Bloodlands

by Timothy Snyder

  11 On the “beauty contest,” see Ehrenburg, Black Book, 132; and Smolar, Ghetto, 22. On the evening in autumn 1941, see Smolar, Ghetto, 46. Quotation: Rubenstein, Unknown, 244. At the nearby Koldychevo concentration camp, guards serially raped and murdered women; see Chiari, Alltag, 192.

  12 Epstein, Minsk, 42 and passim. On the Soviet documents, see Chiari, Alltag, 249.

  13 Epstein, Minsk, 130.

  14 Projektgruppe, “Existiert,” 228. For biographical details on Smolar, see “Ankieta,” 10 August 1949, AAN, teczka osobowa 5344.

  15 Cholawsky, “Judenrat,” 117-120; Chiari, Alltag, 240; Smolar, Ghetto, 19.

  16 On the signaling of danger, see Smolar, Ghetto, 62. On the Jewish policemen, see Epstein, Minsk, 125. On the gloves and socks, see Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, 680. On the guides, see Smolar, Ghetto, 95; and Projektgruppe, “Existiert,” 164. For the ball, see Epstein, Minsk, 215.

  17 Brakel, “Versorgung,” 400-401.

  18 On the funding, see Epstein, Minsk, 96, 194.

  19 Klein, “Zwischen,” 89. See also Hull, Absolute Destruction; Anderson, “Incident”; and Lagrou, “Guerre Honorable.”

  20 On Franz Halder and his nuclear-weapon fantasy, see Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, 558. On Himmler and the thirty million Slavs, see Sawicki, Zburzenie, 284. Quotation: Lück, “Partisanbekämpfung,” 228.

  21 Quotations: Birn, “Anti-Partisan Warfare,” 286; Verbrechen, 469. See also Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, 566.

  22 Szybieka, Historia, 348; Mironowicz, Białoruś, 158; Lück, “Partisanbekämpfung,” 232; Klein, “Zwischen,” 90.

  23 Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, 680, 686.

  24 Quotation: Matthäus, “Reibungslos,” 261.

  25 Smolar, Ghetto, 72; Cholawsky, “Judenrat,” 125. For the figure 3,412, see Matthäus, “Reibungslos,” 262. On Lipski, see Projektgruppe, “Existiert,” 158.

  26 Cholawsky, “Judenrat,” 123; Epstein, Minsk, 133. On Heydrich, see Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, 694. On the fur coats, see Browning, Origins, 300.

  27 On the figure cited, see Smolar, Ghetto, 98. Quotation: Ehrenburg, Black Book, 189. See also Cholawsky, “Judenrat,” 126; and Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, 704.

  28 On the gas vans, see Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, 1075; and Rubenstein, Unknown , 245, 248, 266-267. For “soul destroyers,” see Projektgruppe, “Existiert,” 162.

  29 Rubenstein, Unknown, 246; see also Ehrenburg, Black Book, 132.

  30 Smolar, Ghetto, 158; Projektgruppe, “Existiert,” 231; Brakel, “Versorgung,” 400-401. On the women and children, see Smilovitsky, “Antisemitism,” 218.

  31 On Zorin, see Slepyan, Guerillas, 209; and Epstein, Minsk, 24. On the raid, see Ehrenburg, Black Book, 135. On Rufeisen, see Matthäus, “Reibungslos,” 254.

  32 Tec, Defiance, 80, 82, 145, 185, quotation at 80; Slepyan, Guerillas, 210; Musial, “Sowjetische,” 185, 201-202.

  33 On the 23,000 partisans and the “partisan republics,” see Lück, “Partisanbekämpfung,” 231. On the civilians, see Brakel, Unter Rotem Stern, 290, 304; Szybieka, Historia, 349; Slepyan, Guerillas, 81; and Mironowicz, Białoruś, 160. On the locomotives, see Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, 868.

  34 Musial, Mythos, 189, 202; Lück, “Partisanbekämpfung,” 238; Ingrao, Chasseurs, 131; Verbrechen, 495.

  35 Slepyan, Guerillas, 17, 42.

  36 Kravets and Gerassimova are quoted in Projektgruppe, “Existiert,” 47, 126. For the use of “whore” as the standard mode of address, see Chiari, Alltag, 256. On the game of hide-and-seek, see Projektgruppe, “Existiert,” 164.

