“..All ..people buried ..had been in ..ghetto ..seemed to come to life. ..cemetery wall had been destroyed ..to break down ..division between ..two worlds of life and death. ..walked back through ..ruins of ..ghetto. My footprints ..in ..snow ..they were ..only ones.” Michael Zylberberg.
Act I
The Hitler letter written to Herr Gemlich in 1919.
Act II
A conversation between Hitler and the journalist Josef Hell in 1922.
Act III
Hitler gains power in 1932
Act IV
Hitler’s Racist Nuremberg Laws in 1935 are passed defining the biological detail for Jews as a race.
Act V
Hitler recognises an indifferent World will not move to assist the Jews in 1938.
Act VI
Hitler escalates his hatred in 1938 with Death and Destruction.
Act VII
Hitler in 1938 hands Goering charge of die Endlosung der Judenfrage, The Final Solution of The Jewish Question.
Act VIII
Hitler’s World War in 1939 sets the precedent murderous tempo of his operation of The Final Solution into the field.
Act IX
Hitler in 1941 has brought to bear all that he prophesised for the Jewish People and their eradication in an annihilation. with the killing operation at the Chelmno Death Camp, the first of his 6 Death Camps in Poland
Act X
Hitler in 1945, with all that he had sought now crumbling around him, a lasting legacy of hatred for the Jewish People endures.
“..That was mere foreplay. Where they have burned books ..they will end in burning human beings.” (Das war Vorspiel nur. Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen.) Heinrich Heine.
Back in 1821 it could never have been imagined that such would be the state of any cultured civilisation that Books would be burned on the streets of Germany in the 20th. Century. Less comprehensible would be Heinrich Heine’s assertion that the criteria that would be established on the Unter den Linden and then across so many campus’s of Germany with the burning of Books, that this could eventually lead to the Annihilation of the Jewish People. While this Book burning would clearly lead to Auschwitz, Chelmno, Belzec, Birkenau, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka, where Jewish bodies were cremated in a bloody purge, the incremental stages were delivered by Hitler. The aftermath however, has demanded of history an understanding of how 6,000,000 Jews of Europe could have been laid to waste.
“..So many times I have tried to write but somehow ..my hands could never find ..strength. .who knows whether there will be a single witness left of this disaster.” Rachel Auerbach.
Of course the World simply cannot allow for a part of History to admonish any single one of the 6,000,000 Jews whose core belief in the culture of civilisation betrayed them. While the World stood idly by, 6,000,000 People were submitted to the most outrageous of crimes imaginable, and before they were singularly selected for extermination, simply because they were Jews, they witnessed the disintegration of civilisation. Of course, as Rachel Auerbach offers, and so many others afforded us, what we now have as a less entrenched view, is our need for the very deep rooted essential preservation of their Jewish past. For the sake of the World entire, and for its future to mend, that resolve is much more eminent than Hitler clearly expected would be the outcome after The Final Solution.
“..You may also wonder why 8,000 people did not fight ..Nazi’s. But ..100 men ..with machine guns are more powerful than an unarmed crowd. ..young ones would have tried to escape ..but refused to abandon their parents ..they knew it would mean ..death of ..older people ..and how was it possible to leave behind ..helpless little brothers ..sisters without support.” Aizik Rottenberg.
While it is difficult, in terms of what the Slaughter of 6,000,000 Jews must present to human civilisation, in any meaningful way of an understanding of the desolation this caused, incredulity reigns. The idea that there can be any resurrection of anything approaching positivity however, is always evidenced in the memory brought forth by those who Survived the evil they encountered. In terms of Survivors, and there is an emergence of what might have been so lost of Jewish Culture and Literary greatness, we have examples of great heroism mixed and fused to this effort. The delivery of so much that is evidential, and by so many who ensured that the presentation out of the crucible of shocking brutality, gives us more than a modicum of what informs us of what Jewish antecedence remains for those willing to know.
“..After my Mother was Murdered ..I was deported together with my Father to Transnistria. We have spent many weeks on a penal trek of sorts. For days we have been slogging along roads deep in mud ..a lengthy convoy surrounded by Romanian and Ukrainian soldiers who flog and shoot at us. Father holds my hand tight ..my feet no longer touch ..ground. ..sound of ..water slices at my legs and my hips. It’s dark all around ..apart from Father’s hand I don’t feel a thing. Truth to tell ..I don’t feel his hand either ..since my hand is already partly numb. If I move just a little I’ll surely drown. Even Father won’t be able to pull me out. Lots of Children have already drowned this way. I fall asleep ..still clutching his hand. But not for long. While the sky is still dark ..soldiers light up ..convoy with sniping and gunfire. Father holds my hand and tugs me. ..mud is deep and I can’t feel ..bottom. I’m still half asleep and tremendously afraid. It hurts. I call out. Father hears my call and answers at once.” Aharon Appelfeld.
These are my words here, but given the emergence of what Oyneg Shabes presents and what YIVO brought forth from the desolation of The Holocaust, what we have is a further continuance of Hitler’s abject failure. Of course that end result, and though acutely measured in Human terms whose margins extend 6,000,000 fold, there is a literary achievement that is promoted by so many Jews in these direst times. That this is a recorded triumph we have to look to both Yitskhak Leib Peretz in Vilna and Emanuel Ringelblum in Warsaw, for what has been secured for posterity. Their effort is an abundance of Testimony, and while it falls short of the fuller manifestation of what these Jewish People could have delivered, should all these 6,000,000 Jews have Survived speaks volumes for what has emerged.
“..Without Hebrew ..folk has no past. Without Yiddish we have no folk.” Yitskhak Leib Peretz.
In such words as Peretz delivers, we are lead on a charge toward gathering Chronicles, Letters, Diaries, Words and observations of a vanquished Jewish daily life that has all but vanished. Here, I am reminded that Raul Hilberg signified that the entirety of The Holocaust belongs to the presence of Hitler in the 20th. Century, and I do not contest that very truth. It is evident to me that every word, with each syllable of hatred directed against the Jewish People, all was fostered by Hitler and engineered and hatefully constructed by Hitler. Also, and along with all the evidences of words of what was thought destroyed, by a homicidal intention created in Hitler’s fetid mind, for some of what emerged and might still re-emerge, all confronts Hitler’s clear intention for the dismissal and suppression of all Jewish antecedence.
