The Holocaust

by Martin Gilbert

Bingel, Lieutenant Erwin: an eye-witness to mass murder (1941), 1, 2

  Binsztejn-Syrkin, Zofia: commits suicide (1943), 1

  Birenbaum, Halina: recalls punishment at Auschwitz, 1

  Birkenau: established (1942), 1; gas-chambers at, not yet ready, 2, 3; Jews held in barracks at, 4; labour camps near, 5, 6; Jewesses sent to, after medical experiments, 7; the ‘numbering’ of Jews at, 8; an eyewitness to mass murder at, 9, 10; Jews from Theresienstadt deported to, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15; mass murder at, 16, 17, 18; Norwegian Jews deported to, 19; postcards from, 20; a Sabbath in, 21; mental defectives arrive at, from Holland, 22; suicides at, 23; a ‘quantity of old garments’ at, 24; continued deportations to (1943), 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46; new crematoria at (March 1943), 47; medical experiments at, 48; Jews from, sent to a camp in Warsaw, 49, 50; those judged too sick in, gassed, 51, 52; acts of defiance at, 53, 54; ‘Hatikvah’ (the Jewish anthem) sung at, 55, 56; escapes, and attempted escapes at, 57, 58; the fate of the ‘Czech Family Camp’ in, 59; and deceptions at, 60, 61; further deportations to 1944), 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73; deportations from, 74, 75, 76, 77; teeth strewn ‘all over the terrain’ as evidence, 78; Sonderkommando murdered at, 79; revolt of Sonderkommando in (1944), 80; fate of several hundred boys in, 81; dismantled, 82; hunger and exposure at, 83; last hours and liberation at (1945), 84, 85 deportees from, rescued, 86; fate of survivors from (1945), 87, 88, 89, 90; disappearance of a survivor from, after liberation, 91; and ‘normal people’, 92; a survivor of, murdered after liberation, 93; ‘I will tell the world’, 94

  Birkenfeld, Leopold: provides a ‘feast’ for music lovers (1941), 1; deported and gassed (1942), 2

  Birnbaum (in Warsaw): a round-up at his house (1942), 1; killed, with his family, 2

  Bischoff, SS Major: letter of (1939), 1 n. 2

  Biskowitz, Yaakov: his recollections of a death camp (Sobibor), 1, 2; recalls the Sobibor revolt, 3

  Black Forest: an act of defiance in, 1

  Black Sea: and Jewish refugees, 1, 2, 3, 4; and the sinking of the Struma, 5

  Blagovshchina: mass murder-site near (1941), 1, 2 n. 3

  Blajman, David: murdered, with his wife (1942), 1

  Blaskowitz, Field Marshal: reports death of Jewish children (1939), 1

  Blaszczyk, Henryk: and the Kielce pogrom (1946), 1

  Blechhammer: labour camp at, 1; death march to, 2

  Bleyer, Moshe: a twin who survived, 1

  Bleyer, Tibi: killed, 1

  Blizyn: labour camp at, 1; labourers at, evacuated to Auschwitz, 2

  Blobel, SS Colonel Paul: and the digging up and burning of corpses (1943), 1, 2

  ‘Blobel Commando’: in Lvov, 1; at Ponary, 2, 3; at Babi Yar, 4; near Chelm, 5, 6; at Kovno, 7; at Bialystok, 8

  Bloch, Marc: executed (1944), 1

  Bloch, Zelo: and plans for revolt, 1

  Blom, Jacob: deported, aged ninety, 1

  Bloom, Marcus: his death at Mauthausen (1944), 1

  Bluestein, Motl: shot (1942), 1

  Blum, Abrasha: tortured, then shot (1943), 1

  Blum, Cwajga: shot (1941), 1

  Blum, René: deported, 1

  Blumenfeld, Rabbi Jechiel Meir: saved, and then shot (1942), 1

  Blumenfrucht, Harry: hanged (1942), 1

  Bobrek: labour camp at, 1

  Bobruisk: ‘rebellious’ Jews shot (1941), 1

  Bochnia: Jewish fighting organization in, 1 n. 2; Jews deported from (September 1943), 3 n. 4

