DOCSLIB.ORG

War Crimes, Judgment, (Non)Memory”

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
War Crimes, Judgment, (Non)Memory” FORUM http://dx.doi.org/10.30970/uam.2020.28.1154 “The Useless people”: War crimes, judgment, (non)memory” Contributors: Mary V. SEEMAN — MDCM, DSc, Professor Emerita, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Canada. [email protected] Björn M. FELDER — PhD, lecturer, History Department at the Georg-August- University Göttingen, Germany. [email protected] Alexander FRIEDMAN — PhD, lecturer, University of Saarland and at the University of Applied Sciences for Public Administration and management of North Rhine- Westphalia (Duisburg, Germany), researcher for the documentary projects “Jews in the Third Reich” by Yad Vashem (Jerusalem, Israel) and “Resistance in the Rhineland, 1933–1945” (Bonn, Germany). [email protected] Patricia HEBERER RICE — PhD, Director, Division of the Senior Historian, The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, USA. [email protected] Wiebke LISNER — PhD, research associate, Institute for History, Ethics and Philosophy of Medicine at Hannover Medical School, Germany. [email protected] Robert PARZER — researcher, Documentation and Information Centre (DIZ) Torgau, Germany. [email protected] Dieter POHL — PhD, professor, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Institut für Geschichte, Austria. [email protected] Dmitry ASTASHKIN — PhD, senior researcher, Saint-Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, RF. [email protected]. he Forum invited experts on the history of the Second World War, the Holocaust, and Nazi euthanasia to answer question about mass violence against patients in psychiatric clinics in Eastern Europe and about Tdecision-making and participation in this crime by various groups. The authors generally agree with the thesis that events proceeded erratically and that there was no central program for killing in the abovementioned territories; they also 30 “The Useless people”: War crimes, judgment, (non)memory” note the different degrees to which local medical personnel was involved, from FORUM risky rescue operations to direct participation in the murders. In addition, both parallels and differences are highlighted regarding the implementation of the Т4 program in Germany and the killing operations of patients in Eastern Europe. In part, the motivations and killing methods are similar to the forced euthanasia carried out in Germany. However, in contrast to the T4 program in Germany, which was organized and conducted by medical personnel, in Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland) the violence against patients was perpetrated by Einsatzgruppen, the Wehrmacht, and the military administration. Moreover, the killings are characterized as being pragmatic, governed not so much by “racial hygiene” as by the logic of emptying premises and disposing of “superfluous eaters.” The forum participants also note that from an organizational, personnel, and chronological point of view the killing of patients in Eastern Europe can be considered as a step towards the Holocaust. In analyzing the court proceedings that took place in the postwar period, scholars emphasize the significant difference between the trials in West Germany and those in the Soviet Union and East Germany. In the context of interdisciplinary studies, there is a great potential for cooperation between historians and medical specialists. Finally, the memorialization of the killings of mentally disabled patients in Eastern Europe during the Second World War still remains a marginal niche in the official culture of memory of the agencies and hospitals, testifying to their “worthlessness to society.” Keywords: psychiatric hospital patients, euthanasia, T4 Operation, court trials. 1) Nazi policy concerning persons with mental or physical disabilities in the occupied Eastern European countries was inconsistent and ambiguous. Can it be considered an element of the Aktion T4 involuntary euthanasia plan, or of the Holocaust? Under what other contexts should this policy be considered? Mary V. Seeman Nazi policy toward the disabled varied in the different regions occupied by Germany during World War II. It depended in part on the needs of the German war machine. For instance, Aktion T4 in Germany itself seemed to be motivated in large part by the need to empty the psychiatric hospitals so that the beds could be used for the wounded German soldiers. It was guided, of course, by a eugenics policy of ridding the German nation of “useless eaters” and also to prevent procre- ation of the unworthy. In western Poland, psychiatric hospital administrators were replaced by German officials, and patients were shot