CHAPTER 9 Harvest Festival (Erntefest)— Extermination of the Remaining Jews in the District of Lublin THE GROWING JEWISH RESISTANCE IN 1943 ince the beginning of 1943, a systematic increase in armed resistance had Sbeen noticed with various large gatherings of Jews. The January resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto marked the launch of these events. This occurred a few months after the large-scale deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto in the summer of 1942. Since the Great Action from July to September 1942 and over the coming months, relative calm prevailed. That period was used by the Jews to consolidate various youth movements and political parties in order to create a common organization united in battle. However, a total union did not come about because of too much discord among the Jewish organizations. Eventually, two militant organizations were established: the Jewish Fighting Organization (ŻOB) and the Jewish Military Union (ŻZW). Lack of orga- nized preparation during the large-scale deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto in the summer of 1942 was a painful experience and brought home all the dangers it entailed. They decided to resist deportation at the next attempt. Indeed, such a moment came on January 18, 1943 when another deportation was set in motion. The Jews tried to hide in bunkers and basements, and young people, mainly from the ŻOB, resisted. The Germans managed to deport some thousands of Jews, but it was much fewer than planned. The Jewish fighters had lost many of their people. Finally, the deportation was stopped. 274 Macht Arbeit Frei? The January experience was used in further preparations for the battle. The underground organizations started to collect funds, often threatening with weapons, resumed intensive construction of shelters, and continued the elim- ination of Jewish collaborators. They acquired or sequestered weapons and established contacts with the Aryan side. News of resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto quickly began to spread around the country and not only among the Jews. The German authorities collected information about these events and about the mood among the Jews. In addition, knowledge about new places where Jews were being deported also circulated. Probably not coincidentally, on January 20, 1943, Himmler turned to Ganzenmüller, secretary of state at the Ministry of Communications of the Reich, regarding the need to accelerate the provision of trains for deportation of Jews. Himmler argued as follows: The condition for [the establishment] of peace in the General Government, Białystok, and on Russian territory is the deportation of any band of helpers, and suspected of involvement in gangs. It does concern here in the first instance, we think, deportation of Jews [. .] because on else case, we expect an increasing number of attacks in those areas.1 At the same time, in January 1943, the Jewish Fighting Organization in the Warsaw Ghetto published a call for resistance: We have received information from all sides about the destruction of the Jews in the Government-General, in Germany, in the occupied territories. When we listen to this bitter news we wait for our own hour to come every day and every moment. Today we must understand that the Nazi murder- ers have let us live only because they want to make use of our capacity to work to our last drop of blood and sweat, to our last breath. We are slaves. And when the slaves are no longer profitable, they are killed. Everyone among us must understand that, and everyone among us must remember it always.2 1 Himmler to the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Communications of the Reich, Ganzenmüller, on the urgent need to supply trains for deportation of Jews, Berlin, January 20, 1943, in Eisenbach and Rutkowski, Eksterminacja Żydów, 321. 2 Call to resistance by the Jewish Fighting Organization in the Warsaw Ghetto, January 1943, in Arad and Gutman, Documents on the Holocaust, 301–2. Harvest Festival (Erntefest) CHAPTER 9 275 After the great deportation, Jews no longer believed that deportation meant “to work in the East,” as it was so often quoted in the German announcements. Therefore, no promise of work in the camps in the district of Lublin, which were announced later, was able to convince the Jews that the Germans’ intentions were pure. Armed struggle was suggested as the only alternative. As the Jewish Fighting Organization’s pamphlet stated: The blood-stained murderers have a particular aim in doing this: to reas- sure the Jewish population in order that later the next deportation can be carried out without difficulty, with a minimum of force and without losses to the Germans. They want the Jews not to prepare hiding-places and not to resist. Jews, do not repeat these lying tales. Jews in your masses, the hour is near. You must be prepared to resist, not giving yourselves up like sheep to slaughter. Not even a few must go to the train. Let everyone be ready to die like a man!3 Already on January 