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This Holocaust Author's Auschwitz Blog

This blog describes my thoughts and experiences in visiting Auschwitz, Belzec, Majdanek and Sobibor and Anne Frank's House from 2014 to 2018

I blogged my preparations for my visit, I posted daily during my visit to Poland...there are also my ongoing thoughts posted here; in the aftermath of my visit...
(Please note due to the sensitive nature of this blog, and the prevalence of trolls, comments may be blocked)

Moshe Szulstein

Uncategorised Posted on Thu, June 03, 2021 19:45:13

Moshe Szulstein (1911 – 1981)

Moshe Szulstein was born in Kurow, Poland on September 15th. 1911 and was, as an author, the writer of fictional essays, poetry and short stories. In 1923 Moshe moved along with his parents to Warsaw, and there he worked as an apprentice to a tailor, all the while studying at School during the evening’s. In 1937 Moshe moved and settled in Paris and was employed in many different jobs unsuited to his skills. Then, at the time of the German occupation in 1940, Moshe went into hiding in cities criss crossing France.

He also joined the resistance movement, spent time in custody, inerrogated by the Paris Gestapo. Moshe’s success is not as well known as it should be and he was taken from us in 1981. On June 3rd. 1943 Himmler issues instructions for the schooling of such expertise as might be demanded for the Sonderkommando 1005 operation taking place at the Janowska Camp. With 844 prisoners transferred from Auschwitz to Majdanek this was also to assist in Aktion 1005.

The murder of 1,000,000’s of people in all the camps Death Camps and Labour Camps alike was accompanied by plunder on an unprecedented scale. All of the possessions of victims were exploited, either for the personal enrichment of the perpetrators or for redistribution amongst the German Reich population. When the Death Camp at Majdanek, Lublin, Poland was liberated by the Red Army in 1944, there were literally tons of human effects, the debris of a Jewish existence simly ravaged from life.

What the World discovered here, was the destruction of the Jewish People married to the larcenous plunder from 1,000,000’s of Jews, destroyed within each of the Aktion Reinhard Death Camps and the 3 other Death Camps Hitler had established in Poland. The exacting detail of some supposed ideological edict which Hitler sought to gain financially from exposed the true intention of his constant assault upon the Jewish People.

Also, and there were 1,000’s upon 1,000’s of pairs of all manner of shoes that were warehoused here which so inspired Moshe, he wrote:

“..We Are the Shoes, We Are the Last Witnesses

I saw a mountain

Higher than Mt. Blanc

And more Holy than the Mountain of Sinai.

Not in a dream. It was real.

On this world this mountain stood.

Such a mountain I saw of Jewish shoes in Majdanek.

Such a mountain such a mountain I saw.

And suddenly, a strange thing happened.

The mountain moved.

And the thousands of shoes arranged themselves

By size by pairs and in rows and moved.

Hear! Hear the march.

Hear the shuffle of shoes left behind that which remained.

From small, from large, from each and every one.

Make way for the rows for the pairs,

For the generations for the years.

The shoe army it moves and moves.

We are the shoes, we are the last witnesses.

We are shoes from grandchildren and grandfathers.

From Prague, Paris and Amsterdam.

And because we are only made of stuff and leather.

And not of blood and flesh, each one of us avoided the hellfire.

We shoes that used to go strolling in the market

Or with the bride and groom to the chuppah,

We shoes from simple Jews, from butchers and carpenters,

From crocheted booties of babies just beginning to walk and go

On happy occasions, weddings, and even until the time

Of giving birth, to a dance, to exciting places to life.

Or quietly to a funeral.

Unceasingly we go. We tramp.

The hangman never had the chance to snatch us into his

Sack of loot now we go to him.

Let everyone hear the steps, which flow as tears,

The steps that measure out the judgment.

I saw a mountain

Higher than Mt. Blanc

And more Holy than the Mountain of Sinai.” Moshe Szulstein.



Danuta Czech

Uncategorised Posted on Wed, June 02, 2021 19:44:51

Danuta Czech 1922 till 2004.

“..June 2nd. 1942 In Bunker 1 ..Birkenau ..Men ..Women ..Children ..from Ilkenau ..killed with Zyklon B gas. 47 prisoners are released. ..33 Czechs 13 Poles ..as well as ..German BV prisoner Paul Schikowski (No. 27) born June 26th. 1896 ..sent from Sachsenhausen. 129 prisoners die ..Auschwitz Birkenau ..including 2 from Buna ..Emmanuel Spitzstein (No. 31871) a Slovak Jew ..and Czech BV prisoner Karl Hein (No. 33715).” Auschwitz Chronicle.

Danuta Czech, a Polish Jew, was born in Humniska, Poland, in 1922 and lived through her War years in the knowledge that her life was forfeit as a Polish Jew. After the liberation of Auschwitz, January 27th 1945, Danuta worked tirelessly to research to preserve the very memory of what Auschwitz and Birkenau had stood for. As an excellent Historian, who was determined to elongate the memory of those of her own People who were Murdered, she has delivered to all of History a tome of immeasurable importance. For all those many others who perished within the Camp confines, her work is indeed monumental in recognising the Human cost in destroyed lives.

“..Chronicle has been an important resource for collecting evidence against former members of ..SS in Auschwitz and other camps. ..as its Author ..I gave expert testimony in ..trial of Robert Mulka ..in ..first Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial ..December 20th. 1963 ..to August 1965.” Danuta Czech.

Danuta has also ensured that the deeds that were done by those who committed the most heinous of crimes ever invented would be preserved in her Auschwitz ‘Chronicle’. The Memorial Museum itself at Auschwitz, weighed heavy by the process which saw 1,100,000 Jews from all over Europe, with the Slaughtered at Birkenau and the Murdered in Auschwitz, is literally founded upon their ashes. From its inception, what this Memorial Museum at Auschwitz now seeks to teach an uncomprehending World, has been clearly formulated by the Scholarly effort of Danuta Czech, herself a Jewish Survivor.

“..Chronicle ..has had direct significance for historical research ..as well as for ..criminal prosecution of ..perpetrators. Its meaning ..goes beyond this ..its value for a broader readership.” Danuta Czech.

Danuta went through varying stages of involvement in the Museum accepting her post back in 1955 until she became Deputy Director until her retirement. Danuta’s Scholarly work did not slacken and she has had her works published around the World. She also testified as an expert witness at various War Crimes Trials in Germany and she was unflinching in confronting those SS who garrisoned Auschwitz and Birkenau. Sadly for us, Danuta passed on April 4th. 2004, at the age of 82, but not before her incisive and investigative talent has left us with a more comprehensive study of Auschwitz and Birkenau the combined machinations of German efforts had hoped to have destroyed, entirely. It is certain too that Danuta would be perplexed if not vexed by the way today’s Poland is treating the heritage and legacy of Polish Jewish antecedence.

“..Chronicle ..is also an epitaph ..a memorial ..for those who suffered and struggled ..for those who did not survive ..who died nameless ..in gas chambers. It is my hope ..Chronicle will be recognised as such an epitaph.” Danuta Czech.



Mordechai Gebirtig

Uncategorised Posted on Tue, June 01, 2021 23:45:50

Mordechai Gebirtig was a composer, he was a carpenter and he was the author of poems and lyrics in Yiddish. He was born on May 4th. 1877 and was Murdered on June 4th. 1943 in the Cracow Ghetto while he struggled with the Nazi intention to force him toward Belzec. Though this poem is not of the crisis to face the Jews of Cracow under the Nazi kosh, it is a testimony to the Jewish burden for being born within Poland.

Our Town is Burning!

It’s burning! Brothers, it’s burning! Oh, our poor town, alas, is burning! Angry winds with rage are tearing, smashing, blowing higher still the wild flames—all around now burns! And you stand there looking on with folded arms, and you stand there looking on—our town is burning!

It’s burning! Brothers, it’s burning! Oh, our poor town, alas, is burning!  The tongues of flame have already swallowed the whole town and the angry winds are roaring—the whole town is burning! And you stand there looking on with folded arms, and you stand there looking on—our town is burning!

It’s burning! Brothers, it’s burning! God forbid, the moment may be coming when our city together with us will be gone in ash and flames, as after a battle—only empty, blank walls!  And you stand there looking on with folded arms, and you stand there looking on—our town is burning!

It’s burning! Brothers, it’s burning! Help depends only on you: if the town is dear to you, take the buckets, put out the fire. Put it out with your own blood—show that you can do it! Don’t stand there, brothers, with folded arms! Don’t stand there, brothers, put out the fire—our town is burning.” Mordechai Gebirtig.



Meet Julius Feldman

Uncategorised Posted on Tue, June 01, 2021 23:42:01

Meet Julius Feldman.

“..On my way into Town ..my first look at a Jew wearing that symbol. What a sight. ..stunned. ..it could pick us out ..harass us. ..like those medieval Jews marked with a yellow patch and this ..supposed to be ..civilised Twentieth Century.” Julius Feldman.

In defence of people and national states who oversaw the destruction of these 6,000,000 Jews of Europe, the lamest response has to be, and what would you have done. For me! It is so very easy. I do not know what I would have done, but I most certainly know what I would not have done. I would Not have betrayed a Jew. I would Not have profited from the betrayal of a Jew. I would Not have inflicted pain on a Jew. I would Not have executed, killed or otherwise Murdered a Jew. So on the whole, I do know exactly what it is I would have done and it amounts to a compassion that does not allow for the intolerable hatred these Jews were made to feel.

“..Nation simply does not need what we have it needs what we are.” Edith Stein.

We are neither a People nor can we then claim to be a Community without those very People within its confines and enjoined together. For many, just like Julius, his Community was ritually abused and then compressed into Ghettos where they were further oppressed and then wholly destroyed. For Julius, this was his Cracow but the exact same situation was replicated throughout Poland and this became the Ghetto model of containment for all of Polish Jewry throughout the length and breath of Poland itself and then on and into much of Europe. All Jews, soon to be expelled toward the Death Camps were detained in holding centres uncertain of their future, despite the rumours.

“..when I was busy carrying my belongings to another house ..I noticed that there suddenly was a panic and shooting. Understanding that this was an Aktion ..I ran into another house with other neighbours to hide in ..cellar ..which had a special hiding place.  ..Germans forced their way in ..chased us out of ..cellar ..taking ..rings ..watches ..money. ..It isn’t needed anymore. ..I was severely beaten ..and later found myself near Kazimierzowska Street.  There were already many people there. More victims were continuously brought in. Dead bodies were lying on ..Streets. Shooting was heard all ..time. ..staff of ..Gestapo ..headed by Mueller ..stood in ..wheat mill on ..Baron-Hirsch Street. In a small area in ..mill ..1,000  People were squeezed together ..one close to ..other. Suddenly we were told to sit down ..which ..was impossible. But when a few received blows to their heads with riffle butts ..and ..blood started to flow ..all dropped to ..floor ..one on top of ..other.  This position was intolerable.  ..watchmen continued ..beating. ..dead and ..living were mixed together. People were sitting on dead bodies ..and walking over them. ..watchmen kept changing continuously because they could not stand ..stale air.  We were forced to sit this way for 2 days without water or food. In ..meantime ..Judenrat members and ..police pulled out their friends ..replacing them with other victims.  ..figure had to be exact. .. At ..end of ..second day ..we were led outside into ..street ..divided into groups of 10 ..and led to ..railroad station. I said goodbye to ..known streets ..to the visible cemetery ..trying to walk fast ..in order not get hit over ..head.  We were surrounded tightly by ..police ..with ..Gestapo ..SS ..led by Storm Trooper Mueller himself. ..Christian people were standing on ..sidewalks ..looking eagerly toward ..marching crowd.  Their looks were indifferent ..often even smiling. ..On ..way ..a policeman came close to me ..whispering quietly into my ear to join ..younger ladies in ..wagon.  When we arrived at ..railroad station ..Men were separated ..we were pushed toward ..railroad cars. I did observe where ..young were concentrated ..joining them in ..wagon ..which was closed and sealed. ..We were 80 Women. ..small windows were high up ..with bars and thorny wire. Once inside ..we found out that somebody had smuggled in a file to cut bars.  I started to organize a crew.  Standing on top of ..others ..we started to work. ..train continued to run. When ..job was finished ..and ..bars cut ..each candidate ..legs through ..window ..then hold on with their hands ..later with only one hand ..and with a strong swing ..jump into ..direction of ..running train.  I stood watching ..jumping.  Most of them were killed on ..spot. Some were killed by trains coming from ..opposite direction. Others were shot by Gestapo watchmen. Those who succeeded were later caught by special railroad watchmen. Of all ..Tarnopol train jumpers ..I think that I was ..only left alive.  I took quite a while to decide to jump ..or not to jump. I realized fully ..how hopeless ..situation looked. ..I decided to jump.  Already hanging outside ..wagon ..I got tangled up in ..thorny wire. Being scared ..I cried out loudly ..feeling that I was falling down.  A shot was heard over my head. It was a watchman. Luckily he missed.  At ..same moment I noticed a locomotive running straight toward me.  With my last strength ..I rolled over downwards into a depression. All this lasted just a few seconds. I was saved ..but badly injured ..bleeding from my head and hands. I tore out a little frozen grass ..putting it on my wounds. I succeeded in stopping ..bleeding. Later I wiped it off my face ..bringing myself to order.” Janett Margolies.

Janett observed who I believe to be SS Sturmbannfuhrer Hermann Muller in aktionen here and wherever this fanatic hatred for the Jewish People, met the Jews, they were to be murdered. Whether this was to be on their own Streets, in their own Cemeteries or in their Homes corralled by those they assumed would protect them. For these Jews, who were no longer required by their former community, and all because they were Jews, they were wholly abandoned by what is called humanity. It is essential too, for me to know that I would have remained a human being, with both the moral and ethical principles designed to ensure, empathy, loyalty and the regard for my fellow human being.

“..This report tells ..story of ..victims of Auschwitz ..not with ..purpose of opening old wounds ..but of passing it on as a legacy for us Jews and for all mankind. It will fulfil its purpose only if it helps teach us ..to become better human beings ..to truly love our neighbours ..and to work toward ..eradication of brutality from ..face of ..Earth.” Lucie Adelsberger.

Regardless of what differs amongst us, the human form’s own sanctity of life is a precedent we all must adhere to with regard. Respect for the other has been set above all other norms of human civilisation and existence, though for Julius Feldman, and the 6,000,000 other Slaughtered Jewish People, this was not so. For those 1,000,000’s of these Jews, who were not meant to leave a trace, we seek their memory to confirm their footprint and honour their former presence, so brutally removed from us. People cannot simply be allowed to disappear without a trace, and particularly for these 6,000,000 Jews whose evisceration was always sought as it was Hitler’s fundamental intention. 

“..During ..war these relationships became even more hostile. A large segment of ..Polish population was displeased with their neighbors’ help to ..Jews during ..war ..and for many it seemed even as an unpatriotic step. Therefore ..some segments of ..Polish population took an active part in ..hunt for ..Jews.” Jan Grabowski.

All was emanating out of Poland, even prior to the commencement of World War II, gave Hitler the prospect of a Polish welcomed assault upon 3,650,000 Polish Jews from far too many quarters. We recognise that between 1935 and 1938, many Polish measures against its Jewish Community were closely aligned to those of Hitler’s own antisemitic policy of hatred. With the death, on May 12th. 1935. of Marshal Jozef Pilsudski, the one time defender of Jews in Poland, and even a critic of antisemitism, there was an escalation of anti-Jewish hatred’s across Poland. Then, and during 1936, we see the diminishing influence of Polish Jews being demanded, throughout all spheres of Polish governance and administration.

“..it is easy to cope with ..Jewish problem when ..Jews are small in number ..but it is more difficult in Poland where their number is so much larger.”  Jozef Pilsudski.

