Archive for September 2009
Holocaust Images – The boy in the Photo?
The Boy in the Photo?
The Warsaw Ghetto & The Stroop Report
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The above photo is one of the most iconic photographs of the Holocaust, the German Guard pointing the machine gun is known, the little boy is not known, but some of the other people captured in this photo, have been identified.
The photo was included in the infamous Stroop Report – “The Warsaw Ghetto no longer exists.”
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Extracts from the book by Richard Raskin
The Boy in the Photograph
There are four possible identities for the little boy at gunpoint.
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Artur Dab Siemiatek
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The destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto |
It was advanced as early as 1950, but documentation was first found in 1977-78, one source was responsible for making the claim, a woman named Jadwiga Piesecka, who was a resident of Warsaw.
According to a statement she signed on 24 January 1977, the boy in the photograph was named Artur Siemiatek born in Lowicz in 1935.
He was the son of Leon Siemiatek, and Sara Dab and the grandson of the signatory’s brother Josef Dab.
A similar attestation was signed the following year in Paris by Jadwiga Piesecka’s husband, Henryk Piasecki, dated 28 December 1978.
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Tsvi Nussbaum
In 1982 a 47 year old ear, nose and throat specialist in Rockland County New York, came forward that in 1943, at the age of seven, he had been arrested in Warsaw and ordered to raise his hands by an SS man standing in front of him and aiming a gun at him. And although he could not recall that a photograph was taken, Dr Nussbaum believes that he might be the child in the picture.
Tsvi Nussbaum expressed uncertainty that he was the boy in the photo, whilst others say that it is him. There are indeed two specific factors that heavily way up, against him being that boy.
The first is that although he was arrested in Warsaw, he had never set foot in the ghetto- the second is the date he was arrested. Tsvi Nussbaum clearly remembers that he was arrested on 13 July 1943. This was nearly two months after the Stroop report is thought to have been completed, and sent to Himmler and Kruger.
In the early 30’s Nussbaum’s parents emigrated from Poland to Palestine, where Tsvi was born in 1935. When conflicts broke out between the Jews and the Arabs in Palestine, the Nussbaum family returned to Poland, settling in Sandomierz in 1939.
By 1942 Tsvi Nussbaum parents had been murdered by the Nazis, and he was brought from Sandomiercz to live with an Aunt and Uncle, in hiding, on the Aryan section of the city.
Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/boy.html
The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
ww.HolocaustResearchProject.org
Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2009
SS School for Scoundrels! Bad Rabka
Bad Rabka and Zakopane – SD School’s
“The Schools for Scoundrels”
Establishment of SD School at Zakopane
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During the first months after the occupation of Poland, the Commander –in – Chief of the Security Police (Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des Sicherheitsdienst) SS- Brigadefuhrer Bruno Streckenbach founded the Sipo- SD School close to the Slovak border in Zakopane.
Zakopane a winter resort at the bottom of the high Tatra mountains, the purpose of the school was to train selected candidates of the Sipo-SD, collaborating Ukrainians, Polish Police Officers and other Sipo-SD personnel including intelligence gathering sympathisers (V- Agents) under the leadership of the Commandant SS- Hauptsturmfuhrer Hans Kruger.
Zakopane was turned into an entertainment centre for senior officers of the SS and Werhmacht, all Jews were supposed to have been removed from the district by the end of November 1939, and in 1940 this was achieved.
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The Nazis had set them to work uncovering hidden Jewish “treasures” in the town. Some two-hundred documents relating to the three years of the activity of the Judenrat in Zakopane have survived the war. Immediately after the Nazi take-over, Zakopane’s largest hotel, the “Palace” was converted into the headquarters of the Gestapo. The main hall on the first floor of the hotel was reserved for dances and entertainment for the officers.
