The Killing of Reinhard Heydrich

The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich

Operation Anthropoid

 

Reinhard Heydrich Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia

On the twenty-ninth of May, 1942, Radio Prague announced that Reinhard Heydrich, Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia, lay dying at the Bulovka hospital in Prague from wounds sustained in a daring ambush by Czech partisans as his car passed through the city outskirts at Holesovice, on the Rude Armady VII Kobylisky not far from the Vltava river. 

The assassins attempted to kill Heydrich with automatic weapons but experienced a malfunction so a grenade was then tossed at the car by one of the Czechs. The resulting explosion caused sever damage to the right rear wing of the Mercedes, puncturing the tire and blowing a large hole in the bodywork.

 The attackers then fled and, Heydrich attempted to shoot at the escaping assassins but his weapon also misfired. He then staggered back to the car and collapsed on the hood in severe pain.

 He was rushed to the Bulovka emergency room shortly after 11:00 a.m. and was registered under the number 12.555/42. Heydrich’s spleen had been fatally damaged and he contracted blood poisoning from grenade shrapnel, seat-spring splinters, and horse-hair used to cushion the cars upholstery.  

Czech newspaper announces Heydrich’s appointment

He soon developed a fever and suffered from copious wound drainage until June 2, but the following day the fever appeared to have subsided. However, around noon, while Heydrich was sitting in bed eating a late breakfast, he suddenly went into shock and quickly lapsed into a deep coma from which he never recovered.

 He died at 4:30 a.m. the next morning, June 4, 1942. The death of the Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia was recorded in the Bulovka death register as “Nr 348/1942.Reinhard Tristan Heydrich.  

Cause of death: gunshot wound/murder attempt/wound infection.   

So ended the life of Reinhard “The Hangman” Heydrich, the Butcher of Prague.

 Operation Anthropoid

 On September 27, 1941, the Czech Press Agency released the news that the Reich Protector Konstantin von Neurath had fallen ill, and Hitler had named a substitute Reich Protector, Reinhard Heydrich. The Protectorate at that time experienced numerous acts of sabotage and assassinations of Germans and their collaborators by the Czech underground.  

Execution order  of Czech Gen. Josef Bily

The low morale and starvation level rations for workers had reduced Bohemia’s industrial output of armaments, putting essential part of the German war effort at risk.

 Konstantin von Neurath was sent away to recuperate and on that very same day, a plane landed in Prague with Reinhard Heydrich on board. Heydrich, as SS Police General and chief of the Reichssicherheitschauptampt (RSHA, Reich Security Main Office) was one of the most powerful and most feared Nazi leaders in the party.  

Considered exceptionally intelligent, hard-working, ambitious and totally amoral, he had climbed to the top of the SS hierarchy and ruthlessly crushed his and Hitler’s domestic and foreign enemies. He was the main architect of the “Final Solution,” Hitler’s plan to destroy European Jewry. 

Hitler believed with Heydrich in charge of Bohemia and Moravia, the Czechs would soon learn what it meant to live under a master of suppression. Not being a man to disappoint the Fürher, Heydrich immediately put his plan into action with the objective of annihilating all resistance in the Czech Lands.  

On September 28, 1941, at 11 am, the official inauguration began at Prague Castle, the next day Heydrich announced a martial law in Prague, Brno, Moravská Ostrava, Olomouc, Kladno and Hradec Králové. 

On October 3, 1941, the Czechoslovak press in Britain published the first news about terror tactics employed by Heydrich on the Czechs

He instituted what he called his “whip and sugar” policy; he increased the food rations to dissuade resistance among the Czechs, and he threatened to lower them if they did not work efficiently.  This tactic seemed to resonate with the common workers but against the Czech intelligentsia, he would employ far deadlier measures.

Without hesitation he started from the top down. The Protectorate’s Prime Minister, General Alois Eliáš, was arrested, proven guilty of maintaining contacts with the enemy and sentenced to death on October 1, 1941.  

