DOCSLIB.ORG

Guide to the Sources on the Holocaust in Occupied Poland

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Guide to the Sources on the Holocaust in Occupied Poland Alina Skibińska Guide to the Sources on the Holocaust in Occupied Poland (Translated, revised and updated edition of the original Polish Źródła do badań nad zagładą Żydów na okupowanych ziemiach polskich by Alina Skibińska, Warsaw, 2007) With the cooperation of: Co-authors: Giles Bennett, Marta Janczewska, Dariusz Libionka, Witold Mędykowski, Jacek Andrzej Młynarczyk, Jakub Petelewicz, Monika Polit Translator: Jessica Taylor-Kucia Editorial board: Giles Bennett, Michał Czajka, Dieter Pohl, Pascal Trees, Veerle Vanden Daelen European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) 2014 2 Table of contents List of abbreviations 5 Preface 11 I Archives and Institutions 15 1. Archives managed by the Naczelna Dyrekcja Archiwów Polskich (Head Office of the State Archives) 17 2. The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute 57 3. Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu (Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation) 73 4. The Archives of Memorial Museums 89 5. Other museums, libraries, institutions and organizations in Poland, private collections, and Church files 107 6. The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, and the Polish Underground Movement Study Trust in London; the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, California, USA 119 7. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C., USA 133 8. Archives and institutions in Israel (Witold Mędykowski) 145 9. Sources for Research into the Extermination of the Jews in Poland in German Archives (Jacek Andrzej Młynarczyk, updated by Giles Bennett) 177 II. Sources 191 1. German administrative authorities and police 191 2. Judenrat files 203 3. The Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto (ARG), the Ringelblum Archive (Ring. I and Ring. II) 223 4. Files of welfare and aid institutions (Jakub Petelewicz) 235 3 5. Documents of the Polish Underground State concerning the extermination of the Jews (Dariusz Libionka) 251 6. Investigation, prosecution and court files 259 7. Prison and camp files 267 8. The press, public announcements, posters and ephemera, telephone and address books 277 9. First-person documentary literature: journals, memoirs, diaries, letters, eye-witness accounts (with the cooperation of Marta Janczewska) 301 10. Oral History 313 11. Memorial books (with the cooperation of Monika Polit) 325 12. Other archival sources 333 13. Photography, film, material objects 347 Index of names 364 Index of places 371 Selected bibliography 383 Address information 431 4 List of abbreviations AAN – Archiwum Akt Nowych (Central Archive of Modern Records) ABW – Agencja Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego (Internal Security Agency) AIPN – Archiwum Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance) AJDC – American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee AK – Armia Krajowa (Home Army) AMIA – Association of Moving Image Archivists ANK – Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie (National Archive in Kraków) AP – Archiwum Państwowe (State Archive) APW – Archiwum Państwowe w Warszawie (State Archive in Warsaw) ARG – Podziemne Archiwum Getta Warszawskiego / Archiwum Ringelbluma (Underground Archive of Warsaw Ghetto, Ringelblum Archive) AW – Agencja Wywiadu (Foreign Intelligence Agency) BCh – Bataliony Chłopskie (Peasants’ Battalions) BIP – Biuro Informacji i Propagandy (Office of Information and Propaganda) [of ZWZ-AK] BIPN – Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej (Bulletin of the Institute of National Remembrance) BN – Biblioteka Narodowa (National Library) BRD – Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany) BUJ – Biblioteka Jagiellońska w Krakowie (Jagiellonian University Library in Kraków) BŻIH – Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego (Bulletin of the Jewish Historical Institute) CAHS – Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies ChGK – Chrezvychaynaya Gosudarstvennaya Komissiya (Extraordinary State Commission) [for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes on Occupied Soviet Territory] CHC – Central Historical Commission [of the Central Committee of Liberated Jews in the US Zone] CKŻP – Centralny Komitet Żydów w Polsce (Central Committee of the Jews in Poland) COIA – Centralny Ośrodek Informacji Archiwalnej (Archival Information Centre) CZA – Central Zionist Archives CŻKH – Centralna Żydowska Komisja Historyczna (Central Jewish Historical Commission) DDR – Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic) DP – Displaced Persons 5 DR – Delegatura Rządu [na Kraj] (Government Delegation for [occupied] Poland) FIAF – International Federation of Film Archives FPO – Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye (United Partisan Organization) FRG – see BRD GDR – see DDR GG – Generalgouvernement (General Government) GKBZHwP – Główna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich w Polsce (Main Commission for the Investigation of Hitlerite Crimes in Poland) [1949-1984] GKBZpNP IPN – Główna Komisja Badania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu – Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (Main Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against the Polish Nation – Institute of National Remembrance) [1991-1999] HAOP – Hauptamt der Ordnungspolizei (Order Police headquarters) HIA – Hoover Institution Archives HIAS – Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society HPN – Hakirot pishe Hanatzim (Investigations into Nazi Crimes) [Haifa] HSSPF-Ost – Der Höhere SS- und Polizeiführer Ost (Senior SS and Police Leader in the East) IDO – Institut für Deutsche Ostarbeit (Institute for German Work in the East) IH PAN – Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk (Institute of History at the Polish Academy of Sciences) IH UW – Instytut Historyczny Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego (Institute of History at the University of Warsaw) IPN – Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (Institute of National Remembrance) IPN-KŚZpNP – Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu (Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation) [since 1999] IZL – Irgun Tzvai Leumi (Jewish Military Organization) JCIO – Jewish Central Information Office JNUL – Jewish National and University Library JUS – Jüdische Unterstützungsstelle für das Generalgouvernement (Central Office for Aid to Jews in the General Government) KC PZPR – Komitet Centralny Polskiej Zjednoczonej Partii Robotniczej (Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party) 6 KL – Konzentrationslager (concentration camp) KPON – Komitet Porozumiewawczy Organizacji Niepodległościowych (Committee of Understanding of Independence Organizations) KRN – Krajowa Rada Narodowa (State National Council) KWC – Kierownictwo Walki Cywilnej (Directorate of Civil Resistance) MBP – Ministerstwo Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego (Ministry of Public Security) MO – Milicja Obywatelska (Civic Militia) MPiOS – Ministerstwo Pracy i Opieki Społecznej (Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare) MSZ – Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) NDAP – Naczelna Dyrekcja Archiwów Państwowych [w Polsce] (Head Office of the State Archives [in Poland]) NLI – National Library of Israel NRO – Naczelna Rada Opiekuńcza (Supreme Welfare Council) NSDAP – Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei (National Socialist German Workers’ Party) [the Nazi Party] NSZ – Narodowe Siły Zbrojne (National Armed Forces) NTN – Najwyższy Trybunał Narodowy (Supreme National Tribunal) NZO – New Zionist Organization NZW – Narodowy Związek Wojskowy (National Military Union) OD – Ordnungsdienst (Order Service) OKW – Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (German Army High Command) ORT – Obshchestvo Razprostranienia Truda sredi Yevreyev (Organization for Rehabilitation through Training) OT – Organisation Todt PAN – Polska Akademia Nauk (Polish Academy of Sciences) PCK – Polski Czerwony Krzyż (Polish Red Cross) PKB – Państwowy Korpus Bezpieczeństwa (National Security Corps) PKWN – Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego (Polish Committee of National Liberation) PMAB – Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum) PMM – Państwowe Muzeum na Majdanku (State Museum at Majdanek) PPR – Polska Partia Robotnicza (Polish Workers’ Party) PPS – Polska Partia Socjalistyczna (Polish Socialist Party) 7 PRL – Polska Republika Ludowa (Polish People’s Republic) PSŻ – Przełożony Starszeństwa Żydów (Head of the Council of Jewish Elders) [Łódź ghetto] PZPR – Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza (Polish United Workers’ Party) RGO – Rada Główna Opiekuńcza (Central Welfare Council) RKF – Reichskommisariat für die Festigung deutschen Volkstums (Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of German Nationhood) RN – Rada Narodowa (National Council) ROPWiM – Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walki i Męczeństwa (Council for the Protection of Memory of Struggle and Martyrdom) RSHA – Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Main