Minsk Ghetto

This article is about the ghetto in Minsk. For a ghetto in Mińsk Mazowiecki during the German Nazi occupation of Poland, see Mińsk Ghetto.

Map of the Minsk Ghetto by professor Barbara Epstein

Minsk Ghetto was created soon after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. It was one of the largest ghettos in Eastern Europe, and the largest in the German-occupied territory of the Soviet Union.^[1] It housed close to 100,000 Jews, most of whom perished in The Holocaust.

History

The Soviet census of 1926 showed 53,700 Jews living in Minsk (constituting close to 41% of city's inhabitants).^[2]

Minsk Ghetto was created soon after the German invasion of the Soviet Union and capture of the city of Minsk, capital of the Belorussian SSR, on 28 June 1941.^[2] On the fifth day after the occupation, 2,000 Jewish intelligentsia were massacred by the Germans, from then on, murders of Jews became a common occurrence.^[2] About 20,000 Jews were murdered within the first few months of German occupation, mostly by the Einsatsgruppen squads.^[1]

On 17 July 1941 the German occupational authority, the Reichskommissariat Ostland, was created, and soon afterwards, on 20 July, the Minsk Ghetto was established.^[3] A Jewish Council (Judenrat) was established as well.^[2] The total population of the ghetto was about 80,000 or more (over 100,000 according to some sources), out of which, about 50,000 were Minsk pre-war inhabitants, and the remaining number (30,000 or more), refugees and Jews forcibly resettled by the Germans from nearby settlements.^[1][2][3]

In November 1941 a second ghetto was established in Minsk, for Jews deported from the West, mostly from Germany and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia; at its height it had about 35,000 inhabitants.^[1][1][2][3] Little contact was permitted between the inhabitants of the two ghettos.^[1][1][2][3]

As in many other ghettos, Jews were forced to work in factories or other German-run operations.^[3] Ghetto inhabitants lived in extremely poor conditions, with insufficient stocks of food and medical supplies.^[2]

By August 1942, less than 9,000 Jews were left in the ghetto according to German official documents.^[2] The ghetto was liquidated in the fall of 1943, on 21 October 1943.^[2] Many Minsk Jews perished in the Sobibor extermination camp.^[3] Several thousands were massacred at Maly Trostenets extermination camp (before the war, Maly Trostenets was a village few miles to the east of Minsk).^[3] By the time the Red Army retook the city on 3 July 1944, there were only a few Jewish survivors.^[2]

[edit] Resistance

Minsk Ghetto is notable for its large scale resistance organization, which cooperated closely with the Soviet partisans outside the ghetto. About 10,000 Jews were able to escape the ghetto and join the partisan groups in the nearby forests.^[1][2][3] Barbara Epstein estimates that perhaps a half of them survived, and notes that all together, perhaps as many as 30,000 people tried to escape the Minsk Ghetto to join the partisans (but 20,000 of them could have died along the way).

[edit] Historiography

The story of the Minsk ghetto was not well researched till the late 20th century. The officials of the Communist Party of Byelorussia did not organize any evacuation of the towns inhabitants before fleeing the German advance, they later collaborated in creating a false story that such an evacuation did in fact happen, and tried to discredit the Minsk resistance as having ties with the Nazis.^[4] In the United States, research into communist resistance was not a priority during the Cold War, and the Jewish historiography as well did not wish to concentrate on the issue of communist Jewish partisans (see also Red scare)^{[citation needed]}.

See also

• The Holocaust in Belarus

Judenrat

Judenräte (singular Judenrat; German for "Jewish council") were administrative bodies that the Germans required Jews to form in the German occupied territory of Poland, and later in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union^[1]

The first Judenräte were formed by Reinhard Heydrich's orders on September 21, 1939, soon after the end of the German assault on Poland.

The Judenrat served as a liaison between the German occupying authorities and the Jewish communities under occupation. The Judenrat operated pre-existing Jewish communal properties such as hospitals, soup kitchens, day care centers, and vocational schools.

With the formation of ghettos, these bodies became responsible for local government in the ghetto, and stood between the Nazis and the ghetto population. They were generally composed of leaders of the pre-war Jewish community (with the exception of the Soviet Union, where Jewish organizations were eliminated in 1930s). They were forced by the Nazis to provide Jews for use as slave labor, and to assist in the deportation of Jews to extermination camps during the Holocaust. Those who refused to follow Nazi orders or were unable to cooperate fully were frequently rounded up and shot or deported to the extermination camps themselves.

In a number of cases, such as the Minsk ghetto and the Łachwa ghetto, Judenrats cooperated with the resistance movement. In other cases, Judenrats collaborated with the Nazis, on the basis that cooperation might save the lives of the ghetto inhabitants.^[2]

Contents [hide] 1 Tunisia 2 References 3 See also 4 External links

[edit] Tunisia

When Germany occupied Tunisia, it established the Labor Recruitment Commission (Comité de Recrutement de la Main d'Oeuvre). Paul Ghez, a notable member of the local Jewish community, was appointed its chairman and a number of other notable Jews were detained as hostages. The commission functioned in ways similar to these of Judenrat.^[3] Therefore some sources refer to "Judenrat-like" organizations or simply to Judenrat in Tunisia, which is not entirely correct: unlike Judenrat, the Commission was not set as a form of Jewish self-government.

[edit] References

1. ^ Trunk, Isaiah Judenrat: the Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe under Nazi Occupation, with an introduction by Jacob Robinson. New York: Macmillan, 1972.
2. ^ "Learning Center". http://motlc.learningcenter.wiesenthal.org/text/x11/xm1189.html.
3. ^ "North African Jewry in the Twentieth Century", Michael M. Laskier (1997) ISBN 0814751296, http://books.google.com/books?id=0HhESj_zScIC&pg=PA73&dq=judenrat+tunisia p. 73

[edit] See also

• Adam Czerniaków
• Ghetto uprising
• Dov Lopatyn
• Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski
• Shtadlan
• Useful Jew

Jewish partisans

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v • d • e

Jewish partisans were fighters in irregular military groups participating in the Jewish resistance movement against Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II.

A number of Jewish partisan groups operated across Nazi-occupied Europe, some made up of a few escapees from the Jewish ghettos or concentration camps, while others, such as Bielski partisans, numbered in the hundreds and included women and children. They were most numerous in Eastern Europe, but groups also existed in occupied France and Belgium, where they worked with the local resistance.^[1] Many individual Jewish fighters also took part in the other partisan movements in other occupied countries. In all, the Jewish partisans numbered between 20,000 and 30,000.^[2]

Operations

The partisans engaged in guerrilla warfare and sabotage against the Nazi occupation, instigated ghetto uprisings and freed prisoners. In Lithuania alone, they killed approximately 3,000 German soldiers.^[3] They sometimes had contacts within the ghettos, camps, and Judenrats, and with other resistance groups, with which they shared military intelligence.

In Eastern Europe, many Jews joined the ranks of the Soviet partisans: throughout the war, they faced antisemitism and discrimination from the Soviets and some Jewish partisans were killed, but over time, many of the Jewish partisan groups were absorbed into the command structure of the much larger Soviet partisan movement.^[4]

[edit] Supplies

Belorussia, 1943. A Jewish partisan group of the Chkalov Brigade. [1]

The Jewish partisans had to overcome great odds in acquiring weapons, food, shelter and evading capture. They typically lived in underground dugouts called zemlyankas (Russian: землянка) and camps in the forests.^[2] Nazi reprisals were brutal, as they employed collective punishment against their supporters and the ghettos from which partisans had escaped,^[5] and often used "anti-partisan actions" as a guise for the extermination of Jews.^[6] In some areas, partisans were supported by local villagers, but due to widespread antisemitism and fear of reprisal, the Jewish partisans were often on their own.^[3]

The partisans operated under constant threat of starvation. In order to survive, Jews had to put aside traditional dietary restrictions. While friendly peasants provided food, in some cases food was stolen from shops,^[2] farms^[3] or raided from caches meant for German soldiers.^[2] As the war progressed, the Soviet government occasionally airdropped ammunition, counterfeit money and food supplies to partisan groups known to be friendly.^[2]

Those who managed to flee the ghettos and camps had nothing more than the clothes on their backs and their possessions often were reduced to rags through constant wear. Clothes and shoes were a scarce commodity. German uniforms were highly prized trophies: they were warm and served as disguises for future missions.^[2]

Those who were wounded or maimed or fell ill often did not survive due to the lack of medical help or supplies. Most partisan groups had no physician and treated the wounded themselves, turning to village doctors only as a last resort.^[2]

The forests also concealed family camps where Jewish escapees from camps or ghettos, many of whom were too young or too old to fight, hoped to wait out the war. While some partisan groups required combat readiness and weapons as a condition for joining, many noncombatants found shelter with Jewish fighting groups and their allies. These individuals and families contributed to the welfare of the group by working as craftsmen, cooks, seamstresses and field medics.^[2]

[edit] Notable partisan groups

Some of the best-known Jewish partisan groups were the Bielski partisans who operated a large "family camp" in Belorussia (numbering over 1,200 by the summer of 1944),^[7][8] and the United Partisan Organization which attempted to start an uprising in the Vilnius Ghetto in Lithuania and later engaged in sabotage and guerilla operations.^[9] Thirty-two Jews from the Mandate for Palestine were trained by the British and parachuted behind enemy lines to engage in resistance activities.^[3]

[edit] Notable partisans

• Fred Friedman
• Yitzhak Arad
• Bielski partisans
• Masha Bruskina
• Eugenio Calò
• Abba Kovner
• Dov Lopatyn
• Moše Pijade
• Haviva Reik
• Dr. Roman T. Solecki
• Hannah Szenes
• Shalom Yoran
• Simcha Zorin
• Mira Shelub: Mira escaped from the concentration camp and joined the partisans, where she met her husband, Nochim.

"In the frost we did not only fight a physical battle, but also a spiritual battle. We were sitting around the fire, singing songs together, supporting each other and dreaming about better days, a better future, and a better tomorrow." -Mira Shelub

• Eta Wrobel: Eta escaped to the woods, where she assisted the formation of a group of eighty partisans. Eta was not like the other women who did the cooking and washing. She had a different personality and advanced military skills to do things that the other women could not.

"The biggest resistance that we could have done to the Germans was to survive." -Eta Wrobel (Eta died on May 26, 2008, in her home in New York.)

[edit] See also

• Jewish Brigade — a unit of 5,000 volunteers from the British Mandate of Palestine that fought in the British Army during World War II
• Special Interrogation Group
• Koniuchy massacre
• Defiance (2008 film) - Film based on the Bielski Partisans
• Parczew partisans

Bielski partisans

The Bielski partisans was an organisation of Jewish partisans who rescued Jews from extermination and fought against the Nazi German occupiers and their collaborators in the vicinity of Nowogródek (Navahrudak) and Lida in German-occupied Poland (now western Belarus).

Under their protection, 1,213 Jews survived the war, making it one of many remarkable rescue missions in the Holocaust.^[1] The group spent more than two years living in the forests and was initially organized by members of the Bielski family.

[edit] History of the family

The Bielski family were millers and grocers^[2] in Stankiewicze (Stankievichy) near Nowogródek (Navahrudak), an area that, at the beginning of the Second World War, belonged to the Second Polish Republic, but in September 1939 was seized by the Soviet Union (see: Polish September Campaign and Soviet invasion of Poland (1939)), which had signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany under the Nazi-Soviet Pact.

The Bielski family took part as low level administrators in the new government set up by the Soviets^[3] which strained their relations with the local Poles, to whom the Soviet Union was an occupier. Following the Germans' Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Soviet Union that began on June 22, 1941, Nowogródek became a Jewish ghetto, as Nazis took over those lands and implemented their genocidal policies (see Holocaust in Poland and Holocaust in Belarus).

[edit] Formation

The four Bielski brothers, Tuvia Bielski, Alexander Bielski (also known as "Zus"), Asael Bielski and Aron Bielski managed to flee to the nearby forest after their parents and other family members were killed in the ghetto in December 1941. Together with 13 neighbours from the ghetto, they formed the nucleus of their partisan combat group in the spring of 1942. Originally the group consisted of around forty people but grew quickly.

The group's commander was the eldest brother Tuvia, who had served in the Polish Army from 1927 to 1929, rising to the rank of corporal. He had been interested in the Zionist youth movement. Tuvia "would rather save one old Jewish woman than kill ten German soldiers".^[4] He sent emissaries to infiltrate the ghettos in the area, recruiting new members to join the group in the Naliboki Forest. Hundreds of men, women, and children eventually found their way to the Bielski camp; at its peak 1,230 people belonged to the group, and 70% of its membership consisted of women, children, and the elderly.^[1] No one was turned away.^[1] About 150 engaged in armed operations.^[1]

[edit] Organization

The partisans lived in underground dugouts (zemlyankas) or bunkers. In addition, several utility structures were built: a kitchen, a mill, a bakery, a bathhouse, a medical clinic for sick and wounded and a quarantine hut for those who suffered from infectious diseases such as typhus. Herds of cows supplied milk. Artisans made goods and carried out repairs, providing the combatants with logistical support that later served the Soviet partisan units in the vicinity as well. More than 125 workers toiled in the workshops, which became famous among partisans far beyond the Bielski base: tailors patched up old clothing and stitched together new garments; shoemakers fixed old and made new footwear; leather-workers laboured on belts, bridles and saddles. A metalworking shop established by Shmuel Oppenheim repaired damaged weapons and constructed new ones from spare parts. A tannery, constructed to produce the hide for cobblers and leather workers, became a de-facto synagogue because several tanners were devout Hasidic Jews. Carpenters, hat-makers, barbers, watchmakers served their own community and guests. The camp's many children attended class in the dugout set up as a school. The camp even had its own jail and court of law.^[5]

Some accounts note the inequality between well-off partisans and poor inhabitants of the camp, and note that on occasion, violent incidents (rapes and murders) took place between the inhabitants.^[6]

[edit] Activities

The Bielski group's partisan activities were aimed at the Nazis and their collaborators, such as Belarusian volunteer policemen or local inhabitants who had betrayed or killed Jews. They also conducted sabotage missions. The Nazi regime offered a reward of 100,000 Reichmarks for assistance in the capture of Tuvia Bielski, and in 1943, led major clearing operations against all partisan groups in the area. Some of these groups suffered major casualties, but the Bielski partisans fled safely to a more remote part of the forest, and continued to offer protection to the noncombatants among their band.

The Bielski group would raid nearby villages and forcibly seize food (much like other partisan groups in the area); on occasion peasants who refused to share their food with the partisans were the subject of violence and even murder. This caused hostility towards the partisans from peasants in the villages, though some would help the Jewish partisans.^[7][8][9]

The Bielski partisans eventually became affiliated with Soviet organisations in the vicinity of the Naliboki Forest under General Platon (Vasily Yefimovich Chernyshev). Several attempts by Soviet partisan commanders to absorb Bielski fighters into their units were resisted, such that the Jewish partisan group retained its integrity and remained under Tuvia Bielski's command. This allowed him to continue in his dedication to protect Jewish lives along with engaging in combat activity, but would also prove a problem later on.

