The Holocaust

                                               is

                                      The Final Solution

                                                of

                                    The Jewish Question.

“.. Auschwitz ..is a monument to remind humanity ..there once was a nation full of clever ..educated ..disciplined ..methodical people. And ..these people planned and put into effect The Final Solution ..plan to systematically eliminate ..a whole people.” Erika Kounio Amariglio.

It is essential, in reading all we seek to learn, that we appreciate the human despair for the Jewish Parents. Within the confines of the Death Camps, the Jewish Children were coerced to their demise by consoling Family, seeking to ease their distress. The testimony of Filip Mueller provides evidence of exactly what SS voss sought in Birkenau.

“..do you want to make your Children’s last moments needlessly distressing. (SS peter voss).” Filip Mueller.

From 1939 until 1945 Poland existed as a suppressed nation. In that time 3,000,000 of Polish Jewry were sought out from their Nation and were ritually Slaughtered. A further 3 million other Poles were likewise killed, or were Murdered or otherwise died of neglect and hunger. All of this is as a consequence of Hitler’s intervention into Polish sovereign territory.

“..daily ..life was becoming more and more difficult. ..more we were oppressed ..more energy we Jews seemed to have ..always ..will to live found its expression.” Kitty Hart.

For all too many Poles, who escaped and sought to save their national identity, and who died for Poland, no prefix nor suffix given over to the liberation of their beloved Country, Poland, can negate the place of Poland within Europe, occupied or not. For Kitty Hart, from Bielsko, Poland, she identified with where she belonged and recognises in her statement, I am Alive, Auschwitz nor Birkenau had managed to detain her permanently.

“..I heard a baby crying. ..I couldn’t stop and look. ..it smelled ..a horrible stench. ..things in ..fire were moving ..there were babies in ..fire ” Alexander Ehrmann.

On this day January 27th. 1945, the forces of Russia liberated the Auschwitz and Birkenau Death Camp. This was not the liberation of an extermination facility, the SS had already sought to dismantle its capability as a killing centre. This was merely a military objective seeking to roll back Hitler’s long lost Weltanschauung. What had been a World view, included the extermination of All Jews within Europe.

“.at Auschwitz..we endeavoured to fool ..victims ..they were going through a delousing process. ..Women would hide their Children. ..when we found them we would send ..Children in to be exterminated ” SS rudolf hoess.

Let us be clear here, Hoess was ever boastful but accurately proud of his endeavour in delivering for Hitler what hitler expected. While we know full well the capacity to annihilate the Jews of Europe within Birkenau was hugely significant, we are aware that the will to comply and achieve all that could be managed in relation to destroying the Jews of Europe was both a capable and administrative certainty.

“”..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. ..highest number of gassings in one day was 10,000. ..most that could be carried out in a day with ..available facilities.” SS rudolf hoess.

According to Hoess’s boast here, it would take merely 250 days of operation to destroy the 2,500,000 Jews he suggests here.So we are at the threshold of the liberation of all of Europe, from the tyranny imposed by Hitler. None of which had the Jews as an end goal. As we read of the horror to face the Jews at the doorway to extinction, Birkenau offered no reprieve to any hidden, or otherwise, Jewish Child. Nothing was considered by the Allies to stem the flow of Jewish blood shed here at Birkenau, nor at its parent camp, Auschwitz. The Jews were to be a distraction to the war effort

“..I lived through Birkenau without ever understanding how any members of a civilised nation could indulge in such wickedness.” Kitty Hart-Moxon.

The liberation here too was merely a military expedient, an exercise along the route toward forcing Hitler out of power. There are so many Books which open up a pathway toward an understanding we will always find infernally incomprehensible. Twenty years after it was first published, I came across Filip Mueller’s evidenced based book, Eyewitness Auschwitz. 1999 then became a crucial moment in my research of The Holocaust.

“..As ..end draws near ..I remember our dear one. If you meet them again ..tell them I kiss them a 1,000 times ..my beloved Sister ..my Brother and Olinka ..Max ..Lydia ..Danecek and Lianka. ..May they fight courageously for our freedom and revenge innocent blood of their dear ones.” Elly Kulka.

