“..poor people are being shipped off to filthy slaughterhouses like a herd of sick and neglected cattle. But I’ll say no more on ..subject. My own thoughts give me nightmares!” Anne Frank.
The Holocaust term is not benign, it is an horrendous indictment of all that human beings managed against the Jews of Europe. This fact alone should allow for the Jewish People to own the term and take back something of the intention which placed us as instigators of the most hideous crimes ever conceived. The atrocity is not merely in the detail but in the term of the ‘filthy slaughterhouse’ attributed to those innocent Human Beings, being sent ‘like a herd of sick and neglected cattle’ to be Slaughtered and all because of their Jewish antecedence. For what humanity descended to, in place of defending all life as sacrosanct, humanity is forever tainted. The systematic slaughter of a wholly innocent Jewish People allowed humanity to deliver the Jewish People toward an annihilation they did not deserve. There are 6,000,000 Murdered Jews who have had their erased voices squashed and their call for Justice has been forever quelled. These Jews have been Slaughtered and obliterated with little thought to their human integrity.
For us in History it becomes a human duty to raise our own voices, at least 6,000,000 times for and on behalf of these Murdered Jews! This for me, is so that History hears the plaintive cry of our own shock, horror and final despair at what we allowed to happen to these innocent Jewish People. Regardless of where we arrive at in History, 6,000,000 Jews of Europe will still have been destroyed during an acculturated period in civilisation. There might have been a quiet protest, but about what did we protest? And what effort was there collectively to attempt to even save more of these Jews from harm and destruction. What was actually achieved in protest? Who raised the loudest voice in condemning all that was happening to these Jewish People being destroyed as a part of our own Humanity? Nothing and no one will ever come along and change or alter the Fact that 6,000,000 Jews were ritually Slaughtered. So for the Jewish People, it is important that they retain the term of The Holocaust for what it means.
“..we must show them no mercy and no indulgence. This riffraff must be eliminated and destroyed.” Joseph Goebbels.
I am well aware that many Jews consider the term too closely linked to Religious practice, as a ‘burning sacrifice’ might suggest. But these Jews were sacrificed before the alter of human intolerance and were consumed by burning a hatred that was man made and identifiable as a hatred. So for me, while next to nothing was done on their behalf, least of all to save them from a final annihilation, the unprecedented nature of the assault cannot be altered by abandonment of The Holocaust term. So as we move through this October month in our History, and we go as far back as 1897 and on October 29th., to when Joseph Goebbels was born, the fate of World Jewry would become a myopic effort as to the contemplation, conduct and completion of their destruction. For what Hitler planned, Goebbels would formulate the rhetoric and propaganda capable of ensuring a final solution would be resolved.
That too applies to when, in 1900 on October 7th., Heinrich Himmler was born, as he was to forge a position of immense power as Reichsfuhrer SS in Hitler’s Reich. We know from all that has not be written in the glorious pages which Hitler removed from the audit of our History, that Himmler was the fundamental lynch pin in the destructive capacity which Hitler fully orchestrated. We can then look to 1929 and on October 25th., with ‘Black Friday’ signalling the Wall Street crash, as to speculation, which has been rife as to the impetus this gave to the rise of the far right and Hitler in particular. It is a certainty that when the ordinary people in the world face a crisis there is always someone there to make profit and take advantage and eventually find the scapegoat for ensuring the highest margin’s of that advantage is gained.
Hitler found to his immense surprise that capitalising point of reference was in seeking to marginalise the Jewish People. There were plenty of Hitler’s followers who already had that ingrained hatred for Judaism and its core values, and used every advantage to gain an upper hand over the Jewish People resident amongst them. As we arrive in 1933 and to October 14th., Hitler’s Germany leaves the League of Nations talks on unilateral disarmament and within a year Hitler will proceed to amass a military arsenal of immense capability. With a mechanised ability that would merely shrug aside those early resistance’s to what became a Blitzkrieg, industry moved rapidly into War, War production and a malaise for humanity. Within a week of the end of these talks, on October 21st., Hitler unratified an agreement and Germany fully withdrew its commitment to the peaceful intentions of the League of Nations.
By 1934, on October 1st., Hitler orders the secret expansion of his army, navy and the creation of an air force. All of these are in contravention of the Versailles Treaty which settled a peace after World War I. As 1935 approaches, the musings of Hitler are being deliberately pointed toward all manner of legislating aims and against individuals considered undesirable by Hitler and toward all that Hitler could stand for. On October 18th., with The German Law for Protection of the Hereditary Health of the German People, the Jewish People are faced with what is another piece of anti-Semitic and divisive legislation. In 1936 with the Mandatory oath of allegiance to Hitler taken by Criminal Court Judges in Berlin on October 1st., the Law of State and Constitution are seconded to a lesser consideration, Hitler’s power brokerage. The World moves a step closer to War as on October 25th., the Berlin Rome Axis Treaty is signed by both Hitler and the Italian Dictator, Benito Mussolini. A powerful statement of intention of 1937 is made on:
October 21st. Thursday “..returning Jewish emigrants will be sent to concentration camps.” SS Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler.
as the Jews of Germany are being restricted and more fully marginalised. That escalation is seen in 1938 when on October 5th., the dreaded ‘J’ stamp agreement which places this mark on all German Jewish Passports is realised. The idea came from Dr. Heinrich Rothmund, Chief of Police of the Swiss Federal Justice Ministry who had clearly recognised at the Evian Conference that all too few nations would assist the Jews in their hour of coming need. This ‘Badge of Honour’, for that is what it must be recognised as, as a symbol of the terrible purpose in identifying a People so as to speed along their quarterizing from the body of any community, is a racist symbol.
