Auschwitz and Birkenau.
“..I commanded Auschwitz until 1 December 1943 ..and estimate that at least 2,500,000 victims were executed and exterminated there by gassing and burning ..and at least another 500,000 succumbed to starvation and disease making a total dead of about 3,000,000. This figure represents about 70 % or 80 % of all persons sent to Auschwitz as prisoners ..remainder having been selected and used for slave labour in ..concentration camp industries.” SS Obersturmbannfuhrer Rudolf Hoess.
In my writing, the essential for me is in knowing that there are 6,000,000 Jewish People, and more Jews than we have assessed, who are The Holocaust. It is also to be recognized, in the very need to ensure balance, that we recall what was not done and should have been done to save all, more or even some of these Jews and that this is clearly recognized. All, as we will learn, was in preparation for what will be presented to the Jews as they entered the Schloss at Chelmno and the Camp at Auschwitz and its deadly Sister Death Camp at Birkenau. These, and ahead of the further 4 Death Camps to become established to deliver The Final Solution of The Jewish Question, they all marked the progression of entire Jewish Community’s toward extinction. Prior to all of this though, and their first and foremost lessons taken from the T4 operation are moved out into the field, widened in atrocity and delivered in a catastrophe for the Jewish People on an immeasurable scale. Within places like the Euthanasia institutes of Bernburg, Grafeneck, Hademar, Hartheim or Sonnenstein, where both Gassing and Cremation were to be learned, and practices were being honed to lend themselves to what Hitler deemed the Jewish Question. These murderous institutions were in operation well in advance of World War II, these institutes were then taken and opened out and into the whole Camp system.
“..2 Doctors gave ..final word whether a patient should be gassed or not.” Pauline Kneissler.
The eugenics of lessening the concern for many Peoples was commenced, and with their sterilisation, their progeny was erased. Here in 1933, while processing the dismantling of humanity, none of this ceased while the murderous detail was to be enacted. Hitler’s physicians, and I use that term accusingly, also entered the fray and enacted the most bestial experiments upon People for no other reason than they could. Progressing these intentions, and during the Spring of 1939, plans were drawn up for a mobile oil fired crematorium for the concentration camp at Buchenwald which would lead steadily and incrementally toward the bypassing of Auschwitz for Birkenau. So I am nearing the proposition for The Death Camp system and so let me propose what we know of the escalating terms for Concentration Camp at Auschwitz leading to the extermination facility that is, the Death Camp at Birkenau. While the Concentration and Labour Camp Auschwitz was not designed as the industrial and mechanized Slaughter House for the Jews of Europe, just down the road, Birkenau was! What is clear, these two sites were sought out from the entire Camp system to ensure not just the Jews of Poland, and then Europe, would be extinguished within them, but much of civilised society and its humanity were detained within them.
“..accompanied ..driver Hoeblinger. A transport ..from Holland and ..prisoners had to jump from ..wagons. ..well off Jews. ..women with Persian furs. ..arrived by express train. ..trucks ..already there ..people climbed aboard. ..In ..place Birkenau once stood ..farmhouse and ..four or five big huts. Inside ..people were standing. ..bringing children now. ..opened ..door ..threw ..children in ..closed ..door. ..a terrible cry. ..people went on crying for about ten minutes. ..prisoners opened ..doors. ..disorder ..contorted. Heat ..given off. ..bodies ..loaded on a rough wagon ..taken to a ditch. ..next batch ..already undressing in ..huts. After that I didn’t look at my wife for four weeks.” SS Schutze Richard Boeck.
Initially though, Auschwitz would prove to be a deadly reception centre for political opponents from within Poland and then Russian POW’s, once Hitler’s Weltanschauung had fully turned East. Here, when the Camp became an ostensibly Russian detention centre for 10’s of 1,000’s of these captured Russians, they would find existence curtailed here. All too many of them, left to die in disease and from the malnutrition imposed upon them by the Camp administration, their number expired without concern, accounting nor recognition. Also, and it would be envisioned within an extended range of sub-Camps, there was an accommodation of efforts for German industry and industrialists. In November 1939, when Topf and Sons installed a double muffle crematoria in Dachau there was a precedent being set that would catapult 1,000,000’s of Jews into a view of the past blurred by their absence. Here we are at the genesis of the Concentration Camp of Auschwitz and more particularly, the Death Camp at Birkenau. This then fed the many sub-Camps, industrial hubs and enterprises all feeding the coffers of Hitler, the Reich, the SS and the Waffen SS, and all within the vicinity of the area of Oswiecim. This burgeoning scale of atrocity all begins on January 25th. 1940 and though in containment operation since 1939, Oswiecim turns Auschwitz into a name synonymous with hatred, debauchery, brutality, excess and the atrocity of such a catastrophe Genocide rquired its newer term, The Holocaust.