Throughout Poland, Polish Jews were also banned from all local government administrations and in any work to do with government. Also, in all the major Polish cities Polish Jews were being relieved from and cleansed of their Jewish executiveness. By June 16th. 1937 the message is clear from those close to the heart of Polish society that there is:

“..No place for Jews in Poland.” General Lucjan Zieligowski.

On December 14th. 1937, as Poland considers a territorial solution for at least 1,000,000 of its own Polish Jewish Community, this was the much vaunted Madagaskar Plan, Polish Jews have much more to be concerned about. On

March 3rd. 1937. when the Polish government seeks to revoke the Polish Citizenship of Polish Jews who have been in Germany, the escalation of measures against Polish Jewry has a newer emphasis.

“..Jews receive half ..food which ..poles receive. ..poles receive 100 grams of bread daily ..Jews receive 100 grams ..every other day.” Dr. Witold Majewski. Gazeta Polska.

Then, by 1939, when the Polish Jewish Community had grown to some 3,650,000 People, we should be mindful that Hitler is being made aware of this obvious fact. While Hitler considered the Polish Slavs a lesser aryan nation, it is essential to recognise that as such, and in the context of his racial policy, non-Jewish Poles were far above the Jews as a target for obliteration. 

“..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.

For example, with the immediate enforcement of rationing, which saw the German system of entitlement had halved the rations for non-Jewish Poles and then halved again for Jewish Poles. While the actual living requirement ensured that 2,000 calories per day were afforded Germans, this became merely 1,000 calories per day for non-Jewish Poles and barely 500 calories per day then for Polish Jews, if that. It is true also that non-Jewish Poles would be the Labour force of the German Reich while all of European Jewry would be the Annihilated. It is also a truth that non-Jewish Poles would be murdered selectively, all of Polish Jewry would be Murdered, collectively and totally.

“..No one knew then that ..Jews were destined for extermination. At ..time I thought ..I could help them by bringing them things ..they were lacking. ..real help to Jews started in 1942 ..when ..large deportation from ..Warsaw Ghetto was underway. ..Only when ..horrible extermination started ..desperately tried to establish contact with my Ghetto friends. ..I did not succeed. Poles ..Jews ..taken by surprise. My friends perished.”   Roman Sadowski.

So by the time Hitler had invaded Poland on September 1st. 1939, some 400,000 Polish Jews had managed to escape the growing process of assault, brutality, isolation, cruelty and destruction for them within Poland. I have searched the historical evidences by which antisemitic hatred coalesced in so many society’s and especially within Poland, a Poland forever seeking viability as a modern state. As we know, World War II commenced on September 3rd. 1939, 2 days after Hitler used lies and deception to invade Poland. What then commenced, and almost immediately, with the introduction of a formative Einsatzgruppe was the targeted destruction of all the Jews of Poland.

“..In November and December 1941 began ..slaughter of Jews in ..Warthgau. ..slaughter ..by means of gas. ..a special gas chamber car ..used ..90 people ..loaded at one time. ..victims buried ..Lubartow Forest. ..1,000 ..gassed daily. In Chelmno ..November 1941  to March 1942 all .Jews from Kolo ..Dab ..Bugaj  ..Izbica 5,000 in all ..with 35,000 from Lodz Ghetto and a number of Gypsies ..gassed.” Szmul Zygielbojm.

In accordance with an ordinance we come to recognise as The Final Solution of the Jewish Question, we also refer to this as die Endlosung der Judenfrage. Here, this sorry saga of annihilation, which fully engulfed more than 3,000,000 of the existing 3,650,000 of Polish Jewry that Hitler now had available to him, must not be considered with any commencement date other than here in September 1939 and before. Though the murders of Polish Jews was not to be on the scale of devastation to be witnessed in the coming months and years, we cannot escape the fact that the destruction of the Jewish People under Hitler’s demand is what forms the very detail of The Holocaust.

“..we will destroy Jewish breed. They will disappear through hunger and want.  ..polish people will be grateful ..Jewish Question only a cemetery will remain.” Dr. Ludwig Fischer.

Here, the Warsaw governor is clear in the prospect for all of Polish Jewry and by the time the Nazi’s began the Ghetto containment of all of Polish Jewry, and this was back on October 8th. 1939 at Piotrkow Trybunalski in Poland this was a process of isolating Polish Jewry from the rest of the community. As an intermediary effort in the annihilation process, containment centres became the gateway to all and any of these 6 Death Camps. Here within Poland, the Polish Jews had already been legislated against, brutalised, murdered and then contained and all before the Jews of Europe were also systematically dispatched to one of the 6 Death Camps. 

“..Most of ..Jews ..Warsaw ..Cracow ..Lublin ..already dead. ..killed mainly in ..death camps ..built in ..spring of 1942. ..autumn 1942 ..Ostrow Jews probably knew ..vaguely ..terrible facts.”  Isidore Last.

That these centres of Jewish Extermination were established purposefully in Poland is not to be overlooked when we look to Hitler for his demand to progress the destruction of all of European Jewry. Of course, this annihilatory process was not before Polish Jews were forced to die or they were killed in the Ghetto’s and even in any one of the City’s, Towns, Villages or Shtetl’s which had once housed Polish Jews. With the call for the elimination of a Jewish Intelligentsia, a Jewish Judiciary, those Academic Jews or Jews of any Political persuasion, be they Peasant Jews or simply ordinary Polish Jews, all Jews were subjected to the same treatment, a final resolve to eliminate them. 

“..polish police stood at ..gates checking passes.” Julius Feldman.

This process of targeting anyone with the remotest educational ability to reason the threat coming from Hitler had to be quashed, subverted and dismembered. This entire process of degradation it has to be remembered commenced immediately upon arrival of Hitler’s German forces into Poland. It is pertinent too to remind the reader that NO one has ever stated, at least those with any credibility, or who wish retain any veracity in Historical research, that all non-Jewish Poles assisted in the Murder’s of their Jewish Neighbours. But, and this is so obviously clear, that even prior to World War II, Polish antisemitism was so rife that local non-Jewish Poles were Murdering their Jewish Friends, Neighbours and religious Cousins on a regular basis. 

“..Things got worse and worse for ..Father at ..airport ..all because he was Jewish. ..so many complaints from ..catholics ..Father was ..summoned to Pomorska Street.” Julius Feldman.

It disappoints me severely that anyone would suggest this was not so or that I am somehow lacking in my search that I would afford anything I say without an integrity it deserves. It was generally a death sentence for any Jew to be summoned to the Cracow Gestapo Headquarters at Pomorska Street, and knowing it was more than likely due to non-Jewish colleagues efforts, made it far worse as a betrayal. For some to this day, and there is this spurious assessment made by them, seeking to hide their betrayal along with all and any of this evidence which cannot stack up, the truth stands without distortion despite their effort.

Thursday October 15th. 1942 “..camp ..located near ..town ..Belzec ..well known all over Poland from ..tales of horror ..circulated about it.” Jan Karski.

For us it is fortuitous that the legacy of those like Julius Feldman will not allow for the deceit those who would distort the past with when we can verify such hatred in any search method adopted. Now unless we are going to revise the words of such a distinguished, and Polish scholar. When I then considered, after visiting all the 6 Death Camps in Poland, that it was imperative to then know what relationship there remains for Polish Jews within Poland, and as Polish Jewish Survivor’s had a very negative view of their former neighbours, I returned to Poland.

“..In ..Spring ..camps were created in Plaszow and Prokocim for Jews from nearby ..Towns ..brought ..to do various sorts of ..work.” Julius Feldman.

These later visits, to Cracow to visit Plaszow and Schindler’s factory on Lipowa Street, Zablocie, this was all to add a dimension to the truth I was building upon. In Lodz the Edelman Centre offered a remarkable space where the Jewish eminence has been preserved and is being cared for. Lublin was gathering together its Jewish heritage to deliver back to posterity what has been lost and in Warsaw, the Polin Museum provided me with the answer that was sought out for Polish Jewish Survivor’s. What I had hoped to know, and I had no preconceived idea on Poland’s past, and with some very remarkable People, who were working to restore all that has been lost to Polish civilisation with the delivery of Polish Jewry to The Holocaust within its border, I gained a very positive impression.

“..worked at a factory in Zablocie that made pots and pans.” Julius Feldman.

But I am also acutely aware that the very negative nature of what this now Polish government seeks to undermine, will not distract nor allow for the truth in all honest Academic achievement to be lost. For any state to fail to pronounce sentence on the very grave wrongs conducted by non-Jewish Poles upon their own Jewish Cousins, will further fester the malignancy of the anti-Jewish hatred that was shared amongst so many non-Jewish poles. It is essential therefore, when you only mean to ensure that only the veracity of the truth is to be attached to Jewish and non-Jewish Polish relations, the truth must be told, wholly, unequivocally and without distortion.

“..terrifying news ..of mass butchery in Niepolomicki Forest and in Wieliczka itself.” Julius Feldman.

That means accepting the demise of Jewish Community’s, be they in Dabrowa-Tarnowska, Grodno, the Niepolomicki Forest, Przytyk, Rzeszow, Vilna or Wieliczka. The all too many of these places can account for the assaults, brutality and even the butchery perpetrated against Polish Jews, even prior to the commencement of World War II, but does not account for the total lack of morality expressed. Already, it was seeping into the Jewish consciousness that wherever there was a Forest, and the Niepolomicki was situated East of Wieliczka, the mass murder of so many of Polish Jews was to be witnessed.

“..all ..Children ..deported from Rzeszow ..enough to send you into black despair at ..thought.” Julius Feldman.

If this gradual process toward eradication was ever to be imagined by Polish Jews, what was witnessed by non-Jewish Poles, adds an accusation beyond contempt. Then, with the very idea that The Madagaskar Plan for Polish Jews was a Polish consideration, while this must be viewed in light of the rightful suspicions that Jews held for far too many of their former neighbours, it is with regret that more of the 6,000,000 Jews who are The Holocaust did not escape to anywhere, even Madagaskar. It would be impossible to include in such a small piece for memory, all the places Julius mentions and give a more than fleeting glimpse of what it meant for Polish Jewry.

“..new death house provides for ..liquidation of 8,000 to 10,000 victims. If we consider ..right now 2,000,000 murdered Jews ..greater part of Polish Jewry  ..already buried in ..area of Treblinka ..disturbing question arises ..for whom do ..SS men intend that new house of death.”  Jacob Apenszlak.

With Rzeszow we can acknowledge that the Town had Jews residing within its confines and from the 1400’s onwards and once had a Jewish population of more than 22,000 Jews. Here too, Jews from the Town, and those squeezed into it  from the surrounding area, were all engulfed in the frenzy to discard them from all existence. Here, and with the Rzeszow Jews being mentioned, in what Julius brings to the fore, this now delivers a further despair to add another testimony to the already held memory of such an immense loss. Its very apparent tragedy, which appeals to all of our humanity as a crushing blow to it, will forever live in memory as it is to be never forgotten.

“..kudla took advantage ..by passing among ..People taking from them what he could. My dear Mother ..Father .among them .he took clothing ..an overcoat ..2 dresses ..a lady’s suit from them.” Julius Feldman.

We see within Polish Schools and their University’s, that the Intellegentsia of Poland was being widely attacked for its Jewish eminence. The Jewish Student body faced eviction, and along with many other difficulties that were placed before Jews, so as to prevent them retaining their Educational excellence, Polish scholarship did not prosper. For a glimpse of what this meant for Jewish excellence within Poland the decline of Jewish Student’s, which was a very broad and representative body of 22% of the total in 1928, there is a marked absence when we consider but 7% were allowed to attend higher Educational facility’s by 1938.

“..My pain cannot be expressed in ..simple words. ..came to my senses after a long while ..I had lost my Mother forever ..without a farewell ..without a last embrace. ..Mother whom no one could replace. ..My beloved Mother ..she must have wept ..I saw ..traces of tears on ..table.” Julius Feldman.

Also, we are propelled to rcognise the very worst in that form of humanity which sought to profit from the sheer despair of a Jewish People under duress and facing extinction. For Polish Jewry, by the commencement of a War that had seen their passports removed from them for daring to live in Germany, nothing afforded the Jews a positive outlook. Here we are then, very much shrouded in the spectre of the 2,000 year old antisemitism which darkens appreciably and clouds all that History brings to a pinnacle with Jewish destruction within Poland. For Poland itself, a deeply antisemitic Country, this was highlighted throughout its long history of those times living alongside Polish Jews as neighbours, friends and even relatives.

“..All at once I had lost everyone ..everyone who was dear to me ..only later did I understand this. How difficult it was to get used to my emptiness and loneliness. ..fate’s punishment ..no way I could stand up to it. In those sad moments ..supported by ..will to Survive all our misfortunes and ..if a happy ending brought me out of it successfully ..perhaps to help my loved ones ..whom I might yet see again ..to soothe my pain.” Julius Feldman.

What emerges as we read from passages to highlight the deeply destructive fate for these Polish Jews is how on Earth can we know such loss. The incredible despair, the enormous grief and the pain of rejection and abandonment, unless we too have suffered this, we cannot begin to imagine its awful status. But when we attempt to equate our own experience, we recognise in the individual tragedy for Julius, who was wrenched from any existence he has been entitled to persist with, for him and his Family catapulted into an unmerciful end, how can we approach comprehension. With the escalating hatred for the Jewish People emerging throughout Europe, and this was even heightened in the early to mid 1930’s, Hitler’s rise is crucial here.

“..For some time ..kommandant .was mueller ..his place taken 3 weeks ago by ..goeth. ..a horrible man.” Julius Feldman.

Perhaps, and on the back of the Hitler rhetoric that was sweeping Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia, with Poland exhibiting its own branding of Hitlerism, Julius could not himself know of the loss to come. Certainly within Poland, and midway through the decade, there were some 150 Pogroms against Polish Jews within Poland, in Brest-Litovsk, Dabrowa-Tarnowska, Grodno and Przytyk amongst them to warn Polish Jewry of an approaching storm. For the Jewish People, and not simply just here in Poland, Family, belief, religion, education and the promotion of a Jewish State was to become a marked principle of their 5,000 year long Jewish antecedence away from Israel.

“..goeth’s orders ..carried out. ..hanging of 2 Women ..an 18 year old is still a Child ..done by people with no conscience ..complete degenerates. They were beaten ..smeared with iodine all day.” Julius Feldman.

The highly infused crucible of the Jewish fear, married to their systematic destruction began immediately upon Hitler’s invasion into Poland and this ties into what the commencement of Julius’s Diary, would depict. The Diary itself, only beginning on March 11th. 1943, clearly recognises the arrival of Amon Goeth at the Plaszow Camp in Cracow. Goeth, who took charge of the Camp on February 11th.1943 brought a level of brutality and fear which the Jews under his gaze felt severely. Of course, all of this hatred was physically aligned with the diminishing body of the Polish Jewish presence within Poland and Europe and had fully played into the hands of the stinging hatred for Polish Jewry in Poland.

“..entire Ghetto ..to be liquidated by March 18th. ..transferred to Jerozolimska Street.” Julius Feldman.

The Diary of Julius itself is a very short lived investigative tool of evidential testimony which bears an immense importance when locating many of those criminals against the Jews who were in situ in and around Cracow. As locals witnessed what the Nazi’s were capable of, this had richly inspired such a clamour for what the Jews once owned that the profit motive flourished. Such had been the jealous outrage and bias, all too many were profiting from Polish Jewish losses, and this is embedded within Poland to this day. What has proved in relation to the Jewish torment, which was on a steady incline toward the Hitler capacity for total destruction, was to make rich people out of an ignorant and greedy population.

“..hasse ordered us to return to 31. ..He ..did not know what to do with us.” Julius Feldman.

