Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team WordPress Blog

Resistance at the Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw!

holocaustresearchproject — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 23:20:46 +0000

Report from the Jewish Workers Underground Movement

22 June 1943

What follows is an excerpt from a report by the Jewish Labour Underground of Poland, which reached the American representatives of the General Jewish Workers Union of Poland – the Bund – through underground channels via London. It is dated 22 June 1943.

Pre war photo of the Jewish Workers Movement

A characteristic trait of this new extermination campaign waged by the Germans against the Jews is armed resistance on the part of the Jews. During the previous wave of extermination such acts of armed resistance were seldom dared. Once in a while we would receive word about such desperate deeds from one small town or another. Now the entire situation has changed radically. The leading role is being played by the Ghetto of Warsaw.

The first clashes on the streets of the Warsaw Ghetto occurred from 19 until 23 January 1943. That was the beginning of the battle between the armed German Police, SS men and the Jewish Armed Resistance Organisation, which made its first appearance at that time. The January clashes were an embarrassing surprise for the Germans, and were very promising for the future – a prelude of events to come.

Unfortunately lack of space prevents us from describing the historic events that occurred in the Warsaw Ghetto after the January clashes with the precision and esteem that even the smallest detail deserves. This must and shall be done at some future date.

The fight between the Jews and Germans in April and May 1943, that which has been termed the “Battle of Ghettograd” (Ghettograd – reminiscent of the stubbornness of Stalingrad), eclipses everything that has ever occurred in the annals of the Jews or any other people. The methods and means of the fighting, forced on the belligerents by the special circumstances in the Ghetto, varied in accordance with the various phases of the Battle.

The heart-breaking picture of the Ghetto in flames – shrouded in smoke, the noise of machine guns, cannons, field artillery, mine explosions, the destruction of blocks of buildings, the hell that was unleashed on our people – will forever remain in our memory. No man of letters, no painter will ever be able to recreate the greatness of the events we witnessed, nor the emotions that overwhelmed us during those tragic and historic days.

SWIT members (Polish Underground Radio

The Battle that began on 19 April lasted about a month, however, even at the end of May there was still some resistance.

The backbone of the entire battle was the Jewish Armed Resistance Organisation, which led the people into the fight. The organisation is the armed body of the Co-ordinating Committee, which comprises an equal number of representatives of the Bund and the Jewish National Committee. Neither the Revisionists (a Zionist Group), nor the Agudah (religious Jews) belonged to the Jewish Armed Resistance Organisation.

The Revisionists organised a small “Organisation for vengeance,” of their own which ceased to exist after the second day of the Battle. Workers and youth formed the majority in the Jewish Armed Resistance Organisation. The youngest was Lusiek, thirteen years of age, a member of the Bund youth group, Skif the oldest member of the organisation was forty.

All the members of the resistance organisation were idealists, adherents of various political trends. Their fraternity in battle (Bundists, Chalucym, Shomrim and others) was exemplary. The general attitude of the inhabitants of the Ghetto towards the idea of resisting the Nazis changed radically from what it was a year ago.

It would be wrong and unjust to presume that the heroic spirit and determination of the defenders of the Ghetto was but a result of despair. Many a fighter had ample opportunity to rescue himself by leaving the Ghetto. However, the fighters were full of a noble sense of duty, a soldier’s duty, of a powerful desire to carry on the fight for honour, for human dignity.

They were anxious to take revenge on Fascism, on the enemy of their people, on the enemy of mankind. The precautions of the Germans bordered on cowardice. The prolonged heroic resistance of the Ghetto banished the legend of the invincibility of the German Army, showed the Polish nation its vast possibilities in resisting the Nazis and strengthened its self-reliance. The “Jewish – German War” lent strength to the splendid spirit of resistance against the Germans, with which the Polish Underground had already been marked.

Being perfectly aware of this situation, the Germans gave vent to their rage and fury by turning the entire Ghetto into one mass of ruins. On the fifth day of the Battle, the Jewish Armed Resistance Organisation published a manifesto addressed to the Polish Underground, and to the inhabitants of our capital, conveying greetings from the Jewish Underground fighters.

German soldiers shelling the Warsaw ghetto

Various sectors of the Polish Underground Labour Movement immediately responded with messages of solidarity and admiration. On the whole, the attitude of the Polish Underground towards the Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto was marked with respect for the fighters and with esteem for their daring.

However, this attitude varied in accordance with the different viewpoints on the Jewish problem of the various parts of the Polish Underground. The capital city of Poland, as well as the entire country, seethed with excitement because of the Battle of the Ghetto.

During the Battle the Co-ordinating Committee of the Bund and the Jewish National Committee issued daily communiqués on the Battle, which appeared in Polish clandestine publications and were broadcast abroad by the Polish clandestine radio station Swit.

The result of the Battle was: several thousand Jews were killed, burnt alive, suffocated by gas and about twenty-five thousand were deported to the concentration camps of Trawniki, Poniatow, Majdanek and Lublin.

Only the ruins of buildings, destroyed by mines, cannons and fires remain where the Ghetto once stood. The Warsaw Ghetto is now one big cemetery. Somewhere in the catacombs hundreds and perhaps thousands of those who survived the battle are still living in agony.

Only two days ago, for example, a thirteen – year old boy appeared from this subterranean world with a message dated 10 June, informing us about “life” in the modern catacombs. The entire bombardment of Warsaw in 1939 caused the destruction of 75,000 homes, while the present Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto ended with the destruction of one hundred and several thousand homes.

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

holocaustresearchproject — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 16:42:30 +0000

The Testimony of Mosche (Moses) Feigenberg

Testimony 2

This document represents testimony of Moses Feigenberg made

as a deposition for the trial of Martin Weiss and other SS men in Germany in 1960

Translation from original German May 2001

[photos added to enhance the text]

Mosche Feigenberg

Testimony of Mosche Feigenberg

First name of the father: Hirsch

Address: Tel-Aviv, Sderot Ben-Zion 23, phone 26611

working place: Hospital Beer-Jaakow

Year of birth: 1909

Place of Birth: District Wilna

Profession: Urological Doctor

Family: married

Religion: Jewish

01.17.60, 5 pm in the apartment of the witness

Interrogator: 180 Sergeant Meir Warschawski

Through the force of article 2 (1) of the criminal-process-order I have written down the testimony of Mosche Feigenberg.

Meir Waschawski 180 Sergeant

I lived in the city of Wilna at the beginning of WW2 and I worked as doctor for urinary illnesses. I have lived in this city about 40 years until my emigration to Israel.

In September of 1941 my family and I were forced to live in the ghetto together with all Wilna Jews. I worked at the Jewish hospital in the ghetto but also as worker outside the ghetto where I cleaned railroads and chopped wood at a place called Sorok Tatari.

One week before the liquidation of the Wilna ghetto in September of 1943 the Nazi administration sent about 1500 Jews from the ghetto into a working camp called HKP and about 1500 Jews in another working camp called Kailis. My family and I came into the HKP camp but the Nazis liquidated both camps at the beginning of July 1944. The liquidation was carried out under the command of the SS and the SD. That happened two weeks before the liberation of the city through the Red Army.

Post war photo of where the HKP camp stood in Vilna

I want to remark that the two camps were located close to the city and that I worked as a Doctor in both of them. I had the opportunity to see all the actions the Gestapo and the SS carried out against the Jewish population, often with the help of the Lithuanian police. I was also there during the children’s liquidation action on March 27th 1944.

I see eleven pictures in front of me (the witness examines 11 pictures that were sent here from Ludwigsburg, the witness takes the picture of Heinrich Schmitz’s face). This picture reminds me of the man whose name I found out later was Heinrich Schmitz. About October 1943 a Jewish family composed of father, mother and a twelve years old daughter was caught when they tried to escape. They were brought back to the camp and hung in front of the public.