“..completed furnaces have been started up in ..presence of Engineer Prufer ..Topf. ..planks cannot yet be moved from ..ceiling of ..mortuary cellar on account of frost ..but this is not important ..as ..gassing cellar can be used for that purpose. ..ventilation plant has been held up by restrictions on rail transport ..but ..installation should be ready by February 20th.” SS Sturmbannfuhrer Karl Bischoff.
This Camp system then is chosen as the site of the vast Concentration Camp complex for the business of Jewish Slaughter and to ensure the larcenous intent and immoral practices of German industry is well catered for. Of course, the ideology of race superiority is somewhat suspended by the immense demands and the lucrative nature of the vast booty to be gained from destroying the Jews from within Europe and in the Death Camps of which Birkenau proved industrially efficient. With that recognition of the status of Birkenau within the sphere of the Death Camp system, we are asked to recognise that on 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.
and SS Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler issues a directive which establishes Auschwitz Concentration Camp, SS Gruppenfuhrer Richard Gluecks then hands overall charge of the Camp to Hoess. What we learn from the British Foreign Office official, H.F. Downie, who argues that the Jewish People are to be treated just as the Germans should be, and as enemies, the loss to the Jewish Community is being weighted with a certain prejudice that pervaded the era. In fact, this is very much to become the prevailing state of British feelings, and all too many other nations, toward the very catastrophe awakening for the Jews of Europe. That said, and while the purpose built annihilation centre that is Birkenau did not escape the attention of those seeking to profit from the Slaughter of those Jews yet to be brought toward it, wealth added itself to many of those states degraded of their own Jewish People. The whole World became entirely blinded by what appeared outside the doors of Poland’s citizens, as at the door to each of these installations and particularly Auschwitz and Birkenau, much was to be seen that could be heard and the stench permeated and settled for miles around.
“..When somebody asks what their fate will be ..he explains that ..men will of course have to work ..building streets and houses. ..women will not have to work. If they want ..they can help in ..house or ..kitchen. A little glimmer of hope flickers once more in some of these poor people ..enough to make them march unresisting into ..death chambers. ..most of them understand what is happening ..smell reveals their fate! Then they climb up a little staircase ..see ..truth. Nursing mothers with an infant at ..breast ..naked ..many children of all ages ..naked. They hesitate ..but they enter ..death chambers ..most of them silent ..forced on by those behind them ..who are driven by ..whip lashes of ..SS men. A Jewish woman of about 40 ..with flaming eyes ..calls down ..revenge ..for ..blood of her children on ..head of ..murderers. ..Wirth in person strikes her in ..face 5 times with his whip ..she disappears into ..gas chamber.” SS Obersturmfuhrer Kurt Gerstein.
Remember too that Birkenau was one of only 6 such Death Camps erected, and purposefully so, and then with purpose specifically within Poland. Here in Birkenau, in this single factory of death, more than 17% of all Jews Slaughtered in The Holocaust are detained here. This figure rises to more than 30% if we are to accept what Hoess himself has stated, and then only if we then accept that the Slaughter of 6,000,000 Jews of Europe is as accurate an assessment as we have as yet failed to detail correctly. Here then, and within Birkenau the remains of the vast majority of those who are the 1,100,000 Jews Slaughtered have been systematically destroyed. These Jewish People in particular are all being added to The Holocaust term they have been consigned to. These Jews will be steadily degraded, fully disintegrated and wholly destroyed within the Death Factory that is Birkenau. All of this, of course, added to the collective of what The Final Solution of the Jewish Question was established for.
“..General Government would welcome it if a start were to be made on ..final solution of this question in ..General Government ..here transportation does not pose a real problem nor would ..deployment of a labor force interfere with ..process of this operation Jews should be removed from ..area of ..General Government as quickly as possible ..it is here that ..Jew represents a serious danger as a carrier of epidemics ..and in addition his incessant black marketeering constantly upsets ..country’s economic structure. Of ..approximately 2,500,000 Jews in question ..majority are anyway unfit for work.” Dr. Philipp Buhler.
