We approach a New Year with new commitment, new hopes and a renewed certainty that what has gone in the past should be reflected upon. We are urged to ensure that what we have learned is delivered without equivocation, with truth and honesty and that lessons are taken forward! The truth will always remain the Truth and in that certainty, the Fact of The Holocaust will not be denied! Along with that certainty, I have a question! What is a thirty year time span in History? It is barely a jot on the landscape of all periods thrown together! Whether it is enough time however, to influence the course of our future, that matters to all only in so much that we have learned the lessons to be taken from the experience of its past!
There is that moment of
reflection, and it is all that concerns us as we contemplate the
direction we are then promoting for our future. For me, and I never
quite realised how prone to the face valued integrity of people I am,
but I learn and I will always deliver in the course of my work, a
remembrance of the most cataclysmic event to ever permeate the meaning
for all Humanity and that is, The Holocaust. Also, it matters that the
truth be told, because the Truth is significant when we face the World! I
labour the point of truth because all I ever sought to achieve in all
my effort, whether that is work, rest or the desire to achieve, was the
delivery of an honest assessment of my own position with regards to much
that affects us all.
In many ways, The Holocaust has become a champion of that resolve, as it focuses my attention when so much seeks to delineate its effort. So I persevere with The Holocaust veracity in order to deal with any denial which sucks the air out of such a Catastrophe’s integrity! Sometimes though, the stuffing is literally kicked out of you remorselessly, metaphorically speaking. When there are these clowns who come along with their attempted revisionism of that very well described, analysed Truth, the World should not be at all confused. Theirs is a persistent and specific revision of a particular aspect of History. That they wish to distort it, is apparent. My resolve though is given a boost! There are times when I cannot resolve the issues they have, which manage to confound me! I look to history to deliver me back to where I had been aiming, and I traverse once more that line of seeking to Remember the Jews of The Holocaust. For their cause is a just cause!
Anyway, it would be wrong of me, to not persevere with the truth, to give way to a slight against a Murdered and dismembered body of humanity. For that would be to allow the Truth to err, for the Facts to become negated and for the revisionist denial of an aspect of history to be destroyed. That would in turn destroy the integrity of all history that the revisers would chance to conceptualise. We cannot ever bargain with the Truth! It is sacrosanct! It is all we have to learn from as we deliver from our past through the present day and toward an other’s future. So for these deniers, whose own sought out and nefarious end will fail, owes all to the many who hold dear to the Truth, because Truth will and must persevere.
These race haters and their attempted destruction of the truth, have no credibility in the annals of History. These, whose only legacy to posterity will be to deny that The Holocaust ever happened, have seen their revisionism revised, tethered to a lie they wish to extort from. The denial lobby, whose only motive is a clear hatred of The Jewish People, is all because those 6,000,000 victims of the greatest Genocide ever to permeate our historical awareness, were Jews. This ensures they have a distorted position in our midst. The denial thus sheds their veneer of revisionist nonsense and secretes a bile so pungent, it permeates reason with suspicion and doubt.
Their fundamental objection, and in all that they seek to achieve as a retort to the pertinent fact that The Holocaust was solely directed against the World of Jewry, is the denial of a resting place for these 6,000,000 Jews of Europe. Ethnic, Religious, Pernicious or Racial hatred must not be allowed the incantation of miserly words from discredited arbiters of libellous chants and obsessions. Hatred for the Jewish People is an evil which has been shown throughout history to fashion much that has been wrong within Humanity! We only need go back 82 years to when the History of Germany gave citizenship to an Austrian who constructed for them a ‘Genocide’ that would labour their civilising influence upon Europe and the World!
Within the coming years, and we will pick out a 30 year time span to show what Hitler achieved and what we, the World allowed to happen; Freedom, Equality and the Fraternity amongst People was rocked to its core. As Hitler sought to consolidate the position he demanded for Germany and the German peoples, State after State was put under pressure to align itself or face threat and conflict. Czechoslovakia, Austria and then Poland so succumbed to the pressure and in Poland, after the events of November 9th. 1938, Kristallnacht should have convinced the World of the threat to World Jewry from Herr Hitler? When Hitler invaded Polish sovereignty on September 1st. 1939, the Jews of Europe were further exposed to a rampant antisemitism and a final resolve that would shake the foundations of all Humanity.
That Final Solution had gathered pace by the time Hitler had launched his attack upon his feigned ally Russia, on June 22nd. 1941. Now unleashed, der Einsatzgruppe swept all before it and engorged itself with a destructive path that obliterated entire communities, slaughtered en masse innocent people and targeted in unequal measure all those Jews it came into contact with. What Hitler was to emphasise in a conference he held with senior officials of his Reich, gave newer impetus to a resolve that was finally providing an over-riding solution to Hitler’s problem with The Jewish People. The time was ripe for Hitler to galvanise all of Germany into that ultimate goal and December 12th. 1941 bears witness to what Hitler had always intended would be The Final Solution of The Jewish Question in Europe.