  37 On 18 August, see Lück, “Partisanbekämpfung,” 232; and Westermann, “Ideological Soldiers,” 57. On “special treatment,” see Musial, Mythos, 145. On the villagers to be destroyed “like Jews,” see Lück, “Partisanbekämpfung,” 239.

  38 Westermann, “Ideological Soldiers,” 53, 54, 60; Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, 705, 919.

  39 For the reckoning of 208,089 Jews killed in Belarus in 1942, see Brandon, “The Holocaust in 1942.” This does not include the Białystok region, which was part of the BSSR in 1939-1941 but not after the war.

  40 On Gottberg, see Klein, “Massenmörder,” 95-99. On Bach and for the numbers cited, see Lück, “Partisanbekämpfung,” 233, 239.

  41 Stang, “Dirlewanger,” 66-70; Ingrao, Chasseurs, 20-21, figure (“at least thirty thousand civilians”) at 26, 132; Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, 958; MacLean, Hunters, 28, 133.

  42 On the kill quotas, see Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, 890. On Operation Swamp Fever, see Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, 911-913, 930; Benz, Einsatz, 239; Matthäus, “Reibungslos,” 267; and Ingrao, Chasseurs, 34. On Jeckeln, see Brakel, Unter Rotem Stern, 295. On Hornung, see Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, 946; and Klein, “Massenmörder,” 100.

  43 Brakel, Unter Rotem Stern, 304; Smilovitsky, “Antisemitism,” 220. On the prewar communists, see Rein, “Local Collaborators,” 394.

  44 On the eight hundred policemen and militiamen, see Musial, Mythos, 266. On the twelve thousand, see Mironowicz, Białoruś, 160. See also Slepyan, Guerillas, 209.

  45 Szybieka, Historia, 345, 352; Mironowicz, Białoruś, 159.

  46 On October 1942, see Nolte, “Partisan War,” 274.

  47 Klein, “Zwischen,” 100.

  48 On Operation Cottbus, see Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, 948; Pohl, Herrschaft, 293; Musial, Mythos, 195; and Verbrechen, 492. On the swine, see Lück, “Partisanbekämpfung,” 241.

  49 On Operation Hermann, see Musial, Mythos, 212; and Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, 907.

  50 On the shooting of 127 Poles, see Musial, Mythos, 210. See also Jasiewicz, Zagłada , 264-265.

  51 Brakel, Unter Rotem Stern, 317; Gogun, Stalinskie komandos, 144.

  52 Shephard, “Wild East,” 174; Angrick, Einsatzgruppe D, 680-689. Quotation: Lück, “Partisanbekämpfung,” 242.

  53 Birn, “Anti-Partisan Warfare,” 291; see also, generally, Klein, “Zwischen,” 96.

  54 Dallin, Brigade, 8-58.

  55 Chiari, Alltag, 138; Szybieka, Historia, 346; Mironowicz, Białoruś, 148, 155.

  56 Szybieka, Historia, 346.

  57 Musial, “Sowjetische,” 183.

  58 On the figures cited (“fifteen thousand” and “ninety-two”), see Ingrao, Chasseurs , 36. For the figure of 5,295 localities, see Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, 943. On the 10,431 partisans reported shot, see Klee, Gott mit uns, 55. On the diary, see Lück, “Partisanbekämpfung,” 239. See also Matthäus, “Reibungslos,” 268.

  59 Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, 1158.

  60 On the killing of 17,431 people as traitors, see Musial, Mythos, 261. On class enemies, see Jasiewicz, Zagłada, 264-265.

  61 Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, 1160. Chiari estimates that 276,000 Poles had been killed or moved by the end of the war; see Alltag, 306.

  62 On the crematoria, see Gerlach, “Mogilev,” 68. On Asgard, see Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, 425.

  63 Arad, Reinhard, 136-137.

  CHAPTER 8: THE NAZI DEATH FACTORIES

  1 Compare two fundamental works by one historian: Arad, Reinhard, and Arad, Soviet Union.

  2 Quotation: Wasser, Raumplannung, 61, also 77. On the special status of Lublin, see Arad, Reinhard, 14; Musiał, “Przypadek,” 24; and Dwork, Auschwitz, 290. On the implementation of Generalplan Ost known as the “Zamość Action,” see Autuchiewicz, “Stan,” 71; Aly, Architects, 275; and Tooze, Wages of Destruction, 468. On the date cited (13 October 1941), see Pohl, “Znaczenie,” 45.

