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Germany during the Holocaust - Berlin
The City and the Holocaust
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Berlin was the capital of Prussia and then from 1871 to 1945 and again today, the capital of Germany. On the eve of the Second World War Berlin had a population of 4.34 million, and it was the second largest city in Europe.
Jews had been living in Berlin since the end of the thirteenth century; in 1573 they were expelled, and a hundred years later, in 1671, Jews again came to settle in the city.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Jewish population kept growing – despite efforts by the kings of Prussia to limit their number – and by the middle of the nineteenth century it had risen to two thousand.
Berlin was the first centre of Haskalah, the Jewish cultural enlightenment movement, its most renowned exponent Moses Mendlessohn, lived there. It was in Berlin, in 1778, that the Judische Freischule was established, the first Jewish institution of learning in which the German language was taught and general subjects were included in the curriculum.
In the nineteenth century and early years of the twentieth century the Jewish population of Berlin increased greatly- from 3,300 in 1812 to 142,000 in 1910. The rapid rise was the result of a mass influx of Jews from the provincial towns; from the eastern provinces of Imperial Germany, especially from Posen (today Poznan, Poland) and from Eastern Europe.
A high percentage of the Berlin Jewish population was therefore made up of Ostjuden – Jews from the East – a situation that had considerable impact on both the Jewish and the non-Jewish population of Berlin.
Jews in Berlin were prominent in various aspects of the city’s economic, intellectual and cultural life. The city was also the seat of the head offices of most of the national Jewish organisations – such as the Central –Verein Deutscher Staatsburger Judischen Glaubens (Central Union of German Citizens of Jewish Faith), the Ezra Society, the Zentralwohlfahrtstelle der Deutschen Juden (Central Welfare Organisation of German Jews), and the Central Lodge of B’NAI B’RITH in Germany – and of most of the Jewish periodicals published in Germany.
Up to the end of the First World War, control of the Jewish community was in the hands of wealthy liberals; after the war the Judische Volkspartei, or Jewish People’s Party – an alignment of the Zionists, including Mizrahi and the Union of Eastern European Jewish Organisations – gained in strength in the Jewish community organisations and in 1928 a representative of that party, Georg Kareski, was elected president of the community.
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In 1930 the liberals were returned to power and Wilhelm Kleeman became president. The spokesman for the positions taken by liberal Jews was Leo Baeck, Berlin’s leading liberal rabbi.
In 1923 the Berlin community took the initiative for the formation of a Preussischer Landesverband Judischer Gemeinden (Union of Jewish Communities in Prussia), in order to strengthen its own status among the other communities and to facilitate contacts with the government authorities.
In the early 1930’s Berlin is estimated to have had 115 Jewish houses of prayer, the community itself maintained seventeen synagogues with a seating capacity of 25,000; on the high holidays extra halls were rented that doubled the available seating capacity, the services being either liberal or traditional.
The community also supported dozens of religious congregations, including Orthodox prayer houses and a Sephardic synagogue. In the 1930’s the community school system consisted of fifteen kindergartens, several elementary schools, two junior high schools and one secondary school.
Adas Israel, the separatist Orthodox community maintained its own elementary and secondary school and a girls’ school. By the late 1920’s one-seventh of all the Jewish children were attending Jewish schools.
There were differences of opinion among the Jews concerning the educational role of the community – whether it should maintain a separate Jewish school system, based on Jewish values or whether it should prefer a national German framework, with a minimum emphasis on Jewish elements.
For the Jewish students attending the public schools, the community provided forty-eight Religionsschulen (Hebrew Schools).
Bernard Grunberg, who came to England on a kindertransport recalled his time in a Berlin technical re-training school:
“As life was becoming worse for the Jews year by year, my father decided it was a waste of time for me to continue at school. After spending one year at home, I went in April 1938 to a technical re-training school in Berlin with a view later to emigrating to Israel.
After giving me some training in joinery and metalwork, the Instructor decided I was best suited to general woodwork. But in July 1938 a group of Nazi SS entered the grounds of the school and held everyone at the entrance while they set fire to the joinery workshop. Everything – including the valuable woodworking machinery – was destroyed. I remember helping to clear up the workshop, which could never be used again.”
Jewish youth movements were active in Berlin, supported by the various Jewish politically oriented organisations. The community maintained youth centres, provided summer vacations in the country for thousands of children , arranged foster homes and made vocational training facilities available.
Read more here: www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/berlin.html
The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
www.HolocaustResearchProject.org
Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2010
Paul Kremer - Diary of an SS doctor at Auschwitz!
