AUSCHWITZ, Poland (WJC)–The infamous “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work sets you free”) sign, stolen from the site of the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz, was found in northern Poland and five men were arrested on Sunday evening Polish police have said. The metal sign was found cut into three pieces. A major search had been launched after the sign was removed before dawn on Friday. The theft had caused outrage world-wide.

Five men in their 20s or 30s were detained and taken to Krakow for questioning, a police spokeswoman said. Road blocks were in place across the southern Polish region, while around 40 officers and forensic experts were mobilized to gather evidence at the camp itself. Poland also sought the help of the international policing bodies Interpol and Europol to try to track down the criminals.  “This is an absolute priority for the Polish police,” added a spokeswoman for the national police.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had urged Poland to find the “twisted criminals” behind the theft.  “It is important to preserve the site of the crime of the most notorious, awful act in the history of the Jewish people and the history of humanity,” Netanyahu said ahead of the weekly Israeli Cabinet meeting.

Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, said the thieves were guilty of desecrating a site of immense importance. “Whoever has done it has desecrated world memory. Auschwitz has to stand intact because without it, we are without the world’s greatest physical reminder of what we are capable of doing to each other.”

The slogan “Arbeit macht frei” was also used at the entrances to other Nazi concentration camps, including Dachau and Sachsenhausen. Between 1940 and 1945, over 1 million people, mostly Jews, were murdered or died of starvation and disease while carrying out forced labor at the camp, which the Nazis built in occupied Poland. Today, the site is one of the main draws in the region for visitors from Poland and abroad.

The barracks and other structures are in a state of massive disrepair and Polish authorities have been struggling to find funds to carry out conservation work. Last week, the German government pledged € 60 million (US$ 85 million) to a new endowment that will fund long-term preservation work. The sum is half the amount of the estimated costs for preservation measures. The German government said that Auschwitz had to be maintained as a monument to condemn the Holocaust and Nazi reign of terror.

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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress

I went to Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp which was once the administrative headquarters for all concentration camps in Germany, on Wednesday with one of my classes and learned a lot of interesting things.

First, I should say that Sachsenhausen is constantly stepping up its game: I was there a few years ago when my family traveled to Berlin, but there are a lot of new exhibits on display now.

Two of these had to do specifically with the site’s history during East Germany. One told the story of how the Soviets converted the site into a camp for political prisoners (“Sowjetisches Speziallager Nr. 7“).

60,000 prisoners entered the camp in the five years it was in use by the Soviets, and at least one in five never left. Starvation and tuberculosis were the main killers Some were former Nazis or officers in the German army. Some were everyday people who had been denounced as anti-Communist by their neighbors, including a fourteen year old girl imprisoned because she had painted a portrait of Stalin in lipstick.

Others were Russian soldiers who had been in Nazi captivity and who were therefore deemed “suspicious” by their own authorities.

This is the outside of the exhibition about the site's history as a Soviet camp.

Another exhibit focused on the ways that the site was used as a memorial by East Germany from 1961-1989. East German memorial culture is pretty interesting, because it aggressively supresses any expression of collective identity outside of the state, but then allows individuals to express themselves in ways that you might not expect.

The Soviet Liberation memorial dominates the landscape.

In the example of Sachsenhausen, the first museum that was established was entirely about communist resistance to the Nazis and the Soviet liberation of the camp. Then Soviet Jews said “Uh, wait a second, um, can we be mentioned?” The authorities deliberated about this, said no, and then, according to the museum, acquiesced in 1961 because of the Eichmann trial.

The Jews were allowed to set up a small museum, but it was not allowed to talk about a “genocide,” and instead emphasized the bonds of solidarity between Communists and their imprisoned Jewish comrades.

The Soviet regime aggressively promoted the idea of World War Two as the “Great Patriotic War,” as the triumph of Communism over Fascism, and any focus on the other things that happened during that period of time was seen as an unproductive distraction.

There was also an interesting display case about a group of gay East Germans who wanted to memorialize their own dead in the 1980s, but whenever they tried to celebrate the gay community, they got shot down.

They wanted to go and have a wreath laying ceremony, and the authorities said “You can lay a wreath, but nix the ceremony.”

So they brought a wreath with a pink ribbon on it that said “To the prisoners who wore the pink triangle,” knowing that “to the homosexual prisoners” would definitely not fly, but then the part about “wearing the pink triangle” was cut off before the wreath could be displayed.

There’s a clear pattern here: no group of victims outside of the resistance fighters was to be mentioned by name. No collective identity was allowed to express itself outside of the official identity of the collective state.

Then other East German memorial traditions let people express their individual identities and passions in ways that seem completely bizarre to me.

Couples getting married would sometimes came to the memorial to lay a wreath and sign the guestbook, paying homage to the Soviet soldier as they started their new family. These couples often had their pictures taken and were used in promotional material for the site.

My favorite idea, though, was the Sachsenhausen Gedenklauf, a race along the former path of the “death march” that was promoted by happy athletes saying things like “Running around Sachsenhausen allows me to improve myself and show my joy that I am free from fascism!” Cross-country teams from Poland and Czechoslavakia would come all the way to Germany for the occasion.

I’m not sure I know of anything else quite like this event, but how do you think an ultra-marathon along America’s Trails of Tears would go over?

Berlin is a fascinating place: it is steeped in history which still resonates deeply throughout the city, from its wide boulevards around the Brandenburg Gate to its seamier quarters to the east of the wall.  The best way to orientate yourself and begin to experience the richness of the city is through one of the brilliant free walking tours.  I did one with New Berlin Tours and it was great; the guide, Mike, was funny and extremely knowledgeable, and the atmosphere was really friendly.

The majestic Brandenburg Gate

You meet close to the imposing Brandeburg Gate and spend the next three hours or so visiting all of the main attractions in the city as listed on the link above.  The new Holocaust Memorial, in the news recently after Easyjet ran fashion photographs taken there in its in-flight magazine, is a sombre and moving site, and the impact is probably sharpened by its proximity to the location of Hitler’s former bunker (which, unsurprisingly, is barely commemorated).