Two acting leaders of the military resistance organization, Gen. Josef Bílý and Div. Gen. Hugo Vojta, Commander of the Bohemian Provincial Headquarters were sentenced under martial law and executed by a firing squad at Ruzyně Barracks. Hundreds from among the Czech intelligentsia were executed or sent to concentration camps.

From his quarters in Czernin Palace on October 2, 1941, Reinhard Heydrich gave a speech where he made the following statements:

 “I must unambiguously and with unflinching hardness bring the citizens of this country, Czech or otherwise, to the understanding that there is no avoiding the fact they are members of the Reich and as such they owe allegiance to the Reich… This is a task of priority required by the war. I must have peace of mind that every Czech worker works at his maximum for the German war effort… This includes feeding the Czech worker – to put it frankly – so that he can do his work.”

One of Heydrich’s first decrees, dated September 29, 1941,concerning the treatment of Jews and closing of synagogues stated:

Read more here:  http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/heydrichkilling.html

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Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2010

 

KL Warsaw, the Gesiowka concentration camp!

Gesiowka Concentration Camp KL Warschau       Warning sign outside the Gesiowka Camp  fence The Germans established a concentration camp in Warsaw, following the crushing of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in May 1943 by SS- Brigadefuhrer Jurgen Stroop. The SS and Police Leader suggested to Himmler that the former Warsaw ghetto area could be turned into a concentration camp.   Heinrich Himmler demanded the total liquidation of the Jews of the General Government in January 1943, and that Warsaw was to harshly treated, which led to further deportations to Treblinka and the revolt by the Jewish underground in April 1943, which was not concluded until one month later.   Friedrich Kruger, HSSPF Ost sent a report to Governor Frank on 31 May 1943, stating that the fighting spirit of the ghetto had impressed the German military mind.   Himmler on learning of this report was incensed and he demanded the total liquidation of all remaining Jewish camps and ghettos. Lieutenant – General Schindler, Chief of the Wehrmacht’s Armaments Inspectorate, sought the intervention of Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Chief of the RSHA, Schindler declared that the Jews who had been retained in industry were the “best physically speaking, the so-called Maccabeans,” and the Warsaw ghetto uprising had evidenced that the females were even stronger than the males.   Map of Warsaw showing the ghetto and the Gesiowka camp (marked # 7) click text to enlarge photo General Schindler was successful, although Himmler’s decree of the 11 June 1943 doomed the surviving ghettos the work camps were to continue, but the destruction of the remaining buildings that had not been destroyed during the Warsaw ghetto uprising.   The prison on Gesia Street was retained to house the demolition workers, the area of the ghetto was to be levelled and made into a park after all sewer and cellar openings had been sealed.   The territory of the camp consisted of the former soldier’s prison on Gesia and Zamenhofa Streets and the whole of Zamenhofa, Okopowa and Smocza Streets. Because the former soldiers prison was not big enough to accommodate all the prisoners, barracks were built in the autumn of 1943.   The first group of prisoners were 300 Germans who were destined to be the Kapo’s, came from Mauthausen, along with the notorious SS- Obersturmbannfuhrer Willhelm Goecke, who was later replaced by Captain Herber   In April 1944, the Gesiowska concentration camp was subordinated to the Majdanek concentration camp, over 4,600 inmates were held there, while another 2180 were working at demolition.   Goecke document During May 1944 about 3,000 Hungarian Jews were brought to Gesiowska to work on the dismantling the buildings and removing the ruins. The prisoner’s hard work permitted the recovery of between 13 February and 10 June 1943 thirty-four million bricks, 6004 tons of iron, and 1,300 tons of useable iron, in addition to the removal of 131,000 cubic meters of debris.   Other work groups were engaged in burning the corpses, a death brigade was formed and a pyre was established in the courtyard of the house at 45 Gesia Street. In the spring of 1944 the SS ordered the building of a crematorium at 19 Zamenhofa Street, however, although the building was completed, it never became operational.   Other prisoners were employed to seek out bunkers where Jews were hiding, and searching for clothing, valuables and money. Any Jews who were discovered were executed and their valuables were shipped to the Majdanek concentration camp, and from there to the Reich.   The living conditions in the camp were in many instances worse than in Majdanek, parcels were not allowed, the work was very exhausting and the discipline particularly harsh.   Read more here:  http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/gesiowka.html   The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team   www.HolocaustResearchProject.org Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2010

Resistance in the Kovno ghetto!