Security Office) RuSHA – Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt SS (SS Race and Settlement Main Office) SD – Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service) SPP – Studium Polski Podziemnej (Polish Underground Movement Study Trust) SS – Schutzstaffel (Protection Corps) SS-WVHA – SS Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungshauptamt (SS Main Economic and Administrative Department) SZP – Służba Zwycięstwu Polski (Service for Poland’s Victory) TOZ – Towarzystwo Ochrony Zdrowia (Health Care Organization) TSKŻ – Towarzystwo Społeczno-Kulturalne Żydów w Polsce, (Jewish Social and Cultural Association in Poland) ULI – Israel Union Catalogue ULS – Union List of Serials UNWCC – United Nations War Crimes Commission USHMM – United States Holocaust Memorial Museum WSK – Wojskowa Służba Kobiet (Women’s Military
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Pdf, 945.96 KB
    REVIEWS POLEMICS DOI: 10.48261/pjs200119 Tomasz Domański PhD1 Institute of National Remembrance Delegation in Kielce CORRECTING THE PICTURE? SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE USE OF SOURCES IN DALEJ JEST NOC. LOSY ŻYDÓW W WYBRANYCH POWIATACH OKUPOWANEJ POLSKI [NIGHT WITHOUT AN END. THE FATE OF JEWS IN SELECTED COUNTIES OF OCCUPIED POLAND], ED. B. ENGELKING, J. GRABOWSKI, STOWARZYSZENIE CENTRUM BADAŃ NAD ZAGŁADĄ ŻYDÓW [POLISH CENTER FOR HOLOCAUST RESEARCH], WARSAW 2018, VOL. 1, ISBN: 9788363444600, 868 PP., VOL. 2, ISBN: 9788363444631, 832 PP.2 lthough many books have been written on the fate of the Jews in German- -occupied Poland,3 the death of around three million Polish Jews still A motivates successive generations of Holocaust scholars and researchers studying the history of Poland’s Jewish community to take up the subject. After 1989, i.e. after Poland regained its independence and cast off the restrictions of Communist 1 I would like to kindly thank all those who have helped me prepare this review by sharing their comments and observations with me. I am especially grateful to Maciej Korkuć PhD from the Cracow Branch of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance. 2 This review refers to the entirety of the book (Night without an end. The fate of Jews in selected counties of occupied Poland, vol. 1–2, ed. Barbara Engelking, Jan Grabowski, Warsaw 2018) with a special focus on Łuków, Złoczów and Miechów counties (powiaty). The abbreviated titleNight without an end is used throughout this article. 3 I use the terms ‘Germans’ and ‘German’ instead of ‘Nazis’ and ‘Nazi’ because all the persons of German origin (by occupation-era standards) employed in the administrative apparatus of the occupied territories were in fact acting on behalf of the German state, i.e.
    [Show full text]
  • Running Head: the TRAGEDY of DEPORTATION 1
    Running head: THE TRAGEDY OF DEPORTATION 1 The Tragedy of Deportation An Analysis of Jewish Survivor Testimony on Holocaust Train Deportations Connor Schonta A Senior Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation in the Honors Program Liberty University Spring 2016 THE TRAGEDY OF DEPORTATION 2 Acceptance of Senior Honors Thesis This Senior Honors Thesis is accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation from the Honors Program of Liberty University. ______________________________ David Snead, Ph.D. Thesis Chair ______________________________ Christopher Smith, Ph.D. Committee Member ______________________________ Mark Allen, Ph.D. Committee Member ______________________________ Brenda Ayres, Ph.D. Honors Director ______________________________ Date THE TRAGEDY OF DEPORTATION 3 Abstract Over the course of World War II, trains carried three million Jews to extermination centers. The deportation journey was an integral aspect of the Nazis’ Final Solution and the cause of insufferable torment to Jewish deportees. While on the trains, Jews endured an onslaught of physical and psychological misery. Though most Jews were immediately killed upon arriving at the death camps, a small number were chosen to work, and an even smaller number survived through liberation. The basis of this study comes from the testimonies of those who survived, specifically in regard to their recorded experiences and memories of the deportation journey. This study first provides a brief account of how the Nazi regime moved from methods of emigration and ghettoization to systematic deportation and genocide. Then, the deportation journey will be studied in detail, focusing on three major themes of survivor testimony: the physical conditions, the psychological turmoil, and the chaos of arrival.