“..first and foremost perpetrator was Adolf Hitler. ..without him it would have been inconceivable.” Raul Hilberg.
Of course the confluence and convergence of events within The Holocaust ensures there is not a Day, Date, Month nor Moment that will not be presented. What this manages, in binding Hitler to the greatest Catastrophe to strike and effect all of Human Civilisation, is an accusation which some in history cheapen with ameliorating Hitler’s obvious hatred for the Jewish People. During the period of the very catastrophe that will be presented there are sways and emergences of tacit agreement by World powers with what was focused upon those Jews being abused and finally destroyed. While this certainty is being contended by those who seek to expunge human guilt from the atrocity it sought not to prevent, I restate their position with an accusation that will not be removed by demand as will Hitler’s resolve.
“..I know. ..never in ..history of mankind ..never anywhere in ..realm of human relations did anything occur to compare with what was inflicted on ..Jewish population of Poland.” Jan Karski.
What then comes together, to broaden out the vista of all measures raged against the Jewish People of Europe is the most panoramic view of the destruction of a People. While this was borne to fruition due to a Jewish antecedence that has persisted, we neither neglect nor doubt that many other’s succumbed to the wildness of Hitler’s hatreds. But, and seemingly so, the very assault ranged and then raged upon the integrity of 6,000,000 Jewish lives is to remain so overwhelming, it is The Holocaust. That this precedent is hardly perceived as a consequence to history, we simply install the truths linking Hitler to only the Jews as his eventual victims in order to do so. In stages from Act I to Act X, and from his failed suicide and eventual death at the hands of his SS, we recognise an all consuming bitter hatred that consumed Hitler’s every waking moment.
“..Once I really am in power ..my first ..foremost task will be ..annihilation of ..Jews. As soon as I have ..power to do so ..I will have gallows built in rows ..at ..Marienplatz in Munich ..as many as traffic allows. ..Jews will be hanged indiscriminately ..they will remain hanging until they stink ..they will hang there as long as ..principles of hygiene permit. As soon as they have been untied ..next batch will be strung up ..and so on down ..line ..until ..last Jew in Munich has been exterminated. Other cities will follow suit ..precisely in this fashion ..until all Germany has been ..cleansed of Jews.” Adolf Hitler.
How that hatred then emerges, and for the purposes of accuracy, I will list such events that fully reflect the appalling atrocity of Hitler that goes on to meet genocidally with the Jews of Europe. In that essential to gather this evidence of Hitler’s fuller place in The Holocaust, we recognise the approaching period of murderous intent which must commence with Hitler’s rise to power. Hitler’s grasp upon a dictatorship grown out of his Chancellorship and until he was finally confirmed dead as Fuhrer, Hitler set about the destruction of as many Jews as were presented to him. While there are two significant dates prior to this however, when Hitler clearly presents to the World his expressed and vocal hatred, not only is his intention to deal a deadly blow to the Jewish presence within Europe odious, it is obvious.
“..I walk in Auschwitz ..in ..tracks of ..abandoned shoes ..of ..extracted teeth ..of ..cut off hair ..of ..misplaced baggage in order to find ..last moments of my family ..The Schneider Family.” Yossi Sarid.
Hitler though would establish a machinery of destruction, and of such inordinate brutality, that the World had to come up with suitable terms to recognise the uniquely unprecedented nature of it. Of course, the invention of Auschwitz, Birkenau, the Death Camp system and The Holocaust term itself is brought to focus to more define what the emergence of The Final Solution of The Jewish Question would mean. In a series of vocal, written and detailed 10 Acts, as I have defined them, Hitler will deliver from the words of his hatred for the Jewish People toward their isolation from the World and their condemnation from life itself.
Firstly, let us turn to the letter Hitler wrote to Herr Gemlich in 1919 as Act I, which proved Hitler’s sheer hatred for the Jewish People had been confirmed.
“..Herr Gemlich ..deduction ..is ..an antisemitism based on purely emotional grounds will find its ultimate expression in ..form of ..pogrom. ..antisemitism based on reason ..must lead to systematic legal combating and elimination of ..privileges of ..Jews. ..ultimate objective ..irrevocable removal of ..Jews in general.” Adolf Hitler.
Here too, Hitler had given notice to those who might not yet prove concerned that he would always be a leader with a hatred for the Jewish People, and which was way beyond all of his other hatreds, that hatred would direct him. Then with this partial conversation Hitler had with the journalist Josef Hell in 1922, Act II is availing itself to us, and clearly this expands the rhetoric of hatred into a programme of design which will deliver the Jews to the gallows along the Marienplatz in Munich. Then, when in 1931 The Munich Post picked up on what appeared to be a definite resolve to confronting the civilised World with the Jewish Question, endlosung became a word which pronounced a deadlier fate for all the Jews in Germany than had been considered.
“..Once I really am in power ..my first and foremost task will be ..annihilation of ..Jews. As soon as I have ..power to do so ..I will have gallows built in rows ..at ..Marienplatz in Munich.” Adolf Hitler.
But clearly, history demands that though All Jews Were Victims, not all victims were Jews and as such, many other’s suffered the consequences of Hitler’s rage. For the Jewish People though, not only was Hitler’s hatred just for these resulting 6,000,000 Murdered Jews, when the time was ripe and it came along, there would be a confrontation with the Jews of all of Europe and eventually with the entirety of World Jewry. When the study of the period looks for those who might have stood taller, who refused to bend to the dictat of Hitler’s Judeocide, we might well have been counting far more decent Germans than are to be recognised. So we are arriving at the gates of a powerful enactment that would blight civilisations passage through time and cast a darker shadow over History than any event has produced in all of time.
“..If there were only one decent German ..then he should be cherished despite that whole barbaric gang ..and because of that one decent German it is wrong to pour hatred over an entire people.” Etty Hillesum.
