This Holocaust Author's Auschwitz Blog

Testimony and Remembrance!

” ..Opening ..Bible at random I find this:- ‘ Lord is my high tower’ I am sitting on my rucksack in ..middle of a full freight car. Father ..Mother ..Mischa ..a few cars away. ..departure came without warning ..sudden special orders from The Hague. ..left ..camp singing ..Father ..Mother firmly ..calmly ..Mischa ..too. We shall be travelling for three days. Thank you for all your kindness and care. Friends left behind will still be writing to Amsterdam ..perhaps you will hear something from them. Or from my last letter from camp. Good-bye for now from ..four of us.” Etty Hillesum.

Ettie Hillesum offers us a Remembrance which is so important on many levels! With regard to the 6,000,000 Murdered Jews of The Holocaust, Ettie was just one amongst that volume of Remembrance Memory which is clearly not enough! It is essential that we retrieve for History the exact detail which accounts for all of those Jews who were Murdered. For those Jews whose Names are Forgotten we cannot retrieve their identities! For those Jews whose Names are Missing, we may never find them and for those Jews whose Names are Unknown to us all, we have lost an integral part of our own History. We need to make the effort to remember what we can recall of them. From those who knew them or have information pertinent to their having passed this way, it is ever more urgent that we add to the detail of what is known of all 6,000,000 of those Murdered Jews of The Holocaust.

Especially for me, and in Tokele’s name, my work is for the many Infant Jewish Children, who hadn’t been allowed to live long enough to have enjoined the community of life or for some who have had no Name given to them. We need to afford a Memory that belongs to all of these Children so that History will know them! Jewish Babies, Infants, Children not even given enough life to qualify them an individual footprint in our time, we should recall their passing. All of these Children are fixed securely amongst the 6,000,000 Innocent Jewish People who are lost to us. Their Murders, in an account which defies what the Past in History expects, in a lesson we must learn for the future, shames us today for our failure in that past.

Tomorrow is that future, and while having barely scratched the surface of The Holocaust account, what can we deliver to Tomorrow that will be a positive gain? We know the personnel involved in the Murders. We know Hitler exempted himself from the litany of accusation by a death in his bunker. With a supposed ideology that he was cowardly enough to not dare face scrutiny over, Hitler cheated both his accusers and the German people. We clearly know the many acts of savagery that were enacted upon Innocent Jewish Lives in his name! What we cannot have, given his empirical effort, are the Names, the Personalities, the Memories of those who were Murdered, hidden by an effort that was Genocidal. Too many, whose loss is secreted amidst the enormous undertaking of his Final Solution, will never be found. But for us, we are left with a Tomorrow where we are supposed to learn from their Yesterday, with little or nothing of them to go on!

What Should a Pope have Known about Cracow?

We have heard many assertions that Karol Wojtyla was a kind and just man, and we clearly have the evidence of such statements to prove this is accurate. This is almost an adjunct, however, when some assert that this was especially so in his relationship to the Jews. Could there be an underpinning motive in now declaring that Pope John Paul II was a saviour of Jews? We know that Karol went to Wadowice School with Jews and a Jewish boy, Jerzy Kluger, who was amongst 2,000 Jewish Citizens of the Town of Wadowice was his closest friend. A lifelong friendship has ensued, despite the fact that Jerzy’s Mother, his Sister and his Grandmother having all been expelled from their homes to the ghetto, were later transported to Auschwitz. It must be remembered that Auschwitz was close enough to Wadowice for the town to capture the full scent, and even the rain burdened with the ash from the Kremas of Birkenau. The picture sets an idyllic scene, but what must have been known should have alerted more.

The fact that the Germans blew the town’s Synagogue to bits must have been known to Karol, and steadied his view of the German occupation. There is a rare photo, captured by a local inhabitant, who no doubt shared the evidence of the conflagration with all who wished to see? All of this however, cannot guarantee Karol’s anonymity from such close proximity to The Holocaust. Its ravages and the destruction of those very many Jews Karol had known from the town itself, could not be hidden from his view. It is essential therefore, if we are to accredit the late Pope with any righteous status, with regard to the Jews of The Holocaust, for us to know if indeed the late Pontiff knew what had happened to those, the now missing Jews of Wadowice?

It must be clear that Karol knew exactly what was happening to the Jews in Wadowice, as he and Mieczyslaw Kotlarcyzk communicated on a regular basis. Karol could not have failed to have been informed of the Ghettoisation and Transportation of Jews from his own community toward Auschwitz, even as he was in Cracow. A Survivor of the Ghetto has this to say of Karol:-

“..was one of those whose behaviour was model.” Zygmund Ehrenhalt.

We know too that while in Cracow, the University was closed under Nazi remit, Professors were caged and ‘resettled’ at Sachsenhausen and the sub-Camp of Oranienburg, and some were even shot. But the Jews of Cracow could surely not have escaped his attention as they filed past, carrying all their worldly goods, and pressed forward toward the Podgorce district and then later onto the transports to Auschwitz?

On Saturday 13th. March 1943, with the final days of the Cracow Ghetto upon us, Jewish eminence in the Town was ended. Many of the then-liquidated Jews were actually shot in the Zgoda Square. Also shot this day, was the town of Wadowice’s own Rabbi Seltenreich, a friend of the Kruger Family. Would Karol have not been informed of this massacre in Zgoda Square? Did Karol not see the slaughter at Zgoda for himself? When all is said and done we must consider how Karol resides in the memory of us as Catholics! Was the Pope a good Man? Undoubtedly he was one of our finest! Was he a Good Christian? By all acounts he was a very good Christian indeed!