This racist precept, for Rothmund sought an easy way to identify all Jews he wished excluded from Switzerland, had a marked impression upon the supposed neutral stance and nature of Switzerland during the coming Catastrophe for 6,000,000 Jews. This piece of legislation will have significant and major ramifications for the identification of all Jews, the isolation of all Jewish Citizenry, wherever Hitler’s reign is augmented, and will lead toward a Final Solution with an ease so administered it was carried out judiciously. Clearly things are afoot and on October 6th. the Polish Government revokes all passports of its Jewish Citizens who have been resident outside of Poland for over 5 years. This virtually leaves those Polish Jews at the mercy of Hitler who now become Stateless and when Hitler moves against them, with no where else to go. These Jewish People are to be Annihilated. Within 3 weeks, on October 20th., as Czechoslovakia begins the persecution of its Jews, a semblance of some co-ordinated effort is closing in on the Jews of Europe.
On October 28th. Hitler’s Germany expels 17,000 Polish Jews to Poland’s border where 8,000 of these Jews are stranded at Zbaszyn. Not admitted by Poland and not allowed back into Germany they reside in a no man’s land. No protest here is heard and no action is taken by a World supposedly at odds with such intolerance. Speeding on from this action, on October 31st., expulsions of Jews has begun in Czechoslovakia. The following year, the beginning of World War II commences with Hitler’s Invasion of Poland, This is 1939 and within a month, on October 1st. German troops occupy Warsaw. Here, 350,000 Jews await their fate as Poland’s exiled Government is first set up in France before moving to more safe ground in Britain. The following day, on October 2nd. Warsaw surrenders to the German Army and two days later on October 4th. Hitler views Warsaw for himself.
On October 6th., in his Reichstag Speech, and buoyed by victory Hitler offers peace terms to Britain and France. Hitler’s clear intention though is to persist with his resolve of The Jewish Question, ‘der Judenfrage.’ On October 7th. Himmler is appointed Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood while a Lublin Jewish settlement is being proposed. The following day on October 8th. in Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland, this becomes the first Ghetto to be established and where 18,000 Jews are to be Enclosed. Zalman Tenenbaum was its Chairman. The signs grow more tense as a Pogrom is organised against the Jews of Lodz. On October 10th. the ‘Generalgouvernment’ in Poland is created and it will mark the escalating phase of Hitler’s Final Solution with the erection of all x6 Death Camps that Hitler will establish in Poland.
The escalation of Jewish deportations increase and on October 12th. there are Jewish deportations from Austria and Moravia toward Poland. This is the beginning of The Nisko Project, a proposed settlement for European Jews. Meanwhile Hitler decrees rigid steps to stem the movement of Polish Jewry as Hans Frank appointed Governor General Occupied Poland. There is a strong sense that while Britain rejects Hitler’s peace feeler’s, Stalin is lurching toward amelioration with his ideological adversary all the while ramping up the invective as he threatens Finland. On October 13th. Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, nearly 70 years old, becomes chairman of the Lodz Judenrate. Others involved on the Judenrate board of Lodz were Blemer, Greenberg, S. Jakobson, Naftalin, Leon Rosenblat and David Varshavsky. Their specific role is to annul the very specific Jewish doubt which senses with a keen logic that Jews are in some way being made wholly responsible for the fate of their fellow Jews.
As mid-October approaches, on 15th. Hitler settles his mind to ‘blitz’ the West as an SS unit commits the mass murders of those ‘mentally ill’ who have been the Piasnica’s detained, The road from Euthanasia is a tangled route and as energy and varying experts are brought to the forefront of what will translate into Hitler’s Death Camps in Poland, the proving ground is found in sanatoriums and other institutions. On October 16th. the Warsaw Ghetto is established and over 350,000 Warsaw Jews and other Jews from outlying regions are Enclosed, Incarcerated, Detained. Adam Czerniakow is their Chairman assisted in the Ghetto administration by Jakub Lejkin. Warsaw is just one of the 9 Major Ghettos to be Established for the concentration of European Jewry. Cracow, which has been a Jewish centre for over 700 years, is to be the capital of Hans Frank’s Generalgouvernment. Up to this point in time more than 11,000 Poles and 5,000 Jews have already been murdered, a foretaste of what is to come.
There has been this constant refusal by the German military to accept its responsibility, even culpability in The Holocaust. That position is untenable and is not sustainable for a multitude of reasons least of all being the participation in the atrocity’s committed by der Einsatzgruppe. For instance, and on October 17th., while Hitler indoctrinates his Wehrmacht Generals on the forthcoming solution of ‘The Jewish Problem’, Jews are being indiscriminately killed and the German Generals are being updated on this, on a regular basis. On October 19th. the Lublin Ghetto is established and 100,000 Jews are enclosed within its confines. Less than a week later on October 24th. Wloclawek Jews are required to wear the identifying Mogen Dawid, the ‘yellow badge.’ The coming days too will see Jews further identified, and identifiable, when on October 26th. the ‘J’ stamp of identification is placed on all Cards for all Polish Jews is adopted.