The Gelpernus Diary Resistance in the Kovno Ghetto Chaim Yelin & Dimitri-Ghelpernus  H.E.A.R.T Exclusive!   Writer Chaim Yelin, the organizer and leader of the ghetto partisan movement, dreamed of writing a book about the resistance, underground and Kovno ghetto partisans. The proof of that is in the material which he managed to have written during the war.   However, only some of that material has survived. Having devoted all his being to the underground movement, Chaim Yelin perished in the fight with the brown plague without making public the Resistance documents, which were at that time written in blood of Kovno ghetto fighters. These lines were written by his brother and his closest friend, who, from the very first days of Kovno ghetto,fought hand in hand with him. The authors of the book aimed to describe the events with utmost precision. They see it as their duty both to the memory of those who were killed, who consciously gave their lives in the fight against the enemy and those who continue their fight for the reconstruction and growth of the new Soviet Russia. May these lines serve as a historical document to the suffering of the Jewish people in the common fight of all Soviet peoples against the enemy of all humanity – German fascists. – Dimitri-Ghelpernus  Author Part 1    “In the Ghetto Grip” I. AMONG THE RUINS   Soviet soldiers view the ruins of the Kovno Ghetto When at the beginning of August 1944 Kovno was liberated from the fascist invaders, partisan groups entered the city together with Soviet Army detachments. Among them was the group “Pirmin” (“Forward”) and parts of the groups “Mirtis Ocupantams” (“Death to the Invaders”), “Vladas Baronas”, “Laisvoi Lietuva” (“Free Lithuania”) and others. Many Jews, former members of Kovno underground anti-fascist ghetto organisation fought among them. Having returned to their home town, without washing off road dust, with their sub-machine guns over their shoulders, Kovno ghetto partisans crossed the river Neris (Villia) and entered Kovno suburb of Villiampole (Village). The partisans were going there with a heavy heart, where their fathers and sons, husbands and wives, friends and relatives suffered in the grips of the ghetto – all those who failed to make their escape via barbed wire fence and police cordons of the Jewish prison. Read all eight chapters here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/revolt/gelpernusdiary.html The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team www.HolocaustresearchProject.org   Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2010