Johann Paul Kremer
Diary - Selected Extracts
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On August 29, 1941, Johann Paul Kremer, a medical doctor who had joined the Wehrmacht on May 20, 1941, was ordered to Concentration Camp Auschwitz to replace another surgeon. Kremer kept a diary of many of his daily activities throughout the war. After his arrival at Auschwitz, oftentimes within the same entry Kremer speaks without emotion of “actions” he observed and the food he ate, as if these two activities are on the same plane. The footnotes to the diary contain important corroborating or clarifying information and should be read along with the primary text.
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29 August 1942
Ordered according to F. L. USSZ 2150 Aug 28. 42. 1833 to Concentration Camp Auschwitz to replace a surgeon there who had been taken sick.
30 August 1942
Departure from Prague, 8.15 am through Bohmisch Trubau, Olmutz, Prerau, Oderberg. Arrival at Concentration Camp 5.36 pm
Quarantine in camp on account of numerous contagious diseases (typhus, malaria, diarrhoea). Received top secret order through the garrison physician Hauptsturmfuhrer Uhlenbrok and accommodation in a room (No 26) in the Waffen-SS club –house
31 August 1942
Tropical climate with 28 degrees centigrade in the shade, dust and innumerable flies. Excellent food in the Home, this evening, for instance, we had sour duck livers for 0.40 mark, with stuffed tomatoes, tomato salad etc. Water is infected, so we drink seltzer water, which is served free (Mattoni)
First inoculation against typhus. Had photo taken for the camp identity card
1 September 1942
Have ordered SS officer’s cap, sword belt and braces from Berlin by letter. In the afternoon was present at the gassing of a block with Zyklon B against lice
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2 September 1942
Was present for first time at a “special action” at 3 am. By comparison Dante’s Inferno seems almost a comedy. Auschwitz is justly called an extermination camp
Notes: On this date a transport of 1,000 Jews from Drancy – the twenty-sixth RSHA transport from France. There are 545 men and boys, 455 women and girls in the transport.
A first selection is carried out in Cosel, 761 people are killed in the gas chambers.
5 September 1942
This noon was present at a special action in the women’s camp, “Moslems” – the most horrible of all horrors. Hschf Thilo, military surgeon, is right when he said to me today that we are located here in “anus mundi” (anus of the world).
In the evening at about 8 pm another “special action” with a draft from Holland. Men compete to take part in such actions as they get additional rations – one fifth litre of Vodka, 5 cigarettes, 100 gram’s of sausage and bread. Today and tomorrow (Sunday) on duty
Notes: 714 Jewish men, women and children from Westerbork arrive in an RSHA transport from Holland. 661 of this transport were gassed.
6 September 1942
Today an excellent Sunday dinner: tomato soup, one half a chicken with potatoes and red cabbage (20 grams of fat), dessert and magnificent vanilla ice-cream.
After dinner we welcomed the new garrison doctor, Obersturmfuhrer Wirths from Waldbrol, Sturmbannfuhrer Fietsch in Prague had been his regimental surgeon. It is a week since I came to camp and still have not been able to get rid of the fleas in my room in spite of using all kinds of insecticides, such as Flit (Cuprex) etc
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I got a refreshing impression after visiting the commandant’s aide-de-camp for the first time. Above his room I saw a big inscription on paper, “Cyclists dismount.”
We have also verses worthy of notice hanging in the office of our SS hospital:
“If you make a thousand lucky hits, People see them, they nod and pass. But even the smallest yelping dog will never forgot, should you miss but once."
In the evening at 8’oclock attended another special actions outdoors.
Notes: 981Jews arrived at Auschwitz from the transit camp at Drancy, France, of which 927 were gassed immediately.
Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/auschkremerdiary.html
The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
www.HolocaustResearchProject.org
Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2010
The Czestochowa ghetto in pictures
www.HolocaustResearchProject.org
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| A German soldier and two Jewish man who are clearing snow on a street in Czestochowa ghetto 640 X 440 54 KB |
A German soldier with a binoculars laughs at a Polish Jew, who stands with his young daughter in Czestochowa 678 X 450 75 KB |
A Jewish street vendor selling bars of soap in a Czestochowa marketplace. 794 X 548 123 KB |
A Jewish survivor from the HASAG camp at Czestochowa 418 X 585 46 KB |
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| A Nazi decree issued in October 1941, in German and Polish, warns that Jews leaving the ghetto, or Poles who aid them, will be executed. Czestochowa 640 X 465 85 KB |
A group of Jewish men and youth from Zarki march to a forced labor site carrying shovels 480 X 360 44 KB |
A memorial plaque on the mass grave in which the bodies of Jews killed in Czestochowa were reburied. 706 X 450 91 KB |
A view of the ghetto in Czestochowa 763 X 448 90 KB |
See the full image gallery here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/czestgal/index.html
The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
www.HolocaustResearchProject.org
Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2010
Interrogation of SS wachman Dmitriy Korotkikh
From Record of Interrogation of Defendant Korotkikh
City of Voroshilovgrad 21 April 1950
(Selected Extracts)
[photos added to enhance the text]
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1. I, Senior Lieutenant YEVSTIGNEYEV, Senior Investigator of the Ministry of State Security of the Ukraine, Voroshilovgrad Region, have interrogated on this day |
The interrogation started at 11.20am.
