Day 11: One Boycott does not a Concerted Effort Make!
These are just some of the Children of Lodz. History acknowledges their presence was amongst us, the evidence is clear. What cannot be known, was the destination Chelmno or a ditch at the side of the Road. Has the ignominy of a few taken the lives for these many and discarded them?
1933 August 20th. American Jewish Congress declares boycott against Nazi Germany.
Under increasing weight of evidence that Nazis in Germany were being given a free hand to deal deliberately, with both a committed and brutal savagery, the World of Jewry was forced to act in defence of its own! The Jews of the World could not conscript its own Army, so relied upon the beneficence of Nations to do so. That charitable trust was so negated during the period of The Holocaust.
1941 August 20th. 90 Jewish Children of Bjala-Zerkow are locked up in a building on the edge of Town.
“..these were children of Jews ..Jewesses ..already ..shot.” Josef Maria Reuss.
We are reminded that Dr. Reuss was a Catholic Priest, and he had been informed by another Catholic Priest, Ernst Tewes, of the appalling conditions in which these Jewish Children were being detained and then Murdered. In all the communication that ensued, between Tewes, Reuss and then onto Generals Groscurth, Korfes and von Reichenau, none of Hitler’s Generals protested the murders as such, just the manner in which certain delays impacted upon the sensibilities of those Soldiers who witnessed these actions? But in relaying their horror to the German Command, they would have been equally strident in the protestations to their respective Churches.
1942 August 20th. The majority of Croatian Jews have been already murdered at Auschwitz while Kurt Gerstein witnesses the gassing operation at Treblinka. On the War front, General Friedrich von Paulus’s 6th Army is at Stalingrad.
The turning point in the War has now been reached. The tide has logistically turned and once Russia launches its Winter Campaign, Hitler’s legions will be battered, frozen and destroyed. Hitler’s own conceit, which did not recognise in Napoleon’s failure in Russia any ill omen, the defeat was ignored. All the signs it has to be argued, were there to assess what German might and could achieve, and it achieved massively. It had steamrollered Poland. Blitzed France and The Low Countries. Took Scandinavia and saw such unprecedented numbers of Russian POWs captured in swift succession. What could now stop the juggernaut?
1943 August 20th. 3,000 of Glebokie’s Jews are murdered after a brave Resistance.
Throughout the History of The Holocaust, individual Resistance, Group Resistance and an air of resignation has bolstered what is becoming the remnant of European Jewry. For the remnants of European Jewry to see a chance for Survival can exist, it must have raised their spirit no end. News is reaching more widely that is certain Hitler has been losing the War effort, with more and more German soldiers now paying the ultimate price of Hitler’s ineptitude. Germany is to become besieged by a rampant and justified Allied response to a Nazi evil of immeasurable cruelty. Hitler’s hatred and a Destructive Capacity all aimed at a single People, The Jewish People, will be measured in the Millions systematically Slaughtered.
A Book a Day, or so of suggested reading!
13. Mannheimer, Max. From Theresienstadt to Auschwitz.
