Olomouc, Kladno and Hradec Králové.

He instituted what he called his "whip and sugar" policy; he increased the food rations to dissuade resistance among the Czechs, and he threatened to lower them if they did not work efficiently.  This tactic seemed to resonate with the common workers but against the Czech intelligentsia, he would employ far deadlier measures.

Without hesitation he started from the top down. The Protectorate’s Prime Minister, General Alois Eliáš, was arrested, proven guilty of maintaining contacts with the enemy and sentenced to death on October 1, 1941.

Two acting leaders of the military resistance organization, Gen. Josef Bílý and Div. Gen. Hugo Vojta, Commander of the Bohemian Provincial Headquarters were sentenced under martial law and executed by a firing squad at Ruzyně Barracks. Hundreds from among the Czech intelligentsia were executed or sent to concentration camps.

From his quarters in Czernin Palace on October 2, 1941, Reinhard Heydrich gave a speech where he made the following statements:

"I must unambiguously and with unflinching hardness bring the citizens of this country, Czech or otherwise, to the understanding that there is no avoiding the fact they are members of the Reich and as such they owe allegiance to the Reich… This is a task of priority required by the war. I must have peace of mind that every Czech worker works at his maximum for the German war effort… This includes feeding the Czech worker – to put it frankly – so that he can do his work.”

One of Heydrich's first decrees, dated September 29, 1941,concerning the treatment of Jews and closing of synagogues stated:

Read more here:  http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/heydrichkilling.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2009

Erwin Bingel

Eyewitness to Mass Murder at Uman and Vinnitsa in the Ukraine

On the 15 September 1941 Lieutenant Erwin Bingel, a Wehrmacht officer was ordered to report to the Town Commandant of Uman, in the Ukraine, and instructed to set up guards on all railways in the area, and around the airport.

He accomplished this, and discovered whilst putting his men in place, that ditches had been dug in the square in front of the airport.

At dawn on the 16 September 1941, Lieutenant Bingel’s men were in place, then they saw a crowd of people brought to the ditches in front of the airfield, consisting of men, women and children.

Lieutenant Bingel’s account continued:

“When the people had crowded into the square in front of the airport, a few trucks drove up from the direction of the town. From these vehicles a troop of Feldgendarmarie alighted, and were immediately led aside.

A number of tables was then unloaded from one of the trucks and placed in a line at distances from each other. Meanwhile a few more trucks with Ukrainian militiamen commanded by SS had arrived. These militiamen had work tools with them and one of their trucks also carried chloride of lime.

The truck now drove alongside these ditches and the men on it unloaded six to eight sacks of chloride of lime at intervals of fifteen to twenty metres. In the meantime, a number of transport planes – Model Junkers 52 – had landed at the airport. Out of these stepped several units of SS soldiers who, having fallen in, marched up to the Feldgendarmarie unit, subsequently taking up positions alongside it.

As could be discerned from the distance, the two units were obviously being sworn in. I was then informed by my interpreter, who was Jewish- which fact was known only to me personally – that he had learned that the people had been brought together following upon an order which had been posted in the streets of Uman and which had been given the widest publicity throughout Uman sub-district by the Ukrainian millita.”

The order was for all Jews in the town of Uman and its sub-district, of all ages to assemble for the purpose of a census of the Jewish population. Anyone not complying with this order would be punished “most severely.”

Lieutenant Bingel continued:

“The result of this proclamation was, of course, that all persons concerned appeared as ordered. This relatively harmless summons, it was thought, could be connected in some way or other with the preparations we were observing. It was because we took the matter so lightly that we were all the more horrified at what we witnessed during the next few hours.

One row of Jews was ordered to move forward and was then allocated to the different tables where they had to undress completely and hand over everything they wore and carried.

Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/einsatz/bingel.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2009

Fedor Federenko

 Treblinka Death Camp Guard – Brought to Justice  

Fedor Federenko was born on the 17 September 1907 in the village of Sivash, in the Dniepro- Petrovsk region in the Ukraine. At his denaturalisation trial in Fort Lauderdale in 1978, the court’s protocol recorded the evidence as to his conduct during the Second World War:

Defendant was mobilized on June 23 1941, almost immediately after the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany. He was a truck driver, and the truck he drove was also mobilized.

He had no previous military training, and in the next two or three weeks his group was encircled twice by the German army. He escaped the first time, but was captured three days later by the Germans.

The Germans transported several truckloads of prisoners to Zhitomir, a former Soviet training camp, and defendant described the conditions as very bad and with little water or food.

The camp housed about 50-100,000 prisoners, with no barracks available for them. About two to three weeks he was transferred to Rovno. Next he was transferred to Chelm, Poland, a camp surrounded by barbed wire rolls.

Defendant estimated the population at Chelm at about 80,000 prisoners. Defendant described the conditions at Chelm as so bad that if you became ill, you rarely recovered.