My mind screams, and all too often, and as I am echoing the sounds of a Child’s terror and immense agony, I recognise, there is nothing I can do. So I write these words to console others who must feel as we should, there is nothing we can do but feel. Others, who placed the Jewish Child in harm’s way, should have done more than crush their own moral conscience.

“..during all ..time I lived in Prague unsure if anyone ..asked ..what ..happened in Auschwitz. ..a lack of interest or ..taboo.” Rudolf Vrba.

I was continually recognising, in words written by a Survivor, that I too had an opportunity to learn of an unspeakable crime, always to be heard. Now I could relate the horror, and of that terror, bring it forward for others. I had always been troubled by the realisation that Jewish Children were so consigned to such terror, the horror impacts upon me still.

“..Children started to cry. ..Father’s ..Mother’s lifted them up to comfort them. ..People understood ..resistance was useless. hesitating ..not knowing what to do. ..there was .. SS ..there were ..dogs. ..they must submit. ..Who can tell whether they ..still ..clung to ..a ..last hope ..a miracle might happen. ..death is always inconceivable.” Filip Mueller.

I have always tried to appreciate the hope a Parent engendered in the Child of their deepest concern. I could never appreciate that there could be such terms required so as to sustain the Jewish People from extermination. But hope was eternally served up with such atrocities they were so inconceivable, until they were terminal. The Jews in Auschwitz were given no reason to hope, and yet faith was present for them.

“..Why did they not drop their bombs on that horrible tomb. ..They could have wrecked ..SS barracks ..ramps ..crematoriums ..roads ..rail track. Why didn’t they.” Alfred Wetzler.

In every sinew of what had brought the Jews through 5,000 years of calamity, they faced a finality they could not comprehend. Here though, in places unlike any other, Death Camp Birkenau was the terminating effort. It was in any event so devastating, that hope was replaced by gas and life was so diminished, because it was a Jewish life. The Holocaust now recognises that very diminished Jewish, but lost presence, is to us the detained absence of 6,000,000 Jewish lives.

“..lamentations for ..Jews in Europe has not subsided in 50 years.” Leon Weliczker-Wells.

Remember here, Leon Weliczker-Wells had been through the murder mill of Auschwitz. Leon affords us a further search for his Shattered Faith. Having lost so much, and far too many, how could any Jew, like Leon, ever restore to faith all that has been smashed, decimated and destroyed. It is against all the odds that the Surviving Jew does so. And remarkably.

“..Death Camps ..all of them erected in ..Poland ..served one purpose ..physical and total extermination of Jewish People.” Yitzhak Arad.

Arad was speaking principally here of The Aktion Reinhard Death Camps, but we recognise that within all Death Camps, they were designed as such, and within Poland specifically, for the eradication of the Jews within Poland and then Europe. Also clear after the final resolve was met by the destroyed Jews, there is then the intention to gain profitably from such a process.

On January 27th. 1945 the Russian forces from the 322nd Rifle Division liberate Auschwitz and Birkenau. The remaining Jewish prisoners, those left behind to die, amount to some 7,000 who are eventually liberated, and along with many non-Jews, suffer a debilitating death from the care and concern they were now to receive.

“..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 richard boeck.

We realise too that what the Jewish People managed to bring with them to these gates of hell, was no longer theirs. What these Jews did not realise, and who had already been removed from everyhting they had understood as life, all that was then left behind, all of their worldly goods, this too had gained newer ownership. As the extermination schedule escalated, particularly in line with what Hungarian Jewry was presented with, all was to augur well for the future prosperity of much of Europe.

“..January 27th. 2017 ..day when 72 years ago ..Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps were liberated ..became one of ..saddest reminders in ..history of humanity. It also represents ..beginning of hope for those who .. on January 27th. 1945 were still alive. We are very fortunate to still have some of them among us. These survivors remind us all about ..need to never forget ..mistakes of ..past. It is a day which carries along a double meaning and responsibility.” Klaus Iohannis. The President of Romania.