Hans Frank settles his seat of power in Cracow and the Generalgouvernment is established. Frank immediately issues a decree seizing all Jewish property and establishing a model for forced Labour. All Polish Men and Women, aged between 14 to 60 are enslaved under ordinance, ‘Arbeitspflicht und Zwangsarbeit.’ This defined Forced Labour conscription for those Poles who would purportedly receive ‘equitable’ pay for their effort. Meanwhile, those Jews so conscripted would have no pay provision for any of their enforced labour. Eichmann too has been busy as he sets in motion the ‘Nisko Reserve’ which seeks to resettle 78,000 Jews. On October 28th. the Piotrkow Ghetto is established and there are 28,000 Jews soon enclosed. The compulsory registration of all of Warsaw Jews now begins.
Saturday October 28th. 1939 “..We move along ..Earth like men condemned to death.” Chaim Kaplan.
On October 30th. Himmler plans to clear all Jews out of rural Poland in a 3 month period, concentrating them in the larger urban areas, close to rail lines, and transport exit points. The move toward the resettlement programme is under way. The West is fully appraised of the scale of anti-Jewish brutality and as Britain publishes its critical report of Nazi treatment of Concentration Camp inmates, the World looks on and does nothing of significance. The First Jewish Councils, these ‘Judenrate,’ are established in Jewish ghettos under Hans Frank’s direction. Hitler’s ‘physicians’ are now given charge of the ‘euthanasia’ program, the clear forerunner of The Death Camp process. We approached 1940 not fully realising what The Holocaust was about to become and on October 1st., as Jews are returned from Belzec Camp, after their Community pays a 20,000 Zloty ransom, the entire infrastructure of the work camps within Belzec and the nearby villages were in existence. Though Belzec as a Labour Camp was abandoned, the infrastructure remained and the return to Belzec will be a bloody milestone in the slaughter of perhaps more Jews than we have since been able to assess.
Tuesday October 1st. 1940. “..Today ..Jews had a happy day almost all ..came back. ..paid 20,000 Zloty for freeing them.” Zygmunt Klukowski.
On October 2nd. the Warsaw Ghetto is created and the wall to be built by and for the Jews is to be paid for by the Jews as it is their ‘detaining’ wall. On October 3rd. the Vichy Government passes anti-Semitic, ‘Statut des Juifs’ legislation and the following day, on October 4th., Vichy is empowered to imprison All Jews, including all of those not within its jurisdiction within the Unoccupied Zone. On October 7th. Bulgaria enacts its own Law for the Protection of the Nation. Then on October 12th. the quarantine area for the Jews is established as the Warsaw Ghetto as a whole, and 2 days later on October 14th., Poles are removed from the area to make way for Jews. On October 16th. Hans Frank constitutes the Warsaw Ghetto and by Decree replaces 80,000 Poles of Warsaw with a further 120,000 Jews, so expanding the Jewish population to 360,000 Jews in the Warsaw quarantine area.
With the arrival of October 20th. Operation Burckel moves quickly to remove German Jews to the French unoccupied border. With 7,500 German Jews now detained in the Gurs resettlement Camp, these Jews from Baden, the Palatinate and the Saar region are effectively stateless and awaiting their fate. On October 22nd. more than 10,000 refugee German Jews in France, from Alsace, Heidelberg, Mannheim and Speyer are also sent to Gurs and these will be further transported to Drancy, eventually finding themselves enroute to Auschwitz. Occupation authorities in Holland force Jewish businesses to be registered. Hans Frank’s directive now prohibits exit visas to Jews in Cracow from October 25th.
Friday October 25th. 1940. “..they will be driven into ..Warsaw ..ghetto forcibly. An official explanation says that Jewish homes are known to be breeding places of pestilence.” The Times.
Two days later on October 27th. Warsaw Jews are restricted to using ‘Jew buses,’ and the following day on October 28th., all Polish Jews are restricted to 55 containment areas. Elsewhere in Europe, Belgium passes its own anti-Semitic legislation and all Jewish property is subsequently registered. Mussolini’s Italy now invades Greece and 12,000 Greek Jews move to resist the Italian offensive. El Duce is not going to allow his junior Dictator Adolf Hitler dictate to him the level of achievement he seeks for his own Fascist cause.
“..4a in collaboration with Einsatzgruppe HQ ..two Kommandos ..police regiment South ..executed 33,771 Jews in Kiev on September 29th. and 30th. 1941.” OSR No. 101.
As 1941 arrives the further escalation of all ‘aktionen’ against the Jews of Europe is being realised. On October 2nd. 3,000 Vilna Jews are murdered in Ponary Woods while 2,236 Zagare Jewish Men, Women and Their Children are also murdered. Einsatzkommando 3 takes over in the Schaulen area from the Einsatzkommando ‘2’ of SS Sturmbannfuhrer Dr. Rudolf Lange. Lange’s expertise has become so renown, his place at the top table of The Wannsee Conference is assured. In France, the Gestapo, in collaboration with French extremists, set off explosions in several Paris Synagogue’s. Himmler has arrived in Kiev and we remain unsure as to whether he was a witness to what Blobel had accomplished at BabiYar, 2 days previously. On October 3rd. all Reich Jews are now detailed for Forced Labour
“..third day after ..execution ..taken back to ..execution area. ..a woman ..who had ..survived. ..was shot by ..SD man ..accompanying us. ..also ..someone waving ..from among ..pile of bodies. ..work began to cover up ..piles of bodies. ..ravine walls ..partly blown up. ..next few days .spent smoothing ..banknotes belonging to ..Jews that had been shot. ..millions.” Anton Heidborn. SK4a.