“..In respect of ..Jewish question ..make a clean sweep. ..world war is here ..annihilation of ..Jews must be ..necessary result. This question is to be regarded without sentimentalism. We are not here to have sympathy with ..Jews ..but ..with our German people. If ..German people have sacrificed 160,000 dead in ..Eastern campaign ..authors of this bloody conflict will have to pay for it with their lives.” Adolf Hitler.
Yet, the Wannsee Conference had not been convened, it had been postponed while Hitler put into each phrase what no official present could misinterpret! While Murder and mayhem had already profited Hitler’s clear intention for Jewish annihilation, Heydrich progressed this agenda into an administrative resolve. Whether from that clear intention which Hitler set before his Reich, or from the functioning force of those others who wished to deliver to Hitler the very terms of reference he constantly spoke about, the Jewish fate was to be a catastrophically deadly and brutal one! It must be remembered too that on January 20th. 1942, when the conference finally convened, Chelmno was in operation, murdering the Jews of Lodz and from its surrounding areas.
Also, an operational der Einsatzgruppe had been Murdering Jews and others at breakneck speed for nearly 7 months. But fate would play into Hitler’s hands once more, as he gauged the cost in manpower and bullets for the Destruction of The Jewish People. This then was the coming evidence of the actions undertaken by der Einsatzgruppe that was placed before the proceeding Eichmann Trial:-
1) Operation Unit “A” put to death in the course of the first four months of the German Army’s invasion into the aforementioned regions: Lithuania: over 80,000 Jews; Latvia: over 30,000 Jews; Estonia: about 470 Jews; Belorussia: over 7,600 Jews; Russia: about 2,000 Jews; The province of Tilsit: about 5,500 Jews. A total of over 135,000 Jews.
2) Operation Unit “B” up to 14 November 1941 exterminated upwards of 45,000 Jews in Belorussia and other zones.
3) Operation Unit “C” up to 3 November 1941 exterminated in the Ukraine more than 75,000 Jews – and amongst them about 33,000 Jews of Kiev.
4) Operation Unit “D” exterminated about 54,000 Jews up to 12 December 1941.
“..places of extermination at Auschwitz were planned only for Jews.” Rudolf Hoess.
Since Jews were already dying in the Concentration Camps, in Villages and Towns, in Cities and in the Ghettos of Europe, the emergence of 5 other Death Camps, Belzec, Majdanek, Sobibor, Treblinka and Auschwitz Birkenau were now to play their fundamentally destructive part in Hitler’s process toward annihilation. This then was the coming evidence of the Operational Death Camps that was placed before the proceeding Eichmann Trial:-
1) Birkenau (Auschwitz) where more than 1,100,000 Jews alone were Slaughtered! Auschwitz I, which existed since May 1940, and the Death Camp factory of Birkenau, Auschwitz II, which was established in the September of 1941. From January 1942 in five gas chambers, and from the end of June 1943 with the completion of four additional gassing-rooms, Zyklon B was used in the gassings of Jews and other nationals. Gypsies, Russians and Poles were amongst those who were murdered at Auschwitz/Birkenau. This industrial, mechanised effort, using Zyklon ‘B’ gas continued right up until November 1944.
“..When I came into ..room ..Eichmann was speaking of a figure of 2,500,000 relating to Auschwitz. On what had transpired before ..and whether that was ..correct number of Jews that had been supplied for extermination by gas at Auschwitz ..this I do not know.” Rudolf Hoess.
2) Chelmno where more than 152,000 Jews alone were Slaughtered! This was the first operational Camp for the extermination of the Jewish People and it ran its murderous enterprise from December 8th. 1941, suspended its operations for a time in August of that year. It resumed operations from May 1944 until August 1944. The appartus of killing was dismantled January 17th. 1945. Carbon Monoxide poisonous gas is Gassing Vans was used. Jews, Gypises of the Roma, Sinti and Lalleri were all Murdered here.
“..As soon as ..ramp had been erected in ..castle ..people started arriving in Kulmhof [Chelmno] from Litzmannstadt in lorries. ..people were told that they had to take a bath ..that their clothes had to be disinfected and that they could hand in any valuable items beforehand to be registered. When they had undressed they were sent to ..cellar of ..castle and then along a passageway on to ..ramp and from there into ..gas-van. In ..castle there were signs marked “to ..baths”. ..gas vans were large vans ..about 4-5 meters long ..2.2 meter wide and 2 meter high. ..interior walls were lined with sheet metal. On ..floor there was a wooden grille. ..floor of ..van had an opening which could be connected to ..exhaust by means of a removable metal pipe. When ..lorries were full of people ..double doors at ..back were closed and ..exhaust connected to ..interior of ..van.” Walter Burmeister.