Was he a great Man? Well if we are to posit this, we must consider what it is that makes some people great. Surely it is in their innate ability to make us feel good about ourselves! For me, there are too many questions which lie prostrate before the late Pope for that to be certain, just yet! For me also, would the below statement be therefore contrary to the considered opinion of the Jewish Community, after The Holocaust?

When the Germans began rounding up other than the Jewish People, and Polish men were sought for German enforced Labour, Karol took refuge in the Archbishop of Cracow’s residence. There was very good reason for those, like Karol, who held such staunchly Catholic beliefs, to remain hidden from Nazi zeal. However, some 2,647 Catholic Priests were confined to Concentration Camps throughout the Reich and even in the Death Camps of the Greater Reich, where many died. Hitler dealt with the Catholic Church with a contempt and a psychotic wish to wipe out all the precepts of Catholic influence throughout Germany and her new satellite states.

Karol himself remained underground, and within the confines of the Archbishop of Krakow’s residence, until liberation by the Russians had commenced and the end of the war had been finally confirmed. Within this period, an assessment of Karol Wojtyla’s righteous behavior toward the Jewish People, contests that he helped supply 50,000 Jews with false papers and hid some 2,500 Jewish Children throughout the Ministry of the Catholic Church in Crakow. In view of this assessment, Karol Wojtyla might well be considered a ‘Righteous Among Nations’ as he is now considered Saintly!

Some of the Murdered of Wadowice.

Alster, Josef

Aurbach, Rachel

Backer, Eliasz Eliahu

Becker, Bronia Bronia

Becker, Eliahu

Beckier, Rozalia

Beer, Bentzion

Better, Rywka

Bienenstock, Jakob

Bienenstock, Sara

Bienenstock, Jonas

Bienenstock, Eliezer

Bittner, Malka

Bronner, Salamon

Cisner, Mania?

Hofman, Tzipora

Kelin, Osias Yehoshua

Kel, Abraham

Klein, Pauline

Kleinman, Shimshon

Rubner, Gitel

Sheingut, Mikhael

Sheingut, Avraham

Sherfer, Rubin

Vaserteil, Tehila

Veinshtein, Aba

How many of these Murdered Jews of Wadowice did Karol Wojtyla know? For me it is an essential, that in knowing your Community, you know what happens from within that Community!

See also: http://www.auschwitz.dk/Kolbe.htm The ‘Saint of Auschwitz’

The Ambiguity of A Pope with the Authority of Christ.

Though shalt not place any false Gods before me. God so demanded we acknowledge the monotheism in God, the Church should have been more aware than this, that Nazism was evil, and Hitler its prime motivator. There is this question, and I suggest it is an ambiguous one concerning Pius XII’s role in the midst of The Holocaust. There appears throughout the period what is a seeming neutral stance when the Ministry of Christ should have been vociferous in its condemnation. We have to be clear in this, and if there is any accusation to be countered when we question the lessons of Christ’s role during the days of Jewish Torment and Destruction, then it wasn’t voiced clearly then and it should be stressed more strongly now.

There is a vagueness when the historian, the researcher or even should the Survivor ask of my Church, what was the Church’s role in the crisis? I have to admit that too much went unsaid for a Church whose sanctity is embedded in Charity to the Individual.

“..Love Thy Neighbour as Thyself.”

Too much was not done and far too many Jews died as a consequence of Church – and World – inactivity. For the Church, that seemingly stemmed from an unequivocal position that the Pope stuck rigidly to. But that is where the similarity departs from a Hierarchy of the Church and those many individual Priests, Nuns and even Bishops, acting in consort with their Faith. Individuals who stood firmly against the tide that was sweeping all Jews from this life. Look at the example History records of the disparity between two positions, when the Church calls into stark relief its so called ‘neutral’ (sic) position and when it acts with a clarion call to the Faithful to Recall their Faith, Uphold their Beliefs and Act in accordance with Church Statute.

1) In 1933, on July 20th. a Reich Concordat between Germany and Pope Pius XI and the Vatican was signed.

This was to be a treaty protecting all Catholic rights in Germany, and the operation of Mother Church as its own entity. The Nazi ideal of recognising no Faith above that of Hitler by-passed the role of the Church and regarded all Churches as working deviantly against the will of the Fuhrer.

2) In 1939, on August 24th. Pope Pius XII appeals for peace.

After the crisis in Czechoslovakia, Austria and the Sudetenland, the sabre rattling had not ceased. The escalation was aimed toward the very heart of Catholic influence in Europe: Poland.

3) Russia invaded Finland on November 30th. 1939.

The Vatican was quick to respond, and issued its rebuke to Russia for its aggressive assault upon a Sovereign Nation. There was a particular antipathy between the Russian State and the Vatican, as Communism squarely rounded upon any belief system which did not advocate the form of totalitarianism Stalin represented. It is perhaps to counter the Marxist idea that Church was not truly the panacea of the People, and surely did not recognise in Christ that borne ideal of a Communist spirit.

4) Then we see, that at the negotiating table in December 1939, when Germany proposed Papal mediation of peace with the West.

Meanwhile talk was of shipping all of Germany’s Jews to either Palestine or a rather large Ghetto of Madagascar. Did the Church protest such an inhuman undertaking? It is not resonating through our History that the Church would have seen either measure as other than a German solution to a Jewish Question?

5) On January 22nd. 1940 the Vatican attacks German conduct in Poland.

We know by now that Hitler had unleashed an embryonic Einsatzgruppe to wreak havoc amongst the locals, and the Jews of Poland. What these erstwhile Catholics or Christians thought of their roles in the Murders of fellow Catholics and Christians is not clear. But it is obvious that the indoctrination of an antisemitic hatred has imbibed these roving bands of Murderers to act without conscience!