On October 4th. there is no let up in the killing as 1,983 Vilna Jewish Men, Women and Their Children are murdered. In Kovno 1,845 Jewish Men, Women and Their Children are also murdered at IX Fort and the Kovno Jewish Hospital is set on fire with all patients burned alive. SS Obergruppenfuhrer Heydrich holds a conference in which he relates to the assembled, what the future of Jewish deportations means. Rivalry exists between all Reich Arms, but Heydrich is perplexed by the continuing role of Alfred Rosenberg’s Ministry of Eastern Territories and seeks to assert his own authority placed upon him through Himmler by Hitler, on the matter of the Jews. The dissertation of all too many in History have sought to either relinquish Hitler’s hold on The Final Solution or deny his grasp on the fate of the 6,000,000 Murdered Jews. History will not allow for the distortion of the Truth which sees Hitler at the forefront of all he surveyed, portrayed and demanded. While his demands might well have been left to his minions to secure, nothing at this moment was actioned without Hitler’s specific knowledge.
“..Heydrich ..explained ..the Russian campaign was imminent ..partisan war was to be expected ..and ..Jews ..had to be exterminated through liquidation.” SS Standartenfuhrer Walter Blume.
On October 5th. Dr. Viktor Brack devises the poison gas program for Hitler’s resolution of ‘The Jewish Question.’ The direct correlation and position of Hitler in the manner of this final resolve has been affirmed. On October 6th. 1,000’s of Dvinsk Jews are removed and Murdered in the Pogulanka Forest while 962 Semiliski Jewish Men, Women and Their Children are also murdered.
Tuesday October 7th. 1941 “..apartments ..put at ..disposal of ..population. ..apartments ..available through liquidation ..36,000 Jews ..September 29 ..30 ..1941. ..Jews ..Kiev ..ordered to appear ..Monday ..September 29 by 6 o’clock. ..In co-operation ..HQ ..Einsatzgruppe C ..2 Kommandos ..police regiment South ..SK 4a executed 33,771 Jews ..September 29 ..30. ..Gold ..valuables ..linen ..clothing ..secured. army ..approved ..measures taken.” OSR No. 106.
On October 8th. the Vitebsk Ghetto is liquidated with over 16,000 of these Vitebsk Jews murdered. On October 9th. 3,726 Svenciany Jewish Men, Women and Their Children and murdered. As Friedrich Uebelhoer asks for clarity over the removal of 100,000 unproductive Lodz Jews, the place of Chelmno as a Death Camp within The Holocaust is to be assured. The deportation of the Jews from Southern Bucovina to the Transnistria area begins.
Thursday October 9th. 1941 “..Jews must be done away with one way or another.” Governor General Hans Frank.
October 10th. Heydrich holds a conference in Prague on the ‘resettlement’ of Reich Jews to Riga and Minsk, and one way or another The Jews will be done away with. At Theresienstadt, in Czechoslovakia, the ‘Terezin’ Ghetto is established and more than 140,000 Jews will pass through this Camp, come resettlement Ghetto, enroute toward Auschwitz. Theresienstadt is one of the Nine Major Ghetto’s to become Established for the containment of the Jews of Europe.
Friday October 10th. 1941 “..annihilation of revolts in hinterland which, as experience proves, have always been caused by Jews.” Field Marshal Walther von Reichenau.
Here, on October 10th., the authority of the Wehrmacht lends itself to the overall plan, and it is made abundantly clear here by Field Marshal von Reichenau, that the Jews, as those who cause revolts in the hinterland are to be annihilated. On October 11th. The New York Times reported that an estimated 15,000 Jews had already been murdered in Galicia, as 1,000’s of Jews from Edineti are murdered and the Czernowitz Ghetto is Established. On October 12th., the Bloody Sunday massacre of as many as 12,000 Jewish Men, Women and Their Children of Stanislawow takes place and 3,000 Sheparovtse Jews are similarly murdered. Shmuel Kruh, the Head of the Czortkow Judenrate is Murdered. On October 13th. 15,000 of Dnepropetrovsk’s Jews are murdered and on October 14th. the Deportation decree is enacted for all German Jews. The Deutsche Reichsbann, the German Railway, begins its deportation programme for the Jewish People.
With the emergence of ‘cattle wagons’ as a conveyance for human cargo, Resettlement East will find many of these transported Jews dead upon arrival at both Ghetto’s and Death Camps. Death comes in many forms from either Starvation, Thirst, Disease or from sheer Neglect. On October 15th. 9,000 Jews of Slonim are murdered and Hans Frank now issues a decree limiting further movement of Polish Jewry under sentence of Death. All of these Jews are to be restricted to their residences. Meanwhile der Einsatzgruppe’s ‘aktionen’ continues apace and SS Brigadefuhrer Franz Walter Stahlecker adds a further dimension to his previous memorandum of August 6th. on the scale of his own operational demands.