As these Jews were assembled, separated and then eradicated, all that they had left in the World fed the coffers of Hitler’s ideological idea, with the larceny of intent that meant much more than has ben admitted to. It is quite compelling then, and somewhat objectionable, that the separation of the two realms, mass murder and extortionate wealth in both sites. What was then fused into one of the most lucrative and wealthy enterprises must convey us along for the purpose of illuminating the way toward the victimhood experienced. Why is it then that the Auschwitz Museum does insist upon the uneven approach to those other individuals whose place in the Camp was not as it was for the Jewish People’s. For the Jews, their complete annihilation was the only intention for their removal to Birkenau.
“..Although ..first Jews were taken to ..camp as early as ..Summer of 1940 ..at that time they could not develop a resistance movement due to ..especially brutal treatment and extreme mortality.” Adam Cyra.
As we move chronlogically through the processes, on April 29th. 1940 Hoess and his staff arrive at Auschwitz from Sachsenhausen and then, during May 1940 there was the first convoy of 300 Oswiecim Jews to the Camp. Many Jewish leaders from the surrounding areas and those of the Ausserordentliche Befriedungsaktion, Hans Franks AB Aktion, are also dispatched to Auschwitz. In June 1940 a double muffler at Auschwitz future proofed the Cremation process gleaned from the T4 process and various Camps applying themselves to the destruction of People. On June 14th. 1940 the first major transport with 728 of prisoner’s and Jewish Intelligentsia, from the Shtetl’s within Galicia, Nowy Sacz, Nowy Targ, Rzeszow, and many others including the major Town of Tarnow. Dr. Yitzhak Holzer, Dr. Maximilian Rozenbush, Yakov Schwartz and Dr. Emil Wider are amongst the many Jewish Intelligentsia who arrive at Auschwitz and are amongst the first victims of Auschwitz. The Town of Tarnow had been under German occupation since September 8th. 1939 and the Jews of the Town were under immediate threat.
“..flames could be seen from 15 or 20 kilometres ..people knew ..human beings were being burned there.” Adolf Bartelmes. (Polish rail worker
The Polish rail worker Adolf Bartlemes fixes what Poland knew of the awareness around the Death Camps and emerges as the rail link between the Jews of Tarnow, and a myriad of other places, reach their destruction at Auschwitz. What is fully awakened, to what possibility’s arose for Hitler’s plans for the Jews of Europe is a direct line from the Centres of Jewish Existence to the Centres for Jewish extinction. The return link here too was also made, though few returned alive, and with the Tarnow Jewish Community paying for the Ashes of their murdered Relatives, Friends and Community, returned in sealed containers, everything of the Jews had a price to be paid and by the Jews themselves. Tarnow fully became Judenrein after the end of the War when it became ever more dangerous for the Survivng Polish Jew to remain in their own Community here.
On June 14th. 1940 “..You have not come to a sanitorium here but ..a German ..camp and ..only way out is through ..chimney of .. crematorium. If someone does not like it ..they can go straight to ..wires. If Jews are in ..transport ..they have ..right to live for no more than 2 weeks.” SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Karl Fritzsch.
From August 15th. 1940 Crematorium I began it’s operation and on August 28th. 1940 Auschwitz, along with Buchenwald, Flossenburg, Majdanek, Natzweiler, Neuengamme and Stutthof are designated rehabilitation Camps, Class II. On March 1st. 1941 Himmler visits Auschwitz and outlines the plans for the expansion of the Auschwitz Camps as construction of Birkenau begins. Hoess is immediately notified of Hitler’s plans to annihilate the entire Jewish Population of Europe. On August 31st. 1941 Zyklon ‘B’ is first used in Auschwitz against 250 Jewish Infirm and 600 Russian POW’s. Zyklon ‘B’ proves the method of murder of Millions of Jews in 2 of the Death Camps, Birkenau and Majdanek and even in some of the other Concentration Camps.
“.. Blobel ..authorized to ..obliterate all ..mass graves. His department ..1005 ..work ..carried out by ..Jews ..shot after each section of ..work ..completed. Auschwitz ..continuously called upon to provide Jews for 1005.” SS Obersturmbannfuhrer Rudolf Hoess.