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

The museum is a terrifying reminder of the Third Reich, and is a difficult but truly worthwhile experience.  The personal stories which are told are evocative and harrowing, and a visit leaves you very contemplative for the rest of the day and a long while afterwards.

On a happier note, the memorial is next to a strip of truly dreadful cafeterias serving up second-rate reheated drudge to budget travellers such as myself.  I had the misfortune to eat a spaghetti bolognaise served up by a guy who looked like he was from the Village People, before being chased out of the bathroom by a very small woman wielding a can of air freshener and shouting at me in German.

I spent a lot of time in Berlin running away from toilet attendants who would attempt to extort half a euro every time as I so much thought about paying a visit to the loo.  I actually sprinted out of Dunkin’ Donuts near Zoologischer Garten station one day to escape from a particularly angry man who was brandishing a tip tray at me and making vivid gestures towards the toilet.

The Hotel Adlon

Opposite the Brandenburg Gate is the Hotel Adlon, where the late great Michael Jackson famously dangled one of his children out of the window.  The Presidential Suite on the top floor costs $12,000-a-night and has bulletproof glass in the windows among its many very cool features.  If I win the lottery…

The Reichstag is the home of the German Parliament, and its roof alone makes it worth a visit.  You can look down into the chamber when parliament is in session: “a reminder to the politicians that we are always looking in on them and that they are accountable to us,” an ageing Berliner told me.  Get there early to beat the crowds, and be prepared for a very thorough (in my case, patently illegal) level of frisking.  All I will say is avoid the security guard with the handlebar moustache.

The Reichstag roof

The Berlin Wall, which collapsed 20 years ago, is an integral part of the visit, though very few parts of it remain intact and those that do are protected by fencing.  As with many parts of the city’s history, there’s a residual feeling of shame and embarrassment about it amongst the city’s residents, who you feel would rather live without the permanent reminders of their country’s past.

Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie is very artificial and one of the few attractions in the city which is a little underwhelming.  But you can take your disappointment away by heading into the unbelievably decadent Fassbender & Rausch chocolate shop which has models of things such as the Reichstag and the Titanic, all made out of chocolate.  The only thing stopping me from plunging my face straight in was concern about how long they had been there.

The Reichstag - made of chocolate

My face upon being told not to eat the Brandenburg Gate

Pergamon Museum entrance

The TV Tower - all 368 metres of it

A penguin doing his best Marilyn Manson impression

The sign marking the death march

As with the Holocaust memorial in the city, it is a very graphic realisation of the horrors of what went on there less than a century ago.  The tour around is well-constructed and allows plenty of time for personal exploration and reflection.  Imposing, thought-provoking, and with a huge underlying unease, it in many ways replicates the city itself.

'Freedom through work'

The Siedlce Ghetto

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.

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.

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.

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

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2009

Andrew Weil's latest is one of the books I've read recently.

My reading’s been a bit all over the place these days, which has been fun, if a bit scattered.

Today I’m going to give quick summaries of books I’ve read recently that each deserve, and will later receive,  their own posts.

1. A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz As A Young Boy, by Thomas Buergenthal. 

Buergenthal currently is the American judge at the International Court of Justice, and his commitment to human and international rights was forged on the crucible of his experience during the Second World War.  He survived life in a Polish ghetto, stints in Sachenshausen and Auschwitz camps, and a death march that cost him two of his toes.  His mother survived, but his father did not. 

The book has a foreword by Elie Wiesel, who writes among other things about the different amounts of time survivors took to record their experiences.  Wiesel concludes the foreword by saying that it is impossible to know whether Buergenthal would have written the same book 50 years, but what matters is that he has written it.  “And the reader must surely be thankful to him for it,” Wiesel says. 

He is right, and I am also grateful to my uncle Ralph Lowenstein, who, like my father, escaped from Germany on the Kindertransport.

2. Social Change 2.0: A Blueprint for Changing Our World, by David Gershon

Gershon has done mass mobilizations for causes as diverse as climate change, averting nuclear war and reducing violence in inner-city neighborhoods.  In this engaging work, he draws on that experience and articulates a method for how people can do the same and how the planet can avert catastrophe and end war. 

The charge may sound grandiose, and the language is a bit jargon-laden-we read a lot about “transformative leadership” and “unitive visions,” for example-and I found the book stimulating, hopeful and useful.

3. Why Health Matters: A Vision of Health That Can Transform Our Future, by Andrew Weil.  This is my first book by Weil, who has written several other bestsellers.  In it, he argues against what he sees as three myths of healthcare-among them, the idea that technology leads to better care and more money to better research-as part of his argument that our current health care system is badly broken and in need of radical reform. 

His solution is to focus more on preventive medicine and healthy living, and to rely less on pricey specialists and more on general practitioners who spend meaningful time with their patients. 

This may not sound radical, and implementing his vision would lead to major changes in how health care is administered and who receives it.  A timely read, given the current heated and protracted political debate.

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Action Reinhard Staff Photos

You can learn about each of the individuals pictures on the

Action Reinhard Personnel page

click to advance to next page
 

Belzec smiling workers & guard 800 X 562 62 KB	Blaurock – Sobibor 568 X 800 51 KB	Bred, Ment, Moller, Hirtreiter 800 X 553 79 KB	Bredow in Italy 800 X 552 67 KB
Eberl – Treblinka 472 X 799 42 KB	Erich Fuchs 581 X 800 30 KB	Felfe – Treblinka 531 X 800 34 KB	Fichtner – Belzec admin 800 X 539 51 KB
Floss 546 X 799 34 KB	Forker – Treblinka 548 X 800 49 KB	Franz in Belzec 799 X 572 66 KB	Fritz_Hirche 302 X 385 17 KB

See the full image gallery here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ar/arstaffphotos/index.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2009

The Boy in the Photo?

The Warsaw Ghetto & The Stroop Report

The above photo is one of the most iconic photographs of the Holocaust, the German Guard pointing the machine gun is known, the little boy is not known, but some of the other people captured in this photo, have been identified.

The photo was included in the infamous Stroop Report – “The Warsaw Ghetto no longer exists.”