6) When Hitler attacked France, Holland, Belgium and Luxemberg, May 10th. 1940, the Papacy was quick once more to regale the aggressor Hitler for such an act.

Once again the Vatican stepped into the Political arena and involved itself rightly in the admonition of Hitler for his aggressive stance and warring nature. That same response was largely unheard by the Jews, who stood amidst the greatest carnage ever delivered upon a People!

7) 1940 December Vatican condemns Nazi ‘mercy killings.’

While it is entirely within the remit of any Church or belief system to propose the cessation of ‘the killing of innocents’ the prospect should be lauded when that exact same demand is made of All beings, whatever their Creed, Ability or lack of Psychological coherence!

8) On January 17th. 1941 Bishop Konrad Preysing informs us of what the Pope knows!

We have to realistically assume, that when Konrad Preysing, the Bishop of Berlin, wrote to Pope Pius XII of his own very deep concern over the fate of the Jews of Europe, it is evident that the Pope would surely have already known all that the German Church must have been aware of. Each Catholic or Christian Church, throughout continental Europe, would have to know what existed immediately outside of their own Church doors? While anti-Jewish attacks are breaking out in Romania, and the Jews are under constant threat, the Church communion does not receive the necessary guidance from its own shepherd, which is so demanded of all of us Christians. That which was so demanded by Christ, to love thy neighbour as thy self, required a certain lead from those who propose to lead us in Christ’s way. This lead, that might have at least alleviated the suffering of some of these Jews, and might, given the confronting ability to halt Hitler’s public awareness of the euthanasia programme (or at least the visibly recognisable terms of it) just might have saved more Jews than we managed to eventually save.

“..Your Holiness is certainly informed about ..situation of ..Jews in Germany and ..neighbouring countries.” Bishop Preysing.

9) February 1942 and Bishop Berning confirms the sheer scale of The Final Solution will result in the Extermination of the Jews, ‘entirely’.

“..Transports from Berlin arrive ..Kovno ..doubtful ..anybody ..alive. No ..news ..Minsk ..Riga. Many ..shot. ..intention ..to exterminate ..Jews entirely.” Bishop Berning.

10) In August 1943 Father Benoit sought Pope Pius’s permission to allow Jews out of harm’s way and into Italy.

11) May 1st. 1945 and Cardinal Bertram contends with the holding of a Mass for the Death of a Tyrant, the most despicable man in all of History.

“..hold a solemn requiem mass in memory of der Fuhrer.” Cardinal Bertram.

While we can see such inconsistency within just these simple positions, what was more clear was the unequivocal lack of response to the growing awareness that the destruction of the Jewish People was underway. History has proved that Hitler did not need this inconsistency with the Holy See. For the gain of total victory, this would propose a more drastic resolve in his treatment of the Jews placed upon such a culpable silence. None of this should have prevented the Church from its moral obligation to protect all Peoples, including The Jews of Europe, who in their direst hour of gravest need, required sanctuary. Perhaps, with a more vocal outcry, certainly against any measures we all now consider inhuman, and that were being waged against the Jews throughout the period 1933 – 1945, more Jews would have been saved and would have Survived! There can be no doubting that a more sustained accusation by the Pope or a more determined approach to saving the Jews would have only been as Christ would have expected and even demanded.

A Collective Analysis of The Catastrophe!

Albania, 591

Austria, 65,000

Belgium, 24,387

Bulgaria, 7,335

Czechoslovakia, 260,000

Denmark, 116

Estonia, 4,000

Finland, 11

France, 90,000

Germany, 171,000

Greece, 69,221

Holland, 106,000

Hungary, 559,000

Italy, 15,000

Latvia, 85,000

Lithuania, 135,000

Luxembourg, 720

Norway, 758

Poland, 2,800,000

Romania, 469,632

Russia, 1,100,000

A TOTAL of 5,962,771 Murdered Jews of Europe.

An analyisis, broken down into each Country whose Jews are added to the overall Catastrophe that is The Holocaust, shows what some should consider is a consensus of all learned People, and forms an acceptance of that Destruction of the Jewish People. This was accomplished on an inordinately, unique and collossal scale! There is always ambiguity in the assessment of any Statistic and while we are capable of finding a Statistic which shows that is in excess of 5,962,771 Jews of Europe being Murdered, we are equally likely to find that far in excess of the more known assessment of 6,000,000 Jews having been Murdered is just as possible. What the figures do not disclose, which are hidden in stark detail is that this is an account of an unprecedented Slaughter against People, Men, Women and Their Children! All because they were Jewish People!

” ..100 Dead are a catastrophe ..Millions of dead are a statistic.” Adolf Eichmann.

The Official Wannsee Conference Figures!!

A.

The General Government 2,284,000 Jews.
Unoccupied France 700,000 Jews.
The Eastern Territories 420,000 Jews.
Bialystok 400,000 Jews.
Occupied France 165,000 Jews.
Holland 160,800 Jews.
Germany 131,800 Jews.
Bohemia & Moravia 74,200 Jews.
Greece 69,600 Jews.
Austria 43,700 Jews.
Belgium 43,000 Jews.
Lithuania 34,000 Jews.
Denmark 5,600 Jews.
Latvia 3,500 Jews.
Norway 1,300 Jews.
Estonia Free of Jews. (1,000 Jews)

The Official Wannsee Conference Figures!!

B.