The Bielski Jews, fighting on the Soviet side, took part in clashes between Polish and Soviet forces. Notably, they took part in a disarmament of a group of Polish partisans by the Soviets on 1 December, 1943.^[10]

The Bielski partisan leaders split the group into two units, one named Ordzhonikidze, led by Zus, and the other Kalinin, commanded by Tuvia. According to partisan documentation, Bielski fighters from both units killed a total of 381 enemy fighters, sometimes during joint actions with Soviet groups.^[11] 50 members of the group were killed.^[1]

[edit] Disbandment

In the summer of 1944, when the Soviet counteroffensive began in Belarus and the area was taken over by the Soviets, the Kalinin unit, numbering 1,230 men, women and children, emerged from the forest and marched into Nowogrodek.

Despite their previous collaboration with the Soviets, relations quickly worsened.^[12] The NKVD started interrogating the Bielski brothers about the rumours of loot they had reportedly collected during the war, and about their failure to "implement socialist ideals in the camp".^[12] Asael Bielski was conscripted into the Soviet Red Army and fell in the Battle of Königsberg in 1945.^[12] The remaining brothers escaped Soviet-controlled lands, emigrating West.^[12] Tuvia's cousin, Yehuda, was sought by the NKVD for having been an officer in the pre-war Polish Army but managed to escape with Tuvia's help, made his way to Hungary and then to Israel.^[13]

[edit] Post-war

After the war, Tuvia Bielski returned to Poland, then emigrated to Palestine (present-day Israel) in 1945. Tuvia and Zus eventually settled in the United States. They operated a successful trucking business.

The last living Bielski brother, Aron Bielski, emigrated to the US in 1951. He changed his name to "Aron Bell". The remainder of the Bell family now lives in upstate New York and California. When Tuvia died in 1987, he was buried in Long Island, NY, but a year later, at the urging of surviving partisans in Israel, he was exhumed and given a hero's funeral at Har Hamenuchot, the hillside graveyard in Jerusalem. His wife, Lilka, was buried beside him in 2001. Aron lives in Florida. None of the Bielskis ever sought any recognition or reward for their actions.

Yehuda Bielski, their first cousin and fellow partisan, moved to Palestine (present-day Israel) to fight in the Irgun.^[14]

[edit] Allegations of war crimes

Some of the members of the Bielski partisans (but not the Bielski brothers themselves) have been accused of war crimes on the neighbouring population, particularly for involvement in the 1943 Naliboki massacre of 129 people, committed by Soviet partisans.^[15] Though some witnesses and some historians do place members of Bielskis' unit at the massacre, former members of the brigade and other historians dispute this^[16], asserting that the partisans did not arrive in the area until several months after the event took place.^[17] The Polish Institute of National Remembrance has been investigating the massacre since the early 2000s. As of April 2009, it has not issued official findings;^[15][18] however, some of the historians working at the Institute have written in other publications that the Bielski brothers were not involved in the massacre.^[16]

[edit] Books and film

Two recent English language books have focused on the Bielski story: Defiance (1993) by Nechama Tec and The Bielski Brothers (2004) by Peter Duffy. The group is also mentioned in numerous books about this period in history. A new book (January 2009) in Polish language by two reporters from Gazeta Wyborcza: "Odwet: Prawdziwa historia braci Bielskich" (Revenge: The True Story of the Bielski Brothers) focuses on the larger political and historical context in which the partisans operated, specifically the fighting between Polish and Soviet resistance groups in the Kresy (former Eastern Poland) region. Fugitives of the Forest: The Heroic Story of Jewish Resistance and Survival During the Second World War, by Allan Levine (first published 1998, 2008 reissue, by Lyons Press),^[19] tells the story of Jewish fighters and refugees in forests across Europe, including the Bielski partisans.

In 2006, the History Channel aired a documentary titled The Bielski Brothers: Jerusalem In The Woods, written and directed by filmmaker Dean Ward.

The BBC series Who Do you think you are, featured Natasha Kaplinski discovering that her Great Uncle Ytsak Kaplinski was a member of the Bielski partisans. He survived the war and emigrated to South Africa.

The BBC series Ray Mears's Extreme Survival featured an episode about the Bielski partisans.

The feature film Defiance, co-written, produced and directed by Edward Zwick, was released nationwide on January 16, 2009. It stars Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell and George MacKay as Tuvia, Zus, Asael, and Aron Bielski respectively. It opened to mixed reviews^[20] and some controversy.^[21] The brothers also published a book in Israel.

[edit] See also

• Abba Kovner
• Nakam
• Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust
• Kastner's Train
• Schindler's List
• The Pianist (2002 film)
• Żegota
• World War II Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis and the West

[edit] Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} "THE BIELSKI PARTISANS". United States Holocaust Museum. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007563. Retrieved 2009-01-15.
2. ^ Tec, Nechama (1993). Defiance: The Bielski Partisans. Oxford University Press US. ISBN 0195093909.
3. ^ Snyder, Timothy, "Caught Between Hitler & Stalin", The New York Review of Books, Volume 56, Number 7, April 30, 2009, [1] (restricted)
4. ^ Duffy, Peter, The Bielski Brothers. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. ISBN 0-06-621074-7. p.X
5. ^ Duffy, Peter, The Bielski Brothers. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. ISBN 0-06-621074-7. p.214-217
6. ^ (Polish) Piotr Zychowicz, Bielski pomagał Żydom, ale też ich wykorzystywał, Rzeczpospolita, 23-01-2009
7. ^ "Family Camps in the Forest". Shoah Resource Center. http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%205841.pdf. Retrieved 2009-01-22.
8. ^ A Hollywood Movie About Heroes or Murderers?, Gazeta Wyborcza, 2008-06-16
9. ^ (Polish) Piotr Głuchowski, Marcin Kowalski, Wymazany Aron Bell (Aron Bell Erased), Gazeta Wyborcza, 008-06-16
10. ^ (English) The True Story of the Bielski Brothers (Polish) Prawdziwa historia Bielskich, Gazeta Wyborcza, 2009-01-06
11. ^ Duffy, Peter, The Bielski Brothers. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. ISBN 0-06-621074-7. p. 281: "The numbers are cited in the partisan histories of Ordzhonikidze (Fond 3618; Opus I; File 23) and Kalinin (Fond 3500; Opus 4; File 272) in the Minsk archives. The Kalinin history is also available at Yad Vashem (M.41/120).
12. ^ ^{a b c d} (Polish) Piotr Głuchowski, Marcin Kowalski, Wojna polsko-ruska pod bokiem niemieckim, Gazeta Wyborcza, 2009-01-13
13. ^ http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/37115/
14. ^ http://www.jewishpress.com/content.cfm?contentid=37115
15. ^ ^{a b} The report (in Polish) about the IPN investigation of Naliboki massacre and other crimes committed by Soviet partisans from Naliboki Forest
16. ^ ^{a b} (Polish) Bogdan Musiał, Bielski w puszczy niedomówień, Rzeczpospolita, 31-01-2009
17. ^ Marissa Brostoff, "Polish Investigators Tie Partisans to Massacre," Forward (8/7/08) http://www.forward.com/articles/13935/
18. ^ "Jewish Brothers' Resistance Inspired'Defiance'". National Public Radio. 2008-12-28. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98759355&ft=3&f=searchTerm=The+Great+Escape1045. Retrieved 2009-01-20.
19. ^ Levine, Allan. Fugitives of the Forest. New York: Lyons Press, 2008.
20. ^ "Defiance". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009458-defiance/. Retrieved 2009-01-20.
21. ^ Kamil Tchorek (2008-12-31). "Country split over whether Daniel Craig is film hero or villain". The Times. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article5420709.ece. Retrieved 2008-12-31.

[edit] References

• Alperowitz, Yitzchak. "Tuvia Bielski", in Encyclopaedia of the Holocaust vol. 1, p. 215–16. Illustrations.
• Arad, Yitzhak. "Family Camps in the Forest", in Encyclopaedia of the Holocaust vol. 2, p. 467–469. Illustrations, map.
• Smith, Lyn. Remembering: Voices of the Holocaust. Ebury Press, Great Britain, 2005, Carroll & Graf Publishers, New York, 2006. ISBN 0-78671-640-1.
• Announcement of the start of the IPN investigation (unofficial English-language translation).
• Review of "Sowjetische Partisanen in Weißrußland", by Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, in Sarmatian Review, April 2006.

[edit] Further reading

• Duffy, Peter, The Bielski Brothers. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. ISBN 0-06-621074-7.
• Eckman, Lester and Lazar, Chaim, The Jewish Resistance: The History of the Jewish Partisans in Lithuania and White Russia During the Nazi Occupation 1940–1945. Shengold Publishers, 1977. ISBN 0884000508.
• Levine, Allan, Fugitives of the Forest: The Heroic Story of Jewish Resistance and Survival During the Second World War. Stoddart, 1998. Reissued with a new introduction by The Lyons Press, 2008. ISBN 978-1-59921-496-2.
• Nechama Tec, Defiance: The Bielski Partisans. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-19-509390-9.

[edit] External links

• Bielski partisans on National Public Radio
• The Bielski PartisansHolocaust Encyclopedia United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Jewish partisans directory (searchable) (partisans.org.il)
• Tuvia Bielski, Commander of a Jewish Partisan Unit in Belarus, Novogrudok, Poland Film and Photo Archive, Yad Vashem
• Naliboki, Poland, May 1944, Jews in the Tuvia Bielski Partisan Family Camp in the Naliboki Forest Film and Photo Archive, Yad Vashem
• Bielski partisans in the Naliboki forest Simon Wiesenthal Center Photo album
• The Stories of Those Rescued by the Bielski Partisans from Lida Lida Memorial Society Homepage First and Second Hand Accounts
• Voices on Antisemitism Interview with Daniel Craig from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

www.courageandcompassionexhibit.com - Florida Holocaust Museum's Bielski Exhibit with Artifacts and History of the Bielski Resistance

REMEMBERING LUBOML

Remembering Luboml - Images of a Jewish Community

The Virtual Exhibit - 2001 Developed in 2001, this page was our original web site.

The exhibition Remembering Luboml: Images of a Jewish Community offers a poignant glimpse of daily life in a shtetl representative of many others which were destroyed in World War II. The exhibition is a photo essay of archival prints and artifacts that re-create life between the wars in the Polish shtetl of Luboml (Libivne in Yiddish). The exhibition is the culmination of three years of intense research and gathering of archival photographs, original films from the 1930s and interviews with Libivners and precision design for a traveling installation. Research, design and all aspects of exhibition development were underwritten by Mr. Aaron Ziegelman (New York) who wanted to honor Luboml, his birthplace and the town from which he, his widowed mother and sister emigrated to America in 1938.

Northwestern view of the Great Synagogue, with shtiblekh (small prayer houses) at right, ca. 1930. Collection of Polska Akademia Nauk, Instytut Sztuki

"We were amazed by the force of the resonance in the synagogue and when we had a chance to remain there alone, we would shout and wait excitedly for the echo that came to us from all directions. On the other hand, we were afraid to pass close to the synagogue alone at night -- the time when the souls of the departed came to the synagogue for prayer and the reading of the Torah." Yisrael Garni

The Jewish community of Luboml dated back to the 14th century. By the 1930s, Libivne (as it was called in Yiddish) had a vibrant community of at least 4,000 Jews. The interwar years were a period of astonishing cultural ferment and change in this Polish shtetl. While the family and traditional religious institutions continued to play a central role, they were joined and sometimes challenged by modern intellectual attitudes, styles of dress, and other secular influences (particularly Zionism) which increasingly made their way to this corner of eastern Europe. Luboml was occupied by the Soviets from 1939 until 1941, when the Germans took control and established a ghetto there. Ultimately, the Germans, assisted by Ukrainians and Poles, massacred the Libivner Jews in a series of "actions" which culminated in the final executions on October 1, 1942. Only 51 Luboml Jews (excluding those who had emigrated before the war) are believed to have survived the Holocaust. The Luboml Exhibition Project has located almost 2,000 photographs and artifacts from more than 100 families and archives around the world, and has taped many video interviews with Libivners. We are pleased to present a small part of our collection online.

Right to left: Roza Szwarc, Rivke Milshtein and an unidentified girl. 1937. Collection of Fruma Golod "To me, Luboml was and will forever remain -- Libivne!" Chane Kraut Achtman "After World War I, new winds began to blow in the small towns of the new Poland and former Russia ... As everywhere else, so it was in Libivne." Yecheskel Kahn

"The area of the market place was divided up into various, definite sections: the southeastern corner for the horse auction, and the section nearby for cows; on its northern section, pigs and stands for selling pork and other products; and the northwestern section, for shoes, clothing, furs, hats, and other furnishings. The noise was deafening; voices of vendors and buyers, mooing of cows, whinnying of horses, snorting of pigs -- all these filled the area of the marketplace, which bustled and hummed without let-up until the late afternoon." Yisrael Garmi

Market day in the marketplace, 1926

The Milshtein brothers (in doorway) with employees of their shoemaking business, ca. 1920. Collection of Alexander Ostapyuk.	Townspeople posing with Torah Ark donated to the Lines-Hatsedek Synagogue by the Gershengorn family in memory of their mother Khaye Devoyre, 1930s. Collection of Heichal Yahaduth Wolyn.

Artifacts from Luboml Click on each image for a larger view

Liquor labels from the distillery of M. Rajsman and K. Kopelzon, 1920s - 30s. Collection of Alexander Ostapyuk.
Matzoh cover made by May Szyster for her father, Yaacov Isroel, embroidered, "Observe the Holiday of Matzohs [Passover], Y.Y. Szyster, 1930." Collection of May Goodman.
Rosh Hashanah card with portrait of Nuchim Dubecki. The Yiddish verse reads: "Like God's pure and radiant angel / With a banner flag in hand/ Loaded full of blessings / The New Year now arrives!" 1938 Collection of Milton J. Linder.

My dear beloved Arele and Lybule! I can in no way make peace with the idea that you, my dear ones, are going away. Because until now it seemed like only a fantasy to me. But I see that reality is stronger and that a higher authority wished it so...so travel in good health, arrive in peace, be successful throughout life. I expect to hear good tidings from you. Be proud, religious, nationalist Jews. Your uncle, Joseph Zygielman Entry in homemade autograph book given to Esther Zygielman and her children Aaron and Luba, upon their departure from Luboml for New York, 1938.

Farewell portrait of friends and family at the Luboml railroad station. 1938 Collection of Lillian Ziegelman Chanales Taken on the occasion of the departure of the Zygielman family for America. Aaron Zygielman (front row, near center, with white cap), Aaron's mother Esther (behind him wearing a hat), and sister Luba (standing, 8th from right).