On July 17th. 1942 Himmler tours Auschwitz again and witnesses his first ‘Gassings’ in Birkenau and departs Auschwitz the following day. On September 21st. 1942 ‘Sonderkommando 1005’ arrived at Birkenau to dispose of the evidence of 107,000 Jewish bodies who had been previously buried in mass murders which seemingly bore no consquences. It is clear though that the evidence of such an ideological imperative cannot be foundered upon the truth. That truth, of such a genocide being clearly exposed would have opened Hitler to a truth still being argued over, as mass murderer of the worst order.
On Monday November 30th. 1942 “..Here is ..silence of ..grave. ..Rumbuli ..Riga ..Bikernieki ..Salaspils ..Klooga ..Ponary ..Babi Yar ..Majdanek ..Treblinka ..Auschwitz. Thousands and thousands of cities and towns stained with blood. I rise from among you ..my silent martyrs ..old men ..babies ..fathers ..mothers ..husbands ..wives ..brothers ..sisters ..brides ..grooms ..children ..youths. ..slaughtered by ..millions ..you ordered me to tell ..living of what happened. I hear your cries ..screams ..thousands strong thunder of your feet running to ..grave ..your last word ..”Remember”. I swear by ..memory of you ..by your blood which slaked cruel spaces ..by your ashes scattered over ..world ..by ..smoke of your bodies rising from ..crematoriums ..I swear to you ..I will tell them ..living ..everything that I saw ..who killed you ..who betrayed you. I will not permit anyone to slander you or say it was someone else. I was with you at ..executioner’s block till ..last minute. Your blood flows in my veins ..your ashes throb in my heart. I swear to tell ..Truth ..nothing but ..Truth.” Frida Michelson.
In batches of 10’s of 1,000’s weekly, even daily, Jews are arriving at the ramp to Birkenau and are destroyed immediately upon arrival. The list of those Community’s plundered of its Jewish Citizens is so exhaustive, their number remains incalculable, even when we are close to identifying each and every one of these pillaged community’s. On March 19th. 1944 Hitler commands his forces to occupy all of Hungary, and immediately, with some 800,000 of Hungarian Jewry facing Hitler’s immediate and Final Solution, the lines to Birkenau are expected to be targeted by the Allies to prevent all and any future transports.
On 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
Solvakia 30,000 Jews
Camps for foreign
Jews in Poland 300,000 Jews
Total 1,765,000 Jews.” The Auschwitz Protocols.
Here we add to a major concern and with that, the truth for both Auschwitz and Birkenau will come down to who we believe. Whether that is Hoess and his evidence, bolstered by Fritzsch, or countered by a multiple of experts, Rudolf Vrba and Alfred ‘Walter Rosenberg’ Wetzler, all competing to assert how many Jews over the 1,100,000 were actually Slaughtered here. In looking more certainly at the evidence of The Auschwitz Protocols, we still must come to terms with what the Slaughter of Hungarian Jewry adds to this. There are a further 502,491 Jews, now suggesting that 2,267,491 Jews, and this approaching somewhere to what Hoess has led us to believe was the final accounting within Birkenau. As we continue to search in earnest for the factual integrity of a truth that exists, evidences compete against each other. The truth, for both Auschwitz and Birkenau will come down to who we choose to believe despite the facts being measured by subjective reasoning.
“..Auschwitz may be 100’s of kilometers from Hungary but it is part of Hungarian history. ..This Death Camp was ..scene of ..inhumane suffering ..humiliation and death of nearly 500,000 of our compatriots.” Janos Ader.
Whether that assessment is Hoess and his evidence, bolstered by Fritzsch, or countered by a multiple of experts competing to assert how many Jews over the 1,100,000 were actually Slaughtered here, we continue to search in earnest for the factual integrity of a truth that exists. In order to be heard too, it is essential that all, or as much of, the truth is made available so as to discern a more accurate certainty. As we know, no certainty will avail itself of our need, and not just to know how and why but who all of these Jews are. On February 26th. 1943 the first Gypsy transport arrives at Birkenau BIIe, a fairly small group which included just a couple of Men with Women and Children. They were sectioned off from the other inmates in the Zigeunerlager. Eventually Lalleri, Medvashi, Roma and Sinti would wind their way toward this Gypsy Camp where eventually some 21,000 Gypsies died, and were even Gassed within Birkenau.