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Extracts from the book by Richard Raskin

The Boy in the Photograph

There are four possible identities for the little boy at gunpoint. 

• Artur Dab Siemiatek

It was advanced as early as 1950, but documentation was first found in 1977-78, one source was responsible for making the claim, a woman named Jadwiga Piesecka, who was a resident of Warsaw.

According to a statement she signed on 24 January 1977, the boy in the photograph was named Artur Siemiatek born in Lowicz in 1935.

He was the son of Leon Siemiatek, and Sara Dab and the grandson of the signatory’s brother Josef Dab.

A similar attestation was signed the following year in Paris by Jadwiga Piesecka’s husband, Henryk Piasecki, dated 28 December 1978. 

• Tsvi Nussbaum

In 1982 a 47 year old ear, nose and throat specialist in Rockland County New York, came forward that in 1943, at the age of seven, he had been arrested in Warsaw and ordered to raise his hands by an SS man standing in front of him and aiming a gun at him. And although he could not recall that a photograph was taken, Dr Nussbaum believes that he might be the child in the picture.

Tsvi Nussbaum expressed uncertainty that he was the boy in the photo, whilst others say that it is him. There are indeed two specific factors that heavily way up, against him being that boy.

The first is that although he was arrested in Warsaw, he had never set foot in the ghetto- the second is the date he was arrested. Tsvi Nussbaum clearly remembers that he was arrested on 13 July 1943. This was nearly two months after the Stroop report is thought to have been completed, and sent to Himmler and Kruger.

In the early 30’s Nussbaum’s parents emigrated from Poland to Palestine, where Tsvi was born in 1935. When conflicts broke out between the Jews and the Arabs in Palestine, the Nussbaum family returned to Poland, settling in Sandomierz in 1939.

By 1942 Tsvi Nussbaum parents had been murdered by the Nazis, and he was brought from Sandomiercz to live with an Aunt and Uncle, in hiding, on the Aryan section of the city.

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

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

ww.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2009

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Odilo Globocnik

 “The Worst Man in the World”        

Odilo Globocnik was born in Trieste on 21 April 1904 he was the son of an Austrian Croat family of petty officials and a builder by profession.

He joined the Nazi Party in Carinthia Austria in 1930 and became a “radical” leader of its factory cells in the province. In 1933 Globocnik joined the SS and was appointed deputy district leader of the NSDAP in Austria.

He was imprisoned for over a year for a number of political offences, he may have even murdered the Jewish jeweller Futterweiss. Globocnik re-emerged as a key liaison man between Hitler and the Austrian National Socialists, he was appointed provincial Nazi chief of Carinthia in 1936, and subsequently he was promoted to Gauleiter of Vienna on 24 May 1938.

But  his decline was soon at; Globocnik was using an astonishing number of dirty tricks, particularly in financial matters.

Another was that he was an absolutely uncompromising person who was extremely successful in finding new opponents and enemies in the party ranks, mainly in the Catholic wing of the NSDAP. 

A major factor was the fact that Hermann Göring (ReichsMarshall) endeavoured to have Globocnik removed from his high party office. On January 30, 1939, Globocnik was suspended as a Gauleiter and replaced by Josef Burckel.

 Globocnik was pardoned by Himmler and appointed on 9 November 1939 as SS and Police Leader for the Lublin district in Poland. Globocnik was a brutal police commander who not only waged a terrible war on Polish Jewry, but who carried out drastic population expulsions in the Zamosc Lands, to germanise the Lublin area.

He was chosen by Himmler as the central figure in Operation Reinhard – named after Reinhard Heydrich, no doubt because of his scandalous past record and well-known virulent anti-semitism.

Put in charge of a special company of SS men not subordinate to any higher authority and responsible only to Himmler, Globocnik founded three death camps as part of Aktion Reinhard, and one combined death camp and concentration camp Majdanek (Lublin).

Globocnik drew rich rewards from the slaughter of 1.7 million Jews whose property ranging from their houses and valuables down to the gold in their teeth was seized by the SS.

As Globocnik’s Summary Reports show, he carried out Himmler’s orders with brutal efficiency and by November 1943 Operation Reinhard had been completed and the three death camps directly under his control were liquidated.

  Aktion Reinhard had consisted of four separate tasks: 

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

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2009

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Rivka Yosselevska

On the evening of 14 August 1942, the first day of the Hebrew month of Ellul, a Friday, the SS surrounded the ghetto in the village of Zagrodski, near Pinsk in Belarus (Belorussia), home to five hundred Jewish families. “The commotion and noise on that night”, recalled Rivka Yosselevska, “was not customary, and we felt something in the air.”

On Saturday morning 15 August 1942, the Germans entered the ghetto, ordering the Jews to leave their houses for a roll call. All day, the Jews were kept standing, waiting. Towards sunrise, the children screamed, demanding food and water. But the Germans would allow no one back into their homes. 

That evening a truck arrived at the ghetto gates. The Jews were ordered on to it, and drove out of the ghetto. Those for whom there had been no room on the truck were ordered to run after it. “I had my daughter in my arms”, Rivka Yosselevska recalled, “and ran after the truck. There were mothers who had two or three children and held them in their arms – running after the truck. We ran all the way. There were those who fell – we were not allowed to help them rise. They were shot – right there – wherever they fell.”

On reaching the destination, Rivka Yosselevska saw that the people from the truck had already been taken off, and were undressed, “all lined up.” It was some three kilometres from the village, by “a kind of hillock”. At the foot of the hillock was a ditch. The Jews were ordered to stand on the hillock, where four SS men stood “armed to the teeth.”

“We saw naked people lined up”, Rivka Yosselevska recalled, “and we hoped this was only torture. Maybe there is hope – hope of living.”

Her account continued:

“One could not leave the line, but I wished to see – what are they doing on the hillock? I turned my head and saw that some three or four rows were already killed – on the ground.

There were some twelve people amongst the dead. I also want to mention that my child said while we were lined up in the ghetto, she said `Mother, why did you make me wear the Shabbat dress, we are being taken to be shot’-; and when we stood near the dug-out, near the grave, she said, `Mother, why are we waiting, let us run!’