  Bodzentyn: three Jews murdered at (1942), 1; two more Jews murdered at (1942), 2

  Boetim, Dr Karol: dies (1941), 1

  Bogdanovka: mass murder of Jews at (1941), 1, 2

  Bohdanowicz, Stanislaw: an eye-witness to deportation trains, 1; witnesses a deportation, 2; and the death of an escapee, 3

  Bohemia: 1, 2, 3; to be placed ‘ahead of the line’, 4; further deportations planned from (1942), 5

  Boim, Efim: leads a resistance group (1941), 1

  Boleslawiec: eight Jews killed in, after liberation (1945), 1

  Bolivia: 1

  Bologna: Jews deported from (1943), 1

  Bolzano: a train reaches Auschwitz from, 1

  Bor: forced labour camp at, 1; a death march from, 2

  Bordeaux: Jews saved in (1940), 1; an act of resistance in (1940), 2

  Borenheim, Albert: shot (1941), 1

  Borki: bodies dug up at, 1

  Bormann, Martin: and ‘instructions’ from Hitler (1943), 1

  Bornstein, Dr Roman: reports Jews killed by Poles, 1

  Boryslaw: mass murder at (1941), 1, 2 n. 3

  Borzykowski, Tuvia: and resistance in Warsaw (1943), 1, 2; and the Warsaw ghetto uprising (April 1943), 3, 4; and the Polish uprising in Warsaw (August 1944), 5; given shelter, 6; and the moment of liberation, 7

  Bosel, Siegmund: shot (1942), 1

  Bosnia: destruction of Jews in, 1

  Bothmann, SS Captain Hans: and a reprisal (1944), 1; and the final executions at Chelmno (1945), 2

  Botter, Aryeh: shot (1941), 1

  Botwin, Dawid: in the Lodz ghetto, 1

  Boycott: of Jewish shops (Berlin, 1933), 1

  Bracha (from Opoczno): ‘My baby hasn’t even been born yet’, 1; ‘why is he doomed’, 2

  Brack, SS Colonel Dr Viktor: and poison gas, 1; and need for ‘a faster pace’, 2

  Braham, Randolph: ‘nothing was impossible’, 1

  Braier, Gedalia: urges Jews to escape, 1

  Brailov: an act of courage in (1942), 1

  Brajtman, Elja: executed (1939), 1, 2 n. 3

  Brams, Hannah (Ania): shot (1943), 1

  Brams, Dr Maurycy: shot (1943), 1

  Brand, Joel: and a proposed ‘sale’ of Jews, 1

  Brandt, Dr Karl: provides skeletons, 1

  Brandt, Rudolf: and the ‘secrecy’ needed for medical experiments (1942), 1, 2 n. 1

  Braslaw, Shmuel: helps organize an attack on a warehouse in Warsaw, 1; killed (1942), 2

  Bratislava: Jews escape through (1941), 1; Jews deported from (1944), 2; a Jew from, liberated (1945), 3

  Braunschweig (Brunswick): anti-Jewish attacks in (1933), 1

  Bräutigam, Otto: and ‘clarification of the Jewish question’ (1941), 1, 2 n. 3

  Brazil: 1

  Bremen: 1; Jews deported to Minsk from (1941), 2

  Breslau: anti-Jewish measures in (1933), 1; Jews deported to Kovno from (1941), 2; and the ‘final solution’, 3; the results of medical experiments sent to, 4; Jewesses from camps in the region of, evacuated to a camp near Lübeck, 5

  Breslauer, Arie: and attempts to protect Jews in Budapest, 1

  Brest-Litovsk: Jews attacked in (1937), 1; occupied by Soviet troops (1939), 2; mass murder of Jews after German conquest of (1941), 3, 4; executions near (1942), 5

  Bretholz, Leo: deported from Drancy, 1; escapes from the deportation train, 2

  Brezany: mass murder at (1941), 1, 2 n. 3

  Briedys, Janis: helps Jews, 1

  Brisgys, Bishop: ‘will not admit any Jews’, 1

  Britain: 1, 2; German Jews emigrate to (1933), 3, 4, 5; Jews flee to (1939), 6; declares war on Germany (1939), 7; takes no offensive action against Germany, 8, 9; abused by Nazis, 10; Jews reach from Holland (1940), 11; puts pressure against Jewish refugees (1940), 12; and the death of Heydrich (1942), 13; an officer from, witnesses the fate of seven Jews at Mauthausen (1943), 14; protests from, concerning the Hungarian deportations (1944), 15; a Jew from, killed at Mauthausen, 16; revulsion in (1945), 17, 18; Jews driven to seek new homes in (1946), 19