or gassed so that hospital beds could be used for German military needs. In Eastern Poland, Polish administrators were not replaced, and the disabled—except the Jewish disabled—were generally not killed if they could work. There was a German overlord assigned on a regional basis, and much, of course, depended on the dictates of that person. In Belarus, psychiatric patients were shot by the Einsatzgruppen, and when that proved too taxing for the soldiers who had to do the shooting, a system was devised of herding 31 УКРАЇНА МОДЕРНА Число 28. “Непотрібні люди....” patients into trucks and gassing them to death en route to their burial ground. The killing method changed with time as the Nazis became more and more efficient. Much also depended on the “race” of the victims. There was a hierarchy, with Scan- dinavians on top (most Danish and Norwegian patients were not killed because they were considered descendants of the Vikings, the closest non-German Aryans) and the Jews and Gypsies at the bottom. The lowest rungs were killed first, whether disabled or not. Ukrainians came somewhere near the bottom of the Slavic hier- archy. Croats and Slovaks were accepted as Aryan because they had been “Ger- manized” in the Middle Ages. The Nazis divided the Slavs into several gradations of untermensch Slavs: Russians were inferior to Ukrainians and Belarusians, and those, in turn, were inferior to Poles. Can this treatment of the disabled be considered part of the Holocaust? Proba- bly not, although the lessons learned in the killings were used in the extermination camps. There, the disabled were sooner used for medical experiments than for im- mediate gassing. The Holocaust usually refers first to the segregation of Jews and Roma in ghettos, then their being transported to labour camps, followed by death by gassing, cremation in the ovens, and mass burials. Björn M. Felder I think it is a common view that killing of the mentally ill in the occupied territories of Eastern Europe by the Nazis was connected to what is called “Nazi euthanasia”—which includes Aktion T4 from 1939 to summer 1941 but also the so-called “decentralized” killing of mental patients in Germany after 1941. From a European perspective, it seemed that killing mentally ill and disabled persons was part of the general Nazi agenda even if there was no central organized action. We can see this phenomenon in Western occupied territories such as France or the Netherlands as well as in Eastern Europe. I think the occupied Balkan and Scandi- navian countries are not reached that much. There are documented links between Aktion T4 and the Shoah—for example, the transfer of equipment and personnel (mechanics and managers) from T4 to the Nazi extermination Camps in Poland. In some way, Aktion T4 can be seen as a pilot project of the Nazis for mass killing with the use of poison gas. Though the ideological axiom of the Holocaust was racist biological anti-Semi- tism, in case of the killing of the mentally ill it was eugenics, what the Nazis called “racial hygiene”. Still, there is an ongoing debate concerning the killing action in Ger- many compared to that in Eastern Europe. One side emphasizes the less ideological (eugenic) reasons, citing a cynical pragmatism due to the war effort and radicaliza- tion of the regime, in contrast to recent research which emphasizes that patients were mainly killed if they were not able to work (this was actually not the case in Eastern Europe, and especially in Ukraine, were virtually all clinic patients were doomed). The other approach argues along the ideological lines of eugenics and follows the eugenic argumentation in the Nazi perspective at that time that the mentally ill were inferior human beings because they were assumed to be carriers of genetic diseases. Further, eugenicists were also following the social-Darwinist approach 32 “The Useless people”: War crimes, judgment, (non)memory” that the costs of care for mental patients would be a burden for the national econ- omy—again, this was the Nazi propaganda of the time. Given this latter view, some scholars see the Nazi regime as a “racial state”; this concept was introduced by Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wippermann in 1991 with their study The Racial State: Germany 1933–1945. The authors empha- sized the völkisch-racial understanding of nation and postulated the main eugenic agenda by the regime was to “purify” the Nation. In this context, killing of the mentally ill would be an instrument of purification: annihilating every group con- sidered to be inferior or dangerous—including gypsies, “asocials”, and others, who were all labelled as genetic deviants in the Nazi perspective. Following this approach, killing of the mentally ill (and Jews) in the “East” was a contribution to the genetic “purification” of a region that later was to become a large Nazi colony. Put in a broader framework, both seemed to be elements of the Generalplan Ost. Alexander Friedman Nazi policy concerning persons with mental or physical disabilities in the oc- cupied Eastern European countries should first of all be considered in the general context of the occupation policy, which was aimed at economic exploitation, fur- ther colonization, and ensuring that invaded countries would serve Germany’s in- terests. Persons suffering from mental or physical disabilities were treated as bal- last that Adolf Hilter’s “New Europe” would get rid of.