	"I returned to Libivne on June 22, 1944...Not a stone was left of the Besmedresh (the study house). A place that had served its holy task for hundreds of years; where for hundreds of years Yiddish was heard; where many generations of Jews would gather to pray to God -- it now lay in ruins. Thorns and wild grass had covered it." Chaim Rozenblitz
	Survivors at an early monument to Holocaust victims in Luboml., ca. 1945. Collection of Nathan Sobel.

The Luboml Exhibition Project was initiated in 1994 by Aaron Ziegelman, a Libivner who emigrated to the United States in 1938. To date, the Project has located almost 2,000 photographs and artifacts from more than 100 families and archives around the world, and has taped many video interviews with Libivners. The Luboml Exhibition Project is underwritten by the Aaron Ziegelman Foundation.

All quotations are translated from the Yizkor Book of Luboml (Tel Aviv, 1975),
unless otherwise indicated.

Top of Page Virtual Exhibit Luboml Home Page

Pages created by Arnold Berger

JOSEPH BONDER

Holocaust survivor Joseph Bonder reunited with Bronislaw Firuta who saved him from Nazis

By Brendan Brosh and Corky Siemaszko in The New york Daily News New York, N.,Y., USA

Wednesday, November 25th 2009,

Pace for News

Joseph Bonder (r.) and Bronislaw Firuta (l.) meet for the first time in 64 years at JFK Airport.

Bronislaw Firuta

Related News

When the Bonder family gathers for the Thanksgiving feast, the guest of honor will be the man to whom they owe their lives.

Because it's thanks to the bravery of Bronislaw Firuta that the head of the family, Joseph Bonder, survived the Holocaust and went on to live a happy life that includes three children and seven granchildren.

Bonder and Firuta both had tears in their eyes when they were reunited Wednesday for the first time in 65 years at Kennedy Airport.

"My beloved, my beloved," Firuta, 83, said in Polish as he embraced Bonder.

"I'm numb," Bonder, 81, of Monroe Township, N.J., said. "If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be here. It's once in a lifetime you can see your savior. He is my savior."

Bonder and Firuta had been in touch by mail and talked several times by phone since the war, but their reunion was made possible by the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, which honors non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews.

Firuta, a Polish Catholic, is still mourning his wife, who died two months ago. He also recently lost his home in a fire. But he was smiling through his tears when he told Bonder, "I came to see you after everything that's going on."

Asked why he stuck his neck out for Bonder, Firuta replied, "From a young age, I was taught how to respect all people."

Bonder said he only wished the other person Firuta rescued from the Nazis - his sister Joan Bonder - could have been at the reunion. She died in 1992.

Bonder and his sister are from a village that was part of Poland when World War II started and which is now in Ukraine. Joan Bonder was Firuta's teacher.

When the Nazis imprisoned Bonder's parents in the Skalat Ghetto, they sent the teens to Firuta's family.

"They are good people and will help you," they said.

It was among the last words they said to young Joseph and Joan before they were murdered by the Nazis and buried in a mass grave.

Hiding the Bonders meant certain death for Firuta and his family if they were caught. And while some rescuers took money from Jews, Bonder said the Firuta family did not take a dime and hid them for two years in their barn.

When the Germans or their Ukrainian allies raided, Firuta dispatched the young Jews to a hiding place in the woods.

"If I got one meal a day, I was lucky," said Bonder. "A good day was beets. Maybe soup or potatoes."

The Bonders left for America after the Soviets liberated the region in 1944.

Firuta said he was forced out of his home "when the village was burned down by the Russians."

He wound up a refugee in Lubin, a small Polish city near the German border.

NAZI MYSTERY: TWINS FROM BRAZIL

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XUpcoming EpisodesAll Episodes

• 24 Hours After Asteroid Impact
• Alaska's Last Oil
• Aryan Brotherhood
• Attack of the Killer Bees
• Border Wars
• Camp Leatherneck
• Child Mummy Sacrifice
• Chimps on the Edge
• China's Secret Mummies
• Climbing Redwood Giants
• Collapse
• Congo Bush Pilots

• Death of the Iceman
• Doomsday Volcano
• Drowning New Orleans
• Easter Island Underworld
• Elephant Rage
• FBI Takedown
• Female Suicide Bombers
• Finding Anastasia
• Fire Ants: Texas Border Massacre
• Gorilla Murders
• Guns in America
• Heroin Crisis

• Hogzilla
• Inside Death Row
• Inside Guantanamo
• Inside Guantanamo
• Inside LSD
• Inside North Korea
• Inside Shock and Awe
• Inside Sumo
• Inside the Body Trade
• Iraq's Guns for Hire
• Italy's Mystery Mummies
• Jellyfish Invasion

• Killer Cane Toads
• Killer Cats
• Kingdom of the Blue Whale
• LA's Future Quake
• Last Christians of Bethlehem
• Last Days of the Maya
• Lost Cities of the Amazon
• Mammoth Mystery
• Marijuana Nation
• Moment of Death
• Monster Fish of the Congo
• Mysteries of Survival

• Mystery of the Disembodied Feet
• Mystery of the Mummy Murders
• Narco State
• Nazi Mystery: Twins from Brazil
• Nightmare in Jamestown
• Outsmarting Terror
• Peru's Mass Grave Mystery
• Pyramids of Fire
• Python vs. Gator
• Python Wars
• Science of Babies
• Science of Cats

• Science of Dogs
• Science of Evil
• Science of Surveillance
• Search for Adam
• Secret History of Diamonds
• Secret History of Gold
• Secret Lives of Jesus
• Secrets of the Tornado
• Sex, Lies, and Gender
• Shark Superhighway
• Spider Sex
• Struck By Lightning

• Super Carrier
• Super Chopper
• Super Rig
• Super Snake!
• Super Sub
• Surviving Maximum Security
• T. rex Walks Again
• Testosterone Factor
• The Hunt for the Lost Ark
• The Perfect Swarm
• The True Face of Hurricanes
• The Virus Hunters

• The Witchcraft Murder
• Tiny Humans: The Hobbits of Flores
• Tunnel to a Lost World
• Ultimate Bear
• Ultimate Cat
• Ultimate Crocodile
• Ultimate Hippo
• Ultimate Shark
• Ultimate Viper
• Violent Earth
• World's Most Dangerous Drug
• World's Most Dangerous Gang

• Zoo Tiger Escape

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XUpcoming EpisodesAll Episodes

• 24 Hours After Asteroid Impact
• Alaska's Last Oil
• Aryan Brotherhood
• Attack of the Killer Bees
• Border Wars
• Camp Leatherneck
• Child Mummy Sacrifice
• Chimps on the Edge
• China's Secret Mummies
• Climbing Redwood Giants
• Collapse
• Congo Bush Pilots

• Death of the Iceman
• Doomsday Volcano
• Drowning New Orleans
• Easter Island Underworld
• Elephant Rage
• FBI Takedown
• Female Suicide Bombers
• Finding Anastasia
• Fire Ants: Texas Border Massacre
• Gorilla Murders
• Guns in America
• Heroin Crisis

• Hogzilla
• Inside Death Row
• Inside Guantanamo
• Inside Guantanamo
• Inside LSD
• Inside North Korea
• Inside Shock and Awe
• Inside Sumo
• Inside the Body Trade
• Iraq's Guns for Hire
• Italy's Mystery Mummies
• Jellyfish Invasion

• Killer Cane Toads
• Killer Cats
• Kingdom of the Blue Whale
• LA's Future Quake
• Last Christians of Bethlehem
• Last Days of the Maya
• Lost Cities of the Amazon
• Mammoth Mystery
• Marijuana Nation
• Moment of Death
• Monster Fish of the Congo
• Mysteries of Survival

• Mystery of the Disembodied Feet
• Mystery of the Mummy Murders
• Narco State
• Nazi Mystery: Twins from Brazil
• Nightmare in Jamestown
• Outsmarting Terror
• Peru's Mass Grave Mystery
• Pyramids of Fire
• Python vs. Gator
• Python Wars
• Science of Babies
• Science of Cats

• Science of Dogs
• Science of Evil
• Science of Surveillance
• Search for Adam
• Secret History of Diamonds
• Secret History of Gold
• Secret Lives of Jesus
• Secrets of the Tornado
• Sex, Lies, and Gender
• Shark Superhighway
• Spider Sex
• Struck By Lightning

• Super Carrier
• Super Chopper
• Super Rig
• Super Snake!
• Super Sub
• Surviving Maximum Security
• T. rex Walks Again
• Testosterone Factor
• The Hunt for the Lost Ark
• The Perfect Swarm
• The True Face of Hurricanes
• The Virus Hunters

• The Witchcraft Murder
• Tiny Humans: The Hobbits of Flores
• Tunnel to a Lost World
• Ultimate Bear
• Ultimate Cat
• Ultimate Crocodile
• Ultimate Hippo
• Ultimate Shark
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• Violent Earth
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• Zoo Tiger Escape

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XUpcoming EpisodesAll Episodes

• 24 Hours After Asteroid Impact
• Alaska's Last Oil
• Aryan Brotherhood
• Attack of the Killer Bees
• Border Wars
• Camp Leatherneck
• Child Mummy Sacrifice
• Chimps on the Edge
• China's Secret Mummies
• Climbing Redwood Giants
• Collapse
• Congo Bush Pilots

• Death of the Iceman
• Doomsday Volcano
• Drowning New Orleans
• Easter Island Underworld
• Elephant Rage
• FBI Takedown
• Female Suicide Bombers
• Finding Anastasia
• Fire Ants: Texas Border Massacre
• Gorilla Murders
• Guns in America
• Heroin Crisis

• Hogzilla
• Inside Death Row
• Inside Guantanamo
• Inside Guantanamo
• Inside LSD
• Inside North Korea
• Inside Shock and Awe
• Inside Sumo
• Inside the Body Trade
• Iraq's Guns for Hire
• Italy's Mystery Mummies
• Jellyfish Invasion

• Killer Cane Toads
• Killer Cats
• Kingdom of the Blue Whale
• LA's Future Quake
• Last Christians of Bethlehem
• Last Days of the Maya
• Lost Cities of the Amazon
• Mammoth Mystery
• Marijuana Nation
• Moment of Death
• Monster Fish of the Congo
• Mysteries of Survival

• Mystery of the Disembodied Feet
• Mystery of the Mummy Murders
• Narco State
• Nazi Mystery: Twins from Brazil
• Nightmare in Jamestown
• Outsmarting Terror
• Peru's Mass Grave Mystery
• Pyramids of Fire
• Python vs. Gator
• Python Wars
• Science of Babies
• Science of Cats

• Science of Dogs
• Science of Evil
• Science of Surveillance
• Search for Adam
• Secret History of Diamonds
• Secret History of Gold
• Secret Lives of Jesus
• Secrets of the Tornado
• Sex, Lies, and Gender
• Shark Superhighway
• Spider Sex
• Struck By Lightning

• Super Carrier
• Super Chopper
• Super Rig
• Super Snake!
• Super Sub
• Surviving Maximum Security
• T. rex Walks Again
• Testosterone Factor
• The Hunt for the Lost Ark
• The Perfect Swarm
• The True Face of Hurricanes
• The Virus Hunters

• The Witchcraft Murder
• Tiny Humans: The Hobbits of Flores
• Tunnel to a Lost World
• Ultimate Bear
• Ultimate Cat
• Ultimate Crocodile
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XUpcoming EpisodesAll Episodes

• 24 Hours After Asteroid Impact
• Alaska's Last Oil
• Aryan Brotherhood
• Attack of the Killer Bees
• Border Wars
• Camp Leatherneck
• Child Mummy Sacrifice
• Chimps on the Edge
• China's Secret Mummies
• Climbing Redwood Giants
• Collapse
• Congo Bush Pilots

• Death of the Iceman
• Doomsday Volcano
• Drowning New Orleans
• Easter Island Underworld
• Elephant Rage
• FBI Takedown
• Female Suicide Bombers
• Finding Anastasia
• Fire Ants: Texas Border Massacre
• Gorilla Murders
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• Hogzilla
• Inside Death Row
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• Last Christians of Bethlehem
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• Lost Cities of the Amazon
• Mammoth Mystery
• Marijuana Nation
• Moment of Death
• Monster Fish of the Congo
• Mysteries of Survival

• Mystery of the Disembodied Feet
• Mystery of the Mummy Murders
• Narco State
• Nazi Mystery: Twins from Brazil
• Nightmare in Jamestown
• Outsmarting Terror
• Peru's Mass Grave Mystery
• Pyramids of Fire
• Python vs. Gator
• Python Wars
• Science of Babies
• Science of Cats

• Science of Dogs
• Science of Evil
• Science of Surveillance
• Search for Adam
• Secret History of Diamonds
• Secret History of Gold
• Secret Lives of Jesus
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• Sex, Lies, and Gender
• Shark Superhighway
• Spider Sex
• Struck By Lightning

• Super Carrier
• Super Chopper
• Super Rig
• Super Snake!
• Super Sub
• Surviving Maximum Security
• T. rex Walks Again
• Testosterone Factor
• The Hunt for the Lost Ark
• The Perfect Swarm
• The True Face of Hurricanes
• The Virus Hunters

• The Witchcraft Murder
• Tiny Humans: The Hobbits of Flores
• Tunnel to a Lost World
• Ultimate Bear
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XUpcoming EpisodesAll Episodes

• 24 Hours After Asteroid Impact
• Alaska's Last Oil
• Aryan Brotherhood
• Attack of the Killer Bees
• Border Wars
• Camp Leatherneck
• Child Mummy Sacrifice
• Chimps on the Edge
• China's Secret Mummies
• Climbing Redwood Giants
• Collapse
• Congo Bush Pilots

• Death of the Iceman
• Doomsday Volcano
• Drowning New Orleans
• Easter Island Underworld
• Elephant Rage
• FBI Takedown
• Female Suicide Bombers
• Finding Anastasia
• Fire Ants: Texas Border Massacre
• Gorilla Murders
• Guns in America
• Heroin Crisis

• Hogzilla
• Inside Death Row
• Inside Guantanamo
• Inside Guantanamo
• Inside LSD
• Inside North Korea
• Inside Shock and Awe
• Inside Sumo
• Inside the Body Trade
• Iraq's Guns for Hire
• Italy's Mystery Mummies
• Jellyfish Invasion

• Killer Cane Toads
• Killer Cats
• Kingdom of the Blue Whale
• LA's Future Quake
• Last Christians of Bethlehem
• Last Days of the Maya
• Lost Cities of the Amazon
• Mammoth Mystery
• Marijuana Nation
• Moment of Death
• Monster Fish of the Congo
• Mysteries of Survival

• Mystery of the Disembodied Feet
• Mystery of the Mummy Murders
• Narco State
• Nazi Mystery: Twins from Brazil
• Nightmare in Jamestown
• Outsmarting Terror
• Peru's Mass Grave Mystery
• Pyramids of Fire
• Python vs. Gator
• Python Wars
• Science of Babies
• Science of Cats