Wednesday October 15th. 1941 “..Extensive executions in the cities and flatlands were therefore carried out through special units.” SS Brigadefuhrer Franz Walter Stahlecker.
To prove the point, on October 16th. 5,000 Dnepropetrovsk Jews are murdered as are 1,865 Ukrainian Jewish Men, Women and Their Children who were murdered at Lubny. 1,146 Vilna Jewish Men, Women and Their Children are murdered as the first deportation of Western Jews, 1,000 of Prague’s Jews, are deported to the Lodz Ghetto with a limit set of 20,000 Protectorate Jews to be displaced toward Lodz. The remainder of the Protectorate’s Jews will be ‘resettled’ to Riga and Minsk with immediate Einsatz ‘aktionen’ upon arrival there. This coincides with the first deportation of Western Jews to the Lublin Ghetto and the first deportation of Western Jews to the Warsaw Ghetto as Austrian, Czechoslovakian and Luxembourg Jews are also deported toward the Lodz Ghetto. On October 17th., and over an extended 19 day period in Minsk, and its environs, Einsatzkommando ‘3’ acted against the following communities of Bischolin, Bober, Pleschnitza, Scak and Uzda and murdered over 3,031 Jewish Men, Women and Their Children.
“..Already some months ago ..I shot dead all ..Jews I could get my hands on in this area ..concentrated all ..Jewish women and children in a camp and with ..help of ..SD got my hands on ..delousing van that in about 14 to 28 days ..will have brought about ..definitive clearing out of ..camp ..arrival of Meyssner and ..turning over of this camp to him ..was continued by him. ..time is come in which ..Jewish officers to be found in prisoner of war camps under ..Geneva Convention find out against our will about their no longer existing kinfolk and that could easily lead to complications.” SS Brigadefuhrer Harald Turner.
What Turner was clearly referring to was the aktionen taken, and with the use of ‘Gassing Vans’, these delousing vans, before he removed himself to the reprisal action being conducted in Serbia against the Jews there. What was to be an understanding of the very tenets of The Final Solution, as conveyed in areas operational under Einsatz 3 meant the total destruction of the Jewish People. This destruction, there in Chelmno, and where ever the Reich killing machine became operational was formed in the mind of Hitler and carried to fruition by many he clearly influenced. On October 19th. there was to be a collaboration between the German Foreign Office and Belgrade in the Ghetto massacres there. On October 20th. 8,000 Jews from Boris were murdered in a 3 day operation as the first deportations from the Reich to Lodz is decreed. On October 21st. 2,367 Vilna Jewish Men, Women and Their Children are murdered along with 1,500 of the Jews of Koidanov.
Hitler now declares that his actions in coming days, while they were so secret, the Generals would not be placed in a position to know immediately. On October 23rd. 1,000’s of Kragujevac’s Jews are murdered and the reprisal Murders of 1,000’s of Ukrainian and Bessarabian Jews in Odessa, for the supposed destruction of Romanian Commandant’s HQ are conducted. The Jews of the Greater Reich are refused emigration as Hitler talks about the extermination of the Jewish plague and this is reported in Hitler’s lurid news media.
“..Jewish vermin would be exterminated.” der Sturmer.
October 24th. 20,000 Jews are deported to Dalnik and on October 25th. 48,000 Odessa Jews are murdered in 3 day action. Meanwhile, 2,578 Vilna Jewish Men, Women and Their Children are murdered and the Riga Ghetto is sealed. There is a Jewish Ghetto revolt at Tatarsk, which is crushed and all Jews are murdered. Eichmann approves the use of Mobile Gassing Vans. A Letter from Alfred Wetzel, of Rosenberg’s Ministry to Heinrich Lohse, Reich Commissar, confirms the fact that Victor Brack had received Eichmann’s endorsement for use of ‘gassing vans.’ This places Hitler again, as he declares to both Himmler and Heydrich that he is preceded by a reputation for the extermination of the Jews, at the forefront of The Final Solution.
“..This criminal race has ..two million dead of World War I on their conscience ..and now hundreds of thousands. Let no one say to me ..we cannot send them into ..mire. Who concerns themselves about our men. It is good if preceding us is ..terror that we are exterminating ..Jews. ..attempt to found a Jewish state will fail.” Adolf Hitler.
October 26th. The New York Times carries the story of the massacre of Jews of Kiev and it is these 33,771 Jews of Kiev who have been murdered at Babi-Yar. October 27th. 1,203 Vilna Jewish Men, Women and Their Children are murdered while the Jewish Elderly of Kalisz are murdered in ‘gassing van.’ The Vatican representative to Slovakia, Monsignor Giuseppe Burzio, reports back on the Slaughter of Jews in Russia to the Papal Secretary of State, Cardinal Luigi Maglione. This report is on the Slaughter of Jewish Men, Women and Their Children, and while History seeks to draw a line under Papal assistance for all Jews in The Holocaust, the stillness of that silence is disquieting. On October 28th., over 9,000 of Kovno’s Jews are murdered at IX Fort during the big ‘Aktion,’ almost half of them are Children. 2,000 of Lachowicze’s Jews are murdered.
