The fate of the Jews under the German Invasion & Occupation

Mogilev is the district capital in the Belorussian, founded in the thirteenth century. Jews lived in Mogilev from the sixteenth century and in the nineteenth century it was a centre of religious study and of Hassidism and later on of Zionism and Jewish Socialism. Jewish life in the city declined after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. 

The Jewish population of Belarus in 1897 was more than 911,000 – which is 14,2% of the total population in Belarus. Following World War I and the establishment of the Communist regime, the number of Jews had decreased and by 1926 only 17,105 or 34.1% of the population remained.

 During the 1920s a violent struggle occurred between the religious circles and the  Zionists on the one hand, and the Yevsektsiya (Jewish Communist Section) on the other, which resulted in the liquidation of Jewish communal life in the town. On the eve of the Second World War 16,200 Jews lived in Mogilev, out a total population of 99,440.

Then on the 26 July 1941 the Germans occupied the city after a battle lasting twenty-five days. Part of the Jewish population had been evacuated or had managed to get away, but the majority numbering some 10,000 were still there when the Germans occupied the city.

Shortly thereafter Einsatzkommando 8 belonging to Einsatzgruppen B entered Mogilev and launched killing aktions against the Jews, murdering them by the thousands.

Excerpts from one of the Operational Situation Reports submitted by Einsatzgruppe B operating in Mogilev:   

(photos added to enhance the text)

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

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

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

The Judenrat

“Council of Elders”

The name Judenrat refers to the Jewish Councils established on German orders in the Jewish Communities of Nazi occupied Europe. Jewish councils were first instituted in occupied Poland following instructions given by Reinhard Heydrich on 21 September 1939, and through an order promulgated by Hans Frank, the Gouvenor of the General Government, on 18 November 1939 and subsequently in other countries occupied by the Nazis.

The Jewish Councils did not have a uniform structure, some of them held authority in one location only, whilst others administered Jewish communities throughout a district or even an entire country. The role played by the Judenrat in Jewish public life during the holocaust is one of the most controversial issues.

Some historians believe that the Judenrat had a debilitating effect on the strength of the Jewish communities, whereas other historians argue that the Judenrat reinforced the Jews power of endurance in their struggle against the Nazi onslaught.

On the basis of Heydrich’s instructions Jewish Councils were set up over the course of a few weeks in September and October 1939 in the communities of central and western Poland. The guidelines stipulated that the Jewish Council would be fully responsible for the implementation of German policy regarding the Jews and would be made up of influential people and rabbis.

In this way, the Jewish communities had forced on them a body whose function was to receive German orders and decrees and be responsible for carrying them out. The inclusion of prominent personalities in the Jewish council had a dual purpose to ensure that German orders were implemented in full and to discredit Jewish leadership in the eyes of the Jewish population.

Under Hans Frank’s order, in places where the Jewish population did not exceed ten thousand the Judenrat was to have twelve members, and in larger towns or cities it was to consist of twenty – four members. Adam Czerniakow the Chairman of the Warsaw Judenrat wrote in his diary on the 4 October 1939:

“Unfortunately, before I could enter the building I was stopped by the police and for the time being I can do nothing. I was driven to Szucha Avenue – the location of the Security Police and was ordered to co-opt 24 men for the Community Council and to assume its leadership. I prepared a statistical questionnaire.”

The councils were to be elected by the members of their community and were themselves to elect their chairman and vice-chairman. The process of electing the Judenrat and their top two officers was to be completed by 31 December 1939.

The results were subject to the approval of the German Kreishauptmann or in the cities, of the German Stadthauptmann. This last provision meant in effect that the elections provided for in Frank’s order were quite meaningless, and that the Germans never intended to have the composition of the Jewish councils determined by elections.

German intervention in the process, however, was not absolute and on a number of occasions active members of the Jewish community had a say in determining the composition of the council. In some cases, Jewish activists refused to join the Judenrat because they were suspicious of the true German’s intentions regarding the Jewish councils.

Generally, however, local Jewish leaders did become members of the council’s, this corresponded to the wishes of the Jewish population, who felt the traditional, experienced leaders of the community who were best equipped to represent them in the day to day dealings with the German authorities.

Thus in the initial stages of their existence, the Jewish Councils preserved the continuity of local leadership, but in some instances some members of the Jewish councils had no previous experience of public affairs.

Once the Judenrat were established, the Germans lost no time in presenting them with urgent tasks, such as drafting people for forced labour, undertaking a census of the Jewish population, evacuating apartments and handing them over to Germans, paying fines and ransoms, confiscating valuables owned by Jews, and paying for the construction of ghetto walls, etc.