1932
The Formative period of Hitler’s rise toward power recognises the connivance of his methods and it is written with a tendency to lie his way through to ultimate power. Here we have the establishment of Act III as Hitler assumes the power necessary to deliver his written hatred and commits it toward an orchestrated endeavour at annihilating all the Jews he could.
“..I can remember ..as early as 1932 ..Storm Troopers came marching by singing when Jewish blood splatters from ..knife.” Otto Frank.
Thursday February 25th. 1932 “..Now I have them in my pocket! They have recognised me as a partner in their negotiations.” Adolf Hitler.
1933
“..When in ..early days of 1933 ..first civil servant wrote ..first definition of non-Aryan ..fate of European Jewry was sealed.” Raul Hilberg.
On January 29th. a pastoral letter of Austrian Bishop Johannes Gfollner of Linz states that it is the duty of all Catholics to adopt a ‘moral form of anti-Semitism,’ while Bishop von Preysing suggested Hitler was a deep contaminant in the life of the German people.
Sunday January 29th. 1933 “..we have fallen into ..hands of criminals and fools.” Bishop Konrad von Preysing.
Saturday April 1st. 1933 “..concerned with questions about Catholic schools ..organizations and sterilization which are more important for ..Church in Germany than ..Jews ..Jews can help themselves ..why should ..Jews expect help from ..Church.” Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber.
On April 26th. Hitler meets with the Bishop of Osnabruck, Wilhelm Berning and Monsignor Steinmann of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany. Hitler explains that his was only the continuance of what the Church’s own 1,900 year policy toward the Jews had been. Hitler reminds the Church that it was they who had regarded the Jewish People as dangerous and it was the church which had forced them into ghettos and away from Christian areas. The Church describes this meeting as ‘cordial and to the point.’
Wednesday April 26th. 1933 “..Berlin’s nationalist student body will begin making ceremonial holocausts of such literary works as do not measure up to their ideals of the German spirit.” New York Times.
1934
Wednesday May 2nd. 1934 “..rise of Hitler in Germany ..caused by ..preponderance of Jews in ..German government ..in ..universities ..as lawyers ..as physicians ..as bankers ..complete domination of all exchanges ..in commerce ..in ..theatre ..moving picture industry.” Louis T. McFadden.
On August 2nd. when President Paul von Hindenburg dies, Hitler declares himself Fuhrer of the German State whilst combining both Offices of the President and Chancellor. Hitler is now Commander-in-Chief of Germany’s Armed Forces and members of the Armed Forces take an oath of personal and total allegiance to Hitler and on the following day, August 3rd. Hitler now assumes total power.
1935
“..Yiddish itself has been recognised as a territory ..an anarchic republic ..its capital ..Vilna and YIVO is ..scholarly academy of ..territory of Yiddish.” Noyekh Prilutski.
Unknown to Noyekh Prilutski in 1935, there was no boundary established by a civilisations culture that could withstand the barbarism Hitler had settled upon. Such was the devastation Hitler unleashed, the acculturation to be gained 6,000,000 times over was decimated in an annihilatory way. This effort of territorial Yiddishness, and which was endorsed by the Vilna YIVO Institute, would later predict the need for the effort of Emanuel Ringelblum’s Oyneg Shabes in Warsaw.
On May 12th. as the Polish dictator Jozef Pilsudski dies anti-Jewish measures now escalate within Poland and its government, and most Polish political parties, will call for discrimination, economic boycott, expulsion, and physical violence against their Jews. Meanwhile, the Polish Catholic Church, most of its priests, the Catholic press and schools will sanction discrimination and or acts of violence against their own Jewish Community and following on from this, on June 9th. there are anti-Jewish riots orchestrated in Grodno, Poland.
Friday August 16th. 1935 “..solution of ..Jewish question ..is ..business of ..Fuhrer ..not ..individuals.” Heinrich Himmler.
On August 25th. Pastor Martin Niemoeller an anti-Nazi minister, preaches that the Jews are ‘The Christ Killers’ and their history is both:-
Sunday August 25th. 1935 “..dark and sinister and under a curse for they brought ..Christ of God to ..cross but are also responsibility for ..blood of all ..righteous men who were ever murdered.” Martin Niemoeller.
On September 15th., and as the Racist Nuremberg Laws are passed, Act IV prevails itself in defining all that Jews are and as Jews they are now legislated against. This is to be fully affirmed by the Jewish Grandparents religious persuasion and are now biologically confirmed as Jews by ‘race.’ The National Citizens Law now strips away Citizenship from its Jews as the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour is adopted. Marriage and extra Marital relations between Jews and ‘aryans’ is forbidden and Jewish Employers and Jewish Householders cannot employ German Women under the age of 45.
Friday November 8th. 1935 “..Like so many Nazi catchwords… “May Jewry perish!” – was meant literally and will be literally brought to pass if the fanatics have their way.” The Times of London.
On November 15th. the German Churches supply the Nazi party with the Baptismal details of their congregants and this is recognisable as a collaborative effort to identify the Jewish Community.
1936
On February 29th. Cardinal August Hlond, head of Catholic Church in Poland, issues his ‘pastoral letter’, discriminating against the Jewish People. Then, during March, there are anti-Jewish pogroms across Poland with the Polish Cardinal speaking out against Jewish “usury, fraud, and white slavery.”
Sunday October 11th. 1936 “..Jews are ulcers in ..Polish body.” The Polish Catholic News.
1937
On April 24th. Pastor Martin Niemoeller preaches that Jesus being born a Jew was God’s mistake and on June 16th., in a speech to the Polish senate General Lucjan Zieligowski declares:
Wednesday June 16th. 1937 “..there is no place in Poland for ..Jews.” General Lucjan Zieligowski.
On July 1st. Pastor Martin Niemoeller, an antisemitic minister of the church is arrested over his opposition to Hitler.
“..First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
First they came for the Socialist
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
First they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
First they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.” Pastor Martin Niemoller.
On July 8th. Werner Otto von Hentig of the German Foreign Office issues a memorandum to his superior, Ernst von Weizsaker, suggesting that poorer Jews should be expelled ahead of richer Jews in order to extort a greater levy from Germany’s more prosperous Jews! Then, on December 14th. the first issue of The Jewish Question ‘Die Judenfrage’ is published in Germany, edited by Georg Haller and as Poland investigates the possibility of deporting resident Jews to Madagascar, ‘The Madagascar Plan’ is first muted.