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Having surrendered as prisoner to the Germans, I was held for some six days in the prisoners of war camp in the town of Belaya Tserkov, from where the Germans took me together with a large number of war prisoners by train to the prisoners of war camp at Chelm (Poland), where we were kept for about two months without occupation.
Subsequently, again with other prisoners, I was taken, as I found out later, to the SS training camp of the village of Trawniki (Poland) where I remained from November 1941 to the spring of 1942 and was trained to be a guard (wachman).
Question: Under what circumstances did you happen to find yourself in the SS training camp?
Answer: While I was in the Chelm camp, four German officers in SS uniforms came to the camp, aligned the prisoners and began to pick out the physically healthy ones. I happened to be among the war prisoners, numbering about 80, who were thus selected.
That same day we were loaded into cars and taken to the SS training camp at Trawniki.
Question: Did the German officers tell you where to and for what purpose they were recruiting war prisoners?
Answer: No, while they picked out war prisoners, the German officers did not tell us where to and for what purpose they were doing so. It was only after my arrival at Trawniki that I learned that war prisoners were being selected to be trained in the police training camp of the SS.
Question: What was the SS training camp in the little town of Trawniki really like?
Answer: The SS training camp in which I was trained was situated at the edge of the little town of Trawniki, on the territory of a factory, in a few large, brick one-storied building. The German Kommandantura was also housed there in a two-storied building.
The SS training camp or the school for guards as it was called, prepared trained policemen for guard and convoy duty in the SS troops and to exterminate prisoners held in concentration camps.
The training period in the SS school for guards was indefinite, it depended on the need for guards. These were taken from the camp regardless of their state of preparedness, but the training period was roughly of about six months.
During our stay in the SS guards school, we underwent drilling and shooting training. We studied weapons – the rifle, also the rules of sentry duty. We learned German songs and took special training in sentry and convoy duty, learned the rules for the guarding and convoying of prisoners.
In the spring of 1942, I do not recall the month, after completing the SS school for guards, together with a group of selected guards comprising some 30 men whom Fedorenko, Krivenko, Prisch, Dudniko and others of the Trawniki school.
Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/trials/Korotkikhtestimony.html
The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
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Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2010
Radom Ghetto in pictures!
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Images from the Radom Ghetto www.HolocaustResearchProject.org
www.HolocaustResearchProject.org See the full Holocaust Image Gallery here: www.holocaustresearchproject.org/images/index.html Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2010 |
The Holocaust in Germany - Dortmund
The City and the Holocaust
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Dortmund a major city in Germany is located in Westphalia and records show that there were transient Jewish merchants present in the late 11th Century.
A Jewish settlement was established during the 13th Century with an organized community with a synagogue. A cemetery was opened outside the city walls in 1336 and in 1350 during the Black Death, the Jews were accused of poisoning wells, they were arrested and expelled under an agreement between the Count of the Mark and the municipality to divide up their property, some Jews did not survive this ordeal.
In 1372 the Jews were invited to return, so that the municipality might again benefit from their financial acumen, ten protected Jewish families were present by 1380 with Shimshon ben Shemuel of Dueren as their Rabbi. The Jewish population dropped with the decline of the city as a political and economic force and by the mid fifteenth century no Jews remained in the city.
Residence rights were again granted in 1543, but in 1596 the Jews were expelled, effectively signaling the end of a Jewish presence in Dortmund until the modern era.
Only after equal rights were accorded to the Jews in the Grand Duchy of Berg in 1808 were residence restrictions lifted and merchants and peddlers living in nearby villagers allowed to settle. In 1846, 38 Jewish families were living in difficult economic circumstances.
In the middle 19th Century with the accelerated economic and demographic development of the city, the situation of the Jewish community improved and its population began to expand rapidly, reaching a figure of 1,942 out of a total of 142,733 in 1900.
