DOCSLIB.ORG

The Holocaust

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Holocaust The Holocaust A Hungarian gendarme checks a woman entering the Munkács ghetto Some of Hitler’s Officials… Herman Goering was a Nazi military leader, Commander of the Luftwaffe, President of the Reichstag, Prime Minister of Prussia and Hitler's designated successor. As head of the SS, Chief of the German Police and later the Minister of the Interior, Heinrich Himmler was one of the most powerful men in the Third Reich. Dr. Paul Josef Goebbels was the Reich Minister of Propaganda. At the end of the war, a devoted Goebbels stayed in Berlin with Hitler and killed himself, along with his wife Magda and their six young children. Josef Mengele initially gained notoriety for being one of the SS physicians who supervised the selection of arriving transports of prisoners, determining who was to be killed and who was to become a forced laborer, but is far more infamous for performing grisly human experiments on camp inmates, for which Mengele was called the “Angel of Death.” Jews in Prewar Europe In 1933, approximately 9.5 million Jews lived in Europe, comprising 1.7% of the total European population. This number represented more than 60 percent of the world's Jewish population at that time, estimated at 15.3 million. The majority of Jews in prewar Europe resided in eastern Europe. The largest Jewish communities in this area were in Poland, with about 3,000,000 Jews (9.5%); the European part of the Soviet Union, with 2,525,000 (3.4%); and Romania, with 756,000 (4.2%). In prewar central Europe, the largest Jewish community was in Germany with about 500,000 members (0.75% of the total German population). Three generations of a Jewish family pose for a group photograph. Vilna, 1938-39. Jews Targeted -Holocaust – the systematic murder of 11 million people in Europe, more than half of whom were Jews. -anti-Semitism, or hatred of Jews, had a long history in many European countries -1935, Nuremberg Laws stripped Jews of their German citizenship, jobs, & property -Jews had to wear a bright yellow Star of David attached to their clothing. Pictured here are two children wearing the Jewish badge in the Kovno Ghetto in Feb 1944. On March 27, 1944, the Germans mounted a Children’s Aktion, entering the ghetto when parents were at work and taking about 2,000 of the children and elderly to be killed. (This was part of Nazi euthanasia.) German Students Burning Jewish books because the Nuremberg laws stated all Jewish Literature should be burned. May 10, 1933 Kristallnacht -November 9 – 10 became known as Kristallnacht, or “Night of Broken Glass” -Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues -around 100 Jews were killed and hundreds more were injured -about 30,000 Jews were arrested & hundred s of synagogues were burned A Flood of Refugees -Jews that fled had trouble finding nations to accept them. -The U.S. accepted only “persons of exceptional merit.” Albert Einstein, for example -Roosevelt sympathized with the Jews, but would not “do anything which would conceivably hurt the future of present American citizens.” Muralist Ben Shahn depicts the 1933 emigration of Albert Einstein and thousands of other Jews to America to escape Nazi terrorism. The Condemned -Hitler announced his “Final Solution:” his desire to rid Europe of all Jews -included genocide, or the deliberate & systematic killing of an entire population -Hitler believed Aryans were the “master race” that must be preserved -anyone considered to be unworthy, or “enemies of the state,” were targeted -Hitler’s SS rounded up Jews – men, women, children, and babies – & shot on spot A German policeman checks the identification papers of Jews in the ghetto. Jews being rounded up in Russia, July 1941 Forced Relocation -Jews ordered into ghettos – segregated Jewish areas in certain Polish cities -some Jews resisted -published and distributed underground newspapers -schools set up to educate Jewish children -theater and music groups continued to operate Wedding rings taken from concentration camp inmates In 1941, a year before deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto reached their height, ghetto leaders made brave attempts to retain a certain sense of normalcy, and to provide for the physical and emotional needs of the ghetto's children. The care center seen here, and others like it, were vital because they provided children with food and the perception of safe havens. Care centers were possible because a Nazi ban on public and private "gatherings" was rescinded early in 1941. Elementary-school instruction also was allowed. The "normalcy" was illusory, however, and conditions faced by Warsaw's children would shortly be insufferable. Children eating in the ghetto streets. Warsaw, Poland, between 1940 and 1943. Jews Captured by the SS during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Thea Borzuk Slawner poses with her mother on the occasion of her second birthday party, which was celebrated behind the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto. Despite living in appalling