The whole camp population was ordered to see the execution. I remember that when the cord around the man’s neck tore, he fell down still alive. He was crying and beseeched the SS man to let him alive. But this man didn’t have mercy and he shot him instantly with his revolver.

The picture of Heinrich Schmitz that I see know corresponds with the identity of the man who shot the hung man. I remember that the SS man’s face was handsome and fine, it was like the face of an actor. About around the time of this incident I often heard at the HKP camp administration that the SS man who was responsible for the Jews was called also Schmitz. He himself was responsible for all kinds of actions against the Jews. I myself saw him shooting the fallen down man.

Martin Weiss

He looks very much alike the picture of the Heinrich Schmitz that I see now. On march 27th 1944 when I was in the HKP camp I saw the liquidation action against Jewish children that was carried out by SS and SD under the personal leadership of Martin Weiss.

The goal of this action was the final and absolute liquidation of all children in the camp. The scared Jews began to hide their children in different hideouts, for example in stoves, in toilets, in barrels and under beds. But the Gestapo carried out a very exact examination of all homes. With the help of axes and hammers they searched the walls and got many children. They brought them all into the backyards to load them on big cars.

The number of children that the Nazis brought out of the camp to send them to an unknown location was about 250. They never came back again. We were lucky enough to hide about a dozen children. I myself brought eight kids into a hideout that I prepared, including my own twelve years old daughter whom I hid in a potato sack. Six out of the eight kids I saved during the liquidation action were brought later also to unknown locations.

I as the camp doctor had the right to walk in the backyards and so I was able to see the whole details of the action. I remember a woman called Zukowska who didn’t want to separate herself from her daughter. She was lead away some meters from the backyard and shot personally by Martin Weiss. Of all the pictures here I recognize also the one that shows Max Gross whom I saw often in the ghetto as well as in the HKP camp. He participated each Sunday in the count of the forced workers during the roll call. He also participated in the children action like many other Gestapo and SS men.

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

ESCAPE FROM THE BELZEC DEATH CAMP!

holocaustresearchproject — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 20:24:15 +0000

SAVED BY A PAIR OF HEELS
By
Julian Cohen

Incorporating the Narrative of Hanna Cohen (Szper),
Transcribed and Translated from the Polish

Hanna & Julian 1947

When the German army punched into Poland on September 1, 1939, my mother’s family still had three weeks before the Nazi conquerors would seize the ancient city of Lublin. The family had lived in Lublin and its environs for centuries. It was a large, learned, middle class family, integrated in Polish society and culture to the degree that Jews were allowed to integrate. My mother, Hanna, lived in a big old townhouse with her parents, her older brother, the customary live-in domestics, and extended family and friends dropping by at all hours of the day.

As the Germans were approaching, my grandmother begged my mother to flee east, to Lwow, to relative safety. Lwow had just been occupied by the Soviets, by prior understanding with Hitler. Although life under the Soviets was harsh and perilous, compared with Nazi domination it was considered the lesser of two evils.

Hanna, twenty-four and a teacher of German literature, was reluctant to leave, but she could not ignore her mother’s entreaties. She took the train to Lwow.

Her travails under the Soviets would end in July 1941, when the Germans, breaking their pact with Stalin, pushed east. Within hours of their entry into Lwow, the Germans sicced Ukrainian mobs to large-scale pogroms of Jews. Later, they decreed that all Jews must relocate to a ghetto.

My mother would have none of it. She decided to escape to Warsaw. On the train to Warsaw, the German Railway Police arrested her.

At this point, the commentator had better move aside, leaving only the translator. Those who saw the face of Chiron while being rowed across the Styx, and who swam back to the shore of memory, have a right to tell their story that cannot be usurped. They have a unique insight, too. The survivor of a holocaust possesses knowledge about the human species that the rest of us are rarely privy to, for he has seen people’s character alloys melting even at the periphery of the evil furnace, revealing their true proportions of base and noble metals.

————————————————————–

“They stopped the train and called one of them, a fat German wearing a helmet. ‘Get off the train with her now. You’ll take her on the first train back to Lwow, to the Gestapo.’

When we got off, I started asking that he let me go. I say to him, ‘What benefit is it to you that they kill me; I am young, what I have with me I will give you.’ And he answers, ‘I would gladly let you go, but if I do that, they will kill me too.’

He hugged me, this old German, and started stroking my hair. He says, ‘Child, I know one hundred percent that you will survive this war, but I will not.’ And he took me on a train to the local police headquarters. I spent the night there, in jail. In the morning, they took me away, and he accompanied me.

At the jail, they conducted the first interrogation: who I am. He sat to the side. There was an officer and two sergeants, and they conducted the interrogation. At a certain moment, the officer takes a carbine off a wall rack and orders one of the sergeants: ‘Take her downstairs.’ And the fat one with the helmet winks at me, so that I won’t be afraid. Then he got up, poured and gave me a glass of water. This was a man with a heart. And in the morning, he transported me to the Gestapo, and there I had a real investigation.

I only remember that there was a large commission. One of them walked me to the window and said, ‘You see that tree? From that tree you will hang.’ Everything was in German.

Then they threw me into a small cell where there were already some thirty people, Jews. Suddenly they opened the door, and threw in a young Polish woman. She cries, ‘Woe, they caught me, woe.’

Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ar/belzec/belzecescape.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Holocaust Diaries – David Sierakowiak!

holocaustresearchproject — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 15:42:55 +0000

The Diary of David Sierakowiak

David Sierakowiak

David’s diary begins on 28 June 1939, just before his fifteenth birthday, and comes to an abrupt end on 15 April 1943. David himself died later in August 1943, “presumably” of tuberculosis; however, many others in the ghetto (including his sister) would have to endure another full year of torment before the ghetto’s final liquidation and the deportation of the remaining Jews to Auschwitz.

Although we don’t know why David stopped keeping his diary during the last four months of his life, the entries that he did write reveal the harshness and suffering the ghetto inhabitants faced almost daily. The text presents the reader with a sombre look into what it meant to exist in a community ravaged by never-ending starvation, constant fear, terrible sickness, and inevitable death.

In similar fashion to Anne Frank’s Diary, with which David’s diary is often compared, his writing presents events within the context of the times, and also offers the viewpoint of someone who was there when the events really happened, as seen through the eyes of a young boy desperately struggling to become a man.

Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/Lodz/ds.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2011

Review of comments on the Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team

holocaustresearchproject — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 18:40:57 +0000

Comments about the Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team Website www.HolocaustResearchProject.orgDisplay comments as (Linear | Threaded)

12/30/2010 12:35 PM Chris Webb wrote:
Dear Tim,

Glad you enjoyed the lecture.

We plan to show clips of the Kola dig at Belzec death camp on the H.E.A.R.T website, if there is enough interest expressed.

I trust that answers your question, but if you have anymore then please do not hesitate to contact H.E.A.R.T again.

Happy new year

Chris Webb
Reply to this
12/30/2010 11:32 AM Rumble wrote:
These accounts are so very powerful. We made a short film for secondary school pupils in Scotland in association with the Holocaust Educational Trust which may be of interest
http://www.rumblelimited.tv/auschwitz
You may have to copy the link into your browser.
Reply to this
12/27/2010 12:53 PM Kyani wrote:
This is good information. I found your website very interesting.
Reply to this
12/20/2010 11:45 AM Tim Brown wrote:
Dear H.E.A.R.T

Great article – I recently attended a lecture given by Chris Webb on Aktion Reinhardt – it was very informative.

He mentioned that he has film of the dig by professor kola at the Belzec death camp.

Will he ever make this film available to the public please?