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Make PDF Z Tej Stronie
    Truth About Camps | W imię prawdy historycznej (en) https://en.truthaboutcamps.eu/thn/german-camps/15608,German-Camps-on-Occupied-Polish-Territories-during-1 9391945.html 2021-09-28, 09:03 German Camps on Occupied Polish Territories during 1939−1945 The First Camps With its invasion of Poland in September 1939, Nazi Germany planned to destroy not only the Polish state, but also the Polish nation. The Poles who acted for the benefit of Poland were to be murdered while the rest of the nation was to be turned into slaves. To execute the plan the occupier began to set up camps on Polish territory from the very beginning of the war. The first ones — the so-called provisional concentration camps — were established as early as October 1939. Arriving in Poland at that time, the German Security Police (Sicherheitsdienst, SD) opened such camps in Poznań (Konzentrationslager Posen — Fort VII) and in Łódź-Radogoszcz (Konzentrationslager Radogosch). The Poles detained there had organized or had been suspected of organizing Polish civilian resistance against the German invader. Almost simultaneously the German police was setting up camps for the detention of Poles: transit camps for Polish civilian prisoners of war and camps for the interned. Such camps were established for example in Inowrocław (Übergangslager in Hohensalza), Działdowo (Durchgangslager für polnische Zivilgefangene in Soldau), Gdynia (Internierungslager Gotenhafen), Gdańsk (Übergangslager Danzig-Victoria), Sztutowo (Zivilgefangenenlager Stutthof), and Bydgoszcz (Internierungslager Bromberg). Over 100,000 Poles were detained during the few months of the functioning of the three kinds of camps (provisional concentration camps, camps for Polish civilian POWs, and camps for the interned).
    [Show full text]
  • On the Threshold of the Holocaust: Anti-Jewish Riots and Pogroms In
    Geschichte - Erinnerung – Politik 11 11 Geschichte - Erinnerung – Politik 11 Tomasz Szarota Tomasz Szarota Tomasz Szarota Szarota Tomasz On the Threshold of the Holocaust In the early months of the German occu- volume describes various characters On the Threshold pation during WWII, many of Europe’s and their stories, revealing some striking major cities witnessed anti-Jewish riots, similarities and telling differences, while anti-Semitic incidents, and even pogroms raising tantalising questions. of the Holocaust carried out by the local population. Who took part in these excesses, and what was their attitude towards the Germans? The Author Anti-Jewish Riots and Pogroms Were they guided or spontaneous? What Tomasz Szarota is Professor at the Insti- part did the Germans play in these events tute of History of the Polish Academy in Occupied Europe and how did they manipulate them for of Sciences and serves on the Advisory their own benefit? Delving into the source Board of the Museum of the Second Warsaw – Paris – The Hague – material for Warsaw, Paris, The Hague, World War in Gda´nsk. His special interest Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Kaunas, this comprises WWII, Nazi-occupied Poland, Amsterdam – Antwerp – Kaunas study is the first to take a comparative the resistance movement, and life in look at these questions. Looking closely Warsaw and other European cities under at events many would like to forget, the the German occupation. On the the Threshold of Holocaust ISBN 978-3-631-64048-7 GEP 11_264048_Szarota_AK_A5HC PLE edition new.indd 1 31.08.15 10:52 Geschichte - Erinnerung – Politik 11 11 Geschichte - Erinnerung – Politik 11 Tomasz Szarota Tomasz Szarota Tomasz Szarota Szarota Tomasz On the Threshold of the Holocaust In the early months of the German occu- volume describes various characters On the Threshold pation during WWII, many of Europe’s and their stories, revealing some striking major cities witnessed anti-Jewish riots, similarities and telling differences, while anti-Semitic incidents, and even pogroms raising tantalising questions.