    [Show full text]
  • Dariusz Libionka Reply to Review by Tomasz Domański Correcting The
    Dariusz Libionka Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences / Polish Center for Holocaust Research orcid.org/0000-0003-0180-6463 [email protected] Reply to review by Tomasz Domański Correcting the Picture? Some Reflections on the Use of Sources in Night without End: The Fate of Jews in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland, volumes 1-2(Korekta obrazu? Refleksje źródłoznawcze wokół książki „Dalej jest noc. Losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski”) vol. 1- 2, eds Barbara Engelking, Jan Grabowski, Warsaw 2018 (Polish-Jewish Studies, Institute of National Remembrance , Warsaw 2019) Before I move on to the charges formulated by Dr. Tomasz Domański in his review, I need to briefly characterize what I wrote in my text published in Dalej jest noc. (Night without End). My text is 196 pages long. It deals with the extermination of the Jews in Miechów county (Kreis Miechów), part of the Cracow District and one of the largest counties in the General Government. The sheer scale shows that the research required substantial effort. The introduction contains a discussion of the literature, a characterization of Jewish settlements in the area, including Polish-Jewish relations, as well as the general situation in the inter-war period. The part that deals with the occupation beings by characterizing the local German administration and police forces, followed by a description of the situation of the Jews, with particular emphasis on the occupier’s policy toward the Jewish population, its size in the individual centers, the deportations within and outside of the county, the attempts to create ghettos, and of forced labor.
    [Show full text]
  • Projektendbericht Neugestaltung Der Österreichischen Gedenkstätte Im Staatlichen Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau
    Bailer/Perz/Uhl: Neugestaltung österreichische Gedenkstätte Auschwitz Brigitte Bailer – Bertrand Perz – Heidemarie Uhl Projektendbericht Neugestaltung der Österreichischen Gedenkstätte im Staatlichen Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau gefördert aus Mitteln des Nationalfonds der Republik Österreich für Opfer des Nationalsozialismus Juni 2008 1 Bailer/Perz/Uhl: Neugestaltung österreichische Gedenkstätte Auschwitz Inhaltsverzeichnis Vorwort 3 1. Die Österreichische Gedenkstätte im Staatlichen Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau 7 1.1. Zur Geschichte der nationalen Ausstellungen im Staatlichen Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau 7 1.2. Die Entstehung der Österreichischen Gedenkstätte 12 1.3. Zur Gestaltung und zum Inhalt der Ausstellung 17 2. Auschwitz und Österreich – historische Dimensionen und Forschungsbedarf 24 2.1. ÖsterreicherInnen als Verfolgte in Auschwitz 24 2.2. Widerstand von ÖsterreicherInnen in Auschwitz 27 2.3. Österreicher als TäterInnen in Auschwitz 30 2.4. Nachgeschichte/Rezeption: Auschwitz im österreichischen Gedächtnis 34 3. Überlegungen und Empfehlungen zur Neugestaltung der „Österreichischen Gedenkstätte“ im Staatlichen Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau 39 3.1. Ausgangspunkte im Hinblick auf eine Neugestaltung der Österreichischen Gedenkstätte 39 a.) Opfer und Täter 39 b.) historic site – die Bedeutung des Ortsbezugs 39 c.) Reflexiver Umgang mit der bestehenden Gedenk-Ausstellung 40 d.) Nächste Schritte 40 3.2. Empfehlungen für die inhaltliche und gestalterische Neugestaltung der Österreichischen Gedenkstätte 41 a.) Information über den historischen Ort in dem sich die Ausstellung befindet: Block 17 41 b.) Schwerpunkte der zeitgeschichtliche Ausstellung 42 c.) Gedenkraum/Gedenkbereich 43 d.) Titelgebung 44 e.) Mehrsprachigkeit 44 3.3. Die Implementierung der neugestalteten Österreichischen Ausstellung in österreichische bzw. internationale Programme historisch-politischer Bildung 44 a.) Website 45 b.) Katalog 45 c.) Vermittlungsprogramme in Österreich 45 4. Schritte zur Realisierung, offene Fragen 47 5.