Russia 5,000,000 Jews.
(with Ukraine and Byelorussia)
Hungary 742,800 Jews.
Rumania 342,000 Jews.
England 330,000 Jews.
Slovakia 88,000 Jews.
Italy 58,000 Jews.
Turkey 55,500 Jews.
Bulgaria 48,000 Jews.
Croatia 40,000 Jews.
Switzerland 18,000 Jews.
Serbia 10,000 Jews.
Sweden 8,000 Jews.
Spain 6,000 Jews.
Ireland 4,000 Jews.
Portugal 3,000 Jews.
Finland 2,300 Jews.
Albania 200 Jews.

TOTAL 11,293,300 Jews to be Murdered!

Statistical Analysis does play an inordinate part in the telling of The Holocaust. I would rather err of the side of Simon Wiesenthal when he suggests we Remember, these are People, not merely a Statistic! Caught up in the figure at The Wannsee Conference is a direct threat to more than 11,000,000 Jews living within Hitler’s grasp. It is a Fact that while 6,000,000 Jews of Europe were Destroyed, 5,000,000 of those targeted at Wannsee did not!

The Murder of 6,000,000 Jews must never be reduced to a statistic.” Simon Wiesenthal.

Most statistical breakdowns I have seen list the number of Jews killed in The Holocaust, and there are estimates which vary around 4,100,000 to the original 6,000,000, I use as a measure of the original perception and concern related to those Murdered. There are even those who would suggest that an even higher figure might well represent the True Catastrophe. Raul Hilberg’s eponymous work on the Destruction Of The European Jews has a very detailed analysis of these Jewish Murders. Outside that remit, we term The Holocaust, there are a further 6 Million others, from Gypsies, those of the Lalleri, Roma and Sinti, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Homosexuals, Prisoners of War from all Nations, but more especially Russian POW’s, in the early stage of Barbarossa, June 22nd. 1941 onward who were Murdered, left to Starve to death.

So statistical analysis can never be an exact science! For example. Prior to Hitler’s Invasion of Poland September 1st. 1939 there were some 16,600,000 Men, Women and Their Children of The Jewish Faith in the World! By the time War had ended the Jewish Population had diminished to around 11,000,000 Jews Worldwide. While this seemingly represents some 5,600,000 Missing Jews, we also must bring into that equation that the Jewish Population would have risen, in line with a 1/11 Birth rate, which would have brought the World figure to 18,200,000 during the 5.5 yearsof WWII in Europe. This would present the World with a Catastrophe in the region of 7,200,000 Jews missing.

It must be noted that whilst der Einsatzgruppe shot to Death more than 1,250,000 Jews, they Murdered countless others. Whilst the Death Camps and even the Concentration Camps delivered toward the Final Accounting, many Jews were so deprived of Basic essentials, Food, Water, Housing, they were Systematically driven toward their own Destruction! It is clear that from within the Ghettoes established by Hitler, countless tens of thousands lost their Battle to Survive.

Historians, Academics and Researchers as far back as 1948 have been able to agree on the number of those Jews who were Murdered during the period of The Holocaust. There is, of course, a margin for error, and the accepted norm is between a divergence of 8 – 10% of the overall Total. So while we might accept that there were 6,000,000 Murdered Jews, as an abbreviated focus for attention, that figure could be reduced to some 5,520,000 or upward toward 6,600,000 Murdered Jews. When adequate Testimony of those who compiled the figures, Mueller, Himmler and Eichmann proves elusive to say the least, there are the almost exacting records kept by The Death Camps, and the OSR’s, these Operational Situation Report’s compiled by der Einsatgruppe. All these tally, with a good degree of certainty that our approximation is indeed very accurate and we have no reason to discount the very effort that went into obtaining these figured for us.

But here are some of the figures relating to those Jews Murdered in various camps and by varying means.

1. Belzec 600,000, Belsen, 50,000, 2. Birkenau (Auschwitz) 1,100,000, Buchenwald, 56,500, 3. Chelmno 152,000, Dachau, 35,000, der Einsatzgruppe 1,250,000, 4. Majdanek, 200,000, 5. Sobibor 250,000, Stutthof 65,000 and 6. Treblinka 900,000 Jews Murdered.

We should always remember too that at Babi Yar where the Killing Reached a crescendo unsurpassed, even by Auschwitz’s standard, and where

“..Sonderkommando 4a in collaboration with Einsatzgruppe HQ and two Kommandos of police regiment South, executed 33,771 Jews in Kiev on September 29 and 30, 1941.”

There will never be an exact toll of those who were Murdered at Auschwitz, as records vary in depth and description. Many documents too were destroyed by the Nazi’s seeking to conceal their fixed solution to a Jewish Question. An immediate count of those records, though sparse, with additions from Witness sources, from Survivors and the Testimony gained during The Nuremberg Trials, all provided a view of the Calamity which could not be corroborated. Both Eichmann and the Camp Kommandant Rusolf Hoess were in some form of agreement. Eichmann believed some 2,000,000 had been Murdered in Auschwitz, while Hoess gave a more liberal assessment of between 2,500,000 and 3,000,000 Murdered. While the Russian estimate of some 4 Million gained a public acceptance, and a monument was placed to endorse this figure, it was somewhat frowned upon as mere Soviet propaganda, and less than an accurate assessment.

“..first and foremost perpetrator was Adpolf Hitler. ..without him it would have been inconceivable.” Raul Hilberg.

In 1961 Raul Hilberg himself in his Book The Destruction of European Jews, used German railway timetable records to total the number of Nazi departures. These Transports were assessed rather than accounting for the arrivals of these ‘resettlement’ trains at the various Death Camps. For Auschwitz, Hilberg arrived at a figure of some 1,000,000 Jews having been Murdered within the Camp. This has been as accurate an assessment as has ever been, and was established by Hilberg before technology and further records were available. This accounting, which is as close as we are ever likely to get to that Final assessment, still satnds solidly today.