1938
Friday January 21st. 1938 “..Jews must leave Romania ..it is for ..world to find a residence for ..world’s Jews ‘Madagascar seems a suitable spot’.” Alexander Cuza.
On March 31st. the Polish government threatens to revoke the citizenship of its Polish Jews residing in Germany and on April 15th., in Dabrowa Tarnowska, Poland, there is a pogrom which sees many Jews killed and on April 29th. in Vilna, Poland a further pogrom sees more Jews being killed. What emerged from the Evian Conference held between July 6th. and July 15th. July, and from the mouth of the Australia delegate on Refugees Thomas Walter White:
“..as we have ..no real racial problem ..we are not desirous of importing one.” Thomas Walter White.
On July 6th. A Refugee Conference called for by President Roosevelt is convened at Evian-les-Bains, France, this becomes Act V, in what Hitler realises a World’s unwillingness to intercede on behalf od European Jewry. As 29 of the 33 Nations invited turn up to meet and discuss the growing crisis for Jews under Hitler’s yoke, the desire to make a concerted effort is neglected! As if the Jews don’t feel isolated enough, or even abandoned completely, Hitler has captured the mood of the World to their predicament. This then is reflected in a News Paper article the day before the Evian Conference ends.
Thursday July 14th.1938 “..Jews for Sale at a Bargain price. Who Wants Them? No One!” German Newspaper Reichswart.
When, on July 15th. the Evian Conference ends, and while none of those present could resolve the major issue, to admit large numbers of Jewish refugees into safe keeping, the Jews of Germany and Austria are abandoned. Increasingly facing such weight of severe abuse, this all combines with their now perceived further isolation to suggest to them that they are fully abandonment.
Friday July 15th. 1938 “..delegates take ..floor to say ..We feel sorry for ..refugees and potential refugees but.” The Washington Post
On August 8th. the use of Gassing Vans is utilised to murder inmates of asylums and disablement centres and on September 27th. Dr. Heinrich Rothmund, the Swiss Chief of Police, who seeks to stem the flood of Jewish refugees to Switzerland, meets with Werner Best of the Gestapo and Gustav Roediger of the German Foreign Office to sign the Red letter ‘J’ decree. Meanwhile, 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 culminates soon after when, on October 28th., as Germany expels 17,000 Polish Jews to Poland’s border, 8,000 Jews are left stranded at Zbaszyn, neither admitted by Poland and not allowed back into Germany, they are stateless.
Saturday October 29th. 1938 ” ..shall ..take ..Jewish Question toward its total solution. ..total elimination.” das Schwarze Korps.
On November 7th. when Herschel Grynszpan shoots the German Embassy official, Ernst vom Rath, over treatment of his Family’s removal to Zbaszyn, a Pogrom is unleashed which should leave no Western nation with any doubt other than that the Jewish People are under direct threat of all manner of a punitive resolve from Hitler.
Wednesday November 9th. 1938 “..I remember sort of being yanked out of our flat and being ordered to march to ..space in ..open in ..town and there we were separated ..Men ..Women ..Children ..stood there in ..bitter cold November night ..me wearing short trousers.” Bernd Koschland.
For the young Bernd Koschland, who is a 7 year old Jewish Boy from Fuerth, near Nuremberg, recalling at the time that what progressed on that night of November 9th., is an escalation of Hitler’s hatred for all of Judaism. With a Hitler sponsored attack upon the Jews of all of Germany, known as Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, will be orchestrated throughout Germany, Austria and the Sudetenland.
Thursday November 10th. 1938. “..we know what happened yesterday. We do not know what tomorrow holds. However ..we have experienced what happened today. Outside ..synagogue burns. That is also a house of God.” Father Bernhard Lichtenberg.
Here, Act VI, is played out which brings both Death and Destruction to Jewish existence, while recognising a World’s indifference to the Jewish situation, Hitler will act with impunity. Wherever Hitler will meet with a Jewish presence, the disintegration of Jewish existence will be restricted, strangled and eviscerated. This newer outrage, which will see some 267 synagogues ransacked and destroyed, 7,500 Jewish Shops looted, over 50,000 Jews removed to Concentration Camps at Dachau, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen and over 240 Jews Murdered as Hitler now endorses Madagascar Plan.
Friday November 11th. 1938 “..I was in Berlin at that time and saw some pretty revolting sights ..destruction of Jewish shops ..Jews being arrested and led away ..police standing by while ..gangs destroyed ..shops ..even groups of well dressed women cheering. Maybe those women had a hangover next morning ..as they were intoxicated all right when this was taking place. I found it ..utterly revolting. In fact to a German journalist who saw me on that day and asked me what I was doing there ..I remember I just said very coldly ..I’m studying German culture.” Hugh Greene. (Daily Telegraph)
Following on from this Hitler sponsored assault, the following day on November 12th. Goering convenes a Conference Ordering the elimination of Jews from German economic life. Here he discusses the 1 Billion Reichsmarks fine to be applied to German Jews for the cost of ‘Kristallnacht’. Goering also toys with idea of removing Heydrich and the Gestapo from the Jewish ‘evacuation’ cum ’emigration’ programme, the Madagaskar Plan. German Insurer’s pay out a total of 10 million Reichmarks to the Reich as Reinhard Heydrich proposes the ‘Jewish Badge.’ But Hitler does not wish to see Jews so marked just yet, though this is a precursor to their being expelled from all of German society. Heydrich proposes a German equivalent of Eichmann’s Vienna model for the expulsion of Jews from Germany and Goebbels urges Jews are kept from public parks and are not allowed attend concerts, cultural events or movies. Heydrich admits that if Jews are to starve, they should be allowed to.
Saturday November 12th. 1938 “..We want only one thing ..world loves ..Jews enough to rid us of them all.” Joseph Goebbels.
On November 16th. the Chief Rabbi of Palestine, Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, sent a telegram to the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, Meir Berlin over the proposed position which would lead directly from the recent events surrounding ‘Kristallnacht’.