Attached to that greed was an immorality that is wholly devoid of any principles, let alone of the codices of any supposed christian morals. In full consort with the Nazi need for greed, all too many non-Jewish Poles made it their very reason to exploit and collaborate with far too many of the Nazi intentions for Polish Jewry. Here, the full exploitation of the Jews of Cracow was overseen upon the return to 31, and this is Julius mentioning of Jozefinska Street where Jewish goods, plundered from the Jews within the Plaszow Camp was accumulated. All of this control was demanded and directed by SS Sturmbannfuhrer Rudolf Willi von Haase, as Chief of Cracow Gestapo.

“..15th. March 1943 ..Krakow is finally Judenrein.” Julius Feldman.

Haase would remove the plunder from the Jews, which had been accumulating in and around Cracow and then taken to this central storage point for despatch to the Reich. Between March 13th. and March 16th. 1943 SS and their Policing cohorts surrounded the Cracow Ghetto and a further 2,000 of Cracow’s Jews are Murdered within these confines. Added to this, there is a resettlement transport, which took 2,000 more of Cracow’s now diminished Jewish Community, arriving at Birkenau on March 13th 1943. Here, 484 Jewish Men and 24 Jewish Women are selected for Forced Labour. The remainder of them, some 1,492 of Cracow’s Jews are immediately gassed.

“..a visit from oberfuhrer scherner ..accompanied other rulers of ours. ..we stand outside ..freeze until they come and do us a ..favour of inspecting us.” Julius Feldman.

Though Cracow was not quite as free of Jews as Hitler had proposed, and while it was as yet unfinished business for the perpetrator’s and their cohorts, the decimation of Cracow Jewry was so immense, it was practically complete. However, as there were some of Cracow’s Jews, who were still in hiding, and there were many others who were still being held captive to the vagaries of a Polish greed that was still continuing, Freedom for the Jews was a lifetime away. For those former neighbours to Polish Jews, who selected to clear away the debris of former Jewish existence, and while safeguarding their own plunder and even stealing it away from the Nazi administration, this has allowed for the perpetuating crime of theft to permeate through Polish society to this day. 

“..20th. March 1943 ..Saturday. ..We march to work ..escorted ..by polish police or ..ukrainians. ..frequent visits from ..balb.” Julius Feldman.

Tragically, there are still a further 2,000 Cracow Jews, including the Judenrate and their Families who are to be resettled. Here, SS Oberfuhrer Julian Scherner HSSPF for the Cracow District ensured that, along with other administrative bodies of the Jewish Ghetto administration, they are removed  to Plaszow. Also, and there is a further resettlement transport of 1,000 of Cracow’s Jews which arrived at Birkenau on March 16th. 1943. With only 15 Jewish Men and 26 Jewish Women being selected for Forced Labour, the remaining 859 Jews of Cracow are immediately gassed.

“..9th. April 1943 I cannot go on writing ..constant fear of ..search. ..Yesterday ..witnessed a hanging and our clothes ..painted in yellow stripes to make ..escape impossible.” Julius Feldman.

SS Untersturmfuhrer Heinrich Balb supervised the removal of the plunder from Cracow’s Jews and made rich men of many like himself and Goeth. As for Amon Leopold Goeth, who was not hanged enough in Cracow, Poland, though close enough to the Plaszow Camp, where his reign of terror directed his hatred specifically at the Jewish People, his hanging on September 13th. 1946 was merely tokenism. With all of this feigned search for justice, which clearly marks an attempt to put beyond concern, the very conscience of a Europe marked with both complicity and indifference, eternity awaits any Justice for 6,000,000 Jews of Europe. 

“..11th. April 1943 ..how terribly I feel ..lack of my beloved Father ..whom everyone knew…..

Tragically too, and for the unspeakable and immoral crime of indifference to this Jewish extermination, there are 6,000,000 Jews who are History’s accuser’s. Amongst these are Julius Feldman and His immediate and extended Family and we reflect upon that loss to us all, to the Jewish World and to Humanity. Civilisation ends with the Diary of Julius Feldman for not knowing his fate, though we do know, Julius never emerged from what Hitler had proposed for all Jews. Their Destruction, their Extermination, their Annihilation, the complete Evisceration of the Jewish People on a scale unprecedented, unparalleled and unique in all of History will rock the civilised World for ever.

April 12th. 1943

“..I walk into ..unknown leaving behind ..knowledge of a debt owed to me ..My Family ..My People. I left behind a footprint ..a mark of my being. I stand as an accuser of what has been done against my People ..but let it never be that we become the accused.”

This last April 12th. attached excerpt is not from Julius Feldman, and as I wished to extend his presence far beyond where we are forced to assume he was Murdered on that final entry day, I use my own words to add to a vacancy in the latter moments of a life deprived of his words. Perhaps the very next day, or the day after that he was Killed, Murdered and even Gassed so we simply record that Julius Feldman has entered the realm of The Holocaust. Unlike those many from amongst these 1,000,000’s of other Jews, they should not still remain unknown to us in any way.

“..murders of Survivors right after ..War ..intimidated many who might have sought their property back. Fearing for their lives ..many made no attempt to retrieve their assets.” Naphtali Lavie.

Whether in name or in the very detail of their existence, to all of us who study History, such is the case that humanity is to be costed in their lives lost. These Jewish lives were obliterated within that period of the gravest peril and devastation for Jewish persistence because we stood aside and allowed it to happen. So while I search continually for the comprehension necessary to somehow come to terms with The Holocaust, Roman Knoll of the Polish Foreign Affairs Office puts this into cold relief. If this is not collaboration with the spirit of Hitler’s Final Solution I am hard pressed to find words so succinct in the accusation. For Poland today, it would be better placed for its place in History to better evaluate what it failed to do to save 3,000,000 of its own Murdered Jews.

August 1943 “..return of ..Jews to their jobs and workshops is ..out of ..question ..even if ..number of Jews is greatly reduced. ..non-Jewish population has filled their places in ..towns ..cities ..in much of Poland this is a fundamental change ..final in character. ..return of masses of Jews would be perceived not as an act of restitution ..but as an invasion against which they would have to defend themselves ..even by physical means.” Roman Knoll.

SS Sturmbannfuhrer Rudolf Willi von Haase was hanged for his crimes on May 23rd. 1952 at Montelupich Prison, Cracow

SS Oberfuhrer Julian Scherner HSSPF for the Cracow District was demoted for corruption and was found dead after serving with the notorious Dirlewanger Brigade.

Former Kommandant Franz Josef Mueller, who received a 20 year sentence for aktions and Crimes against Jewish Humanity, is amongst far too many such Criminals to mention who Never received the sentence their crimes demanded.

It would appear that a Poland which seeks to disown everything that Hitler has established in Poland, except what has proved lucrative to them has further to go to respect what the very factual truth must mean to the veracity it brings to all of History. With the Destruction of 3,000,000 of their own Polish Jews, with an extortionate profit that has been made from Hitler’s resolve of the eventual solution, Poland has profited clearly. Perhaps the most challenging and philosophical question of the era then, in which the World stood by as 6,000,000 Jews were laid to waste, has to be:

And What Would You Have Done?

“..Did you make sure to scrape the ashes of friends and relatives from the furnace?

And did you haul the cart in the snow

To the heap of ashes of those cremated before them? Were the words “You’ll certainly live as long as the furnaces send smoke aloft, because you’re needed,” directed at you?

And when you were covered with those ashes, did your mouths report what had happened in the language of the barracks?

That extra soup, is it the price of the labor of your spade And the double ration-the price of the sweat that you gave forth?

And was it to you that the words “Only some time later, at an unknown time,

After the coal, the miner of the coal also comes” were directed?

Not you, not me! We were not put to that ordeal!

You may scrape furnaces every night And push the cart to its side in your dreams.

But to have the slightest inkling of what happened in that man’s heart, you cannot.

Rather, from time to time you may turn your eyes heavenward, as if reflecting,”

And what would you have done?” Guenther Anders.

Finally, here, and from the list of Cracow’s Jews are these, known to have been Slaughtered, amongst whom are

#01 Julius Feldman,

Julius’s Father, #02 Selig Zygmunt Feldman, who was possibly 54 when he was Murdered, and

Julius’s Mother, #03 Gusta Feldman nee Ofen who was possibly 52 when she was Murdered, and

#04 Jan Feldman, Julius’s younger Brother was born in 1928 and was possibly 15 when he was Murdered.

Feldman, Abraham b.1928. Feldman, Barukh. Feldmann, Bela Berta b. 1901. Feldman, Beresh Dov b. 1900. Feldman, Berl b.1900. Feldman, Bernard b. 1899. Feldman, Beyrl b. 1900. Feldman, Cecilia Charna b. 1912. Feldman, Dolek b. 1896. Feldman, Emili. Feldman, Ernestine b. 1871. Feldman, Ewa Pepi b. 1932. Feldman, Genrikh b. 1923. #Feldman, Gusta b. 1891. Feldman, Herman Natan b. 1916. Feldman, Ida. Feldman, Ida’s Child (First name not known). Feldman, Ida’s Husband (First name not known). Feldman, Ita. #Feldman, Jan b. 1928. Feldman, Janina b. 1934. Feldman, Josef. Feldman, Joseph Leon. Feldman, Josl b. 1905. #Feldman, Juliusz b. 1923. Feldman, Lea. Feldman, Leib. Feldman, Leibisch b.1902. Feldman, Leon. Feldman, Leon b. 1925. Feldman, Lyusya b. 1921. Feldman, Mendl b. 1917. Feldman, Moshe. Feldman, Oscar. Feldman, Rachel. Feldman, Rachel b. 1900. Feldman, Rahmiel b. 1903. Feldman, Regina b. 1894. Feldman, Rosa b. 1870. Feldman, Ruhala b.1878. Feldman, Ryfka b. 1887. Feldman, Salomon b. 1884. Feldman, Salomon b. 1903. Feldman, Samuel b. 1891. Feldman, Samuel b. 1901. Feldman, Sara b. 1908. #Feldman, Selig Zygmunt b. 1889. Feldman, Shmuel b. 1907. Feldman, Simon Josef b. 1866. Feldman, Szymon b. 1917. Feldman, Tosia.  Feldman, Tzilya b. 1895. Kwiatkowska Feldman, Raisla Rozalia b. 1904. Templer Feldman, Rivka b. 1882.

Julius as a Child


Dr. Yitzhak Arad

Uncategorised Posted on Fri, May 14, 2021 19:28:50

Dr. Yitzhak Arad

November 11th. 1926 – May 6th. 2021

“..The Holocaust ..Shoah in Hebrew is ..most tragic era in ..history of ..Jewish People 1933 – 1945 when ..Germans and their collaborators perpetrated genocide against them.” Dr. Yitzhak Arad.

The Survivors are a diminishing presence from amongst us but the legacy of the Jewish Survivor, and Yitzhak Arad is undoubtedly a Survivor and whose testimony must be adopted. What is then added to what we will soon become, the Witnesses to that which we are informed of, will take memory of The Holocaust forward. Immediately we learn, and from those first lines he has left us, Hitler’s rise provoked a solution to the Jewish situation that was both cataclysmic and destructive.

“..Most Survivor’s did not come back to Vilna ..they could not and did not want to rebuild their lives on ruins of Jewish Vilna.” Dr. Yitzhak Arad.

On top of that essential feeling of the ruins of Jewish existence, for many Jews, any return was treated with hostility, non-Jewish locals already inhabiting the shoes of a former Jewish presence. So we commence with Arad at where he considers The Holocaust begins, and for those who would consider any other commencement date for the catastrophe that is The Holocaust, Hitler remains the focus of all intention. For Arad, as one of the foremost authorities on what happened to His People, he clearly informs us of the position that is to meet Austrian and German Jewry from the very beginning.

“..When ..clear ..war was liable to end with ..defeat ..Germans decided to obliterate ..evidence of ..mass murder.” Dr. Yitzhak Arad.

Before his Birth, Isaac (Yitzhak) Rudnicki was born in Swieciany, Poland on November 11th. 1926, Jews had never been treated fairly in all their persistence amongst us. From both his Parents though, Haya Rudnicki and Israel Moshe Rudnicki, they gave the young Isaac an informed outlook on the World that stood him in good stead for all that was to confront him as a Jew amongst those destroying his People. Isaac was an early member of the Zionist youth movement HaNoar haTsiyyoni and his Education took him into the local Hebrew schools. His grounding in the need for a Jewish State was being nurtured.

“..Jews were compelled to establish relations with an alien ..hostile government that regarded them as subhuman ..fit only for exploitation and extermination. ..human values in which they believed and on which they had built their lives tottered and collapsed. In this cruel reality ..Vilna Jewry struggled to survive and seek rescue. ..daily struggle was for life itself ..survive in ..face of hunger ..disease. Jewish Vilna embodied ..majority of hardships.”  Dr. Yitzhak Arad.

For a time Isaac moved away from Swieciany and lived with his family for a spell in Warsaw but he decided which tormented him. With a return to Swieciany, and with his Sister Rachel with him his reluctance to leave his Parents became a devastating event he could not envisage. By the beginning of 1940, none too many Jews were awake to what Hitler was intending for all of Poland’s Jews, let alone for the entire Continent of European Jewry. Tragically, for Arad, and for the many 1,000,000’s of Jews with Parents to assist, comfort, console and protect, both of his Parents were swallowed up, along with over 30 members of his immediate family, Murdered during The Holocaust.

“..I knew ..Jewish World in Eastern Europe that was alive and well and destroyed in The Holocaust. I saw with my own eyes 1,000’s of Jews being led to ..firing pits. I survived ..and fate allowed me to join ..partisans ..fighters against ..murderers of our people ..and in their ranks to blow up German trains.” Dr. Yitzhak Arad.

I do not begin to presuppose his eternal grief with other than a compassion for such devastation, but that very weight of loss was and has been compounded. By the sheer and immeasurable lack of knowledge as to when, where or how His Parents were destroyed, how does one move on. The reality was clearly a destruction for them which was conducted either within the confines of the Warsaw Ghetto or laid to waste amidst the ash strewn space of Treblinka. All of history has consumed their presence and it is an ever-open wound for all too many of the Jewish People that such is their lack of such knowledge as to when and where, even while they must deal with the aspect of how.

“..What happened in ..past could potentially happen again ..to any people ..at any time. Be truly clear about this ..Do not count yourselves among ..murderers ..and may you never find yourselves among ..victims.” Dr. Yitzhak Arad.

Isaac was an incredibly young Partisan, an underground fighter who was given the name Tolka, and from age of 15 he was set up for many future actions during World War II. With Hitler’s move against Russia, known as Operation Barbarossa, opening on June 22nd. 1941, the already practiced shootings and executions conducted in Poland against the Polish Jews, and others, took on a more defined and all-encompassing role. The formative Einsatz squads that had roamed Poland freely were now a contracted killing machine for the delivery of such a catastrophic blow to the Jewish People, and wherever der Einsatzgruppe they found them, is measured in more than 1,300,000 Shot and Murdered Jews.

“..mass extermination of ..Jews ..began with ..invasion of ..Soviet Union June 22nd. 1941.” Yitzhak Arad.

When, on September 26th. 1941 there were 8,000 Jews of Swieciany who were murdered in the nearby Ponari Woods, Tolka was already fighting against this Nazi enterprise. Then, with the final liquidation of the Swieciany Ghetto commencing on April 4th. 1943 Tolka met with Abba Kovner in the Vilna Ghetto. While the Jewish People of Vilna were wholly seduced by the notion that they were to be resettled in either of the Ghettos of Kovno or Vilna itself, the truth of Ponari began to sink in when it was already too late for them.

“..I fought ..Nazi Germans and their Lithuanian collaborators. ..murderers of my family ..murderers of my people.” Dr. Yitzhak Arad.