Some of the young people tried to run, but they were caught immediately, and they were shot right there. It was difficult to hold onto the children. We took all children, not ours, and we carried – we were anxious to get it all over- the suffering of the children was difficult- we all trudged along to come nearer to the place and to come nearer to the end of the torture of the children. The children were taking leave of their parents and parents of their elder people.

We were driven; we were already undressed; the clothes were removed and taken away; our father did not want to undress; he wanted to keep his underclothes on. He did not want to stand naked. Then they tore the clothing off the old man and he was shot. I saw it with my own eyes. And then they took my mother, and she said, let us go before her, but they caught my mother and shot her too; and then there was my grandmother, my father’s mother, standing there; she was eighty years old and she had two children in her arms. And then there was my father’s sister. She also had children in her arms and she was shot on the spot with the babies in her arms. 

And finally my turn came. There was my younger sister, and she wanted to leave, she pleaded with the German; she asked to run, naked- she went up to the Germans with one of her friends; they were embracing each other; and she asked to be spared, standing there naked. He looked into her eyes and shot the two of them. They fell together in their embrace, the two young girls, my sister and her young friend. Then my second sister was shot and then my turn came. 

We turned towards the grave and then he turned around and asked, `Whom shall I shoot first?’ We were already facing the grave. The German asked, `Whom do you want me to shoot first?’ I did not answer. I felt him take the child from my arms. The child cried out and was shot immediately. And then he aimed at me. First he held onto my hair and turned my head around; I stayed standing; I heard a shot, but I continued to stand and then he turned my head again and he aimed the revolver at me, ordered me to watch, and then turned my head around and shot at me. Then I fell to the ground into the pit amongst the bodies – but I felt nothing.

The moment I did feel I felt a sort of heaviness and then I thought may be I am not alive anymore, but I feel something after I died. I thought I was dead, that this was the feeling which comes after death. Then I felt that I was choking; people falling over me. I tried to move and felt that I was alive and that I could rise. I was strangling. I heard the shots and I was praying for another bullet to put an end to my suffering, but I continued to move about.

I felt that I was choking, strangling, but I tried to save myself, to find some air to breathe, and then I felt that I was climbing towards the top of the grave above the bodies. I rose, and I felt bodies pulling at with me with their hands, biting at my legs, pulling me down, down. And yet with my last strength I came up on top of the grave, and when I did I did not know the place, so many bodies were lying all over, dead people; I wanted to see the end of this stretch of dead bodies, but I could not. It was impossible. They were lying, all dying; suffering; not all of them dead, but in their last sufferings; naked; shot, but not dead. Children crying, `Mother, Father’; I could not stand on my feet.

The Germans had gone. There was nobody there, no one standing up. “I was naked, covered with blood, dirty from other bodies, with the excrement from other bodies which was poured on me.” Riivka Yosselevska had been wounded in the head, but she managed to crawl out of the grave, then she recalled;

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

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2009

Di antara 42 percobaan pembunuhan yang semuanya gagal terhadap tokoh diktator Nazi Jerman, Adolf Hitler ; tidak ada yang paling fenomenal ketimbang ledakan bom di sebuah kedai bir, di Munich, tanggal 08.11.1939. Sang pelaku tunggal dengan dingin dan telaten merancang penuh kehati-hatian dan kewaspadaan tinggi aksinya dalam kegelapan. Kendati memang Hitler luput dari maut, tapi apa yang dilakukannya tujuhpuluh tahun lampau tetap menarik untuk kita simak.

Tanggal 09.04.1945, kurang dari sebulan berakhirnya Perang Dunia (PD) II, di kamp konsentrasi Dachau sekelompok pengawal SS (Schutzstaffen) melakukan eksekusi. Sesungguhnya eksekusi menjadi pemandangan sehari-hari di sana, tapi seiring dengan kekalahan Nazi Jerman hal ini kian intensif dilakukan seakan berlomba dengan waktu untuk menghapus jejak kezaliman Nazi. Di antara tumpukan jenazah yang akan dibakar, terdapat sosok jenazah Georg Elser dengan status tahanan politik istimewa. Eksekusi Georg Elser pada siang hari itu atas instruksi langsung dari pemimpin SS sendiri Heinrich Himmler. Jelas tokoh kita ini amat istimewa karena sangat sedikit sekali seorang tahanan di Dachau bisa dibiarkan  hidup selama 6 tahun dan seorang Himmler pribadi memberikan perintah eksekusi. Lantas siapakah Georg Elser ?

Georg Elser lahir tanggal 04.01.1903, ia memiliki masa kecil yang penuh penderitaan karena ayahnya pemabuk dan suka memukul. Ia akhirnya diselamatkan dan dirawat oleh pamannya untuk kemudian belajar di sekolah teknik. Elser menjadi seorang pandai kayu dan pembuat jam yang handal. Profesi inilah yang terbukti amat mendukung aksinya di kemudian hari.  Tahun 1937, terjadi peristiwa yang membuat dirinya di-PHK. Ia sangat marah dan kecewa.

Saat itu tingkat pengangguran yang tinggi di Jerman menjadi sasaran empuk propaganda kaum Komunis. Dan Elser akhirnya menjadi pengikut paham ini. Pilihannya ini yang membuat ia mengenal dekat Karl Kuch, sang pemimpin sel komunis Jerman, dan ia pun bekerja pada pabrik piano Kuch ; yang merencanakan peledakan bom pada awal 1939. Tapi upaya ini gagal karena Gestapo berhasil mengendusnya. Kuch dan isterinya tewas kecelakaan saat melarikan diri ke Swiss. Satu anggota sel lain yang dikenal dengan nama Ketterer, menghilang dan membatalkan rencana Kuch. Tapi tidak bagi Elser, ia bertekad membalas dendam dan bertekad untuk mewujudkan rencana pemimpinnya yang gagal. Sasarannya adalah jelas, siapa lagi kalau bukan :  Adolf Hitler.