conditions, Warsaw's Jews spared no effort to retain their humanity. Religious and family celebrations became symbols of Jewish resistance. Thea and her mother escaped the ghetto just prior to the 1943 uprising. They survived the war, living among gentiles under assumed names. As appalling as conditions were in the Warsaw Ghetto, some of the city's Jews survived, often by hiding outside the ghetto in the homes of gentiles who were willing to conceal them. Here, Jacob, David, and Shalom Gutgeld pose with their Aunt Janke. Janke managed to get the three boys out of the ghetto, hiding them in the small apartment of a couple named the Roslans. Jacob and David survived the Holocaust, but Shalom died of scarlet fever. Concentration Camps -Jews dragged from their homes and herded onto trains or trucks for shipment to concentration camps -families often separated -cycle of hunger, humiliation, and work that often ended in death -overcrowded wooden barracks; hunger, rats, and fleas -worked from dawn to dusk, 7 days a week, until they collapsed -Those too weak to work were killed. “The brute Schmidt was our guard; he beat and kicked us if he thought we were not working fast enough. He ordered his victims to lie down and gave them 25 lashes with a whip, ordering them to count out loud. If the victim made a mistake, he was given 50 lashes…Thirty or 40 of us were shot every day. A doctor usually prepared a daily list of the weakest men. During the lunch break they were taken to a nearby grave and shot. They were replaced the following morning by new arrivals from the transport of the day…It was a miracle if anyone survived for five or six months in Belzec.” ~Rudolf Reder, quoted in The Holocuast Rudolf Reder was one of only two Jews to survive the camp at Belzec, Poland. Children taken from Eastern Europe and imprisoned in Auschwitz look out from behind the barbed-wire fence in July 1944. Mass Exterminations -Final Solution reached its final stage in early 1942. -poison gas would be used to kill victims -as many as 12,000 people could be killed in one day -Auschwitz was largest death camp -SS doctors separated those strong enough to work from those who would die that day. -victims poisoned with cyanide gas that spewed from vents in the walls -Nazis built huge crematoriums to burn bodies -some prisoners were shot, hanged, or injected with poison -others died from horrible medical experiments carried out by camp doctors -some doctors tested methods of sterilization in their search for ways to improve the “master race” Women and children on the Birkenau arrival platform known as the “ramp.” The Jews were removed from the deportation trains onto the ramp where they faced a selection process- some were sent immediately to their deaths, while others were sent to slave labor. Women and children being taken through sector B II of the camp to Crematoria V and VI. In Birkenau, elderly women and children were almost always immediately sent to their deaths in the gas chambers as they were deemed "unfit for work." Among the last victims of Bergen-Belsen in the spring of 1945 were 15-year-old Anne Frank (pictured) and her sister, Margot. Arriving from Auschwitz in October 1944, the sisters clung to each other and struggled to survive in the midst of the increasingly deteriorating conditions of the camp. Typhus claimed Margot first, and a frail Anne died of the disease a few days after. In January 1945 the Red Army liberated the deadliest of the Third Reich's death camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau, where an estimated 1.1 million had died, most of them in the camp's gas chambers. These children were among the few who survived imprisonment in Birkenau. These children at Auschwitz, liberated by the Soviet Army on January 27, 1945, show their tattooed arms to the photographer. Everyone imprisoned in Auschwitz had his or her arm tattooed with an identification number. This served two purposes. First, it allowed camp officials to keep track of the thousands of prisoners in the camp. Second, making the inmates into nameless units served to dehumanize them, both crushing the spirit of the prisoners and making it easier for their guards to avoid facing the humanity of their charges. General Dwight Eisenhower and other high-ranking U.S. Army officers view the bodies of prisoners who were killed during the evacuation of Ohrdruf. Ohrdruf, Germany April 12, 1945. The Survivors -estimated 6 million Jews died during the Holocaust -some Jews had help from others -some Jews survived the horrors of the concentration camps “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in the camp, which has turned my life into one long night….Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Eli Rosenbaum, Ludwigsburg, Germany