Wednesday November 16th. 1938 “.. Propose You proclaim Jewish day of Mourning for Holocaust Synagogues, Germany.” Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog.
On December 14th. 1938 Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering is given charge of die Endlosung der Judenfrage, ‘The Final Solution of The Jewish Question’, and here we arrive at Act VII, and any euphemism now employed will never hide from those seeking the truth, this very intention of Hitler’s resolve. However, we clearly cannot rely solely upon this continuing formation of words to establish the exact date at which Hitler arrived at the overall kill policy. It is clear though, that with the coming invasion of Poland on September 1st. 1939, that War was merely a staging post upon that already traversed ground toward the annihilation process.
Wednesday December 14th. 1938 “..destruction of Poland is in ..foreground ..aim is ..elimination of living forces ..not ..arrival at a certain line. I shall give a propagandist cause for starting ..war ..never mind if it is plausible or not. ..victor will not be asked later on whether he told ..truth or not.” Adolf Hitler.
1939
At the beginning of 1939 Jewish Refugees to Canada were prohibited by the uterance of an immigration official on how many Jews could be allowed in:
“..None is too many.”
Sunday January 15th. 1939 “..Church ..always regarded living side by side with Jews ..as long as they remain Jews ..dangerous to ..faith ..tranquillity of Christian people. ..for this reason ..intended to brake ..limit ..action ..influence of ..Jews ..isolating Jews.” Bishop Giovanni Cazzani.
Monday January 30th. 1939 “..shameful spectacle to see how ..whole democratic world is oozing sympathy for ..poor ..tormented Jewish people ..but remains hard hearted and obdurate when it comes to helping them. ..result of a war will be ..annihilation of ..Jewish race in Europe.” Adolf Hitler.
On May 15th. the St. Louis passenger liner leaves Hamburg for Cuba, with 934 Jewish refugees aboard and they have entry permits to both Cuba and the US. When, on May 17th. Britain’s, MacDonald White Paper, sets seal on Jewish immigration of 50,000 into Palestine for coming 5 years, there seems a concerted effort to keep European Jewry from escape. On June 17th. the St. Louis docks in Antwerp where Britain takes 287 Jewish passengers, France takes 224 Jewish passengers, Belgium takes 214 Jewish passengers and Holland takes 181 Jewish passengers. Only 6 Jewish passengers managed to disembark in Cuba.
Sunday July 30th. 1939 “..No doubt Jews are not ..lovable people ..do not care about them myself. ..not sufficient to explain ..pogrom.” Neville Chamberlain.
On August 22nd. Hitler is nothing but specific in the detail of what he will achieve and his speech on Living Space, with the amount of ‘Lebensraum’ expected and with his Pact of Steel intact, he now urges his Wehrmacht Generals toward a War of total eradication of the Jews in Poland.
Tuesday August 22nd. 1939 “..Our strength is our quickness and our brutality. Genghis Khan had millions of women ..children hunted down ..killed ..deliberately. ..What ..Western European civilization alleges about me ..does not matter. I have given ..order ..and will have everyone shot who utters but one word of criticism ..aim of this war does not consist in reaching certain geographical lines ..but in ..enemies’ physical elimination. ..for ..time being only in ..East ..I put ready my Death’s Head units ..with ..order to kill without pity or mercy all Men ..Women ..Children. Only thus will we gain ..living space that we need. Who still talks nowadays of extermination of ..Armenians.” Adolf Hitler.
On August 26th. the Times Literary Supplement alighted the World to Hitler’s intention of an impending Holocaust for its Jews.
On September 1st. Germany invades Poland and World War II begins and Goering, appointed successor to Hitler moves die Endlosung der Judenfrage to greater prominence. Here, Act VIII, sees both the Wehrmacht and SS Mobile Murder Groups, the fledgling ‘Einsatzgruppe,’ set about murdering the Jews of Poland. From here, The Final Solution of The Jewish Question will not be restricted to merely burning Synagogues, nor attacking the Jewish and non-Jewish intelligentsia.
Thursday November 7th. 1939 “..when ..Germans entered ..town ..familiar tortures began ..robbery of Jewish property and goods. ..local population ..quick to help them in their robberies. When ..Russo ..German war broke out ..they shot Jews daily.” Meir Shvimer.
But, as ‘Operation Tannenberg’ dictates, the emergence of the wholesale Slaughter of all Jews within Poland is clearly recognised. Also, in the coming days the very words of Hitler’s hatred has sped from the words of hatred, through to the euphemism of a Jewish Destruction and on to where the continuous mass Murder of all of Jewry, as witnessed throughout Poland, has begun. On October 8th. 1939 in Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland, this becomes the first Ghetto to be established and 10,300 Jews are enclosed rising to some 25,000 Jews by October 1942.
Thursday November 9th. 1939 “..I can assure you ..Jewish Question is no longer a problem ..even in places where we encounter it in ..mass form ..like here. It is here so that we can solve it and we will.” Arthur Greiser.
Here, with the establishment of the Ghetto, that incremental staging post from transportation through concentration and on to resettlement has begun. This is to be the staging post where the Ghetto becomes the concentration centre, the holding pen established for the eventual eradication of all Jewish existence. All future transports ‘East’ will have a direct line to these concentration centres, in existence prior to the establishment of the Death Camp System, and will be employed to ensure death comes to the Jews deposited within them.
Wednesday November 15th. 1939 “..coming to terms with God and living with myself. Fate has cancelled my account.” Adam Czerniakow.
Today in the period of christ 2020 we are merely moments away from a newer christmas, and the celebration we take too readily. But from here, at this exact juncture in 1939 we recognise, and we are fully accepting of German methodology, that according to Hitler’s own statisticians, 11,293,300 Jews were still alive. How then is it to this day that we can look forward to celebrating knowing that 6,000,000 Jews were taken from life in an ostensibly christian epoch in the midst of Europe. These Jewish People are no longer alive to even breath the air, which some might suggest is a god given blessing, but only for some can such hatreds be expressed. My despair runneth over and there is not a single lesson from what this christ-mas period must stand for that can be equitable with what was allowed to happen to 6,000,000 of these Jews, the Chosen People of the god of christianity’s choice.
