Voices from the Holocaust
Page 32
August Frank, ‘Spectacles and eyeglasses of every kind …’, reprinted from Holocaust Historical Documents, n.d.
Lukianovska Friedhof, ‘It is impossible to live with this knowledge’, reprinted from http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/einsatz/babiyar.html
Kurt Gerstein, ‘Like basalt pillars the dead stand inside...’, http://www.deathcamps.org/belzec/gerstein.html
Gisa, Kristallnacht: ‘everything devastated and destroyed’, The Wiener Library (http://wienerlibrary.co.uk)
P. Gordon Walker, ‘A BBC Reporter Visits Belsen’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/holocaust
Hermann Graebe, ‘SS Execution Squad in Action’, reprinted from witness statement, November 1945, International Military Tribunal, document PS-2992
Hugo Gryn, ‘Arrival at Auschwitz’, Imperial War Museum Sound Archive, quoted in Smith, Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust
Berta Grynszpan, ‘A Postcard from Zbąszyń’, reprinted from Thalmann and Feinermann, Crystal Night. Translation copyright © 1974 Thames & Hudson
Guardian Correspondent, ‘Kristallnacht: Shopwreckers in Berlin’, the Guardian, 10 November 1938. Copyright © Guardian Media 1938
Sebastian Haffner, ‘The Brown Shirts Throw Out Jewish Judges’, reprinted from Haffner, Defying Hitler, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2002. Copyright © 2000 Sarah Haffner and Oliver Pretzel. Copyright © 2000 Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt GmbH. Translation copyright © 2002 Oliver Pretzel
Abel J. Herzberg, ‘A Day in the Life of a Prisoner’ and ‘Deaths, deaths, deaths’, reprinted from Herzberg, Between Two Streams, IB Tauris, 1997. Copyright © 1989 Estate of Abel J. Herzberg
Reinhard Heydrich, ‘All Necessary Measures’, reprinted from Dawidowicz (ed.), A Holocaust Reader
Heinrich Himmler, ‘A page of glory never mentioned and never to be mentioned’, reprinted from http://www.holocaust-history.org/himmler-poznan/speech-text.shtmland Holocaust Historical Documents, n.d.
Hermann Hoefle, ‘The Hoefle Telegram’, reprinted from Holocaust Historical Documents, n.d.
Rudolf Hoess, ‘A Konzentrationslager is Built at Oświęcim’, ‘The Commandant of Auschwitzis Ordered to Construct a Mass Extermination Facility’ and ‘The Gas Trial’ reprinted from Hoess and Fitzgibbon, Commandant of Auschwitz. Copyright © 1951 WysawnictwoPrawnicze. English translation copyright © 1959 Weidenfeld& Nicolson
Karl Jager, ‘Field Report’, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/jager.html
Jewish Combat Organization, ‘For Your Freedom and Ours’, reprinted from Dawidowicz (ed.), A Holocaust Reader
Jewish Society for Social Welfare, ‘Life Inside the Warsaw Ghetto’, III, reprinted from Dawidowicz (ed.), A Holocaust Reader
Raya Kagan, ‘Mala Zimetbaum’, The Eichmann Trial Transcripts, http://www. nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/transcripts/
Fritz Katzmann, ‘The Jews tried to avoid evacuation by all possible means’, http://www1.yadvashem.org/ about_holocaust/documents/part2/doc159.html
Gerda Weissman Klein, ‘Liberation: A Jewess Meets a Gl’, http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/phistories/phi_individuals_kurt_gerda_klein_uu.htm
Ruth Kluger, ‘A Jewish Girl Risks a Visit to the Cinema’ and ‘Theresienstadt: The Children’s Quarters’, reprinted from Kluger, Landscapes of Memory. Copyright © 2001 Ruth Kluger
Felix Landau, ‘Diary of an SS Executioner’, reprinted from Landau, Love Letters of a Nazi Murderer in Lemberg and Drohobycz, Inst. of Documentation in Israel for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes, 1987
Primo Levi, ‘The Great Selection in Auschwitz’, reprinted from Levi, Survival in Auschwitz. Copyright © 2007 Primo Levi