3) Belzec where more than 600,000 Jews alone were Slaughtered! 1st. November 1941 Construction of the extermination camp begins. This extermination camp was in operation from March 17th. 1942 until December 1942. 80,000 Jews were Murdered her during its first month of operation. Carbon Monoxide gas was used to Murder those Jews, and others who entered the Camp. As with Chelmno Roma, Sinti and Lalleri Gypsies were also Murdered here. Shootings, Hangings and Gassings were among the methods of extermination here. Belzec was the second camp to function solely as a killing center and the first camp to have permanent gas chambers built and used. The Camp was dismantled after the SK 1005 Aktion to extinguish the evidence of the Slaughter was completed in August 1943.
“..I saw them myself ..Chelmno ..Treblinka ..Sobibor ..Belzec.” Rudolf Hoess.
4) Sobibor where more than 250,000 Jews alone were Slaughtered! Between May 1942 and October 1943 this extermination camp was operational. x5 Gassing Chambers were used for the Murders of those Jews, and others, who were brought to the Camp. Effectively closed down after the Uprising of October 14th. 1943.
“..I estimate ..number of Jews gassed at Sobibor ..about 350,000. In ..canteen at Sobibor I once overheard a conversation between Frenzel ..Stangl ..Wagner. ..discussing ..number of victims in ..extermination camps of Belzec ..Treblinka ..Sobibor and expressed ..regret ..Sobibor “came last” in ..competition.” Erich Bauer.
5) Treblinka where more than 900,000 Jews alone were Slaughtered! This extermination camp was constructed in April 1942 and was operational from July 22nd. 1942 until the Uprising on August 2nd. 1943 sealed its fate.
“..During ..entire time I was in Treblinka ..I served in ..Upper Camp. Upper camp was that part of Treblinka with ..gas chambers ..where ..Jews were killed and their corpses laid in large pits and later burned.” Heinrich Matthes.
6) Majdanek where more than 200,000 Jews alone were Slaughtered! This extermination camp was operational from the July 21st. 1941 until July 1944. x7 Operational Gas Chambers were used as well as Gassing Vans. Those Jews, and others who entered here were Murdered using both Zyklon ‘B’ and Carbon Monoxide gas. More than 1,350 Cubic Metres of Human Ash alone was found on Liberation in parts of the Camp. The Murdered of Majdanek were buried behind Compound V and were later burned in the x2 Crematoria opened in June 1942. An early assessment shows Majdanek far behind in the Killing Process than the x3 ‘Aktion Reinhard’ Death Camps.
“..Lublin [Majdanek] 24,733 ..Belzec 434,508 ..Sobibor ..101,370 ..Treblinka ..713,555.” Hermann Hoefle.
At Wannsee though, Hitler was to ensure fully that all of Germany, and all of the German people would be implicitly aligned and therefore complicit in what was already happening to the Jewish People. Hitler would not stand alone when History came to judge those who perpetrated the crimes within The Holocaust. What was about to eventually emerge, after German defeat was confirmed in 1945, was the realisation that the Destruction of 6,000,000 Jews of Europe had been accomplished with will assistance from many of other nations and all of this was done in the name of the German people also.
From the total set for Destruction by The Wannsee Conference of over 11,000,000 Jews, who would be sought out for systematic Slaughter, the target reached of 6,000,000 Murdered Jews has ever since sent ripples of despair throughout our History. These reproaches, which will not be quelled in another millennia, must be Remembered in terms of an enormous loss to all humanity. Here, clearly spelled out at Wannsee was the administered Destruction of 11,000,000 Jewish People. That it was broken down into a bureaucratic approximation of the value of People, shows even the value Hitler placed upon German lives. No deviation, no matter how desperate it proved for German troops fighting a War, was allowed to distract from Hitler’s ultimate goal, and as those People were The Jewish People, that approximation was both persisting and constant.
The Jewish People themselves were expendable and as such, valueless to Hitler and his Reich. With Hitler seeking to ensure all arms of the Reich were duplicitous in The Final Solution, those present represented every strain of German bureaucracy.
01) Dr. Josef Buhler State Secretary for the Generalgouvernment.
02) Adolf Eichmann Chief of the Jewish Office of the Gestapo.
03) Dr. Roland Freisler State Secretary; Ministry of Justice.
04) Reinhard Heydrich Head of RSHA Reich Main Security Office.
05) Otto Hofmann Head of Race & Settlement Office RuSHA.
06) Gerhard Klopfer State Secretary of the Party Chancellery.
07) Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger State Secretary of the Reich Chancellery.
08) Dr. Rudolf Lange Einsatzkommando 2 Commander.
09) Dr. Georg Leibrandt Chief of the Political Division.
10) Martin Luther Under Secretary of the Foreign Office.
