Guide to the Sources on the Holocaust in Occupied Poland
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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. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
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 ....................................................................... -
"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”. -
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. -
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 -
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 ..................... -
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. -
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. -
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