Inside the Warsaw Ghetto

Jan Karksi Inside the Warsaw Ghetto (Interview with Jan Karski, photos added to enhance the text)   Jan Kott, a representative of the Polish government – in – exile in London, at the funeral of Bund activist Shmu’el Zygelbojm In the middle of 1942, I was thinking to take up again my position as a courier between the Polish underground and the Polish government in exile in London. The Jewish leaders in Warsaw learned about it. A meeting was arranged outside the ghetto. There were two gentlemen. They did not live in the ghetto. They introduced themselves – leader of Bund, Zionist leader.   Now, what transpired, what happened in our conversation?   First I was not prepared for it. I was relatively isolated in my work in Poland. I did not see many things. In thirty-five years after the war I do not go back. I have been a teacher for twenty-six years, I never mention the Jewish problem to my students. I understand this film is for historical record, so I will try to do it.   They described to me what is happening to the Jews. Did I know about it?  No I didn’t.   They described to me first that the Jewish problem is unprecedented, cannot be compared with the Polish problem, or Russian, or any other problem. Hitler will lose this war, but he will exterminate all the Jewish population.   Do I understand it?   The Allies fight for their people – they fight for humanity. The Allies cannot forget that the Jews will be exterminated totally in Poland – Polish and European Jews.   They were breaking down. They paced the room. They were whispering. They were hissing. It was a nightmare for me.   Did they look completely despairing? Yes, Yes.   At various stages of the conversation they lost control of themselves. I just sat in my chair. I just listened. I did not even react. I didn’t ask them questions. I was just listening.   Dr. Emil Sommerstein, a minister in the temporary Polish government and the chairman of the Central Committee of Polish Jewry They wanted to convince you?   They realised, I think…. they realised from the beginning that I don’t know, that I don’t understand this problem. Once I said I will take messages from them, they wanted to inform me what is happening to the Jews. I didn’t know this. I was never in a ghetto. I never dealt with the Jewish matters.   Did you know yourself at the time that most of the Jews of Warsaw had already been killed?   I did know. But I didn’t see anything. I never heard any description of what was happening and I was never there. It is one thing to know statistics. There were hundreds of thousands of Poles also killed – of Russians, Serbs, Greeks.   We knew about it. But it was a question about statistics.   Did they insist on the complete uniqueness…..? Yes.   This was their problem: to impress upon me – and that was my mission – to impress upon all people whom I am going to see that the Jewish situation is unprecedented in history.   Egyptian pharaohs did not do it. The Babylonians did not do it. Now for the first time in history actually, they came to the conclusion: unless the Allies take some unprecedented steps, regardless of the outcome of the war, the Jews will be totally exterminated. Read the full article here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/survivor/karskiwarsaw.html The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team http://www.HolocaustResearchProject.org The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team http://www.HolocaustResearchProject.org Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2010

