“..To contribute to an effective awareness of ..destructive forces of racism on nations ..it is necessary to combat bigotry ..prejudice ..intolerance ..its basic ingredients.” Maja Abramowitch.
It is essential to those who not only choose to write, but need to write, and who seek to select the words which must exemplify the genuine concerns they have, is to own their integrity. But not simply just to gift to posterity exactly what we learn of what is known, but to ensure we are learning the exactly truthful lessons of the past. With that intrinsic knowledge, and for that very need to share in this demand, so as to deliver a clarity of truth that is so obvious, we learn of what 6,000,000 Jews succumbed to. My whole body of work on The Holocaust, is drawn along by this essential integrity, which in all of History must ensure truth is what truly matters. All of this has seen my concern, and while all of this has all too often impacted upon my own person, this has brought sharply into focus what must have stunned, shocked and detained all Jewish understanding of what civilisation and society abandoned them to.
“..By clumping Jews together with Soviet citizens ..commemoration turned into empathy for ..Soviets at large rather than specifically for ..innocent Jews who were ..targets of ..majority of ..deliberate mass civilian killing.” Felicia Carmelly.
There is a 2,000 year old hatred that was levelled against the Jews of Europe, and is still being directed against the Jews to this day. But my concern lingers over the period during which its most fevered assault upon the integrity of the Jewish People, consigned 6,000,000 of them to eternity, this is The Holocaust. This expression though, and still existing to this day, which I will not disregard, but it must not allow for The Holocaust narrative to veer away from its relationship to time and place. The very constraints in a period of that time, where enactment and cause sought to satiate Hitler’s demand in the blood of the Jewish People. As the lessons from a lost humanity are still being enacted, they are reverberating and being played out for other genocides to leech through and contaminate the future of us all. The pressure placed upon any and all further meaningful life has not derived from the sure lessons to be gained from the most despicable genocide ever to be perpetrated against a People. The human dignity of life, human persistence and even the very dignity to be afforded to all People must not be lost to the vagaries of a hatred for the Jewish People that still manages to troll the Earth.
“..no lack of love for German nationality or lack of a feeling of national dignity but also not to underestimate ..harmful Jewish influences upon German culture and national interests.” Cardinal Adolf Bertram.
For all that we search through, for everything that remains that is pertinent to the study of such a human atrocity, and which signifies the presence of this oldest hatred, can no longer afford for us to continually look to religious intolerances, and as they are clearly expressed. With a continued antisemitism that is both vulgar and conforming to what The Final Solution of the Jewish Question did not fully accomplish for Hitler, we cannot ever allow for what denial and distortion seeks further to strip away from these Jewish People. What Hitler fully sought out, and in terms of the fullest magnitude of a genocidal achievement, this must not be the learned lesson we take forward. Of all of what must have any meaning to all of humanity, and toward the very expression of what the term Never Again must mean, we must learn positively. For us to override all primal considerations, and mean exactly that never again must never repeat atrocity on any scale at all, mass murder on such a scale as was experienced by the Jews, must never be allowed to happen again. Unfortunately, history has proved all too readily that the lesson of what can be gained from such Slaughter, has awakened a very brutal presence for mankind to occupy.
“..How abysmally asleep is a conscience when it must be aroused to be told there is there is something morally wrong about pressing candy upon a little boy to induce him to enter a gas chamber of death.” Judge Michael A. Musmanno.
For a man who stood before the alter of judicious propriety, so as to judge Adolf Eichmann, and for that very reason for all Justice to become a demand, I look to all of history before I let semantics arbitrarily form opinions based upon only a part of that History. The Holocaust is beyond the comparisons some seek to make, but as Michael Musmanno states, for those pressing the Child into extinction, for simply being a Jew, this is a criminal act beyond all moral or ethical efficacy and bears no comparison. For this very reason, I have adopted the much fuller and broader term of Always to Remember, Never to Forget to remind the World of such a descent of humanity toward as complete an inhumanity as has ever been recorded or recognised. This is for me, and so as to ensure we hold onto every single memory of the testimony to what 6,000,000 Jews could not endure, and that we add to their memory, my reason for adding to the words, works and even the books I produce. For us to ever become uncompromising in what we now demand for all future People, we must become apologetic over what happened in the past to those Jews of Europe who were massacred as we stood aside and allowed it to happen.