1940
Thursday March 28th. 1940 “..Polish youth ..armed with clubs ..sticks ..make pogroms against ..Jews. ..Jews ..beaten and wounded. ..Jewish quarter ..abandoned to toughs and killers.” Chaim A. Kaplan.
On April 27th. the establishment of Auschwitz Concentration Camp forms the link to be established between the Ghetto and the Death Camp and a British Foreign Office official, H.F. Downie argues that the Jewish People are to be treated just as the Germans should be; as enemies.
Saturday April 27th. 1940 “..Jews are enemies just as ..Germans are ..but in a more insidious way ..and ..are linked together by secret and evil bonds.” H. F. Downie.
During December, Emmanuel Ringelblum begins his historical archive, the ‘Oyneg Shabes,’ and is to be hidden inside the Warsaw Ghetto.
1941
At the beginning of 1941 the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto inhabitants face starvation ration restrictions of 183 calories a day while in comparison Germans are allotted over 2,300 calories per day, other Nationals will receive over 1,700 calories per day and non-Jewish Poles will subsist on 934 calories per day. On January 30th. Hitler repeats his threat to destroy all of European Jewry.
Thursday January 30th. 1941 “..Today I will once more be a prophet. If ..international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging nations once more into a world war then ..result will not be .. bolshevization of ..earth and ..victory of Jewry ..but ..annihilation of ..Jewish race in Europe!” Adolf Hitler.
Saturday February 1st. 1941 “..I have made it my aim to regulate life in ..Ghetto at all costs. This aim can be achieved ..by employment for all. ..my main slogan has been to give work to ..greatest possible number of people.” Chaim Rumkowski.
On September 22nd. the Majdanek Death Camp is to mirror the Auschwitz and Birkenau Blueprint for mass murder and on just 2 days, Monday September 29th. and Tuesday September 30th. 1941, 33,771 Jews of Kiev were Slaughtered into a Ravine at Babi Yar. This is the single most devastating atrocity perpetrated against the Jewish People in all the period that existed to enable Hitler to achieve his Final Solution of The Jewish Question. While the World might manage the displacement of the Jews from The Holocaust, History will always acknowledge die Endlosung der Judenfrage took the words of Hitler and delivered the Jews toward extinction.
Monday December 1st. 1941 “..Today I can confirm that our objective ..to solve ..Jewish problem for Lithuania ..has been achieved by EK 3. In Lithuania there are no more Jews ..apart from Jewish workers and their families. ..distance between ..assembly point to ..graves ..on average 4 to 5 Km.” SS Standartenfuhrer Karl Jaeger.
In the most uniquely grotesque, unparalleled and unprecedented atrocity in all of history, and against the Jewish People as a priority, a final resolve is constructed into The Holocaust of 6,000,000 Jewish People. On December 1st. the Jaeger Report states clearly that 85% of all Lithuanian Jews have already been murdered and this is represented as some 137,366 individual Lithuanian Jewish dead. For those who seek to remove the commencement date of The Final Solution beyond this point, the disingenuous nature of such an exercise exposes its major flaw
Thursday December 4th. 1941 “..10’s of 1,000’s of Jews from abroad were brought here. I saw them walking with their suitcases ..many of them well dressed. Young men and women in good spirits ..relaxed. They observe everything around them. They look at our city with curiosity. They were told that they were brought to work and were ordered to bring their best clothing with them. Afterwards they were murdered at ..Ninth Fort. It was said that these young people had no suspicions of anything bad happening to them and they even danced in ..evenings. On ..following day ..they were taken in groups of 50 and shot. Lithuania earned ..label ‘cemetery of ..European Jews’.” Helena Kutergiene-Buividaite.
On December 7th. the Chelmno Death Camp’s Extermination operations begin as Act IX, the establishment of 6 such Death Camps in poland sees the accumulating effects of the charge toward destroying 6,000,000 Jewish lives as Hitler’s major objective. Here also, and as we have Hitler and his Einsatz cohorts acknowledging that The Final Solution of The Jewish Question is well under way, The Holocaust of the Jews is certain. Of course, the paper trail which leads from the transmissions of der Einsatzgruppe Operational Situation Reports to Hitler’s desk has floundered upon many diverse reasonings. Amongst, and including these, are the fact that Hitler’s was an unknown knowledge which history seems on course to demand Hitler’s absence in this distorting of that very truth of Hitler’s presence.
Friday December 12th. 1941 “..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.
1942
On March 17th. the killing operation within the Death Camp at Belzec begins.
Monday September 14th. 1942 “..We are a remarkable People ..indestructible. No decrees or edicts will break us. I declare this People will never be destroyed ..despite their unspeakable suffering ..therefore it is an eternal People and ultimately it shall overcome its enemies.” Tamarah Lazerson.
For Avraham Tory, who managed to eventually Survive Kovno, luck was not with more than 34,700 Jewish Men, Women and Their Children of Kovno who would be brutally murdered.
Wednesday September 16th. 1942 “..Unrest in ..Ghetto (Kovno) caused by ..coming visit of ..commission from Berlin. ..Rumours about new reduction of ..Ghetto area.” Avraham Tory.
1943
On January 4th. the Czestochowa Ghetto rises up and the following day, on January 5th., reprisals against the Jews of Czestochowa sees 250 Elderly and Children shot. Elsewhere, and in an effort to put a stop to the Axis practice of seizing property and goods from occupied nations, 18 Allied nations agree that property transfers and similar business conducted under Nazi German or Italian occupation can be declared null and void, at the discretion of the occupied government.
Wednesday February 24th. 1943 “..Not many Jews will survive. ..conditions of ..remnant ..are difficult. ..peasants ..assisting ..Germans in ..forest raids ..even Jews hiding in ..villages ..turned over to ..Germans.” Ludwik Landau.