• Science of Dogs
• Science of Evil
• Science of Surveillance
• Search for Adam
• Secret History of Diamonds
• Secret History of Gold
• Secret Lives of Jesus
• Secrets of the Tornado
• Sex, Lies, and Gender
• Shark Superhighway
• Spider Sex
• Struck By Lightning

• Super Carrier
• Super Chopper
• Super Rig
• Super Snake!
• Super Sub
• Surviving Maximum Security
• T. rex Walks Again
• Testosterone Factor
• The Hunt for the Lost Ark
• The Perfect Swarm
• The True Face of Hurricanes
• The Virus Hunters

• The Witchcraft Murder
• Tiny Humans: The Hobbits of Flores
• Tunnel to a Lost World
• Ultimate Bear
• Ultimate Cat
• Ultimate Crocodile
• Ultimate Hippo
• Ultimate Shark
• Ultimate Viper
• Violent Earth
• World's Most Dangerous Drug
• World's Most Dangerous Gang

• Zoo Tiger Escape

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Nazi Mystery: Twins from Brazil

Remind Me Sunday November 29 9P Sunday November 29 8P Sunday November 29 7P Sunday November 29 9P Sunday November 29 8P Sunday November 29 7P

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  • Mengele
  • Science Behind Twinning
  • Location Casa Rosada

MENGELE'S EXPERIMENTS ON TWINS Under the platform of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazis), vast numbers were forced to participate in brutal experiments usually leading to a painful, drawn-out death. These experiments were conducted on non-consenting individuals under the justification of conducting medical research for the German army, while also working to kill off those who did not fit the characteristics of the ideal Nazi racial collective. At Auschwitz, Josef Mengele often conducted medical experiments using twins. Children who survived Auschwitz recalled how a smiling “uncle” Mengele brought them candy and clothing, while really executing their delivery to his lab. Experiments Mengele conducted included: injecting chemicals and forcing gasses into twins, twin-to-twin transfusions, stitching twins together, and also the castration and sterilization of twins. Below, take a look into one of the horrific experiments preformed by Mengele and related links on his life and experiments. The Austrian Twin Experiment Stage 1: Mengele took two eighteen-year-old Hungarian twins and ventilated gas through tubes forced through the twins’ noses, into their lungs. He then collected the sputum from their lungs. Stage 2: The same twins were put in scalding water and then strapped to a table, where their hair was plucked out. The process was repeated multiple times, in an experiment Mengele conducted to save the hair root. Stage 3: Mengele forced the twins to have several painful two-liter enemas. Mengele hyper descended their rectums and conducted an extensive lower gastric intestinal examination without any anesthesia. Accounts tell how each of twins cried so loudly during their procedure that Mengele ordered them to be gagged. Stage 4: In the following days, they received a painful urological examination in which tissue samples were taken from the kidneys, prostate, and testicles. Final Stage: After these three weeks, each twin was simultaneously given an injection in the heart and dissected. Learn More: Medical Experiments in Auschwitz Joseph Mengele Biography Mengele's Children: The Twins of Auschwitz Holocaust Survivors and Remembrance Project Video Accounts of Medical Experimentation at Auschwitz

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MAN OR MONSTOR - RUDOLPH HOSS

Last updated 2009-11-05

Auschwitz is a place of unparalleled horror and the site of the largest mass murder in history. Laurence Rees looks inside the mind of the man who built and ran the camp.

On this page

• Man or monster?
• Character and beliefs
• Into the system
• Extermination
• Justifying atrocity
• No remorse
• Find out more

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Man or monster?

What sort of man was the commandant of Auschwitz, the site of the largest mass murder in the history of the world? A place crammed with suffering, where acts of nightmarish atrocity were everyday occurrences. Try to conceive of the person capable of holding down such a job. Who do you see?

There is no record of him ever hitting - let alone killing - anyone.

At a guess, you are picturing someone like Amon Goeth, commandant of Plaszow labour camp in Poland, memorably portrayed in Schindler's List by Ralph Fiennes - an irrational, sadistic monster who took pleasure in personally inflicting torture. Someone utterly different from the people you encounter in everyday life. But if you imagined such a person was commandant of Auschwitz, then you're wrong.

According to Whitney Harris, the American prosecutor who interrogated him at the Nuremberg trials, Rudolf Höss appeared 'normal', 'like a grocery clerk'. And former prisoners who encountered him at Auschwitz confirmed this view, adding that Höss always appeared calm and collected. He is the greatest mass murderer the world has ever seen, and yet there is no record of him ever personally hitting - let alone killing - anyone at the camp.

Höss lived with his wife and four children in a house just yards from the crematorium in Auschwitz main camp, where some of the earliest killing experiments were conducted using the poisonous insecticide Zyklon B. During his working days, Höss presided over the murder of more than a million people, but once he came home he lived the life of a solid, middle-class German husband and father.

It is this apparent 'normality' that ultimately makes Höss a much more terrifying figure than an unhinged brute like Amon Goeth. It compels us to try - in so far as it is ever possible - to understand him and the historical circumstances that made his murderous career possible.

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Character and beliefs

Registration at Dachau © Like most ardent Nazis, Höss's character and beliefs had been shaped by his reaction to the previous thirty years of German history. Born in the Black Forest in 1900 to Catholic parents, Höss had a domineering father who insisted on unquestioning obedience.

He served in World War One as the youngest NCO in the German Army, experiencing a desperate sense of betrayal at the subsequent loss of the war. In the early 1920s, Höss joined the paramilitary Freikorps to help counter the perceived communist threat on the boundaries of Germany, before his involvement in violent right wing politics led to his imprisonment in 1923.

The most urgent need was to understand why Germany had lost the war.

Many, many other Nazis were forged in a similar crucible, not least Adolf Hitler. For Hitler, Höss and others on the Nationalist Right, the most urgent need was to understand why Germany had lost the war and made such a humiliating peace. And in the immediate post war years they believed they had found the answer.

Was it not obvious, they felt, that the Jews - with their alleged Communist sympathies - had 'stabbed Germany in the back'? It didn't matter that large numbers of loyal German Jews had fought and died during the war. Nor that thousands were neither left-wing nor Communist. It was much easier to make the Jews a scapegoat for Germany's predicament.

Höss claimed to have little quarrel with individual Jews. The problem for him was the 'International World Jewish Conspiracy' - the anti-Semitic fantasy that Jews secretly held the levers of power and sought to assist each other across national boundaries. He later wrote: 'As a fanatical National Socialist I was firmly convinced that our ideals would gradually be accepted and would prevail throughout the world... Jewish supremacy would thus be abolished.'

Höss joined the Nazi party in November 1922, shortly after it was founded. Heinrich Himmler, an ardent Nazi talent spotter who knew Höss from the early days, invited him to become an active member of the SS. Höss accepted and in November 1934 arrived at Dachau concentration camp in Bavaria to start his service as a guard.

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Into the system

Ruins of crematorium and gas chamber at Auschwitz © tDachau in the 1930s was not a place of mass extermination. The majority of prisoners sent there were released after a stay of imprisonment of around a year to eighteen months. Intense mental and physical suffering were inflicted on the prisoners, many of whom died, but it was easy for Höss to rationalise. He felt it was important to imprison and forcibly 're-educate' the internal opponents of the Third Reich.

Höss's three-and-a-half years at Dachau were to play a defining role in shaping his mentality. Above all else, it is where Höss learnt the essential philosophy of the SS, as preached by Theodor Eicke, the first commandant of the camp - hardness: 'Anyone who shows even the slightest vestige of sympathy towards [the prisoners] must immediately vanish from our ranks. I need only hard, totally committed SS men. There is no place among us for soft people.'

His experience at Dachau and Sachsenhausen offered a clear blueprint.

Höss was a model SS man and rose through the ranks, eventually being promoted to Rapportfuehrer, chief assistant to the commander of Dachau. In September 1936 he was made a lieutenant and transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he remained until his elevation to commandant of the new concentration camp at Auschwitz.

This then was the man who arrived at Auschwitz in May 1940. He now felt ready to take on his biggest challenge - creating a new concentration camp from a handful of vermin-infested barracks. His experience at Dachau and Sachsenhausen offered a clear blueprint.

During his first year at the camp, Höss oversaw the expansion of Auschwitz from a poorly-resourced but brutal concentration camp for Poles into a source of slave labour for the construction of the giant synthetic oil and rubber factory at nearby Monowitz. It was also readied for the arrival of selected Soviet prisoners of war in July 1941.

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Extermination

Funeral procession of Auschwitz dead © It was to murder these 'sub-human' Soviet prisoners, as well as to kill those considered 'unfit' to work, that Zyklon B was first used at Auschwitz. It was Höss's deputy, Karl Fritzch, who first thought of using the readily available insecticide to kill human beings.

Höss records that he personally attended an early gassing experiment: 'Protected by a gas mask, I watched the killing myself. In the crowded cells death came instantaneously the moment the Zyklon B was thrown in. A short, almost smothered cry and it was all over.'

Höss was an active innovator in the way he organised the killing process.

While the evidence is that death could be far from 'instantaneous', Höss was nonetheless 'relieved' that this new method of killing had been found so he would be 'spared' a 'bloodbath'. He saw his subordinate's innovation as an 'improvement' - a method of murder that would cause less psychological damage to his men than killing by firing squad.

At Auschwitz-Birkenau, a new camp being built two miles away from the main camp, Höss oversaw the conversion of two cottages into makeshift gas chambers. By 1943, a total of four purpose-built crematoria with attached gas chambers had been completed. These killing installations would eventually contribute to the physical destruction of one million, one hundred thousand people, a million of whom were Jews.

Höss's long career in concentration camps prepared him step-by-step for the moment when the gassings began at Auschwitz, thereby allowing him carry on, calmly and faithfully, organising the killing. He was never faced with one sudden, stark command that he should commit mass murder.

But Höss was no mere 'robot', blindly following orders. He was an active innovator in the way he organised the killing process. On a number of occasions he even felt able to criticise his boss, Heinrich Himmler. Höss knew he never needed to fear terrible retribution if he criticised an order because, strange as it may seem, the Nazi leadership allowed functionaries lower down the chain of command openly to use their initiative and voice their views. He believed wholeheartedly in the overall Nazi vision, and this meant he felt free to question the details of its implementation.

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Justifying atrocity

Höss was behaving in a similar manner to many former Nazis who, unlike him (Höss was executed in 1947), survived to be integrated back into post-war German society. But there is something about the mentality of the Nazis that seems at odds with the perpetrators who flourished in many other totalitarian regimes. I have met and questioned perpetrators from all three of the major totalitarian powers - Germany, Japan and the Soviet Union. Having done so I can confirm that the Nazi war criminals I met were different.

In the Soviet Union the climate of fear under Stalin was pervasive in a way it never was in Germany under Hitler until the last days of the war. Such was Stalin's malevolence that no one was safe from the knock at the door at midnight. But in Nazi Germany, unless you were a member of a specific risk group - like the Jews, the Communists, the 'Gypsies', homosexuals, the 'work-shy' - you could live comparatively free from fear. The central truth still holds that the majority of the German population - almost certainly right up until the moment Germany started to lose the war - felt so personally secure and happy that they would have voted to keep Hitler in power if there had been free and fair elections.

The mentality of the Nazis seems at odds with the perpetrators who flourished elsewhere.

Such was the intense insecurity of those who perpetrated crimes at Stalin's behest that they often didn't know the reasons for the suffering they inflicted. The former Soviet secret policeman I met who bundled Kalmyks into exile in Siberia had committed a crime because he was told to, and knew that if he didn't then he would be shot, so he trusted that his bosses knew what they were doing. He said he had been 'acting under orders' - the justification so commonly ascribed to Nazis. When Stalin died, the policeman was free to move on and leave the past behind.

Then there were the Japanese war criminals who committed some of the most appalling atrocities in modern history. In China, Japanese soldiers split open the stomachs of pregnant women and bayoneted the foetuses. They tied up and used local farmers for target practice. They tortured thousands of innocent people in ways that rival the Gestapo at their worst. And they were pursuing deadly medical experiments long before Josef Mengele at Auschwitz.

The Japanese soldiers of World War Two had grown up in an intensely militaristic society; had been subjected to military training of the most brutal sort; had been told since they were children to worship their Emperor (who was also their commander in chief); and lived in a culture that elevated the desire for conformity into a semi-religion.

This is encapsulated by the veteran I met who, when asked to take part in the gang rape of a Chinese woman, saw it less as a sexual act and more as a sign of final acceptance by the group, many of whom had previously bullied him mercilessly. Like the Soviet secret policeman, many Japanese veterans attempted to justify their actions almost exclusively by reference to an external source - the regime itself.

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No remorse

Something different appears in the minds of many Nazi war criminals. Not just Rudolf Höss, but also members of Nazi killing squads who shot Jews in the Soviet Union. Even today, many of those I have interviewed are not sorry for what they did. Indeed they almost appear proud of their actions.

The easy course would be to hide behind 'acting under orders' or 'brainwashed by propaganda' excuses, but such is the strength of their own internal conviction that they don't. It is a loathsome, despicable position - but nonetheless an intriguing one.

Many of those I have interviewed are not sorry for what they did.

Contemporary evidence shows that this frame of mind is not unique. At Auschwitz, for example, there is not one recorded case of an SS man being prosecuted for refusing to take part in the killings. On the contrary, the real discipline problem in the camp - from the point of view of the SS leadership - was theft. There were even suspicions that Höss himself was personally profiting from the murders.

The SS at the camp thus appear to have agreed with the Nazi leadership that it was right to kill the Jews, but disagreed with Himmler's policy of not letting them individually enrich themselves from the crime. The penalties for an SS man caught stealing could be draconian - almost certainly worse than for simply refusing to kill.

Men like Rudolf Höss and many of his SS colleagues were not automatons, mindlessly responding to the commands of their masters. Their role is at once more complex and more troubling, for it reveals that one of the worst crimes in the history of the world was committed - to a large part - not by those touched with obvious lunacy like Amon Goeth, but by human beings who calmly and coldly thought through their actions, and then made possible the murder of millions.

That knowledge alone makes this a history that should be studied now and in the future, and is a warning for us and for those who will come after.

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Find out more

Books

Final Solution: Origins and Implementation edited by David Cesarani (Routledge, 1997)

The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War by Martin Gilbert (Henry Holt, 1987)

The Nazis: A Warning from History by Laurence Rees (New Press, 1999)

The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945 by Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wippermann (Cambridge University Press, 1991)

The Path to Genocide: Essays on Launching the Final Solution by Christopher R Browning (Cambridge University Press, 1995)

The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy September 1939-March 1942 by Christopher Browning (William Heinemann, 2004)

Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution' by Laurence Rees (BBC Books , 2005)

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About the author

Laurence Rees, writer and producer of the six part BBC/PBS series 'World War Two Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis and the West' is an award winning historian of World War Two and the Third Reich. His previous book 'Auschwitz: The Nazis and the ''Final Solution'' won the British Book Award for History Book of the Year in 2006 and the television series of the same name won him a Grierson Documentary Award. He has written five other history books including, 'Nazis: A Warning from History', 'War of the Century', 'Horror in the East' and 'Their Darkest Hour'. 'Nazis a Warning from History', 'War of the Century' and 'Horror in the East' were also successful television documentary series - all written and produced by Laurence Rees.