Dr. Eduard Wetzel proposes gassing camps for Minsk and Riga. Eventually, gassings will be conducted in Camps including Dachau, Neuengamme, Ravensbrueck, Sachsenhausen and Stutthof. Along with the gassing facility’s of the x6 Death Camps Hitler had established in Poland, Auschwitz/Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka, the Jews of Europe will pay an exorbitant and extortionate price with their lives. On October 29th., 9,200 Kovno Ghetto Jewish Men, Women and Their Children are murdered at Fort IX.
“..mopping up of superfluous ghetto Jews.” SS Standartenfuhrer Karl Jaeger.
Jaeger has been busy of the previous weeks and in the coming days he will ordinance a report which will detail for Hitler’s perusal, the destruction of more than 137,000 Jewish lives in and around Lithuania. With all the perfunctory of an accountant The Jaeger Report details precisely what Hitler had clearly demanded and what perpetrators like Jaeger disposed of on Hitler’s behalf. On October 30th. 4,000 Nesvizh Jews are murdered as are 1,553 Vilna Jewish Men, Women and Their Children. The first of Bratislava’s Jews are deported. SS Untersturmfuhrer Gottfried Schwarz and SS Oberscharfuhrer Josef Oberhauser were the first SS men to arrive in Belzec as Staff from the T4 Euthanasia programme arrive in Lublin to install and operate the 3 ‘Aktion Reinhard’ Death Camps at Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka. On October 31st. 4,000 of Kleck’s Jews are murdered.
As we reach 1942 there is no let up for the Jews of Europe as on October 1st. 10,000 of Lubomil’s Jews are murdered. Also, there are 4,000 Lukow Jews murdered at Treblinka. On the following day October 2nd., 11,000 of Bielsk Podlaski’s Jews are murdered as are 4,000 Sobienne Jeziory’s Jews who are murdered at Treblinka along with 3,900 of Radzymin’s Jews. Over 1,000 Dutch Jews are murdered at Birkenau. On October 3rd. Warsaw was fast approaching a murderous milestone as 310,000 of Warsaw’s Jews have already been murdered at Treblinka. 4,500 of Kolomyja’s Jews are murdered at Belzec and 3,000 of Wislica’s Jews are murdered at Treblinka. On October 4th. 2,400 of Wolomin’s Jews are murdered at Treblinka alongside 1,000 of Ludwisin’s Jews. It has now been decided that all German Concentration Camps are to expel all Jews toward Auschwitz.
“..beginning of October 1942. In two and a half months ..in one district ..Nazis had committed 300,000 murders.” Jan Karski.
On October 5th. 40,000 of Czestochowa’s Jews have been murdered in Treblinka in under two weeks. Meanwhile over 2,000 Dutch Jews are murdered Birkenau while 600 Jewish Women from Ravensbrueck reach Birkenau. 1,000 of Theresienstadt Jews are expelled to Auschwitz and 500 Jews of Czortkow are resettled to Belzec. The Jewish Telegraphic agency announces the removal of Jews from Lodz to Chelmno where they are ‘gassed’. The following day October 6th. some 6,000 of Miedzyrzec’s Jews are murdered at Treblinka alongside 1,200 of Biala Podlaska’s Jews.
Wednesday October 7th. 1942. “..elimination of ..Jews ..with mass killings ..almost complete ..without regard for children even if they are nursing. ..over 2,000,000 Jews have been killed.” Abbot Pirro Scavizzi.
On October 7th. 2,000 of Lagow’s Jews are murdered at Treblinka alongside 1,600 of Koniecpol’s Jews. On October 8th. 1,000 more of Theresienstadt’s Jews are sent to Auschwitz. The Czechoslovakian Ghetto has become the way station to Auschwitz and though supposedly privileged, the Jews there are lulled further into a false sense of security. On October 9th., over 1,700 Dutch Jews are murdered in Birkenau and more than 13,000 Viennese Jews have been deported to Theresienstadt.
Friday, 9th. October 1942 “..We assume that most of them are murdered. ..British radio speaks of their being gassed.” Anne Frank.
On October 10th. over 3,000 Belgian Jews are deported to Auschwitz in a 2 week period and on October 11th. 11,000 of Ostrowiec’s Jews are murdered at Treblinka. On
October 12th. 14,000 of Radomsko’s Jews are murdered at Treblinka in a 2 day period and over 1,700 Dutch Jews are murdered in Birkenau. On October 13th. the Piotrkow Trybunalski Ghetto is Liquidated. On October 14th. 4,000 of Kobryn’s Jews are murdered leading to a total of over 10,070 Jews of Kobryn who would be eventually murdered. Meanwhile the Jews in Holland have virtually become outlawed. On October 15th. 25,000 of Brest-Litovsk’s Jews are murdered after stiff Resistance. 5,000 of Zawichost’s Jews are murdered at Belzec and over 1,900 Jews from Theresienstadt are sent to Auschwitz. In Izbica Lubelska, a ‘black day’ descends on the Jewish Community as some 6,000 to 10,000 of her Jews are removed to Sobibor.
Thursday October 15th. 1942 “..camp ..located near ..town ..Belzec ..well known all over Poland from ..tales of horror ..circulated about it.” Jan Karski.
As Karski relays here the horror that is emitted from within Belzec, it is clear that much of what the West is soon to know more of, Poland has known more immediately. On October 17th. 1,600 Jews from Buczacz are sent to Belzec and murdered there while more than 300 of the Buczacz’s Jews are Murdered in situ, in this, the First Aktion. 10,000 Jews in Buchenwald are deported to Auschwitz and there are over 4,000 Jews in Sachsenhausen who are removed to Auschwitz.
