Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression (2) Annihilation. Annihilation within the ghettos is
illustrated and glorified in the report of Major General of
the Police Stroop entitled "The Warsaw Ghetto is No More."
(1061-PS)
This report bound in leather profusely illustrated, typed on
heavy bond paper, and almost 75 pages in length, is the
almost unbelievable recital of a proud accomplishment by
Stroop, who signed the report with a bold hand. Stroop in
his report first pays tribute to the bravery and heroism of
the German forces who participated in the ruthless actions
against a defenseless group of Jews numbering, to be exact
56,065 -- including infants and women. His report relates
day-by-day progress in the accomplishment of his mission --
to destroy and to obliterate the Warsaw Ghetto. According to
this report, the ghetto, which was established in Warsaw in
November 1940, was inhabited by about 400,000 Jews; and
prior to the action for the destruction of this Ghetto, some
316,000 had already been deported.
These are some of the boastful and vivid accounts of the
scenes within the Warsaw Ghetto:
"The resistance put up by the Jews and bandits could be
broken only by relentlessly using all our forces and
energy by day and night. On 23 April 1943 the
Reichsfuehrer SS issued through the Higher SS and
Police Fuehrer East at Cracow his order to complete the
combing out of the Warsaw Ghetto with the greatest
severity and relentless tenacity. I therefore decided
to destroy the entire Jewish residential area by
setting every block on fire, including the blocks of
residential buildings near the armament works. One
concern after the other was systematically evacuated
and subsequently destroyed by fire. The Jews then
emerged from their hiding places and dugouts in almost
every case. Not infrequently, the Jews stayed in the
burning buildings until, because of the heat and the
fear of being burned alive, they preferred to jump down
from the upper stories after having thrown mattresses
and other upholstered articles into the street from the
burning buildings. With their bones broken, they still
tried to crawl across the street into blocks of
[Page 996]
buildings which had not yet been set on fire or were
only partially in flames. Often the Jews changed their
hiding places during the night, by moving into the
ruins of burnt out buildings, taking refuge there until
they were found by our patrols. Their stay in the
sewers also ceased to be pleasant after the first week.
Frequently from the street, we could hear loud voices
coming through the sewer shafts. hen the men of the
Waffen SS, the Police or the Wehrmacht Engineers
courageously climbed down from the shafts to bring out
the Jews and not infrequently they then stumbled over
Jews already dead, or were shot at. It was always
necessary to use smoke candles to drive out the Jews.
Thus one day we opened 183 sewer entrance holes, and at
a fixed time lowered smoke candles into them, with the
result that the bandits fled from what they believed to
be gas in the center of the former Ghetto, where they
could then be pulled out of the sewer holes there. A
great number of Jews who could not be counted were
exterminated by blowing up sewers and dugouts.
"The longer the resistance lasted the tougher the men
of the Waffen SS, Police, and Wehrmacht became. They
fulfilled their duty indefatigably in faithful
comradeship, and stood together as models and examples
of soldiers. Their duty hours often lasted from early
morning until late at night. At night search patrols
with rags wound round their feet remained at the heels
of the Jews and gave them no respite. Not infrequently
they caught and killed Jews who used the night hours
for supplementing their stores from abandoned dugouts
and for contacting neighboring groups or exchanging
news with them.
"Considering that the greater part of the men of the
Waffen SS had only been trained for three to four weeks
before being assigned to this action, high credit
should be given to the pluck, courage and devotion to
duty which they showed. It must be stated that the
Wehrmacht Engineers, too, executed the blowing up of
dugouts, sewers and concrete buildings with
indefatigability and great devotion to duty. Officers
and men of the police, a large part of whom had already
been at the front, again excelled by their dashing
spirit.
"Only through the continuous and untiring work of all
involved did we succeed in catching a total of 56,065
Jews whose extermination can be proved.
[Page 997]
To this should be added the number of Jews who lost
their lives in explosions or fires, but whose number
could not be ascertained." (1061-PS)
At the beginning of his report Stroop lists the losses of
German troops:
"For the Fuehrer and their country the following fell
in the battle for the destruction of Jews and bandits
in the former ghetto of Warsaw ***" [Fifteen names are
thereafter listed].
"Furthermore, the Polish police sergeant Julian
Zielinski, born 13 November 1891, 8th Commissariat,
fell on 19 April 1943 while fulfilling his duty. They
gave their utmost, their life. We shall never forget
them.
"The following were wounded ***" [There follow the
names of 60 Waffen SS personnel] "11 watchmen from
training camps, probably Lithuanians; 12 Security
Police officers in SS units; 5 men of the Polish
Police; and 2 regular army personnel, engineers." (1061-PS)
The story continues in the daily teletype reports, from
which following are excerpts:
"Our setting the block on fire achieved the result in
the course of the night that those Jews whom we had not
been able to find despite all our search operations
left their hideouts under the roofs, in the cellars,
and elsewhere, and appeared on the outside of the
buildings, trying to escape the flames. Masses of them
-- entire families -- were already aflame and jumped
from the windows or endeavored to let themselves down
by means of sheets tied together or the like. Steps had
been taken so that these Jews as well as the remaining
ones were liquidated at once."
*******
"When the blocks of buildings mentioned above were
destroyed, 120 Jews were caught and numerous Jews were
destroyed when they jumped from the attics to the inner
courtyards, trying to escape the flames. Many more Jews
perished in the flames or were destroyed when the
dugouts a sewer entrances were blown up.'
*******
"Not until the blocks of buildings were well aflame and
were out to collapse did a further considerable number
of Jews merge forced to do so by the flames and the
smoke. Time and again the Jews try to escape even
through burning buildings. Innumerable Jews whom we saw
on the roofs
[Page 998]
during the conflagration perished in the flames. Others
emerged from the upper stories in the last possible
moment and were only able to escape death from the
flames by jumping down. Today we caught a total of
2,283 Jews, of whom 204 were shot, and innumerable Jews
were destroyed in dugouts and in the flames."
*******
"The Jews testify that they emerge at night to get
fresh air, since it is unbearable to stay permanently
within the dugout owing to the long duration of the
operation. On the average the raiding parties shoot 30
to 50 Jews each night. From the statements it was to be
inferred that a considerable number of Jews are still
underground in the Ghetto. Today we blew up a concrete
building which we had not been able to destroy by fire.
In this operation we learned that the blowing up of a
building is a very lengthy process and takes an
enormous amount of explosives. The best and only method
for destroying the Jews therefore remains the setting
of fires."
*******
"Some depositions speak of three to four thousand Jews
who still remain in underground holes, sewers, and
dugouts. The undersigned is resolved not to terminate
the large-scale operation until the last Jew has been
destroyed." (1016-PS)
The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
ftp.
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Volume
I Chapter XII
The Persecution of the Jews
(Part 9 of 14)