Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression "The Jewish population remained temporarily unmolested
shortly after the fighting. Only weeks, sometimes
months later, specially detached formations of the
police executed a planned shooting of Jews. The action
as a rule proceeded from east to west. It was done
entirely in public with the use of the Ukrainian
militia, and unfortunately in many instances also with
members of the armed forces taking part voluntarily.
The way these actions, which included men and old men,
women, and children of all ages were carried out was
horrible. The great masses executed make this-action
more gigantic than any similar measure taken so far in
the Soviet Union. So far about 150,000 to 200,000 Jews
may have been
[Page 1004]
executed in the part of the Ukraine belonging to the
Reichskommissariat; no consideration was given to the
interests of economy.
"Summarizing, it can be said that the kind of solution
of the Jewish problem applied in the Ukraine which
obviously was based on the ideological theories as a
matter of principle had the following results:
"(a) Elimination of a part of partly superfluous eaters
in the cities.
"(b) Elimination of a part of the population which
hated us undoubtedly.
"(c) Elimination of badly needed tradesmen who were in
many instances indispensable even in the interests of
the armed forces.
"(d) Consequences as to foreign policy -- propaganda
which are obvious.
"(e) Bad effects on the troops which in any case get
indirect contact with the executions.
"(f) Brutalizing effect on the formations which carry
out the execution -- regular police." (3257-PS)
Lest it be thought that these conditions existed only in the
East, the official Netherlands government report by the
Commissioner for Repatriation as relates similar treatment
of the Jews in the West (1726-PS). The German measures taken
against the Dutch Jews -- discriminatory decrees, anti-
semitic demonstrations, burning of synagogues, purging of
Jews from the economic life of their country, food
restrictions, forced labor, concentration camp confinement,
deportation, and death -- all these measures follow the same
pattern that was effected throughout Nazi-occupied Europe.
The official Netherlands report states that full Jews,
liable to deportation, numbered 140,000. The total number of
actual Jewish deportees was 117,000, representing more than
eighty-three per cent of all the Jews in the Netherlands. Of
these, 115,000 were deported to Poland for slave labor, and
after departure all trace of them was lost. Regardless of
victory or defeat to Germany, the Jew was doomed. It was the
expressed intent of the Nazi state that whatever the German
fate might be the Jew would not survive. (1726-PS)
A Top Secret message from the commandant of the SIPO and SD
for the Radom District, addressed to SS Hauptsturmfuehrer
Thiel on the subject, "Clearance of Prisons," reads as
follows:
"I again stress the fact that the number of inmates of
the SIPO and SD prisons must be kept as low as
possible. In the
[Page 1005]
present situation, particularly, those suspects handed
over by the civil police need only be subjected to a
short, formal interrogation, provided there are no
serious grounds for suspicion. They are then to be sent
by the quickest route to a concentration camp, should
no court martial proceeding be necessary or should
there be no question of discharge. Please keep the
number of discharges very low. Should the situation at
the front necessitate it, early preparations are to be
made for the total clearance of prisons. Should the
situation develop suddenly in such a way that it is
impossible to evacuate the prisoners, the prison
inmates are to be liquidated and their bodies disposed
of as far as possible (burning, blowing up the
building, etc.). If necessary, Jews still employed in
the armament industry or on other work are to be dealt
with in the same way.
"The liberation of prisoners or Jews by the enemy, be
it the WB [perhaps means 'West-Bund,' or 'Western
Ally'] or the Red Army, must be avoided under all
circumstances, nor may they fall into their hands
alive." (L-53)
(3) Mass Disposal of Jews in Concentration Camps. The
concentration camps were utilized to dispose of literally
millions of Jews, who died by mass shooting, gas, poison,
starvation, and other means. The part which the
concentration camps played in the annihilation of the Jewish
people is indicated in an official Polish report on
Auschwitz Concentration Camp (L-161). In Auschwitz during
July 1944 Jews were killed at the rate of 12,000 daily:
"*** During July 1944, they were being liquidated at
the rate of 12,000 Hungarian Jews daily, and as the
crematory could not deal with such numbers, many bodies
were thrown into large pits and covered with quick
lime." (L-161)
The official Polish Government Commission Report on the
Investigation of German crimes in Poland describes the
concentration camp at Treblinka in these terms:
"*** In March 1942, the Germans began to erect another
camp, Treblinka B, in the neighborhood of Treblinka A,
intended to become a place of torment for Jews.
"The erection of this camp was closely connected with
the German plans aiming at a complete destruction of
the Jewish population in Poland which necessitated the
creation of a machinery by means of which the Polish
Jews could be killed in large numbers. Late in April
1942, the erection of the first three chambers was
finished in which these general massacres
[Page 1006]
were to be performed by means of steam. Somewhat later
the erection of the real death building was finished,
which contains ten death chambers. It was opened for
wholesale murders early in autumn 1942 ***." (3311-PS)
The report of the Polish commission describes graphically
the procedure for extermination within the camp:
"*** The average number of Jews dealt with at the camp
in summer 1942 was about two railway transports daily,
but there were days of much higher efficiency. From
autumn 1942 this number was falling.
"After unloading in the siding all victims were
assembled in one place where men were separated from
women and children. In the first days of the existence
of the camp the victims were made to believe that after
a short stay in the camp, necessary for bathing and
disinfection, they would be sent farther east, for
work. Explanations of this sort were given by SS men
who assisted at the unloading of the transports and
further explanations could be read in notices stuck up
on the walls of the barracks. But later, when more
transports had to be dealt with, the Germans dropped
all pretenses and only tried to accelerate the
procedure.
"All victims had to strip off their clothes and shoes,
which were collected afterwards, whereupon all victims,
women and children first, were driven into the death
chambers. Those too slow or too weak to move quickly
were driven on by rifle butts, by whipping and kicking,
often by Sauer himself. Many slipped and fell, the next
victims pressed forward and stumbled over them. Small
children were simply thrown inside. After being filled
up to capacity the chambers were hermetically closed
and steam was let in. In a few minutes all was over.
The Jewish menial workers had to remove the bodies from
the platform and to bury them in mass graves. By and
by, as new transports arrived, the -cemetery grew,
extending in eastern direction.
"From reports received, it may be assumed that several
hundred thousands of Jews have been exterminated in
Treblinka." (3311-PS)
An official United States government report issued by the
Executive Office of the President of the United States, War
Refugee Board, on the German camps at Auschwitz and
Birkenau, sets forth the number of Jews gassed in Birkenau
in the two year period between April 1942 and April 1944.
The figure printed in this report is not a typographical
error. The number is 1,765,000. (L-22)
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 12 of 14)