“..About 2,000 Jewish Men ..Women ..Children murdered in ..first aktion. ..shot ..buried in a mass grave on ..Fedor Hill [Buczacz??] Some ..buried in ..Jewish cemetery.” Alicia Appleman-Jurman.
On October 18th. Hitler issues his Commando Order, ‘Kommandobefehl,’ which sanctions the immediate execution of ALL Allied Special Forces as a provision of War and as the Gestapo secures jurisdiction over all Jews within the Reich. On October 19th. over 1,900 Jews from Theresienstadt are sent to Auschwitz. On October 20th. 12,000 Jews at Bar are murdered and on October 21st. 22,000 of Piotrkow Trybunalski’s Jews are murdered at Treblinka in a 6 day operation. On October 22nd. over 2,000 of Theresienstadt’s Jews are resettled to Auschwitz while in Sachsenhausen an Uprising of Jewish inmates is staged. On October 25th. 400 of Oszmiana’s Jews are murdered and over 200 of Oslo’s Jews are deported to Auschwitz. On October 26th. over 1,800 of Theresienstadt’s Jews are sent to Auschwitz while all Male Norwegian Jews are being deported to Auschwitz. On October 27th. 3,000 of Opoczno’s Jews are murdered in Treblinka. On October 28th. 10,000 of Pinsk’s Jews are murdered and the Large Cracow ‘aktion’ sees over 5,000 Jews murdered at Belzec. A further 600 of Cracow’s Jews are murdered in the Ghetto. Over 50 Polish Ghettos are now recognised by decree.
Wednesday October 28th. 1942 “..We are helpless in ..face of ..German criminals. Germans are not trying to enslave us as they have other people ..we are being systematically murdered. Our entire people will be destroyed.” Jan Karski.
Jan Karski was uniquely placed to deliver to the World, the truth of Hitler’s attempt to destroy all Jews in Europe. He met with representatives of Jewish bodies in the Warsaw Ghetto, before exploring the horrors of the Izbica Camp and possibly the Belzec Death Camp. He met with Leon Feiner, of the Bundist’s and Adolf Berman of the Zionist’s, though history suggests the Zionist representative to be either Menachem Kirschenbaum or Arie Wilner. Karski does not mention these two Jewish delegates by name, no doubt in fear of perhaps one day the mentioning betraying them, or simply that the representatives themselves chose anonymity over the immediate fate that awaited them? Karski now begins his mission to notify the world of the evidence that has been understood, witnessed and accumulated already within Poland and the World. On October 29th., after some Resistance, over 3,000 of Sandomierz’s Jews are murdered at Belzec. Meanwhile 6,000 of Pinsk’s Jews have been murdered and Pinsk is declared ‘Judenrein.’ On October 30th. over 4,500 Dutch Jews are deported to Auschwitz in 2 week exercise and the following day, on October 31st., over 1,600 Belgian Jews are sent to Auschwitz.
As we enter into 1943 and reach October 1st., 400 Danish Jews are deported to Theresienstadt. The following day, October 2nd., it is a recognisable fact that Danish Jewry has been largely saved from Hitler, and though 475 Jews are caught, there is a sense that humanity has been saved in some small way. On October 3rd. Dutch Jewish Families are deported to Westerbork while the Moscow Declaration states that all German Officers and Nazi Officials are to be returned to where their place of atrocity and crimes are committed. On October 4th. Sonderkommando ‘1005’ operations in Mogilev have commenced and Himmler delivered his Posen (Poznan) Speech.
Monday October 4th. 1943 “..What we accomplish in our armaments factories ..even though it will only be at ..end of ..war when we can first assess it ..prove it ..will be a remarkable and noteworthy accomplishment. I want to also mention a very difficult subject ..before you ..with complete candour. It should be discussed amongst us ..yet nevertheless ..we will never speak about it in public. Just as we did not hesitate on June 30th. to carry out our duty as ordered ..and stand comrades who had failed against ..wall and shoot them ..about which we have never spoken ..and never will speak. That was ..thank God ..a kind of tact natural to us ..a foregone conclusion of that tact ..that we have never conversed about it amongst ourselves ..never spoken about it ..everyone ..shuddered ..and everyone was clear that ..next time ..he would do ..same thing again ..if it were commanded and necessary. I am talking about ..evacuation of ..Jews ..extermination of ..Jewish people. ..It is one of those things that is easily said. ..Jewish people is being exterminated[ ..every Party member will tell you ..perfectly clear ..it’s part of our plans ..we’re eliminating ..Jews ..exterminating them ..a small matter. And then along they all come ..all ..80 million upright Germans ..and each one has his decent Jew. They say ..all ..others are swine ..but here is a first-class Jew. And none of them has seen it ..has endured it. Most of you will know what it means when 100 bodies lie together ..when 500 are there or when there are 1000. And ..to have seen this through and ..with ..exception of human weakness ..to have remained decent ..has made us hard and is a page of glory never mentioned and never to be mentioned. Because we know how difficult things would be ..if today in every city during ..bomb attacks ..burdens of war and ..privations ..we still had Jews as secret saboteurs ..agitators and instigators. We would probably be at ..same stage ..if ..Jews still resided in ..body of ..German people. We have taken away ..riches that they had ..and ..I have given a strict order ..which Obergruppenfuhrer Pohl has carried out ..we have delivered these riches to ..Reich ..to ..State. We have taken nothing from them for ourselves. A few ..who have offended against this ..will be judged in accordance with an order ..that I gave at ..beginning ..he who takes even one Mark of this is a dead man. A number of SS men have offended against this order. They are very few ..and they will be dead men without mercy. We have ..moral right ..we had ..duty to our people to do it ..to kill this people who would kill us. We however do not have ..right to enrich ourselves with even one fur ..with one Mark ..with one cigarette ..with one watch ..with anything. That we do not have. Because we don’t want ..at ..end of all this ..to get sick and die from ..same bacillus that we have exterminated. I will never see it happen that even one bit of putrefaction comes in contact with us ..or takes root in us. On ..contrary ..where it might try to take root ..we will burn it out together. But altogether we can say ..have carried out this most difficult task for ..love of our people. And we have suffered no defect within us ..in our soul ..or in our character.” Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler.