The German Demjanjuk

Witness in War Crimes Trial Could Face Indictment

By Georg Bönisch and Jan Friedmann

Heimatmuseum in Tomaszow Lubelski

Platoon member Samuel K. (third from right, holding a musical instrument) in the Belzec concentration camp. "We all realized that the Jews were exterminated and later also burned there," K. has said.

Samuel K. is expected to testify in the upcoming Nazi war crimes trial against 89-year-old John Demjanjuk. The witness himself has admitted in the past that he had aided the SS in its murderous practices. He has never been forced to answer before a court despite being "strongly suspected" of aiding and abetting the murder of 434,000 people.

Samuel K. is nearly 89 years old, hard of hearing and has a pacemaker. Taking this into consideration, two investigators from the Bavarian State Office of Criminal Investigation decided to question the witness at home. They visited K. in his attractive little house near Bonn, which has a view of the Drachenfels mountain on the other side of the Rhine River.

The old man spoke openly. Yes, he said, he had been recruited by the SS and trained at the Trawniki camp, east of the Polish city of Lublin. Yes, he admitted, he had served at the Belzec camp, also located on Polish territory. He said that nobody had any doubts about what happened there. "We all realized that the Jews were exterminated and later also burned there. We could even smell that every day."

The meeting, which took place in June, lasted roughly an hour. Samuel K. has since been subpoenaed to repeat his testimony in the spectacular trial of the alleged concentration camp guard John Demjanjuk, who is also 89 years old.

According to the indictment prepared by the Munich public prosecutor's office, in 1943 Demjanjuk was an accessory to the murder of at least 27,900 Jews in Sobibor, an extermination camp like Belzec. The trial is scheduled to begin on Nov. 30, with over 30 co-plaintiffs. Two weeks ago, Germany's Constitutional Court rejected Demjanjuk's final appeal against the opening of the proceedings.

Casting a Pall on the Proceedings

This paves the way for two men to meet in the Munich regional court -- men who both allegedly bear a similar burden of guilt: They purportedly helped the SS to commit mass murder, Demjanjuk as a simple Wachmann, or armed auxiliary recruit, and K. toward the end of his career in the camps as a slightly higher ranking Zugwachmann, or platoon member. But while one is sitting in the dock, the other will be called to take the witness stand.

The contradiction casts a pall on these proceedings. The upcoming trial is making headlines around the world, but it also reveals how coincidences and inadequacies have characterized for decades -- and still characterize -- the prosecution of alleged Nazi war criminals in German courts.

The German justice system succeeded in having Demjanjuk extradited from the United States following a long and bitter legal dispute -- and he is to face charges in Germany despite the fact that he has already served several years in an Israeli prison in connection with his past. By contrast, Samuel K. was able to lead a quiet life in Germany for over 60 years, like many other Nazi henchmen.

This is rather surprising since K. has never attempted to hide from German authorities the fact that he had been recruited by the SS to aid in its murderous activities. His latest official statement is at least his fourth, and it was preceded by additional affidavits from the years 1969, 1975 and 1980.

A Murder Technique that Heralded the Holocaust

He recounted nightmarish practices. For example, K. said that he saw a truck loaded with what he presumed to be Jews who were "killed by feeding the exhaust fumes into a sealed compartment while driving" -- a murder technique that heralded the beginning of the Holocaust. "The corpses of the Jews gassed in the camp" were buried in pits, and later burned, he said, because people "could no longer stand the stench." K. said that he had "no interest" in speaking about this with SPIEGEL.

K. was part of a group of approximately 5,000 foreign helpers, primarily Ukrainians and ethnic Germans, who were trained by the Nazis at the Trawniki camp to aid in the mass murders in occupied Eastern Europe. Some of these men volunteered, while others were coerced into collaborating in the Holocaust.

K. is an ethnic German, born in Sichelberg on the Volga. He was captured as a member of the Red Army and placed in a German prisoner of war camp -- just like Demjanjuk. When the 20-year-old arrived in the camp in Chelm, Poland, conditions were atrocious, and many detainees came down with dysentery, he said. "Every day we had to stand by and watch as roughly 10 to 20 of our comrades were buried."

He volunteered for guard duty, K. told investigators, because this was his only chance to save his life. "We had no choice but to accept this offer."

Operation Reinhardt

After his training, he and men like Demjanjuk were given duties in camps established as part of Operation Reinhardt, the code name for a Nazi plan that cost the lives of approximately 1.75 million Jews. According to his SS identification card and other documents, Demjanjuk served from March to September 1943 in Sobibor. Samuel K., by his own accounts, worked in Belzec from New Year's Eve 1941/42 to the spring of 1943.

As the Red Army advanced, these so-called foreign units were transferred toward Germany along with other German military units. Records show that from the autumn of 1943 Demjanjuk was a guard at the Flossenbürg concentration camp in Bavaria, where he was later captured by the Americans. K. guarded Jewish labor battalions in Warsaw before he was dispatched with his unit to build field positions. He experienced the end of the war in Czechoslovakia.

Demjanjuk emigrated to the US in 1952 and K. acquired German citizenship and settled in the Rhineland. Both of them established new livelihoods for themselves, one as an autoworker in Ohio, the other as a low-ranking civil servant on the payroll of a German ministry.

It was only because Demjanjuk stated on his US immigration application that he had spent time at Sobibor that the Nazi hunters at the US Justice Department later took notice of him. This was followed by decades of legal wrangling over his extradition. Meanwhile, the German authorities left K. alone.

Samuel K. has never been a defendant in a case. In the initial years following World War II, German prosecutors were interested, at most, in pursuing the principal offenders -- and even they often got off scot-free. For instance, the trial of the commander of the Trawniki training camp, Karl Streibel, ended with an acquittal in Hamburg in 1976. And until a few years ago, German authorities agreed that subordinate foreign SS helpers should not be prosecuted.

Demjanjuk's trial appears to signal an extremely belated reversal in this policy by Germany's justice system, which is now sparing no effort to gain a conviction. The trial promises to be an exhausting and drawn-out affair. Due to the defendant's poor health, the proceedings will be limited to three hours per day. Observers expect that it will take at least a year before a judgment is handed down. The court has already scheduled 35 days of proceedings until May 2010.

Witness Has No Recollection of Demjanjuk

Demjanjuk doesn't have to worry about being directly incriminated by K.'s testimony because the witness has already said that he has no recollection of his former comrades from the war. K. was also unable to identify the defendant when the Criminal Investigations Department showed him a range of similar passport photos, one of them showing the young Demjanjuk.

On the other hand, it is Samuel K. who may have to fear the long overdue wrath of German prosecutors. For ages now, key information concerning his activities and whereabouts during World War II has been on record with the Central Office of the Judicial Authorities of the Federal States for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg, Germany. Nevertheless, it wasn't until the Demjanjuk trial that investigators took an avid interest in Samuel K.'s past. Now a preliminary investigation has been launched against him by the Nazi hunters in Ludwigsburg, and this may very well lead to an indictment, such as in the case of Demjanjuk.

The allegations are extremely grave. Investigators say that K. is "strongly suspected of aiding and abetting the horrific murder of at least 434,000 people."

Translated from the German by Paul Cohen

THE OVITZ FAMILY

THE OVITZ FAMILY - Nazi Experiments

Of all the trials and tribulations endured by those born unique, few equal the horrors chronicled by Elizabeth Ovitz as she and her siblings were tortured and experimented upon by the infamous Nazi “Angel of Death” Josef Mengele.

The Ovitz family were Transylvanian Jews. Their patriarch, Shimshon Isaac Ovitz, was a respected Rabbi and dwarf. The majority of his children, Elizabeth included, inherited his pseudoachondroplasia dwarfism and upon his sudden death his widow reasoned that the seven stunted Ovitz siblings could secure a financially sound career as a traveling music troupe. In relatively short order, the siblings formed the ‘Jazz Band of Lilliput’ and began touring Central Europe.

By 1942, despite the unstable status of Central Europe of the march of the Nazi army, the Ovitz family managed to continue touring by concealing their Jewish identities. Elizabeth was able to marry in May of that same year to a young theatre manager named Yoshko Moskovitz. The couple was forced to split just ten days after their marriage when Yoshko was drafted into a labour battalion. For another two years, the Ovitz family continued to tour, unfortunately they were in Hungary in March of 1944 when German troops occupied the country. On May 17 the Ovitz family was captured, loaded into a boxcar and sent off to Auschwitz.

Elizabeth recalled the first time she set eyes on Dr. Mengele as he stood on the platform dividing the new arrivals into those to be executed immediately and those who were to suffer the camp incarceration. Mengele was a deceptively handsome man and his eyes lit up when he saw the tiny Ovitz family. Mengele had previously tortured, experimented upon and dissected dozens of twin siblings for no reason other than to document the similarities of their internal organs and in the Ovitz family Mengele saw the ultimate test subjects. In fact, Elizabeth quoted Mengele as enthusiastically declaring: ‘Now I will have work for the next twenty years; now science will have an interesting subject to consider.’

At Auschwitz Elizabeth and her family were segregated and subjected to all manner of frenetic experimentation. As Elizabeth would write:

‘The most frightful experiments of all were the gynaecological experiments. They tied us to the table and the systematic torture began. They injected things into our uterus, extracted blood, dug into us, pierced us and removed samples. It is impossible to put into words the intolerable pain that we suffered, which continued for many days after the experiments ceased.’

The gynaecological experimentation was so severe that even the doctors assisting the procedures eventually refused to continue out of pity, whilst citing the very real possibility that the family would not be able to survive further invasive procedure. Mengele relented as he did not want to risk the lives of his favourite lab rats. Instead, he concocted and implemented new sadistic experiments.

‘They extracted fluid from our spinal. The hair extraction began again and when we were ready to collapse, they began painful tests on the brain, nose, mouth, and hand region. All stages were fully documented with illustrations. It may be noted, ironically, that we were among the only ones in the world whose torture was premeditated and ‘scientifically’ documented for the sake of future generations.”

In addition, Mengele’s physicians also painfully extracted bone marrow and pulled out teeth to find signs of hereditary disease and blinded members of the family with chemical drops.

Not content to keep his prized subject hidden within the confines of his laboratory, Mengele displayed the Ovitz family, striped nude, to groups of senior Nazis while lecturing on their inferior genetics. He also created a film for Adolf Hitler’s amusement staring the Ovitz family. The Ovitz family sang German songs when ordered to do so out of terror. Shortly before the request they had witnessed two newcomer dwarfs being killed and boiled so their bones could be exhibited in a Nazi museum.

All told, the Ovitz family endured seven month under the torturous hand of Mengele.

Auschwitz was liberated on January 27, 1945. Elizabeth and her family were rescued by Soviet troops from what was likely certain death. Just two days previous to the liberation, Mengele approached Elizabeth with a collection of glass eyes and attempted to match her shade.

During the following four years the family toured the wreckage of Eastern and Central Europe. They choreographed and performed a new routine in remembrance of their experience. Each night Elizabeth, partnered by one of her brothers, would dance the part of Life to his Death in what they called the Totentanz.

In 1949 the family emigrated to Israel and Elizabeth died in Haifa in 1992.

Josef Mengele was never captured or tried for his crimes. He died on a beach in Brazil in 1979.

POLAND ON THE EVE OF THE HOLOCAUST

NEIGHBOURS ON THE EVE OF THE HOLOCAUST POLISH-JEWISH RELATIONS IN SOVIET-OCCUPIED EASTERN POLAND, 1939-1941 Mark Paul • Foreword • Arrests, Executions, and Deportations • Jews Greet the Soviet Invaders • Fifth Columnists and Armed Rebellions • The Fate of Polish Officers and Soldiers • The Targeting of Polish Officials and Civilians • Anti-Polish and Anti-Christian Agitation, Vandalism, and Looting • A Few Short Weeks was All that was Needed to Leave a Mark • Smooth Transition • Positions of Authority and Privilege • Collaborators and Informers • Victims of Choice • Atmosphere of Fanaticism • Civilian Deportations • Holocaust Historiography • Summation • A Belated, but Reluctant Awareness • Bibliography Copyright © Mark Paul and The Polish Educational Foundation in North America

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LITTLE LEYSON

A story to bear witness to goodness ..

Schindler's List - the sheet of paper, a photocopy, is folded and faded. The original meant the difference between life and death for those fortunate to have their names on it more than 60 years ago. To more than 1200 Jewish people Oscar Schindler was all that stood between them and death at the hands of the Nazis. A man all too human, full of flaws like the rest of us. The unlikeliest of all role models - a Nazi, a womanisor, a war profiteer. An ordinary man who answered the call of conscience. Even in the worst of circumstances Oscar Schindler did extraordinary things, matched by no one. He remained true to his Jews, the workers he referred to as my children. He kept the SS out and everyone alive. Leib Lejzon was one of them. One column of numbers and names, No. 69128, Eisendrehergeh., it says in German next to his name. The Schindler Jews Leib Lejzon - today Leon Leyson - was 13 years old when his father brought him into Oscar Schindler’s enamelware factory DEF. He was the youngest survivor of Schindler's List. After World War 2, Leon Leyson spent three years in a displaced persons camp near Frankfurt Am Main in Germany. He came to the U.S. in 1949 and served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Afterward, he attended Los Angeles City College and Los Angeles State College and became a teacher. He taught industrial arts at Huntington Park High School for 39 years and is now retired. Leon Leyson is a member of the Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education Advisory Board at Chapman University and he has told his story to school groups, universities and community organizations hundreds of times across California and the nation - drawing record crowds and rave reviews. He is married to Liz, and has two children, Stacy and Daniel Tsalig. And three grandchildren. In 2004, Leon Leyson inspired a little 12-year-old girl, Christine McNab, Grade 7 Lakeside Middle School, to write an essay on Oscar Schindler - and in May, 2004, The Chapman University in Orange honored Christine as a local winner of its fifth annual Holocaust Art and Writing Contest. Christine ended her essay: "We all have the choice to do the right thing or the wrong thing, to be brave or to look the other way. Therefore, I want each of us to think about the following words and place them in our hearts: I will be a person of conscience and courage. I will know what is right and what is wrong. I will have the bravery to stand up for what is right. And by combining these qualities, I know that I can and will make a difference in the world." And in May that same year, Leon Leyson met with U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, who later said: "Mr. Leyson is a living example of the good in human nature as exemplified by Oscar Schindler. But his story is also a bitter reminder that we should never forget the evil that took the lives of six million of his fellow Jews. Mr. Leyson's work today to educate our children about the Holocaust is a service to humanity. We must never forget. Never again." Leon Leyson He was born on September 15, 1929, in Narewka, a peaceful town 150 miles northeast of Warsaw. Here Moshe and Chana Lejzon led a happy life, highlighted by the births of their five children, Hershel, Tsalig, Pesza, David and Lejb. The Lejzon family's feelings of security collapsed, however, when in 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and the brutality of the Nazis accelerated with murder, violence and terror - the family was herded into Kracow's Jewish Ghetto. In 1941 Hershel, the oldest, fled Kracow but was killed by the Nazis in a massacre in Narewka. By then, Moshe and David were working for Oscar Schindler at his enameled-goods factory Emalia, Deutsch Emailwaren Fabrik, close to the Jewish ghetto. But slowly the seeds of the Nazi's plan for the total extermination of the Jews dawned on Oscar Schindler in all its horror - he came to see the Jews not only as cheap labor, but also as mothers, fathers, and children, exposed to ruthless slaughter. He decided to risk everything in desperate attempts to protect his Jews from certain death in the death camps. Thanks to massive bribery and his connections, he got away with increasing his Jewish workforce - and the Lejzon family were reunited at the Schindler factory.