A synagogue was built in the mid-19th Century and a new synagogue, one of the most beautiful in Germany, with a seating capacity of 1,200 was consecrated in 1900.
A Jewish elementary school was founded in 1840 by 1871 it had over one hundred students, which increased to 220 by 1910, when it became part of the public school system. Religious classes were provided for children attending non-Jewish schools and a Talmud torah with an enrolment of 50 was opened in 1916 under Orthodox auspices.
Agudat Israel became active in 1914, the Zionist group active in 1899 was the earliest in Westphalia. In 1907, 62% of the Jewish population were engaged in trade and transport services; 23% in crafts and industry; and 5.2% belonged to the free professions.
Jews took an active part in public life following emancipation, with three serving on the municipal council in 1910 and one serving as chairman of the local medical society.
In the late 19th Century Dortmund became a focus of anti-Semitic propaganda in Westphalia. The anti-Semitic Westfaelische Reform was published there from 1882, attacking Jewish merchants and inciting occasional mob violence.
In the Reichstag elections of 1890 the anti-Semites won 3% of the vote, but this anti-Semite faction all but practically disappeared by the end of the century.
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Battalions of Nazi street fighters salute Hitler during an SA parade through Dortmund. Germany, 1933 |
Anti-Semitic outbursts were renewed after the First World War against a background of economic crisis, during the Great War many East European Jews settled in Dortmund, representing a third of the Jewish population in 1925 which had now increased to 3,820.
The established Jewish population comprised the middle class, mostly businessmen, but with some professionals, musicians, theatre people and artisans. The Jews from Eastern Europe constituted the lower class, living in slum neighborhoods and earning meager livelihoods in petty trade, peddling, and crafts.
It was they who strengthened the city’s Orthodox circles as well as the Zionist movement. Hebrew courses were offered from 1921 under Zionist auspices. The struggle for representation between the East European and German Jews created a public outcry echoed in the Jewish press throughout Germany, with the old guard accusing the Zionists of endangering the “patriotic German character” of the community.
Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/dortmund.html
The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
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Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2010
Einsatzgruppen leader Paul Blobel affidavit at Nuremburg
Affidavit for the IMT War Crimes Trial – Nuremburg
[Photos added to enhance the text]
I, Paul Blobel, declare, swear and depose:
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I was born in Potsdam on 13 August 1894. I attended the grammar school and vocational school (Fortbildungsschule) in Remschiedt until 1912. Thereafter I served as an apprentice with a mason and carpenter and during the years 1912 and 1913 I attended the school of architecture in Wuppertal.
Until the outbreak of the First World War I worked as a carpenter. From 1914 to 1918 I served as an engineer at the front and was discharged in 1918 with the rank of Vizefeldwebel (staff sergeant).
Until 1919 I was unemployed and lived in Remschiedt. During the years 1919/1920 I attended again the school of architecture in Barmen. From 1921 to 1924 I worked for different firms and in 1924 I established myself as an independent architect in Solingen.
During the bad times in Germany, during the years 1928/1929 I did not get any orders and from 1930 to 1933 I was on unemployment relief in Solingen. After that time I was employed for office work with the city administration and stayed there until spring 1935.
In June 1935 I came to the SD main sector Dusseldorf, where I remained until May 1941. Finally I was section leader for Dusseldorf. I was then assigned to the Reich Main Security Office in Berlin.
I became a member of the NSDAP on 1 December 1931, my membership number is 344662. Since January 1932 I have been a member of the SS, my membership number being 29100. I was further a member of the National Colonial League (Reichskolonialbund), Air Protection League (Luftschutzbund), National Socialist Public Welfare Association (NSV) and for a time I was a member of the Reich Association for Creative Arts (Reichsbund der Bildenden Kuenste).
My rank in the Allgemeine SS is Scharfuhrer, in the SD it has been, since 1940, Standartenfuhrer.
In June 1941 I became chief of the Sonderkommando 4A. This Sonderkommando was assigned to the Einsatzgruppe C, the latter was under the control of Dr. Dr. Rasch. The Einsatz area assigned to me was within the sphere of the 6th Army, which was under the command of Feldmarschall von Reichenau.
In January 1942 I was removed from this post of chief of the Sonderkommando 4A and was transferred to Berlin for disciplinary reasons. There I had no assignment for a time. I was under the supervision of the office IV, under the former Gruppenfuhrer Mueller.
In the fall of 1942 I was assigned to go to the occupied Eastern Territories as Mueller’s deputy, and to wipe out the traces of the mass graves of people executed by the Einsatzgruppen. This was my task until summer of 1944.