Then on October 5th. 77 Jews of Theresienstadt are murdered while two days later on October 7th. 1,000 Parisian Jews are resettled from Drancy to Auschwitz. The following day, October 8th. a further 1,000 Parisian Jews are entrained from Drancy to destruction at Auschwitz. On October 13th. Italy declares war on Germany and while some 15,000 Italian Jews were murdered, many more are in a precarious position. On October 14th. the Uprising at Sobibor commences and while Sobibor ceases its operations it is not before History realises that somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000 Jews had been murdered at this Aktion Reinhard Death Camp. Susan Zuccotti wrote a tremendous Book based on the devastating position for the Jews in Italy.
Firstly, under Mussolini’s rule and then, once Hitler had ordered the Invasion of the former Axis conspirator, once SS Obersturmbannfuhrer Herbert Kappler came bearing down. The title of her Book, Under his very Windows, is an apt illustration of both the silence and the inactivity of Pope Pius XII. For certain, on October 16th. when over 1,000 Jews of Rome are deported to Auschwitz, and while more than 4,200 of Rome’s Jews are hidden in the Churches, Convents and Monasteries within Rome itself, the Pope could not reasonably assess this as a position he should not speak of. For Catholic Historian’s seeking to make headway in the search for some understanding of the Church’s position, this Book is a compelling read.
“..God requires this protest from us ..God who does not allow murder. It is required of a Catholic conscience. Each being ..calling itself human ..has a right to brotherly love. ..blood of ..innocent calls for vengeance to ..heavens. He ..who does not support this protest is not Catholic.” Zofia Kossak Szczucka.
For Jewish Historian’s who seek a similar resolve, Zuccotti’s Book will only add to the accusation of abandonment which 6,000,000 Jews of Europe faced and were subsequently destroyed by. On October 19th., as SS Gruppenfuhrer Odilo Globocnik announces an end to ‘Aktion Reinhard,’ his SS Camp personnel from Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka move to anti-Partisan actions in the Adriatic area as over 1,000 Dutch Jews are fed through to Auschwitz. On October 21st. the Minsk Ghetto is being Liquidated and a further 2,000 Jews are murdered there.
Saturday October 23rd. 1943 “..We are subordinate exclusively and directly to ..Fuhrer. In ..General Government ..Administration has ..same functions as ..Reich government and ..other Reich offices have in ..Reich proper. We have legislative authority for this region. Police and security forces are subordinate to ..Governor General.” Governor General Hans Frank.
On October 25th., as the Russians retake Dnepropetrovsk it is the duty for history we should remember, that over 50,000 Jews have been murdered here. Of the total Jewish Community of Dnepropetrovsk, barely 15 of its Jewish Citizens Survive. Elsewhere, 2,000 of Lvov’s Jews are murdered at the Janowska Camp and 1,700 retained Belsen Jews are deported toward Auschwitz. On October 26th. 3,000 of Kovno’s Jews are murdered at the Klooga Camp.
Tuesday October 26th. 1943. “..policy which I was determined from ..start to maintain in this region is sanctioned by ..Fuhrer ..he is ..only one to whom we are answerable. No one else has ..right to give us orders in any way ..shape or form.” Governor General Hans Frank.
On October 27th. SS Gruppenfuhrer Odilo Globocnik produces a report which shows the full scale of Operation Reinhard, which he commands! On October 30th. the Moscow Conference ends with a Declaration of intent which is to be drawn up and seeks to pursue ALL War Criminals. As we arrive in 1944 and on October 7th. we are met with a Jewish ‘Sonderkommando’ Uprising that takes place at Crematorium IV in Auschwitz/Birkenau. The Uprising is immediately crushed and few escape the punitive response of the SS personnel there. On October 15th. Admiral Horthy announces his Country’s surrender and as Hitler installs a Hungarian ‘puppet’ Government, the Jewish Deportations resume. On October 20th. Polish nationals attack and murder Jewish Survivors. On October 31st. 14,000 Slovakian Jews are transported to Auschwitz and the Plaszow Camp Survivors are deported to Auschwitz.This is but a snap cross section of the month of October as it relates to the Jewish struggle for Survival in the midst of the most heinous, unprecedented and unparalleled annihilation of a people ever invoked in History.