Thanks for all your great work – the website is just a fantastic source of knowledge – one of the best on the internet.
Reply to this
12/9/2010 4:55 AM Rumble wrote:
Rumble was commissioned to film Auschwitz-Birkenhau for the Holocaust Educational Trust in 2005. We are sure our short film will be of interest to you. You may have to copy and paste the link into a browser.
http://www.rumblelimited.tv/auschwitz
Reply to this
12/1/2010 4:23 AM freelance seo wrote:
This is great to see the old history.
Reply to this
11/16/2010 5:11 AM wrote:
Have you thought of adding some videos for this posts ?
Reply to this
10/31/2010 10:55 AM Martin Carter wrote:
Wow great article, I love your website!
Reply to this
10/26/2010 7:02 AM wrote:
Thanks for this wonderful website!
Reply to this
10/18/2010 4:49 PM Charles wrote:
Captured German war records prove that millions of innocent Jews (and tens of thousands of others) were systematically exterminated by Nazi Germany – mostly in gas chambers. These facts have been proven repeatedly through countless thesis and dissertation research papers. Virtually every PhD in the world will stake their career on these known Holocaust FACTS. Despite this knowledge, Holocaust deniers ply their mendacious poison everywhere, especially with young people on the Internet. The deniers have only one agenda – to distort the truth in a way that promotes antagonism against the object of their hatred (Jews), or to deny the culpability of their ancestors and heroes.

Museums and mandatory public education are appropriate tools to dispel bigotry, especially racial and ethnic hatred. Books and films can also establish the veracity of genocides, such as recent Holocaust films. They help to tell the true story of the perpetrators of genocide; and they reveal the abject terror, humiliation and degradation resulting from such blind loathing and prejudice. We must disclose the cruelty and horror of genocide to combat the deniers’ virulent and inaccurate historical revision. By doing this, we protect vulnerable future generations from making the same mistakes.

Whenever we stand up to those who deny or minimize genocide we send a critical message to the world. As we continue to live in an age of genocide and ethnic cleansing, we must repel the broken ethics of our ancestors, or risk a dreadful repeat of past transgressions. A world that continues to allow genocide requires ethical remediation. We must show the world that religious, racial, ethnic and gender persecution is wrong; and that tolerance is our progeny’s only hope. Only through such efforts can we reveal the true horror of genocide and promote the triumphant spirit of humankind.

Charles Weinblatt
Author, Jacob’s Courage

Reply to this
1. 10/21/2010 2:54 AM chris webb wrote:
  Dear Charles,
  
  Thank you for your email.
  
  The H.E.A.R.T. team completely endorse what you say, Holocaust Denial must be challenged.
  
  We hope that by producing and maintaining the H.E.A.R.T. website that this is the best answer to Holocaust Denial.
  
  Warm regards,
  
  Chris Webb
  Reply to this
10/18/2010 3:35 AM Harry Leering wrote:
I find your website to be an excellent historical resource.

Thank you

Harry Leering
Reply to this
10/1/2010 10:57 AM Sergey wrote:
Thank you for most premium website!

wbr

Sergey
Reply to this
9/29/2010 3:11 AM Ashira Morgenstern wrote:
Thank you for creating this vital site. I’ve written and produced an autobiographical song about my experience in Austria as an exchange student in 1965-1966. Only through music can I possibly convey how deeply the Holocaust impacted my life — eventually inspiring me to become an Orthodox Jew.

This song and others I’ve written are posted at my YouTube channel here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/10andnot9#p/u/0/Rod26klS5WU

Reply to this
9/27/2010 10:05 PM Never Forget wrote:
Thank you for creating this detailed memorial.

Never forget!
Reply to this
9/18/2010 5:09 AM Priyanka wrote:
Great website
Reply to this
9/8/2010 11:43 AM Jimmy M wrote:
Thanks for posting this article, I appreciate your insight. I’ll be checking back in on your site soon!
Reply to this
9/6/2010 3:07 PM Henry Telfer wrote:
There isn’t any other website that offers such a broad scope of the Shoah as this one.

The Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team are hands down the best non profit educational team in the world.

Thank you for your work.
Reply to this
9/6/2010 10:54 AM Alex wrote:
This is my first time at your blog and I’ve really enjoyed looking around. I will come back again in the future to check out some of the other articles.

What i’ve see so far is very intense.

Alex
Reply to this
8/25/2010 3:15 AM Joydeep wrote:
This diary provides us with very useful information.
Reply to this
8/24/2010 8:47 AM robin huff wrote:
Thank you for the above entry from Matthew Feldman. While arguing with these people is indeed pointless, combating them is not. Ignoring the phenomena of holocaust denial and revisionism has only allowed the shocking growth of the numbers of websites and people who believe their “revised facts” —not only racists who believe this dangerous nonsense to begin with, but also those who “google” something online, read the first result, and uncritically take the statements at face value. Those whose knowledge of the Holocaust ends at “The Diary of Anne Frank” or “The Hiding Place” are many, and everyone needs to somehow be made aware of these sites and people and to beware. Understanding the motives of deniers and revisionists should be only the first step-they should be combated at every opportunity and exposed for what they are. In the early days of the KKK, when they wanted to march with their white hoods, it was decided that they had to be allowed to march because the Constitution allows free speech, no matter if it is despicable. But, it was decided by a court ruling, they had to show their faces. These sites are allowed to exist by free-speech law (although, I understand, some other countries are trying to fight this under the rules regarding hate speech). That does not mean they should be allowed to exist without any comment. You can’t argue with a racist, or, for that matter, get rid of him, but you can expose him.
Reply to this
8/21/2010 10:21 AM Steve Smith wrote:
Dear Sirs,

A very impressive editorial.

I have recently became aware of your great work and I am very interested in combating Holocaust Denial.

Can I speak to someone in the UK

Regards,

Steve Smith
Reply to this
8/11/2010 8:46 AM mihnea wrote:
documentary about the Pogrom fron Iasi, romania june 1941, containing pictures http://www.vimeo.com/13905062
Reply to this
8/10/2010 7:38 AM Akshay wrote:
Thank you for this great website!
Reply to this
8/7/2010 2:39 AM GeorgeHaley35 wrote:
I think H.E.A.R.T is a great educational resource.

My heartfelt thanks to your team

George Haley
Reply to this
8/2/2010 11:14 PM Nancy Hess wrote:
I have been told that the Eckman (current spelling) surname originates from behind the Iron Curtain in Prussia, more specifically in the vicinity of Danzig, current Gdansk. Can you give me any direction in how to authenticate this information? I am interested in knowing more in reference to the family history. Heinrich and Johannes Eckman were the original progenitors of the family in America. Their father was Ulrich and they were both born in Switzerland in the early 1700′s. I am aware of the atrocities to the Jews under the direction of Adolph Eichmann from this same area.
Reply to this
7/26/2010 11:28 AM Arthur Butz wrote:
Read my Book, “The Hoax of the Twentieth Century:The Case Against the Presumed Extermination of European Jewry ” I do not propose in this book to settle the question of what degree of cruelty justifies what degree of legal irregularity. Rather, a rarely heard point, which is at least relevant to the debate, is insisted upon here: It is a fact that without the evidence generated at these trials, there would be no significant evidence that the program of killing Jews ever existed at all. One has only to examine the sources employed by Hilberg and by Reitlinger to see this. If the trials had not been held, a person claiming the existence of the extermination program could not, if challenged, produce any evidence for this, save a few books (not including Hilberg or Reitlinger) whose claims are just as unsupported as his original claim. Thus, the problem that had been involved in deciding whether or not to hold trials on the Jewish extermination aspect was not a simple question of whether or not to try mass murder; unlike the usual murder case there was legitimate and very solid doubt that the deed had been committed at all.
Sincerely,
Arthur Butz
Professor
www.ece.northwestern.edu

*Note The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team does not endorse, approve, or agree with the conclusions outlined in Mr. Butz’s book.