  3 Browning, Origins, 419; Rieger, Globocnik, 60.

  4 On the lack of personnel, see Musiał, “Przypadek,” 31. On German preferences, see Black, “Handlanger,” 315.

  5 Browning, Origins, 419; Black, “Handlanger,” 320.

  6 Evans, Third Reich at War, 84-90.

  7 Quotation: Gerlach, “Wannsee,” 782. See also Rieß, “Wirth,” 244; Pohl, “Znaczenie,” 45; and Poprzeczny, Globocnik, 163. On Wirth’s role, see Black, “Prosty,” 105; and Scheffler, “Probleme,” 270, 276. The “euthanasia” program continued, with grea
ter stealth, now with the use of lethal injections and drug overdoses. Tens of thousands more Germans were killed in the years to come.

  8 Kershaw, Final Solution, 71; Mazower, Hitler’s Empire, 191 and passim.

  9 Quotation: Kershaw, Final Solution, 66. See also, generally, Mallmann, “Rozwiązać,” 85-95, date at 95; Horwitz, Ghettostadt, 154; and Friedländer, Origins, 314-318. On Lange, see Friedlander, Origins, 286; and Kershaw, Final Solution, 71.

  10 According to Arad, Wirth was responsible for the design; see Reinhard, 24.

  11 See Pohl, Ostgalizien; and Sandkühler, Galizien.

  12 Arad, Reinhard, 44, 56; Młynarczyk, Judenmord, 252, 257. On 14 March, see Rieger, Globocnik, 108. On the 1,600 Jews who lacked labor documents, see Poprzeczny, Globocnik, 226.

  13 Młynarczyk, Judenmord, 260.

  14 On the daily quotas and more generally, see Młynarczyk, Judenmord, 260; and Pohl, Verfolgung, 94.

  15 For the figure 434,508, see Witte, “New Document,” 472. Pohl counts three survivors; see Verfolgung, 95. On Wirth, see Black, “Prosty,” 104. The commander of Bełżec as of August 1942 was Gottlieb Hering.

  16 On Cracow, see Grynberg, Życie, 3; Pohl, Verfolgung, 89; and Hecht, Memories, 66.

  17 Pohl, Verfolgung, 95.

  18 On 17 April, see Pohl, “Znaczenie,” 49. On 1 June, see “Obóz zagłady,” 134.

  19 Grabher, Eberl, 70, 74.

  20 On Frank, see Arad, Reinhard, 46; Berenstein, “Praca,” 87; and Kershaw, Final Solution, 106. On the Trawniki men, see Młynarczyk, “Akcja,” 55.

  21 Quotation: Longerich, Himmler, 588.

  22 Friedländer, Extermination, 349.

  23 Gerlach, “Wannsee,” 791. See also Pohl, “Znaczenie,” 49.

  24 Tooze, Wages of Destruction, 365, 549.

  25 Gutman, Resistance, 198. Compare Aly, Architects, 211.

  26 Quotation: Witte, “New Document,” 477.

  27 Arad, Reinhard, 61; Młynarczyk, “Akcja,” 55; Urynowicz, “Zagłada,” 108; Friedländer, Extermination, 428; Hilburg, “Ghetto,” 108. On the promised bread and marmalade, see Berenstein, “Praca,” 142. Quotation: FVA 2327.

  28 Engelking, Getto, 661-665; Gutman, Resistance, 142.

  29 Urynowicz, “Zagłada,” 108-109; Trunk, Judenrat, 507.

  30 Urynowicz, “Zagłada,” 109-111. See also Gutman, Resistance, 142.

  31 On Korczak, see Kassow, History, 268; and Friedländer, Extermination, 429. Quotation: Engelking, Getto, 676.

  32 For the cited figures, see Friedländer, Extermination, 230. Higher estimates are in Drozdowski, “History,” 192 (315,000), and Bartoszewski, Warszawski pierścień, 195 (310,322).

  33 “Treblinka,” 174. On the payment “in kind,” see Trunk, Judenrat, 512.

  34 On the sweat, see Arad, Reinhard, 64. On the fields and forests, see Wdowinski, Saved, 69.

  35 On Wiernik, see Kopówka, Treblinka, 28.

  36 Arad, Reinhard, 81; Mlynarczyk, “Treblinka,” 266; “Obóz zagłady,” 141; Królikowski, “Budowałem,” 49.

  37 On 22 August, see Evans, Third Reich at War, 290. On 23 August, see Mlynarczyk, “Treblinka,” 262. On 24 August, see Wiernik, Year, 8. On 25 August, see Krzepicki, “Treblinka,” 98. On 26 August, see Shoah 02694, in FVA. Stangl quotation (21 August): Sereny, Darkness, 157.

