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Yad Vashem: Transports to Extinction Transport

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Yad Vashem: Transports to Extinction Transport Yad Vashem: Transports to Extinction Transport from Gleiwitz, Oppeln, Silesia (Upper): Germany to unknown place, on 16/05/1942 Source: http://db.yadvashem.org/deportation/transportDetails.html?language=en&item Id=5093118 On January 31, 1942, after the Wannsee conference of January 20, Adolf Eichmann, one of the main architects of the Holocaust who headed the Amt IV sub-department called Referat IV B4 of the RSHA (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, Reich Security Main Office) in charge of arranging for all deportations into occupied Poland, informed Gestapo headquarters across the Reich that “the recent evictions of Jews from several areas of the Reich to the East are only the beginning of the ‘final solution’ of the Jewish problem in the Altreich, Austria, and the Protectorate.” As Eichmann stressed, “the initial deportation measures carried out so far have been limited... the new reception points are getting organized for the expulsion of other groups of Jews. Clearly, these preparations will take some time.” On March 6, 1942, Eichmann summoned Gestapo representatives from all over the Reich to a meeting to discuss the deportation of 55,000 Jews from the Reich and the Protectorate. He instructed them not to include elderly Jews, and not to give the Jews any advanced notice of the transports. The dates of the transports would only be divulged by phone (code word "DA") to the local Gestapo offices six days in advance, a precaution evidently meant to forestall rumors among the Jewish population about the impending deportation. The call would be immediately confirmed by telex to the Department IV B 4 of the RSHA. The rail car capacity, although stating 700, would be stretched to at least 1000 Jews per train. In March, the transports of Jews from the Reich, including from Austria began. The destination was the Lublin district in the Generalgouvernement, which became a transit camp for the implementation of the Final Solution. However, some deportees were taken directly to the extermination camps. Until the beginning of the war, the Jews of Gleiwitz, as all the Jews of Upper Silesia, had been under the jurisdiction of the administrative district of Regierungsbezirk Oppeln, one of three Silesian districts (beside Liegnitz and Breslau). After the invasion of Poland in September 1939, Polish Upper Silesia, as it existed since 1922 when Germany and Poland signed an accord on East Silesia, was directly annexed into the Province of Silesia. This annexed territory, also known as East Upper Silesia (Ostoberschlesien), became part of the new administrative district "Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz". This included the urban districts Gleiwitz, Beuthen and Hindenburg. On January 18, 1941, the Province of Silesia was again divided into the Provinces of Upper and Lower Silesia. Katowice (Kattowitz) was made the capital of Upper Silesia and an additional Polish territory, made up of several Polish provinces (mainly cracow, Kielce and Polish Silesia) called the "Oststreifen" (the Eastern strip or the Eastern belt) was integrated into this province. The Oststreifen included cities such as Będzin (Bendsburg), Sosnowiec (Sosnowitz), chrzanów (Krenau) and Oświęcim (Auschwitz), which had large Jewish populations (in some cities over 50%). The Gestapo regional headquarters Kattowitz (Gestapoleitstelle) allegedly handled the deportation procedure for the Upper Silesian Jews all alone. Formally, the chain of command still went from the RSHA in Berlin to Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant-colonel), Dr Rudolf Mildner, who headed the Gestapo in Katowice between March 1941 and fall 1943. Mildner was as well the head of the so called political department at Auschwitz and served as head of a "special court" (Sondergericht) which sentenced thousands of Poles to death. However, contrary to the districts in the Generalgouvernement where the SS and Police leaders arranged the transports under the supervision of the Higher SS- and Police-leader (HSSPF) in Cracow, the transports in the district of Katowice (Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz) were not organized by the HSSPF Ernst Heinrich Schmauser in Breslau but directly by Mildner. According to historian Sybille Steinbacher, not even Eichmann was involved in the organization of the transports to Auschwitz. Mildner decided by himself about the fate of the Jews, set the dates and the destiny of the transports. Mildner was a close friend of Eichmann, which might at least partly explain his unique authority as well as the proximity of Katowice to Auschwitz (about 30 km). Until May 12, 1942, the Regierungsbezirk Kattowitz had a so-called police border (Polizeigrenze) that separated what was mostly the German, Western parts of the district from the mainly Polish and Jewish Eastern parts, in order to prevent "unwanted subjects" to move freely within the district. As soon as Heinrich Heydrich, the chief of the RSHA decreed to abolish the inner provincial border, a massive wave of deportations began, first from the cities of Będzin, Sosnowiec, Andrychów (Andrichau), Kęty (Kenty), Kłobuck (Klobutzko), Krzepice, Dandowka, Bielsko (Bielitz) and Chrzanów (Krenau). The deportations from the Western part of the district, the so-called Altreich, started some days later, in Beuthen on May 14 and in Gleiwitz on May 16. So far, there is no data for Hindenburg or other Upper Silesian towns. In 1933, Gleiwitz had a population of 111,062, among them 1,899, almost exclusively German-speaking Jews. The few German native speakers who were Polish citizens (33 families) were expelled in October 1938 as part of the so- called Polenaktion. Gleiwitz, among other Upper Silesian cities, had a special status according to the above-mentioned treaty of March 15, 1922, called the Upper Silesian or German-Polish Geneva convention. Due to several armed conflicts, it stipulated, based on a plebiscite that the League of Nations held on March 20, 1921, how the region would be divided between Poland and Germany and formulated far-ranging minority protection laws in order to preserve the economic unity of the region. Specifically, Article 66 stated that "the German Government undertakes to assure full and complete protection of life and liberty to all inhabitants (…) without distinction of birth, nationality, language, race or religion." When anti-Semitic measures were introduced in 1933, some Jewish lawyers successfully submitted the Bernheim-Petition to the League of Nations, forcing the German government to abide by its treaty and to cease their anti- Jewish activities in German Upper Silesia. Thus, Gleiwitz Jews were to some degree protected until July 16, 1937, when the treaty expired and the Nuremberg Laws came into full force. Emigration henceforth increased until June 1941, when the last legal escape avenue was closed. Subsequently, the number of Jewish citizens decreased until 1939 to 902 and stood, at the beginning of the deportations in May 1942, at around 600. Most documents that testify to the events prior and during the deportations stem from Justizrat (Judicial council) Arthur Kochmann, born on December 24, 1864 in Gleiwitz, an alderman of his hometown, member of the executive of the left-liberal Prussian party Deutsche Demokratische Partei (DDP) and chairman of the Synagogue Federation of Upper Silesia. He was deported to Auschwitz on December 28, 1943 as one of the last local Jews and followed by the former Jewish lawyer in Gleiwitz, Erich Schlesinger, born 1886 in Königshütte, Upper Silesia, then Germany (chorzów between1922 and 1939) who survived due to his marriage to a non-Jew. Schlesinger served simultaneously as chairman and rabbi as well as the representative of the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (Reich's Association of the Jews in Germany) for Gleiwitz, Beuthen and Hindenburg. The collection of Kochmann's and Schlesinger's work contains copies of correspondence, manuscripts on the history of the Gleiwitz community, with an emphasis on the period from 1933-1945, as well as deportation lists and some correspondence with the Reichsvereinigung in Berlin and Jewish emigrants. The collection is situated in the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw (ZIH) and in The German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv), Inventory 112 – Jüdische Synagogengemeinde Gleiwitz. The Stapoleitstelle Kattowitz had two branches in the Western part of the district. They were located in Gleiwitz and in Beuthen. The archive in Gleiwitz burned down. Apparently no Gestapo files, related to the deportations from Gleiwitz survived. Therefore, the Gleiwitz Jewish Community collection and testimonies so far serve as the main source of information. Schlesinger recorded 7 transports, starting on May 16, 1942 (49 or 50 deportees), on May 20 (between 131 and 146), on May 28 (137), on June 8 (27), on June 15 (2), on June 23 (104) and on June 29 (43). The deportations apparently started after the Gestapo Gleiwitz received a cable, instructing them to immediately commence with the deportations: "all upper Silesian Jews are to be deported, excluding the families Guratze in Tost and Kochmann in Gleiwitz and the mixed marriages." The family Guratze were ennobled Jews who had influential friends among the higher Wehrmacht echelon. The Kochmann family was related to the Italian ambassador to Stockholm and personal friend of Mussolini, Giuseppe Renzetti. However, Schlesinger quotes from his memory, there seems to be no copy of this cable and Schlesinger does not disclose the source of his information. In a letter to the Reichsvereinigung dated May 15, 1942, Arthur Kochmann records the following details of the deportation procedure: This morning, the nurse Emma Sara Ritter, who is employed with us, went to the office of the Gestapo Gleiwitz in order to get permission to visit the detained spouses Roth. On this occasion, the Gestapo officer Linz conveyed the message that 70 members of our community would be evacuated in the course of the day and that the rest would share the same fate throughout next week. The same officer called some hours later prompting us to instruct the occupants of the dwellings Bahnhofstrasse 4, Oberwallstrasse 14 and Neudorfstrasse 5 that all of them, whatever their age, would have to prepare for a certain hour later in the day to be evacuated.
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