Reply to this
7/19/2010 6:46 AM Abacus India wrote:
Great info. I like all your post. I will keep visiting this blog very often. It is good to see you verbalize from the heart and your clarity on this important subject can be easily observed..
Reply to this
7/19/2010 4:20 AM collegeinfopro wrote:
Very Interesting post…thanks for sharing!!!
Reply to this
7/11/2010 8:22 AM Margaret Blaise wrote:
The Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team website is the greatest educational resources available anywhere online that relates to the Holocaust.

I have found this website to be indispensable in creating my lesson plans and for my own personal learning.

Thank you to the team for your wonderful work.

Margaret Blaise
Ontario, Canada
Reply to this
6/30/2010 4:48 PM Charles Manners wrote:
The best website on the Internet!

Chuck M.
Reply to this
1. 7/1/2010 5:18 AM Victor Smart wrote:
  Chuck,
  
  The Team work hard to produce this website and we thank you.
  
  Victor Smart
  Reply to this
6/28/2010 6:09 AM robin huff wrote:
Upon happening on my first site written by “revisionists”, I was at first taken aback, then puzzled, then outraged. If I had not spent years reading about the Holocaust, and known some about the subject, I might have believed their “facts” and citations that make the articles seem legitimate. The more dangerous ones,in my opinion, are those that do not make overtly racist comments, merely claim to correctly “revise” history. With the majority of (especially young) people doing their research online now, something needs to be done about these people, not just study their motivations. I was unaware of these “revisionists” and people should be warned to be wary.
Reply to this
1. 7/1/2010 5:14 AM chris webb wrote:
  Robin,
  
  Thanks for your email.
  
  The best way to beat Holocaust Deniers is by websites like this.
  
  I am on record as saying i would never waste my time with these people and I dont.
  
  All the best
  
  Chris Webb
  Reply to this
6/19/2010 1:16 AM Adam Bruno wrote:
Great post, you are working great on this noble purpose, i just want to say you that just keep it up.

Reply to this
5/21/2010 8:23 AM Hava wrote:
I found in this site (www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/otwock.html), in the “Otwock & the Zofiowka Sanatorium” page, photo with the title: “German nursing staff at Otwock”. This may interest me very much because I think one of the nurse is my mother. As I know, my mother work as nurse in German hospital under false identity.
We need any information about this photo.
Hava Hen
Haifa Israel
Reply to this
5/13/2010 9:38 AM Robert J Noks wrote:
Robert J. Noks pointed out a correction in the captioning of a photo on the George Wellers Testimony about Conditions in France & Deportations from France article

His notation was indeed correct and we thank him for his insight, the miscaptioned photo has been replaced.

- H.E.A.R.T
Reply to this
5/6/2010 4:26 AM victor smart wrote:
Jonathan,

Many thanks for your supportive comments, glad you think its brilliant.

Victor
Reply to this
5/5/2010 5:02 AM chris webb wrote:
Dear Maria,

Thank you for your kind words of support.

Sadly this kind of activity is the price you pay for success.

No matter what they try they will not deflect us from our path. That much we owe to the millions that died at the hands of the Nazis and their Axis partners in crime.
Reply to this
4/27/2010 8:51 PM Maria Reali wrote:
I’m sorry your website is continually attatcked by neo nazi and fanatical hate blogs.

I’m just happy that you have restored it and continue your great work.

Maria Reali
Italy
Reply to this
3/29/2010 1:10 PM Charles wrote:
No event in human history has been studied more thoroughly and carefully than the Holocaust. Thousands of thesis and dissertations papers have poured over mountains of data, from physical evidence and anecdotal testimony to captured German war documents. Virtually everyone with a PhD in History will stake their career on the fact that millions of Jews were systematically exterminated by Nazi Germany. One can no more “revise” this fact than one can revise the existence of gravity. Wannsee Conference records prove that Nazis planned the extermination of Jews as, “The Final Solution.” German concentration camp records prove that it was carried out.

Whenever we stand up to those who deny or minimize genocide we send a critical message to the world. As we continue to live in an age of genocide and ethnic cleansing, we must repel the broken ethics of our ancestors, or risk a dreadful repeat of past transgressions.

Holocaust deniers ply their mendacious poison everywhere, especially with young people on the Internet. Deniers seek to distort the truth in a way that promotes antagonism against the object of their hatred, or to deny the culpability of their ancestors and heroes. If we ignore them, they will twist the minds of countless young people, creating a new generation of those who deny the facts of the worst episode of genocide in history. Freedom of speech and the press is a symbol of a healthy society. Yet, since no crime in history is so heinous as the Holocaust, its memory must be accurately preserved, to protect our children and grandchildren.

Museums and mandatory public education are tools to dispel bigotry, especially racial and ethnic hatred. Books, plays, films and presentations can reinforce the veracity of past and present genocides. They help to tell the true story of the perpetrators of genocide; and they reveal the abject terror, humiliation and degradation resulting from blind prejudice. It is therefore essential that we disclose the factual brutality and horror of genocide, combating the deniers’ virulent, inaccurate historical revision. We must protect vulnerable future generations from making the same mistakes.

A world that continues to allow genocide requires ethical remediation. We must insist that religious, racial, ethnic, gender and orientation persecution is wrong; and that tolerance is our progeny’s only hope. Only through such efforts can we reveal the true horror of genocide and promote the triumphant spirit of humankind.

Charles Weinblatt
Author, “Jacob’s Courage”

Reply to this
3/26/2010 9:56 AM Jonathan Parr wrote:
Brilliant website!
Reply to this
3/26/2010 8:30 AM Ruth Weinstein wrote:
I am a survivor from .

I wanted to thank you for your web pages and also to say that I believe its terrible what the blogs with the hatred say and do.

Your writings are a blessing.

Ruth & Helen
Reply to this
3/20/2010 8:57 PM sandra pellman wrote:
Dear Sir,
I am looking for records about my father zelig pilzmacher/pellman who testified in germany ( war trials) in 1967 against the gestapo when he was in the montelupich jail. in krakow poland.
I was very young but I remember that he went to Germany. He was interviewed by the German Consulate in Toronto who bought him a plane ticket and sent him to testify at these trials. I am unable to find any mention of these trials.

Would you be so kind as to help me with this research. Thank you,
Yours Sandra
Reply to this
3/19/2010 4:34 PM Maxine Kenig wrote:
My father Nathan Kenig escaped from Kutno in 1939. He was captured by the Germans and later escaped from a concentration
camp. He joined the Russian army and was made an officer in the Polish division. His revenge against the Nazis was that he survived! His grandson is President of his class and a leader just like his grandfather!
Reply to this
1. 3/21/2010 7:35 AM H.E.A.R.T wrote:
  Thank you Maxine for you comment. We are always happy to learn about those who survived the Holocaust and were able to live fruitful lives.
  
  We respect the memory of the six million!
  
  - H.E.A.R.T
  Reply to this
3/15/2010 12:50 PM Muriel Stanton wrote:
Heartfelt thanks to the Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team for your wonderful website and image galleries.

Muriel Stanton
London
Reply to this
3/4/2010 11:12 PM Lorenz Trusea wrote:
What bastards these Nazis were!
Reply to this
2/24/2010 11:20 AM Megan Elitoh wrote:
Thank you for your hard work and such a wonderful website.

Megan Elitoh
Reply to this
2/21/2010 7:51 AM Melia Gonzales wrote:
Thank you for publishing such works. I feel strongly that the world must never forget the Holocaust!
Reply to this
2/13/2010 4:10 PM Michael Norris wrote:
THE MOST WORTHWHILE WEBSITE ON THE INTERNET!