Setiap tahun pada tanggal 8 Nopember, Hitler akan datang dan berpidato di kedai bir Burgerbraukeller di Munich untuk memperingati aksi yang dikenal Beer Hall Putsch 1923, yang saat itu gagal menggulingkan pemerintahan Republik Weimar. Hal ini dilakukannya untuk menghormati para pendukungnya yang tewas dan terluka dalam peristiwa itu. Hitler senantiasa akan pidato dengan penuh semangat dan bergemuruh selama 90 menit. Jadi ini adalah acara tetap tahunan yang sudah menjadi semacam ritual bagi Hitler.

Elser mempelajari hal ini dengan seksama. Ia mencatat waktu kedatangan sang dikator, lama waktu ia berpidato, dan posisi ia berdiri di podium. Ia pun menganalisis gedung itu secara menyeluruh. Pengamatan dan persiapan ini dilakukan pada Nopember 1938. Yakni setahun sebelum aksinya. Kesimpulan Elser sederhana bahwa cara terbaik untuk menghabisi sang diktator adalah dengan menyelundupkan bom waktu ke dalam gedung, memasangnya di dalam pilar dekat podium, dan meledakkannya ketika Hitler berpidato. Tapi masalahnya cuma satu, ia seorang diri untuk melaksanakan misi ini. Jadi ia harus bertindak sistematis penuh kesabaran, sedikit demi sedikit menyelundupkan bahan peledak, memasangnya dan meledakakkannya.

Maka selama delapan bulan berikutnya, ia secara hati-hati mengumpulkan perkakas dan membuat bom waktu seakurat mungkin, dengan bahan-bahan yang tersedia : bermacam-macam kayu, tiga palu, dua set papan persegi, dua gunting besar dari timah, dua alat tatah, dua gergaji, satu penggaris presisi, beberapa gunting, tripleks, pengepit kayu dan sejumlah parut.

Perangkat bomnya sendiri mencakup 50 kilogram peledak high explosive, enam sistem gerakan jam, kabel dan batere enam volt. Seluruh perangkat ini dimasukannya ke dalam casing peluru artileri 180 mm dari kuningan, yang entah bagaimana semua ini bisa Elser dapatkan.

Tanggal 05.08.1939, Elser tiba di Munich guna memulai misi pribadinya. Setiap malam, beberapa menit sebelum pukul 23.30, ia bersembunyi di kamar kecil Burgerbraukeller menunggu sampai gedung betul-betul kosong dan semua lampu dipadamkan.

Herbert M Mason Jr. dalam bukunya To Kill The Devil, melukiskan secara detail :

Bekerja dengan penerangan minim dari lampu senter yang diselimuti sapu tangan biru, Elser dengan hati-hati melepas papan penghias dinding yang mengelilingi panel empat persegi panjang penutup kolom. Hati-hati pula ia mengebor satu lubang di satu sudut atas panel kayu dan memasukkan ujung gergaji khusus pembuat lemari. Elser memotong dengan hati-hati serta membuang panel tersebut. Ia bekerja selama tiga empat jam, lalu membersihkan bukti-bukti kegiatannya sebelum tidur di kursi. Ia hanya bisa menggergaji sepanjang beberapa milimeter, mengganti papan penghias dinding, memunguti serbuk gergaji. Namun, semua itu tidak merontokan kesabarannya. Ia menghabiskan tiga malam hanya untuk mencopot panel.

Jejak kerja modifikasinya tidak bisa dideteksi. Ia mengikis pengekang dan bagian rongga dalam sekaligus, memakai palu dan pengebor baja manual dari berbagai ukuran diameter yang dibawanya. Setiap hantaman tentunya bergema di seluruh aula yang kosong itu, mirip letusan pistol. Jika ada penghalang yang membutuhkan pukulan yang lebih keras dari biasanya, ia harus menanti suara ribut dari seberang jalan untuk menutupi suara hantaman palunya. Karena ia bekerja sebelum subuh, maka tidak jarang ia harus menunggu lama sebelum menghantamkan palu.

Elser meninggalkan gedung setiap pukul 8 pagi. Kepada bossnya, ia beralasan bahwa ia bekerja pada sebuah bengkel yang buka hanya pada tengah malam.

Untuk timer, Elser akhirnya memutuskan untuk menggunakan dua jam alarm-15-hari. Satu ia rangkaikan dengan perangkat pemicu cadangan, yang bakal bekerja jika pemicu utama gagal. Pada sistem itu ia memasangkan sistem batang dan roda gigi yang jika dinyalakan akan bergerak secara akurat.

Bom rakitan Elser ini memungkinkan operatornya mengaktifkan pewaktu 144 jam atau enam hari sebelum detik ledakan. Elser tak lupa memasang selembar baja tipis di dalam kolom, kalau ada petugas keamanan memeriksa dan mengetuk dengan seksama guna mencari suara berongga, maka tidak akan terdekteksi. Singkatnya Elser sungguh amat seksama memperhatikan semua faktor yang bisa terjadi menggagalkan misinya ini.

Kamis malam, 02.11.1939, Elser mulai memasang bahan peledak dan detektor di dalam kolom. Tanggal 4 Nopember, ia mengetes pewaktu untuk terakhir kalinya. Ternyata alat itu bekerja tanpa cacat. Beberapa saat sebelum pukul 01.00 dini hari Senin, 06.11. ia mulai merangkai dan mengaktifkan peralatan mautnya. Tepat pukul 06.00 pagi pewaktu mulai diaktifkan. Elser merancang bom-nya ini akan meledak tepat 63 jam dan 20 menit kemudian, yang artinya adalah pada hari Kami 08.11. pukul 21.20.

Hari Senin pagi Elser berkemas dan pergi ke stasiun kereta api ke Stuttgart. Tapi dini hari Rabu, ia sekali lagi datang ke lokasi untuk memastikan kerja bom-nya ini. Detik jam terdengar pertanda semua bekerja lancar. Kamis pagi, pukul 06.30 ia pergi ke stasiun untuk naik kereta api ke Swiss. Jika semua berjalan sesuai rencana, 15 jam dan 50 menit kemudian, Hitler bakal tercabik-cabik.