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

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

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

“Dealer in Death”

Christian Wirth was born on 24 November 1885 in Oberbalzheim, Wurttemburg, Germany. Following the completion of his education, he was employed as an apprentice carpenter with the Buhler brother’s timber firm.

Entered the police force in 1910 and joined the Stuttgart Criminal police in 1913. As a non-commissioned officer in World War One on the western front, his bravery was rewarded by the golden Military Cross – one of Imperial Germany’s highest decorations.

Wirth re-joined the police force after the Great War ended and thanks to his dedication, zeal , he became notorious for his “special” methods of investigation in criminal matters, which eventually resulted in his arraignment before the Wurttenburg Landestag.

Nevertheless, by 1939 Wirth had reached the rank of Kriminalkommissar in the Stuttgart KRIPO, a department of the Gestapo under Arthur Nebe.

Following special police duties in Vienna and Olmitz, he was transferred to the Fuhrers Chancellery to help with the planning and organisation of the Euthanasia operation, from October 1939.

Wirth personally participated in the first gassing experiments in Brandenburg, and straight after that in February 1940 to May 1940 he served at Grafeneck castle killing centre, and then a brief stay at Hartheim castle in Austria killing centre.

Between June 1940 and August 1941 Wirth served as a roving inspector of all euthanasia institutions throughout the Third Reich. His whereabouts between September and December 1941 are unknown, but some sources say he was involved at seeking to establish a Euthanasia killing centre in Lublin and passing on his experience at Chelmno death camp. It is alleged that local Poles identified Wirth from selections of photographs.

On the 22 December 1941 Wirth arrived in Belzec to inspect the construction of the Death Camp, and he returned with Adolf Eichmann and Hermann Hofle a week later.

On the 1 January 1942 Wirth was appointed the first Commandant of the Belzec death camp. He was a brutal commander, who perfected the killing process, with ruthless efficiency.

He was in command when Belzec became operational in March 1942 with the mass extermination of the Lublin ghetto. After Belzec was established Wirth was appointed Inspektor of the SS Sonderkommado Aktion Reinhard, and after a temporary stay in the Aktion Reinhard Headquarters in the Julius Screck Barracks, he moved to a new Headquarters on the old Lublin airfield, and took over control of the Old Airfield Camp..

Wirth frequently visited the three death camps (Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka) bringing fear and terror, which earned him the nickname from his subordinates of “Christian the Terrible”.

One of Wirth’s first task as Inspektor was establishing order at Treblinka death camp during late August early September 1942, following a complete breakdown in order at the camp, because Eberl accepted too many transports and the gas chambers could not cope.

Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ar/wirth.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

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

Affidavit of Dr. Rudolf Kastner, former President of the

Hungarian Zionist Organization, 9/13/1945

Dr. Reszco (Rudolf) Kastner, being duly sworn deposes and says:

I was born in 1906 at Kolozsvar (now Cluj, Romania), solicitor and journalist, residing at Chemin Krieg, 16, Pension Sergey, Geneva, now temporarily at 109, Clarence Gate Gardens, London.

I was in Budapest until November 28, 1944; as one of the leaders of the Hungarians Zionist organization. I not only witnessed closely the Jewish persecution, dealt with officials of the Hungarian puppet government and the Gestapo but also gained insight into the operations of the Gestapo, their organization and witnessed the various phases of Jewish persecution.

The following biographical data of mine might be of interest:

Between 1929-1931 – Political editor of “Uj Lelet? Jewish daily newspaper published in Koliszvar; Secretary-General of the Parliamentarty Group of the Jewish party in Romania.

Between 1929-1931 -Worked in Bucharest; member of the Executive of the Palestine Office of the Jewish Agency.

In Dec. 1940 -Being a Jew I was excluded from the Chamber of Lawyers. “Uj Kelet” the daily, was closed down by the Hungarian authorities: I moved to Budapest.

Between 1943-1945 -Associate President of the Hungarian Zionist Organization.

July 1942 -I have been called up for Labor Service: together with 440 other Jewish Intellectuals and citizens we worked in South-Eastern Transylvania on fortifications along the Hungarian-Rumanian border.

In Dec. 1942 -I was demobilized, and later returned to Budapest. Some time before being drafted I have begun to organize relief work for refugee Slovakian Jews. After my demobilization I succeeded in establishing – through diplomatic couriers – contact with the Relief Committee of the Jewish Agency, working in Istanbul. On their instructions I have taken over the leadership of the Relief Committee in Budapest.