THANK YOU TO THE HEART PEOPLE!!!
Reply to this
2/1/2010 9:17 AM gP30Sophie wrote:
Thank you, it’s very inspiring article about this topic it might be very helpful for students.

Reply to this
1/18/2010 10:29 AM Mitch Hendry wrote:
I can’t wait to read parts 2 and 3!

This is truly an amazing website!

Mitch Hendry
Tulsa, Oklahoma USA
Reply to this
1/12/2010 2:29 PM Vlad Comceau wrote:
www.Holocaustresearchproject.org maintains an outstanding gallery of Holocaust related images.

The best I’ve come across on the Internet!

VC
Reply to this
1/7/2010 12:47 PM Fred wrote:
Yes
Reply to this
1/2/2010 12:23 PM Jonah Renberg wrote:
A heart wrenching story!
Reply to this
12/28/2009 2:02 PM Theresa Ngady wrote:
Has the diary been published?
Reply to this
12/22/2009 1:11 PM Alex Dellarstarre wrote:
Fabulous photo collection! I’ve never seen so many collected in a single repository such as this.

Alex Dellarstarre
Reply to this
12/15/2009 11:18 AM Richard Hantilan wrote:
I had the pleasure of meeting this articles author Chris Webb. He lead a very spirited and informative lecture.

We need more educators like him and less of the drivel we find on strange Internet blogs and forums.

RH
Birmingham, UK
Reply to this
12/14/2009 1:55 PM Kurt Baumen wrote:
Thank you to HEART.

By far the best overview and presentation of the Korherr Report available online.
Reply to this
12/4/2009 4:40 PM H.E.A.R.T wrote:
Dear Alice,

We truly appreciate your comment. Rest assured that H.E.A.R.T will carry on despite any and all of the online foolishness perpetrated by the hate bloggers and controversialists.

Our view is:

Since the Holocaust can never be denied, there is nothing to debate or debunk….

We wish you all the best.

- The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
Reply to this
12/4/2009 11:51 AM Alice Winkler wrote:
My endearing thanks to www.holocaustresearchproject.org for maintaining such a website despite the incessant Internet slander attacks and false postings from the holocaustcontroversies hate blogs!

The H.E.A.R.T group exhibits courage and character by not engaging in debate or arguments with such disparaging loonies and still producing great articles and information such as this one.

My heartfelt thanks.

Alice Winkler
Reply to this
11/28/2009 11:48 AM Henry Yehelska wrote:
Hello to the HEART team and thank you for this fantastic website.

I found this link on the BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8381413.stmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8381413.stm

I followed it to your wonderful work on the Holocaust. What a truly blessed source of information you present.

I can only say thank you!
Reply to this
11/24/2009 11:30 PM Herbert Mallis wrote:
Very interesting history around the structure of the concentration camp leadership.

Thanks for posting this.

Herbert Mallis
Reply to this
11/21/2009 10:15 AM Julius Goldstein wrote:
Thank you Dr. Freidhaus for such a thoughtful editorial.

To add some further information to the comments about the hater blogs I post this interesting thread from A-R-C blog:

http://deathcamps.blogspot.com/2009/11/arc-publishes-list-of-revision-sites.html

I believe the threads there are important for people to read and understand the mindset of the authors of those Holocaust Controversy and hate promoting blogs.

Julius Goldstein
Brooklyn, NY
Reply to this
11/20/2009 6:47 PM EK wrote:
Hello HEART I’ve just read one of the Holocaust Controversy blogs and I must say I fully agree with your editorial these are pyschotic and deranged indivdiuals who write these blogs.

Thank you for raising awareness at these false ‘debunkers’ they are definitley worse than the revisionists.

Elliot Kransbauer
Reply to this
11/14/2009 1:10 PM Eli Wilkens wrote:
The worst offenders are these clowns who argue and debate with revisionists and racial kooks.

I think the holocaust debunkers are even worse than the deniers!
Reply to this
1. 11/16/2009 6:08 PM J Bolstein wrote:
  Hello Eli,
  I agree completely! I’ve yet to see one of these lame controversy forums ever do something helpful for Holocaust remembrance. The blogs are the worst of all.
  Reply to this
11/11/2009 12:35 PM Tina McElroy wrote:
My special thanks to Mr. Carmelo Lisciotto for his aid in my Holocaust and historical research. This website is one of the greatest educational resources that can be found on the Internet.

The H-E-A-R-T staff are to be thanked and praised for this wonderful work.

Tina
Reply to this
11/6/2009 3:05 PM Sun Chi wrote:
The very best education and history site on the web!
Reply to this
11/2/2009 6:59 PM Henrik Farbiria wrote:
Your website is a great testament and memorial to the Holocaust victims.

Please never give up this great mission!
Reply to this
10/31/2009 9:41 AM Todd Mendel wrote:
I’ve visited the site of the old prison camp but have never come across a narrative of its history as your article on the Holocaustresearchproject website.
Your webpages are truly an asset to the entire world.

Todd Mendel
Toronto, Canada
Reply to this
10/13/2009 6:54 PM Gerta Muntz wrote:
I would like to thank each and every member of the www.holocaustresearchproject.org team for producing this wonderful website and for commemorating the victims of the Holocaust.

Your pages are filled with facts and photos that were clearly designed as a labor of love.

My entire warm regards for your great work.

Gerta
Reply to this
9/20/2009 4:07 PM Lara Scanlon wrote:
A very impressive and detailed article. Thank you for publishing it.
Reply to this
9/15/2009 3:38 PM Timothy Ressler wrote:
I’ve written to the Wiener Library for assistance on research around the Kindertranspors and they were very helpful.

I think your article is well placed and fitting.

Timothy Ressler
Toronto, Canada
Reply to this
9/12/2009 10:14 AM chris wrote:
as part of my holocaust memorial blog Never Again!, i’ve started a new blog for the Lodz Ghetto…the first post contains information about deportations and the death camp, Chelmno
Reply to this
9/6/2009 12:35 PM chris wrote:
i’m reading a book now called “the architect of genocide: himmler and the final solution” by richard breitman, which documents heydrich’s relationship with the reichfurher-ss, it’s a bit laborious but very interesting
Reply to this
8/27/2009 6:58 PM Martin Starnberg wrote:
Week-after-week your website posts some amazing research and studies on the Holocaust. Your team is truly impressive!

My hats off you!

Martin Starnberg
Worthing
Reply to this
1. 9/1/2009 12:06 PM Fabian Merz wrote:
  I come back here every week just to learn something new. I haven’t been dissapointed in over 3 years.
  
  FM
  Reply to this
8/26/2009 2:31 PM Jim Presi wrote:

I really like your website!

Especially with all the lame blogs and controversy crap that’s out there these days!

Your site towers head and shoulders above the rest!

James Presi
Los Angeles, California

Reply to this
8/15/2009 7:11 AM Josh Johnson wrote:
With this site we will not forget….
Reply to this
8/11/2009 8:42 AM Ester Sarin wrote:
I was truly humbled when I came across your website. I have never come across such a vast repository of information on the Holocaust that was presented in user friendly way as the Holocaustresearchproject.org website is.

I am often on the USHMM website and while they have an abundant volume of material it isn’t as comprehensive or detailed.

I thank the HEART team for their fantastic work.

Ester Sarin
New York City
Reply to this
8/6/2009 12:34 PM Kensington wrote:
A pity this bastard didn’t meet the hangman as he should have!
Reply to this
8/1/2009 7:22 PM Ellis wrote:
Captivating story! Thankyou for posting it!
Reply to this
7/26/2009 8:30 AM Josef Sarzyk wrote:
By far the best account of Heydrichs assasination I have ever come across on the Internet!