It is highly unlikely, unless some tiiemly intervention appears, courtesy of new found records compiled by Nazi officials, that we will ever know how many Jews, or others were Murdered. For me, however, I would rather stick to the composite estimate of 6,000,000 Jews Murdered in The Holocaust, as defining Hitler’s assault upon the integrity of The Jewish People of Europe, as a lasting Monument Always to Remember, Never to forget.

“..Arrived ..Auschwitz ..July 2nd. or 3rd. 1944. ..about 200 men. ..women 70 or 80 seventy or eighty. ..rest I saw ..getting into ..a number of trucks. ..also a closed vehicle with ..sign of ..Red Cross. I saw them all go off. ..to ..gas chambers.” Georges Wellers.

As late as 1983, research into the Murder rate at Auschwitz, gathering information from Nazi ‘transport’ data, was established. Provided by the French Historian Georges Wellers, the account had demonstrated that approximately 1,613,000 people Died there. These were People who were Murdered by various means including Gassing, we know from Testimony elsewhere this was done by Zyklon ‘B’. Many too were ritually Tortured and Hanged and those others who were left to Starve did so or succumbed to the many Diseases prevalent when such abuses and excesses were endorsed.

Of those Murdered, garnered from the Research, 1,350,000 were the Jewish victims, 83,000 were Polish, some 20,000 were Gypsies and over 12,000 were Russian POW’s. Figures for those Jehovah’s Witnesses and Homosexuals have not been verified. We know too from this source that well over 150,000 Poles had been imprisoned within Auschwitz over the duration of the Camps existence.

Franciszek Piper, Director of Research at the Auschwitz Museum, published his own findings in 1989. Using captured Camp records, the register of prisoners, train time table of arrivals, and combining that with those lists existing of Nazi deprtations, Piper was able to establish that 90% of all those Murdered at Auschwitz were Jews. This represented some 1,100,000 Jewish Murdered, a figure recognised still to this day. His account also suggests that there were between 140,000 and 150,000 Poles who were victims and some 23,000 Gypsies.

“..In spite of everything I still believe ..people are really good at heart.” Anne Frank.

This picture alone represents what it means for me as most will see that in the fullest understanding of the term, The Holocaust, she is more recognisable that Tokele would be for me. Anne represents the Loss of Innocence and then the Resurrection of Memory by a Young Jewish Girl whose Diary confronts both the Horror of The Catastrophe and the need to accept Tolerance is a better way. What it also presents to History is continually being distorted by those who see in the one image of a Young Girl, cut down in her prime, and all because she was Jewish, an ugly Truth! It marks Hitler for what he was, a tiny minded Race Hater. Revisionists, deniers and antisemites scurry round in order to resurrect the image of a rabid hater of all People. Toward the end of the War that hatred was inclusive of the German people, once his ugliness was about to be revealed.

“..We assume that most of them are murdered. ..British radio speaks of their being gassed. Perhaps that’s ..quickest way to die.” Anne Frank.

What cannot be denied is Hitler’s Weltanschauung, a World view which saw, in die Endlosung der Judenfrage, the complete Destruction of World Jewry in The Final Solution. For those who revere the mention of a Fuhrer whose capacity to hate on such a world stage, ignores the very fact that 50 – 70 Million lives were lost in an attempt to stem the flow of such a Nazi hatred. 6,000,000 of that figure were Jews, chosen for their very Jewish antecedence. So when we read what Anne says about people being ‘good at heart’, she is aware that many Germans, are included in that assessment. But those threatened by a reality which threatens a perverse reading of History do not see a redemption in the Human spirit from a Young Girl whose non crime was to be born a Jew.

“..many officers ..generals are fed up with ..war and would like to see Hitler sink into a bottomless pit ..so they can establish a military dictatorship ..make peace with ..Allies ..rearm ..and ..start a new war.” Anne Frank.

There Were No Spectators.

The Holocaust is a collective Truth, based upon a known Fact in our History that Hitler targeted, selected and systematically Destroyed 6,000,000 Jews of Europe, Men, Women and Their Children. This has become an individual assault upon the conscience of All Humanity and is a slur on the altruistic concept of moral efficacy! The Holocaust has 6,000,000 accusers, all Murdered for the simple fact of their Jewish antecedence! There are, fortunately, Survivors from The Holocaust, intended Victims who would have joined their brethren had it not been for good luck, good fortune or a simple twist of fate! These Survivors tell their remarkable tale, full of foreboding, filled with Horror, punctuated in Terror, but for us, the custodians and curators of that History, we demand that they do so, over and over again! We require that knowledge so that we too can share, perhaps even know of, what it is they Know!

The Holocaust is a destructive term which has the ability to construct for People a toleration for all, if we are prepared to learn the lessons from 6,000,000 Murdered Jews of Europe. Within that, and if ever there is a need to get back to the Catholicism, which does not allow for the crimes as were committed by so called Catholics in The Holocaust, there is a need to confront what was done, why it was done and accept an admission of guilt for allowing it to be done. I myself want answers as to why so many of us allowed so much of what happened to proceed, which infects much of our History, and we require a term like The Holocaust, to correct ourselves? Why is it there remains a nagging doubt, a resolve to honestly apologise to the Jewish People?

There is a need too to admonish those Catholics who have held onto the truth of what they Perpetrated, Concealed and still refuse to admit to. So as I attempt to confront the issue of the Intolerance shown toward the Jewish People, through the latent hatred of anti-Semitism, I question my own adherence to a belief system which is this flawed! The issue is surely a simple one for Christianity. God chose to send his Son Jesus to this Earth to redeem us from original sin. Jesus chose to die so that we could be saved. In that device of choice, we are saved. Hence, the Jewish People did not have any role in the conviction of Jesus’ acceptance to die so that we might go to Him. In antisemitism there is more than the lie of the “Christ killer” to drive on this hatred.