“..of ..1,300,000 deported to ..Camp ..they were from amongst 20 nationalities ..and these nations gave up their Jews also. Of that total ..some 400,000 were registered and kept as Slave Labour and 900,000 were immediately Gassed. While Jews constituted 85% of all those deported here ..they represented more than 90% of all those who were murdered. ..400,000 Slave Labourers were gradually degraded till they could persist no longer and added finally to ..total number of those Jews and others Gassed or otherwise Murdered. That stated ..we assess that of ..1,100,000 who were Murdered from all 1,300,000 deported to ..Camp ..some 900,000 Jews were Gassed immediately or otherwise murdered in ..camp. Of ..400,000 of those registered for Slave Labour ..200,000 died or were otherwise Murdered. These included some 100,000 Jews ..64,000 Poles ..21,000 Gypsies ..14,000 Russian POW’s and a further 10,000 other nationals.” Auschwitz State Museum.
The Gypsy experience, and the difference of their treatment though, is not simply in the fact of their demise. The establishment of the Zigeunerlager Camp, within the Death Camp at Birkenau, was not conditional on the immediate extermination of those Gypsies assigned to it. The Auschwitz Museum knows this and as it became the camp within the camp, it was in existence until it was erased in July 1944. Essentially, and for a period of 17 months, during which European Jewry was being decimated here, Gypsies formed the Family group and were saved from extinction, even protected from what raged against the Jews, albeit for that 17 month period only. On Tuesday December 7th. 1943 a Convoy, Convoi 64, set out from Drancy with some 1,000 Jewish Men, Women and Their Children on board. As we progress these Jewish People toward extinction, we are clear that the fate of others was left to the vagaries of a system which has destroyed People with impunity.
“..I ..never knew ..total number ..I have nothing to help me make an estimate. ..I ..remember ..figure in ..larger actions ..repeated to me by Eichmann or his deputies. ..I ..no longer remember ..figures for ..smaller actions ..insignificant in comparison with ..numbers given. I regard ..total of 2,500,000 ..far too high. ..Auschwitz had limits to its destructive possibilities ..Upper Silesia ..Polish territory under German rule 250,000 Germany ..Theresienstadt 100,000 Holland 95,000 Belgium 20,000 France 110,000 Greece 65,000 Hungary 400,000 Slovakia 90,000 .” SS Obersturmbannfuhrer Rudolf Hoess.
Here though, this resettlement destination was to be Birkenau where the vast majority of these Jews were not selected for life, as well as some 1,100,000 other Jews. Aboard this particular Convoi were some 156 Jewish Children, of which there were 79 Jewish Boys and 77 were Jewish Girls. Amongst these, and accompanying the Jewish Children, were Suzanne Berenstam 20 years of age, her Brother Maurice aged 20 years, their Sister Frida and 2 other’s of their Siblings. Tauba Fischer was 35 years of age and she was transported with her 4 Children. Fanny Gutwirth was 20 years of age when she was transported with her 2 Sisters. Dora Haimowitch was 91 years of age when she was transported. Lea Itic was 20 years of age and she was transported with her 3 Siblings. Raymond Raoul Lambert aged 49 and his Wife Simone aged 39 with their 4 Children. Chaja Wiesenfeld was 30 years and departed with her young Twins.
“..Do you know where ..Jews of Austria ..and of Germany ..Holland ..Czechoslovakia and France are. ..in Poland ..taken in cattle cars ..70 into each car. What happened to them I do not know ..I can only guess.” Eva Heyman.
On Saturday December 10th. 1943, while I can state with confidence that none of these Jewish Children forming this Convoi who are named here managed to Survive the selection process. We just don’t know exactly the extent of the immediate desolation of all of the 1,000 Jews who arrived from this Convoi 64. We know that only 267 Jewish Men and 72 Jewish Women were selected for a temporary reprieve and were escorted to the main camp. Of the remaining 661 Jews who are to be Gassed, there are these 156 Jewish Children of this particular Convoi facing immediate and total extinction. We can perhaps assess though, that those who might have somehow survived the selection, with age and stature key here, so they might be included in those who are motioned toward momentary safety.
“..a powerful ..pitiless fact ..thick grass is growing over ..mounds ..ditches ..pits that are ..common graves of ..murdered Jewish Children.” Maria Hochberg-Marianska.
