Gesiowka

Concentration Camp

The Germans established a concentration camp in Warsaw, following the crushing of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in May 1943 by SS- Brigadefuhrer Jurgen Stroop. The SS and Police Leader suggested to Himmler that the former Warsaw ghetto area could be turned into a concentration camp.

Heinrich Himmler demanded the total liquidation of the Jews of the General Government in January 1943, and that Warsaw was to harshly treated, which led to further deportations to Treblinka and the revolt by the Jewish underground in April 1943, which was not concluded until one month later.

Friedrich Kruger, HSSPF Ost sent a report to Governor Frank on 31 May 1943, stating that the fighting spirit of the ghetto had impressed the German military mind.

Himmler on learning of this report was incensed and he demanded the total liquidation of all remaining Jewish camps and ghettos. Lieutenant – General Schindler, Chief of the Wehrmacht’s Armaments Inspectorate, sought the intervention of Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Chief of the RSHA, Schindler declared that the Jews who had been retained in industry were the “best physically speaking, the so-called Maccabeans,” and the Warsaw ghetto uprising had evidenced that the females were even stronger than the males.

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The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org