“..whole complex had forty-six retorts ..each with ..capacity for three to five persons. ..burning in a retort lasted about half an hour. ..it was theoretically possible to cremate about 12,000 corpses in twenty four hours ..4,380,000 a year. ..well-constructed crematoria fell far behind at a number of camps ..especially at Auschwitz in 1944. In August ..total cremation reached a peak one day of 24,000 ..still a bottleneck occurred. Camp authorities needed an economic and fast method of corpse disposal ..dug six huge pits beside Krema V ..reopened old pits in ..wood. ..late 1944 ..pit burning became ..chief method of corpse disposal. ..pits had indentations at one end from which human fat drained off. To keep ..pits burning ..stokers poured oil ..alcohol ..large quantities of boiling human fat over ..bodies.” Filip Muller.
In this, and for what the civilised World allowed to happen to these innocent Jewish People, because they were Jews, drives this need I have, ever forward. The book deal I had initially made, did not take a fuller account of the personal investment my attention and involvement would demand, I gained an even greater impression of my own human concerns. In order then to be in some form of ethical and moral order, I prepared the words so as to gain publication. All of these words, would thus add to the works I have to deliver on the Jewish Holocaust, and this was quite clear to me. I would write at least 3 Books on the terms of The Holocaust, and so as to express my own accusation for what was allowed to happen to these Jews, I sought the truth all too often being hidden. For all of the Jewish People that were sought out for Slaughter, they require whatever memory we can provide to ensure they are Remembered more truthfully than some would allow.
“..As long as we live ..they too will live ..for they are now a part of us. As we remember them.” Felicia Carmelly.
This need for memory cannot ever be allowed to be remotely forgotten or somehow divested of its terrible legacy for society. We are in the grips of many attempts which seek to deny to Hitler any semblance of that demand for the complete evisceration of the Jews, as a People he is responsible for as he secured. For over 12,000,000 Jews of Europe, who were a live, vibrant and essential community, still yet to be recalled for posterity as Hitler sought the moment to act genocidally, we have a duty of concern to build upon. While it remains true, that in memory we cannot be so selective that we can choose to forget what is important in telling the truth of our search, we must place the signature of Hitler before the physical omission, and which is essential to honest study, we look to 6,000,000 destroyed Jews to give us the example we need to save all future existence. In essence then, any form of distortion is negating all of history’s scientific demands, and my own work is focused on attempting to ensure the maintenance of that truth.
“..Some ..commandants not ..interested in ..affairs of ..prisoners and gave full power to their deputies ..camp leaders. ..commandant Weiss out of gratitude and as a proof that among ..despots of ..concentration camp there were also some with human feelings. He introduced many pleasant changes in ..camp and checked personally if his regulations and orders were observed. He forbade ..deliberate beating of ..prisoners by ..Capos and camp seniors ..he personally inspected criminal reports ..he himself determined ..punishment and was present when it was carried out ..lest abuses were introduced. He also removed an abuse ..namely that ..prisoners had to be close-cropped and had to have a still shorter strip ..so called ..path in ..middle of ..head. To preserve ..prisoners strength for ..armaments industry ..Weiss permitted them to receive food parcels which made it possible for a large number of prisoners to keep alive in ..camp until the end. Often he also showed a fundamentally good heart to us ..special prisoners ..and procured manifold facilities for us. In ..last phase he became inspector of ..concentration camps”. Bishop Dr. Johannes Neuhausler.