Filip Müller, ‘Inside the Crematorium at Auschwitz’, reprinted from Müller, Eyewitness Auschwitz. Copyright © Filip Müller. Translation copyright © Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd
Miklos Nyiszli, ‘A Girl Is Found Alive in the Gas-chamber’, reprinted from Nyiszli, Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account, Seaver, 1986
Peretz Opocznski, ‘Smuggling in the Warsaw Ghetto’, reprinted from Dawidowicz (ed.), A Holocaust Reader
Chaim Prinzenthal, ‘On the Run’, reprinted from Dafni and Kleiman (eds), Final Letters from the Yad Vashem Archive, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1991. Copyright © 1991 Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Dina Pronicheva, ‘Escape from BabiYar’, reprinted from A. Anatoli (Kuznetsov), Babi Yar, Farrar Straus Giroux, 1970
Otto Rasch, ‘Operational Situation Report from Einsatzgruppe C’, reprinted from Dawidowicz (ed.), A Holocaust Reader
Rudolf Reder, ‘Now you’re going to the bath house’, quoted in Gilbert, The Holocaust
Reuters Correspondent, ‘Kristallnacht: Synagogues Fired’, Guardian, 11 November 1938. Copyright © 1938 Guardian Media
John Richards, ‘Kindertransport: ‘A Boy Leaves Vienna’, Imperial War Museum Sound Archive, quoted in Smith, Forgotten Voices of the Holocaust
Charles Salt, ‘The Arrest of Irma Grese’, Imperial War Museum Sound Archive
Ryvka Salt, ‘Parents Ordered to Give Up Their Children’, Imperial War Museum Sound Archive
Moshe Shklarek, ‘Deportation, Plock’, quoted in Gilbert, Holocaust
Dawid Sierakowiak, ‘Mass Arrests in Łódź’, reprinted from The Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak, trans. Kamil Turowski. Copyright © 1998 Oxford University Press
John Silberman, ‘It was bullying all down the line’ and ‘A Boy Leaves Berlin’, Imperial War Museum Sound Archive
Leah Hammerstein Silverstein, ‘Pretending to be Aryan’, reprinted from http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/phistories/
Kingsbury Smith, ‘Execution of Nazi War Criminals’, reprinted from Kinnaird (ed.), It Happened in 1946
Jurgen Stroop, ‘The Destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto’, reprinted from Dawidowicz (ed.), A Holocaust Reader
Giuliana Tedeschi, ‘Punishment … and Kindness’ and ‘The Death March from Auschwitz’, II, reprinted from Tedeschi, There Is a Place on Earth. Copyright © 1992 Random House Inc.
Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, ‘Auschwitz Observed’, reprinted from Dawidowicz (ed.), A Holocaust Reader
David Wdowinski, ‘They [three German officers]’, reprinted from Gilbert, The Holocaust
George Weidenfeld, ‘Litigious politics entered the classroom’ and ‘Departure: A Young Student Leaves Vienna’, from Weidenfeld, Remembering My Good Friends. Copyright © 1995 George Weidenfeld. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins
Rabbi Wilde, ‘A Rabbi is Incarcerated in Buchenwald’, reprinted from Thalmann and Feinermann, Crystal Night. Translation copyright © 1974 Thames and Hudson
Elie Wiesel, ‘Train Journey to Auschwitz’ and ‘The Liberation of Buchenwald: The Prisoner’s View’, reprinted from Wiesel, Night. Copyright © 1958 Elie Wiesel
Andrzej Wojcik, ‘The cries and screams of the children could be heard’, http://www.deathcamps.org/occupation/krepiec.html
Karl Wolff, ‘Himmler Watches a Demonstration Shooting of Jews’, quoted in Gilbert, The Holocaust
Franciszek Zabecki, ‘The Deputy Commandant Kicks a Baby to Death’, quoted in Gilbert, The Holocaust
Natan Zelichower, ‘Life Inside the Warsaw Ghetto’, II, reprinted from Grynberg (ed.), Words to Outlive Us. Copyright © 1998 and 1993 Panstowe Wysawnictwo Naukowe. Translation copyright © 2002 Metropolitan Books
Josef Zelkowicz, ‘Blood flows in the streets’, reprinted from Davidowicz, A Holocaust Reader