22, Ludwik Landau wrote: It is said that the deported people are taken to perform fortification works somewhere in the East,4 but it is also said that some transport go to the prison camp in Trawniki. It does not seem that doing some work was the goal of this action, rather, all the impression is that the point is to destroy the population, its most energetic and most enterprising part in the first place, and in general the urban intelligentsia. Perhaps this fear dictates the deportaion—or maybe just the desire to destroy as much as possible before approaching the end? 5 In another place Ludwik Landau wrote, “The news about people who have been deported from Warsaw mention constantly the same points of destina- tion: Trawniki, Majdanek, and Bełżec.6 Escapees from the trains still arrive, but many have died trying to escape.”7 3 Ibid. 4 Such fortification works were done in Bełżec labor camps complex in 1940–1941. 5 Entry of January 22, 1943, in Landau, Kronika lat wojny i okupacji, vol. 2, 133. 6 In 1942–1943, a notorious death camp was active in Bełżec. Any news about going to work in Bełżec were misleading. In fact, the transports were destinated to be exterminated in Bełżec death camp. 7 Ibid. 276 Macht Arbeit Frei? THE EVACUATION OF THE LABOR FORCE FROM THE WARSAW GHETTO TO LABOR CAMPS IN LUBLIN Formal decisions on the transfer of industrial plants to the Lublin area were soon to be taken. On February 2, 1943, the commander of the SS and police in the district of Warsaw, Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg,8 wrote to Himmler about relocation of industrial plants and workers from the Warsaw Ghetto to the concentration camp in Lublin: Preparations for the translocation of all textile factories employing Jews are in progress and a mobilization plan was completed in cooperation with factory managers. To a concentration camp in Lublin not only Többens and Schultz & Co., but also all other companies will be moved. It is eight plants with a total of approximately 20,000 Jewish laborers. Departure will be made by group departments. SS-Gruppenführer Globocnik joined us in the process of taking over these industrial plants.9 On February 16, 1943, RFSS Heinrich Himmler issued two important orders. One of them instructed Pohl to create a concentration camp in the Warsaw Ghetto where all Jews living in Warsaw were to be transferred, and dictated the deportation of Jews to the Lublin area.10 At the same time, Himmler forbade Jews to work in private establishments. All existing private companies in the Warsaw Ghetto were to be transferred to a concentration camp. In the next stage, industrial plants had to be moved to Lublin in such a way that production did not suffer.11 The second command was issued to Krüger and concerned the complete destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto after having all its valuables removed.12 8 JD Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg (1897–1944) since July 1942 was the SSPF in the district of Warsaw, Following the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising he was substituted by Jürgen Stroop. He was transferred in April 1943 to Croatia where he occupied the post of Disrtict Police Leader (Polizei-Gebietsführer). He was killed by Jugoslav partisants in Serptember 1944. 9 Letter of the SS and Police Leader in the district of Warsaw, Ferdinand von Sammern- Frankenegg, to Heinrich Himmler on the translocation of industrial companies and work- ers from the Warsaw Ghetto to the camps in Lublin area, Warsaw, February 20, 1943, in Eisenbach and Rutkowski, Eksterminacja Żydów, 250. 10 Himmler’s order to the chief of the Main Economic and Administrative Office of the SS, Pohl to set up in Warsaw a concentration camp and deportation of Jews to the Lublin area, Field Headquarter, February 16, 1943 (NO-2494), in Eisenbach and Rutkowski, Eksterminacja Żydów, 323. 11 Ibid. 12 Ibid Harvest Festival (Erntefest) CHAPTER 9 277 In this order, Himmler expressed his great contempt for the Jews and their district, while arguing that his actions were for security measures: For reasons of security I herewith order that the Warsaw Ghetto be pulled down after the concentration camp has been moved: all parts of houses that can be used, and other materials of all kinds, are first to be made use of. The destruction of the ghetto and the relocation of the concentration camp are necessary, as otherwise we would probably never establish quiet in Warsaw, and the prevalence of crime cannot be stamped out as long as the ghetto remains. An overall plan for the destruction of the ghetto is to be submitted to me. In any case, we must eliminate the living space for 500,000 subhumans (Untermenschen) that has existed up to now, but could never be suitable for Germans, and reduce the size of this city of millions, Warsaw, which has always been a center of corruption and revolt.13 Together with an attempt to eliminate all Jews from the ghetto in Warsaw, actions intensified in order to eliminate the remnant of the Jewish people hiding in the countryside.