He also indicated that food was at a minimum and that approximately 40,000 prisoners of war died over the winter 1941/42. One day at Chelm the Germans assembled the Soviet prisoners and walked down the line selecting 200 to 300 who were sent to Trawniki.

At Trawniki most of the guards were Volksdeutsche. Defendant is not a Volksdeutsche but Ukrainian. In the spring of 1942 the Germans gave black uniforms to all the prisoners. Volksdeutsche also wore black uniforms, but theirs were well tailored and of better material.

After the barracks had been constructed at Trawniki, the Germans gave instructions in the firing of rifles, such as field stripping and in marching. In the spring of 1942 defendant was sent to Lublin where at first the prisoners guarded their own camp and then were sent to the Jewish ghetto.

At Lublin the Soviet prisoners guarded houses, furniture – whatever was left. They were issued rifles which were not fired. The Soviet prisoners were converted from workers to guards at Lublin.

From Lublin defendant was sent to Warsaw along with 80 to 100 others. Defendant was transported to Treblinka as prisoner guard in approximately September 1942.

Yossef (Josef) Czarny testified at the same hearing in Fort Lauderdale:

Question:  You stated that you saw Mr. Federenko, the “American” and one other SS soldier in the Lazarett on that date. Who was that other SS soldier?

Answer:  The others were shooting there, too Miete, Sepp and Kiwe.

Question: On that one occasion where you claim to have seen Mr Federenko at the Lazarette, you stated that he was there with the “American” and one other SS guard. Who was that SS guard on that occasion, that one occasion?

Answer: I didn’t say that. I said that while I was throwing out the garbage, I saw Federenko shooting the people and also the Nazi called the “American,” the SS called the “American.”

Question: Then, Federenko and the “American” were the only two in the Lazarette at that time, is that correct?

Answer:  Yes, yes, yes.

Anton Ivanovich Streltsov under oath recalled serving with Federenko:

Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/trials/fedorenko.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2009

Budzyn Labour Camp 

The Budzyn Labour camp was situated 5km / 3 miles northwest of the town of Krasnik. A military – industrial complex including an aircraft factory was established on the premises of a former munitions factory in 1937 -38.  

Following the German invasion of Poland, the complex was taken over by the Herman Goring Werke, a huge industrial concern, operating steel works, mines and other heavy industries throughout occupied Europe.  

The aircraft factory was operated by the Heinkel Company – Heinkel Flugzeugwerke. Near this establishment a slave – labour camp for Jews, in which eventually nearly 3000 Jewish prisoners were interned, was established in the autumn of 1942.  

500 Jews were brought to the Budzyn labour camp in November 1942 these came from mainly from Krasnik and other adjacent towns and villages.

The local ghetto at Krasnik was liquidated in November 1942 where the majority of the Jews were  deported to the Belzec death camp, others were shot at the Krasnik Jewish cemetery or selected to work in Budzyn.  

Shortly after that a further 400 Jewish Polish Prisoners of War were brought from the Konskowola camp and the Lipowa Street camp in Lublin. From its inception in Budzyn Jewish Prisoners of War performed as functionaries and they retained the uniforms of the Polish army.

At the beginning of 1943 the last Jews from the Belzyce ghetto, including women and children were also sent to Budzyn. Among this group were German Jews deported to Belzyce from Stettin in 1940 and from Leipzig in 1942.  

During the crushing of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising 800 Jews arrived from Warsaw at the end of April 1943 and the beginning of May 1943. Included in the above were 150 Jewish workers who had worked at the Okecie Airfield in Warsaw prior to the uprising in the ghetto. 

The final group of Jewish prisoners were sent to Budzyn on 10 July 1943 from Hrubieszow following the liquidation of the ghetto there. By mid-1943 the camp population had risen to approximately 3000, including 300 women and children.  

Thanks to a Polish Home Army report (AK – Armia Krajowa) from Krasnik dated 15 March 1944 the precise number of inmates are known – 2457 Jews including 319 women. 

This figure is lower than the 1943 amount as a result of executions – the prisoners worked in the aircraft factories, in construction and general services.  

Leo Freitag provided a statement in 1968 in New York regarding Budzyn:

“At the end of 1941 or the beginning of 1942 I went from Krasnik to KZ Budzyn. When I am told that the Budzyn camp was, at the beginning a Zwangsarbeitslager and then later a KZ, then I think I came there at the time it was a labour camp.

That was the time when the Jews were taken out of Krasnik. We wore civilian clothing – only later did we get the striped clothing. The time of the change-over I can no longer remember exactly.  

It was either 1942 or 1943. I worked in Budzyn – as in all the camps I was in – as a joiner. During the construction of the factory I made, for example, tables and doors, everything expected of a joiner. The head of the joinery workshop was an ethnic German by the name of Karl. He was a civilian.  

Of the guard detachment I remember especially well Feix and Hantke. There was also one with a name which sounded like Acker or Ackerman. When the name Axmann is mentioned to me, then I am sure this is the man I am thinking of.

Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ar/labour%20camps/Budzyn/budzyn.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2009

Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/mulka.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2009