The Holocaust in Vilna – Jacob Gens

Jacob Gens The Holocaust in the Vilna Ghetto   Jacob Gens Jacob Gens was appointed by the Germans in 1941 to head the Judenrat (Jewish Council) in the Vilna Ghetto. He held this post until Sept 14th, 1943 when  he was summoned to the Gestapo headquarters and shot. The Vilna ghetto was completely liquidated 10 days later, this is his story.   Jacob Gens was born in 1903 at the village of Illovieciai in the Siauliai district of Lithuania. to a middle-class Jewish family, the eldest of four brothers.   In 1919, when Lithuania was fighting for its independence, he volunteered to serve in the Lithuanian army, and three years later In 1922 married a non-Jewish Lithuanian woman, and became the father of a daughter. Gens  had hoped to transfer to the fledgling Lithuanian air force, but that branch of the armed forces only accepted bachelors. Instead he was sent to the front, joining an infantry regiment in the war against Poland, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and won a decoration.   He served in the army until 1924, and in the same year he enrolled in Kovno University, earning his living as a teacher of Lithuanian and of physical education in the Jewish schools of Ukmerge and Jurbarkas. Three years later he became an accountant in the Ministry of Justice in Kovno, he completed his university studies in law and economics in 1935.   Jacob Gens as an officer in the Lithuanian army In July 1940 when Lithuania became a Soviet Republic, he was dismissed from his post. As a Zionist who was close to the Revisionists, Gens feared that he was in danger of being arrested in a campaign that was being waged against anti-Soviet elements, and he moved to Vilna, where he was generally unknown. A Lithuanian friend who headed the municipal health department there helped him obtain work as an accountant in the department.   When the Germans occupied Vilna in late June 1941, his Lithuanian friend appointed Gens director of the Jewish hospital. In the beginning of September 1941, two ghettos were established in Vilna in early September 1941. At first, people were moved into either ghetto at random. 29,000 people were incarcerated in Ghetto 1 and 9,000-11,000 in Ghetto 2. Several days after the Jews had moved in, Ghetto 1 was designated for craftsmen and workers with permits, and Ghetto 2 was to be for all others.   The transfer of orphans, the sick, and the elderly from Ghetto 1 to Ghetto 2 began. Those with work permits moved with their families into Ghetto 1. On 7 September 1941, the day after the ghetto relocation began, a new separate Judenrat was established in each of the two ghettos. Anatol Fried, a former director of the community bank, assembled the new Judenrat for Ghetto 1.    The Judenrat for Ghetto 2 was appointed by SD and Security Police in Vilna and was led by Eisik Lejbowicz. Fried, who had been a patient in the Jewish hospital and thus became acquainted with Gens, appointed him as head of the ghetto police. Rudnicki Street entrance to the Vilna ghetto Gens established the Ghetto police force, and made it into an orderly and disciplined body, and the Germans used this force to assist in the Aktionen that took place in the Ghetto from September to December 1941, in which tens of thousands of Jews were murdered. Gens and his police force  had participated in the deportation of Jews to Ponary.   Ghetto chronicler Mendel Balberyszski recorded that Gens told him after the so-called “Old People’s Aktion” in July 1942, in which some 84 elderly people were murdered:   “I have no connection with the purge of the elderly. It was an old debt which the Judenrat owed them. They wanted several hundred people, and it was with great difficulty that the `price’ was reduced to 100 aged…”   On occasions he had stood at the ghetto gate and personally selected those who were to live and those who were to die. In the Gelbschein Aktionen that took place between 24 October 1941 and 3 November 1941, Gens himself had checked the papers of the Jews as they passed before him, three blue cards to one yellow card.   According to other available evidence, Gens, within the framework of his role, did his best to aid the Jews. He became the predominant personality in the Ghetto and its de facto Governor. His direct contact with the German authorities, bypassing the Judenrat, added to his prestige among the Jews in the Ghetto. Gens involved himself in affairs that had nothing to do with the police, employment, cultural activities and other aspects of Ghetto life. Members of  the Vilna ghetto Police Gens did not easily tolerate autonomous activity within the ghetto. He was especially eager to receive the approval of the intelligentsia for his policies, even when this involved the sacrifice of thousands of Jewish lives. He eagerly accepted the appointment of intellectuals to positions on the Judenrat staff in order to ensure them some sort of livelihood and a modicum of security.   In an attempt to appear not simply a policeman, but an enlightened intellectual, Gens formed a “club” in his home for discussion and debate between a select group of invited guests. Gens’ desire to emerge from the war not only as the saviour of the remnant of Vilna Jewry but as custodian of its cultural heritage, continued to the end.   On 15 January 1943, the first anniversary of the theatre’s initial performance, Gens said: “Last year they said that the theatre was just a fad of mine. `Gens is amusing himself.’ A year has passed and what do we see? It was not just a fad of Gens. It was a vital necessity… For the first time in the history of Vilna we were able to get a curriculum of studies that was all Jewish… Our care for children has reached a level never seen before in the Jewish life of Vilna. Our spiritual life reaches high… Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/gens.html The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team http://www.HolocaustResearchProject.org Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2010