    Festakt und Symposium aus Anlass des 50-Ohrigen Bestehens der Zentralen Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen zur Aufk1Hrung nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen am 1. und 2. Dezember 2008 in Ludwigsburg • ••0,• • •• e ••* • •• • •• Jusltiz, die: [zu 1st. •• • • • • • ustilia = GereChtigkeit, * * • s. ' • Rechtl: 1. Rec tswesen, • 1051110161! pfiege: Rechts rechung; • 0 • • • • • 0• •• •• rechisprechende Gewa lt • • 5 551 • • • II in einem &clot &horde, •• •• •• •• •* Gesam theft der ehordent 6110.40e.' die far die Aus iug der IwoID •• •. verantwoi riich ist. #41*•** iPO. e• • •w • ▪• 0 500 . • • • * •; • • • • • • * • S 0, * • * * 0 • • • 0 • * • • s • • • * • • 5*.* • * **• • • • * • * * * • • * a • * • * • it • • • e • • • • • • e • • • • • • • • • it • • • • • • 0 • • • • • • 0.* * • • • • a• • .4,• 0. * * . • • ••• •IS • •le Die Ausstrahlung der Zentralen Stelle auf die juristische und gesellschaftliche Auseinandersetzung mit der NS-Verbrechensgeschichte Baden-Wurttemberg Justizministerium DOKUMENTATION Festakt und Symposium aus Anlass des 50-jahrigen Bestehens der Zentralen Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen zur Auflclitung nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen am 1. und 2. Dezember 2008 in Ludwigsburg Die Ausstrahlung der Zentralen SteIle auf die juristische und gesellschaftliche Auseinandersetzung mit der NS-Verbrechensgeschichte 3 INHALTSVERZEICHNIS I. FESTAKT Programm Begriillung 11 Prof. Dr. Ulrich Go11 MdL Stellvertretender Ministerprisident und Justizminister des Landes Baden-Wiirttemberg Grufiworte 19 Aufarbeitung, damit Menschen
    [Show full text]
  • German Economic Policy and Forced Labor of Jews in the General Government, 1939–1943 Witold Wojciech Me¸Dykowski
    Macht Arbeit Frei? German Economic Policy and Forced Labor of Jews in the General Government, 1939–1943 Witold Wojciech Me¸dykowski Boston 2018 Jews of Poland Series Editor ANTONY POLONSKY (Brandeis University) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: the bibliographic record for this title is available from the Library of Congress. © Academic Studies Press, 2018 ISBN 978-1-61811-596-6 (hardcover) ISBN 978-1-61811-597-3 (electronic) Book design by Kryon Publishing Services (P) Ltd. www.kryonpublishing.com Academic Studies Press 28 Montfern Avenue Brighton, MA 02135, USA P: (617)782-6290 F: (857)241-3149 [email protected] www.academicstudiespress.com This publication is supported by An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. The Open Access ISBN for this book is 978-1-61811-907-0. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org. To Luba, with special thanks and gratitude Table of Contents Acknowledgements v Introduction vii Part One Chapter 1: The War against Poland and the Beginning of German Economic Policy in the Ocсupied Territory 1 Chapter 2: Forced Labor from the Period of Military Government until the Beginning of Ghettoization 18 Chapter 3: Forced Labor in the Ghettos and Labor Detachments 74 Chapter 4: Forced Labor in the Labor Camps 134 Part Two Chapter
    [Show full text]
  • Transforming Remembrance in the Former Death Camp Belzec – a Short History
    Transforming remembrance in the former death camp Belzec – a short history STEFFEN HÄNSCHEN Bildungswerk Stanislaw Hantz hich history stands behind the name Belzec? In most cases an average citizen in Germany or in any other European country could not answer this question. In Poland some people would know, that a small village with this name exists in South East Poland close to the Ukrainian border, which is somehow connected with the Holocaust. WBelzec is indeed one of the least known former death camps. Like most extermination centres of the 1940s it has only a small place in the public memory of the Holocaust. The Holocaust is symbolically strongly connected with the name of Auschwitz that became the universal catch-word, the main symbol of the extermination of the Jewish population in Europe. But only specialists on the subject could tell you more about thousands of other places associated with the Holocaust like Belzec, Panierai near Vilnius in Lithuania or Piaski in the outskirts of Lvov in Ukraine. The few known facts we know about these places mostly come from few survivors and eyewitnesses of the Nazi occupation of Eastern Europe. This testimony has guaranteed in the past 70 years, that memorials have been built, extermination sites commemorated and historical education developed. Nevertheless, the situation has always been difficult for sites for which no witness could be found. In Eastern Europe, a second problem has been the official politics of the Soviet-Union and other socialist states towards the Holocaust, which for more than 40 years did not support any active commemoration of Jewish suffering during the Nazi occupation.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 22 Closing the Menten Affair, 1976