Part of the building served as the “labour bureau,” where Jews were sent to register for forced labour. The deep cellars served as an interrogation centre and prison for Jews accused of breaking Nazi rules. According to a number of Jewish witnesses who survived the war, as many as 300 Jews were murdered at the “Palace,” many of them women and children. The “Palace” was known locally as “Death’s Head Resort.”
The leading Nazi officials at the time were the Chief of Gestapo, Robert Weissmann, and his deputy Richard Samish. In late 1939, on the outskirts of Zakopane the Sipo- SD Academy was established in the Hotel “Stamary.” On 20 April 1940, SS- Untersturmfuhrer Wilhelm Rosenbaum was appointed as Police Secretary at the school and deputy to the Commandant SS- Hauptsturmfuhrer Hans Kruger.
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Rosenbaum’s duties were more of a pastoral care nature, arranging board and lodgings, salaries, welfare of conscripts and general administrative duties. Among the other permanent staff were the brothers Wilhelm and Johann Mauer, who had been seconded for duty at the school.
The brothers, once officers in the Polish army and who spoke Ukrainian, their sister, Lisa Schumacher, nee Kaufmann, performed office work. The kitchen and feeding arrangements were organised by local Polish personnel, the curriculum and training at the school, underwent changes as the war progressed of the war.
Selective recruitment of the SS security services, Ukrainian and Polish collaborators were trained in intelligence and counter-intelligence activities. In Zakopane, through the intermediary of the Jewish Council (Judenrat) Rosenbaum selected male and female workers from the Jewish population for maintenance and cleaning work, care of the gardens and other heavy manual tasks.
The Jew, Paul Beck, was appointed overseer of the Jewish workers to liaise with the SS. With his experience in practical things and a good portion of deceitfulness, Beck who spoke a number of languages knew how to conduct himself and mediate between the Jewish workers and the German authorities.
When in July 1940, the school and its permanent staff moved from Zakopane to Bad Rabka, a number of Jewish workers, among them Paul Beck, to move there. It was at this time the Jews residing in the surrounding areas began to feel and experience the Nazi onslaught on their communities.
The SD School Moves to Bad Rabka
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Bad Rabka was a small health resort located on both sides of the Raba River and halfway between Krakow and Zakopane. At the outbreak of war there were approximately 7,000 inhabitants in Rabka. The Jewish population was about 1,500, which increased during the early part of the war. Relatives and friends of the local Jews moved from the larger towns to the area less exposed to persecution elsewhere. This was an age-old custom of Jews who sought protection and comfort in numbers in times of stress.
Institutions and offices of the Reich and Wehrmacht as well as other organizations, established themselves in Bad Rabka. Apart from the local Governor’s office and government departments, there was a military convalescent home, children’s homes and a German guesthouse. Bad Rabka enjoyed all the trappings of a small town, well-served by both road and rail. The adjoining railway station of Chabowka was a central junction for the larger towns in Poland, which also served Bad Rabka.
The SD School initially occupied premises of a requisitioned Jewish religious institution for children, situated near the Chabowka railway station. In the late autumn the school moved to new and much larger premises to the “Theresianeum,” also called Thereska, a high school for girls.
The four-storey building was located in the northern part of the town called Slonna, on a tree –covered slope alongside the Slonna River, that flowed into the the Raba River. SS- Hauptsturmfuhrer Hans Kruger arrived with his entourage to the newly converted school and remained there for a short time, when he was recalled to Krakow to take up the duties of deputy to the BdS Dr Eberhardt Schongarth.
For a short period SS- Hauptsturmfuhrer Rudolf Voigtlander took over the command of the school, but within a few weeks Rosenbaum was appointed Commandant of the school, where he remained until April 1941, when he was also recalled to Dr Schongarth’s office for preparatory work for “Operation Barbarossa”, the German invasion of the Soviet Union.
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The SD – Sipo school at Bad Rabka’s activities were suspended but retained a small staff to look after the premises. The school did not recommence activities until November 1941, when both Dr Schorngarth, and Rosenbaum returned from military duties in East Galicia.