    [Show full text]
  • Humanity in Doubt
    HUMANITY IN DOUBT REFLECTIONS AND ESSAYS Philip Weiss HUMANITY IN DOUBT HUMANITY IN DOUBT: REFLECTIONS AND ESSAYS Collection copyright © 2007 by Philip Weiss All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information and retrieval system know known or to be invented, without the permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in review. National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Weiss, Philip Humanity in DoubtlPhilip Weiss. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-9784713-0-9 1. 2. I. Title. Printed and bound in Canada First Edition To the vibrant Jewish community ofDrohobycz, Poland, that was, but is no more To my loved parents Solomon David and Cilia Weiss To my beloved wife Gertrude Weiss To my precious daughters Francie Winograd, Shelley Weiss and Beverly Schwartz To my dearest brother, Leo Weiss, and sister, Erna Kimmel, my soulmates and witnesses to the world gone mad To my most cherished gran children, Abby, Jill, and Richard Winograd; Evan and Erin Laroque, Michael and Lainie Schwartz, With Hope for a Peacefol and Tolerant Future CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................................................... 11 ACKNOWLEDGMENT ............................................ , ............. 13 I. PERSONAL ODYSSEY My SPIRITUAL JoURNEY ................................. '" ................ 17 INTERVIEW ..................................................................... 51 II. EVIL TAKES ROOT THE VANISHED WORLD: THE GLORY AND DESTRUCTION OF POLISH JEWRy ..........................................................................71 THE VANISHED WORLD PART II: POLES AND JEWS, THEN AND Now .. 85 THE TRAVAILS, TRIUMPHS AND TRAGEDY OF GERMAN JEWRY ....... 99 THE CONDEMNED MASTERS OF THE GHETTOS ... '" ................... 125 POETRY OUT OF THE AsHES SMOKE .......................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • "Witold Pilecki. Confronting the Legend of the "Volunteer to Auschwitz""
    Ewa Cuber-Strutyńska Witold Pilecki. Confronting the legend of the “volunteer to Auschwitz” Death had many opportunities to prematurely end the life of Witold Pilecki, who participated in the ight for independence during the war against the Bolsheviks and fought in World War II. Despite the risk he took, he managed to avoid death when he was at the front, when he found himself in the Auschwitz concentration camp and when he took part in the Warsaw Uprising. That it reached him in seemingly independent Poland and that it happened owing to, among others, his old brothers in arms should be considered a tragic paradox. Pilecki became a victim of the Communist regime, which brought death to him twice. The irst death, with a bullet in the back of his head, came on 25 May 1948; the second, symbolic one, involved killing the memory of Pilecki by censoring it for several dozen years. The memory of Pilecki was liberated and he was rehabilitated only after the fall of the regime that had brought death upon him. In the 1990s, we witnessed the publication of the irst biographies of Pilecki, which led to his return to the history of Poland and placed him in the pantheon of Poles who served their homeland to the greatest extent. Moreover, the past several years have shown a growing interest in Pilecki. His igure is now popularised by not only academic publications (which after all reach a rather small audience) but also various kinds of activities undertaken by state institutions, non-governmental organisations as well as football club fans.1 Among the increasing number of initiatives intended to honour Pilecki was even the idea to make an attempt at his beatiication.2 1 During a match between Śląsk Wrocław and Jagiellonia Białystok that took place on 3 May 2012, the supporters of Śląsk Wrocław prepared a setting including Pilecki’s portrait with a caption “Volunteer to Auschwitz” and the quote “Because compared with them Auschwitz was just a trile”.
    [Show full text]
  • Criminals with Doctorates: an SS Officer in the Killing Fields of Russia
    1 Criminals with Doctorates An SS Officer in the Killing Fields of Russia, as Told by the Novelist Jonathan Littell Henry A. Lea University of Massachusetts-Amherst Lecture Delivered at the University of Vermont November 18, 2009 This is a report about the Holocaust novel The Kindly Ones which deals with events that were the subject of a war crimes trial in Nuremberg. By coincidence I was one of the courtroom interpreters at that trial; several defendants whose testimony I translated appear as major characters in Mr. Littell's novel. This is as much a personal report as an historical one. The purpose of this paper is to call attention to the murders committed by Nazi units in Russia in World War II. These crimes remain largely unknown to the general public. My reasons for combining a discussion of the actual trial with a critique of the novel are twofold: to highlight a work that, as far as I know, is the first extensive literary treatment of these events published in the West and to compare the author's account with what I witnessed at the trial. In the spring of 1947, an article in a Philadelphia newspaper reported that translators were needed at the Nuremberg Trials. I applied successfully and soon found myself in Nuremberg translating documents that were needed for the ongoing cases. After 2 passing a test for courtroom interpreters I was assigned to the so-called Einsatzgruppen Case. Einsatzgruppen is a jargon word denoting special task forces that were sent to Russia to kill Jews, Gypsies, so-called Asiatics, Communist officials and some mental patients.