    Chapter 22 Closing the Menten Affair, 1976 -1987328 Fig 36: Pieter Menten (16 May 1977) The political upheaval and public outcry which surrounded the Menten case in the summer of 1976 had a rather inconspicuous beginning. On 22 May the largest-selling Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf published a full-page article about the then seventy-six- 328 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Menten See also http://www.bbc.co.uk/ archive/holocaust/5096.shtml 275 CLOSING THE MENTEN AFFAIR, 1976 -1987 year-old Pieter Nicolaas Menten and his art collection, part of which was to be sold at a public auction because he was ‘cramped for space.’ The rather obvious purpose of the article was to draw attention to the auction, thereby raising the bidding prices. By coincidence, however, this article provided leads for journalist Hans Knoop, who at the time was working for the then struggling weekly magazine Accent, which has since folded. Knoop was investigating Menten at the suggestion of his Israeli colleague Chaviv Kannan, who was convinced that Menten was a war criminal but who had been unable in the late forties and early fifties to persuade the Dutch Department of Justice to take action. Kannan, in turn, had been tipped off by Henrietta Boas, a Dutch correspondent. Very soon Knoop was able to supply ample evidence which, though incomplete, was nevertheless very incriminating for Menten. Knoop’s articles and his direct involvement with a broadcasting organization, which produced television programs about this case, drew national attention. Perhaps in poor taste, the scandal nevertheless appealed very much to the public imagination.
    [Show full text]
  • Downloaded from Manchesterhive.Com at 09/26/2021 12:02:15PM Via Free Access I I
    i i i The subject of ashes i HUMAN REMAINS & VIOLENCE Kitty S. Millet San Francisco State University [email protected] Abstract This article has two aims: to examine the eects of victim proximity to crematoria ashes and ash pits both consciously and unconsciously in a subset of Holocaust sur- vivors, those who were incarcerated at the dedicated death camps of Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, as well as Auschwitz-Birkenau; and to contrast these eects, the subject positions they produce, with their suppression as the basis both for a strategy of survival during incarceration and for a reimagined identity aer the war. Within a cohort of four survivors from Rudolf Reder (Belzec), Esther Raab (Sobibor), Jacob Wiernik (Treblinka) and Shlomo Venezia (Auschwitz), I trace the ways in which discrete memories and senses became constitutive in the formation of the subject prior to and aer escape – the experience of liberation – so that essentially two kinds of subjects became visible, the subject in liberation and the subject of ashes. In con- junction with these two kinds of subjects, I introduce the compensatory notion of a third path suggested both by H. G. Adler and Anna Orenstein, also Holocaust survivors, that holds both positions together in one space, the space of literature, preventing the two positions from being stranded in dialectical opposition to each other. Key words: ashes, Holocaust, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz When Anna Orenstein recalled her arrival at Auschwitz in 1944 she noted that ‘in a semiconscious state’, and ‘aer several days in which she and about a hundred other human beings had been crammed ::: in a boxcar’, without food and water, without a toilet, incapable of movement, she noticed the smell of ash in the air.
    [Show full text]
  • Human Remains in Society Ii
    i Human remains in society ii HUMAN REMAINS AND VIOLENCE Human remains and violence aims to question the social legacy of mass violence by studying how different societies have coped with the dead bodies resulting from war, genocide and state sponsored brutality. However, rather paradoxically, given the large volume of work devoted to the body on the one hand, and to mass violence on the other, the question of the body in the context of mass violence remains a largely unexplored area and even an academic blind spot. Interdisciplinary in nature, Human remains and violence intends to show how various social and cultural treatments of the dead body simultaneously challenge common representations, legal prac- tices and morality. This series aims to provide proper intellectual and theoretical tools for a better understanding of mass violence’s aftermaths. Series editors Élisabeth Anstett and Jean- Marc Dreyfus ALSO AVAILABLE IN THIS SERIES Destruction and human remains: disposal and concealment in genocide and mass violence Edited by Élisabeth Anstett and Jean- Marc Dreyfus Human remains and mass violence: methodological approaches Edited by Jean- Marc Dreyfus and Élisabeth Anstett Governing the dead: sovereignty and the politics of dead bodies Finn Stepputat iii Human remains in society Curation and exhibition in the aftermath of genocide and mass-violence Edited by Jean-Marc Dreyfus and Élisabeth Anstett Manchester University Press iv Copyright © Manchester University Press 2017 While copyright in the volume as a whole is vested in Manchester University Press, copyright in individual chapters belongs to their respective authors. This electronic version has been made freely available under a Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC-ND) licence, which permits non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction provided the author(s) and Manchester University Press are fully cited and no modifications or adaptations are made.