What words I use, that would at least take us upon a positive journey, and toward an ever more comprehensive and fundamental surety of our understanding, these truths are always sought. This too is my reason to keep searching, and while this alone would not recognise the very nature of the incomprehensible details of this inhumanity, it would bring us closer to a comprehension we have yet to grasp. It is never my wish to be abusive, or indeed confrontational, but there is a monumental abuse which those of church and state sought to ameliorate. In the very terms of atrocity, which 6,000,000 Jews from everywhere in Europe could not finally endure, there is a church and states that stood aside and refrained from all moral responsibility in saving human life. While this truth of neglect of conscience remains, and is regardless of whether the abandoned People were Jews or even non-Jews, the fact remains that no much effort was focused upon saving any of the 6,000,000 Jews consumed in bullets, flames and the gassing they were never expected to survive.
“..I was a member of ..hard labor groups called ..Hundertschaft ..because we worked in units of 100. Mostly cleaning ..with very little of ..standard equipment such as buckets ..brooms ..rags ..ad water was usually turned off centrally as added torture by ..sadistic ..Kommandant. I was also assigned to work for ..Czech farmers in ..surrounding area ..marching out early and marching back into ..camp late. Always under Czech police guard. These farmers who supposedly ..now ..knew nothing of what was going on ..had contracted for our cheap labor with ..SS commander.” Charlotte Guthmann Opfermann.
The sheer lack of morality, of seeing the extent to which slavery in the camp system did not impose its moral objection here, particularly upon those of faith, is both unethical and hypocritical. It is an imperative too that we realise and recognise in the meaning of all truthful research, that we appreciate all which must remain within our humanity so as to secure it. It is here, in that continuing search, where the not so civilising consequences for society are to be met, that we recognise more than just the lives of these Jews is lost. My initial work, Testimony and Fading Memory in The Holocaust, which sought for me to ensure my own appreciation of that needed search, leads me towards other works. Clearly, and for an understanding of the sheer lack of comprehension, that not even a Survivor’s testimony would properly secure, we recognise what all too many refuse now to acknowledge. We have barely moved further down the road than when we become a witness to what places like Babi-Yar, Tuchinka, Belzec or Treblinka resonates with.
“..In order that we should succeed in our war against ..Jews ..it was essential that we should take possession of Poland ..since here ..in Poland ..there was a natural fertility of ..Jewish people. It existed only here and in no other place. Following ..extermination of ..Jews of Poland ..from ..point of view of ..essence of their blood ..future of ..Jewish people had been totally done away with ..for only here were there Jews who had children.” Governor General Hans Frank.
There is, and particularly from within Poland, the entirety of a nation which failed in its moral responsibility to act with compassion. For a nation to ensure the sanctity of all Jewish life, and that the Jews were going to be protected, it needed more of this nation to stand for the Jews of their own Community. Not just that, and from within Poland itself, the ability for hatred to engage liberally with delivering the Polish Jewish People into the Death Camps and oblivion, has been real. The formative in this need to deliver to posterity all testimonial evidence’s that ensure the truth is factually recorded, leans heavily upon a truth that proves distasteful to the accused. All of this unwillingness amongst some states to come to terms with such truths, has seen history being compromised, and in newer distortions, corrupted. Of course, the fading nature of that very evidence has recognised our mounting loss for all of those survivors who are the very witnesses to a systematic atrocity we look to delve into.
“..In Majdanek and everywhere in Poland. They gave what is ..best in humanity. I have it all ..in my soul ..letters written to me by many. Everything is possible ..in spite of other manifestations. I ..myself have never experienced any animosity toward me and what I represent. There is always ..goodwill and hope.” Halina Birenbaum.