Samuel Zylbersztejn, ‘The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising’, reprinted from Grynberg, Words to Outlive Us. Translation copyright © 2002 Metropolitan Books
INDEX
A
air pressure experiments 60–1
Aktion Reinhard 149–52, 187–8
Anschluss 19
armament factories 194, 195–6, 198, 208, 211, 217
armbands 16, 40, 59, 204
Arrow Cross 227
Aryan prisoners at Auschwitz 219, 221, 223
Auschwitz concentration camp 58, 123, 179
> arrivals at 227–31
Aryan prisoners 219, 221, 223
Auschwitz Protocols, the 214–23
confiscation of possessions 163–6
crematoria 134–40, 218, 222–3, 231
death marches from 244–7
description of a starving inmate 235–6
Dr Josef Mengele at 228
Elie Wiesel’s train journey to 224–6
escapee Mala Zimetbaum 233–5
girl found alive in a gas chamber 231–3
Orchestra at 254–5
Polish girl’s speech of defiance 211–12
Primo Levi describes ‘selection’ at 237–42
reports from Rudolf Hoess 54–5, 63–5, 66–7
security at 215–17
see also Birkenau concentration camp; gassing; SS (Schutzstaffel)
Austria 223, 245, 265, 271
anti-Semitism 15–18, 19, 22, 56–8
destruction of synagogues in 33–4
emigration from 20–2
autopsies at Dachau 60, 62
Avriel, Ehud 20
B
Babi Yar massacre 93–5
Bajler, Szlamek (Y. Grojanowski) 107–17
Barbarossa, Operation 83–91, 92–3
Babi Yar massacre 93–5
and Lithuanian partisans 90–2, 98
‘self-purging’ operations 90–2
Stanislawów massacre 95–7
BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) 16
Begin, Menachem 20
Beilin, Aharon 235–6
Belgian Jews 64, 220, 223, 233
Belzec concentration camp 65, 149–52, 171, 173, 174–8, 187–8
Bentschen, German-Polish border town 25–6
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp 142, 148, 236, 243–4, 246, 250–6
Bergman, Anna 213
Berr, Hélène 141
Bialystok ghetto 208–9, 221
Birkenau concentration camp 54, 65, 211–12, 215, 217–19, 221–3, 229–30, 234–5, 240, 245, 246
see also Auschwitz concentration camp
Birkenwald concentration camp 220, 221, 222, 223
see also Auschwitz concentration camp
black-market in Galicia 204, 205
Blaha, Franz 59
Blockältester at Auschwitz 241, 242
Bolshevism
see Communism; Socialism
Bormann, Martin 264
Bretholz, Leo 185–7
Britain
the arrest of Irma Grese 256–7
emigration to 20–3, 38–41
the Hoefle Telegram 187
the Kindertransport 38–43
the liberation of Bergen-Belsen 250–6
Brzezinki
see Birkenau concentration camp Buchenwald concentration camp 19, 36–7, 73, 221, 248–9
Buffum, David H. 29–33
Bugemin liquidation 114
Bühler, Dr Josef 132–3
Bundists 188
bunkers, ghetto 191, 195, 197, 199, 201, 207–8
Burger, Wilhem 234
businesses destroyed, Jewish 6, 19, 28–33, 50–1
C
cannibalism 256
Catholics 16, 17
censuses 49, 51
Chelmno concentration camp (Kulmhof) 63, 65, 107–17
Chiechanów ghetto 221
children 54, 56–8, 152–3, 167, 168, 190
anti-Semitism and schools 11, 12, 16–18
death from starvation 69, 70
deportation from Łodź 153–6, 159, 161
George Weidenfeld 15–17
John Silbermann 10–11
the Kindertransport 38–43
L’Entraide Temporaire 142
mass executions in Krepiec forest 133–4
of mixed blood 131, 132
quarters at Theresienstadt ghetto 181–5
taken from Zdunska Wola ghetto 170–1
in Warsaw ghetto 118–19
cinema restrictions 56–8
civil servants 11, 14
clothing 11, 35, 68, 164–5, 173, 175, 214–15, 216, 228–9
Nazi 15, 16, 40, 134, 228
Star of David emblems 19, 59, 112, 141–2, 166, 204
cold-water experiments 61
Cologne 26
communism and communists 3–5, 10, 89, 90–1
concentration camps 10, 19, 58
Aktion Reinhard at Belzec 149–52
arrivals from Plock ghetto 55–6
grave digging at Chelmno 108–16
the Hoefle telegram 187–8
and Kristallnacht 32, 33, 35–7
Kurt Gertstein’s report 171–80
liberation from Buchenwald 248–50
liberation of Belsen 251–6
medical experiments 59–63
Reinhard Heydrich’s communications 48–50, 51
and Rudolf Hoess 54–5, 63–5, 66–7
see also Auschwitz concentration camp; gassing, death by; ghettos, Jewish; Warsaw ghetto; individual camps by name