However, on April 5th. 1942, with a further 4,000 of these Swieciany Jews taken out of Vilna and murdered in the local Ponari Woods, Jewish existence in Vilna and Lithuania was coming to an end. Tolka continually moved to the attack, and the Germans and their collaborators in the Narocz Forest, Belarus felt the strength of his sting. Tolka grew in stature instantly and he was heavily involved in the fighting to both regain Lithuania from Nazi occupation and then avenge the Jewish losses there. Tolka’s exploits are too numerous for such a short piece, and though he has illuminated that passage of his partisanship for us in his own words, the shaded area of Jewish existence still hides 1,000,000’s of Jews from us. 

“..When ..occupied territories were liberated ..no single Jewish Community ..survived. Only small numbers of Jews emerged. ..Over 1,000,000 Jews had been killed in ..occupied ..Soviet Union.” Dr. Yitzhak Arad.

In December 1945, Tolka immigrated to Israel from was aboard the Hannah Szenes, this blockade breaking ship, and once in the mandated state, Tolka established himself as a freedom fighter. At the ripe old age of 18 Arad joined the Palmach and while settling into his future homeland, and fighting against the British mandated control, his partisan efforts came to bear heavily upon a British occupation force. On May 14th. 1948, and with the establishment of the State of Israel for the Jewish People, 2,000 years of an element of the Jewish Diaspora came to an end. Though the infant State was not to be an exclusively Jewish State, it was for all of those wishing to build a Nation, it was none the less a Jewish Nation of State for the Jewish People.

“..period of The Holocaust was ..one of struggle without prospect ..forces of extermination ..simply too overwhelming.” Dr. Yitzhak Arad.

Meanwhile, as the World was suddenly awoken to a newer resentment for the Jewish People, the weight of the Arab league was thrown at the youthful Israel. Now though, the Jewish People, who no longer required the grace and favour of other national states for any expression of their own sovereignty, fought back with all the tenacity of a nation missing 6,000,000 of its fighter’s. In this War of Independence, Arad amongst 6,000,000 accuser’s and was with the Harel Brigade to ensure the Jews could not be the accused. Arad was led in the coming battles by Yitzhak Rabin and once more proved his worth to his People.

“..I built a physical site for visitors ..which tells and presents ..history of The Holocaust. I expanded ..education and research of ..subject and laid ..foundations for making ..place a world centre for commemorating ..memory of The Holocaust and its heritage. ..Despite years of lack of diplomatic relations with ..countries of ..Communist bloc in Eastern Europe ..I have been able to establish working relations with archives in these countries and obtain 100’s of 1,000’s of documents relating to The Holocaust there.” Dr. Yitzhak Arad.

Altruistically, with the need for the integrity of the factual truth which destroyed their People, Israel sought to teach us the need to learn. So much from what YadVashem gifts us, that Arad, and those just like him have imparted, becomes the better good of knowing what hatred must never accomplish nor profit anyone in any society. We know that when Arad testified in war crimes trials in Israel and was a consultant for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Justice would never be served nor the quest for it satiated.

“..torment ..European Jewry ..underwent during The Holocaust ..its responses sum up most of ..options ..available to ..Jews during this tragic epoch. Vilna Jewry was a microcosm of ..fate of all Jewish communities in Eastern Europe.”  Dr. Yitzhak Arad.

Up until 1972 Arad served as an officer in the Israeli Defence Force and retiring as a Brigadier General he moved seamlessly into an academic career. This route took him to lecturing at the Tel Aviv University on Jewish History, while completing his doctoral studies and thesis there. Arad was also a guest Professor at the Yeshiva University, New York and is the writer of many astonishingly in-depth examinations of the very machinations of the Nazi destruction of the Jewish People in The Holocaust.

01) The Partisan: From the Valley of Death to Mount Zion (1979).

02) Documents on the Holocaust: Selected Sources on the Destruction of the Jews of Germany and Austria, Poland, and the Soviet Union (1981)

03) Ghetto in Flames: The Struggle and Destruction of the Jews of Vilna (1982)

04) Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps (1987)

When the Germans began the construction of the first of these Aktion Reinhard Death Camps, Chelmno was already in operation as an extermination centre. Literally 1,000,000’s of European Jews were transported into Poland for resettlement, a hidden meaning which did not disguise the Jewish annihilation. Within the framework of the Final Solution of The Jewish Question, die Endlosung der Judenfrage, the stage-managed Slaughter began with the Ghetto as the initial reserve, the antechamber of which were the 6 Death Camps in Poland.

05) The Einsatzgruppen Reports: Selections from the Dispatches of the Nazi Death Squads’ Campaign against the Jews (1989).

Covering the period immediately after Barbarossa commenced, and from July 1941 till January 1943 these Reports supplied to the Allied intelligence services the very evidence of the mass extermination of the Jewish People. What was telegraphed from the killing sites in Eastern Europe, The Baltic States and the Ukraine and Russia and to the secretariat at Hitler’s desk, were also intercepted and became the accusation of History. These 4 der Einsatzgruppe mobile units of the SS and SD were bolstered by Wehrmacht, Waffen SS, battalions of uniformed German Order Police and local Ukrainian, Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian volunteers for conduct of the killings. The victims, at least 1,300,000 Jews, and others, were Shot, Killed and Murdered into shallow graves, huge pits, ravines and wherever they fell.

06) The Pictorial History of the Holocaust (1990)

As Chairman of the Directorate at YadVashem, he served there diligently for 21 years between 1972 and1993 and remained associated with it until his last days, serving as Deputy Chairman of the YadVashem Council. He researched widely both World War II and The Holocaust and is published more extensively than I have listed.

On June 7th. 1993 in Torun, Poland Arad was awarded a Doctorate (Honoris Causa) by Poland’s Nicolaus Copernicus University.

07) The History of the Holocaust: Soviet Union and the Annexed Territories (2004).

08) Ponary Diary, July 1941–November 1943: A Bystander’s Account of a Mass Murder (2005).

This Diary was edited by Dr. Arad and we are gifted with what Kazimiercz Sakerwicz delivers to us of the fate of the Jews driven into Ponari Woods for execution.

In 2006 there was a scurrilous accusation in a Lithuanian newspaper, respublika, that Arad was a war criminal and called for his extradition from Israel. The distortion of views, which sought to diminsih the Lithuanian role in Murdering its own Jews, and facilitating the Murders of European Jews, saw the Lithuanian state prosecutor drop the biased effort in 2008.

09) The Holocaust in the Soviet Union and Annexed Territories (2009).

10) In the Shadow of the Red Banner: Soviet Jews in the War Against Nazi Germany (2009).

11) Anthology on Armed Jewish Resistance.

12) Arad was a contributor to The Encyclopaedia of the Holocaust.

13) Engraved in Memory

In 2020, Arad participated in a joint commemorative photography project between Yad Vashem and world-renowned photographer Martin Schoeller, entitled Survivors: Faces of Life after the Holocaust. These faces barely glimpse the totality of loss though we benefit from knowing these faces were once a vibrant community of Jews torn from all existence.

“..perpetrators should be brought to trial ..in spite of age ..not as a vengeance ..but as a lesson and warning for ..future.”  Dr. Yitzhak Arad.

Always to Remember, Never to Forget.

“..We are deeply saddened by ..loss of Dr. Yitzhak Arad ..a man whose legacy will forever stay with us. At this difficult time of loss we extend our deepest condolences to ..Family of this brave Fighter. May his memory be a blessing.” Lina Antanaviciene (Lithuanian Ambassador in Israel)

“..It was good hearing from you, again. Dr. Arad was a truly great man. He left his mark on Jewish history as both a scholar and warrior. His example most certainly gives the lie to the old image of the Jew who was comfortable with books but could not rise to defend himself and his people in battle. Thus, it can be truly said that Yitchak Arad personified the State of Israel. Best regards.” Aaron Breitbart (Simon Wiesenthal Centre).

“..The Holocaust is an immeasurable grief for so much more than Humanity can bear and it is an insurmountable loss for far too many of those who hold Yitzhak Arad’s expertise close by. Arad’s integrity could not be swayed by other than truth and this fact bears down heavily upon a World which allowed for far too much of what happened to more than 6,000,000 Jewish People. Amongst these are Arad’s Parent’s and the more than 30 others of his immediate Family who perished without trace for many of them.” Patrick Dempsey (Author Historian on The Holocaust).

“..A noble and honest man has left us ..a Jewish Partisan ..from ..Warsaw Ghetto who headed Yad Vashem for 21 years. In this context ..he worked diligently to commemorate The Holocaust and established ..Valley of ..Communities. ..at Yad Vashem for Holocaust Remembrance Day ..he delivered a lecture. ..great pleasure of seeing a 95-year-old Jew speak fluently ..with a clear mind. It is sad that such figures are leaving ..World.” Rabbi Israel Meir Lau.

“..We know that it is ..nature of ..world that a day comes and a person leaves us ..but this fact does not ease ..sadness when a hero like Yitzhak Arad ‘Tolka’ departs. Arad belongs to a vanishing generation ..a generation of Survivors ..Partisans.  ..Every farewell to a Holocaust Survivor is a reminder to us that now ..work of remembrance rests on our shoulders even more.” Ronen Plot.

“..Hi Patrick ..I worked closely with Tolka (his name as partisan and which was the name his friends called him) during his last few years at Yad Vashem in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and then afterwards we had a warm working and personal relationship while he continued to research and write about the Holocaust.  I worked with him on the development of the Valley of Jewish Communities and an overhaul we began on the old historical museum, which eventually became a different project to build a new museum after he retired and Avner Shalev took over.  Tolka was deeply dedicated to Yad Vashem and researching and writing about the history of the Holocaust. He was a man who was full of energy, knowledgeable and thoughtful about our subject. I last spoke to him about a month ago just to check in with him in this time of Covid, and he was busy as could be. Just this last Memorial Day (eve of Israel Independence Day) he gave a talk to the IDF chiefs of staff, and until the very last moment he was sending out to Yad Vashem an appraisal of an article for Yad Vashem Studies. Tolka was the son of a well-known cantor, and he also loved to sing, and sang very nicely.  His last book, about ethical dilemmas Jews faced during the Holocaust, is in the process of being published by Yad Vashem. He will be sorely missed, and he leaves an important legacy of research and commemoration about The Holocaust. May his memory be blessed.” Rob Rozett (Author at YadVashem).

“..Tolka reflected many historical aspects ..Jewish People endured ..a life that began in Poland ..fighting with ..Partisans during The Holocaust .. immigrating to ..Israel. Through his work at Yad Vashem and his words ..Tolka personified ..force of life and power of memory ..which was also reflected in his private life and ..fate of his People. ..way he behaved ..and ..Person he was ..an example of ..generation that believed ..and continues to believe ..in ..development of ..State of Israel and its influence. Today ..I lost a close friend ..a person who taught me so much and with whom I wove many dreams.” Avner Shalev.

“..As a published author on the 3 Aktion Reinhardt camps in individual works, the debt owed to Yitzhak Arad for his seminal publication, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka cannot be emphasized enough. His 1987 publication is simply a masterpiece of painstaking research and brilliant writing. May he rest in peace, and I thank him for his inspiration and priceless gift to the understanding of the Holocaust, in general and about Aktion Reinhardt in particular.” Chris Webb (Author and Historian).

History is what we have gifted to us to inform us as to who we are. Yitzhak Arad is one of those whose immediate knowledge of the immense atrocity facing his People informs us with such integrity. What we learn of a History that deprived him of Family, Friends, Communities of every description and 6,000,000 of His People, all because they were Jews, is an unenviable fact. Arad has passed from us but not before he had laid the foundations of a work that informs us to learn much more than we knew before. Arad’s narrative outlay, on what we should learn is not just a posthumous testimony to truth, it is an integrity borne out of the factual detail of a catastrophe for the Jewish People.

“..Treblinka served solely for ..destruction of Jews. In ..course of its existence a few hundred Gypsies  ..a few groups of Gypsies were brought and were exterminated too.  No other nations ..no peoples from other nations or ethnic groups were brought here. And this applies also to Belzec and Sobibor.  They were established expressly for ..destruction of Jews.” Dr. Yitzhak Arad. 

What Dr. Yitzhak (Isaac, Tolka) Arad had lived through and had somehow Survived is a history that also teaches us that we learn best from those who know the truth of what it is we seek to learn of. I have learned to hear from those who wish to inform us on this The Holocaust, from those consumed within it and by it. I learn from those whose very words are from the lost, whose words are now written into memory. Then there are the sentences emerging so that we remember what must not be forgotten, delivered with eloquence by a Dr. Yitzhak Arad who has all too often visited that past to allow us to know more of what those like Arad endured, all too many of whom did not Survive.

“..Treblinka and other camps ..once they had fulfilled their task of extermination they were liquidated ..disbanded ..obliterated ..turned into agricultural land and ..greenery ..planted.  All we do have is survivors’ evidence and testimony ..especially Yaakov Vernick ..who a few months after he escaped from ..Treblinka ..at ..time of ..revolt ..had prepared a drawing ..sketch ..diagram of ..Treblinka Camp. ..this is ..main source for our information about ..camp.” Dr. Yitzhak Arad.



Radzyn: Their Jews – Our Loss.

Uncategorised Posted on Mon, May 03, 2021 14:48:48

Radzyn

Their Jews – Our Loss

“..last Jew was to die just like ..first. We knew ..our end was near. To ..last Survivors were bequeathed ..agony of separation and ..mourning of relatives. ..a grievous privilege. In ..time ..left to a Survivor ..there ..remained hope in god and justice ..a vain belief in ..miracles.” Joseph Schupack.

Before we even attempt to approach the History of any place, particularly those monstrously affected by the tenets of The Holocaust, we confirm its past. We also lend appropriately, an understanding of the very detail of the atrocity which swallowed up these Jews of Radzyn. Any impression created of the terror which faced them as Jews can lead us on and assist us in our endeavour to attempt to appreciate the horror inflicted upon an innocent People, simply for them being Jewish.

“..Jews with their Gentile neighbors share

one sun, one sky, one God in their hearts.” Yitzkhok Katzeneleson.

This is a piece of evidenced based work that I wish I had been able to present to Joseph Schupack, but which remains in history for Joseph as a testimony to one who lived through The Dead Years. Joseph Schupack affords us a testimony of memory of those now lost to us, but, and the sheer fact of Joseph Schupack, ensures us that the Jews who are the extracted and murdered Jews of Radzyn are here Remembered for posterity. It is also relevant in recalling events here, that throughout Poland and Europe there was an escalating crisis for all Jews, wherever they were.

“..Most ..non Jewish Polish residents of Radzyn survived. Even ..anti Nazi political activists ..Germans had arrested and sent off to Auschwitz ..returned home. ..they had seen how ..crematoriums had swallowed daily 10’s of 1,000’s of Jews ..a whole people ..young ..old ..were destroyed ..they themselves ..returned home. Just ..Jews had disappeared from ..face of Earth.” Abba Lichtenshtein.

There were to be no Jews who entered the inferno for which a return was a choice of their own choosing, as the fate of the Jewish People had long been decided by Adolf Hitler. For those of us who are particularly drawn to this crisis, and for all of World Jewry here within Europe, and particularly detained within the borders of Poland, we search the facts, evoke the truth and add to the established integrity that the Jewish Survivor continues to add to. As to the world of History, leaning heavily upon the Jewish World, we still seek to come to terms with what we cannot even begin to imagine.

“..What was happening to us Jews caused one to question god and ..conscience of mankind.” Joseph Schupack.

For the very integrity of history’s need, we must continue the fight to simply add more than just the names to what we have all lost, For us to have any meaning in this series of descriptions, and while there are horrific details which the Jews must continually look back upon it sears us all with shame, pain and sadness. For those Jews who search every detail, in order to even find a remnant of their past, that horror has seen their People ground into ash. In a crucible of existence, the Jewish People have been blended into the dust of a Continent reeling from the inescapable tragedy that was overseen by a World wide indifference.