During World War 2 Oscar Schindler continually risked his life to protect and save his Jewish workers. He spent every penny he had bribing and paying off the Nazis to get food and better treatment for his Jews. Nobody was hit at his factory, nobody murdered, nobody sent to death camps like the nearby Auschwitz. Oscar Schindler earned the everlasting gratitude of his Schindlerjews. No matter why, no matter that he was an alcoholic and a womanisor of the worst sort - what matters to his Jews is that he surfaced from the chaos of madness and risked everything for them. And generations will remember him for what he did. No matter how many businesses Schindler failed in, he was a success in life ..

THE AUSCHWITZ PROTOCOL

The Auschwitz Protocol

The Vrba-Wetzler Report

[Transcribed from the original O.S.I report of the US Department of Justice & the War Refugee Board Archives]

(Photos added to enhance the text)

Rudolf Vrba

Alfred Wetzler

I. AUSCHWITZ AND BIRKENAU

ON THE 13TH April, 1942 our group, consisting of 1,000 men, was loaded into railroad cars at the assembly camp of SERED. The doors were shut so that nothing would reveal the direction of the journey, and when they were opened after a long while we realized that we had crossed the Slovak frontier and were in ZWARDON.

The train had until then been guarded by Hlinka men, but was now taken over by SS guards. After a few of the cars had been uncoupled from our convoy, we continued on our way arriving at night at AUSCHWITZ, where we stopped on a sidetrack.

Actual page from the German version of the Vrba-Wetzler report

The reason the other cars were left behind was appar­ently the lack of room at AUSCHWITZ. They joined us, how­ever, a few days later. Upon arrival we were placed in rows of five and counted. There were 643 of us. After a walk of about 20 minutes with our heavy packs (we had left Slovakia well equipped), we reached the concentration camp of AUSCHWITZ.

We were at once led into a huge barrack where on the one side we had to deposit all our luggage and on the other side completely undress and

valuables behind. Naked, we then proceeded to an adjoining barrack where our heads and bodies were shaved and disinfected with Lysol. At the exit every man was given a number which began with 28,600 in consecutive order

With this number in hand we were then herded to a third barrack where so-called registration took place. This consisted of tattooing the numbers we had received in the second barrack on the left side of our chests. The extreme brutality with which this was effected made many of us faint. The particulars of our identity were" also recorded.

Then we were put in groups of a hundred into a cellar, and later to a barrack W here we were issued striped prisoners' clothes and wooden dogs. This lasted until 10 a.m. In the afternoon our prisoners' outfits were taken away from us again and replaced by the ragged and dirty remains of Russian uniforms. Thus equipped we were marched off to BIRKENAU.

AUSCHWITZ is a concentration camp for political prisoners under so-called "protective custody." At the time of my arrival, that is in April of 1942, there were about 15,000 prisoners in the :amp, the majority of whom were Poles, Germans, and civilian Russians under protective custody. A small number of prisoners came under the categories of criminals and "work-shirkers."

AUSCHWITZ camp headquarters controls at the same time the work camp of BIRKENAU as well as the farm labor camp of HARMENSE. All the prisoners arrive first at AUSCHWITZ where they are provided with prisoners' matriculation numbers and then are either kept there, sent to BIRKENAU or, in very small numbers, to HARMENSE.

The prisoners receive consecutive numbers upon arrival. Every number is only used once so that the last number always corresponds to the number of prisoners actually in the camp. At the time of our escape, that is to say at the beginning of April, 1944, the number had risen up to 180,000. At the outset the numbers were tattooed on the left breast, but later, due to their becoming blurred, on the left forearm.

All prisoners, irrespective of category or nationality, are treated the same. However, to facilitate identification, they are distinguished by various colored triangles sewed on the cloth­ing on the left breast under the matriculation number. The first letter indicates the nationality of the prisoner.

This letter (for instance "P" for Poles) appears in the middle of the triangle. The colored triangles have the following meaning:

red triangle -political prisoners under protective custody green triangle -professional criminals black triangle -"dodgers" (labor slackers), "anti-socials" (mostly Russians) pink triangle -homosexuals violet triangle -members of the religious sect of "Bibelforscher"

The Jewish prisoners differ from the Aryan prisoners in that their triangle (which in the majority of cases is red) is turned into a David's star by adding yellow points.

Within the enclosure of the camp of AUSCHWITZ there are several factories: a war production plant, Deutscher Aufrustungswerk (DAW), a factory belonging to the KRUPP works and one to the SIEMENS concern. Outside the boundary of the camp is a tremendous plant covering several square kilometers named "BUNA." The prisoners work in all the aforementioned factories.

The prisoners' actual living quarters, if such a term may at all be used, inside the camp proper cover an area of approximately 500 by 300 meters surrounded by a double row of concrete posts about 3 meters high which are connected (both inside and outside) with one another by a dense netting of high-tension wires fixed into the posts by insulators. Between these two rows of posts, at intervals of 150 meters, there are 5 meters high watchtowers, equipped with machine guns and searchlights.

Section of electrified fence at Auschwitz - Birkenau

In front of the inner high-tension circle there is further an ordinary wire fence. Merely touching this fence is answered by a stream of bullets from the watchtowers. This system is called "the small or inner chain of sentry posts." The camp itself is composed 0 three rows of houses. Between the first and second row is the camp street, and between the second and third there used to low a wall.

The Jewish girls deported from Slovakia in March nod April, 1942, over 7,000 of them, lived in the house separated by this wall up to the middle of August, 1942. After these girls had been removed to BIRKENAU, the wall between the second and and third row of houses was removed.

The camp entry road cuts across the row of houses, while over the entrance gate, which is of course always heavily guarded, stands the ironic inscription: "Work brings freedom." At a radius of some 2,000 meters the whole camp is encircled by a second line called "the big or outer chain of sentry posts" also with watchtowers every 150 meters. Between the inner and outer chain of sentry posts are the factories and other workshops.

The towers of the inner chain are only manned at night when the high-tension current is switched into the double row of wires. During daytime the garrison of the inner chain of sentry posts is withdrawn, and the men take up duty in the outer chain. Escape through these sentry posts-and many attempts have been made is practically impossible.

Getting through the inner circle of posts at night is completely impossible, and the towers of the outer chain are so close to one another (one every 150 meters, i.e., giving each tower a sector with a 75-meter radius to watch) that approaching unnoticed is out of the question. The guards shoot without warning. The garrison of the outer chain is withdrawn at twilight, but only after it has been ascertained that all the prisoners are within the inner circle. If the roll call reveals that a prisoner is missing, sirens immediately sound the alarm.

The men in the outer chain remain in their towers on the lookout, the inner chain is manned, and a systematic search is begun by hundreds of 55 guards and bloodhounds. The siren rings the whole surrounding countryside to a state of alarm, so that if by miracle the escapee has been successful in getting through the outer chain he is nearly certain to be caught by one of the numerous German -police and SS patrols.

The deportation of Slovak Jews

The escapee is furthermore handicapped by his clean-shaven head, his striped prisoner's outfit or red patches sewn on his clothing, and the passiveness of the thoroughly intimidated inhabitants.

The mere fact of neglecting to give information on the whereabouts of a prisoner, not to speak of extending help, is punished by death.

Provided that the prisoner has not been caught sooner, the garrison of the outer chain of sentry posts remains on the watch for three days and nights after which delay it is presumed that the escapee has succeeded in breaking through the double circle. The following night the outer guard is withdrawn.

If the escapee is caught alive, he is hanged in the presence of the whole camp; but if he is found dead, his body wherever it may have been located-is brought back to camp (it is easy to identify the corpse by means of the tattooed number) and seated at the entrance gate, a small notice clasped in his hands, reading: "Here I am."

During our two years' imprisonment many attempts to escape were made by prisoners but, with the exception of two or three, all were brought back dead or alive. It is not known whether the two or three escapees who were not caught actually managed to get away. It can, however, be asserted that among the Jews who were deported from SLOVAKIA to AUSCHWITZ or BIRKENAU we are the only two who were lucky enough to save ourselves.

As stated previously, we were transferred from AUSCHWITZ'' to BIRKENAU on the day of our arrival. Actually there is no such district as BIRKENAU. Even the word BIRKENAU is new in that it has been "adopted" from the nearby Birch Forest (BRZEZINSKI). The district now called BIRKENAU was, and is still, called "RAJSKA" by the local population.

The existing camp center of BIRKENAU lies 4 kilometers distant from AUSCHWITZ. The outer control zones of both BIRKENAU and AUSCHWITZ meet and are merely separated by a railway track. We never found anything out about NEW BERUN, probably about 30 to 40 kilometers away which, odd I enough, we had to indicate as postal district for BIRKENAU,

At the time of our arrival in BIRKENAU we found there one huge kitchen for 15,000 people and three stone building, two of which were completed and one under construction. The buildings were surrounded by an ordinary barbed wire fence ( The prisoners were housed in these buildings and in others later constructed.

All are built according to a standard model: A house is about 30 meters long and 8 to 10 meters wide. Whereas the height of the walls hardly exceeds 2 meters, the roof is disproportionately high-about 5 meters-so that the house gives the impression of a stable surmounted by a large hayloft.

An aerial reconnaissance photograph of the Auschwitz concentration camp showing Auschwitz 1

There is no inner ceiling, so that the room reaches a height of 7 meters in the center; in other words the pointed roofing rests directly on the four walls. The room is divided in two by a partition running its whole length down the middle and fitted with opening to enable communication between the two parts thus separated.

Along both sidewalls, as well as along the middle partition, two parallel floors, some 80 centimeters apart, have been built which are in turn divided into small cells by vertical partitions.

Thus there are three floors: the ground floor and the two built in the sidewalls. Normally three people live in each cubicle. As can be judged from the dimensions indicated, these cubicles are too narrow for a man to lie stretched out and not high enough for him to sit upright.

There is no question of having enough space to stand upright. In this way 400 to 500 people are accommodated in one house or "block," as they are also called.

The present camp of BIRKENAU covers an area of some 1,600 by 500 meters which is surrounded-similar to AUSCHWITZ by a so-called small or inner chain of sentry posts. Work is now proceeding on a still larger compound which is to be added later (In to the already existing tamp. The purpose of this extensive planning is not known to us.

Within a radius of 2 kilometers, as with AUSCHWITZ, BIIRKENAU is also surrounded by an other chain of sentry posts with the same type of watch system as at AUSCHWITZ.

The buildings we found on our arrival had been erected by 12,000 Russian prisoners of war brought there in December, 1941. In severe winter weather they had to work under inhuman conditions as a result of which most of them, with the exception of a small number employed in the kitchen, died of exposure.

They were numbered from 1 to 12,000 in a series which had no connection with the ordinary camp numbering system previously described. Whenever fresh convoys of Russian prisoners arrived, they were not issued the current AUSCHWITZ prisoner numbers, but received those of deceased Russians in the 1 to 12,000 series.

It is, therefore, difficult to estimate how many prisoners of this category passed through the camp. Apparently Russians were transferred to AUSCHWITZ or BIRKENAU on disciplinary grounds from regular prisoners-of-war camps. We found what remained of the Russians in a terrible state of destitution and neglect living the unfinished building without the slightest protection against cold or rain. They died "en-masse". Hundreds and thousands of their bodies were buried superficially, spreading a stench of pestilence. Later we had to exhume the corpses and burn them.

SS men at the dedicaton of a new SS hospital in Auschwitz

A week before our arrival in AUSCHWITZ the first group of Jews reached the camp: (the women were dealt with separately and received numbers parallel to those of the men; the Slovak women received serial numbers from 1 to 8,000) 1,320 naturalized French Jews from Paris. They were numbered from 27,500 onwards.

It is clear, therefore, that between this French group and our convoy no other men arrived in AUSCHWITZ, since we have already pointed out that our numbers started with 28,600. We found the 700 French Jews who were still alive in terrible condition, the missing 600 having died within a week after their arrival.

The following categories were housed in the three completed buildings:

I. The so-called "prominencia": professional criminals and older Polish political prisoners who were in charge of the administration of the camp.

II. The remainder of the French Jews, namely some 700. III. The 643 original Slovak Jews to whom were added a few days later those who had been left at ZWARDON.

IV. Those Russians who were still alive and housed in the unfinished building as well as in the open air and whose numbers diminished so rapidly that as a group they are scarcely worth mentioning.

Together with the remaining Russian prisoners the Slovak Jews worked at the construction of buildings, whereas the French Jews had to do spade work. After three days I was ordered, together with 200 other Slovak Jews, to work in the German armament factories at AUSCHWITZ, but we continued to be housed in BIRKENAU. We left early in the morning returning at night and worked in the carpentry shop as well as 011 road construction. Our food consisted of one liter of turnip soup) at midday and 300 grams of bad bread in the evening.

Working conditions were inconceivably hard, so that the majority of III weakened by starvation and the inedible food, could not stand it. The mortality was so high that every day our group of 200 had 30 to 35 dead. Many were simply beaten to death by the overseers-the "Capos"-during work, without the slightest provocation.

The gaps in our ranks caused by these deaths were replaced daily by prisoners from BIRKENAU. Our return at night was extremely painful and dangerous, as we had to drag along over a distance of 5 kilometers our tools, firewood, heavy caldrons, and the bodies of those who had died or had been killed during the working day. With these heavy loads we were forced to maintain a brisk pace, and anyone incurring the displeasure of one of the "Capos" was cruelly knocked down, if not beaten to death.

A column of prisoners walks to or from a work assignment in Auschwitz

Until the arrival of the second group of Slovak men some 14 days later, our original number had dwindled to 150. At night we were counted, the bodies of the dead were piled up on flat, narrow-gauge cars or in a truck and brought to the Birch Forest (BRZEZINSKI) where they were burned in a trench several meters deep and about 15 meters long.