Pukul 20.20 tanggal 08.11.1939, Hitler masuk ke Burgerbraukeller. Ia disambut gegap gempita terikan ‘ Sieg heil ‘ berulang kali. Dalam pidatonya, ia mencaci maki pekerja Inggeris yang payah dan inkompetensi kaum kapitalis Eropa Barat manakala Depresi Besar melanda, sementara Jerman membuat kemajuan ekonomi nan mengagumkan di bawah Sosialisme Nasional alias Nazi. Jarum jam perlahan berjalan kian mendekat pada pukul 21.20.

Lalu terjadi hal di luar kebiasaan. Mendadak pada pukul 21.12, baru 57 menit berpidato ; Hitler mengakhiri pidatonya dan bergegas berjalan meninggalkan aula itu dengan diiringi ajudan dan para pengawal pribadinya. Lalu konvoi kendaraan membawa dirinya ke stasiun kereta api untuk kembali ke Berlin. Delapan menit kemudian, ledakan suara memekakan terdengar.

Enam orang paling dekat dengan podium tewas seketika, dua lainnya tewas beberapa jam kemudian. Ada 65 orang lainnya luka parah. Pilar yang dikerjai Elser meledak dan melontarkan banyak kepingan kayu ke segala arah. Saking kuatnya ledakan, hampir seluruh langit-langit ambrol. Jika saja Hitler meneruskan pidatonya selama 20 menit seperti biasa setiap tahun, dipastikan tubuh Hitler akan tercabik.

Elser sendiri ternyata gagal mencapai Swiss. Ia ditahan oleh penjaga perbatasan Jerman tidak sampai 100 meter dari perbatasan Swiss. Elser melakukan kesalahan karena saat digeladah, dalam sakunya ada sejumlah benda mencurigakan : pegas jam, roda gigi kecil, detonator aluminium kecil, dan kartu pos bergambar Burgerbraukeller. Ia diserahkan ke pihak Gestapo.

Meski interogasi berkepanjangan, Gestapo percaya pada pengakuan Elser bahwa dirinya pelaku tunggal. Dan ia tidak langsung dieksekusi, sampai enam tahun kemudian. Tampaknya pihak SS baik Heinrich Himler dan juga kepala Gestapo Reinhardt Heydrich, tangan kanan Himmler ; diuntungkan dengan aksi Elser dan ada dugaan sebenarnya pihak SS terlibat. Karena sejak aksi Elser, pengamanan atas diri Hitler semakin ketat dan menjadi tanggung jawab SS. Yang artinya, supremasi SS kian kuat ketimbang matra angkatan bersenjata Nazi Jerman lainnya.

Tercatat pula bahwa Adolf Hitler pribadi menginstruksikan selama di dalam kamp Elser harus diperlakukan dengan baik, diijinkan bekerja sebagai tukang kayu dan boleh sesekali meninggalkan kamp. Dengan segala keistimewaan sebagai tahanan khusus ini, jelas Hitler menyangsikan Elser beraksi sendirian. Dengan berjalannya waktu, Hitler mengharapkan agar Elser mau buka mulut untuk mengatakan siapa dalang sesungguhnya. Tapi hal itu tak terjadi sampai kemudian ia dieksekusi tanggal 09.04.1945.

Kini pertanyaannya bagaimana mungkin apa yang dilakukan Elser dapat diketahui dunia ?  Bukankah ia pelaku tunggal ?  Cerita pun masih bergulir dengan pelbagai misteri yang tak terjawab hingga hari ini.

Upaya Elser tentu amat mengejutkan Inggeris yang ingin tahu siapa sebenarnya di balik aksi nekad ini, karena kiprah Hitler melancarkan Blitzkrieg ke Polandia 01.09.1939 jelas merupakan ancaman serius bagi Eropa. Kesimpulannya sosok Adolf Hitler harus dihilangkan. Jadi aksi apa pun terkait hal ini yang timbul dari pihak Jerman sendiri, tentu akan didukung Inggeris baik langsung dan tidak langsung. Jauh sebelumnya, ternyata pihak Nazi dengan cerdik telah mengumpan Inggeris dengan setumpuk informasi palsu prihal adanya upaya kelompok dalam tubuh militer Jerman yang ingin menggulingkan Hitler. Yang memang sudah menjadi hembusan isu sejak tahun 1938. Pihak intelijen Inggeris di Belanda ternyata menanggapi dan setuju untuk bertemu di perbatasan Belanda – Jerman dengan kelompok ini, yang ternyata Gestapo yang sengaja menyamar, pada tanggal 09.11.1939.

Hasilnya ?  Kapten Payne Best dan Mayor Stevens beserta seorang sopirnya berhasil ditangkap dan diculik ke Jerman. Mereka bertiga di bawa ke kamp Sachsenhausen, tempat awal Georg Elser ditahan. Disana mereka diinterogasi dan dipaksa mengaku memiliki hubungan dengan Elser. Upaya ini tidak membawa hasil. Sampai kemudian kepala Kontra Spionase Nazi Jerman, Walter Schellenberg menyatakan secara definitif bahwa aksi Elser tidak ada kaitannya dengan intelijen Inggeris. Kita bisa menduga bahwa di dalam kamp ini pihak Inggeris memperoleh informasi lebih rinci terkait kiprah Elser. Alih-alih bertemu dengan sebuah konspirasi anti Hitler yang dapat diajak bekerja sama, nyatanya Inggeris pun kecele saat menyadari bahwa Elser sebagai pelaku tunggal.

Para pengamat sejarah memastikan bahwa sumber lainnya terkait aksi Elser adalah datang dari kalangan OKW (Oberkomando der Werhrmacht), Komando Tertinggi Angkatan Bersenjata, sebagai ganti dihapusnya Departemen Peperangan oleh Hitler. Karena kalangan Angkatan Darat yang paling resisten dengan paham Nazi, terbukti banyak para petinggi dari kalangan AD yang kemudian terlibat melakukan konspirasi menggulingkan Hitler antara tahun 1940 – 1945. Tentunya kiprah Elser pun menarik perhatian para petinggi militer AD melalui jejaring Abwehr (dinas intelijen militer). Tapi seperti yang kita ketahui bahwa seluruh upaya konspirasi yang dilakukan kalangan militer pun gagal berantakan, sampai kemudian Hitler membunuh dirinya sendiri pada tanggal 30 April 1945.