  British army: soldiers from, enter Belsen (1945), 1

  Brno: Jews deported from, 1; Jewesses receive medical help from, 2

  Broad, SS Corporal Pery: his account of a massacre (1942), 1

  Brodnica: Jewish women murdered at (1945), 1

  Brodskiy, I.: escapes, later killed in action, 1

  Brody: Jewish partisans near, destroyed, 1; deportation and resistance at
, 2; Jewish Fighting Organization in, 3 n. 4

  Brome, Vincent: told of fate of seven Jews at Mauthausen, 1

  Brona, leek: dies (1941), 1

  Bronstein (a carpenter): and a labour camp revolt, 1

  Bronsztejn, Helen: ‘They won’t do it to us’, 1

  Brooklyn: a message to (1941), 1

  Broyde, Berl: killed (1943), 1

  Brudzew: Jews from, sent to their deaths (1941), 1, 2 n. 2

  Brunner, Alois: kills a Jew (1942), 1

  Brünnlitz: Jews sent to forced labour at, 1; Jews deported from Plaszow, find safety at, 2; an act of rescue at, 3

  Bruskin, Pawel: killed (1943), 1

  Brussels: Jews find haven in (1939), 1; German forces enter (1940), 2

  Brzesc Kujawski: and a deception during a deportation (1942), 1

  Brzezie: Jewish girls find refuge in, 1

  Brzeziny: a deportation from (1942), 1; belongings of Jews from, reach Lodz, 2

  Brzuchowice: a Jew in, 1

  Buber, Marceli: killed (1943), 1

  Bubes, Hirsz: murdered after the Germans have left (1944), 1

  Bucharest: riots in (1936), 1; and the Iron Guard (1940), 2

  Buchau: Jews murdered at (1945), 1

  Buchenwald (concentration camp): established (1938), 1; Jews murdered at (1938), 2; Jews deported to (1941), 3; Jews from, gassed (1941), 4; a deportation to Auschwitz from (1942), 5; a deportation from Auschwitz to a factory near (1944), 6; a death march to, 7; evacuations to (1945), 8, 9; a death march from, 10; survivors from, murdered after liberation, 11

  Bucher, Flora: not to leave Germany, 1

  Buchman, Avraham: recalls a death march (1940), 1

  Buczacz: mass murder in (1941), 1; a deportation from (1943), 2; a round-up near (1944), 3

  Budapest: anti-Jewish Law in (1939), 1; fate of Jews from, 2; Jews deported to Kamenets Podolsk from, and killed (1941), 3; German measures against Jews in (1944), 4, 5; Jews protected in, 6, 7; Fascists seize power in (October 1944), 8; a Jewess executed in (November 1944), 9; Fascist terror in (November 1944–January 1945), 10, 11

  Budnik, David: escapes, later gives evidence, 1

  Budy (near Auschwitz): a massacre at (1942), 1

  Budzyn: labour camp at, 1; a deportation from, 2

  Buffum, David H.: a witness (1938), 1

  Bug, River: 1, 2, 3; Jews driven to (1939), 4; forced labour camps at (1941), 5; the German border at (1939), 6; a labour camp near, 7; death camps near (1942), 8, 9, 10; killings east of (1942), 11; a labour camp on, 12; a Pole flees across, 13; Jews helped at (1943), 14; Jews join Soviet partisans near, 15

  Bugaj: murder of Jews from (1942), 1, 2, 3

  Buhler, Dr Joseph: would ‘welcome the start of the final solution’ (1942), 1

  Bulgaria: Jews reach safety of (1940), 1; and the ‘final solution’, 2, 3; and the deportation of Jews from Macedonia and Thrace (1943), 4; Jews of, not to be deported, 5, 6; a protest to, 7; and a German propaganda proposal, 8