It is an understatement for the Polish underground to not only conclude that the Jews had undergone a further deterioration in their position, which assumes it was fully cognizant of what had transpired up to this date but that some 3,000,000 of Poland’s Jews have been effectively Murdered. So, knowing too that the order of that destruction in places like Auschwitz, Belzec, Birkenau, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka are recognised as Factory’s of Death for the Jewish People, and other’s, they are also aware who was the Perpetrator, the Participator and the willing, complicit, duplicitous collaborator in the scale of the atrocity waged against their own Jewish Citizens.
Tuesday March 23rd. 1943 “..Insofar as ..can be ascertained ..fate of ..Jews has undergone a further deterioration. Considering barely several hundred thousand Jews have remained out of 3,500,000 one has a fair insight concerning ..scale of atrocities ..perpetrated.” Polish Underground.
On April 7th. Chelmno Castle is blown up and ‘Sonderkommando 1005’ has commenced with its onerous duty here to destroy the evidence of Hitler’s final solution. Blobel’s Sonderkommando then moves on to Belzec, and spends three months there with operations to obliterate all traces of the Crimes committed here, as they are within all 3 of Aktion Reinhard Death Camps, these are conducted in house. Blobel’s Sonderkommando are merely an advisory team with their expertise.
“..I myself arrived in Warsaw ..April 17th. 1943 ..and took over command of ..Grossaktion at 8 o’clock.” SS Obergruppenfuhrer Jurgen Stroop.
On April 17th. Jewish Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins with the remnants of Warsaw’s Jews, some 70,000 Jews, still alive.
Friday April 23rd. 1943 “..Great things are happening ..this action ..we have dared to take is of enormous value. ..Jewish self defence has become a fact.” Mordechai Anielewicz.
On April 29th. the Polish Underground Newspaper reports the struggle for the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising without mentioning the lack of assistance afforded to it.
Wednesday May 5th. 1943 “..In Poland there were ..about 4,500,000 Jews ..there remain ..only 100,000. ..Warsaw Ghetto containing ..650,000 ..only 20,000 ..25,000 Jews there. ..majority killed. ..Special death camps at Lublin (Majdanek) ..Treblinka near Brest-Litovsk. ..several hundred ..jammed into large rooms ..where they die by gassing.” Vatican Memo.
On May 5th. The Vatican produces a Memo which clearly acknowledges what it already knows of the fate of more than 4,400,000 Jews of Poland.
Friday May 7th.1943 “..raiding parties shoot 30 ..50 Jews each night. ..a considerable number of Jews are still underground. ..best and only method for destroying ..Jews ..remains ..setting of fires.” SS Obergruppenfuhrer Jurgen Stroop.
On May 8th. In the Warsaw Ghetto, the Headquarters of Jewish Resistance, at 18 Mila Street, is surrounded and liquidated. Mordechai Anielewicz and 97 Resistance Fighters Died that Day with their refusal to succumb to the Nazi brutality and 2 managed to Survive which will point the way toward all future Jewish Persistence and Resistance! More than 50,000 Warsaw Jews have been murdered in recent months.
Tuesday May 11th. 1943 “..responsibility for ..crime of ..murder of ..whole Jewish nationality in Poland rests first of all on those who are carrying it out ..but indirectly it falls also upon ..whole of humanity ..peoples of ..Allied nations and on their governments ..who up to this day have not taken any real steps to halt this crime. By looking on passively upon this murder of defenceless millions tortured children ..women and men they have become partners to ..responsibility. ..My friends in ..Warsaw ghetto fell. ..I did not succeed in dying ..same way or ..with them. ..I belong to them and ..mass graves there.” Shmuel Zygielbojm.
The tragedy for Shmuel Zygielbojm, who committed Suicide this day, is his awareness, not just who the criminals were but also who those Allies were who took no real steps to halt the crimes.
Monday May 17th. 1943 “..Warsaw Ghetto is free of Jews.” SS Obergruppenfuhrer Jurgen Stroop.
On August 18th. Blobel returns to Kiev and ‘Sonderkommando 1005’ exhumes and disposes of much of the evidence of the mass murder of over 100,000 of Kiev’s Jews at Babi-Yar who are disinterred, Blobel’s 33,771 Jews who were murdered almost 2 years previously these are included.
Sunday, August 29th. 1943 “..two thirds and more ..Axis world’s Jewish population has been murdered ..foully ..unnaturally murdered.” Rabbi Dr. Stephen S. Wise.
Do we assume here, as the numbers stated at the Wannsee Conference, 11,293,300 Jews still to be Murdered, that we are looking at over 7,500,000 Jews of Europe already destroyed.
September 5th. 1943 “..We know today that Sobibor ..Treblinka ..Belzec ..Auschwitz are annihilation camps. In ..camps ..work parties ..create ..impression ..they are ordinary camps.” Gisi Fleischmann.
1944
On March 19th. Hitler’s forces occupy all of Hungary, with some 725,000 of Hungarian Jewry facing Hitler’s immediate and Final Solution.
Tuesday March 28th. 1944 “..Our fate is not only material ruin ..not even only a chain of physical and mental tortures and beating down of ..last fibres of our human dignity .but rather certain physical annihilation.” Nison Kahan.
On April 7th. Two Jews, Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler escape Auschwitz and are about to inform the public of nations what governments of those nations already know. With ‘The Auschwitz Protocols,’ this provides a detailed overview of operations at Auschwitz, by both Vrba and Wetzler. What is delivered to Jewish Leaders and subsequently, to the knowledgeable Allied Powers is a litany of crimes not unknown to all who have looked the other way.
Friday April 7th. 1944 “..Cautious estimate of ..number of ..Jews gassed ..Birkenau ..April 1942 ..April 1944 by Country of origin
..Poland ..transported by truck 300,000 Jews
..transported by train 600,000 Jews
Holland 100,000 Jews
Greece 45,000 Jews
France 150,000 Jews
Belgium 50,000 Jews
Germany 60,000 Jews
Yugoslavia }
Italy }
Norway 50,000 Jews
Lithuania 50,000 Jews
Bohemia }
Moravia }
Austria } 30,000 Jews
Slovakia 30,000 Jews
Camps for foreign Jews in Poland 300,000 Jews
Total 1,765,000 Jews.” The Auschwitz Protocols.