“..A church tower tall, and beys medresh low,

a little store empty, a beys medresh full.

and another beys medresh and another two, three,

a Rabbi, a teacher and faithful Hassidim.” Yitzkhok Katzeneleson.

To add ever toward an intolerable act against all of humanity, we recognise the very little that was done by the World to afford the Jews of Europe even a slender hope. For those Jews singled out from all of that humanity, and still there are those Jews who finally managed to emerge from its flames, we question, we seek their truths so as to know our own integrity failed us and betrayed them. For these, the Survivors, who we implore, and with insistence and consistently, in an effort for us to learn of their suffering, we must remember what it means in suffering for them to do so.

“..We knew ..our train .bound for an extermination camp ..did not know which. ..Treblinka ..Auschwitz ..Majdanek. ..we got our answer ..we arrived at Majdanek.” Joseph Schupack.

For tutors are giving us their learning from Auschwitz, Majdanek and Treblinka, and the other places of death and devastation for the Jewish People, for which we charge the Jewish Survivor with delving ever deeper into this dark period of existence. As a consequence of our demands, which are in search of a more rounded and fully understood appreciation of what 6,000,000 Jews were subjected to, we recognise an indifference that escalated the process. While we trouble the Survivor ever further, I believe we dig much deeper into the psyche of all humanity, which much of it was stood aside for this catastrophe to be allowed to happen.

“..I want to sing you a hero song

Oh, don’t laugh at me brothers

and don’t wonder how a Jew

comes to sing songs of heroes?

Hero-songs… yes, like this!

So why are you afraid?

Are hero’s songs only for Gentiles?” Yitzkhok Katzeneleson.

For us of course, who live in our tidy rooms, it is an imperative to establish the fuller truth in all of our histories together as both Jew and Gentile alike. That these educational progressions may well illuminate our own presentation of a past we are still yet to learn from, we are losing the time necessary to gain all the information held by those Survivor’s who know what we need to know of. For all the 11,293,300 Jews of Europe remaining, as finally designated at Wannsee for total elimination, the chance for us to restore hope to a World though detained, must be given the opportunity.

“..rulers of Poland. ..nurtured ..hatred of ..Polish people for ..Jews. antisemitism in all of its forms was ..daily occurrence for ..Jews of Poland.” Abba Lichtenshtein.

For the approaches to humanity to be somehow made better, by having the Survivor’s confront us with their gruesome accounts, it must assail us. It must never allow for the distortion of that truth to be a distraction from the perversion which overtook the rest of humanity while the Jewish People were being consumed. For far too many, who would seek to confuse us with some aspect of the very integrity we seek, we must see the denial as counter to history, opposed to humanity and an affront to what had previously civilised us. 

“..entire summer of 1939 ..without knowing exactly why ..everyone had a premonition that something unusual was about to happen. It was rumoured that Hitler would declare war on Poland despite ..good relations that existed at that time between those two countries.” Rachel Zaltzman-Freter.

Here though, and I need to remind the searcher, the researcher or the reader of what I cannot achieve nor am I able to do. Though I hope I afford a more respectful effort in attempting to remember, that certainty cannot compete with what the records held at YadVashem more ably achieve. For this go to repository in Israel, which gathers together all that the details of our crimes against the Jewish People entails, it is a resource of incredible and incorruptible eminence. What this institution recognises in the greater loss of their own People is that same loss we now seek to remember.

“..A Yiddish street is yearning for Jews

She calls me: here I am! She calls without voice.” Yitzkhok Katzeneleson.

At YadVashem, it recognises the Streets Jews once belonged to and whose own account of the detail of the slaughter of these Radzyner Jews shows us more than 9,600 name plates attributed to Radzyn. My own effort is humbled by this gulf of recognition and for me, while these submitted pages have proved difficult if not impossible to pour over, I continue researching our understanding of what truly has been lost. With this effort, my attempt to do something more for these Jews than was done by those who should have, is an effort in words to replace the misdeeds and inactions of others.

“..people ..brought to Majdanek ..tortured ..ended up as smoke pouring out ..crematory’s chimney.” Joseph Schupack.

So as to ensure each word perseveres and they relentlessly pursue the imbalance in justice, for there has been a clear omission of Justice for 6,000,000 Jews of Europe, there is no other nor mounting accusation of that failure. So as we encounter each and every detail to know of a catastrophe more fully, we recognise more of those who have been dismissed from life. For those who troubled with other than nothing but exacting this atrocity as a mere detail, a common morality demands we engage humanely.

“..Lublin is demolished

The Torah trashed, shuls smashed,

Jewish houses and homes laid waste.” Yitzkhok Katzeneleson.

So in extracting each and every detail of what was done, and in our name as human beings, for those who sought to exact a hatred upon an innocent Jewish People, it was not in my name. For those of my words, which I hope will deliver to the Jewish People an appreciation of the certain fact that not all would act as those millions who acted with such savagery in the past against their People did. Here then I offer the words as little more than an apology for the want of an apology was exempted by the many who chose to act with impunity against 6,000,000 Jews.

“..wide path ..cleared ..Yossel Zita’s gate. ..for vehicles to pass from Mezritsh Street.” Yehoshua Rosencrantz.

It becomes evident also, as the choice of words can also confront the very senses of those Jews who Survived, it is my hope that what is written honours their survival. Within the very detail I wish to express, the words used are to admonish the guilty more harshly that any lack of justice has thus far remains undelivered. Also, it is not now possible to confront and accuse all of the very perpetrators, participators and the guilty who should have been indicted and hung, as life has taken its own account.

“..The sun breaks into windows in vain

No one is there to benefit, to enjoy

the light of the sun’s warm rays.

No one to thank your name and say: I believe

in your mercy that comes with your great light.” Yitzkhok Katzeneleson.

Unless we confront fully all the wrongs of the past, we pass on to history glimpses of truths so gallingly abhorrent, they go without ensuring that the fuller atrocity is understood. For very obvious reasons, we simply cannot explore the extended reaches of the disaster and leave to chance the names of any of those Jews who were slaughtered. For the destroyed, intentionally driven toward extinction, so as to be overlooked, this would secure for these Jews who have gone missing, a further affront to them. 

“..I will never forget Dr. Nick ..a Jewish doctor from Warsaw ..well known ..respected. ..found hanging. ..day he ..learned his Wife ..in Majdanek ..had been gassed.” Joseph Schupack.

It is for us to search history so as to ensure that those Jews we have lost sight of are not to be forgotten by becoming anonymous to us. In the midst of the greatest assault upon human integrity, and that is Ever in all of history, we sieve through the ashes of memory to restore an impression of 6,000,000 former Jewish lives. Fulfilling my promise to a Survivor, I have travelled to these places of such gruesome extremity and I have sensed and felt the ashen despair beneath my feet in all 6 of those Death Camps in Poland.

“..intoxicating odors reached all ..way to ..city streets in ..evenings. ..young people hiked on foot and on their bicycles on ..roads surrounding Radzyn. ..people wanted to believe that all would be well.” Abba Lichtenshtein.

Whether I sensed with any sort of disbelief that Poland can suggest it knew little of what went on, and did so little to protect their Jewish Citizens, I now know how trivial Poland now treats its history. At Auschwitz and its deadly other camp Birkenau, within Belzec, in Chelmno, inside Lublin stood Majdanek, at Sobibor and as I traipsed through the fields of Treblinka, faith suddenly transcended my own feelings. I am so very much aware that the words I use now, continually, are so very painful to those Jews who know of a suffering I can barely realise.

“..They’re looking for the Rabbi who comes from Radzyn.

They’re looking in Vlodova, with anger they search

and while they are searching they revile him and curse.

Do not be afraid of a mad dog that barks,

but a German watch out while he curses!” Yitzkhok Katzeneleson.

It is essential not to disguise the intensity of such despair that permeates these sites, it is inexplicable in any rational sense, but it deeply felt none the less. But, and in even those emotive terms confined within these chosen words, a World must realise the suffering that was inflicted upon a People for being Jewish. The brutal treatment of the Jewish People, both here in Radzyn and throughout Europe is uncivilised in any form of the terms we call culture. For me it is an imperative, that while there is this continuance of suffering, we recognise the human emotion being impacted.

“..gestapo ..offered ..poles ..reward of 1 kilogram of bacon and ..sugar for each Jew they turned in.” Joseph Schupack.

It is a truth too, that due to the absence of where and when we can place all 6,000,000 Jews within the catastrophe, the sense of grief mounts on the loss the Jewish People have suffered. But, and we cannot ever know the full weight of the loss when it is mounted by the continuing birth rate of Jewish persistence. New life, both gifted to existence and a destruction all too many would never survive is a fact that few have even begun to recognise. The Holocaust’s reach is therefore also in accusing those very miscreants who hurt so deliberately these Jews refused entry into an accounting of their passage through time.

“..The little Yiddish street though narrow and small.

is broader than broad and bigger than big

A mother’s lap can it be too narrow? Can it be too small?” Yitzkhok Katzeneleson.

Murdered, allowed to die, only for being Jews, and the unprecedented nature of that hurt so deliberately inflicted, is a criminal enterprise in every sense. With all that said, my words are not ever tempered in any form and that ensures they never shy away from the brutality that they must convey. For words to be that exact, so as to deliver the correct amount of condemnation, which the accused, abusers, participators, perpetrators and bystanders clearly deserve, tempered words will not have the desired effect.

“..power of ..nazis ..partly based on ..considerable support which anti-Jewish laws received among ..polish population. ..not by chance ..Poland ..chosen as ..place for ..extermination of ..Jews.” Joseph Schupack.

Whatever the painful truth that impacts and confronts the Survivor, this must be no less than the scream of accusation that a hollering delivers toward the guilty. While we accept that the state of Poland, nor its non-Jewish peoples entered into any similar agreement with Hitler as had France, Hungary, Italy or even Romania, it does not escape accusation.  It is surely understood, as history knows, that without any equivocation, that non-Jewish Polish complicity had conspired against Polish Jews within Poland.

“..A mother’s arm can embrace all,

all the little chicks with her arms around,

she warms them close without a sound.” Yitzkhok Katzeneleson.

That this collusive behaviour was driven by those Poles who sought to gain any financial reward is certain and the numbers involved are staggeringly significant. From a Country which proposed itself as a deeply religious, even as a christian body of people, these non-Jewish Poles were systematic in betraying every piece of their moral, religious and even cultural being. This truth is an historical fact that will not be quieted, silenced, distorted or even denied by those who would seek to shield themselves from the blame of history.

“..French Jews ..given ..task of digging up ..bodies ..removing gold teeth ..rings ..then burning ..remains. ..corpses ..from an earlier time ..before Majdanek had crematories.” Joseph Schupack.

While here too I would advocate the use of the most sinister, obscene and cruellest terms to denote how low some human beings descended in their treatment of the Jewish People, it must be weighed by the Survivor’s feelings. Their effect will have a corresponding impact upon those Survivor’s who are the witnesses to such obscenity as collaboration, collusion and even indifference engenders. For this piece, relating words for the Survivor Joseph Schupack, or any survivor from any particular space within Europe, we owe a debt which goes beyond the rhetoric of mere words. 

“..But where can this great mercy be hidden?

It drifts in the streets, it speaks and it calls

One hears it, one sees it adrift in the air

It pours into eyes like a radiant beam

It penetrates down into everyone’s heart

It pours itself deep within and without.” Yitzkhok Katzeneleson.

For any of those Jews, whose ability to emerge from the depths of a despair the entire Jewish population of Europe was to be forced to endure, the lack of death has left them cast adrift in a World without Family, belonging and with a deep hurt. Also, the atrocity itself, which is not entirely exclusive to those of Radzyn as mentioned here, for Radzyn-Podlaski itself is a simple exercise in remembrance as we recall its passing from time. For us, so that we can attempt to bridge the divide between 6,000,000 Jews, who are The Holocaust, and the individual Radzyner Jews, choice becomes a regular focus of emphasis. 

“..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.

For those similarly placed Jews, hewn from every known place within Poland and Europe, what is seen here as individually as possible, is a binding effrontery to all of human existence. Indeed, when we are asked to visit these Jews, who are witnessed as from whence they came, in spaces such as Radzyn, they become far more a compelling truth than mere numbers can ever invoke. It is essential therefore, in recalling and ensuring for those Jews of all of Europe, who are not to be lost entirely to an eternity eager to forget them, we must Remember them. 

“..My number ..1377. ..my name ..crossed off ..list of mankind. My name ..no longer needed.” Joseph Schupack.

We can be certain, that while the slaughtered Jews are recalled and remembered, in no matter which way they are to be brought toward memory, they will never be forgotten. So to lay before you an account of the destruction of these Jews of Radzyn, we become aware of all those whose responsibility is in knowing what they were a witness to. Those other witnesses, who should have acknowledged this growing atrocity, so as to add to the interminable affront to human consciousness and the sheer horror of the fate of the Jews they neglected to defend stands before us as indefensible in human relations. 

“..inside ..outer fence of ..camp ..place of work. ..on ..road to Lublin. ..Not far away ..polish civilians were working.” Joseph Schupack.

Here, where the names of those who are infinitely known and can be added, they are accrued to the depths of the depravity which becomes this Catastrophe. For all too many of these Jews who are to be recalled here, there are far too many who are the inordinately absenting omissions of all those names we will never come to know. Of those all too many Jewish People of Radzyn, those Jews that I sought to bring forward to remembrance, we recognise them not as absent from the catalogue of hatred which consumed them, but as present in words to mention them by.

“..germans ..hardly able to recognise Jews ..denunciation and extortion were mostly pish specialities. ..we feared these polish accusers more than anyone else.” Joseph Schupack.

Simply because we do not have their names, this does not mean that they did not punctuate our times with their presence and being. For those who are simply regarded as Wives, Husbands, the Child or the Children of the Family, or as often times we are to recognise them, as an entire Family, memory must not forget they were a vibrancy in more than just a name. Some of these, given over as merely a nickname so as to recall them, they too are recognised for having been present during the time of crisis to engulf them.

“..About 25 Jewish persons in Radzyn ..last of what had once been 5,000 ..let themselves be voluntarily imprisoned. Not one ..survived.” Joseph Schupack.

What this minor effort manages to achieve though, as it creates a space within the consumed numbers of these 6,000,000 Jews to share their absence from us, is a certainty that the gap in recognition promotes their loss. In the case of the notation for Children, all these too lost in this devastation, I have assumed where this is noted that Children have been lost and they are more than one single Child. Where we are presented with, (Or more) this is purely because we can have no recollection of the exact number of Child losses we wish to remember.

“..bitter experience of recent history had proved that our 2,000 year ..concerns and problems were and are different from ..others and ..these differences cannot be reconciled. Or remain specific. We are not to blame for this.” Joseph Schupack.

Time does not move on regardless of this, and as we look back to a time when the Jews of Radzyn are already centred around these Streets; Cosze Street, Kalen Street, Kashive Street, Kotlarska  Street, Kozia Street, Kroiah Street, Mezerich Street, Ostroweitzka Street, Shkalneh Street, Szkolna Street and Warshava Street, decimation is soon to follow. Also, the Jewish People are given over to these designated areas, The First Market, The Second Market, The Train Station and Third Of May Street, and these too will find the Jews easy prey to those seeking to destroy their very existence.

“..Two years are past almost two

Radzyn has suffered great misfortune

and Vlodova, she has had good fortune.” Yitzkhok Katzeneleson.

With this sample of spaces for Jews in places for Jews, we recognise with the Jews of Radzyn that they were neatly placed for the Nazi’s to come along and exploit all that Hitler had intended for them. Looking then to History for what offers us the presence of a Jewish Community within Radzyn, Jews are recorded here since the 1400’s and possibly as soon as Radzyn itself became a City in 1468. Despite the many trials, tribulations and certainly the all too many Pogroms inflicted upon them, nothing quite prepared the Jewish People, even anywhere in Europe, for what Hitler would bring toward them.