Also, and for all of those Jewish Survivor’s who finally came forward, who brought with their testimony, a reality so horrifying, we wonder at why so many sought a certain silence. For them was the searing text of what they have actually survived and have been continually asked to endure over and over in testimony. For these Jews, and for our search, they are those very people who must therefore step away from the security of a tenure of that safety existing in forgetfulness. The Jewish survivors are perpetually devastated by the oppressive nature of such a memory as we expect and demand they relay, and constantly. Tragically too, and for the Jewish survivor’s continuing passing from us, our drain upon their first hand resource is all too rapidly approaching. We can be certain too, and with our demands, what is placed upon what we needed to visit in The Holocaust of history, is a devastation the Jews have fought to escape. Thus recognised, their approaching loss is to us all, and as we seek to secure ever more truths and evidences we measure all future loss of such resource as ever more devastating.
“..This book has been difficult to research and to write. One does not wish to believe ..facts revealed by ..documents on which it is based. America ..land of refuge ..offered little succour. American christians forgot about ..Good Samaritan. Even American Jews lacked ..unquenchable sense of urgency ..crisis demanded. Nazis were ..murderers ..but we were ..all too passive accomplices.” David S. Wyman.
These Jewish losses must be the very detailed accounts of such is our condemnation, and delivered with our most compassionate concern, that all of history will finally resonate with the humanity these Jews were deprived of. There is always an urgent need to learn All that must Never be forgotten now, before the final passing of the Jewish survivor deprives us of any first hand evidence’s. The grief over their loss, that will then leave us with no first hand rendering and testifying of their truth, which we most surely need, is to be deeply regretted. My 2nd. Book then, der Ensatgruppe and The Destruction of European Jewry is a provocative assessment of how both this effort to destroy all of Jewish existence is met and exactly how it came into the historical domain. The very nature of the accounting, which led directly from the sites of Jewish destruction to Hitler’s table, became the immediate knowledge of a burgeoning horror for the allied powers to recognise. All of which will exemplify, in my own position taking us on a journey that takes us all the way through from book one till I will complete all the books I have yet to deliver.
“..Nazis were responsible for this tragedy it is they who murdered most of 3,000,000 Jews who lived in Poland before World War II. ..Germans were able to mobilize segments of ..Polish society to take part in their plan to hunt down ..Jews and help them carry out their Final Solution.” Jan Grabowski.
For me, and this has seen in the position of two books by distinguished writers on the subject of the ‘Jews For Sale’ by Yehuda Bauer and the very fact that such a title like ‘The Abandonment of The Jews’, as asserted by David S. Wyman, can resonate so deeply with me. These books are both an accusation I seek to resolve and a remonstration with those who committed such acts of atrocity with an impunity and unconcern that is astonishing. For the debauchery of the perpetrator fully demands our damnation of these, and the participator in such culpability as is complicit, we recognise the depths to which so many descended. That role is examined in my 3rd. Book too, Babi Yar a Jewish Catastrophe, and as this is clearly a detail so well accounted for in Nazi documents, 33,771 atrocities are liberally recorded. It is apparent in all studies of The Holocaust itself that this is the single most and significant atrocity to be waged by Hitler’s echelons. For such an atrocity, whose enormity was waged over such a short period of time, just 2 days, the tragedy for the Jews of Kiev resonates alongside the name of one man, Paul Blobel.
“..Jews attempted to save Jews from ..Nazis through negotiations and for varying motives a few Nazis entered into such discussions. Most ..failed ..some succeeded. But considering them might be of importance ..because they raise a host of historical ..philosophical ..more issues.” Yehuda Bauer.
After my 3rd. Book had been written, I sought advice from Elie Wiesel, not knowing if my 4th. Book would be given the go ahead. Taking Elie’s advice, and having listened to the strongest of opinions forwarded by other Survivors, I instead sought to research The Death Camp Belzec. This space, an apparent obscenity obscured by focus placed upon Auschwitz, opened me to me to a physical link back, in part, to what some of the experience right up to the gates might have been like. For Belzec, this rather obscured Death Camp, is somewhat overlooked by all reference to Auschwitz. And that is certainly true for mention of Birkenau, Auschwitz’s fully established Death Camp factory. Both of these spaces are publicised above and beyond any focus upon any other of the 5 remaining Death Camps in Poland, including Belzec. After visiting Belzec, I realised there was this incentive to disclose such ans onerous place to further scrutiny and to the fuller rigours of informed research and study. I was quickly made aware that if no study of The Holocaust could be definitive, no such completion of that search could be reached without clearer definition of the space occupied by Belzec. Clearly, and as a Death Camp of such gravity, it is generally overlooked as some form of outpost of all that was achieved by such establishments.