After They Had Laboured.

Once we have accepted there is this hatred, which is against God and all the precepts and teachings of Christ, we might afford this world a safer haven for all of its peoples. I would like to explain too, a little about why I wanted to write about The Holocaust, and after writing 3 Books on the subject, I guess I have achieved an ambition. I am grateful for the opportunity to relay to you my concerns which are centred around the subject of The Holocaust. My interest in history, and Holocaust history in particular, asks only that the truth be employed to reconstruct the facts that are pertinent to the integrity of that study. Documented proof, testimony and memory must all converge to present a living truth that does honour to those events we attempt to describe. When asked:-

What do I know about the Holocaust?

I have to earnestly reply, with honesty, and with all due deference to the memory of the 6,000,000 Jews murdered in The Holocaust, that I know only of The Holocaust through my research and study of the subject. For those that Know, and for whom I am attempting to eulogise in my work, it is in large part a study hopefully leading to that greater essential, adding toward the Jewish memory that has been lost. I thought of the 4 year old Tokele, and the 6,000,000 Jews of The Holocaust every time I began a page of that study. I could never imagine the anguish of Anne Frank, or the distraught nature of a Mother faced with the brutal murder of her Child. How then could I ever look at the picture of Tokele and not feel for the grief of the whole of the Jewish Nation? Such is that grief, which could so engulf me, I had to seek a release, and this work has been my opportunity to lament an awful catastrophe.

“..BBC has always told ..truth. ..even if ..news is slightly exaggerated ..facts are bad enough as they are. You can’t deny that Millions of peace-loving citizens in Poland and Russia have been murdered or gassed.” Anne Frank.

The reader, I do feel, will always be better served by the words of those who have survived the Holocaust. I feel morally obligated though, by certain historical omissions, which have driven me to write to attempt to redress these concerns:-

1) There was a less than generous Christian response, an Indifference to what was happening to the Jewish People,

2) There was a clear Christian duplicity, a complicity in the murders of the Jewish People,

3) There was an Irish neutrality which stands in stark relief against the destructive capacity and is an indictment within Holocaust History,

4) There is still a deceit that welds Christians to the indifference shown toward the Jews, and

5) There is a refusal, by many, to come to terms with their crimes, or with their own omissions and with their clear betrayals of what Morality should hold dear.

There is the gradual emergence of a will to suggest a way forward, to fight bigotry and racism and to make positive gains for humanity. In The Holocaust, research into a Christian failure to respond adequately, is an indictment I seek to respond to. We should not take continually from History, without giving something back. We have a responsibility toward tomorrow for what we write today. Before non-seeing eyes The Holocaust was played out and I hope my work will have a relevance today within a world still resonating with intolerant aggressions and indifferences. I am as damning of the perpetrators as those others who chose to look the other way! Are not those who stood by and witnessed the progression of disorder, toward methodical mass murder, as reprehensible?

The truth for tomorrow should not be distorted by what we know to be true today. That plain fact of truth must owe an enormous debt to those others who stood up and were counted and carried a Christian charity forward. Any reluctance to learn from these calamitous crimes will allow the future for our Children to bleed openly from the wounds of hatred. Hatred has a way of ensuring that no other perspective is given to an outlook which can only fashion turmoil, can only condone disarray and can only breed discord. I was struck, as a matter of probity, to ensure that the words of those who saw, who witnessed, who participated or who perpetrated these unfolding crimes, that these were not misrepresented.

My work is a persistent indictment of what was done, of what was allowed to be done and what has not been fully attested to. The debt which civilisation owes to The Jewish People of Europe, 6,000,000 of whom, Men, Women and Their Children will not allow us to move forward in a World which still claims lives through such an indifference to an awakened intolerance. I choose my words cautiously, and I choose the words of the Survivor and the destroyed, even more carefully. From within The Holocaust, from within the confines of Warsaw itself, Chaim Aron Kaplan reflects upon the coming destruction and the abandonment of His own People.

It is Tuesday 15th. October 1940:-

“..I gazed at ..Dantean scenes in ..streets of Warsaw ..and could not stop thinking ..Are we guiltier than any nation? Have we sinned more than any people? Will we really die? Are we doomed to total destruction? Nobody in ..world is concerned for us ..nobody shares our plight.” Chaim Aron Kaplan

Sadly, all of that was true, and all that Chaim Aron Kaplan foretold, came to pass, and maybe I am a little late but I am concerned that nobody shared His and Their plight. From such insight I chose to allow the words in my work to conduct the reader through The Holocaust without becoming caught up in interpretation. My work is, in very many ways, an apology for what was allowed to happen. It is also a celebration of the 4 year old girl, Tokele, who came this way, and who will not be forgotten. For those other 6,000,000 Jews, now lost to us, I hope my work too is a fitting tribute to their Memory. We so often see the figures, that are supposedly representative of the Slaughter, a capacity for evil which fully engulfed these Jewish People and which now seeks to disguise and hide the despicable crimes they actually depict.

Perhaps we have great difficulty in comprehending the scale of the atrocity, as it was meted out to the Jews of Treblinka or to the Jews of Auschwitz and Birkenau or to those Jews murdered by der Einsatzgruppe at Babi Yar? I would also like to suggest to you, and if we take the calamitous loss to humanity with the 2 day assault upon the Jews at Babi Yar, and attempt to appreciate that 33,771 Jewish lives were cast aside, how do we then contemplate the murders at Treblinka, where some 900,000 Jewish lives were destroyed? Or how do we contemplate the ‘Aktionen der Einsatzgruppe,’ which alone murdered 1,250,000 Jewish lives, and even more, how do we comprehend such a figure?