“..in Warthegau. ..soon realised ..poles ..living in ..formerly Jewish apartments regarded them and everything in them as their own. ..For them ..best Jews were ..ones who did not return.” Joseph Schupack.

During the years from 1800 onwards, Radzyn, known also as Radzyn-Podlaski, or Radin in Russian, grew to a Town and as the district capital of Lublin province we recognise that Poland too flourished from Jewish influences. The Town also became a scholarly centre of Hassidic learning and Torah studies centred around the influential Leiner family. After World War I ended, Rebbe Samuel Szlomo Leiner was the Grandson of Gershon Hanokh Leiner, the founder of the Radzyn dynasty of Hasidim.

“..heart breaking scenes of men parting from their Wives and Children. ..war had become a fact.” Rachel Zaltzman-Freter.

When Rebbe Samuel Szlomo Leiner left Warsaw, so as to return this Rabbinical learning and cultural emphasis back to Radzyn he established The Secret of the Righteous yeshiva, the Sod Yesharim. As time moved progressively forward, Rebbe Leiner was wide awake to the coming threat that was to be proposed by the Germans under Hitler. By the beginning of 1930 there was still a thriving Jewish presence living in the Radzyn community, and though relations between their non-Jewish neighbours was far from amicable, life persisted.

“..Masses of ex-Radzyner ..who had been living in Warsaw ..came back to Radzyn. They told about ..horrors ..Germans had perpetrated ..especially on ..Jews.” Abba Lichtenshtein.

While it can be recognised here, and in many such Towns and Shtetl’s of Poland, there was a sway of a Jewish learning which countered Polish peasantry’s intolerance and ignorance. However, such was the level of discriminations exerted by the non-Jewish Poles, and both guided by political and church obeyances, it was a breeding ground for the cruellest of hatred’s. There was almost a coming to terms with antisemitism’s rather vulgar and contemptuous expression.  

“..Jews break out of ..Ghettos ..flee to ..Forests ..take up arms.” Rebbe Samuel Szlomo Leiner.

On June 17th. 1934, there was such a link to what was emerging in Hitler’s Germany, the Poles even built their own Concentration Camp at Biaroza. This might have been a parody of what Dachau was but it was essential to how Hitler would also receive the Polish views of its own Jewish Citizens. In the final months of 1935 and then again during the early months of the new year 1936, as the mix of a worsening financial and economic crisis’ was developing within Poland, fearful Jews sheltered the storm.

“..poles thought ..we had learned nothing ..we had been stupid and ..were still stupid.” Joseph Schupack.

There was an escalation of that age old antisemitism that had been festering as a deeply seated undercurrent throughout Poland and there were many concerted efforts at Pogroms. Throughout Poland the fate of Jewish existence became increasingly tenuous, already lashed to the tides of fear, greed and prejudice. Such too was the fear of losing out, that efforts were made which saw only gain for non-Jewish Poles in the victimisation of their Jewish community. Once again Jewish People were forced into restraint in order to contain these outbreaks from reaching more sinister levels.

“..The Rabbi’s among you for almost two years

Poland is demolished, ruined and laid waste.” Yitzkhok Katzeneleson.

During 1937, and though there were moves from the more rabid nationalistic groups, their youth wings increasingly felt buoyed by an impunity they could easily measure. More widely, the Jews of Poland felt the passage of time would settle back into the usual pattern of adjustment to a begrudging calm. Jew purges, as had been witnessed in many centres around Poland were, as yet, kept from being fully unleashed in Radzyn. However, the Jews here in Radzyn were not  restricted to just regular assaults, the kicking in of doors and the breaking of windows.

“..There were ..riots in Pshitik ..Brisk in Lithuania ..Minsk-Mazowieki and other towns and villages. All this was ..result of ..inspiration given by ..Germans to ..Jew haters in Poland. ..latter carried out their mission faithfully.” Abba Lichtenshtein.

Often there was the looting from Jewish homes, businesses, farms and shops, there were murders too but so far these were few. However, and while officially such acts of offence against the Jewish Community were condemned by the local politicians, much that could have prevented these was not progressed. Indeed, while many of the rioters were arrested, and though the punishment was never meted out so as to fit the crimes, there was this feigned concern which permeated Poland. In Radzyn itself, regular meetings of the antisemitic National Military Organization, the Narodowa Organizacja Wojskowa, were held in the Town, this was offensive enough.

“..On one side ..there was Jewish misery and helplessness ..on ..other ..Polish greed and cunning. ..business of safekeeping until after ..war flourished. Heated competition developed between Polish peasants ..each one trying to accumulate more Jewish possessions than ..other.” Joseph Schupack.

It was evident that the Poles considered the Jews nebbish, both stupid and exploitable and this was fuelled by the hatred of so many who were both ignorant and greedy but from the likes of Seweryn Franciszek Swiatopelk Czetwertynski and Jozef Bakon who fanned the bitterness. Here too, the profit motif of Hitler’s eagerly awaited assault upon Polish Jewry saw enormous financial gains to be made from investing in the Jewish question. Clearly profiting all of those who espoused this Jewish hatred above and beyond any christian, moral or ethical conscience, the Jewish decline became an endeavour worth the festered and ignoble effort of many community’s.

“..You have to know this secret so that if some of you remain alive ..you will be able to teach others. And that’s how ..chain will not be broken.” Rebbe Samuel Szlomo Leiner.

Such were the organised meetings of Polish antisemites which were generally followed by the daubing of hate filled slogans across the Town. For me, and I will constantly press this point, far too many in Poland saw a common community with the Jewish People as only a commodity to profit from. This is why, and such is the sparsity of Righteous from amongst the Polish population, and I accept fully that the final judgement of some 7,000 Polish Righteous is under representative of those who acted in favour of their Jewish Neighbours, the righteous are so criminally few.

“..Oh Vlodover Hasidim none compare with you?

the Rabbi comes out from Radzyn here to you.

The young Rabbi…Sh, sh

They’re looking for the Rabbi who comes from Radzyn.” Yitzkhok Katzeneleson.

No doubt fear of reprisal affects the mind of the humanity in people and too many righteous Poles have succumbed to that fear in order to conceal their moral efficacy in the way they treated and even saved those Jews they could. It is clear though that people simply cannot live metres from a Crematoria, as Poles did at all 6 Death Camps attached to their community’s, without realising the Jews were being cremated. Though, as we approach 1939, before the Jews living in Radzyn had yet to realise that the hordes Hitler sent across the Polish border on September 1st. 1939 had a special mission to undertake.

“..situation changed in ..beginning of 1939 with ..Hitler ..demand for ..eastern territories of Poland. ..it became clear ..a bloody storm was approaching.” Abba Lichtenshtein.

As yet there were no Death Camp built and when, on September 7th 1939 the Central Command in Warsaw ordered all men to leave the area of Warsaw and to go eastward, War was the major concern. There were masses of ex-Radzyner, who had been living in Warsaw who made their way back to Radzyn and they told about the horrors that the Germans had perpetrated on the whole population and especially on the Jews they encountered. I had read how important it had been that the method of coloration of the techeles was to be lost to Judaism with Rebbe Leiner’s Murder, but he must have known that Judaism would never be lost.

“..In Radzyn ..as in all of Poland ..money was collected for national defence funds. Jews contributed generously believing innocently that ..arms and planes that will be obtained through these funds will help them in time of need.” Abba Lichtenshtein.

For Jews would continue to persist through time and engage head on the right to survive all that Hitler would deny to them all. Rebbe Samuel Szlomo Leiner, who was to be known as The Radzyner Rabbi and The Great Scholar, was clearly awake to what must emerge from the German threat. Uniquely, Rebbe Leiner, escaped with many of his followers to Wlodawa and he managed to convince many of his followers to also take flight. For this Rebbe urged all of his following to secure for themselves a safety in the Forests nearby, and if at all possible, be armed as necessary.

“..They’re looking in Vlodova, with anger they search

and while they are searching they revile him and curse.

Do not be afraid of a mad dog that barks,

but a German watch out while he curses!” Yitzkhok Katzeneleson.

This urging of Jewish resistance was in clear contravention of German demands and though this could not save all the Jews nor indeed himself and not even his immediate Family, resistance was to be written in Jewish blood. The German bombardment of Radzyn took place and on September 9th. 1939 with the Jewish Quarter itself not spared and with a number of Jews and Poles being killed. Among the Jewish victims was the veteran fire fighter Shmuel Kimmel. Within days the German occupation was enforced and change ensnared the Jews there in ritual and habitual assaults and murders.

“..Germans had more important targets to bomb than ..town of Radzyn itself. These were ..airplane factories in Lublin and Biala Podlaska ..railroad junction at Siedlce ..Lukow. They would fly over ..flight after flight ..in their black bombers ..like birds of prey high in ..skies of Radzyn ..without dropping any of their deadly cargo on us for ..time being. ..quiet that had reigned in ..town disappeared suddenly and forever.” Abba Lichtenshtein.

In those early days of friction and flux, something happened that caused additional Jewish casualties, even when the actual War had subsided. There was a lone unit of the Polish Air Force, that had not managed to flee and was stationed on the estate of the Prince Chetvarshinski, a noted Jew hater. On one Saturday these Poles went into the town and began firing in all directions, killing and wounding Jews wherever they stood. This arbitrary murdering ceased when on September 17th, 1939 Russian Forces then took control over a large swathe of Eastern Poland. This Russian intervention was all part of the Russo-German land grab pact that had been signed by Molotov and Ribbentrop. Radzyn’s Jews were now spared the immediate SS and SD effort of the question to Hitler’s Final Solution, but this was merely a temporary position.

“..He stands guard say who would if not he

would stand in the dark night by the ruins

of the broken shul?” Yitzkhok Katzeneleson.

The Russians pulled out of  Radzyn on September 30th. 1939 just before the Wehrmacht re-entered the town with units of 81st Infantry Battalion accompanied by a band. 100’s of young Jews, Men and Women escaped East as these of Radzyn’s Jews had heeded the warning sounds to follow the Russian forces toward the newer demarcation lines of the Russian occupied territories of Poland. This apparent calm was merely a couple of days of Wehrmacht occupation, and as their units were withdrawn, in entered the Gestapo, SD and SS. Almost immediately these killing elements of Hitler’s Reich made the terrifying impact upon the Jewish inhabitants more fully felt. They set about many Jewish restrictions, plundered from Jewish stores and desecrated the artefacts of Judaism from the local Great Synagogue, the Bais Hamedrash Seminary Synagogue.

“..Shots were heard ..a new Jewish victim. ..antisemitic Endecja ..peoples nationalist party went on a rampage.” Rachel Zaltzman-Freter.

Here, the Torah scrolls became newer paving materials, their sacred texts given no regard at all as they were unravelled along Kazshe, Kotlarska and Shkolneh Streets. Here too they tore up many of the Holy Books and Scripts and lining the streets with the debris of Jewish belief and culture. They had previously roused the Jewish People from their homes, businesses and forced them to witness the debacle of destruction. During November 1939 the Nazi’s then demanded a 30,000 zloty ransom while they held 12 Jews as hostage to their demands. 

“..On 3rd of December, a number of wagons arrived from the nearby town of Levertov filled with Jews sitting on their belongings who told us that all the Jews had been driven out of the town.” Yehoshua Rosencrantz.

These Radzyner Jews, who were then expelled from the Town and forced to eke out an existence within range of their former homes, did not manage to see other than despair. Even though the ransom had been paid, the Nazi’s were to prove they could shift emphasis from one demand to a further demand. On December 3rd. 1939 with the influx of a large number of Jews, escaping and evicted from Lubartow and arriving in Radzyn on wagons loaded down with whatever possessions they could take with them, Radzyn Jews began to realise the Germans were not to be the liberator’s of thought. This prompted a large number of the Jewish Youth movement to persuade their Families to leave toward the Russian lines. This they did, heading across the Bug River into the comparative safety of those territory’s controlled by the Russian forces. Then, following on from the arrival of these Jewish refugees, and between December 3rd. and December 6th. 1939, the German administration transported most of the able bodied Jews, some 1,000 Jews to Miedzyrzec, Slawatycze and Wisznice.

“..If not he who but he

the Radzyner has the strength to stand open eyed

to see the downfall? The shul goes under

Who sees it?” Yitzkhok Katzeneleson.

On December 8th. 1939 dozens of Radzyner Jews left for Slovatich, many on foot and with those unable to do so, were hoisted onto Wagons. This was a move that was hoped would leave the growing troubles of Radzyn behind them and as the temperature of occupation cooled somewhat, and certainly by April 1940, most of them had returned to their former homes. Official photographers from der Sturmer, the Nazi antisemitic magazine then arrived in the Town and took photographs of Radzyn’s Jews, for publication in its rancid pages.

“..Spring 1940 most ..Families returned to ..Radzyn. ..settled in ..Jewish quarter ..included Kalon ..Kroiah .. Shkolna and Kashiva Streets. ..no closed Ghetto ..even up to ..fall of 1941 ..Jews ..permitted to walk around ..and even to go outside ..Town.” Yehoshua Rosencrantz.

In April 1940 the Nazi officials had imposed an open ghetto in the Town under a 9 man Judenrate headed by Dovid Fishl Lichtenstein, Moshe Appeloig, Yaakov Blechowitz, Avraham Blumen, Chaim Yitzchak Gellerman, Simcha Goldwasser, with Lichtenstein’s assistant Gruenblatt, Shimon Kleinboim and Eliyahu Shineman. Both of Lichtenstein’s Sons, Sender and Shimon Lichtenstein acted in support of their Father but were not ostensibly, attributed members of the 9 man Judenrate.

“..Lichtenstein ..package ..prepared for mailing. ..contained gold ..jewellery ..other valuables ..addressed to Fischer in Erfurt. ..chief of Radzyn.” Joseph Schupack.

Also, Avraham Blumen appeared along the periphery of the Judenrate and was considered in unflattering terms by members of the entire Jewish Community. He was in charge of the Labour office and also the Ghetto Police. The Ghetto itself was policed by Zelig Blumen, Beryl Lichtenstein, Yisroel Meltzer, Yitzchak Wolf and others. This ghetto quarter, bounded by the area between Dabrowskiego, Kozia and Ostrowiecka Streets had a burgeoning and growing congestion of Jews.

“..All of these members fulfilled their duties devotedly and with great concern. Especially active was Dovid Lichtenstein who interceded with ..authorities and helped solve many unpleasant situations.” Yehoshua Rosencrantz.

Amounting to more than 2,000 Jewish Men, Women with Their Children, the Town of Radzyn saw an influx of Jews from the vicinity. Here, to add to the Jewish burden that the increased capacity within the confined space was stretching the already meagre resources to a more debilitating and stretched limit. Here, Young Jews of the community immediately began to form resistance movements, established and ensured that reliable underground activities were conducted and managed to organize several inter connected partisan groups in the nearby Forests.

“..A hidden Jew at this place stands guard

and while hidden still makes fists with his hands

he would have pulled a sword from its scabbard

in hiding here he would pay back the Germans, the wicked ones.

He balls his fists and gnashes his teeth

Who laughs here and cries?” Yitzkhok Katzeneleson.

Moshe Agmon, Yitzchak Kleinman, Laizer Pantshak and Leib Pantshak, Yaakov Pantshak and Dinah Rosewald led very effective partisan assaults upon the Nazi’s. During July 1940 there were some 300 Jews of the Town who were taken away to the many Forced Labour Camps set in the vicinity. Here, where many of them were forced to work along the Kishnah River regulating its flow, some of these 300 were actually occupied upon building the Belzec camp before it was designated as a Death Camp.