    [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]
  • 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]
  • Quiet in the Rear: the Wehrmacht and the Weltanschauungskrieg in the Occupation of the Soviet Union
    Quiet in the Rear: The Wehrmacht and the Weltanschauungskrieg in the Occupation of the Soviet Union by Justin Harvey A thesis presented to the University Of Waterloo in fulfillment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Master Of Arts in History Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2018 © Justin Harvey 2018 I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. ii Historians widely acknowledge that the Second World War witnessed a substantial degree of ideology in the conflict itself. This paper will establish the degree to which the ideology of National Socialism shaped the Wehrmacht’s decision-making process prior to and during their occupation of the Soviet Union, as well as the outcomes of those decisions. To this end, those in positions of authority in the military – including Hitler himself, the OKW, the OKH and various subordinate commanders – will be examined to determine how National Socialist tenets shaped their plans and efforts to quell and exploit the occupied Soviet Union. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my most profound gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Alexander Statiev, for guiding me as this project came together. Your patience and support in this process were greatly appreciated. This work is dedicated to my grandfather, Jack Harvey, whom I never met, but whose service in the RCAF in the Second World War first inspired me to engage in the serious study of history.
    [Show full text]
  • Legacies of the Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial After 70 Years
    Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review Volume 39 Number 1 Special Edition: The Nuremberg Laws Article 7 and the Nuremberg Trials Winter 2017 Legacies of the Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial After 70 Years Hilary C. Earl Nipissing University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/ilr Recommended Citation Hilary C. Earl, Legacies of the Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial After 70 Years, 39 Loy. L.A. Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 95 (2017). Available at: https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/ilr/vol39/iss1/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews at Digital Commons @ Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 07 EARL .DOCX (DO NOT DELETE) 1/16/17 4:45 PM Legacies of the Nuremberg SS- Einsatzgruppen Trial after 70 Years HILARY EARL* I. INTRODUCTION War crimes trials are almost commonplace today as the normal course of events that follow modern-day wars and atrocities. In the North Atlantic, we use the liberal legal tradition to redress the harm caused to civilians by the state and its agents during periods of State and inter-State conflict. The truth is, war crimes trials are a recent invention. There were so-called war crimes trials after World War I, but they were not prosecuted with any real conviction or political will.
    [Show full text]
  • Volunteer Translator Pack
    TRANSLATION EDITORIAL PRINCIPLES 1. Principles for text, images and audio (a) General principles • Retain the intention, style and distinctive features of the source. • Retain source language names of people, places and organisations; add translations of the latter. • Maintain the characteristics of the source even if these seem difficult or unusual. • Where in doubt make footnotes indicating changes, decisions and queries. • Avoid modern or slang phrases that might be seem anachronistic, with preference for less time-bound figures of speech. • Try to identify and inform The Wiener Library about anything contentious that might be libellous or defamatory. • The Wiener Library is the final arbiter in any disputes of style, translation, usage or presentation. • If the item is a handwritten document, please provide a transcription of the source language as well as a translation into the target language. (a) Text • Use English according to the agreed house style: which is appropriate to its subject matter and as free as possible of redundant or superfluous words, misleading analogies or metaphor and repetitious vocabulary. • Wherever possible use preferred terminology from the Library’s Keyword thesaurus. The Subject and Geographical Keyword thesaurus can be found in this pack. The Institutional thesaurus and Personal Name thesaurus can be provided on request. • Restrict small changes or substitutions to those that help to render the source faithfully in the target language. • Attempt to translate idiomatic expressions so as to retain the colour and intention of the source culture. If this is impossible retain the expression and add translations in a footnote. • Wherever possible do not alter the text structure or sequence.
    [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]
  • Holocaust?Series=48246 WEEK 1 Articles and Questions
    Students, here are the next set of assignments for the next 3 weeks. You will not need your text book for this. Instead, use the following articles and questions. These articles are a study on the Holocaust. The questions you will need to answer are found at the very bottom of the pages. Week 1 a) Read the article entitled "Introduction to the Holocaust". When finished answer the critical thinking questions at the bottom of the page. b) Read the article entitled "Liberation of Nazi Camps" and answer the critical thinking questions. Week 2 a) Read the article entitled "Aftermath of the Holocaust" and answer the critical thinking questions at the bottom of the page. b) Read the article entitled "War Crimes Trials" and answer the critical thinking questions. Week 3 a) Read "Displaced Persons" and answer the critical thinking questions. b) Read "What is Genocide" and answer the critical thinking questions. Let me know if you have any questions. Be safe and please practice social distancing! Miss Fischer https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/introduction-to-the- holocaust?series=48246 WEEK 1 Articles and Questions Introduction To The Holocaust The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its allies and collaborators. Holocaust is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community. During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities also targeted other groups because of their perceived racial and biological inferiority: Roma (Gypsies), people with disabilities, some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others), Soviet prisoners of war, and blacks.