I admire your website very much!
Reply to this
7/23/2009 8:23 PM Helena Grossberg wrote:
My father was on the Kastner train from Hungary to Switzerland. Thanks to Kastner, my father remained alive during the war. I would love to know about others who were in that train too. Find me in LinkedIn!
Reply to this
7/20/2009 6:46 AM Anna wrote:
Good morning,
I’m working in historical foundation, and publish a historical quaterly. We need a two photo’s of Richard Glazar.
Is it possible to buy it? How much is it cost if we would like to publicating those photo’s. We need a 600 DPI resolution. Thank You for help.

Dear Anna,

We are sorry but the Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team is unable to answer request for photos reproduction.

You are welcome to download any photo from our website in the format that it is presented on our pages, however we don’t offer any additional services.

We thankyou for your inquiry and interest.

- H.E.A.R.T
Reply to this
7/5/2009 6:47 PM Don wrote:
This is really a great website! Please keep up your superb writings and research.

Don M.
Reply to this
6/30/2009 10:30 AM Ari Menschem wrote:
This story breaks my heart.
Reply to this
6/29/2009 8:43 AM TT-Jones wrote:
Nice Blog!

Far superior to those cheesy Holocaust blogs where all they do is bicker back and forth with deniers and wackos!

TT-Jones
Reply to this
6/24/2009 2:41 PM Ricardo Vega wrote:
Your website is routinely updated with very well documented text and photos.

I find myself browsing your site several times a week as I always learn something new about the Holocaust each time I visit.

In many ways you have opened my eyes to a part history that I know can never be forgotten or denied.

Thank you
Reply to this
6/22/2009 10:54 AM Helmut Borger wrote:
I believe the HEART team has become the premier Holocaust Research group of our age.

Your materials are the best available on the Intenet.

Helmut Borger
Freilassing
Reply to this
6/22/2009 8:18 AM Audrey Lanlarin wrote:

I have always been perplexed by the reaction of the civilian onlookers who while able to deny knowledge of the camps, could hardly deny the fate of these poor souls dying on the streets as they passed through towns and villages.

Watching one of these death marches must have been a horrific experience!

I can’t even fathom what it must have been to be a prisoner of one.

Reply to this
1. 6/30/2009 11:38 AM Charles wrote:
  We live with Holocaust deniers who poison vulnerable young minds with their venomous drivel. If we allow them to revise history, then the Holocaust can occur again in a future generation.
  
  It is critical that we teach our children the truth about the Holocaust. Whether someone made a poor casting decision is virtually irrelevant.
  
  I wrote about the Holocaust because I felt it critical to discount Holocaust deniers. These mendacious historical revisers desire only one thing – to finish that which Hitler began with the Jewish people. There are many vulnerable individuals whose weak minds can be turned into hatred of minorities. It happened in 20th Century Europe. It can happen again. If we had learned from the Holocaust, we would not have witnessed Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda or Darfur. Prejudice continues. Someone has to stop the blind hatred.
  
  “Jacob’s Courage” is a tender coming of age love story of two young adults living in Salzburg at the time when the Nazi war machine enters Austria. This historical novel presents accurate scenes and situations of Jews in ghettos and concentration camps, with particular attention to Theresienstadt and Auschwitz. It explores the dazzling beauty of passionate love and enduring bravery in a lurid world where the innocent are murdered. From despair, to unforgettable moments of chaste beauty, “Jacob’s Courage” examines a constellation of emotions during a time of incomprehensible brutality.
  
  I described the Auschwitz death march in great detail in “Jacob’s Courage.” AN Auschwitz survivor who read my book called me to ask how I knew exactly what it was like to live through the experience. That told me my description was accurate.
  
  The worst characterization of the human experience is revealed through religious, ethnic, gender or racial prejudice. Only when we learn to value the differences among us will humankind move forward into a bright future. If we fail to learn this lesson, only darkness remains for our progeny.
  
  You can learn more about the Holocuat here http://jacobscourage.wordpress.com/. The book is available through all major retailers, as a Kindle book and a Smashwords download. Let’s hope that our children will be more tolerant than our parents were.
  Reply to this
6/21/2009 10:28 AM Alard Coen wrote:
Your article on Breendonck is most impressive. You have all the details quite correct.

Alard
Reply to this
6/15/2009 8:13 PM Paul von Bronner wrote:
Your compendium of the Anschluss and the fate of European Jewry is well researched and well written.

I am a native born Austrian from Graz and I can attest to the quality dissertation you have produced.

PvB
Reply to this
6/12/2009 1:55 PM Tina Ellis wrote:
Quite an interesting subject and a plethora of information.
Reply to this
6/9/2009 10:31 AM Kal Mano wrote:
Your website articles are better than the Discovery channel!

I enjoy coming to this site and learning about the Holocaust.
Reply to this
6/2/2009 3:16 PM Roger Klimt wrote:
Your website is well researched and very well organized.
I am quite impressed with the broad coverage and detail

Very well done.

Roger Klimt
Uxbridge
Reply to this
5/27/2009 12:18 PM Tricia Mortonfeld wrote:
A horrific cold blooded proposal!
Reply to this
5/25/2009 9:25 AM Mario Vitale wrote:
Holocaust denying and arguing with Holocaust deniers is just STUPID!

Mario
Reply to this
5/23/2009 8:57 PM Ian McKonnel wrote:
GREAT ARTICLE!

THE DOCUMENTS AND PHOTOS WERE VERY INTERESTING

Ian
Reply to this
5/23/2009 8:52 PM Joella Simon wrote:
Debating with Holocaust Denier is a foolish endeavor.

Those who feel they are doing us all a good service by attempting to debunk hate propaganda only lend it credence.

Please stop doing us the favor and let the deniers shout from their soap boxes.

When they realize that no one is listening they will give up proselytizing and move on to chasing UFOs and searching for Bigfoot.

Joella Simon

Raleigh, North Carolina
Reply to this
5/22/2009 11:20 AM HEART wrote:
Whilst many “Self-Proclaimed Debunkers of Revisionism” believe they are doing something noble by “giving the Deniers a hard time” you are in essence accomplishing nothing but validating that a ludicrous revisionist viewpoint has any merit what so ever.

Forcing Holocaust Deniers to lose composure doesn’t discredit the Denier. It simply proves the Denier is just as human as the rest of us and can react adversely when challenged.

(We would remind all that the Holocaust isn’t a game where points are awarded to whichever side makes a better argument. Millions died in unimaginable suffering. If you need to play a game that proves your intellect we would recommed a friendly game of Chess perhaps?)

It is the view of the Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team that the period of history known as the Holocaust [Shoah], the program of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, and its collaborators towards the Jewish peoples in Europe but also including ethnic Poles, the Romani, Soviet civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, people with disabilities, gay men, and political and religious opponents can NEVER BE DENIED.

Any claim that the Shoah never happened, that the resources of the Third Reich never murdered almost a million Jews and political opponents in mass shootings. That entire communities of Jews and Romani were not crammed into ghettos before being transported by freight train to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, the majority of them were killed in gas chambers is a claim designed purely to stir controversy.

Validating the arguments of Holocaust Deniers via anonymous online debates offers no value to the cause of Holocaust remembrance and no value to history or posterity.

We believe that energy is better spent promoting Holocaust awareness for the future benefit of society and cultures worldwide.
So mankind won’t forever be doomed to repeat the evils of the past.

The Holocaust can never be denied.

-H.E.A.R.T
Reply to this
1. 5/22/2009 12:13 PM Maya Jansen wrote:
  Dear H.E.A.R.T
  
  I couldn’t agree more with your statements.
  
  60 years after the Holocaust happened arguing with those who choose to deny out of their own racial hatred is just silly.
  