Dan akhirnya, dunia pun mengetahui kiprah Elser yang nyaris membunuh Hitler.

Sumber  :

Unexplained Mysteries of World War II, Robert Jackson
Menantang Diktator, Konspirasi Rahasia Anti Hitler, Darma Aji

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Babi Yar

Mass Murder in Kiev    

On 19 September 1941 the German XXIXth German Army Corps and the 6^th Army entered Kiev, after a stiff Soviet defence that had lasted forty five days.

Over 875,000 people lived in the city, of whom 20 percent were Jews (175,000). Some factories important for military purposes and their workers, among them approximately 20,000-30,000 Jews were evacuated by the Soviets. The exact number of evacuated Jews is unknown since no count was taken at that time. Perhaps 130,000 Jews fell into Nazi hands.

The population remembered the last German occupation in 1918 and were convinced that the occupiers would act in a civilized manner. It was anticipated that the Germans would restore the rights and property of the populace abolished by the Soviets.  

The citizens of Kiev were not aware of the risks involved in falling into German hands, and could not imagine their ultimate fate. 

Jews had already been persecuted and killed during the first days of the occupation. However, for reasons still unknown, a ghetto was not established in Kiev.

On 24 September 1941, and in the following days, several bombs were detonated in Kiev (Kreshchatik and Prorizna Streets), and destroyed some buildings in the centre of the town, including the army headquarters and the Hotel Continental, where German officers resided. 

Hundreds of German soldiers and officers were killed. The resulting fire also destroyed some further buildings. These bombs had been placed by a special command of NKVD agents who intentionally remained in Kiev for this purpose. 

Alfred Jodl Chief of the Operations Staff of the High Command of the Armed Forces testified at his trial in Nuremberg: "hardly had we occupied the city when one tremendous explosion after another occurred. The major part of the inner city burned down, 50,000 people were made homeless. German soldiers were used to fight the flames, and suffered considerable losses, because further large amounts of explosives detonated during the fire…

At first, the local commander in Kiev thought that it was sabotage on the part of the population, but then we found a demolition chart, which had already been prepared a long time ago, listing 50 or 60 objectives in Kiev for destruction.  

This chart was, in fact, correct, as investigation by engineers at once proved. At least 40 more objectives were ready to be blown up; for the most part, remote control was to set off the explosion by means of radio waves. I myself had the original of this demolition chart in my hands." 

German troops caught and executed a Jew on Kreshchatik Street, when he cut a water hose that was being used for fighting the fire. That may have been the excuse the Germans needed to accuse the Kiev Jews of being responsible for the explosions. 

The German military commander of Kiev Generalmajor Eberhardt, attended a meeting with the Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer SS-Obergruppenführer Friedrich Jeckeln, the commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe C, SS-Brigadeführer Dr Otto Rasch, and the commanding officer of Sonderkommando 4a, SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel.  

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

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2009

Tuesday

After breakfast we left for Sachsenhausen concentration camp and when we arrived we were greeted by an english speaking tour guide. During the guided tour we learned a lot about the dark side of Germany’s history and it was a very emotional trip for everyone, yet very powerful and educational and something the entire group will never forget.

In the afternoon we had free time where some people went swimming in the lake while others just relaxed to get their head around the morning’s event.

In the evening the german group members held their German Culture Evening. We played games, unique to germany and it was a fun learning experience bringing us all closer together, which is exactly what the group needed.

Overall, the day was filled with a lot and had a lot of fun while becoming closer as a group.

Documental grabado por las tropas aliadas durante su avance y entrada en los campos de concentración alemanes, este documental fue presentado en los juicios de nuremberg como prueba para condenar a goering, hess y otros nazis que en su defensa alegaban que el exterminio o solución final no era verídico…

Hoy día los nazis mas cerrados siguen negándolo y diciendo que todo fue un montaje creado en contra de ellos, en fin… el contenido del documental es durisimo asi que si sois algo sensibles mejor que no lo veáis.

You know about Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald. This place was the model for all them.

Sachsenhausen lies just north of Berlin in the town of Oranienburg. When it opened in 1936, it was the first Nazi facility purpose-designed and built as a concentration camp, a test bed for controlling the maximum number of inmates with the minimum number of guards.

The SS soldiers who would make places like Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen infamous were trained here. The insidious, mocking motto “Arbeit Macht Frei” — Work Makes You Free — first appeared on Sachsenhausen’s main gate. The entire concentration camp system was administered from Oranienburg.

If Evil ever had a headquarters, this may have been it.

In the Nazi system, Sachsenhausen was considered a concentration camp rather than a death camp. I wonder if those who perished here appreciated the difference, because when it came to institutionalized murder, there is nothing that happened at any Nazi death camp that didn’t happen here first.

DECEPTIVE BEAUTY
If you take the route that Heinrich Himmler and his driver might’ve taken, the trip from Berlin to Sachsenhausen will take you a little under an hour. The route is lined with cool green forests and picturesque, square country homes of two and three stories, with steeply angled tile roofs to shed the rain and snow. The camp itself lies at the end of a short residential street.

None of the peaceful beauty you see along that route prepares you for what lies at the end of that street.

A sprawling triangular complex covering about a thousand acres, Sachsenhausen is defined by a perimeter wall interspersed with guard towers. At its height, there were 68 long, one-story barracks laid out in a fan pattern.

Most of the barracks are gone now. A handful — including the two where medical experiments were conducted on inmates –have been restored, along with the “execution trench” and a portion of the inner perimeter death strip that includes coils of barbed wire and what had been an electrified fence.

In front of the fence and the barbed wire coils was a single strand of straight, unadorned wire, running about six inches above the ground. In prison parlance, this is a “dead man’s line” and its meaning is clear:

Step over this wire and you will be shot. No questions, no warnings, no exceptions.

In reality, though, you didn’t have to step over the wire. Death could come calling from anywhere on these grounds at any moment. Inmates could be beaten or shot simply for not moving fast enough when given an order. Starved and brutalized, they sometimes collapsed in roll call and died where they fell.