  Bulgaria, King of: intervenes to protect Jews (1943), 1

  Buna works (at Monowitz): 1, 2

  Bureau IV-D-4: established (30 January 1940), 1; and the eastern killings (1941), 2; and the gassing of Jews (1941), 3; and deportations from the Reich to the East (1942), 4; the final deportation of (April 1945), 5

  Burgenland: Jews driven from (1938), 1

  Burger, Max: recalls deportation (1939), 1

  Bursztyn, Israel: shot (1941), 1

  Burzec: Jews in hiding near, denounced, 1

  Busse, Otto (a German): helps Jews, 1

  Butrimonys: mass murder at (1941), 1

  Butrin, Adam: saves three Jews, 1

  Buzhminski, Isidore: killed (1942), 1

  Buzhminski, Josef: and his brother’s death, 1; eye-witness to a deportation, 2; eye-witness to a killing, 3

  Bydgoszcz: fate of a Jew from (1942), 1

  Byelorussia: see index entry for White Russia

  Bystrzyca: all Jews shot at (1942), 1

  Byten: mass murder at (1942), 1

  Cabili, Salvator: eight months old, deported and killed (1942), 1

  Cahn, Ernst: his alleged ‘resistance’ (1941), 1; shot, 2

  Calo, Elena: aged six, deported to Auschwitz, 1

  Calonder, Felix: and the Jews of Upper Silesia, 1

  Campbell, Sir Ronald: protests (1940), 1, 2 n. 3

  Canada: 1, 2

  ‘Canada’: at Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1, 2

  Canea: Jews seized in, and killed (1944), 1 n. 2

  Cannibalism: evidence of, at Belsen, 1; recalled, at Mauthausen, 2

  Canterbury, Archbishop of: and a protest meeting (1942), 1

  Cap Arcona: fate of Jews on (1945), 1

  Carlebach, Ezriel: and his uncle, 1 n. 2

  Carlebach, Chief Rabbi Joseph: deported to Riga (1941), 1; murdered (1942), 2

  Carlsbad: and Warsaw (in 1940), 1

  Carvell, J. E. M.: issues Palestine Certificates (1937), 1

  Casablanca: conference at (1943), 1

  Caspari, Professor Wilhelm: dies (1944), 1

  Castres: Jews in liberation of, 1

  Caucasus, the: German army reaches, 1, 2

  Cavendish-Bentinck, Victor: reports on killing of Jews in Poland after liberation (1946), 1

  Cavilio, Josef: his family helped by a Muslim, 1

  Central Office of Emigration (Berlin): 1

  Central Office for Jewish Resettlement (1939), 1

  Cervenka: six hundred Jews shot at (1944), 1

  Chajet, Ruth: and the final evacuation from Riga (August 1944), 1

  Chalef, Chaim: a partisan, 1

  Chamberlain, Houston Stewart: and the concept of ‘Semitic’ races, 1

  Chamberlain, Neville: allows Jewish children to enter Britain (1938), 1; on the motives of German persecution (1939), 2

  Chambon-sur-Lignon, Le: Jews hidden in, 1

  Chameides, Rabbi: given sanctuary, 1

  Channel Islands: a labour camp on, 1, 2

  Chanukkah (Jewish festival): Jews shot during (1941), 1; celebrated at Monowitz (1944), 2

  Chaplinka: three Jewish families shot in (1942), 1

  Charin, Dr Julian: betrayed, and shot (1943), 1

  Charnoleskaya, Dr: commits suicide, with others (1943), 1

  Chelm: deportation from (1939), 1; Sobibor death camp near (1942), 2; Jews deported to Belzec from (1942), 3; an execution in (28 May 1942), 4; to be linked by rail with Sobibor, 5; a deportation from Paris to, 6; reinforcements from, against a revolt, 7; bodies dug up near, 8