In the late autumn of 1941, when Dr Schongarth’s Einsatzgruppen (zbV) had been disbanded and the personnel distributed throughout East Galicia, Schongarth and Rosenbaum returned to Krakow. Dr Schongarth resumed his duties as Commander –in Chief of the Security Police (BdS), whilst Rosenbaum returned to Bad Rabka as Economic Leader (Wirtscharfuhrer) of the SD- Sipo school to prepare and rebuild the school for new courses.
Within days of the Rabka School becoming operational, a large black flag and a swastika was prominently mounted on the roof, and in large black letters, the following was displayed across the top floor of the building.
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BEFEHLSHABER der SICHERHEITSPOLIZEI und des SD im GG SCHULE des SICHERHEITSPOLIZEI |
Rosenbaum had no authority or influence in the educational training at the school. As “Wirtschaftsbeamter” his duties were the same as in Zakopane, that is to arrange accommodation for students attending courses.
As a measure of Dr Schongarth’s opinion of him, Rosenbaum was titled “Headmaster” but despite this unflattering title, as Commandant of the School he wielded enormous power. Rosenbaum remained as administrator of the School until the spring of 1943, when the activities of the school were the subject to internal SS criminal and corruption investigations, when he was removed to other duties. During this period, the crimes for which he was indicted after the war were committed.
Candidates
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Selected candidates for the school were recruited from a number of sources, but mainly from the Security Services, Polish Police officers, Ukrainian Security collaborators, including Ukrainian Prisoners of War from internment camps, and the more established SS training camp at Trawniki, near Lublin. Ukrainian candidates were required to be healthy men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five who were ranked and segregated according to their standard of education.
The Rabka School since its transfer from Zakopane had introduced specialist Ukrainian instructors, namely the Mauer brothers, and SS-Scharfuhrer’s Wosdolowicz, Jaworski and Vasilko, who were all previously at Zakopane, and transferred to Bad Rabka to supervise and train Ukrainian recruits.
In overall command of training was SS-Scharfuhrer’s Bohnert and Schuppler, who had been members of the permanent staff since November 1940. SS- Scharfuhrer Bandure was the school driver and SS-Scharfuhrer Dziuba was the clerical officer. SS-Oberscharfuhrer Hermann Oder joined the school in March 1942 and SS- Hauptscharfuhrer’s Walter Proch and Pohland joined the small team in July 1942, and acted as deputies to Rosenbaum.
Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/sdschool.html
The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
www.HolocaustResearchProject.org
Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2009
The worst man in the world! Odilo Globocnik
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“The Worst Man in the World”
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Globocnik addressing troops in Trieste |
Odilo Globocnik was born in Trieste on 21 April 1904 he was the son of an Austrian Croat family of petty officials and a builder by profession.
He joined the Nazi Party in Carinthia Austria in 1930 and became a “radical” leader of its factory cells in the province. In 1933 Globocnik joined the SS and was appointed deputy district leader of the NSDAP in Austria.
He was imprisoned for over a year for a number of political offences, he may have even murdered the Jewish jeweller Futterweiss. Globocnik re-emerged as a key liaison man between Hitler and the Austrian National Socialists, he was appointed provincial Nazi chief of Carinthia in 1936, and subsequently he was promoted to Gauleiter of Vienna on 24 May 1938.
But his decline was soon at; Globocnik was using an astonishing number of dirty tricks, particularly in financial matters.
Another was that he was an absolutely uncompromising person who was extremely successful in finding new opponents and enemies in the party ranks, mainly in the Catholic wing of the NSDAP.
A major factor was the fact that Hermann Göring (ReichsMarshall) endeavoured to have Globocnik removed from his high party office. On January 30, 1939, Globocnik was suspended as a Gauleiter and replaced by Josef Burckel.
