Day 4: Still so many Days to Go!
1941 August 13th. 717 Alytus Jewish Men and Women are murdered.
There is a momentum to the Slaughter which is gaining pace. As Hitler’s minions grind a relentless swathe of Warring gains, the Jews are under immediate threat of being put to the sword. Wherever they are found, whatever their Age, whatever their necessity to the Humanising terms of our own Humanity, the Jews of Europe and Russia are increasingly abandoned, sidelined and left to their fate.
1941 August 13th. Eichmann meets with members of the Ministry of Interior, with the Representatives of Goering’s Four Year Plan and those of the Reich Chancellery.
Following on from the Nuremberg Laws, there is the continuing requirement of the need for a defining term for the classification of the Jewish People. The sheer weight of the bureaucracy of Germany is being brought to bear in relation to all matters Jewish! In defining who is a Jew, Hitler has had, since 1935, teams of Lawyers, Racial experts, pseudo-Scientists, Theologians and Academics exploring any such theories as would categorise a People. However, this pseudo Socio-political exploration must be considered in light of the expropriation of Jewish Homes, Jewish Property, Jewish Wealth and Jewish Goods, all of which is to become the by-product of a supposed Nazi ideology. Whatever mealy mouthed words are being considered, it is an evil undertaking, and it is an understanding amongst these higher echelons of power, couched in euphemistic terms, that a larceny far greater than was ever conceived of is a primary motivation in what is to be considered for the Jews.
1942 August 13th. the Gorodok Ghetto is liquidated as is the Mir Ghetto.
As each and every Ghetto, established by Hitler to contain Jews in a transitory position, along a staging post toward Destruction, and these were being dismantled, the gradual liquidation begins. As evictions from housing for Jews now signals the final removal of those Jews to that place of Destruction. That demise, be it in a Death Camp or at a place in some Woods where the Jews themselves had been forced to dig the Pits, would consign them to an oblivion as inevitable as Hitler intended!
1942 August 13th. Switzerland ejects refugee Jews back to France.
It is deeply saddening for those Jews of Europe, who could so easily escape to the neutrality of States like Switzerland, only to find their route blocked by a seeming lack of desire to assist those Jews, destitute and without a safe haven. Switzerland does not stand alone amongst States who would deny sanctuary to the Jewish People, even when it became evident that Jewish existence was under direct threat of being compromised first and then eradicated!
1942 August 13th. America and Britain continue to sit on Riegner’s Report.
The content of Riegner’s Telegram to the World Jewish Congress, and the Western World is a chilling warning, and should have been an awakening, a clarion call to the plight of the Jews of Europe! That far too little heed was taken of the warning within the text of the message, further consigned those Jews of Europe, who still remained alive, to losing any chance that they might Survive.
“..Received alarming report stating ..in ..Fuhrer’s Headquarters ..plan ..discussed ..to which all Jews in countries occupied or controlled by Germany numbering 3,500,000 to 4,000,000 ..after deportation and concentration ..East ..at one blow exterminated ..to resolve ..Jewish Question ..Europe. Action ..planned for .. Autumn. Ways of execution ..being discussed ..use of Prussic Acid. ..informant ..close connexions ..highest German authorities ..generally reliable. Please inform and consult New York.” Gerhart Riegner.
There can be little ambiguity here! While it all might seem incredible that the Germans should contemplate the Extermination of an entire Race of People, the Jewish People, who were already in the line of fire. With what information is already emerging, and let us not forget, the Operational Situation Reports of der Einsatzgruppe, coded Accounts of the Mass Slaughter of Jewish People behind the German lines of assault within Russia, were being intercepted by Intelligence agencies in the West, there can be little doubt there is an extermination programme aimed at The Jewish People. Now we also have the words of that murderous process being spelled out in a cable, and it is related directly to The Death Camp system. Why would the West not now act?
“..I should like to thank you personally and on behalf ..Reichsfuhrer ..your memorandum July 28. ..particularly gratified ..that for ..past two weeks 5,000 members of ..chosen people ..to Treblinka.” Karl Wolff.
1942 August 13th. Karl Wolff responds to Albert Ganzenmueller’s memo on the departures of Jews to both Treblinka and Belzec. What cannot be read in these words doesn’t hide the fact that these Jews were never to return. In terms cloaked in that very open secret, this ‘resettlement’ of the Jews meant an extermination for a People who were indeed a newly defined ‘Chosen People.’ Here, outside that biblical context of the term, the Jews were chosen for annihilation. Wolff, for all that he knew, then proclaimed a total lack of any such knowledge once History asked him the relevant question.
Honour has been stained by these who were knowledgeable. Those others too, who proclaim such untruths as to the hidden meanings to such covert terms, they too also deny History an essential veracity that we are left to pick over. To be further disguised in other than the programme of slaughter that they had established for the Destruction of The Jews, and where it is intended to disguise, it hides little. We follow such euphemism that has been carefully chosen so as not only to detract from the truth, but to attempt to obliterate it fully from our understanding and comprehension!
A Book a Day, or so of suggested reading!
6 Gilbert, Martin Auschwitz and the Allies.
A Collective Analysis of The Catastrophe!