“..Belzec was both a testing and proving ground in extermination ..The Holocaust was fully borne.” Patrick Dempsey.
To be certain, that we could be more than understanding of Belzec’s place within The Holocaust term, the space had to be more clearly defined than has been formerly recognised. It is clear too, that from within The Aktion Reinhard system for Jewish destruction, Belzec is supremely registering of atrocity beyond those previous records presented. Of course, alongside all of this, there was the abounding tragedy of Poland’s misguided wish to misrepresent even The Holocaust in their own history and from their own back yard. Given that the very nature of The Holocaust commenced with Hitler’s World View, and The Final Solution of the Jewish Question was Hitler’s abiding demand, Belzec came into view atop Kozielsk Hill. Also, and what emerges from Hitler’s fevered vision of this Weltanschauung, and that this is his derived essential in die Endlosung der Judenfrage, this is the very nature of The Holocaust that we recognise Hitler’s fingerprints upon and in every detail.
“..middle of January 1943 ..they woke us up. We saw that we were surrounded by SS men who were stationed around ..Sanok ghetto. They ordered us to line up in ..courtyard ..allowed each one to take a blanket ..and led us on foot to ..Zaslaw camp. At Zaslaw they put everyone into one hall and kept us there for 3 days and 2 nights. They didn’t give us any food or drink. They didn’t allow us to go outside for our personal needs. We relieved ourselves inside this hall. Everything. In front of each other ..women ..children and men together. On Friday morning they put us into railway wagons. In ..morning we heard that a train was arriving and we saw that there were 10 railway wagons. At ..railway entrance SS men stood with dogs ..they commanded us to get into them ..to crowd into these wagons. We didn’t resist and we boarded ..train. We no longer had any strength left. Very simply ..we wanted it to end quickly. After so many years we did not have ..strength to resist any more. We were 1,300 souls. And we were lucky. I counted ..people in our wagon ..there were 103 of us. This was a French freight wagon ..there was a notice on ..door 8 horses or 40 people. I read French. When they put us in all together into ..wagons ..there was no place to stand or sit. Some ..people sat on ..floor ..some stood ..then every hour we exchanged positions. We relieved ourselves in ..corner of this wagon. There were women and children and old people together. They closed ..door. ..windows were already shut ..and also secured with barbed wire. I was in that wagon from Friday morning until 2 o’clock ..next morning. They gave us neither food nor drink. They didn’t even allow us to bring snow into ..wagon. We wanted to quench our thirst with snow ..even this they forbade ..and they shot into ..wagon ahead of us because someone had brought a little snow into it. Towards noon ..train moved. We could notice through ..aperture in ..windows that ..train was travelling in ..direction of Przemysl ..after that in ..direction of Jaroslaw. We knew that they were exterminating ..Jews of ..surroundings in ..Belzec. We decided that if ..train turned to ..right in ..direction of Rawa Ruska ..we would try to burst out of ..train. To ..right was in ..direction of Belzec ..and left in ..direction of Krakow. We still had only a spark of hope that perhaps they were transferring us to Plaszow ..a labour camp near Krakow. We knew it because they announced ..day and night ..that they needed ..trains for their victory. We couldn’t understand that nevertheless they found ..time to transport ..Jews for extermination all the time and to use trains for them. On every train there was an inscription ..Wheels must roll for ..sake of victory. At that time I didn’t believe that ..programme was to destroy ..Jewish People ..despite ..fact that I had heard reports from Belzec. We received reports ..but ..spark of hope ..nevertheless ..still flickered in our hearts and we hoped that ..perhaps ..despite this ..some miracle would occur. They kept promising day and night that they were stopping ..deportations ..exterminations. For from ..moment that we saw that ..train was going in ..direction of Belzec ..it turned in ..direction of Rawa Ruska ..some spark was ignited. We managed to force ..window open and several of ..people in ..train jumped out. We saw someone jumping and some spark was kindled within people who wanted to save themselves. Each time a person jumped out ..we heard shots. On each wagon there was an SS man with a machine gun. At approximately 2 o’clock in ..morning ..this was beyond Jaroslaw ..my mother pushed me from ..wagon and told me to jump. I jumped from ..wagon. As I said ..we wanted to die more quickly. There nevertheless was an impulse. I wouldn’t have jumped ..if my mother hadn’t pushed me forcibly. I left behind ..my mother ..my brother. I hid in ..snow. They halted ..train and began to shoot in my direction. I crossed to ..other side of ..track and dug myself into ..snow ..I remained in ..snow for 2 hours until I heard ..train moving. I didn’t see my mother after this ..nor any members of my family.” Yakov Gurfein.