Every day on our way to work we met a working party of 300 Jewish girls from Slovakia who were employed on ground work in the vicinity. They were dressed in old Russian uniform rags and wore wooden clogs. Their heads were shaven and, unfortunately, we could not speak to them. Until the middle of May, 1942, a total of four convoys of male Jews from Slovakia arrived at BIRKENAU and all received similar treatment to ours.

From the first and second transports 120 men were chosen (including myself) and placed at the disposal of the administration of of the camp of AUSCHWITZ, which was in need of doctors, dentists, intellectuals, and clerks. This group consisted of 90 Slovak and 30 French Jews.

As I had in the meantime managed to work my way up to a good position in BIRKENAU -being in command of a group of 50 men, which had brought me a considerable advantage-I at first felt reluctant to leave for AUSCHWITZ. However, I was finally persuaded to go and left.

After eight days, 18 doctors and attendants as well as three further persons were selected from this group of 120 intellectuals. The doctors were used in the "sick building" or "hospital" at AUSCHWITZ, while we three were sent back to BIRKENAU.

My two comrade, Ladislav Braun from Trnava and Gross from Vrbove' , both of whom have since died, were sent to the Slovak block while I was ordered to the French section where we were employed collecting "personal data" and at "nursing" the sick. The remaining 99 prisoners were sent to work in the gravel pit where they all died within a short time.

...Part Two

The main gate at Auschwitz

Shortly thereafter a so-called "sick-building" (Krankenbau) was set up. It was destined to become the much dreaded "Block 7" where at first I was chief attendant and later administrator. The chief of this "infirmary" was a Pole. Actually this building was nothing else than an assembly center for death candidates. All prisoners incapable of working were sent there.

There was no question of any medical attention or care. We had some 150 dead daily and their bodies were sent for cremation to AUSCHWITZ. At the same time the so-called "selections" were introduced.

Twice weekly, Mondays and Thursdays, the camp doctor indi­cated the number of prisoners who were to be gassed and then burned. These" selections" were loaded into trucks and brought to the Birch Forest. Those still alive upon arrival were gassed in a big barrack erected near the trench used for burning the bodies.

The weekly "draft" in dead from "Block 7" was about 2,000, of whom 1,200 died of "natural death" and about 800 through "selection." For those who had not been "selected" a death certificate was issued and sent to the central administration at ORANIENBURG, whereas for the "selectees" a special register was kept with the indication "S.B." ("Sonderbehandelt" -special treatment).

Until January 15, 1943, up to which time I was administrator of "Block 7" and therefore in a position to directly observe happenings, some 50,000 prisoners died of "natural death" or by "selection,"

As previously described, the prisoners were numbered con­secutively so that we are able to reconstruct fairly dearly their order of succession and the fate which befell each separate con­voy on arrival.

The first male Jewish transport reaching AUSCHWITZ for BIRKENAU was composed, as mentioned, of 1,320 naturalized French Jews bearing approximately the following numbers:

27,400-28,600

28,600-29,600 In April, 1942 the first convoy of Slovak Jews (our convoy).

29,600-29,700 100 men (Aryans) from various concentration camps.

29,700-32,700 3 complete convoys of Slovak Jews

32,700-33,100 400 professional criminals (Aryans) from Warsaw prisons.

33,100-35,000 1,900 Jews from Cracow.

35,000-36,000 1,000 Poles (Aryans)-political prisoners.

36,000-37,300 In May, 1942-1,300 Slovak Jews from LUBLIN MAJDANEK.

37,300-37,900 600 Poles (Aryans) from RADOM, amongst them a few Jews

37,900-38,000 100 Poles from the concentration camp of DACHAU

38,000-38,400 400 French naturalized Jews who arrived with their families.

This whole convoy consisted of about 1,600 individuals of whom approximately 200 girls and 400 men were admitted to the camp, while the remaining 1,000 persons (women, old people, children as well as men) were sent without further procedure from the railroad siding directly to the Birch Forest, and there gassed and burned.

Rudolf Vrba's sketch of the Crematorium at Birkenau

From this moment on all Jewish convoys were dealt with in the same manner. Approximately 10 percent of the men and 5 percent of the women were allotted to the camps and the remaining members were immediately gassed.

This process of extermination had already been applied earlier to the Polish Jews. During long months, without interruption, trucks brought thousands of Jews from the various "ghettos" direct to the pit in the "Birkenwald."

38,400 - 39,200 800 naturalized French Jews, the remainder of the convoy was-as previously described, gassed.

39,200 - 40,000 800 Poles (Aryans), political prisoners. 150 Slovak Jews with their families.

40,000 - 40.150 Slovak Jews with their families. Outside of a group of 50 girls sent to the women's camp, all other members were gassed in the Birch forest. Among the 150 men who came to the camp, there was a certain "Zucker", and Sonneschein, Viliam, both from eastern Slovakia.

40,150 - 43,800 Approximately 4,000 French naturalized Jews, almost all were intellectuals; 1,000 women were

directed to the women's camp, while the balance of about 3,000 persons were gassed in the usual manner.

400 Slovak Jews from LUBLIN, including Matej Klein and No. 43820, Meiloch Laufer from Eastern Slovakia. This convoy arrived on June 30, 1942.

200 Slovak Jews. The convoy consisted of 1,000 persons. A number of women were sent to the women's camp, the rest gassed in the Birch Wood. Among the prisoners sent to camp were: Jozef Zelmanovic -Snina, Adolf Kahan -Bratislava, Walter Reichmann -Sucany, AND Esther Kahan from Bratislava.

2,000 Frenchmen (Aryans), communists and other political prisoners, among whom were the brother of Thorez and the young brother of Leon Blum. The latter was atrociously tor­tured, then gassed and burned.

500 Jews from Holland, in the majority German emigrants. The rest of the convoy, about 2,500 persons, gassed. About 300 so-called Russians under protective custody.

Sonderkommando engaged in open-air cremations

320 Jews from Slovakia. About 70 girls were transferred to the women's camp, the remainder, some 650 people, gassed in the Birch Wood. This convoy included about 80 people who had been handed over by the Hungarian police to the camp of SERED.

Others from this convoy were: Dr. Zoltan Mandel (since deceased)-Holz (Christian name unknown), butcher from Piestany, Miklos Engel, from Zilnia and Chaim Katz from Snina, (his wife and 6 children were gassed).

15,000 naturalized French, Belgian and Dutch Jews. This figure certainly represents less than 10 percent of the total convoy. This was between July 1 and September 15, 7942. Large family convoys arrived from various European countries and were at once directed to the Birch Wood.

The special squad ("Sonderkommando") employed for gassing and burning worked in day and night shifts. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were gassed during this period.

64,800-65,000

200 Slovak Jews. Out of this transport about 100 women were admitted to the camp, the rest of them gassed and burned. Among the newly arrived were: Ludwig Katz, Zilina-Avri Burger, Bratislava-Poprad (wife dead)­Mikulas Steiner, Povazska Bystrica-Juraj Fried, Trencin-Buchwald-Josef Rosenwasser, Eastern Slovakia-Julius Neuman, Bardejov-Sandor Wertheimer, Vrbove-Misi Wertheimer, Vrbove -Bela Blau, Zilina.

65,000-68,000

. Naturalized French, Belgian, and Dutch Jews. Not more than 1,000 women were "selected" and sent to the camp. The others, at the lowest estimate 30,000, were gassed.

71,000-80,000

Naturalized French, Belgian, and Dutch Jews. The prisoners brought to the camp hardly represent 10 percent of the total transport. A conservative estimate would be that approximately 65,000 to 70,000 persons were gassed.

On December 17, 1942, the 200 young Slovak Jews, the so-called "special squad" employed in gassing and burning the condemned, were in turn executed at BIRKENAU. They were executed for having planned to mutiny and escape. A Jew betrayed their preparations. This frightful job had to be taken over by a group of 200 Polish Jews who had just arrived at camp from MAKOW.

The men belonging to the "special squad" lived separately. On account of the dreadful smell spread by them, people had but little contact with. them. Besides they were always filthy, destitute, half wild and extraordinarily brutal and ruthless. It was not uncommon to see one of them. kill another. This was considered by the others a sensation, a change. One simply recorded that number so-and-so had died.

Once I was an eyewitness when a young Polish Jew named Jossel demonstrated "scientific" murder on a Jew in the presence of an SS guard. He used no weapon, merely his bare hands, to kill his victim.

No. 80,000 marks the beginning of the systematic extermination of the Polish ghettos.

80,000-85,000

Jews selected for special work details at Birkenau

Approximately 5,000 Jews from various ghet­tos in MLJAWA-MAKOW-ZICHENOW­LOMZA-GRODNO-BIALYSTOK. For fully 30 days truck-convoys arrived with­out interruption. Only 5,000 persons were sent to the concentration camp; all the others were gassed at once. The "special squad" worked in two shifts, 24 hours daily and was scarcely able to cope with the gassing and burning.

Without exaggerating it may be said that out of these convoys some 80,000 to 90,000 received "special treatment." These transports also brought in a considerable amount 01 money, valuables, and precious stones.

85,000-92,600
6,000 Jews from GRODNO, BIAL05TOK and CRACOW as well as 1,000 Aryan Poles. The majority of the Jewish convoys were directly gassed and daily about 4,000 Jews were driven into the gas chambers. During mid-January, 1943 three convoys of 2,000 persons, each from THERESIEN5TADT arrived.

They bore the designations "CU," "CR" and "R" (The meaning of these signs is unknown to us). These markings were also stamped on their luggage. Out of these 6,000 persons only 600 men and 300 women were admitted to the camp. The remainder were gassed.

99,000-100,000
End of January, 1943 large convoys of French and Dutch Jews arrived; only a small portion of them reached the camp.

100,000-102,000
In February, 1943, 2,000 Aryan Poles, mostly intellectuals.

102,000-103,000
700 Czech Aryans. Later those still alive were sent to BUCHENWALD.

103,000-108,000
3,000 French and Dutch Jews and 2,000 Poles (Aryans). During the month of February, 1943, two contingents arrived daily. They included Polish, French, and Dutch Jews, who in the main, were sent to the gas chambers. The number gassed during this month can well be estimated at 90,000.

At the end of February, 1943 a new modern crematorium and gassing plant was inaugurated at BIRKENAU. The gassing and burning of the bodies in the Birch Forest was discontinued, the whole job being taken over by the four specially built crematoria.

Jewish women & children wait in a clearing near the gas chambers at Birkenau

The large ditch was filled in, the ground leveled, and the ashes used as before for fertilizer at the farm labor camp of HERMENSE, so that today it is almost impossible to find trace of the dreadful mass murder which took place here.

At present there are four crematoria in operation at BIRKENAU, two large ones, I and II, and two smaller ones, III and IV. Those of type I and II consist of 3 parts, i.e.,: (A) the furnace room; (B) the large halls; and (C) the gas chamber. A huge chimney rises from the furnace room around which are grouped nine furnaces, each having four openings.

Each opening can take three normal corpses at once and after an hour and a half the bodies are completely burned. This corresponds to a daily capacity of about 2,000 bodies. Next to this is a large "reception hall" which is arranged so as to give the impression of the antechamber of a bathing establishment. It holds 2,000 people and apparently there is a similar waiting room of the floor below.

From there a door and a few steps lead down into the very long and narrow gas chamber. The walls of this chamber are also camouflaged with simulated entries to shower rooms in order to mislead the victims.

This roof is fitted with three traps which can be hermitically closed from the outside. A track leads from the gas chamber to the furnace room. The gassing takes place as follows:

The unfortunate victims are brought into hall where they are told to undress. To complete the fiction that they are going to bathe, each person receives a towel and a small piece of soap issued by two men clad in whites coats. They are then crowded into the gas chamber in such numbers there is, of course, only standing room.

To compress this crowd into the narrow space, shots are often fired to induce those already at the far end to huddle still closer together. When everybody is inside, the heavy doors are closed. Then there is a short pause, presumably to allow the room temperature to rise to a certain level, after which 55 men with gas masks climb on the roof, open the traps, and shake down a preparation in powder form out of tin cans labeled "CYCLONE" "For use against vermin," which is manufactured by a Hamburg concern.

It is presumed that this is a "CYANIDE" mixture of some sort which turns into gas at a certain temperature. After three minutes everyone in the chamber is dead. No one is known to have survived this ordeal, although it was not uncommon to discover signs of life after the primitive measures employed in the Birch Wood.

The chamber is then opened, aired, and the "special squad" carts the bodies on flat trucks to the furnace rooms where the burning takes place. Crematoria III and IV work on nearly the same principle, but their capacity is only half as large. Thus the total capacity of the four cremating and gassing plants at BIRKENAU amount's to about 6,000 daily.

Cyclone B canister and crystals

On principle only Jews are gassed; Aryans very seldom, as they are usually given "special treatment" by shooting. Before the crematoria were put into service, the shooting took place in the Birch Wood and the bodies were burned in the long trench; later, however, executions took place in the large hall of one of the crematoria which has been provided with a special installation for this purpose.

Prominent guests from BERLIN were present at the inauguration of the first crematorium in March, 1943. The "program" consisted of the gassing and burning of 8,000 Cracow Jews. The' guests, both officers and civilians, were extremely satisfied with the results and the special peephole fitted into the door of the gas chamber was in constant use. They were Lavish in their praise of this newly erected installation.

109,000-119,000

At the beginning of March, 1943, 45,000 Jews arrived form Salonika. 10,000 of them came to the camp, including a small percentage of women; some 30,000 however went straight to the cremating facility. Of the 10,000 nearly all died a short time later from a contagious illness resembling malaria. They also died of Typhus due to the general conditions prevailing in the camp.

Malaria among the Jews and typhus took such toll among the prisoners in general that the "selections" were temporarily suspended. The contaminated Greek Jews were ordered to pre­sent themselves and in spite of our repeated warnings many of them did. They were all killed by intra-cardial phenol injections administered by a lance-corporal of the medical corps.

Out of the 10,000 Greek Jews, some 1,000 men remained alive and were later sent, together with 500 other Jews, to do fortification work in Warsaw. A few weeks later several hundred came back in a pitiful state and were immediately gassed. The remainder presumably died in Warsaw.

SS guards walk the ramp at Birkenau

Four hundred Greek Jews suffering from malaria were sent for "further treatment" to LUBLIN after the phenol injections had been stopped, and it appears that they actually arrived. Their fate is not known to us, but it can be taken for granted that out of the original number of 10,000 Jews not one eventually remained in the camp.

Simultaneously with the stopping of the "selections" the murdering of prisoners was forbidden. Prominent murderers such as: the Reich German professional criminals Alexander Neumann, Zimmer, Albert Haemmerle, Rudi Osteringer, Rudi Bechert, and the political prisoners Alfred Kien and AloIs Stahler, were punished for repeated murder and had to make written declarations l that they had killed so and so many prisoners.