    [Show full text]
  • Edited by Tatjana Tönsmeyer Peter Haslinger Agnes Laba
    Edited by Tatjana Tönsmeyer Peter Haslinger Agnes Laba Coping with Hunger and Shortage under German Occupation in World War II Tatjana Tönsmeyer · Peter Haslinger Agnes Laba Editors Coping with Hunger and Shortage under German Occupation in World War II Editors Tatjana Tönsmeyer Agnes Laba University of Wuppertal University of Wuppertal Wuppertal, Germany Wuppertal, Germany Peter Haslinger Herder Institute Marburg, Germany ISBN 978-3-319-77466-4 ISBN 978-3-319-77467-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77467-1 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018937867 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifcally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microflms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifc statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.
    [Show full text]
  • Survivor Testimonies and Historical Objectivity: Polish Historiography Since Neighbors
    Electronic Offprint Survivor Testimonies and Historical Objectivity: Polish Historiography since Neighbors NATALIA ALEKSIUN In the introduction to his Neighbors , Jan Gross argued for centrality of Jewish accounts from the Holocaust as reliable sources for reconstructing the tragic past: Jewish testimonies about the Shoah have been deliberately written down in order to provide an exact and comprehensive account of the catastrophe … We should read in these efforts an intuition that one could effectively oppose, indeed frustrate, the Nazis’ plan of annihilation of the Jews if only a record of the Nazis’ evil deeds was preserved. Gross raised the bar quite high insisting on the inclusion of Jewish testimonies as a rule rather than an exception. His inclusive methodological position has been criticised in the course of the fierce discourse over his book and his own use of survivors’ testimonies presented as a methodological shortcoming. However, despite such voices, a growing consensus among Polish historians did emerge that the experience of the Jewish victims must be explored and that in this effort testimonies often proved the only sources available. While much has been written about the discussion around Neighbors , my essay will focus on the methodological discussion among Polish historians over the last decade both in academic publications and in more popular articles published in Polish journals. I will investigate the ways in which Polish scholars writing about the Holocaust compared the pitfalls and advantages of using eye- witness testimonies when they could hardly be corroborated. I will argue that Polish historiography of the Holocaust has gradually recognised the importance Natalia Aleksiun is Associate Professor of Jewish History at Touro College, New York.
    [Show full text]
  • Testimony of Rudolf Reder Sole Survivor of BELZEC Extermination Camp, WW2
    BELZEC Testimony of Rudolf Reder Sole survivor of BELZEC extermination camp, WW2 Translator’s Notes The original documents were published in Polish. I translated it to Hebrew. George Salingar translated it from Hebrew to English. ‘The Central Committee responsible for historical records of Jewish people in the Cracow area of Poland’ published this document in 1946. They published Reder’s testimony (which had originally been given to Red Army investigators a month after liberation in August 1944). In addition they published testimonies given by Polish men and women who lived near the extermination camp. Members of the ‘Central Committee’: Michal M. Borwitz, Nella Rost and Jozef Wulf. The Red Army liberated Belzec and the nearby extermination camp in July 1944. The camp was built by the Germans for the murder of thousands upon thousands of Jewish men, women and children. The translation is a verbatim report of testimony given to the Red Army investigators. Reder was the only man who survived - it must be stressed - the sole survivor among the countless thousands who were murdered. Reder lived through the horrors of Belzec for three months. The testimony is his account of the murder of thousands upon thousands of Jewish people. I know that there are vast numbers of books and articles written about the holocaust, but I felt that Reder’s testimony is unique and must also be translated into English. Dawid Glück Kiryat Tivon, Israel, 2014 1 BELZEC VERBATIM TESTIMONY of RUDOLF REDER August 1944 In September 1942 the boundaries of the ghetto in German occupied Lvov had not yet been demarcated.