  Chelmek: a labour camp at, 1

  Chelmno (Kulmhof): gassing of Jews at, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8; gassing of gypsies at, 9; an eye-witness to mass murder at (6 January 1942), 10; gassings continued at (1942), 11, 12, 13, 14, 15; news of, reaches Warsaw, 16; renewed deportations to, from Lodz (4 May 1942), 17; a report of, reaches Warsaw (1 June 1942), 18; defects of gas-vans at ‘a solitary case’, 19; renewed deportations to, 20, 21, 22; death toll in, 23; and complaints concerning clothing from, 24; renewed deportations from Lodz to (June-July 1944), 25, 26; revolt at (January 1945), 27; a Jew who escaped deportation to, murdered after liberation, 28

  Chernigov: two Jews killed east of (1941), 1

  Chernis, Dr: in Minsk, 1

  Chernov, Sergeant Major V. D.: his ‘courage’ (1942), 1

  Chicago: swastika flags burnt in (1938), 1

  Chief Rabbi’s Emergency Council (Poland): a car from, attacked (1946), 1

  Chigier, Jacob: killed (1943), 1

  Chigier, Jerzy: hidden, with his family, in the sewers of Lvov, 1

  Chile: 1, 2

  Chlebowski, Israel: gassed (1942), 1

  Chlodna Street (Warsaw): an incident on, 1

  Chmura, Mordecai: ‘a proud Jew’, and his death (1942), 1

  Cholawski, Shalom: his recollections, 1; and the Nieswiez ghetto revolt (July 1942), 2, 3; and the ‘day of liberation’ (in 1944), 4; returns to his home town, 5

  Chorazycki, Dr Julian: tries to organize revolt at Treblinka, 1; kill
ed (1943), 2; continued preparations for revolt after the death of, 3

  Chorbrzany: ‘Those damned Jews’, 1; the fate of Jews being deported through, 2

  Chorostkow: mass murder at (1941), 1

  Choroszcza: two Jews attacked on their return to, after liberation, 1

  Christian, Private: witnesses mass murder (1942), 1

  Christianity: no protection on the way to Chelmno, 1

  Christmas: Jews beaten up on (1940), 1; in the Lodz ghetto (1941), 2; seven Jews must die by (1943), 3; and an escape from Kovno (1943), 4; and an escape from Borki (1943), 5; and Birkenau (1943), 6

  Chrzastowski, Getzel: at Chelmno, 1, 2, 3, 4

  Churchill, Randolph: and a scheme to help Jews, 1

  Churchill, Winston: warns of ‘some hideous catastrophe’ (1937), 1; tells of ‘methodical, merciless butchery’ (1941), 2; and the Jewish ‘will to resist’, 3; and ‘the most bestial’ of offences (1942), 4; and ‘these vile crimes’ (1942), 5; at Casablanca (1943), 6; circulates photographs of mass murder (1945), 7

  Ciechanow: Jews deported from, 1

  Ciechanowiec: Jews from, recaptured, 1

  Cifea, Tibor: shot (1944), 1

  Cipper, Polka: whipped (1942), 1

  Clark, General Mark: and Algerian resistance, 1

  Clauberg, Professor: and medical experiments, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

  Cleve: 1

  Cluj: recollections of a girl from, at Auschwitz, 1; on a death march, 2

  Coblenz: Jews deported from region of (1942), 1

  Cohn, Benno: recalls Berlin (1933), 1, 2; recalls a friend of the Jews (1938), 3

  Cohn, Haim: and his uncle, 1 n. 2

  Cohn, Marianne: executed (1944), 1

  Cologne: 1, 2; deportations from (1941), 3, 4 n. 5; Jews from, in Lodz, deported to Chelmno, 6; bombed, with psychological repercussions in Warsaw, 7

  Colombia: 1

  Compiègne: Jews deported from detention camp at (1942), 1

  Constanta (Rumania): 1

  Constantine (Algeria): twenty-three Jews killed (1934), 1

  Constantinople: death of a Jew from, at Auschwitz, 1; see also index entry for Istanbul

  Coombs, Peter: an eye-witness of Belsen after liberation, 1

  Cooperman, Dr: shot (1940), 1

  Copenhagen: 1; occupied by German forces (1940), 2

  Corfu: Jews sent to Auschwitz from, 1, 2

  Council for Assistance to Jews: set up in Warsaw, 1

  Council for German Jewry (Hull): 1

  Council of Jewish Elders: to be established in each town of German-occupied Poland (1939), 1; for subsequent index entries see Jewish Councils