“..Rabbi Leiner lived in hiding. ..went to Wlodawa ..disguised ..as a shoemaker. ..his words of consolation and encouragement reached us. ..denounced ..shot by ..ss.” Joseph Schupack.

One of these forced to construct the Camp was Meier Schupack. On January 1st. 1941, in compliance with Nazi demands to supply all furs to the Reich, this demand was forthcoming and completed. However, 5 Jewish hostages were still murdered even though the order had been fully adhered to. The Nazi’s then sealed off the Ghetto in August 1941 and the Jews awaited the fate they felt would be similar to those of the Jews of Lubartow, Miedzyrzec, Slawatycze and Wisznice.

“..annihilation and liquidation in Radzyn that began on the morning of Monday the 20th of August 1942, and was completed on the 20th of December of the same year.” Yehoshua Rosencrantz.

In Radzyn, where information of the fate of the Jews of these Towns was leeching back from them and the fears, trepidations and concerns mounted. On February 17th. 1942 there was a mass execution when the Jews being held in the Lublin prison were taken into the Courtyard and murdered. Amongst these were Jews from the Radzyn area with Chaim Diamant, Meier Schupack and Isser Sonnenschein of the Town itself, who are believed to have been some of these.

“..Summer ..1942. ..slaughtering of Jews continued unabated. ..living were actually dead ..awaiting ..hour of execution. To withstand one’s own suffering was difficult enough ..but ..watching ..pain of ..Family members ..even worse.” Joseph Schupack.

From the Diarist Avraham Levin, we are informed that the Radzyner Rebbe Samuel Szlomo Leiner was Murdered in the Synagogue Courtyard in Wlodawa. This was on May 29th. 1942 and was confirmed in an entry made on June 6th. 1942 by Levin. The Rebbe, is buried in Wlodawa though his Wife, Shifra Mirl, Their Children Brakha, Hadasa, Iuta, Khava, Mordekhai Eliezer and Sara Zeldahis are not. Along with his Mother and Sister, these were all destroyed during The Holocaust period in Treblinka. 

“..We knew ..attitude of ..Poles toward ..Jews. ..After ..first big liquidation Avramke Sudberg and his Wife went to Polish friends in ..country. After staying there for a number of weeks and paying a lot of money ..they disappeared. Later it turned out that they had been murdered in ..forest by their Polish hosts.” Yehoshua Rosencrantz.

On August 20th. 1942, with the first transportation of 1,500 Radzyn Jews to the Death Camp at Treblinka, the final curtailment of all Jewish existence within Radzyn was underway. The very truth of this matter leaves us to suggest this was a rather conservative estimate of that initial loss. When, on August 25th. 1942 SS Untersturmfuhrer Fischer of the SD and some of his men arrived in Miedzyzrzec to facilitate the transportation of 11,000 Jews to Treblinka, as Radzyn chief he saw to it that many Radzyn Jews were amongst these.

“..last Jew was to die just like ..first. We knew ..our end was near.” Joseph Schupack. 

As Radzyn was ceasing to being the holding centre for the local Jews of the vicinity, a much larger containment centre was required. At Miedzyzrzec, this became the regional holding centre and a much larger containment of the Jews could be realised. Here, the Ghetto for the Jews of the region, including those Jews of Radzyn, and all destined for Treblinka were kept in waiting, a swollen facility for incoming Jews temporarily detained until Treblinka could fully resettle them.

“..late Summer 1942. Jewish Quarter ..encircled ..ss ..gendarmerie ..polish police ukrainians. ..beaten ..houses plundered ..demolished. 600 ..800 Jews ..driven from their houses.” Joseph Schupack.

On September 22nd. 1942 there was a further aktionen and within that round-up, there were some 200 Radzyner Jews who had been separated out from the rest of the Town’s Jews. For these Jews, who were taken out to a nearby Forest clearing, they were dispatched there, they were shot, they were Murdered. On October 1st. 1942, a further 2,000 Radzyner Jews were transported away from Radzyn and headed toward destruction with a halting in the Ghetto at Miedzyrzec. Their eventual extermination at Treblinka was confirmed on October 27th. 1942.

“..on ..road ..from Mezritsh to Radzyn. ..entire convoy of ..Jews from Radzyn passed before me. ..shocked. ..travelled in wagons accompanied by ..Polish policemen. Almost all ..in wagons loaded with all their belongings and driven by Polish peasants.” Yehoshua Rosencrantz.

In between times, and this latest aktionen continued for over 2 weeks and when, on the October 14th 1942 German SS, SD, Gestapo and Gendarmes alongside Polish policemen  raided the Ghetto, 3,000 more Radzyner Jews were transported firstly to Miedzyrzec. From here they were transported and on toward resettlement, their final destruction in Treblinka. On December 20th. 1942, the final liquidation of the Jewish Community of Radzyn began, and 1,500 more of her Jews were sent to be annihilated within Treblinka.

“..Schepsyl Rosen ..New Years Eve 1943 ..he ..50 other Jews ..driven to ..manure storage area ..edge of Miedzyrzec Ghetto ..ss shot them.” Joseph Schupack.

There was a final attempt by many of these Radzyner Jews to escape the resettlement transport and a large number of them were killed doing. While those other’s who managed to evade the bullets of the guard detachment, they did not last much longer as they were tracked down by local Poles and handed over to the SS. Here is where Jewish persistence in the Town of Radzyn practicably ceased to exist as Radzyn was now declared Judenrein, and 600 years of a Jewish presence was almost wiped out completely. 

“..One can safely assume that all ..candlesticks ..quilts found anywhere in rural Poland today were once Jewish possessions.” Joseph Schupack.

While many of these Fighting Jewish groups, who operated throughout Poland as partisans, recognised that they were fighting a common enemy, the Nazi’s. However, they were to be betrayed by many Polish civilians and were even murdered by groups associated to the Armia Krajowa. These Polish partisans were aligned to and represented the Polish Government in exile and acted in that capacity to exact a vengeance upon their own Jewish Communities. In line with much of Poland, here in Radzyn some 50 Jews had somehow Survived the catastrophe of The Holocaust. 

“..After ..annihilation of ..Jews came ..annihilation of ..Jewish fortunes.” Yehoshua Rosencrantz.

However, what they found upon returning to Radzyn was brutally made clear as they were not again wanted in their own homes, as having never been expected to have survived, Poles now occupied all that the Jews had owned. Along with the unwelcome treatment they received, whilst they had assumed they might receive some form of greeting for having defeated the common enemy, truth was a betrayal of morality here. While carrying the burden of what we now seek to know, and weighted down by a tattooed number which afforded them nothing, the Jewish Survivor was cast aside. 

“..arrived at Auschwitz. My number ..128262.” Joseph Schupack.

As any welcome was further from the truth and clearly, the fuller intentions of the Nazi’s, which was now merely exhaust fumes to a non-Jewish Polish community, who had been imbibing the carbon exhausts of more than 4,500,000 Jewish lives, ethics were depressed even further. In large part, 3,000,000 of these slaughtered were Polish Jews who travelled the least distance toward extinction and were observed clearly by their former community’s. In large part then, wherever the Jewish Survivor returned, there was no welcome to be had at the Inn.

“..like a stranded man among ..stranded ..a sufferer bound to all sufferers ..I stood alone in front of ..shambles of my life ..stopped when I was 17 ..and from which nothing could be salvaged or repaired.” Joseph Schupack.

For these Survivor Jews, who were forced to leave everything that they had formerly owned, and in order to escape further from a retribution for having dared to return, cruelty was such an arbiter of a long standing hatred. Here too in Radzyn, before contemptuous profiteers of such a catastrophe, who then ensured that the returning Jews too would be added to the overall atrocity, their escape took on another meaning. Hatred has always pitted community’s against the weakest within them, and Jewish Survivor’s were the weakest of the weak in terms of an ability to further resist.

“..I knew about Fischer in Radzyn ..Miedzyrzec ..and ..related what I had witnessed in Camp Dora.” Joseph Schupack.

In 2,000 years of persecution, Justice would not salve the despair of Jews, seen merely as the others in State after State throughout Europe. Nor could any sense of justice countenance a belief which preceded the Jewish People’s own monotheist systems, and such as Judaism afforded christianity its structure, that moral platform was laid to waste in the lands which Hitler offered nations a Jew free existence. Nor could the coming Israeli State expect equanimity or parity in human interaction from those who sought to still despise them. 

“..British ..marched into ..Belsen. ..April 15th. 1945 ..I was alive.” Joseph Schupack.

When Joseph Schupack finally answered the call to testify against a sadist, killer, murderer of innocents, who acted because he could, and with impunity, because they were Jews they were Slaughtered as Jews. This SS Untersturmfuhrer, the inhumane Fritz Fischer, who stood before the bar of history, and he was hanged from its branches, there were further millions just like him who were not even indicted, let alone tried nor hanged. As the person in charge of the SD branch office in Radzyn, Fischer oversaw the resettlement programme of Jews toward Treblinka.

“..I added up ..sad balance ..lost my whole Family ..Father ..Mother ..Grandmother ..Brother ..two Sisters ..Brother in Law ..Niece. ..way ..torn from me might have been unique ..even in that inferno.” Joseph Schupack.

Fischer led the murders of the Radzyn Jews in the nearby forests, he assisted in the clearance of Jews out of the Miedzyrzec Ghetto and they only hanged him. With The Holocaust that has consumed more than 6,000,000 Jews, and deep within that atrocity, any search or semblance of justice for such crimes, brutality, assault, hatred, death and destruction was abandoned. Consigned to that 2,000 year obligation for human, moral and ethical Justice, which humanity must demand on the part of these Jews, we have failed that too, and miserably.

“..I ..think about ..Jews ..killed shortly after ..war ..pogroms ..against Jews in post war Poland. After ..bestial nazis ..this was ..second worst page in history ..written by poles in Poland.” Joseph Schupack.

If there is no sense of guilt for such failure, then justice is a lie and the World can never mend those wounds borne along by lies, deceit and untruths. What the human race will then inherit is a burden that it will not recover from and though we are not responsible for these dreadful deeds, we must bare such guilt in the name of those who passed along the ruination of all cultural civilisation. Those who come after, and I include myself in this, become complicit in what happened more than 80 to 90 years ago and this has been further defined more fully by the irresponsible nature of a failed justice.

“..As a Survivor ..perhaps I ..made ..mistakes ..even caused some injustices to occur ..my intentions were always good.” Joseph Schupack.

We today can no longer look the other way, as we are to become the witnesses to that very past in our history where so many had chosen to not see. We must raise the mantle of concern to where it has to matter and figuring, that with the saving of human lives from being nullified, defied and destroyed, we make the whole of humanity prosper. Tragically, the scars left by The Holocaust atrocity has deeply etched its way across the surface of all of Europe and with a horror no human being can begin to imagine, it has soured the thought that culture could emanate from then on. 

“..To ..last Survivors were bequeathed ..agony of separation and ..mourning of relatives. ..a grievous privilege. In ..time ..left to a Survivor ..there ..remained hope in god and justice ..a vain belief in ..miracles.” Joseph Schupack.

While it is true that no one, other than the Jewish Consumed and the Jewish Survivor, those who have opened the pathway to the very terror we can read of and learn to know of, can know, we seek therefore to know of. With that sense of responsibility there is this eternal weight of concern owed to more than 6,000,000 Jews which we must continually shoulder. Having taken a form of ownership that will trouble our life and as it fails to ease any part of the burden too many Jews were forced to endure, we shore up the damage for all of humanity. 

“..As a Survivor ..perhaps I ..made ..mistakes ..even caused some injustices to occur ..my intentions were always good.” Joseph Schupack.

However, the sum total of the suffering of those Jewish People, who will never return, is heavily weighted against the continued longing of those Survivors who know exactly the very terminal aches of that pain. This devastating grief, which also belongs to those of us who wish to wade through the brutality, in the hope of a future committed to learning from this bitter past, will still not assuage the guilt of civilisation for what occurred. Thankfully, there are those Survivors, like Joseph Schupack, and so many others who resisted the temptation to become merely a number.

“..When I think back on ..pain ..torture in Ghetto ..suffering in Majdanek ..fear in Auschwitz ..hunger in Dora and Belsen ..that day in April ..world started over again for me and My People.” Joseph Schupack.

For those whose minds who refused to stay within the confines of that Auschwitz, Belzec, Birkenau, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor or Treblinka, or where the Nazi numerical system engulfed them, we owe to their memory our resolve to remember them. That any of these Jews retained a level of humanity which saw hope and delivered them toward freedom and eventually redeemed for them a State of Israel that would be theirs, we must recognise that in such a State resides:

“..Our plans ..Israel ..a Country of our own ..never again ..to depend on ..mercy of others.” Joseph Schupack.

After the war the Nazi criminal Fischer was put on trial in Poland and was sentenced to death and was hanged for some of his crimes in 1949. Even now, and with feigned indignation, particularly in Eastern block Country’s, the creation of the State of Israel saw a greater demand for ransoming Jews, so as to let their People go. There were of course, secret negotiations to purchase Jewish freedoms and all the while Jews were meant to serve out their waiting period securing other means of leverage for escape. 

“..fought ..resisted with ..my limited means. ..there are many ..who experienced similar or ..even worse hardship ..I respect ..admire ..those who engaged in greater resistance against ..Nazi butchers.” Joseph Schupack.

For me, not being a Jew is irrelevant in all I seek to bring forward as a human being about the calamity of that inhumanity shown to 6,000,000 and more of the Jewish Peoples. Jewishness is not only an inherited antecedence, it is an accepted practice of what it means to be a Jew and to recognise that no other being has the right to dissuade one from proclaiming their Jewishness and maintaining their life amongst us. If there is the ability to find out what it is to be a Jew, I have learned why it is impossible for me not to refute those who would argue against Jewish existence.

“..born a Jew. In ..past nazis ..stopped ..trains now it was ..polish ..armia krajowa. This ..filled me with hatred for these people and for that country.” Joseph Schupack.

So as to counter the intolerable hatred a Jew still endures for the sake of being a Jew we offer up what it meant in those, The Holocaust days what it meant to be so uncharitable as to be unchristian. Bringing Poland up to date on what was reprehensible within Poland, and what is astonishing to me, Poland seeks to dislodge itself geographically from its Nazi occupation, even though Poland was occupied by Poles too. While in truth we can only remember with integrity and know that a state is in its People, can Poland ignore that fact.

“..world ..awakened to ..outrageous injustice of Auschwitz. ..realised ..it is impossible and unreasonable for Jews to always exist as a minority ..always dependent on ..mercy and goodwill of other nations.” Joseph Schupack.

Meanwhile, as Polish Jewry was being decimated and the non-Jewish Poles remained in situ to witness everything that happened to their Jewish Neighbours, the truth of this is begrudgingly given. Having spoken to many Survivors it is perhaps typical that Memory plays an important part in their lives, which becomes an essential for all of us, so that we too may know of what they know. Piecing together what is missing and what has been taken from them, the Jewish Survivor has endure such catastrophic a loss of their Family, Friend, Community and this is widely known, as it is The Holocaust.

“..I can neither forget nor forgive those who helped ..Germans to exterminate us. Without their collaboration ..quite possibly every third or fourth Jew in Poland might have remained.” Joseph Schupack.

But, and when the Jewish People sum up all that is lost, they encounter all that proved of worth to them, Homes, Businesses, Lands, Monies, Valuables, Trinkets, Artefacts and the clutter of human persistence, was what their neighbours then chose to take from them. All of this adds up to theft a larceny upon which Hitler raised an inferno which engulfed more than just the Jewish People, but it is to the Jews that this takes from them so as to the crushing mix of loss. The artery of hatred which fully gorged itself upon the annihilation of 6,000,000 Jewish People was fed by a far reaching strand of Hitler’s bile.