At the beginning of 1943 the political section of AUSCHWITZ, received 500,000 discharge certificates and we thought with ill concealed joy, that at least a few of us would be liberated. But the forms were simply filled out with the names of those gassed and filed away in the archives.

119,000-120,000

1,000 Poles (Aryans) from the PAWlAK prison in Warsaw.

120,000-123,000

3,000 Greek Jews, part of whom were sent to replace their comrades in Warsaw. The remainder quickly died off.

123,000-124,000

1,000 Poles (Aryans) from RADOM and TARNOW.

124,000-126,000

2,000 from mixed Aryan convoys.

In the meantime, ceaseless convoys of Polish and a few French and Belgian Jews arrived and, without exception, were dispatched to the gas chambers. Among them was a transport of 1,000 Polish Jews from MAJDANEK which included three Slovaks, one of whom was a certain Spira from Stropkow or Vranov.

A manufacturer's warning about the effects of Zyklon-B

The flow of convoys abruptly ceased at the end of July, 1943 and there was a short breathing space. The crematoria were thoroughly cleaned, the installations repaired and prepared for further use. On August 3 the killing machine again went into operation. The first convoys consisted of Jews from BENZBURG and SOSNOWITZ and others followed during the whole month of August.

132,000-136,000

Only 4,000 men and a very small number of women were brought to the camp. Over 35,000 were gassed. Of the aforementioned 4,000 men, many died as a result of bad treatment, hunger or illness; some were even murdered.

The responsibility for these tragedies lies with the criminal TYN (a Reich German) from the con­centration camp of SACHSENHAUSEN and the Polish political prisoner No. 8516, Mieczislav KATERZINSKI, from Warsaw.

The "selections" were introduced again and this time to a murderous extent, especially in the women's camp. The camp doctor, an SS "Hauptsturmfurhrer" and the son or nephew of the police president of Berlin (we forget his name) outdid all the others in brutality. The selection system has been continued ever since, until our escape.

137,000-138,000

At the end of August 1,000 Poles came from the PAWIAK prison and 80 Jews from Greece.

138,000-141,000

3,000 men from various Aryan Transports.

142,000-145,000

At the beginning of September, 1943 3,000 Jews arrived from Polish working camps and Russian prisoners of war.

148,000-152,000

During the week following September 7, 1943 family transports of Jews arrived from THERESIENSTADT. They enjoyed quite an exceptional status which was incomprehensible to us. The families were not separated and not a single one of them received the customary and "normal" gas treatment. Their heads were not even shaven, they were able to keep their luggage, and were lodged in a separate section of the camp, men, women and children together.

The men were not forced to work and a school was even set up for the children under the direction of Fredy HIRSCH (Makabi, Prague). They were allowed to correspond freely. The worst they had to undergo was mistreatment at the hands of their" camp eldest," a certain professional criminal by the name of Arno BOHM, prisoner NO.8. Our astonishment increased when we learned of the official indication given to this special treatment: "SB" -transport of Czech Jews with six months' quarantine.

SS guards direct new arrivals on ramp at Birkenau

We very well knew what "SB" meant ("Sonderbehandlung"), but could not understand the long period of six months' quarantine and the generally clement treatment this group received. The longest quarantine period we had witnessed so far was only three weeks. Towards the end of the six months period, however, we became convinced that the fate of these Jews would be the same as that of most of the others, -the gas chamber.

We tried to get in touch with the leader of the group and explain their lot and what they had to expect. Some of them declared (especially Fredy HIRSCH who seemed to enjoy the full-confidence of his companions) that if our fears took shape they would organize resistance.

Thus some of them hoped to instigate a general revolt in the camp. On March 6, 1944 we heard that the crematoria were being prepared to receive the Czech Jews.

I hastened to inform Fredy HIRSCH and begged him to take immediate actions as they had nothing to lose. He replied that he recognized his duty. Before nightfall I again crept over to the Czech camp where I learned that Fredy HIRSCH was dying; he had poisoned himself with luminol.

The next day, March 7, 1944, he was taken, unconscious, along with his 3,791 comrades who had arrived at BIRKENAU on September 7, 1943 on trucks, to the crematoria and gassed. The young people went to their death singing, but to our great disappointment nobody revolted. Some 500 elderly people had died during quarantine. Of all these Jews only 11 twins were left alive. They are being subjected to various medical tests at AUSCHWITZ, and when we left BIRKENAU they were still alive.

Among the gassed was Rozsi FURST, from SERED. A week before the gassing, that is to say on March I, 1944, everyone in the Czech group in the camp had been asked to inform his relatives about his well-being. The letters had to be dated March 23 to 25, 1944 and they were requested to ask for food parcels.

153,000-154,000

1,000 Polish Aryans from Pawiak Prison.

153,000-159,000

During October and November, 1943,4,000 persons from various prisons and smaller transports of Jews from BENZBURG and vicinity, who had been driven out of their hiding places; also a group of Russians under protective custody from the MINSK and VITEBESK regions. Some more Russian prisoners of war arrived and, as stated, they as usual received numbers between 1 and 12,000.

160,000-165,000

In December, 1943, 5,000 men originating from Dutch, French, Belgian transports and for the first time, Italian Jews from FIUME, TRIESTE and ROME. Of these at least 30,000 were immediately gassed. The mortality among these Jews was very high and, in addition, the "selection" system was still decimating all ranks. The bestiality of the whole procedure reached its culminating point between January 10 and 24, 1944 when even young and healthy persons irrespective of profession or working classification-with the exception of doctors-were ruthlessly "selected."

Schwarzhuber

Every single prisoner was called up, a strict control was established to see that all were present, and the "selection" proceeded under the supervision of the same camp doctor (son or nephew of the Police President of Berlin) and of the Commandant of BIRKENAU, SS "Untersturmfurhrer" SCHWARZHUBER. The "infirmary" had in the meantime been trans­ferred from "Block 7" to a separate section of the camp where conditions had become quite bearable. Its inmates, nevertheless, were gassed to the last man. Apart from this group this general action cost some 2,500 men and over 6,000 women their lives.

165,000-168,000

On December 20, 1943 a further group of 3,000 Jews arrived from THERESIENSTADT. The convoy was listed under the same category as the one which had reached the camp on September 7, i.e., "SB"-transport, Czech Jews with six months' quarantine. On their arrival, men, women and children all joined the September group. They enjoyed the same privileges as their predecessors. Twenty-four hours before the gassing of the first group took place, the latest arrivals were separated from the rest and placed in another part of the camp where they still are at present. Their quarantine ends on June 20, 1944.

169,000-170,000

1,000 people in small groups, Jews, Poles, and some Russians and a small number of Yugoslavs.

170,000-171,000

1,000 Poles, Russians and some more Yugoslavs.

171,000-174,000

At the end of February and beginning of March, 3,000 Jews from Holland, Belgium, and for the first time long-established French Jews (not naturalized) from VICHY, in France. The greater part of this transport was gassed immediately upon arrival.

Small groups of BENZBURGER and SOSNOWITZER Jews, who had been dragged from hiding, arrived in the middle of March. One of them told me that many Polish Jews were cross­ing over to Slovakia and from there to Hungary and that the Slovak Jews helped them on their way through.

After the gassing of the THERESIENSTADT transport there were no further arrivals until March 15, 1944. The effective strength of the camp rapidly diminished and men of later incoming transports, especially Dutch Jews, were directed to the camp. When we left on April 7, 1944 we heard that large convoys of Greek Jews were expected.

Continued in [Part III]

...Part III

View of the quarantine camp section 2b

The camp of BIRKENAU consists of three building areas. At present only sections I and II are guarded by the inner chain of sentry posts, whereas section III is still under construction and uninhabited.

At the time of our departure from the camp (the beginning of April, 1944), the following categories of prisoners were in BIRKENAU:

SECTION I (Women's Concentration Camp)

Slav. Jews Other Jews Aryans

1a and 1b app.300 app. 7,000 app.6,OOO

Remarks :

In addition to the 300 Slovak Jewish girls, app. 100 are employed in the administration building of AUSCHWITZ

SECTION II (Men's Concentration Camp)

Slav. Jews Other Jews Aryans

2a quarantine camp 2 app.200 app.800

Remarks :

One of the two Slovak Jews is Dr. Andreas MULLER from Podolinec (Block Eldest).

Slav. Jews Other Jews Aryans

2b Jews from THERESIENSTADT - app. 3,500 With a six month quarantine.

2c -presently uninhabited.

2d "Stammlager" 58 app 4,000 app 6,000

The Gypsy Camp -app 4,500 This is the reminder of some 16,000 gypsies. They are not used for work and die off rapidly.

No. 36,832 Walter SPITZER, block eldest from NEMSOVA, came to LUBLIN from BIRKENAU.

No. 29,867 Jozef NEUMANN, ("overseer" of the "corpse crew") from SNINA.

No. 44,989 Josef ZELMANOVIC, "staff" from SNINA. - Cham KATZ, "staff" from SNINA.

No. 33,049 Ludwig SOLMANN, "clerk" from KESMAREK.

No. 32,407 Ludwig EISENSTADTER, tattooist from KREMPACHY.

View of the "Family camp" where the Jews from Theresienstadt were held

The internal administration of the camp of BIRKENAU is run by specially selected prisoners. The "blocks" are not inhabited according to nationalities but rather according to working categories. Each block is supervised by a staff of five, i.e., a block eldest, a block recorder, a male nurse, and two attendants.

The block eldest

He wears an arm band with the number of his block, and is responsible for order there. He has power over life and death. Until February, 1944, nearly 50 percent of the block eldest's were Jews but this was stopped by an order of BERLIN. They all had o resign with the exception of three Jews who, in spite of this order, were able to keep their posts.

The block recorder

He is the block eldest's right-hand, does all the clerical work keeping the index cards and records. His work is of great responsibility and he has to keep his ledgers with painful exactitude as the index cards only indicate the number and not the name of the prisoners; errors are fatal. For instance, if the recorder has noted down a death by mistake and this often occurs with the unusually high mortality the discrepancy is simply straightened out by killing the bearer of the corresponding number. Corrections are not admitted. The block recorder occupies a key post which is often misused.

Nursing and "room" duties

They consist in keeping the inside of the barracks clean and carrying out small manual jobs in and around the block. Of course there is no question of really taking care of the sick. The camp eldest supervised the whole camp; he is also a prisoner. This post is at present held by:

Franz DANISCH, No. 11,182 a political prisoner, from KONIG-SHUTTE, Upper Silesia. He is undisputed master of the whole camp and has power to nominate or dismiss block eldest's and block recorders, hand out jobs, etc.

Rudolf Vrba's sketch of Auschwitz - Birkenau camp and surrounding districts

Further we have a "chief recorder" whose position is undoubtedly one of the most powerful in the camp. He is in direct contact with camp headquarters, receiving their orders and reporting on all matters. All camp recorders are directly subordinated to him and have to submit all their reports to him. The chief recorder of BIRKENAU is;

Kasimir GORK, No. 31,029, a Pole from WARSAW, a former bank clerk. The supreme control over the blocks lies in the hands of six to eight "block leaders," all SS men. Every night they hold roll call, the result of which is communicated to:

The Camp Leader, "Untersturmfurhrer" SCHWARZHUBER, from the Tyrol. This individual is an alcoholic and a sadist. Over him is the camp commander who also controls AUSCHWITZ where there is a second subordinate camp leader. The camp commander's name is; HOESS.

The Chief of the work squad or group is called the "Capo". During work the "Capo" has full authority over his group of prisoners and not infrequently one of these "Capo's" kills a man working under him, In larger squads there may be several "Capo's" who are then under the orders of a "Capo-in-chief."

At first there were many Jewish "Capos," but an order from BERLIN prohibited their being employed. Supreme control over work is carried out by German specialists.

II. MAJDANEK

ON JUNE 14, 1942 we left NOVAKY, passed ZILINA and arrived at ZWARDON toward 5 o'clock in the evening. We were assembled, counted, and SS men took over our convoy. One of these guards voiced his surprise at the fact we made the journey without water by shouting:

"Those Slovak barbarians, give them no water!"

The journey continued and we reached LUBLIN two days later. Here the following order was issued:

Soviet prisoners arriving at Majdanek

"Those fit for work aged between 15 and 50 are to leave the cars. Children and old people remain." We struggled out of the freight car and discovered that the station was surrounded by Lithuanians in SS uniforms, all armed with automatic pistols. The cars containing the children and old people were immediately closed and the train moved on. We do not know where they went and what happened to them

.

The SS troop leader in command informed us that we had a long way ahead of us, but that whoever wanted to take his luggage with him could do so. Those who preferred to put it on a truck would certainly receive it later. So some of us dragged along our luggage, whereas others loaded it on the truck.

Behind the town stood a clothing factory called the "Bekleindungswerke." In the courtyard waiting for their noon meal some 1,000 prisoners in dirty striped clothing, obviously Jews, were lined up and the sight of them was none too encouraging. Arriving on a small hill we suddenly sighted the vast barrack camp of MAJDANEK surrounded by a 3-meter-high barbed wire fence.

No sooner had we gone through the entrance gate than I met a prisoner who warned me that all our personal belongings would be taken away. Around us stood Slovak Jews in a wretched condition, their heads shaven, in dirty prison clothes and wooden clogs or simply barefooted, many of them having swollen feet.

They begged us for food and we gave them what we could spare, knowing very well that everything would be confiscated anyway. We were then conducted to the stock­room where we had to leave everything we possessed. At double time we were herded into another barrack where we had to undress, were shaved, and given a shower. After this we were issued convict outfits, wooden clogs and caps.

I was assigned to "working section NO.2" as the whole camp was divided into three such sections separated by wire fences. Section NO.2 was occupied by a number of Slovak and Czech Jews. For two full days we were taught how to remove and put on our caps when we met a German. Then in the pouring rain we practiced roll call for hours.

The barrack accommodations were quite original to say the least. Three long tables (nearly as long as the barrack itself) had been placed one on top of the other. These comprised our "bunks" (4 floors of them, that is ground floor plus the three tables). A small passage was kept open along the walls.

Our food consisted of a fairly thick "soup" early in the morn­ing which had to be eaten with the hands. We got the same soup again at lunch. The evening meal consisted of a brew called "tea," 300 grams of bad bread and some 20 to 30 grams of marmalade or artificial fat of the worst quality.

Great importance was attributed during the first few days of the learning of the "camp song." For hours we stood singing:

From the whole of Europe came We Jews to Lublin Much work has to be done And this is the beginning. To manage this duty Forget all about the past For in fulfillment of duty There is community. Therefore on to work with vigor Let everyone play his part Together we want to work At the same pace and rhythm. Not all will understand Why we stand here in rows Those must we soon force To understand its meaning. Modern times must teach us Teach us all along That it is to work And only to work we belong. Therefore on to work with vigor Let everyone play his part Together we want to work At the same pace and rhythm. (This is a literal translation of the song).

Working section No. 1 was occupied by