11) Dr. Alfred Meyer State Secretary of the Occupied Eastern Territories.
12) Heinrich Muller Chief of the Gestapo.
13) Dr. Erich Neumann State Secretary at the Office for the Four Year Plan.
14) Dr. Karl Eberhard Schongarth Commander Security Police & Security Service Generalgouvernment.
15) Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior.
Taken in isolation, just 2 names have a significance to this event which demonstrates the full intention by Hitler as to why this meeting was convened. Eichmann is well known to the student of The Holocaust. The architect of annihilation and the man singularly charged with ensuring the Death of European Jewry. Eichmann conducted administratively in all The Holocaust’s clinical certainty. Then we have Dr. Rudolf Lange, an SS Sturmbannfuhrer, Commander of EinsatzKommando 2, of Einsatzgruppe A, who had conducted the Slaughter of Latvian Jewry. His expertise was a lynchpin in the progress toward ensuring Hitler would have one fundamental victory when all else, his 1,000 year Reich and a World War had failed him.
The Destruction of 6,000,000 of European Jewry; Men, Women and Their Children required the killing expertise of Lange, alongside the organisational skill Eichmann brought to bear. With Hitler’s speech of January 30th. 1942, merely 10 days after Wannsee, fully underscoring what he had intended and what much of Germany knew and suspected would be, that Jewry faced dire consequences. All of World Jewry, and not just these 11,000,000 Jews of Wannsee, faced a destructive end more dire than history had ever imagined. Though Hitler termed his intention with reference to the disappearance of The Jewish People, all bodies of the Reich were present at Wannsee to discern exactly what Hitler meant by die Endlosung der Judenfrage. It was to be The Final Solution of The Jewish Question, the Destruction of a People, The Holocaust of The Jews of Europe!
While it must prove essential for the World to visit Auschwitz Birkenau and the other Death Camps, to see where the organised destruction was achieved, there is also a need to visit Wannsee to look at how swiftly and adeptly all these Jews of Europe were consigned to oblivion. Look at how organised and sanitised the clamour for 11,000,000 Murders was given the seal of approval from the ranks of the Reich! Know too that while Hitler stood back from the administrative device that was to lead the charge toward that Final Solution, we know in History that without Hitler, there would have been no Holocaust and 6,000,000 Jewish lives would not stand as accusers!
“..Jews have deserved ..catastrophe that has now overtaken them. Their destruction will go hand in hand with ..destruction of our enemies. We must hasten this process with cold ruthlessness.” Josef Goebbels.
As we converge on what the basis of this 30 year excursion means for us all, from Hitler’s naturalisation in 1932 to where we jump that 30 year time span and reach May 31st. 1962 when Adolf Eichmann is Hanged, 6,000,000 Innocent Jewish Men, Women and Their Children had been ritually Slaughtered. This was the coming evidence for the account that is the 6,000,000 Murdered Jews of The Holocaust and that was placed before the proceeding Eichmann Trial:-
“..Adolf Eichmann ..who had been put in charge of this program by Hitler ..has estimated that ..policy pursued resulted in ..killing of 6,000,000 Jews ..of which 4,000,000 were killed in ..extermination institutions.”
When Eichmann was finally hanged for his Crimes Against Humanity, it must be firmly fixed in the consciousness of all those who study the very terms of The Holocaust, these crimes were committed and systematically directed against The Jewish People! The fact that those Jewish People of our very Humanity were largely, almost singularly attested to and contracted by Hitler, is not a debate, it is a certain fact. That these Jews of Europe were abandoned to their fate by an indifferent World, is indeed a debate, and it is a contention we must all invest in, if the lessons are to be learned.
Of course, much has become evidenced and altered our perception of History. Since The Holocaust rocked the very foundation of culture, civilisation and all historical meaning, a newer term was required and Genocide was given its title in The Holocaust. What appears hidden within the meanings and euphemisms issued for the collected Slaughter, for the wholesale Destruction and for The Holocaust of The Jews of Europe, whose 6,000,000 individual Jews were indeed affected, must not be allowed to diffuse the truth nor blur the fact of what happened to so many innocent Jewish People.
“..By resettling ..Jews out of ..European economic area to a yet to be determined territory. In ..framework of this ..5,800,000 Jews will be affected.” Adolf Eichmann.
So to that end, as we resource the need to always Remember and recall, and as we persist and insist that we never Forget, we must visit the Holocaust Memorial, Museum or Centre and know the duty owed by so many to these Jews of Europe. Visit YadVashem, USHHM, Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Anne Frank House, Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan or Beth Shalom in Nottingham, UK; and know that the worth of Humanity has been written in so much blood, its legacy touches us all. For the World of humanity, however, the clear lessons are there to be made and we should learn from them.
“..Murder of 6,000,000 Jews must never be reduced to a statistic.” Simon Wiesenthal.
Always to Remember, Never to Forget.