Globocnik was pardoned by Himmler and appointed on 9 November 1939 as SS and Police Leader for the Lublin district in Poland. Globocnik was a brutal police commander who not only waged a terrible war on Polish Jewry, but who carried out drastic population expulsions in the Zamosc Lands, to germanise the Lublin area.
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He was chosen by Himmler as the central figure in Operation Reinhard – named after Reinhard Heydrich, no doubt because of his scandalous past record and well-known virulent anti-semitism.
Put in charge of a special company of SS men not subordinate to any higher authority and responsible only to Himmler, Globocnik founded three death camps as part of Aktion Reinhard, and one combined death camp and concentration camp Majdanek (Lublin).
Globocnik drew rich rewards from the slaughter of 1.7 million Jews whose property ranging from their houses and valuables down to the gold in their teeth was seized by the SS.
As Globocnik’s Summary Reports show, he carried out Himmler’s orders with brutal efficiency and by November 1943 Operation Reinhard had been completed and the three death camps directly under his control were liquidated.
Aktion Reinhard had consisted of four separate tasks:
Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ar/globocknik.html
The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
www.HolocaustResearchProject.org
Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2009
Mischlinge “Nazi classification for Germans of mixed race”
“Nazi classification for Germans of mixed race”
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Nazi efforts to safeguard the “purity of race” by codifying racial distinctions affected Jewish life in Germany at almost every turn. According to most definitions, a Jew is either born into the Jewish people, or becomes one through religious conversion. The debate centers around some of the following questions:
- Mixed parentage debate – tries to identify when people with mixed parentage should be considered Jewish, and when they should not be.
- Conversion debate – centers around the process of religious conversion in an attempt to specify which conversions to Judaism should be considered valid, and which should not.
- Life circumstances debate – focuses on whether people’s actions (such as conversion to a different religion) or circumstances in their lives (such as being unaware of Jewish parentage) affect their status as a Jew.
As defined by the Nuremberg laws in 1935, a Jew was somebody who had at least three Jewish grandparents — regardless of religious affiliation or self-identification. The latter did matter for people with two Jewish grandparents: if they belonged to the Jewish religion or were married to Jews, they were classified as Jewish; if neither, they were considered Mischlinge of the first degree.
Somebody with only one Jewish grandparent was classified as a Mischlinge of the second degree.
Persons meeting the 1st or 2nd degree Mischlinge criteria were often Roman Catholic by religion: In the 19th Century a sizable number of German Jews converted to Christianity, with virtually all of those doing so choosing to become Roman Catholics rather than Protestants; as a result, due to intermarriage, a number of Roman Catholics in Germany had some traceable Jewish ancestry by the time the Nazis came to power.
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For comparative purposes, a person is considered Jewish under Halacha (Jewish law) if born from a Jewish mother or if she/he converted to Judaism according to established procedure. (There is no such thing as a “half-Jew” in Judaism, and the race or ancestry of converts is considered irrelevant.)
A Gentile convert to Judaism would have been considered Aryan by the Nazis (although probably would have been persecuted as “Volksfeindlich”, i.e., inimical to the German Volk), while a person with three Jewish grandparents and a Gentile maternal grandmother would have been considered Jewish by the Nazis but Gentile according to Jewish law.
(Conversely, a person with three Gentile grandparents but a Jewish maternal grandmother would have been considered a Mischlinge of the 2nd degree by the Nazis but considered a Jew according to Jewish law.)
According to the 1939 Reich census, there were about 72,000 Mischlinge of the 1st degree, some 39,000 of the 2nd degree, and tens of thousands more of higher degrees.
At the Wannsee Conference, on Jan. 20, 1942, the Final Solution was decided on, for the Jews. The fate of the Mischlinge was addressed. But the Nazi hierarchy couldn’t agree on a course of action. It was proposed, and almost decided, that the Mischlinge of the second degree, if they looked like Jews, or, “behaved” and “felt” like Jews, they would be deported as Jews.
Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/holoprelude/mischlinge.html
The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
www.HolocaustResearchProject.org
Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2009