Jules Schelvis His Journey and Arrival at to Sobibor Death Camp

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Jules Schelvis

  Recounts his Journey and Arrival at to Sobibor Death Camp

Jules Schelvis & his wife Rachel in 1941 Jules Schelvis, his wife Rachel, whom he married on the 18 December 1941, were deported from Westerbork, transit camp in Holland to the Sobibor death camp in Poland on the 1st June 1943. Rachel’s family included as the head of the family, her father David Borzykowski who was born in Janow, Poland on the 13 February 1892 and the family home was at Nieuwe Kerkstraat 103, Amsterdam. Her mother Gitla was born in Czestochowa, Poland in 1895.   Other family members Chaja Stodel- Borzykowski who was born in Amsterdam 1921, Rachel Schelvs – Borzykowski, born on the 2 March 1923 and Herman Borzykowski who was born in Amsterdam in 1927. Only Jules Schelvis, survived, his wife and his wife’s family all were murdered in the gas chambers of Sobibor on the 4 June 1943, and he gave a detailed account of their journey and arrival in the death camp on that June day:   “The train, which departed from Westerbork on Tuesday 1 June, consisting of a long line of freight wagons, was carrying 3006 persons. There were sixty-two in my wagon, including my wife, and her family, plus one pram.   The journey took place under the most primitive conditions, lacking even basic provisions, such as straw to lie upon, or hooks to hang things from. Apart from two barrels, one filled with water, the others for our waste, the men from the Westerbork Orde Dienst (OD Order Service) had carried aboard a few bread parcels. The sick were wheeled towards the wagons on trolleys. And all of this ostensibly to send us to police-supervised labour camps in Germany, which is how it was put on all the relevant forms. The commandant and his helpers stood by, watching the operation’s progress.   Men from the messenger service of the Westerbork Orde Dienst I have no recollections of any officials, in their well-polished shiny boots, concerning themselves with us at all. We had been entrusted to the care of the Jewish Council. Once everyone had clambered aboard, the sliding doors were barred on the outside. With all our luggage, we were packed like a tin of sardines, wondering how long we could endure this. There was hardly any room to stretch one’s legs, and only one small, barred window, which was unglazed, to let some fresh air in.   We left around half past ten. Only then did we begin to realise that the journey was going to end in some mysterious place. Perhaps Auschwitz, we had heard about Auschwitz. What was certain, however, was that our stamina was going to be severely tested. The train stopped countless times en route in order to let regular and military transports pass.   Sometimes we stopped for hours on end for no discernable reason. Throughout the entire journey, the doors were never opened once. We had to relieve ourselves in the little barrel, which soon caused a foul and unbearable stench. Having depleted the water from our own water bottles by the very first evening, we were parched with thirst.   The journey lasted for three long agonizing days, filled with despair and bickering. We went right across Germany via Bremen, Wittenberge, Berlin and Breslau and into Poland. In the morning of Friday 4 June we finally stopped at Chelm, close to what had once been the Russian border.   Rails leading into the Sobibor Deathcamp The journey had made us so weary that we were no longer interested in where we would end up. Only one question remained how to get out of this foul –smelling overloaded cattle wagon, and get some fresh air into our lungs. That Friday morning at around ten, after a seventy- two hour journey, we finally stopped in the vicinity of a camp. It turned out to be Sobibor.   The Jews of the Banhofskommando were very heavy-handed getting us off the train onto the platform. They let on they were Jewish by speaking Yiddish, the language of the Eastern European Jews.   The SS men standing behind them were shouting “schneller, schneller,” faster –faster, and lashed out at people once they were lined up on the platform. Yet the first impression of the camp itself aroused no suspicion, because the barracks looked rather like little Tyrolean cottages, with their curtains and geraniums on the window sills.   But this was no time to dawdle. We made our way outside as quickly as possible. Rachel and I, and the rest of our family, fortunately had no difficulty in swiftly making our way onto the platform, which had been built up of sand and earth.   Behind us we could hear the agonised cries of those who could not get up quickly enough, as their legs had stiffened as a result of sitting in an awkward position for too long, severely affecting their circulation. But no one cared. One of the first things that occurred to me was how lucky we were to all be together, and that the secret of our destination would now finally be revealed. The events so far did not hold out much promise though, and we understood that this was only the beginning.

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Nazi Einsatzgruppen Organizational Structure Gruppe C

Organizational Structure

Einsatzgruppe C

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Holocaust Ghettos – Siedlce!

The Siedlce Ghetto

 

German Soldier poses behind an Elderly Jew in Siedlce

Siedlce was occupied by German troops on 10 October 1939. Before WW2 around 50% of the town’s 30,000 inhabitants were Jewish. A few days after the Nazis had occupied the city, on 15 November 1939, they began to arrest Jews.