  I don’t care about making a Holocaust denier look badly.
  
  They already do that themselves the moment they promulgate their venomous propaganda.
  
  Maya Jansen
  New York, NY
  Reply to this
5/20/2009 1:56 PM Jessie Tameroy wrote:
I NEVER UNDERSTOOD THE LOGIC IN ARGUING WITH HOLOCAUST DENIERS IT ALWAYS SEEMED TO ME TO BE AN EXERCISE IN FUTILITY.

YOU GUYS ALSO MAKE A GOOD POINT ABOUT THOSE SELF PROCLAIMED DEBUNKERS OF REVISIONISM.

WHEN YOU READ HOW THEY BEHAVE ITS CLEAR THEY ARE ONLY DEBATING FOR THE FUN OF THE DEBATE AND REALLY COULD CARE LESS ABOUT THE VICTIMS OF THE HOLOCAUST.

I THINK IN MANY CASES THEY DO MORE FOR THE REVISIONIST CAUSE THAN THE DENIERS DO THEMSELVES!
Reply to this
5/19/2009 7:58 PM Never Forget wrote:
Thank you to the Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team

NEVER FORGET!
Reply to this
5/18/2009 3:12 PM Kurt Stellin wrote:
Please accept my praise for this great work by the Holocaust Research Project Team. You have surpassed your earlier work on the deathcamps.org website and have produced an Internet resource that is valuable to everyone throughout the world.

Operational Situation Report USSR No. 63

holocaustresearchproject — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 00:10:00 +0000

Operational Situation Report USSR No. 63

The Chief of the Security Police and the SD, Berlin,
August 25, 1941

48 Copies
——————-
(36th copy)

Einsatzgruppen C

Location: Novo-Ukrainka

On August 16, 1941 Einsatzkommando 6 of SIPO and the SD were located near Novo-Ukrainka. While purging the area, the Einsatzkommando group encountered a suspicious looking civilian who escaped and was pursued. In the course of that pursuit, members of the EK-6-SS Stubf, von Kuskull, SS-O-Scharf. Werner Schulz, SS-Scharfuhrer Schwarz became involved in a shooting incident with none hidden Soviet Officers. SS-O-Scharf fell in that battle.

Five of the Soviet officers were killed. Lieutenant-General Sokolov, the commander of the XV1 Soviet armored corps, was among the Soviet Officers. S. was severely wounded in the course of the fight and was made prisoner after the other officers were killed.

Einsatzgruppen D

Location: Ananyev

The solution of the Jewish question, one of the most important problems, has already been tackled, though only in a hesitant manner. Before the war, there were some 60 to 80,000 Jews in Kishniev.

Many of them left the area when the Russian forces withdrew. When the city was occupied there were approximately 4,000 Jews as some of them had returned.

On the initiative of the Einsatzkommando the Rumanian town commander established a Jewish ghetto in the old part of the city and this ghetto hold some 9,000 Jews at present.

The Jews are divided into labor groups and put at the disposal of the various German and Rumanian offices for street cleaning and other work.

SS Economic & Administrative Department and the Nazi Concentration Camps

holocaustresearchproject — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 19:00:51 +0000

SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt
- WVHA

The
SS Economic & Administrative Department and the Nazi
Concentration camps

Himmler
inspects buildings constructed by
concentration camp prisoners

The SS Wirtschafts und Verwaltungshauptamt (WVHA;
Economic and Administrative Main Office) was
established in March 1942, with Oswald Pohl as its
chief. It took the place of several previous
offices, including the Administrative Department (Verwaltungsamt)
of the SS Central Office (SS Hauptamt), the
Department of Budget and Buildings (Hauptamt
Haushalt und Bauten), and the Inspector of
Concentration Camps (Inspekteur der
Konzentrationslager).

On February 1, 1942, Himmler ordered another
reorganization, and both main offices were fused
into one large SS Economic and Administrative Main
Office (WVHA).

Himmler order, dated April 20th, 1939, establishing
the [Hauptamt
Verwaltung und Wirtschaft]
“Main Office for Administration and Economy” which
would later become the WVHA:

Berlin,

20
April 1939

The Reich Leader SS and Chief of the German Police

August
Frank

Subject: Establishment of a New Main Office.

1. With effect from 3 April 1939 the Office of the
Administrative Chief of the SS will be raised to the
status of Main Office in the Reich Leadership.

2. The new Main Office will be called: “Main Office
Administration and Economy” abbreviated: “V and W
Main Office”.

3. The Administrative and Economic Main Office is a
main office like the other Main Offices of the Reich
Leadership SS (SS Main Office, SD Main Office, Race
and Settlement Main Office, Constabulary Police [Ordnungspolizei]
Main Office, and Security Police Main Office).

4. The chief of the Administrative and Economic Main
Office in the Reich Leadership SS will at the same
time be chief of the Main Office Budget and
Buildings of the Reich Leader SS and chief of the
German Police in the Reich Ministry of the Interior
(Ministerialdirektor). His activities as such will
be dependent on the organization of the work of the
office. The tasks of the SD connected with politics
and intelligence service will not be affected
(Administration and Economy).

The Reich Leader SS

[Signed] H. HIMMLER

Certified true copy:

BY ORDER OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE CHIEF OF THE SS

[Signature illegible

SS Obersturmfuehrer and Adjutant

[Stamp] SS Race and Settlement Main Office

No………..19 April 1939

WVHA Organizational Chart (click
text to enlarge)

The WVHA was organized into the following
divisions and offices:

Division A Chief: SS Brigadefuehrer and
Brigadier General of the Waffen SS Frank with
offices:

A I Budget office, Budget of the Waffen SS and
of the General SS (Reich cashier of the SS).

A II Cash and salary matters.

A III Legal office.

A IV Auditors’ office.

A V Personnel office.

Georg
Loerner

Division B Chief: SS Brigadefuehrer and
Brigadier General of the Waffen SS Loerner with
offices:

B I Food.

B II Clothing.

B III Housing.

B IV Raw materials, price control, foreign
currencies, and purchases.

Hans
Kammler

Division C Chief: SS Oberfuehrer Dr. Ing.
Kammler with offices:

C I General construction tasks.

C II Special construction tasks.

C III Special technical spheres.

C IV Special artistic spheres.

C V Central inspectorate for constructions.

C VI Maintenance of building and business
economy.

Division W Chief: SS Gruppenfuehrer Pohl

SS Einsatzgruppen Leader Bruno Streckenbach

holocaustresearchproject — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 15:25:50 +0000

Bruno Streckenbach

Bruno Streckenbach was born on the 7 February 1902 in Hamburg, the son of a customs official. He joined the Hamburg Police in 1933 and when the Nazis came to power, he was head of the Gestapo in Hamburg.

He then served in Poland as head of Einsatzgruppe 1 which was located in the Neutitschen, Bielsko and Rzeszow areas. After November 1939 personnel from this Einsatzgruppe were assigned to the SS and SD units in Krakow.

In Krakow Streckenbach was one of the leading architects of the mass arrests of the professors in Krakow University and Polish intelligentsia during May 1940, the infamous ‘Aktion AB,’ which in German stood for Ausserordentliche Befriedungsaktion, which resulted in the death of 3,500 intellectuals, for which he was promoted in January 1941.

Secret photo taken of Polish Hostages rounded up for mass execution, during the AB Action in Palmiry near Warsaw

The Reich’s Military Planning committee planned the A-B Aktion during February and March 1940, and Hans Frank ordered the aktion to commence on the 16 May 1940, within a week of the start of Hitler’s western European campaign.

ce were “very interested” in the Jewish question.