Our task was:

1. To help smuggle Jews from Slovakia and Poland into Hungary to save them from the threat of the gas-chamber.

2. To feed and clothe them and to assist in their emigration to Palestine.

3. To forward the minutes based on the declaration of the refugees on the question of deportation and annihilation of Jews to Istanbul, later to Switzerland, to the hands of the representatives of the Jewish Agency and the Joint distribution committee.

4. To co-operate with the Relief Committee of Bratislava in matters concerning saving, hiding, of refugee Jews and exchange of information. After German occupation of Hungary, on the 19th March 1944, the Relief Committee concentrated its efforts on the saving of Hungarian Jewry.

5. The Relief Committee of the Jewish agency which I was a president was engaged in helping Allied prisoners-of-war. More-ever we sent confidential reports to the Allies thru Istanbul and Switzerland about our connections with officials of the German government. We helped to hide and supported leaders of the Hungarian underground and gave a wealth of information to those Hungarian authorities which were working against the Germans. During the siege of Budapest, when I was already out of the country, other members of the Relief Committee participated in street fighting against the Germans.

On 15 May 1944 One of my collaborators, Eugen Brand was sent by the Germans to Istanbul to pass on certain business proposals in connection with the saving of Hungarian Jews.

On 21 August 1944 I travelled from Budapest under German escort to the Swiss frontier and acted as intermediary for the first conversation between Kurt Becher and Saly Mayer, Swiss representative of the Joint D.C to discuss the price of abandoning the gassing.

The conversation took place between St. Margaraten and Hochst on the bridge. From there I returned to Budapest.

On 14 October 1944 I travelled for the second time to St Margathen.

On 30 October 1944 I travelled to St. Gallen, accompanied by Kurt Becher and Dr. Wilhem Billitz, director of the Manfred Weiss Works. On this occasion an interview took place between Becher and McClelland, Swiss representative of the War Refugee Board in the Savoy Hotel, at Zurich. I returned to Budapest.

Read the full Kastner Report here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/kastner.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

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

Carmelo Lisciotto

Jürgen Stroop

The son of a policeman, Josef Stroop, was born on 26 September 1895 in Detmold, Germany, but he later changed his name in honour of his deceased son in 1941. During World War One Stroop served in several infantry regiments at the front and won an Iron Cross 2^nd Class. He was also wounded in action.

Stroop joined the SS on 1 July 1932 and received SS number 44611, he was admitted into the Nazi Party shortly thereafter on 1 September 1932. Stroop was promoted to SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer on 8 March 1934, to SS- Sturmbannfuhrer on 20 April 1935 and to SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer on 20 April 1936.

During the 1930’s he attended various leadership courses and commanded several General SS units in Germany proper. He was promoted to SS-Standartenfuhrer on 12 September 1937 and to SS-Oberfuhrer on 10 September 1939.

From 7 July to 15 September 1941 Jurgen Stroop served in combat on the eastern front with the 3^rd SS Totenkopf Infantry Regiment of the SS Division “Totenkopf,” during the fighting he was awarded a Clasp to the Iron Cross 2^nd Class and an Infantry Assault Badge in Bronze. Stroop served in the Sudetenland, after the occupation of Poland in September 1939 Stroop was transferred to Poznan as head of the German Selbschutz – self defence units of ethnic Germans.

Stroop was then promoted to SS-Brigadefuhrer on 16 September 1942 and assigned as an Inspector of the Sipo and SD of the Higher SS and Police Leader for Russia South, where he helped secure a key logistical route through October 1942.

He then briefly commanded an SS garrison at Kherson before becoming SS and Police Leader for Lemberg (Lvov) in February 1943. From that position he moved to Warsaw on 18 April 1943. Franz Konrad the SS officer in charge of the Werterfassung in von Sammern’s headquarters gave testimony that related to the first day of the aktion:

“A week before Easter 1943 – it was a Sunday morning – SS und Polizeifuhrer von Sammern convened a meeting of the heads of the Security Police, Obersturmbannfuhrer Hahn, the commanders of the SS units in Warsaw, the commanders of the cavalry and infantry reserve units, the commanders of the Sipo (Security Police) and the Orpo (Regular Police) and the officers in his headquarters (myself among them).

At this meeting we were notified that on Monday he intended to transfer out the Jews who still remained in the Warsaw ghetto. During the discussion about the appropriate time for sending the various SS and police units into action, Brigadefuhrer Jurgen Stroop entered and announced that he had been appointed to the post of SS und Polizeifuhrer by order of the Reichsfuhrer –SS.”