    [Show full text]
  • Verfolgen Und Aufklären. Die Erste Generation Der Holocaustforschung
    Verfolgen und Aufklären. Die erste Generation der Holocaustforschung Crimes Uncovered. The First Generation of Holocaust Researchers Hans-Christian Jasch Stephan Lehnstaedt (Hrsg./ Editors) Verfolgen und Aufklären. Die erste Generation der Holocaustforschung Crimes Uncovered. The First Generation of Holocaust Researchers Verfolgen und Aufklären. Die erste Generation der Holocaustforschung Crimes Uncovered. The First Generation of Holocaust Researchers Hans-Christian Jasch Stephan Lehnstaedt (Hrsg./ Editors) Gedenk- und Bildungsstätte ISBN: 978-3-86331-467-5 Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz © 2019 Metropol Verlag Ansbacher Str. 70 · D–10777 Berlin www.metropol-verlag.de Alle Rechte vorbehalten Druck: buchdruckerei.de, Berlin Inhalt / Content Seite / Page Hans-Christian Jasch, Stephan Lehnstaedt Emanuel Ringelblum von / by Romina Wiegemann 152 Die erste Generation der Holocaustforschung – Verfolgung, Aufklärung Jacob Robinson von / by Romina Wiegemann 156 und Erinnerung des Völkermords an den europäischen Juden Massimo Adolfo Vitale von / by Nicole Calian 160 The First Generation of Holocaust Research – Persecution, Elucidation Alfred Wiener von / by Barbara Warnock 164 and Remembrance of the Genocide of the European Jews 6 Simon Wiesenthal von / by Romina Wiegemann 168 Joseph Wulf von / by Till Stumpf 172 Stephan Lehnstaedt Vergessene Forscherinnen / Forgotten Female Researchers 176 Galizien vor dem Holocaust. Minderheitenpolitik und ethnische von / by Nora Huberty Gewalt am Beispiel einer historischen Region Ostmitteleuropas Galicia Before the
    [Show full text]
  • Auschwitz: the First Gassing
    A USCHWITZ : T H E F I R S T G ASSING Auschwitz: The First Gassing Rumor and Reality Carlo Mattogno Castle Hill Publishers P.O. Box 243, Uckfield, TN22 9AW, UK 3rd edition, April 2016 HOLOCAUST HANDBOOKS, Volume 20: Carlo Mattogno: Auschwitz: The First Gassing. Rumor and Reality Translated by Henry Gardner 3rd, corrected edition, April 2016 Uckfield, East Sussex: CASTLE HILL PUBLISHERS PO Box 243, Uckfield, TN22 9AW, UK Original Italian edition: Auschwitz: La prima gasazione Edizioni di Ar, Padua, 1992 ISBN10 (print edition): 1-59148-133-3 ISBN13 (print edition): 978-1-59148-133-1 ISSN: 1529-7748 © 2005, 2011, 2016 by Carlo Mattogno Distribution worldwide by: Castle Hill Publishers PO Box 243, Uckfield, TN22 9AW, UK shop.codoh.com Set in Times New Roman www.HolocaustHandbooks.com Cover Illustrations: Bottom: Part of a 1944 photo shows high-ranking SS officers gathered at Solahütte, the SS retreat outside of Ausch- witz. Other photos (left to right; all © Carlo Mattogno): Block 11, in- side, right side, door to cell no. 25; Block 11, outside, wall facing NE, entry door; Block 11, inside, Bunker, right side, cell no. 21. CARLO MATTOGNO ∙ AUSCHWITZ: THE FIRST GASSING 5 Table of Contents Page Preface to the Third Edition ...................................................................... 7 Introduction ................................................................................................ 9 Chapter I: Genesis and Significance of the First Gassing ..................... 17 Chapter II: The Setting of the First Gassing: Block 11 ........................ 31 Chapter III: The Sources of the First-Gassing Accounts ...................... 35 1. Wartime Sources (1941 – 1943)...................................................... 35 2. Post-War Sources ............................................................................ 41 3. Testimonies of the SS Personnel ..................................................... 75 Chapter IV: Critical and Comparative Source Analysis .....................