At Auschwitz and Birkenau, The Holocaust account could include some 1,100,000 more Jewish lives. What in our intellect will allow us to conceive of such a catastrophe or come close to comprehending their very meaning for us all? When Simon Wiesenthal points to a Map of Europe and asks us to appreciate the calamity he too faced, he begs us to look, but not as Eichmann would do, with the figures in statistical relief. Look though at the People that Wiesenthal once knew, and as the world must now mourn, as integral to a loss all humanity must face.

” ..Murder of 6,000,000 Jews must never be reduced to a statistic.” Simon Wiesenthal.

The human dimension to the crimes I have written about, only have words and intentions to fill the void created by the murders of these 6,000,000 Jews. With humanity in question, the words I continually use in that work confront the reader, and are the proving ground for the Factual Truth, the very veracity of The Holocaust. Words do indeed have a harmonising effect for what has happened and for what needs to be said, but they can also be utilised to distort. The reader, unaffected by any previous impression or even bias, is not given over to contentious argument, at least in the context of the facts which I relay. My work is certainly written with a rage against the Intolerant. But also, with what was a measure of the indifference shown, the reader will hopefully understand that The Holocaust is an outrage that was perpetrated against the Jewish People.

The Holocaust rages too against humanity, as we are the bystander to these crimes. A little understanding might point us toward an urging, which will never allow such atrocities to happen again! Sadly, that slender hope has been quashed, in the Balkans and Central Africa! So while I hope I have managed to untangle some of the distortions that are presented today, and from amongst the ‘intentionalist’ and ‘functionalist’ studies, which I believe are irrelevant in the midst of a scene, shot where 6,000,000 Jews are murdered, my study of The Holocaust is best served. I contend with what Hitler intended for the Jewish People was their eventual Destruction and toward that end, the Reich functioned toward that final commitment, with a resolve which brought about die Endlosung der Jundenfrage.

Pointedly, and by the will of one man, and with the concentrated hatred of so many more, we have to accept that this outrage was committed against the Jewish People, and against what humanises us. I am cognisant of the feelings of Elie Wiesel and he has stated in his book:

A Jew Today:-

“..We became witnesses to a huge simplification. On ..one side there were ..executioners and on ..other ..victims. What about ..onlookers ..those who remained neutral ..those who served ..executioner simply by not interfering? To be a Jew then meant to fight both ..complacency of ..neutral and ..hate of ..killers.” Elie Wiesel.

Elie Wiesel knows that we should not diminish the importance of the Jewish Survivor’s voice in The Holocaust and we must respect that position. Clearly, my personal attempt to comprehend how a small part of humanity could demonise our civilising name, is part of the endeavour to redress that imbalance. I wish also to add to that urgent need to learn from our past mistakes, in order that we do not repeat them. How tragic it all seems that Humanity can sink so low, and to such a depraved state that it has not the capacity to learn from this degeneration! There is a strata of evil which has been breached on every level when we look to The Holocaust! Human beings pored over the body of the Jewish People and consigned them to oblivion.

But not before depriving them of every possession they ever owned and even then, robbed them of their respect and dignity to the last moment of their existence. If that wasn’t enough, the vultures descended and took every morsel of what was left of that Jewish presence. It was a gain too few of the larcenous few have relinquished to this day. True, some has been returned to the rightful ownership of a Jewish Community decimated and deprived of even those whose ownership has been recognised. But this does nothing to alleviate the pain which must be felt by All Jews for what happened. Also, and for what has been done to ensure a level of Tolerance is preached with the lessons to be gained from The Holocaust, is being undone within the level of Intolerance that besieges us today.

What we find problematic in the failure to learn from what was so catastrophically wrong back then, is in the total lack of respect many have for the sanctity of all life of the very many, here and now. I am indebted to Professor Yehuda Bauer, of Yad Vashem, who reminds us in:

Jews for Sale:-

“..That our heroes were ordinary humans ..perhaps more gifted with insight and courage than ..rest of us ..they did ..correct thing at ..right time.” Yehuda Bauer.

It is a burden of History that reminds us, that far too little was done by far too many to save the 6,000,000 Jews of The Holocaust. When a World offers up platitudes to divest itself of responsibility, when the World seeks to hide behind the screen of lack of knowledge then the World really is in trouble. When we have that voice of reason, and it arrives from many angles, Professor Deborah E. Lipstadt’s commentary in:

Denying the Holocaust:-

“..All those who value truth ..particularly truths that are subject to attack by ..plague of hatred ..must remain ever vigilant.” Deborah E. Lipstadt.

is a chilling indictment of our present ambivalence to these past crimes. All of which seemingly allows for a growth in equal intolerances, from a neo-form of Nazism, from ‘religious’ fundamentalism (sic) whose intention is to add to the segregation of more communities, and once more the Jewish People are sought out almost exclusively for a renewed hatred. All of which appears to emerge and an almost apologetic acceptance that somehow The Holocaust was inevitable sweeps through a litany of works and suggestions? So I look for examples where Survivors bring to the table a level of compassion and forgiveness we could barely accommodate for ourselves.

In that, I also owe much to, Primo Levi who has an immeasurable strength and a decency which suggests a way forward that is without hatred and revenge. Levi is also aware that the account of The Holocaust is not as scientifically exact in detail as it might be and he offers the writer in:

Moments of Reprieve:-

“..It is possible that ..distance in time has accentuated ..tendency to round out ..facts or heighten ..colours. ..this tendency ..or temptation ..is an integral part of writing.” Primo Levi.