confiscation of possessions 163–6, 175, 206–7, 210, 224
Councils of Jewish Elders 49–50
Cowles, Virginia 23
crematoria at Auschwitz 134–40, 218, 222–3, 231
criminals in concentration camps (Aryans) 219
Croatia 129
Cyclon B
see Zyklon B
Czech children 181, 185
Czech Jews 62, 64, 228–9
Czech resistance 149
Czechoslovakia 245
Czestochowa ghetto 56
D
Dachau concentration camp 10, 65, 219
medical experiments at 59–63
Daily Express 3–5
Daily Herald 261–4
death marches from Auschwitz 244–7
Degesch company 65 Der Stürmer newspaper 10
diary of Anne Frank 143–8
diesel gassings 171, 174, 176–7
Doenitz, Karl 263
Drancy transit camp 142, 185
Drohobycz executions 83–5
Dubno executions 168
Dutch Jews 64, 143–8, 220, 221, 223,
236–7, 243–4
dysentery 118, 119, 253
Dzialdowo concentration camp 56
Dzielna Prison 200, 201
E
economy, Jewish workforce and the German 50–2, 93, 132, 205
Ehrlich, Zdenka 228–9
Eichmann, Adolf 19, 20, 47–8, 63–4, 67, 123–33, 171, 227, 233
Einsatzgruppen
communication from Reinhard Heydrich 47–8
Operation Barbarossa executions 83, 87–93, 95–106
see also SS (Schutzstaffel)
Einsatzkommando (EK) 83, 97–106
elderly people
dedicated ghettos 128, 131, 132
deported from Łodź 153–4, 156, 158, 161
emigration 19
to Britain 20–3, 38–43
the Kindertransport 38–43
taxes 56, 125–6
Enabling Act (1933) 6
‘Enigma’ code 187
escapes
from Auschwitz 216–17, 233–5
Dina Pronicheva from the Babi Yar massacre 93–5
Leo Bretholz from a train travelling to a camp 185–7
Mala Zimetbaum 233–5
Szlamek Bajler from Chelmno 116–17
Estonia 92
Etkind, Michael 59–63
execution of Jews
see Auschwitz concentration camp; Chelmno concentration camp; concentration camps; firing squads and shootings; gassing, death by; graves, mass
executions of Nazi war criminals 264–72
F
Fagence, Maurice 261–4
farm labour 51, 215
films
of ‘self-purging’ in Soviet Union 91
in Warsaw ghetto 70–1
Fink, John 244–6
firing squads and shootings 64, 66, 72, 84–5, 86, 88, 223, 245
Babi Yar
massacre 93–5
at Belzec 150
at Dubno, Volhynia 166–7
lists of executions in Lithuania 98–106
mass execution at Krepiec forest 133–4
Stanislawów massacre 95–7
Flossenburg concentration camp 246
food 24, 25, 26, 35, 51, 62, 68–9, 109, 181, 183–4, 217, 224, 235–6, 242, 243, 244, 248, 249, 250, 253, 255
smuggling and trading in Warsaw
73–82
France 27, 30, 129, 141–2, 185
Frank, Anne 143–8
Frank, August 163
Frank, Hans 263, 265, 269
Freemasons 17
French Jews 64, 141–2, 218, 219, 220, 221, 223, 236–7
Frick, Wilhelm 263, 265, 269, 270
Friedhof, Lukianovska 95
Fritzsch, Karl 66
funerals, Jewish 71
Funk, Walther 263
G
Galicia 95–7, 202–8
Galinek, Edward 233
gassing, death by 64–7, 85, 108–9, 110, 113–14, 123, 133, 171–2, 174–7, 218–24, 231–2, 242, 254, 268
German army 83, 88–9, 91, 92, 205, 206, 219, 250, 251
see also SS (Schutzstaffel)
Gerstein, Kurt 171–80
Gestapo 19–20, 22, 66, 72, 74, 108, 179, 255–6
see also SS (Schutzstaffel)
ghettos, Jewish 56, 58, 219, 221
bunkers in 191, 195, 197, 199, 201, 207–8
children taken from Zduńska Wola 170–1
children’s quarters at Theresienstadt 181–5
deportations from Łodź 153–63
old-age ghettos 128, 131, 132
performance of Verdi’s Requiem 213
‘Song of the Bialystok Ghetto’ 208–9
the SP (Jewish police force) 72, 73, 158–60, 161–2
Warsaw 53–4, 67–82, 107
destruction of ghetto 193–201
ghetto uprising 188–201
smuggling and trading food 73–82
Society for Social Welfare, Warsaw 117–20
see also individual ghettos by name
GIs, American 248
Globocnik, Odilo 173–4
Glücks, Richard 54
Goebbels, Joseph 4, 6, 27, 179, 229
Gordon Walker, P 250–6
Göring (Goering), Hermann 4–5, 171, 261–2, 264–5, 266, 271
Gradowski, Salmen 212
Graebe, Hermann 166–9
graves, mass 84–5, 94, 96–7, 108–9, 110–15, 134, 150, 168, 178, 252, 253
Grese, Irma 256–7
Grodno ghetto 221