    [Show full text]
  • Special Motivation - the Motivation and Actions of the Einsatzgruppen by Walter S
    Special Motivation - The Motivation and Actions of the Einsatzgruppen by Walter S. Zapotoczny "...Then, stark naked, they had to run down more steps to an underground corridor that Led back up the ramp, where the gas van awaited them." Franz Schalling Einsatzgruppen policeman Like every historical event, the Holocaust evokes certain specific images. When mentioning the Holocaust, most people think of the concentration camps. They immediately envision emaciated victims in dirty striped uniforms staring incomprehensibly at their liberators or piles of corpses, too numerous to bury individually, bulldozed into mass graves. While those are accurate images, they are merely the product of the systematization of the genocide committed by the Third Reich. The reality of that genocide began not in the camps or in the gas chambers but with four small groups of murderers known as the Einsatzgruppen. Formed by Heinrich Himmler, Reichsfuhrer-SS, and Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), they operated in the territories captured by the German armies with the cooperation of German army units (Wehrmacht ) and local militias. By the spring of 1943, when the Germans began their retreat from Soviet territory, the Einsatzgruppen had murdered 1.25 million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian and Soviet nationals, including prisoners of war. The Einsatzgruppen massacres preceded the invention of the death camps and significantly influenced their development. The Einsatzgruppen story offers insight into a fundamental Holocaust question of what made it possible for men, some of them ordinary men, to kill so many people so ruthlessly. The members of the Einsatzgruppen had developed a special motivation to kill.
    [Show full text]
  • Poland Study Guide Poland Study Guide
    Poland Study Guide POLAND STUDY GUIDE POLAND STUDY GUIDE Table of Contents Why Poland? In 1939, following a nonaggression agreement between the Germany and the Soviet Union known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was again divided. That September, Why Poland Germany attacked Poland and conquered the western and central parts of Poland while the Page 3 Soviets took over the east. Part of Poland was directly annexed and governed as if it were Germany (that area would later include the infamous Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz- Birkenau). The remaining Polish territory, the “General Government,” was overseen by Hans Frank, and included many areas with large Jewish populations. For Nazi leadership, Map of Territories Annexed by Third Reich the occupation was an extension of the Nazi racial war and Poland was to be colonized. Page 4 Polish citizens were resettled, and Poles who the Nazis deemed to be a threat were arrested and shot. Polish priests and professors were shot. According to historian Richard Evans, “If the Poles were second-class citizens in the General Government, then the Jews scarcely Map of Concentration Camps in Poland qualified as human beings at all in the eyes of the German occupiers.” Jews were subject to humiliation and brutal violence as their property was destroyed or Page 5 looted. They were concentrated in ghettos or sent to work as slave laborers. But the large- scale systematic murder of Jews did not start until June 1941, when the Germans broke 2 the nonaggression pact with the Soviets, invaded the Soviet-held part of Poland, and sent 3 Chronology of the Holocaust special mobile units (the Einsatzgruppen) behind the fighting units to kill the Jews in nearby forests or pits.
    [Show full text]
  • How They Lived to Tell 1939-1945 Edith Ruina
    How They Lived to Tell 1939-1945 Together members of a Jewish youth group fled from Poland to Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Romania and Palestine Edith Ruina Including selections from the written Recollection of Rut Judenherc, interviews and testimonies of other survivors. © Edith Ruina May 24, 2005 all rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Published 2005 Mixed Media Memoirs LLC Book design by Jason Davis [email protected] Green Bay,Wisconsin CONTENTS Acknowledgment ..............................................................................v Chapter 1 Introduction ......................................................................1 Chapter 2 1939-1942 ......................................................................9 1. The People in this Story 2. The Situation of Jews in Poland Chapter 3 1939-1942 Poland..........................................................55 Before and After the German Occupation Chapter 4 1943 Poland ..................................................................87 Many Perished—Few Escaped Chapter 5 1943-44 Austria............................................................123 Chapter 6 1944 Hungary..............................................................155 Surviving in Hungary Chapter 7 1944-1945 ..................................................................205 Romania en route to Palestine Chapter 8 Palestine ......................................................................219 They Lived to Tell v Chapter 9 ....................................................................................235
    [Show full text]