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After that I was transferred to the commander in Styria, and it was planned that I should work there as liaison officer between the Reich Main Security Office and the Gruppenfuhrer Roessner in the combat against the partisans. This task was, however, not assigned to me.
In December 1944 I got sick, and from February until April I was in a hospital in Marburg on the Drava. There I received the order to report in Berlin on 11 April 1945.
In April 1945 I reported to Kaltenbrunner and went to the area of Sazburg. Thus I escaped further orders. At the beginning of May 1945 I was captured, together with the unit, in Rastadt.
During the period of my service as chief of the Sonderkommando 4A, from the time of its organisation in June 1941 until January 1942, I was assigned, at various occasions, with the execution of Communists, saboteurs, Jews and other undesirable persons.
I can no longer remember the exact number of the executed persons. According to a superficial estimate – the correctness of which I cannot guarantee – I presume that the number of executions in which the Sonderkommando 4A took a part lies somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000.
I witnessed several mass executions, and in two cases I was ordered to direct the execution. In August or September 1941 an execution took place near Korosten. 700 to 1,000 men were shot, and Dr. Dr. Rasch was present at the execution.
I had divided my unit into a number of execution squads of 30 men each. First the subordinated police of the Ukrainian militia, the population and the members of the Sonderkommando seized the people, and mass graves were prepared.
Out of the total number of persons designated for the execution, 15 men were led in each case to the brink of the mass grave, where they had to kneel down, their faces turned toward the grave. At that time clothes and valuables were not yet collected. Later on this was changed.
The execution squads were composed of men of the Sonderkommando 4A, the militia and the police. Then the men were ready for the execution. One of my leaders who was in charge of this execution squad gave the order to shoot, since they were kneeling on the brink of the mass grave, the victims fell, as a rule, at once into the mass grave.
Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/einsatz/blobeltest.html
The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
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Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2010
Holocaust Images - The Netherlands
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Images of the Holocaust in the Netherlands
www.HolocaustResearchProject.org
See the full gallery here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/holland/dutchgal/index.html The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team www.HolocaustResearchProject.org Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2010 |
Mass murder of Lithuanian Jews!
Einsatzgruppen A
Mass Murder of Lithuanian Jewry - Karl Jäger Report
[photo added to enhance the text]
The Commander of the Security Police and the SD Einsatzkommando 3
Kauen [Kaunas, Kovno]
1 December 1941
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Secret Reich Business
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5 copies
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Complete list of executions carried out in the EK 3 area up to 1 December 1941.
Security police duties in Lithuania taken over by Einsatzkommando 3 on 2 July 1941. (The Wilna [Vilnius] area was taken over by EK 3 on 9 Aug. 1941, the Schaulen area on 2 Oct. 1941. Up until these dates EK 9 operated in Wilna and EK 2 in Schaulen.) On my instructions and orders the following executions were conducted by Lithuanian partisans:
Date* Location Totals
4.7.41 Kauen-Fort VII 416 Jews, 47 Jewesses 463
6.7.41 Kauen-Fort VII Jews 2,514
Following the formation of a raiding squad under the command of SS-Obersturmfuhrer Hamman and 8-10 reliable men from the Einsatzkommando the following actions were conducted in cooperation with Lithuanian partisans:
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Jews are led to the site of their execution by Lithuanian militiamen |
[ * Date is European format: Day.Month.Year] Date* Location Totals