    [Show full text]
  • Fort Vii W Pözm
    MARIAN OLSZEWSKI FORT VII W P ö Z M IiJ Wydanie II przejrzane WYDAWNICTWO POZNAŃSKIE- Ш 4 Szkice i ryciną Fortu V II wykonał. L U D W IK ЖIJ A ft Okładką projektował W OJCIECH KORYTOWSKI Dzieciom moim Marzennie i Wiesławowi pracę tę poświęcam WSTĘP Fort VH w Poznaniu to miejsce poniewierki, straszliwej katorgi, męczeństwa i tragicznej śmierci tysięcy Wielkopo­ lan w latach okupacji hitlerowskiej. Literatura poświęcona temu obozowi jest niezwykle szczupła. Niewiele też pozostało po nim dokumentów nie­ mieckich. Akta komendantury i administracji obozowej za­ ginęły. Prawdopodobnie zostały zniszczone, tak zresztą, jak dokumenty wszystkich prawie obozów niemieckich, na zie­ miach polskich przed opuszczeniem ich przez okupanta. Nieliczne są również w archiwach relacje i wspomnienia spisane przez byłych więźniów tej katowni. A był to przecież jeden z najcięższych obozów hitlerow­ skich istniejących w III Rzeszy. Stosunkowo nieduży i mało znany pochłonął jednak ogromną liczbę ofiar. Nie miał on co prawda krematorium i nie uśmiercał katorżniczą pracą, ale siał żniwo śmierci głodem, terrorem, kaźnią i masowy­ mi egzekucjami więźniów. W polskiej opinii publicznej lat okupacji uchodził za obóz, którego przeżyć nie sposób. Więźniowie uważali go za więk­ sze zło od „renomowanych” obozów koncentracyjnych, jak Dachau czy Mauthausen i innych, do których wyjeżdżali w transportach z nadzieją przetrwania. Jeszcze dziś, po upływie kilkudziesięciu lat od zakończe­ nia wojny, wspomnienie Fortu wywołuje w tysiącach rodzin wielkopolskich uczucie grozy i bólu. Wiele ludzi z pietyz­ mem przechowuje liczne pamiątki po swych najbliższych, których życie zgasło w czeluściach tej potwornej katowni. Żadne słowa nie mogą oddać uczuć pogardy i nienawiści do reżimu, który był sprawcą tego ogromu ludzkiego mę­ czeństwa jedynie i tylko za to, że się było Polakiem.
    [Show 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.
    [Show full text]
  • When a Nation Is Being Murdered” – the Secret Biological and Chemical War Against the Third Reich
    Zeszyty Naukowe AON nr 2 (103) 2016 ISSN 0867–2245 HISTORIA WOJSKOWOŒCI ”WHEN A NATION IS BEING MURDERED” – THE SECRET BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WAR AGAINST THE THIRD REICH Robert PETERSEN, Ph.D. Centre for Biosecurity and Biopreparedness, Denmark Abstract During the Second World War, the Polish resistance movement used chemical and biological weapons (CBW) against the Nazi occupation in Poland and inside the Third Reich. This subject is under growing scrutiny in modern-day Poland, but remains largely unknown outside the country. By using a wide range of sources (including Polish and German wartime records) this paper attempts to reconstruct what happened. Key words: chemical and biological warfare, Home Army, second world war Introduction The Second World War in Europe began with the German invasion of Poland in 1939. Over the following six years, the Poles were victims of severe persecution and genocide, thereby losing six million citizens (or 22 percent of the population). Half of the victims were Polish Jews1. While suffering at the hands of foreign occupiers, the Poles also developed one of the most sophisticated resistance movements during the war. The first named ZWZ (Związek Walki Zbrojnej, Union of Armed Struggle) and renamed AK (Armia Krajowa, Home Army) in 1942 was meant to be a secret Polish army loyal to the Polish Government-in-Exile. At its peak in 1944, the AK probably had about 380,000 members, although only a small percentage of them were properly armed2. A significant part of the AK perished during the Warsaw Uprising in August-October 1944, when they tried and failed to liberate the Polish 1 Richard C.
    [Show full text]