  38 Arad, Reinhard, 87.

  39 Wdowinski, Saved, 78; Arad, Reinhard, 65.

  40 Stangl quotation: Arad, Reinhard, 186.

  41 On Franz, see Arad, Reinhard, 189; Kopówka, Treblinka, 32; Glazar, Falle, 118; and “Treblinka,” 194.

  42 On the Polish government, see Libionka, “ZWZ-AK,” 36-53. On the contemplated attack, see Libionka, “Polska konspiracja,” 482. On the postcards, see Hilberg, “Judenrat,” 34. On the postal service, see Sakowska, Ludzie, 312.

  43 On the “clinic,” see “Obóz zagłady,” 137; Glazar, Falle, 51; Arad, Reinhard, 122; and Mlynarczyk, “Treblinka,” 267. On the “station,” see “Obóz zagłady,” 137; Arad, Reinhard, 123; and Willenberg, Revolt, 96. On the orchestra, see “Tremblinki,” 40; and “Treblinka,” 193. On the Yiddish, see Krzepicki, “Treblinka,” 89.

  44 “Treblinka,” 178; Arad, Reinhard, 37; Mlynarczyk, “Treblinka,” 269. On the rapes, see Willenberg, Revolt, 105.

  45 Arad, Reinhard, 108; Młynarczyk, “Treblinka,” 267; Willenberg, Revolt, 65.

  46 Arad, Reinhard, 119; Mlynarczyk, “Treblinka,” 259, 269.

  47 Kopówka, Treblinka, 34; Mlynarczyk, “Treblinka,” 263, 269. On the “metamorphosis,” see Rajchman, Le dernier Juif, 88.

  48 Rajgrodzki, “W obozie zagłady,” 107. Arad, Reinhard, 174. On the Germans warming themselves, see Wiernik, Year, 29. On the women naked in the cold, see Rajchman, Le dernier Juif, 96.

  49 For “It’s no use,” see Rajchman, Le dernier Juif, 33. On the embrace and Ruth Dorfmann, see Willenberg, Revolt, 56, 65.

  50 On the local economy, see Willenberg, Revolt, 30; and Rusiniak, Obóz, 26. On “Europe,” see Rusiniak, Obóz, 27.

  51 Friedländer, Extermination, 598. On Stalingrad, see Rajgrodzki, “W obozie zagłady,” 109.

  52 On the dismantling, see Arad, Reinhard, 373. On Operation Harvest Festival (Erntefest), see Arad, Reinhard, 366. Some 15,000 Białystok Jews were also shot; see Bender, “Białystok,” 25.

  53 The sources of the Treblinka count are Witte, “New Document,” 472, which provides the Germans’ count for 1942 of 713,555 (intercepted by the British); and Młynarczyk, “Treblinka,” 281, which supplies a 1943 reckoning of 67,308. For the Radom estimate, see Młynarczyk, Judenmord, 275. Wiernik claims that there were two transports of (uncircumcised) Poles; see Year, 35. “Obóz zagłady,” a report published in Warsaw in early 1946, gives the estimate 731,600, and provides much basic information.

  54 Rusiniak, Obóz, 20.

  55 Kamenec, “Holocaust,” 200-201; Kamenec, “Deportation,” 116, 123, figure at 130.

  56 Hilberg, Destruction (vol. III), 939, 951; Browning, Origins, 421.

  57 Compare Brandon, “Holocaust in 1942”; Dwork, Auschwitz, 326.

  58 Pohl, Verfolgung, 107; Hilberg, Destruction (vol. III), 959; Stark, Hungarian Jews, 30; Długoborski, “Żydzi,” 147.

  59 Although we know the number of dead in these facilities with some precision, the precise number of Polish Jews is difficult to extract from the larger figure. Although Treblinka, Sobibór, and Bełżec were primarily killing centers for the Polish Jews of the General Government, other people also died in these three places, especially in 1943: Czechoslovak Jews, German Jews, Dutch Jews, French Jews, as well as Poles and Roma.