 

After gathering them together in a prison, the following day they were marched to Wegrow. There, during the night, around 50 of those arrested managed to escape from the market square, including Hercel Kave and his father. The others were conducted to Ostroleka.

From the beginning of the occupation, the Germans turned their entire propaganda machinery on Polish society in order to justify their murdering of the Jews. For this purpose they made use of posters with texts such as “Typhus, spotted fever, is one of the most dangerous of diseases, often fatal. Typhus is very contagious and therefore it can spread quickly and easily into serious epidemics. In the Generalgouvernement it is widespread, particularly amongst the Jews.”

 

On Jewish holydays German soldiers entered synagogues, beat the Jews who were praying there, tore off their liturgical garments, and fired at those who tried to escape by jumping out of windows. Josef Rubin died thus, on the seventh day of Sukkot.

 

From the beginning of the occupation the Germans plundered Jewish shops and homes. At the end of November 1939, soldiers entered the synagogue and the Beit Hamidrash (House of Prayer), and threw out the Torah scrolls. In a frenzy of hatred they ripped them apart and trampled on them.

 

During the night of the 24 – 25 December 1939, the Nazis set fire to the synagogue, homeless Jewish refugees who were inside died in the fire.

 

At the end of November 1939, the Germans ordered the formation of a Jewish Council – the Judenrat. It included: Icchak Nachum Weintraub – chairman; Hersz Eisenberg – deputy-chairman; Herszl Tenenbaum – secretary, responsible for liaison with the Gestapo; Dr Henryk Loebel – health division; M. Czarnobroda – treasurer; M. Rotbejn – employment division; J. Landau, lawyer – social assistance; A. Altenberg – supplies division; L. Grinberg – legal assistance; R. Leiter – general matters.

 

Ogrodawa Street in Siedlce

There were 25 Judenrat members in all. “The members of the Jewish Council were, in general, recognized Jewish leaders, to whom the Nazis gave enormous power until the moment when they, too, were deported.”

 

The Council managed Jewish property and manpower, and drew up “transport lists” (lists of persons destined for extermination camps). A Jewish police force kept order, wearing as insignia caps of office, nightsticks, and special armbands with the inscription “Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst“. There were around 50 of them. Gewisser stood at their head. There was also the Sanitätsdienst – the Sanitation Service. Its purpose was to maintain cleanliness in the apartments, courtyards, and streets of the Jewish quarters.

 

After the closed ghetto was instituted, the functionaries of the Sanitation Service became part of the Health Division of the Jewish Council. In addition to their previous duties, its members were ordered to assign living quarters for Jews who moved to the already overcrowded ghetto. The Judenrat also had an employment office (Arbeitsamt), whose director was Izrael Friedman.

The chairman of the Siedlce Judenrat was a man of already advanced age: Weintraub who was a worthy local social and political activist. For many years he had been at the head of the Zionist movement and the religious community. He kept a diary in which he recorded the important events of the town, as well as stories, told to him by Jewish elders.

Blurred photo of German troops at Siedlce Station

Unfortunately nearly all these writings have been destroyed. What has been saved is only that which he had published in the press in the interwar period. The function of chairman of the Judenrat was filled not by Weintraub, but by Dr Henryk Loebel. Emil Karpinski remembers that “people fought each other, literally fought, gave bribes, and used every possible means to get a position in the Judenrat or the Jewish police.”

By December 1939, the Judenrat was already ordered to make a “contribution” of 20,000 zlotys. In 1940, from spring to winter, the Siedlce Jews were used for land reclamation work on the Liwiec River. Workers, divided into 15 person groups, worked under Polish direction.

 

The Germans had overall supervision of the labour, and the workers were supervised by SS-men, who controlled the progress of the work. Around 1,500 Jews left the ghetto every day and went to the jobs to which they had been assigned.

 

In April 1940, the Germans carried out the registration of all Jewish men between 16 and 60 years of age, and in November 1940 a census of Jewish people was conducted for those streets on which they were most numerous.

 

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