On the first day of the Warsaw ghetto uprising Stroop took over command of the German forces, replacing Dr Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg, and he produced a detailed report of the operation to destroy the Jewish residential quarter.

Stroop recorded his deeds in a boastful seventy-five page report bound together in black pebble leather and including copies of all daily communiqués sent to Kruger – SS Police Leader East, as well as photographs with captions in Gothic script.

Former SS- Hauptsturmfuhrer Georg Michalsen, who was a member of Odilo Globocnik’s Aktion Reinhard staff, and had been sent to Warsaw to oversee the transfer of enterprises to the Lublin district, recalled his short time in Warsaw, serving under Stroop:

“The witness Max Jesuiter stated that Stroop had an outspoken hatred against Jews. If it had gone according to Stroop, not one train with Jews would have left Warsaw, but Stroop would have liquidated all Jews right there.”

Michalsen – “I consider this description as valid. I also was under the impression that Stroop was negatively disposed towards a transfer of Jews and under the circumstances only bent to higher pressures.

I also stated that it never happened before Stroop’s time that houses were burnt down. But as soon as Stroop arrived, and that was even on his first day, houses were set on fire. I have witnessed myself how people jumped from burning houses. Most probably they died.”

After the Ghetto Uprising, SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Friedrich- Wilhelm Kruger awarded an Iron Cross 1^st Class to Stroop on 18 June 1943 for the action at a gala reception in Warsaw’s Lazienki Park.

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

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

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

Hartheim Euthanasia  Center

Hartheim castle, situated in the village of Alkoven near Linz in Austria, and close to the Mauthausen concentration camp, originally dated from the ninth century. The present castle was built at the end of the 16th century. By 1793 the building belonged to the princes of Starhemberg. In 1898 Hartheim castle was donated to the Landes wohltätigkeitsverein in Oberösterreich (Provincial Charity Club of Upper Austria), for the establishment of a home for physically and mentally handicapped children.

After the Anschluß, the building was confiscated, and between late 1939 and early 1940 the castle was converted into an Aktion T4 euthanasia centre with a gas chamber (5.8m long, 3.8m wide and 2.7m at its highest) and at least two crematoria, one located in a room on the east side of the interior courtyard and one in the courtyard itself. Offices and staff quarters were located on the upper floors of the castle, while the killing installation occupied the ground floor, which surrounded the inner courtyard. The gas chamber, also located on the east side of the courtyard, was disguised as a shower room and had a capacity of up to 150 persons. Senior stoker (Oberbrenner) Josef Vallasta often administered the gas and oversaw the gassing in place of a physician.

At the western side of the castle a wooden annex was built for the reception of the victims, constructed so that their arrival remained unseen by others. During May 1940 the first 633 patients were gassed. Four drivers operated the large grey buses of the Gekrat organisation which carried the victims to the castle. After they had been gassed, any gold teeth were extracted from the corpses. If, following cremation, bones were still visible among the ashes, these were pulverized into dust with a bone mill.

At least once a week a lorry left the castle and drove to the Rivers Donau and Traun to scatter the ashes on the water. The Austrian Vinzenz Nohel was assigned work as a stoker (brenner) at Hartheim, receiving wages of 170 Reichsmark (RM) per month, plus a 50 RM family separation allowance, a 35 RM stoker’s allowance, and a 35 RM premium for keeping quiet. Further, "because the work [as a stoker] was very strenuous and nerve-shattering, we also received ¼ litre schnapps every day."

Although it is impossible to calculate a definitive figure for the number of victims in respect of any of the euthanasia centres, it has been estimated that by August 1941 the death toll at Hartheim had risen to at least 18,269; later, during the Sonderbehandlung 14f13 operation, a minimum of 12,000 further victims were murdered., among them more than 8,000 inmates of the concentration camps Dachau and Mauthausen / Gusen .These included Russian prisoners-of-war, Hungarian Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses and other Muselmänner.

The first prisoners selected from Dachau (some of whom had voluntarily registered for transfer to a “convalescent camp” or “sanatorium”) arrived at Hartheim no later than January 1942. When the personal effects of transferees were returned to the camp with the address of the sender marked as “Hartheim”, the voluntary registrations ceased.

Prisoners were also transferred to Hartheim from the Groß-Rosen, Sachsenhausen, and Ravensbrück concentration camps. They all shared a common fate. After late August 1941, when Hitler ordered a stop to the murder of the handicapped by gas, only concentration camp prisoners were gassed in T4 killing centres.

Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/euthan/hartheim.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

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

Der Untermensch

"The subhuman"

As long as there have been men on the earth, the struggle between man and the subhuman will be the historic rule; the Jewish-led struggle against the mankind, as far back as we can look, is part of  the natural course of life on our planet. One can be convinced with full certainty that this struggle for life and death is just as much a law of nature as is the struggle of an infection to corrupt a healthy body."

Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler 1935

Just as the night rises against the day, the light and dark are in eternal conflict. So too, is the subhuman the greatest enemy of the dominant species on earth, mankind.  The subhuman is a biological creature, crafted by nature, which has hands, legs, eyes and mouth, even the semblance of a brain. Nevertheless, this terrible creature is only a partial human being.

Although it has features similar to a human, the subhuman is lower on the spiritual and psychological scale than any animal. Inside of this creature lies wild and unrestrained passions: an incessant need  to destroy, filled with the most primitive desires, chaos and coldhearted villainy. 

A subhuman and nothing more!

Not all of those, who appear human are in fact so.  Woe to him who forgets it!  Every great creation, idea, and artistic expression on this planet were brought forth by real man. It was this true man that thought to invent and to create. It is for him there is only one objective:

To pave the way to a higher form of existence, to give shape to the endless nothing, to make progress on the elusive quest for continuous improvement.

Thus evolved culture.

So just as the plough, modern tools and the concept of hearth and home helped to form human society and create the family, the people and the state. So then must mankind become good and great, rising above all other living creatures. Dwelling in the realm of God!

However, along side of mankind dwells the subhuman.  This subhuman hates all that is created by man. This subhuman has always hated man, and  always secretly sought to bring about his downfall, first like a thief, and then like a brazen killer.

The subhuman is united with his peers. Like beasts among beasts, never knowing peace or calm. The subhuman thrives in chaos and darkness, he is frightened by the light. These subhuman creatures dwell in the cesspools, and swamps, preferring a hell on earth, to the light of the sun. 

But in these swamps and cesspools the subhuman has found its leader – The Eternal Jew!  The Jew understands the desires and needs of his fellow creature. The Jews endeavors to corrupt and manipulate this horror of inhumanity until they are rallied towards a common goal in the destruction of true man.

Beginning as early on as the destruction of Persians, the Jew has glorified this destructive nature. Even honoring it and declaring the holiday Purim that celebrates the organized mass murder of 75,000 Aryan Persians, who died as victims of Jewish hatred and evil.  

Even now world Jewry still glorifies this terrible act – as its greatest religious holiday.

The eternal hatred of the subhuman for mankind exists; they envy the clean and noble character of man. So they have tried to destroy what they hate, and from out of the vast deserts and endless steppes they have gathered hordes of their Huns whose leaders Attila, and Genghis Khan descended on western civilization bringing with them violence, fire and death, to every part of Europe they came.

The subhuman hordes would stop at nothing in their bid to overthrow the world of light and knowledge, to bring an apocalypse to all human progress and achievement. Their only goal is to make a desert wasteland of any nation or race that shines with creativity, goodness and beauty.

The only goal of the subhuman is chaos.

So for millennia this law of nature, the conflict between man and his anti-man, the subhuman has occurred. Over and over a new Attila, and new Genghis Khan, appears at the gates of Europe attempting to wreak havoc and destruction on mankind and his creations.

But today Bolshevism is the new Attila, the personification of the subhuman horde and its destructive power! But Bolshevism is not a phenomenon of just our time, not a product of our modern era. Neither has Bolshevism evolved within the framework of human history.

Bolshevism is as old as the Jew itself! Lenin and Stalin are only two who have prepared the way for this new horde!

“When a nation loses its leaders by blood and violence, the next step becomes their state, then economic, cultural and spiritual slavery. All that remains of such a nation, tainted by the mixing of blood and race, is the feeling of lost identity. They lose their own unique significance, and soon enough the nation ceases to exist. Only those that can be preserved, untainted, can prove that this nation ever existed”.             

Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler 1935

On the infinite a steppes of Russian territory lay Eastern Europe. A sharp contrast is noticed when comparing central Europe with this enormous space. On both sides of the border is the same earth but not the same man.

It is the man who makes his mark on the landscape, while on the German side is planned orderly fields yielding abundant harvests; the other side is only impenetrable forests, vast and unkempt, miles of uninhabited steppes where even the rivers wind endlessly through the nothingness.

This poorly kept land which hides fertile soil could be a paradise for man, a potential "California of Europe" alive with fields and fruit, but instead it lies neglected and wasted, lost to the abyss of cultural nihilism.

Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/holoprelude/deruntermensch.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

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