  60 On the Roma, see Pohl, Verfolgung, 113-116; Evans, Third Reich at War, 72-73, 531-535; and Klein, “Gottberg,” 99.

  61 For the “wonderful song,” see Glazar, 57. On music as “revolutionary,” see Rajgrodzki, “W obozie zagłady,” 109. On “el male rachamim,” see Arad, Reinhard, 216.

  CHAPTER 9: RESISTANCE AND INCINERATION

  1 Lück, “Partisanbekämpfung,” 246; Zaloga, Bagration, 27, 28, 43, 56.

  2 Zaloga, Bagration, 7, 69, 71. The Americans had been in Italy since 1943.

  3 Grossman, Road, 27. See also Furet, Passé, 536; and Gerard, Bones, 187-189. Grossman may not have understood that the signs of the mass murder were visible because the local Polish population had been looking for valuables. It would have been impossible for him to write that the guards at Treblinka were Soviet citizens.

  4 Engelking, Żydzi, 260. See also Miłosz, Legends; and Snyder, “Wartime Lies.”

  5 Tokarzewski-Karaszewicz, “U podstaw tworzenia Armii Krajowej,” 124-157.

  6 On fighting for the restoration of Poland as a democratic republic, see Libionka, “ZWZ-AK,” 19, 23, 34. On the NKVD, see Engelking, Żydzi, 147.

  7 Libionka, “ZWZ-AK,” 24.

  8 Wdowinski, Saved, 78; Arens, “Jewish Military,” 205.

  9 Wdowinski, Saved, 79, 82; Libionka, “Pomnik,” 110; Libionka, “Deconstructing,” 4; Libionka, “Apokryfy,” 166.

  10 On Agu
das Israel, see Bacon, Politics of Tradition.

  11 The story of the formation of the Jewish Combat Organization is complex. See Sakowska, Ludzie, 322-325; and Zuckerman, Surplus.

  12 On the rescue organization, see Bartoszewski, Warszawski pierścień, 16; and Libionka, “ZWZ-AK,” 27, 33, 36, 39, 56.

  13 Libionka, “ZWZ-AK,” 60, 71.

  14 Bartoszewski, Ten jest, 32; Sakowska, Ludzie, 321, quotation (Marek Lichtenbaum) at 326.

  15 Gutman, Resistance, 198.

  16 Engelking, Warsaw Ghetto, 763; Kopka, Warschau, 33-34.

  17 On the arms cache, see Libionka, “ZWZ-AK,” 69; and Moczarski, Rozmowy, 232. On the anti-Semitic minority, see Engelking, Żydzi, 193, and passim.

  18 Quotation (Himmler): Kopka, Warschau, 36.

  19 Szapiro, Wojna, 9; Milton, Stroop, passim; Libionka, “Polska konspiracja,” 472.

  20 Quotation (Gustawa Jarecka): Kassow, History, 183.

  21 Engelking, Warsaw Ghetto, 774; Engelking, Getto warszawskie, 733; Gutman, Resistance, 201.

  22 Szapiro, Wojna, passim; also Libionka, “ZWZ-AK,” 82.

  23 Quotations: Zuckerman, Surplus, 357; Szapiro, Wojna, 35.

  24 On the flags, see Milton, Stroop. Quotation: Moczarski, Rozmowy, 200.

  25 The Edelman testimony is in “Proces Stroopa Tom 1,” SWMW-874, IVk 222/51, now at IPN.

  26 Moczarski, Rozmowy, 252, quotation at 253.

  27 Engelking, Warsaw Ghetto, 794.

  28 Puławski, W obliczu, 412, 420-421, 446. On the pope, see Libionka, “Głową w mur.”

  29 Quotation: Engelking, Warsaw Ghetto, 795. On the eleven attempts to help Jews, see Engelking, Getto warszawskie, 745; and Libionka, “ZWZ-AK,” 79. On the Soviet propaganda, see Redlich, Propaganda, 49.

  30 On Wilner, see Sakowska, Ludzie, 326.

  31 Quotation: Engelking, Getto warszawskie, 750; Gutman, Resistance, 247; Marrus, “Jewish Resistance,” 98; Friedländer, Extermination, 598.

  32 For the numbers cited, see Bartoszewski, Warszawski pierścień, 256. On 1 June 1943, see Kopka, Warschau, 39.

  33 See Zimmerman, “Attitude,” 120; and Libionka, “ZWZ-AK,” 119-123.

  34 Bartoszewski, Warszawski pierścień, 242.