The Germans arrested about 3,500 Poles in the Generalgouvernment whom they considered underground leaders and 3,000 suspected of criminal activities, and these were murdered in the Palmiry Forest, near Warsaw and at other sites.

Among those Polish intellectuals murdered were Maciej Rataj, Stefan Bryla, Tadeusz Tanski, Mieczyslaw Niedzialkowski and Janusz Kusocinski.

The A-B aktion was planned to end by the middle of 1940, but lasted well into the autumn of the same year, with executions in a number of locations, but whilst it depleted the ranks of the Polish underground, it did not succeed in eliminating Polish resistance, as envisaged.

On the 31 October 1939 Streckenbach informed Hans Frank about Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler intentions to deport Jews who lived in the areas of Poland now incorporated into the Reich, and replace them with Poles who could be considered racially suitable for Germanisation.

Steckenbach and Himmler

Under the decree dated the 28 November 1939, in the Generalgouvernement, the Judenrat was placed under the control of the civilian authorities. Two days later at a meeting in Krakow, with Hans Frank, F-Wilhem Kruger, Gustav Wachter and others Streckenbach, the commander of the Security Police and Security Services in the Generalgouvernment, informed the meeting that the Security Police and Security Services in the Generalgouvernment, informed the meeting that the Security Police were “very interested” in the Jewish question.

On October 31, 1939, he informed Hans Frank, General Governor for the East, about Himmler’s intention to organize the deportation of all Jews coming from regions that were now part of the Reich while about one million Poles “of good origin” would be “imported” into the Reich in order to be “dePolonized”.

Streckenbach wanted full control over the Judenrat, “as sooner or later all questions pertaining to Jewish matters would have to be referred to the Security Police especially if the contemplated action required “executive enforcement,” but Hans Frank was strongly against this and protested, however it was later agreed that the civilian authorities would co-operate with the Security Forces.

As the first BdS, which stood for Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD, in Krakow, Streckenbach was also involved in the Generalplan Ost which was the Nazi plan for the expulsion of more than 50 million non-Germanised Slavs of Eastern Europe through forced migration, beyond the Ural Mountains and into Siberia. In their place up to 8-10 million Germans would be settled in an expanded living space, ‘lebensraum.’

Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/einsatz/streckenbach.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Euthanasia and the Holocaust – Kobierzyn

holocaustresearchproject — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:46:14 +0000

Kobierzyn Mental Home

There were more than 1,000 patients in the Babinski hospital in Kobierzyn, near Krakow, when the war broke out. The Germans appointed two directors of the hospital – Zweck (a tradesman) until October 1940 and then Aleksander Kroll (an official from the Warsaw Health Service) until September 1942. There were 3 phases of liquidation at the hospital: starvation deportation of Jewish patients and finally mass murder. From the time Kroll took over the post, patients started to receive half of their usual food rations.

Before the final deportations almost half of the patients had died of malnutrition. On 9 and 11 September 1941, the Germans moved all Jewish patients, 91 people, in two transports to the Zofiowka sanatorium in Otwock near Warsaw. This group shared the fate of all Otwock Jews – some were gassed on 19 August 1942 in Treblinka, others shot at the premises of the sanatorium and buried in the garden there.

The preparations for the final liquidation started in May 1942. The hospital was visited by SS-Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Krüger and Hitlerjugend chief Axmann, who pressed for quick liquidation. Arthur Axmann needed the hospital for his “Hitler Youth”. The place for the burial pit was chosen. On 18 June 1942, Polish doctors, working at the hospital, received orders to move to the Drewnica hospital near Warsaw. They were banned from entering the Kobierzyn hospital departments and ordered to provide the personal files of all patients. On 23 June, Dr Werner Beck arrived, together with SS men under the command of SS-Sturmbannführer Karl Meyer and SS-Standartenführer Max Hammer.

The rest of the Polish personnel were locked in an old theatre building during the time of the aktion. 30 patients, who were temporarily on rehabilitation in a nearby Catholic convent, were transferred back to the hospital and were the first to be loaded on a truck and delivered to the Swoszowice railway station. Later, Kroll opened the wards and counted the patients, assisted by a German male nurse, Leo Zipper. SS men herded the patients to the trucks and transported them to the railway station.

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

The Deportation of the Jews from Salonika -Eichmann trial

holocaustresearchproject — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 15:58:03 +0000

The Deportation of the Jews from Salonika

Testimony of Itzchak Nechama – Selected Extracts

Eichmann Trial Jerusalem 1961

(Selected Extracts)

Itzchak Nechama on the witness stand

State Attorney Bar-Or: Where were you born Mr. Nechama?

Witness Nechama: In Salonika, in 1910. I am 50 years old.

Question: When were you released from the Army?

Witness Nechama: When the Greeks left everything, when the Germans came.

Question: When was that approximately?

Witness Nechama: Approximately at the end of March 1941

Question: Did you return home from the front?

Witness Nechama: I walked for 28 days. This is easily said, but hard to do. When I arrived at home I was exhausted. While I was on my way home we had trouble with the Greeks all the time – they wanted to take us for work, to help them and be forced to work for 24 hours. I had to work, I had no choice. So when I arrived at home my situation was very bad.

Question: After the 28 day march, were the Germans already in Salonika ?

Witness Nechama: They were already there and when I came home I was told that our radio had already been handed over. I had a very good radio.

Question: To whom?

Witness Nechama: There was an order that all Jews had to hand over their radios within twenty- four hours, otherwise they would be executed, and because they were afraid they did not even wait for me before handing over the radio.

Question: Did other things also have to be handed over in those days?

The mayor of Salonika with officers of the German army who conquered the city

Witness Nechama: Every day there was something new. Next one had to hand in the pianos; most Jews owned pianos and every Jew had to give up his piano. Then the telephones, Jews were forbidden to use the telephone. It had to be handed over to the Company.

One day three trucks arrived and took the complete library of holy books which we had in the Community, books from before the time the Jews left Spain. Our Rabbis cried so much when they took those books, I remember it to this day. I recall the tears of those learned men who said: Nothing matters to us, only these books.

Question: Mr Nechama, you were in the army, are you familiar with uniforms. You were able to recognise uniforms. These people who took the books, or those who occupied themselves with the delivery of the pianos and all the things you mentioned – how were they dressed?

Witness Nechama: That was the Gestapo. The colour was brown, a kind of brown.

Question: Were there German Army personnel walking around in Salonika?

Witness Nechama: Of course. Salonika was the military centre and soldiers came there every day from all kinds of units.

Question: When you returned did you continue to go about your business?

Witness Nechama: Of course, a stationery business. I had a partner who was a Yugoslav citizen and did not go to the front.

Question: And he remained and ran your business?

Witness Nechama: Yes.

Directive to the chairman of the Salonika Jewish community regarding the wearing of the compulsory Star of David

Question: In which quarter was this? Was it a Jewish quarter?

Witness Nechama: Yes.

No in a Greek quarter

Question: Tell the Court what happened to the Jewish businesses in Salonika in those days?

Witness Nechama: Yes.

I shall tell you there were troubles for the Jews every day. They would come and take merchandise without paying, without anything. In Salonika there were very rich Jewish businessmen, one can definitely call them rich , one can call them millionaires. There was a shop for glassware there – they took the very last glass.

Question: They took things and did not pay?

Witness Nechama: Yes.

They did not pay. There were shops, iron warehouses – they took all the iron and did not pay anything. Perhaps they “bluffed,” giving out chits as they did for the radios. They gave us slips of paper which were not worth anything.

Presiding Judge: Were you concentrated in a certain quarter in one neighbourhood?

Witness Nechama: Yes.

This is just what I want to recall – on 11 July 1942 – there was an official newspaper they had, Das Neue Europa (The New Europe).

Presiding Judge: A newspaper belonging to the Germans?

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team