What is, and what cannot be definitive in any of this search, is the total loss to humanity that we recognise as far in excess of these 6,000,000 Slaughtered Jews of Europe that is so often presented to us. Not even Belzec affords us the fuller records of what can only be suggested as to the total losses to be recognised here. What we are made aware of is that some 1,800,000 Jews were detained here at Belzec as the Head Teacher of the Belzec School, Eustachy Ukrainski suggests. Perhaps though we strike a differing accord with the Mayor of Belzec, Ludwik Obalak, who reasoned that some 1,500,000 Jews entered Belzec without ever leaving. Struggle as I might, I cannot ever come to terms with these figures becoming abandoned to a supposedly acceptable yet uncertain and under representative level. All too readily the World seems accepting of such a figure as 6,000,000 Slaughtered Jews without properly identifying with this as a rather conservative estimate.
“..midsummer ..early autumn 1942 ..arrived at Treblinka from Belzec. ..Malkinia station ..already dark by ..time I reached Treblinka. In ..camp there were bodies lying everywhere. ..they were all swollen. ..dragged through ..camp to ..upper section by Jews. ..working Jews were forced to keep moving by ..Ukrainian guards ..also ..Germans. ..saw them being beaten. ..tremendous confusion and a horrible din. ..went walking around ..camp. ..established ..some ..guard squads were with girls and ..put down their rifles. ..I established order. I reported to Wirth in ..dining room Wirth ..Stangl ..Oberhauser were there. ..next day ..no longer ..bodies lying around. ..about 9.00am ..transport arrived. ..men ..already standing naked in .. reception yard.” SS Untersturmfuhrer Kurt Franz.
I have found for myself, and what has been far in excess of what has been otherwise suggested, so as to add further to the overall assessment of loss here within Belzec. Though the relationship between the loss of 884,700 Jews here is conceivably made, and as these Jews remain within the pits dug in Belzec, and their ashes are interred for eternity, we stand over an estimate which is as unsure as it certainly is incomplete. The fact too that Hitler’s Belzec has recorded each and every estimate, will not allow the growing dissent within Poland to point us away from what happened to Polish Jewry on Polish lands and at whose behest. My own assessment, and this too is perhaps a rather conservative estimate, of the total contempt for Jewish existence here, it must stand above what we have been previously expected to accept. For Poland to come to terms with both its Jewish Community being sold and their physical abandonment, we might yet give rise to a more comprehensive study of the Jewish loss within the lands of Poland.
“..As always it was good to hear from you again. A major part of ..problem is that there were only two confirmed survivor of Belzec Rudolf Reder and Chaim Hirszman. ..latter was killed in 1946 by an anti- Russian Polish militia. ..battle for memory gets harder year after year as ..survivors as well as others on ..scene fade away. Our task is to keep it alive. This battle will go on long after we’re gone too. Hoping you are well and ..as always ..best regards.” Aaron Breitbart.