What is reprehensible, and forms a somewhat uninspiring deflective shield of guilt for all those who either knew, participated in or perpetrated these crimes. What Rudolf Vrba adjudged the German Army and its General Staff correctly with should have gone further and denounced the World’s inability to acknowledge what it too knew!
“..attempts by members ..German General Staff to whitewash their complicity in these atrocities ..or by German historians to exculpate ..regular German Army ..should not be allowed to cover up ..fact of ..vital ..significant economic ..strategic advantages ..Nazi establishment together with ..German Army and its General Staff derived from this unprecedented ..unparalleled mass murder and robbery.” Rudolf Vrba.
While the figures are somewhat altered by subsequent checks, counter balances and newer research, I fully acknowledge that both Vrba and Wetzler are better placed to state more accurately what the World seems to trip over to this day. The fact that the annihilation process leaked out to Civilised Humanity, and though History seeks to accept that 1,100,000 Jews were Murdered within Auschwitz and Birkenau, we cannot ever know why we do Not accept 1,765,000 Jews are Murdered here. For me, it is safer to accept the higher figure so that NO Jew can ever be denied their presence in this Catastrophe for the Jews of Europe.
“..Americans ..British ..fly in these regions. ..Why did they not drop ..bombs on ..horrible tomb ..sixty kilometres from their Northern Frontier. They could have wrecked SS barracks ..ramps ..crematoriums ..roads ..rail track. Why didn’t they.” Alfred Wetzler.
While acknowledging here the events these Jewish Survivors brought to a wider audience, it is unacceptable that little and nothing was done to alleviate their pain. Not just of Auschwitz and Birkenau either but from within the entire infrastructure of Hitler’s Final Solution. The rush to assist the Jews was not considered a priority by Allied leaders, so let me spell it out this way. While the continuation of the War might ensure the deaths of even more Civilians and troops, what the failure to intervene in the midst of The Holocaust could guarantee was the increasing numbers of Jews being continually Slaughtered.
Friday, 7th. April 1944 “..millions of Jews ..captured ..who knows where they are. ..We have come ..from place where your brothers are. ..Two thousand years have we brought into this world children ..doomed to suffer.” Moshe Flinker.
Of course, there are those like Hoess who might have sought to exaggerate his accomplishment, or Eichmann who sought to immerse himself most accurately in the assessment. But no one can deny the potential for mass murder that existed here for all to witness, see, hear and smell. On a given average of 10,000 Jews Murdered on a Daily basis, during the period of Vrba and Wetzler’s incarceration, 10,000 over a 700 day period could compute to something approaching 7,000,000 of those Jews, treated to ‘Sonderbehandlung,’ with that capacity in mind.
“..She never grew up. She will be a 6 year child forever. A talented girl who taught herself to read. She was gassed 75 days after her 6th. Birthday ..June 3rd. 1944. ..there can be no justification. I will be there for Evika ..for all ..others who were murdered. I want to understand.” Judith Kalman.
On July 8th. 50,000 more Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz in week long action with more than 488,000 Hungarian Jews having already reached Auschwitz. Eichmann now moves swiftly to ensure 14,491 more Hungarian Jews are transported to Auschwitz.
Saturday July 8th. 1944 “..Our transport was among ..last ones ..from Hungary July 8th. 1944 ..and due to ..unusual number of arrivals ..SS were forced to change their customary procedures. ..gas chambers ..crematoria could not accommodate everyone judged unfit for work ..so 100’s were piled along ..railroad tracks to be immolated. ..due to ..heartless haste ..clothed in rags ..marked with ..painted red cross ..hardly any food or water ..also due to this haste ..escaped tattooing.” Judith Magyar Isaacson.
On July 9th. The final mass transport of 14,491 Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz arrived as Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish Diplomat and emissary of King Gustav V, arrives in Budapest. Too late however, as a total, some 502,491 of Hungary’s Jews, transported in 147 Trains over a 55 day period were already Murdered within Birkenau. On any given day, between May 15th. and July 9th. with 3,500 Jews on each transport, some 9,200 Jews arrived with 7,360 of these immediately gassed on each of these days. At this time, some 300,000 Hungarian Jews in Hungary remain alive with
170,000 of these Jews still surviving in Budapest.
Saturday July 15th. 1944 “..In spite of everything I still believe ..people are really good at heart.” Anne Frank.
On November 2nd. with the last gassings at Auschwitz, the deportations from Budapest resume and 50,000 more of Budapest’s Jews are evacuated toward Vienna. 10,000 of these are murdered as a result of their incapacity, or failure to move swiftly enough and on November 25th. Birkenau ceases its operations. Then, on November 27th. the 1st. Majdanek Trial begins and what cannot be assessed, though the contention now is that more than 200,000 Jews from the previous figure of 360,000 Jews and others who were murdered here. On December 2nd. the 1st. Majdanek Trial ends and the following day, on December 3rd. all but 1 of the 6 defendants are hanged, as one had committed suicide.
1945
On January 18th. the Auschwitz complex of Camps is being abandoned and the Death March begins with 66,000 Auschwitz Survivors being moved toward Wodzislaw. On January 20th. 4,200 Jews shot in Birkenau as the SS Dynamite the remaining Krematoria in Birkenau.
“..highest number of gassings in one day was 10,000. ..most that could be carried out in a day with ..available facilities.” Rudolf Hoess.
The liberation of Auschwitz and Birkenau on January 27th. 1945 did not signal the end of the atrocity of antisemitism that would be constantly aimed at Jewish Life. Act X, now sees Jewish Antecedence and even the Destruction we recognise of 6,000,000 Jewish People was not enough hatred for human beings. But for me, my place in amongst this enormous hatred began on February 17th. 1945 with the cold blooded Murder of 7 Sokoly Jewish Survivors. Safely assuming they had received their freedom on home soil in Poland, they are murdered by their non-Jewish polish neighbours. Amongst the Murdered was the 4 year old little Girl Tovah ‘Tokele’ Olshak, Murdered because she too was a Jew to be included in these shameful murders. Here my effort began with this little Girl and it continues with 6,000,000 of her People, because they are Jews and my effort will Not end because I am Not a Jew.