7.7.41 Mariampole 32 Jews 32
8.7.41 Mariampole 14 Jews, 5 Comm. officials 19
8.7.41 Girkalinei Comm. officials 6
9.7.41 Wendziogala 32 Jews, 2 Jewesses, 1 Lithuanian, (f.), 2 Lithuanian Comm., 1 Russian Comm. 38
9.7.41 Kauen-Fort VII 21 Jews, 3 Jewesses 24
14.7.41 Mariampole 21 Jews, 1 Russ., 9 Lith. Comm. 31
17.7.41 Babtei 8 Comm. officals (inc. 6 Jews) 8
18.7.41 Mariampole 39 Jews, 14 Jewesses 53
19.7.41 Kauen-Fort VII 17 Jews, 2 Jewesses, 4 Lith. Comm., 2 Comm. Lithuanians (f.), 1 German Comm. 26
21.7.41 Panevezys 59 Jews, 11 Jewesses, 1 Lithuanian (f.), 1 Pole, 22 Lith. Comm., 9 Russ. Comm. 103
22.7.41 Panevezys 1 Jew 1
23.7.41 Kedainiai 83 Jews, 12 Jewesses, 14 Russ.Comm., 15 Lith. Comm., 1 Russ. O-Politruk 125
25.7.41 Mariampole 90 Jews, 13 Jewesses 103
28.7.41 Panevezys 234 Jews, 15 Jewesses, 19 Russ. Comm., 20 Lith. Comm. 288
29.7.41 Rasainiai 254 Jews, 3 Lith. Comm. 257
30.7.41 Agriogala 27 Jews, 11 Lith. Comm. 38
31.7.41 Utena 235 Jews, 16 Jewesses, 4 Lith. Comm., 1 robber/murderer 256
31.7.41 Wendziogala 13 Jews, 2 murderers 15
1.8.41 Ukmerge 254 Jews, 42 Jewesses, 1 Pol.Comm., 2 Lith. NKVD agents, 1 mayor of Jonava who gave order to set fire to Jonava 300
2.8.41 Kauen-Fort IV 170 Jews, 1 US Jewess, 33 Jewesses, 4 Lith. Comm. 209
4.8.41 Panevezys 362 Jews, 41 Jewesses, 5 Russ. Comm., 14 Lith. Comm. 422
5.8.41 Rasainiai 213 Jews, 66 Jewesses 279
7.8.41 Uteba 483 Jews, 87 Jewesses, 1 Lithuanian (robber of corpses of German soldiers) 571
8.8.41 Ukmerge 620 Jews, 82 Jewesses 702
9.8.41 Kauen-Fort IV 484 Jews, 50 Jewesses 534
11.8.41 Panevezys 450 Jews, 48 Jewesses, 1 Lith. 1 Russ. 500
13.8.41 Alytus 617 Jews, 100 Jewesses, 1 criminal 719
14.8.41 Jonava 497 Jews, 55 Jewesses 552
15-16.8.41 Rokiskis 3,200 Jews, Jewesses, and Jewish Children, 5 Lith. Comm., 1 Pole, 1 partisan 3207
9-16.8.41 Rassainiai 294 Jewesses, 4 Jewish children 298
27.6-14.8.41 Rokiskis 493 Jews, 432 Russians, 56 Lithuanians (all active communists) 981
18.8.41 Kauen-Fort IV 689 Jews, 402 Jewesses, 1 Pole (female), 711 Jewish intellectuals from Ghetto in reprisal for sabotage action 1,812
19.8.41 Ukmerge 298 Jews, 255 Jewesses, 1 Politruk, 88 Jewish children, 1 Russ. Comm. 645
22.8.41 Dunaburg 3 Russ. Comm., 5 Latvian, incl. 1 murderer, 1 Russ. Guardsman, 3 Poles, 3 gypsies (m.), 1 gypsy (f.), 1 gypsy child, 1 Jew, 1 Jewess, 1 Armenian (m.), 2 Politruks (prison inspection in Dunanburg 21
22.8.41 Aglona Mentally sick: 269 men, 227 women, 48 children 544
23.8.41 Panevezys 1312 Jews, 4602 Jewesses,1609 Jewish children 7,523
18-22.8.41 Kreis Rasainiai 466 Jews,440 Jewesses, 1020 Jewish children 1,926
25.8.41 Obeliai 112 Jews, 627 Jewesses, 421 Jewish children 1,160
25-26.8.41 Seduva 230 Jews, 275 Jewesses, 159 Jewish children 664
26.8.41 Zarasai 767 Jews, 1,113 Jewesses, 1 Lith. Comm., 687 Jewish children, 1 Russ.Comm. (f.) 2,569
Comm., 687 Jewish children, 1 Russ.Comm. (f.)
28.8.41 Pasvalys 402 Jews, 738 Jewesses, 209 Jewish children 1,349
26.8.41 Kaisiadorys All Jews, Jewesses, and Jewish children 1,911
27.8.41 Prienai All Jews, Jewesses, and Jewish Children 1,078
27.8.41 Dagda and Kraslawa 212 Jews, 4 Russ. POW's 216
27.8.41 Joniskia 47 Jews, 165 Jewesses, 143 Jewish children 355
28.8.41 Wilkia 76 Jews, 192 Jewesses, 134 Jewish children 402
28.8.41 Kedainiai 710 Jews, 767 Jewesses, 599 Jewish children 2,076
29.8.41 Rumsiskis and Ziezmariai 20 Jews, 567 Jewesses, 197 Jewish children 784
29.8.41 Utena and Moletai 582 Jews, 1,731 Jewesses, 1,469 Jewish children 3,782
13-31.8.41 Alytus and environs 233 Jews 233
1.9.41 Mariampole 1,763 Jews, 1,812 Jewesses, 1,404 Jewish children, 109 mentally sick, 1 German subject (f.), married to a Jew, 1 Russian (f.) 5090
28.8-2.9.41 Darsuniskis 10 Jews, 69 Jewesses, 20 Jewish children 99
Read more here: www.holocaustresearchproject.org/einsatz/jagerletter.html
The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
www.HolocaustResearchProject.org
Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2010
Trial, sentencing and execution of Amon Goeth
The Trial of Amon Goeth Part 3
Sentencing, Execution and Conclusion
28th of September 1946
The Chairman summons all witnesses who are identified, he then instructs them as to their obligation to tell the truth, they are then taken out of the court hall, with the exception of witness Mr. Pemper who remains to give evidence.