    [Show full text]
  • I Survived a Secret Nazi Extermination Camp
    I Survived A Secret Nazi Extermination Camp by Rudolf Reder With a memoir by Mark Forstater I Survived A Secret Nazi Extermination Camp Contents Part one Introduction: A Perfect Killing Machine Part Two Rudolf Reder’s Witness Statement Part Three Memoir: Discovering Jewish Atlantis Post Script: The Search for Zofia Schmidt Bibliography I Survived A Secret Nazi Extermination Camp This book is in three parts. Part one - A Perfect Killing Machine - is a short introduction to the witness statement of Rudolf Reder, who was the only post war survivor of the Nazi death camp at Belzec. The introduction gives some biographical information about Reder and some essential background information on the Nazi death camps. Part Two is the actual witness statement made by Reder in 1946 to the Jewish Historical Commission. For the audio this is read by David Suchet. Part Three - Discovering Jewish Atlantis - is a personal memoir by Mark Forstater about how this book came to be produced. Part One: A Perfect Killing Machine If the Holocaust is one of history’s most shocking crimes against humanity, then the most appalling example of that crime is found in the three death factories of Sobibor, Treblinka and Belzec. These three ’killing machines’ are perfect models of the Nazis’ macabre combination of cruelty and efficiency. They were set up in occupied eastern Poland in 1942 with the express aim of killing as many European Jews as possible in the shortest possible time and with the least use of resources. The first person testimony that forms part two of this book is the story of Rudolf Reder, a Polish Jew who was brought to Belzec to be killed but because of his technical skill was kept instead as a worker.
    [Show full text]
  • Operation Reinhard”: Extermintation Camps of Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka Yitzhak Arad
    “Operation Reinhard”: Extermintation Camps of Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka Yitzhak Arad Soon after the task forces had began their campaign of extermination in the occupied areas of the Soviet Union, the deputy of the Governor General Hans Frank, Secretary of State Dr. Buehler, remarked at the Wannsee Conference: …that the General Government would welcome it if a start were to be made on the final solution of this question in the General Government, because here transportation does not pose a real problem nor would the deployment of a labor force interfere with the process of this operation. Jews should be removed from the area of the General Government as quickly as possible, because it is here that the Jew represents a serious danger as a carrier of epidemics, and in addition his incessant black marketeering constantly upsets the country's economic structure. Of the approximately 2.5 million Jews in question, the majority are anyway unfit for work. Secretary of State Dr. Buehler furthermore stated that the solution of the Jewish question in the General Government is under the control of the Chief of the Security Police and the SD and that his activities are supported by the authorities in the General Government. He [Buehler] has only one request: that the Jewish question in this region be solved as quickly as possible.1 Dr. Buehler's request was given a positive response. The General Government consisted of the districts of Warsaw, Cracow, Lublin, Radom, and Lvov. According to the estimate of the German authorities, they were inhabited by approximately 2,284,000 Jews.
    [Show full text]
  • Jakóbowicz (Jakobowicz, Jakubowicz) Surname Variants in Holocaust Records
    Jakóbowicz (Jakobowicz, Jakubowicz) Surname Variants in Holocaust Records (ghettos, trains, camps, survivors, profiles) and Surname History, Emigrations, Descendants Buchenwald Concentration Camp after liberation; Germany, 1945 (Source: USHMM) By Mike Jackoboice (Jakóbowicz), from research 2008-16 Jakóbowicz (Jakobowicz, Jakubowicz) Surname Variants in Holocaust Records By Mike Jackoboice (Jakóbowicz) of Grand Rapids, MI and Las Cruces, NM, USA; 2016 The world's largest population of Jewish people lived in Poland - for hundreds of years. The very old town of Kalisz had a very old Jewish community - officially from the year 1139 forward. In 1264, the “Statute of Kalisz” became the legal foundation for Jewish rights in the country: settlement, travel, trade and worship. By the mid-1500s, about 80% of the world‟s Jews lived in Poland. By the 1930s there were over three million Polish Jews - of 9.5 million Jews in Europe and 15.3 million worldwide. Described in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, “Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in Europe and served as the center for Jewish culture.” Records show that the surname spelling variants Jakóbowicz, Jakobowicz and Jakubowicz (each meaning "son of Jacob") were common Jewish family names in Kalisz and across Poland. Yes, same big family, different preferred spellings (some preferred "o", and the Polish ó = u). Non-Jewish Poles have used these surnames too, but pre-Holocaust and post-Holocaust ratios and numbers are unknown. The once very Jewish town of Kalisz is in west-central Poland, 207 km west-southwest of Warsaw. For a comprehensive history, read The Kalish Book (published in Israel in 1968).
    [Show full text]