Charlotte Abraham was 5 years of age, Yvonne Abraham was 2 years of age, Michel Baehr was 7 years of age, Jean Claude Baehr was not yet 2 years of age, Andre Basch was just 9 Months old, Henri Berenstam was 12 years of age, Jeanne Berenstam was 10 years of age, Fanny Cogan was 6 years of age, Albert Cogan was 6 years of age, Anna Fischer was 12 years of age, Rosa Fischer was 5 years of age, Chill Fischer was 2 years of age, Israel Fischer was just 8 Months old, Albert Gelbart was 2 years of age, Marcel Gotteszman was not yet 6 years of age, and Marie Claire Gotteszman was 1 year of age.
Henri Grunfeld was 3 years of age, Tobi Grunfeld was just 10 months old, Jerome Hirsch was 13 years of age, Suzanne Hirsch was 1 year of age, Schewa Gutwirth was 17 years of age, Malka Gutwirth was 15 years of age, Suzanne Itic was 17 years of age, Paulette Itic was transported on her 16th. Birthday, Bernard Itic was 8 years of age, Bella Josefowicz was not yet 2 years of age, Albert Jungerman was 2 years of age, Charles Kramm was just 5 Months old, Lionel Lambert was 14 years of age, Marc Lambert was 11 years of age, Tony Lambert was 4 years of age, and Marie Lambert was 1 year of age,
Raymond Linder was 2 years of age, Roland Linder was just 11 Months old, Alice Lorber was 3 years of age, Evelyn Lorber was not yet 5 Months old upon arrival within Birkenau, Monique Makowski was 2 years of age, Michel Marienberg was 7 years of age, Simone Marienberg was not yet 6 Months old upon arrival within Birkenau. Maurice Panzer was 14 years of age, Bianca Panzer was 13 years of age, Suzanne Panzer was 1 year of age, Jacqueline Repper was 5 years of age, Denise Repper was 1 year of age, Maurice Sajovici was 9 years of age, and Dorothee Sajovici was 2 years of age.
Jean Saltiel was 1 year of age, Eliane Schwirtz was 2 years of age, Robert Shay was just 7 Months old upon arrival within Birkenau, Sarah Szatkownik was 17 years of age, Daniel Szatkownik was 4 Months old upon arrival within Birkenau, Rene Tarnowski was 5 years of age, Jean Tarnowski was 1 year of age, Jeannine Wiesenfeld was born on November 29th. 1943 and was just 11 days old upon arrival within Birkenau and Fernande Wiesenfeld was born on November 29th. 1943 and was just 11 days old upon arrival within Birkenau, and Valerie Wtscharbe who was just 18 Months old upon arrival within Birkenau.
“..May 1944 ..Kramer ..only recently arrived at Birkenau. ..Over ..coming 2 months he would oversee. ..arrival of close to 430,000 Hungarian Jews. ..oversee ..gassing to death ..immediately after they arrived ..of over three quarters of these People in ..camp’s killing factories.” Magda Hellinger.
Remember too, the fate of Hungarian Jewry was heightened during this period. From May 15th 1944 until July 9th. 1944, over 55 day’s of intense and concentrated effort, 147 Transports averaging 3,419 Jewish People on each transport amounted to some 502,491 Hungarian Jews delivered direct to Birkenau for Destruction. 9,137 Hungarian Jews on a daily basis within Birkenau, Poland would then be obliterated on average. This you will remember was accomplished while the Gypsy Camp persisted, and as a result of the nearing completion of the Hungarian Jews being annihilated, space was then opened for the Gypsy Camp to be liquidated.
“..There is a difference between ..German orchestrated systems of terror against ..Poles and ..Jews. ..Germans want to ruin ..Polish state as a state. ..with regard to ..Jews ..they want to devastate ..biological substance of ..Jewish Nation. If ..Germans do not change their method of dealing with ..Jewish population ..if there is no effort at Allied intervention ..whether through reprisals or other action ..barring some unforeseen circumstance ..within 18 months of ..time I left ..Homeland ..Jewish People of Poland will cease to exist.” Jan Karski.
While 100’s and even 1,000’s of Polish criminals and political agitators, along with Russian POW’s were killed in Auschwitz, some too in Birkenau, this was not as intended as it had been for the entirety of the Jewish People. The Auschwitz Museum knows this too. In terms of the 1,100,000 Jews completely destroyed, we should expect a more appropriate and balanced presentation of that integral fact. Of course, other Nationals, non-Jews all of them, were killed, died or were even gassed within both Auschwitz and Birkenau. The Auschwitz Museum knows this all too well. Yet! It protects the coverage of such a narrative that presents these others, which further diminishes the entirety of a Jewish removed presence.