Judge Zembaty: Is the witness able to establish the number of victims in the camp of Plaszow?
Witness Pemper: This would not be easy for me, as I have worked in the camp command office. I do not know that the mortality rate from natural causes was very low, even unexplainably low. As far as mortality due to non natural causes, there were approximately 500 persons killed due to repressive measures connected with escapes.
Judge Zembaty: In total, what does the witness estimate the number to be?
Witness Pemper: I am certain, that excluding the transport of 14th of May, the number exceeded 5-6,000. The victims resulting from the liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto, I estimate at 2,000 in the camp alone.
Including all the victims, also those connected with the action from the Ghetto of Tarnow, adding various selections, group incidents, and singles, I am certain the figure is well in excess of 5,000 persons.
Judge Zembaty: Whenever a prisoner was killed, for example, savaged by dogs, or shot, in what manner would this be recorded in the camp records, what reasons for such details were entered in the camp files?
Witness: Pemper: These records were only introduced in the period when the camp was functioning as a concentration camp, before that only files existed, 4 types of files. In those files, a death was noted with the word “Abgang” (departure) without any further clarification, as opposed to “Zugang” (arrival), the personal card would then be removed from the file, and placed in a separate file.
Judge Zembaty: No note was made that death was due to shooting?
Witness: Pemper: No. There were daily “appell” record sheets, which assisted in the keeping of the prisoners numerical control, and these sheets/lists, prepared daily, showed clearly all changes. Let us say, yesterday’s level was 9,500, today’s 9,550, the list or “appell” sheet, would be changed to 60 arrivals and 10 died of various causes.
Judge Zembaty: The witness mentioned that prisoners were killed by shooting, hanging, savaging by dogs. Were there in addition other methods of killing being used?
Witness: Pemper: The incidents of savaging by dogs, were in general rare. Hanging on the other hand, was a permissible way of killing in a concentration camp. In a forced labour camp it was applied when the death was intended to be used as a deterrent to others, as in the case of Hauberstock and Krautwirt.
I recollect the hanging of two prisoners for attempted escape. Various SS dignitaries from Krakow were invited, one of whom even read out a statement or announcement, to the effect, that they are being hung in order to deter others from attempting similar acts.
Judge Zembaty: Did other methods of killing exist, in addition to those mentioned so far?
Witness: Pemper: There were cases, where a prisoner could not take the beatings, following the application of 100 hits or more, was unfit for work, he would then be beaten further, and then finished. This happened in the action at the beginning of August.
Judge Zembaty: In what manner would such a prisoner be finished?
Witness: Pemper: By shooting.
Judge Zembaty: With regard to the matter of torture, the witness mentioned yesterday, that hanging by the arms was practised, you have mentioned the incident involving a person called Frenkel. How long did this take?
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Witness: Pemper: Several hours
Judge Zembaty: Has the accused been present throughout that time?
Witness: Pemper: When I entered the office, they were waiting for me, as I had to be the interpreter during the interrogation, it took three hours.
Judge Zembaty: Without interruption?
Witness: Pemper: The stool was manipulated by hand, enabling the prisoner to regain consciousness, and induce him to provide information, every half an hour the stool was produced for this purpose.
Judge Zembaty: Did any one faint?
Witness: Pemper: Yes, they had water poured over them, terrible beatings took place. The accused conducted and controlled the interrogation. By the time I saw Frenkel I did not recognise him.
Judge Zembaty: What were the conditions in the camp in the winter, were the barracks the prisoners were sleeping in heated?
Witness: Pemper: In this respect there existed considerable limitations, but this became irrelevant as the overcrowding of the prisoners was so great, that the prisoners kept themselves warm, by their own heat.
Judge Zembaty: What about the nourishment of prisoners?