GALLOWS AND GALLOWS HUMOR
Two holes in the middle of the compound served as mounts for a simple gallows. It didn’t work with the typical German efficiency. The condemned were left to slowly strangle in their nooses.

In December, the scaffold mount held a Christmas tree.

They injected Jewish children as young as 11 with bacteria to experiment with hepatitis C, a disease for which there is no cure. They stitched moldy hay and straw into the flesh of healthy prisoners to see how gangrene worked.

At one point, they tested mustard gas on 30 inmates. No record remains of what happened to them, or even who they were.

Periodically, a Nazi psychologist visited Sachsenhausen to select inmates to send to the death camps, a task he pursued as calmly and cheerfully as if he were the local milkman.

The cruelty wasn’t limited to physical brutality or sadism in the name of science. The SS officers, who lived just outside the camp, treated themselves to lavish banquets, which they pointedly had served to them by their starving prisoners. They habitually told new arrivals that their only path to freedom ran through the chimneys of the camp’s “special” ovens.

The guards seemed to think that was funny.

SECRET SHAME, SILENT SCREAMS
In April 1945, with the Red Army closing in, the Sachsenhausen guards tried to march 33,000 inmates away from potential rescue. Those too weak or sick to keep up were beaten or shot to death. Exhaustion killed still others before the guards could get around to them.

The exact number who survived the death march is unknown. Most did not.

When the Red Army finally overran the camp, they found 3,000 inmates, barely alive. They also found nearly 13,000 bodies. That should’ve closed the book on Sachsenhausen.

It didn’t.

The Soviet NKVD transformed Sachenhausen into one of their “special camps,” in which they imprisoned Nazis, Red Army deserters and anyone else Josef Stalin didn’t like.

Soviet soldiers who contracted venereal diseases from women in occupied Germany wound up here rather than in hospitals.

Unlike the previous landlords, the NKVD wasn’t into experimenting on folks. Their camps were Soviet-style old school — starvation, beatings, generic brutality. By the time the place closed for good in 1950, another 12,000 people — at least 12,000 — had died here, hidden from the world behind the Soviet Union’s “Iron Curtain.”

Overall, no one knows for sure how many died in Sachsenhausen. The best guesses range from 30,000 to as many as 100,000 — not counting those who perished on the death march. Many of the camp’s victims are still here, buried in mass graves just inside the perimeter.

In place of the horror that once filled that perimeter is now a vast emptiness. The wind that sweeps across the vast grounds — and the murmuring of tour groups — are the only sounds here.

In Sachsenhausen, silence is a scream that never ends.

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Chaim Mordechai Rumkowski

Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski was born in 1877 in Russia. His family relocated to Poland where he maintained an unsuccessful career as the director of an orphanage.

On October 13, 1939, the Nazi occupation authorities appointed him Judenrat Chairman in Łódź. In this position he reported directly to the Nazi ghetto administration headed by Hans Biebow and had direct responsibility for providing heat, work, food, housing, and health and welfare services to the ghetto population.

With 230,000 people confined to a very small area that had no farmland, food quickly became a problem. Since the Nazis insisted on having the ghetto pay for its own upkeep, money was needed. But how could Jews who were locked away from the rest of society and who had been stripped of all valuables make enough money for food and housing? Rumkowski believed that if the ghetto was transformed into an extremely useful workforce, then the Jews would be needed by the Nazis. Rumkowski believed that this usefulness would ensure that the Nazis would supply the ghetto with food.

On April 5, 1940, Rumkowski petitioned the Nazi authorities requesting permission for his work plan. He wanted the Nazis to deliver raw materials, have the Jews make the final products, then have the Nazis pay the workers in money and in food. On April 30, 1940 Rumkowski’s proposal was accepted with one very important change – the workers would only be paid in food.  It’s to be noted however, that no agreement was put forth upon how much food, nor how often it was to be supplied.

Rumkowski immediately began setting up factories and all those able and willing to work were found jobs. Most of the factories required workers to be over fourteen years old but often very young children and older adults found work in mica splitting factories. Adults worked in factories that produced everything from textiles to munitions. Young girls were even trained to hand stitch the emblems for the uniforms of German soldiers.

Rumkowski also managed social events. He performed marriage ceremonies when rabbis had to stop working. Later his name came to serve as the nickname of the ghetto currency, the “Rumkie”, and his face even appeared on the ghetto postage-stamps.

Some historians and writers see him as a traitor and as a Nazi collaborator. In all his activities, Rumkowski displayed great zeal and organizational ability, becoming increasingly dictatorial and ruling with an iron hand. However there are those who see Chairman Rumkowski as a tragic hero who did only what anyone else would do in the same circumstances.

Certainly, Nazi persecution did not stop because of Rumkowski’s efforts. Even from the beginning, the Germans murdered Jews at random; more simply starved to death. Meanwhile, Rumkowski presided over the ghetto with what seemed to be growing self-aggrandizement. He encouraged artists to memorialize him; he appeared to revel in power. At the same time, he saw himself as ”a fatherly savior.”

Rumkowski’s style can be evidenced in his “Announcements” as seen here:

By the end of 1941, however, the Nazis had embarked on ”resettlement.” Jews, told only that they were going elsewhere, were sent to death camps. Quotas were set. Rumkowski protested to the Germans, but was told to select the Jews who would fill the quotas. Who should be chosen? “The elderly and the sick?”  “Whole families?” “Perhaps Rumkowski’s political opponents?” Whoever was chosen, the quotas would be filled. Rumkowski made his selections.

It could be argued that he did not initially realize the true mission of the ghetto: a collective staging area for transports to the annihilation camps.

Even while the very first killing center, Chelmno or Kulmhof (German) was established to liquidate the inhabitants of Łódź, Rumkowski was zealously organizing the ghetto to satisfy the demands of the Germans for order as well as quotas for deportations.

He thought that he could insure survival of himself and some part of the ghetto population by producing war-goods for the German Army. 

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

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Copyright Carmelo Lisciotto H.E.A.R.T 2009