“..I didn’t want to go back to Poland. Poles were killing a lot of Jews who returned to claim property ..homes ..other possessions. My Parents were dead. There was nothing to go back to.” Bianca Lerner.
There is an accounting that is 1,100,000 of those Jews never to escape Hitler’s intention here and the narrative is therefore, an effort in concealing the identifying criteria established to obliterate all Jews within Europe. Also, and nothing must obscure the very obvious fact of what was not done to save any of these Jews delivered toward extinction. Identifying all of those, above and beyond the Jewish presence, will not add weight to disguising what is the truth and that it was the Jewish People who were exclusively the people of the Final Solution. Without doubt, it was Hitler who chose the Jews for Slaughter and Hitler also chose Poland to ensure firstly, of the 3,650,000 Polish Jews, more than 3,000,000 of them would be destroyed and confined to a history that distorts that fact. We cannot doubt this without adding to a disservice to Jewish Memory, which history must also ensure for those 1,100,000 Jews of Birkenau.
“..There have been Hitlers everywhere and at all times ..it is Germany’s shame that so miserable a figure could become her leader. In order to germinate ..seed of Nazism had to find a favourable soil ..it found it in ..German Reich and ..Germans ..such as they had become in their political ..spiritual economic and social history.” Wilhelm Roepke.
However, as they reside amongst the 6,000,000 Jewish lost lives, they catapult Birkenau toward a hierarchy of industrial mass murder not equalled in Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor nor Treblinka. For all of these Jews of Birkenau, who are unable to correct the wrongs still being managed against them, we must stand to the fore in order to press memory and recall everything that was done to and against them. It has always appeared unjustifiably wrong, and for me, it is distasteful to make comparisons with the Death of individuals that was incurred during the period of Hitler’s rampage through History. Unfortunately! When it comes to commemorating such losses as these 6,000,000 Jews, all too many seek to place so many others, in seeming importance, and ahead of these Jews, intentionally and systematically sought out for Slaughter. This does not detach any People’s from the consequences of Hitler’s intention.
“..goal ..was a radical solution to ..Jewish problem through ..execution of all Jews.” SS Standartenfuhrer Dr. Rudolf Lange.
While I cannot know the extent of the misery faced by anyone, certainly within the confines of the Death Camps, I know the charge of Hitler was a Jewish Question that must be responded to with a certain cruelty and atrocity. What I do know too is that no Jew was intended to emerge from any of the Death Camps, Birkenau included. The difference sought between the Slaughter intended for the Jews of Europe cannot be but unimaginable in the horrors experience. With the terror suffered and the destruction impacting the very existence of so many other People there is no comparison that can be made to justify the emphasis placed ahead of that Jewish Question being so resolved. Here too there is not to be any comparison in death, and although the intentional inflicting of it by another is more certain a cruelty, death ensures that a person otherwise alive, is indeed dead.
“..Final solution ..Jewish question. ..Jews arrived. ..Half frozen ..starved ..half dead. Old people ..children. ..hustled into 2 ..3 big rooms. ..to undress. ..run down ..steps to ..where ..gas van awaited. ..beaten. ..Jews understood. ..when ..all in ..van. ..pipe ..fed ..gas into ..van. ..started ..motor. ..it started moving. We opened ..gate ..it headed for ..woods.” SS Scharfuhrer Franz Schalling.
I do feel that the Auschwitz Museum is being disingenuous with the truth as it is seemingly padding out the extent to which other’s died, or were killed, or were gassed or indeed were murdered. This imbalance though is all being done to the detriment of 1,100,000 intentionally Slaughtered Jews, Polish Jews too, who were resettled within Birkenau, Poland and who had no other route within the Death Camp system but to die. While it was true that many Jews were also compelled to act as a Sonderkommando, their role was never meant to be but an expedient until a newer incumbent took their place stoking and burying the ash of their own Community’s. I have been on this journey for so long now, I have only a single wish that is 6,000,000 Jews long. To remember them as they should be intended while Hitler’s hatred for them ensure in terms we recall as Genocide and The Holocaust perfectly records their loss to us.
“..remembered all ..murdered ..burned ..strangled Men ..Women ..Children ..Fathers ..Mothers ..Sisters ..Brothers ..congregation choked on its tears. So few had to mourn for so many.” Joseph Schupack.