Witness: Pemper: The nourishment was very poor
Judge Zembaty: Did a possibility exist of food reaching the camp from outside of the camp?
Witness: Pemper: The answer is no, and that applies throughout the time. There were attempts, and at a later stage partially some success has been achieved, in the form of additional bread allocation. There existed also a very important channel of help, in the form of medicines from Jewish sources – specific medicines from the Ghetto until its destruction.
Chairman: Would you please summon witness Henryk Mandel
Witness - Henryk Mandel:
In the first half of January 1943 I have been selected and sent from the Ghetto in Krakow into the camp in Plaszow. In the camp at that time, were approximately 2,000 persons, the commander was Muller.
Beginning of February, the accused arrived in Plaszow, the camp at time was comparatively small, a rumour spread that the new commander is from Vienna and that the conditions in the camp will improve. Within two days we were made aware what conditions we can expect.
The accused assembled all foremen, works directors and made a speech, he declared that he is taking over command of the camp in Plaszow and demands from all strict obedience in the execution of orders, and as evidence that he is not joking, all were ordered to be flogged with a certain number of strokes. Several days later, public hanging of two women was organised.
Chairman: Has the witness seen this?
Witness Henryk Mandel: Certainly, this took place beginning of March 1943, and with this, we have learned what treatment we can expect from this Viennese new commander.
Chairman: What was the reason for the hanging of these two women?
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Jews from the Krakow ghetto, who have been rounded-up for deportation |
Witness Henryk Mandel: They went into the Ghetto without permission, the accused learned this, had them brought to him from the Ghetto, and hung immediately.
Chairman: In that case they were hanged on orders of the accused?
Witness Henryk Mandel: The accused was there, and gave the order to hang them. On the 13th of March more Jews were brought from the Ghetto in Krakow into the camp and I will describe the methods that were used to conduct a search of them.
The accused was inside the barrack which housed the doctors, I overheard as he spoke to his men, “In this barrack we must conduct a very strict search, as here are Jewish doctors, who were very rich, and most probably they have brought this wealth with them from the Ghetto.”
Watches and various and other small items were being surrendered then, with the accused looking on. A few days later the “painting” took place, that is where we were painted with yellow and red stripes. Red stripes, those working in the camp, yellow stripes all those working outside of the camp. Whilst this painting was taking place a general “Appell” was called, we were prepared for something new.
And we were not disappointed; the accused walked with other SS officers along the lines and picked out various prisoners. After this he ordered tables to be brought out, and there and then flogging was ordered, across the bare buttocks, on the selected persons, men, women, with varying numbers of strokes. Goeth then announced to all, that he is not joking, we must all work as he orders, and that the work performed so far, was inadequate.
Chairman: In that case, this was a form of penalty?
Witness Henryk Mandel: No, this was an example to all prisoners, so that they should be aware, that he who does not work, will receive a beating.
Chairman: Did he assist in this himself?
Witness Henryk Mandel: He did assist himself, the accused walked with a group of his men, and pointed out those who in his opinion needed more beating.
Chairman: How many strokes were given?
Witness Henryk Mandel: Between 25-50, the group for flogging consisted of several hundred persons. Several tables were used, and several persons did the beating.
Chairman: What was used for this beating?
Witness Henryk Mandel: Riding whips
Chairman: Were these beatings counted, was the prisoner required to keep the count or were these people beaten without an accurate count and did the witness see this?
Witness Henryk Mandel: I have seen all of this, as it was an “Appell”
Chairman: When was this?
Witness : In March or possibly beginning of April, going into town to work, these prisoners worked from 7am to 6pm. One day, upon returning in the evening, we were assembled again for work, and made to work until 12 at night, and from that day on, the afternoon shift continued until 12 at night.
We were told that the road must be finished with the utmost speed. One day I have been given permission for a day off work. I did not want to stay in the barrack, so I hid in a barrack of a friend and there, through a window I heard a shout and saw as the accused shot a young boy who was laying stones in the road construction. After shooting him, he moved the body about with his boot, to satisfy himself that he was dead.
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Prosecutor Siewierski: For what reason was this boy shot by the accused?
Witness: This I cannot say, all I have seen is that the boy was bending, as if in a working position.
Chairman: The witness has seen this?
Witness: That is so.
Chairman: From what distance?
Witness: 25 meters
Prosecutor Siewierski: Was the boy working at the time?
Witness: This I do not know. At another time one or two persons escaped from the camp.
Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/trials/goeth3.html
The Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team
www.HolocaustResearchProject.org
Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2010