Remembering that past, and toward influencing our future is deeply reflective in all of Levi’s works. I hope I take from that lead and reflect well on what should have been. I hope also, that I have afforded the memory of so many People, a positive condemnation of our own guilt and a sense of a grief for what was done. Ostensibly, The Holocaust was enacted by Christians as Perpetrators in the forefront of the crimes and by way of an indifference or a suggested neutrality, which we should not have afforded the Nazis, we become culpable. With a clear indictment of that indifference shown by so many toward their fellow Human Beings, and by a so-called civilised people we should have expected more from, a burdensome debt must be repaid.

My work is a detailed study, and exacting account that propels toward the progression and the completion of The Holocaust. From the burning of selected Books to the systematic destruction of the 6,000,000 innocent Jewish People, I lend words to voices taken from us. Personally, I wanted an Irish expression which sought to damn those who perpetrated these crimes. I was sent a picture one day, of a young girl, Tokele, whose life was taken from us, because she was Jewish and even after The Holocaust had supposedly ended.

I was vexed into a reply which could not make sense of a world decayed by an expression of such antisemitic hatred. I wanted to condemn those ‘christians’, who sought to take the life of a 4 year old Child for the fact of her Jewishness. I wanted my work to also confront the Irish response to the tragedy of the Jewish Holocaust by its intrinsic neutrality affording Hitler a feigned sponsorship. From the terms of The Wannsee Conference, 4,000 Irish Citizens were targeted for extinction and I felt that the Irish Government should at least admit to that fact and declare its past neutrality a betrayal of Christian values. In England we have to remember that 330,000 of her Citizens would have been murdered because they were Jewish?

I feel that all neutral Countries, who I insist have the right to their own neutrality, must still stand up against what is wrong, vile or harmful to this world we all share. I am concerned at what is owed to Survivors who have already suffered Too much. I look at what was achieved by Sweden and the Danish People and I wonder why more wasn’t done by us all? Today we see too much evidence of what has leeched from these times to add further expression to a continuing genocide. The Kurds and the Bosnian Muslims are groups of People who have paid with their lives, for unaltered attitudes and an abstract of human indifference that has no place in our time. It is never easy to write, using your own words, and to apply them to that grief which is the experience of others.

My concern, for a tragedy that happened to a Jewish People I did not know, a Jewish People I had no experience of, or of whom I was not acquainted with, has been a redeeming factor in my struggle to meet the words with those concerns I have. A scythe was taken to a People, fully decapitated from the body of humanity, and it remains to the writer to suture that amputation with words of condolence. A statement of grief that is valued by its sense of remorse, and which is a true comment upon a deep sadness and is clearly attempting of empathy and compassion, will not suffice however. For one single voice that is missing from within those dark days of The Holocaust, it is ultimately necessary to add a resonance that befits the Remembrance for 6,000,000 Murdered Jews.

As with many ideas, it should be with the consent of all People that change is brought about, and People have to be willing to accept change is good for all. That the Jews of The Holocaust were murdered by an inertia which was then interpreted, in some hideous way, as compliance, is because of that very fact of all People not voicing their concern or disapproval. There is a redemption in the publication of so many books on The Holocaust, as they lend their own voice and hold true to the memory of a People who were so devoid of our concern when they needed it most.

The written word, which is gradually becoming omitted from this world, for the space of newer technologies, still has a resonance which can not be allowed to fade. The study of The Holocaust must be taken forward and if we cannot find from within the remnants of those Jewish People who were murdered, any sense of our loss, we can at least articulate our concern at that privation! Now too we must argue over what belongs to those who were destroyed? It worries me deeply that we are still debating what is owed to the Jews of The Holocaust. 80 years on, when we know what we owe, when we know what was taken, we are in their debt.

We know that and we should be aware that we continually fail, in a judicious manner, to repay for what was taken from them! After all! It is not as if we can give them their lives back. While we hold honesty and decency with high regard, we can be untouched by the hatred in the world. When we profess those qualities audibly, hatred will become limiting in its outpourings! Feeling is entwined in comprehension, so for us to comprehend the tragedy of The Holocaust, we must feel for the terrible atrocity done to the Jewish People. Finally, at the cost of 6,000,000 Jewish lives, how do we impose the penalties that are owed to their passing? I can never be satisfied that we will ever repay that debt to so many murdered People, nor can we easily regain our previously held humanity.

If we can at least learn from the past we might just learn for the Future! Finally, and I make no excuses for using the words of Primo Levi, who is one of my favourite writers from and on The Holocaust, when he reminds us:-

“..If ..world would become convinced that Auschwitz never existed ..it would be easier to build a second Auschwitz ..and there is no assurance it would devour only Jews.” Primo Levi.

For Tokele and the 6,000,000!

There is a postscript to this journey I have commenced. I received an e-mail from Israel. A cousin of my correspondent had known the girl Tokele! It was fortunate for his cousin, she was visiting elsewhere at the time, or she too would have been murdered on that night. I had managed to reach back into History and resurrect from a girl’s name, Tokele became a tangible link with the Holocaust! It is ironic that from my search, and that part of my dedication to Tokele’s name, that this should lead full circle to a person who had known her and could add substance to a Child so betrayed by history. I want the memory of Tokele to become a beacon, as Anne Frank has become, toward gaining newer tolerances and understanding. As with all that is reflected from within the Holocaust, there is a cautious note and it is for that continuing requirement to listen, and to seek out and ask about The Holocaust, and ask those who might know as to why it was allowed to occur?