“..years later ..people have .tired of their Auschwitz debts.” Joseph Schupack.

This hatred proved a European wide pandemic as it infested and infected otherwise normal people into this all consuming atrocity more than 6,000,000 Jews paid for with their lives. Here, and wherever the vicious nature of human unconcern met with a Jewish presence, Jewish life was to be clearly extinguished. Whether that Jewish presence was safely in their homes, or extracted from all they knew to be destroyed in their Country’s ranging from The Baltic States, through Poland, the Ukraine, Transnistria to the Crimea and in the midst of Western Europe, the Jews paid too inordinate a penalty for other’s intolerances and their indifferences.

“..Whatever transpires in this World I perceive through ..mirror of ..past.” Joseph Schupack.

The Necrology of some of  Radzyner’s Jews.

Ackereisen, Sheindel; Ackereisen, Child; Ackereisen, Child (Or more): Ackerman, Nochuniah (Dyer); Ackerman, Wife; Ackerman, Child; Ackerman, Child (Or more): Ackerman, Shaulke; Ackerman, Wife; Ackerman, Child;  Ackerman, Child (Or more): Ackerman, Schoel: Adamovski, Itsche Meir; Adamovski, Wife: Adelman, Batyah: Adelman, Menachem (Quilter); Adelman, Wife; Adelman, Child;  Adelman, Child (Or more):   Adelman, Meir (Tailor); Adelman, Wife; Adelman, Child;                      Adelman, Child (Or more):  Adelman, Moshe (Quilter); Adelman, Wife; Adelman, Child;                  Adelman, Child (Or more): Adelman, Tuviah: Adelman, Velvel (The Katshuba); Adelman, Wife; Adelman, Child; Adelman, Child (Or more): Agman, Yaakov Leib; Agman, Child;                                  Agman, Child (Or more): Appelboim, Laizer; Appelboim, Wife: Appeloig, Berl Leib; Appeloig, Wife; Appeloig, Child; Appeloig, Child (Or more): Appeloig, Moishe; Appeloig, Wife; Appeloig, Child; Appeloig, Child (Or more): Appeloig, Moshe Bunims (Shoemaker); Appeloig, Wife; Appeloig, Child; Appeloig, Child (Or more): Appeloig, Shlomo; Appeloig, Wife: Appeloig, Yankel; Appeloig, Wife; Appeloig, Child: Aronyack, Chava: Arye’s, Hershel (Tailor); Arye’s, Family: Arye, Moishe Hershel;  Arye, Wife; Arye, Child; Arye, Child (Or more): Asher, The Blind; Asher, Family:      

Bandeh, Shaul (Tailor); Bandeh, Wife; Bandeh, Child; Bandeh, Child (Or more):                             Bartek, Scheindele (Laundress): Bashe, Sarah, (Reuven Pomerantz’s Daughter); Bashe, Child;     Bashe, Child: Becker, Yekutiel; Becker, Child; Becker, Child (Or more): Becker, Yosef (Yekutiel’s Son); Becker, Child; Becker, Child (Or more): Berchat, Hertzke (Shoemaker); Berchat, Wife; Berchat, Child; Berchat, Child (Or more): Berchat, Simchale (Shoemaker); Berchat, Wife; Berchat, Child;           Berchat, Child (Or more): Berman, Avraham; Berman, Wife; Berman, Child:                             Berman, Chaim Reuven (Quilt Maker); Berman, Wife; Berman, Child: Berman, Chana:         Berman, Elisheva; Berman, Child; Berman, Child (Or more); Berman, Freideh: Berman, Leah:  Berman, Moshe (Tailor); Berman, Wife; Berman, Child; Berman, Child (Or more): Berman, Mosheh;  Berman, Wife: Berman, Sarah Feige (Bar Tender); Berman, Child; Berman, Child (Or more):     Berman, Sheindel; Berman, Child; Berman, Child (Or more): Berman, Teme Yente; Berman, Husband: Berman, Yaakov; Berman, Wife; Berman, Child; Berman, Child (Or more): Berman, Yankele:     Berman, Yudel (Tailor); Berman, Wife; Berman, Child: Bernzon, Shaye; Bernzon, Wife; Bernzon, Child; Bernzon, Child (Or more): Bershtenmacher, Yosef Eli; Bershtenmacher, Child;            Bershtenmacher, Child (Or more): Biderman, Shlomo (Nega); Biderman, Family:                                        Binem, Wife of (Moshe the Shoemaker); Binem, Child; Binem, Child (Or more):                   Blachovitsh, Leah (Wife of Alter); Blachovitsh, Child; Blachovitsh, Child (Or More):              Blachovitsh, Shammai (Tinsmith): Blachovitch  Yaakov; Blachovitsh, Family:                    Blachovitsh, Yisrael (Tinsmith); Blachovitsh, Wife: Blachovitsh, Yisrael (Alter’s Son); Blachovitsh, Wife; Blachovitsh, Child; Blachovitsh, Child (Or more): Blachovitsh, Yisrael:                                       Blachovitsh, (Son of Blonde Yaakov); Blachovitsh, Wife; Blachovitsh, Child;                            Blachovitsh, Child (Or more): Blechovitz, Chaya (Wife of Yaakov Blechovitz); Blechovitz, Yaakov; Blechovitz, Chaya; Blechovitz, Family: Blumen, Avraham; Blumen, Wife; Blumen, Child;            Blumen, Child (Or more): Blumen, Leah; Blumen, Child; Blumen, Child (Or more):         Blumen, Yosef (Barber); Blumen, Wife; Blumen, Child; Blumen, Child (Or more): Blumenfeld, Shaul; Blumenfeld, Wife; Blumenfeld, Leibush; Blumenfeld, Child (Or more): Blumenknop, Velvel; Blumenknop, Wife: Blumenkop, Mattityahu: Blumenkop, Moshe; Blumenkop, Son;              Blumenkop, Yankel; Blumenkop, Wife; Blumenkop, Child; Blumenkop, Child (Or more):    Blumenkopf, Miriam: Blumenkopf, (Miriams 13 year old Daughter): Bober, Yankel; Bober, Wife; Bober, Child; Bober, Child (Or more): Borchovsky, Leah; Borchovsky, Child;                               Borchovsky, Child (Or more): Brezer Family: Bronitzki, Shmuel Leib; Bronitzki, Family:                  Burak, Chaim (Fisherman); Burak, Wife; Burak, Child; Burak, Child (Or more): Burak, Gershon (Tailor); Burak, Wife; Burak, Child; Burak, Child (Or more): Burak, Moishe (Fisherman); Burak, Wife;        Burak, Child; Burak, Child (Or more): Burshtin, Avraham; Burshtin, Family:                           Burshtin, Itshe Meir (Merchant); Burshtin, Family: Burshtin, Menachem; Burshtin, Family:       Burshtin Yechiel: Butman, Yitzchak (Bieh) (Tailor); Butman, Wife; Butman, Child;                          Butman, Child (Or more): Chaim, Eishe (Levi’s Son in-Law); Chaim, Family:                                Chavaleh, Little Chava (Die Kleine); Chudaver, Gittel; Chudaver, Family:

Damb, Yaakov; Damb, Wife; Damb, Child; Damb, Child (Or more): Danilak, Mendel (Book Binder); Danilak, Wife; Danilak, Child; Danilak, Child (Or more): Dann, Hershel; Dann, Wife:                       Diamont, Chaim (Lublin Prison February 17th. 1942)(Hat Maker); Diamont, Wife; Diamont, Child; Diamont, Child (Or more): Domininer, Moishe (Shoemaker); Domininer, Wife; Domininer, Child; Domininer, Child (Or more):  

Ehkaeizer, Boruch; Ehkaeizer, Wife: Eisen, Avraham Velvel (Brushmaker); Eisen, Wife; Eisen, Child; Eisen, Child (Or more): Eisen, Hershel (Butcher); Eisen, Family: Eisen, Nechemia (Butcher);           Eisen, Family: Eisen, Shlomo Zalman (Butcher); Eisen, Family: Eisen, Yitzchak (Butcher); Eisen, Family: Eisenberg, Moishe (Grain Merchant from Stok); Eisenberg, Wife; Eisenberg, Child;                   Eisenberg, Child (Or more): Eizens, Yisroel Mendel (Butcher); Eizens, Family:                      Engelman, Shmulke (Synagogue Sexton); Engelman, Wife; Engelman, Child;                                 Engelman, Child (Or more):

Faal, Feivel; Faal, Wife; Faal, Child; Faal, Child (Or more): Fantshak, Gershon Henich; Fantshak, Wife; Fantshak, Child; Fantshak, Child (Or more): Fantshak, Hershel: Farbiash, Shmuel (Butcher);   Fairbiash, Wife; Fairbiash, Child: Fartik, Mordechai (Tailor); Fartik, Wife; Fartik, Child;                  Fartik, Child (Or more): Fass, Yechezkel; Fass, Wife; Fass, Child; Fass, Child (Or more): Fass, Yehoshua; Fass, Wife; Fass, Child; Fass, Child (Or more): Feigenblat, Noach; Feigenblat, Wife; Feigenblat, Child; Feigenblat, Child (Or more): Feigenboim, Adel; Feigenboim, Child; Feigenboim, Child (Or more): Feigenboim, Eliyahu; Feigenboim, Wife; Feigenboim, Child; Feigenboim, Child (Or more):   Feigenboim, Reshe; Feigenboim, Child; Feigenboim, Child (Or more):                                                  Fein, Rebbe Chaim (The Rabbi of Radzyn); Fein, Child; Fein, Child (Or more):                                    Fenick, Sarah Perel (Butcher); Fenick, Family: Fenig, (Butcher); Fenig, Wife; Fenig, Child;                         Fenig, Child (Or more); Fenig, Velvel, Fenif, Wife; Fenig, Child: Fest, Reeva: Finkelstein, Avraham Leib; Finkelstein, Wife; Finkelstein, Child; Finkelstein, Child (Or more): Finkelstein, Chaim;            Finkelstein, Wife; Finkelstein, Child; Finkelstein, Child (Or more): Finkelstein, Yehoshua;     Finkelstein, Wife; Finkelstein, Son: Finkelstein, (Yehoshua’s Son); Finkelstein, Wife:             Finkelstien, Leibel (Shipping Clerk); Finkelstien, Family: Finkelstien, Nachum Tzadok;           Finkelstien, Family: Finkelstien, Shamai; Finkelstien, Family: Fishboim; Fishboim, Wife;          Fishboim, Child; Fishboim, Child (Or more): Fleisick, Feivel (Grain Merchant); Fleisick, Wife;      Fleisick, Child; Fleisick, Child (Or more): Fleisick, Shlomoh Lozer (Butcher); Fleisick, Wife;          Fleisick, Child; Fleisick, Child (Or more): Fletzman, Sister; Fletzman, Sister; Fletzman, Sister;  Fletzman, Sister: Freedman, Motke (Scribe); Freedman, Wife; Freedman, Child:                      Freedman, Yehoshua (Teacher); Freedman, Wife; Freedman, Child; Freedman, Child (Or more): Freedman, Yisroel Isser; Freedman, Wife; Freedman, Child; Freedman, Child (Or more):            Freter, Berl (Shtrik); Freter, Wife; Freter, Child; Freter, Child (Or more): Freter, Hershel (Shtrik); Freter, Wife; Freter, Child; Freter, Child (Or more): Freter, Yosef; Freter, Wife; Freter, Child;       Freter, Child (Or more): Frident, Chaim; Frident, Wife; Frident, Child; Frident, Child (Or more): Fruchtman, Yehudith (nee Zigelman); Fruchtman, Husband; Fruchtman, Child;                             Fruchtman, Child (Or more): Fruchtnberg, Mordechai (Wagoner); Fruchtnberg, Family:    Fruchtnberg, Yantel, (Wagoner); Fruchtnberg, Family:

Ganski, Shimon; Ganski, Wife; Ganski, Child; Ganski, Child (Or more):Gelerman,                             Chaim Yitzchak (Paint Merchant); Gelerman, Wife; Gelerman, Child; Gelerman, Child (Or more): Gelibter, Leahtshe; Gelibter, Husband; Gelibter, Child; Gelibter, Child (Or more):                       Gelibter, Yaakov Leib; Gelibter, Wife; Gelibter, Child; Gelibter, Child (Or more): Gellerman, Moshke; Gellerman, Scholke: Goldapple, Yitzchak (Painter Artist); Goldapple, Child;                       Goldapple, Child (Or more): Goldberg, Nachke; Goldberg, Wife; Goldberg, Child: Goldbord, Fayge: Goldfarb; Nochum Yankel; Goldfarb, Wife; Goldfarb, Child; Goldfarb, Child (Or more):                   Goldreich, Yossel; Goldreich, Wife; Goldreich, Child; Goldreich, Child (Or more):                                Goldshtein, Ovadia (Ritual Slaughterer); Goldshtein, Wife; Goldshtein, Child;                             Goldshtein, Child (Or more): Goldshtein, Yudale (Shoemaker); Goldshtein, Wife; Goldshtein, Child; Goldshtein, Child (Or more): Goldstein, Yankel (Lumber Merchant); Goldstein, Wife; Goldstein, Child; Goldstein, Child (Or more):  Goldwasser, Ephraim; Goldwasser, Wife; Goldwasser, Child;          Goldwasser, Child (Or more): Goldwasser, Frede: Goldwasser, Gedalia (Grain Merchant); Goldwasser, Wife; Goldwasser, Child; Goldwasser, Child (Or more):                                              Goldwasser, Matityahu (Bookeeper); Goldwasser, Wife; Goldwasser, Child: Goldwasser, Shimon; Goldwasser, Family: Goldwasser, Simcha (Bank Director); Goldwasser, Wife; Goldwasser, Child; Goldwasser, Child (Or more): Goldwasser, Yechiel; Goldwasser, Wife; Goldwasser, Child;     Goldwasser, Child (Or more): Gotteleh; Gotteleh, Wife; Gotteleh, Child; Gotteleh, Child (Or more): Gottesdiner, Henich; Gottesdiner, Wife; Gottesdiner, Child; Gottesdiner, Child (Or more): Gottesdiner, Hindeh, (Chaya Bayle’s Daughter); Gottesdiner, Child; Gottesdiner, Child (Or more): Gottesdiner, Yankel; Gottesdiner, Wife; Gottesdiner, Child; Gottesdiner, Child (Or more): Gradovtshik, Moshe: Greenberg, Avraham; Greenberg, Wife; Greenberg, Child;                             Greenberg, Child (Or more): Greenberg, Avraham (Baker); Greenberg, Wife; Greenberg, Child; Greenberg, Child (Or more): Greenblatt, Yechezkel; Greenblatt, Wife; Greenblatt, Child;     Greenblatt, Child (Or more): Gritzmacher, Ben Zion (Shoemaker); Gritzmacher, Family:

Handelsman, Zalman Mechal: Hardshtein, Yitzchak (Quilt Maker); Hardshtein, Wife;            Hardshtein, Child; Hardshtein, Child (Or more): Heibloom, Mendel; Heibloom, Wife; Heibloom, Child; Heibloom, Child (Or more): Heiblum, Motil (Fisherman); Heiblum, Wife; Heiblum, Child;       Heiblum, Child (Or more): Helfenboim, Shmuel; Helfenboim, Wife; Helfenboim, Child;           Helfenboim, Child (Or more): Herbst, Elimelech; Herbst, Wife; Herbst, Child; Herbst, Child (Or more): Herbst, Moishe; Herbst, Wife; Herbst, Child; Herbst, Child (Or more): Herman, Avraham;                Herman, Wife: Herman, Berl; Herman, Wife: Herman, Boruch; Herman, Wife: Herman, Isaac (Miller); Herman, Wife:  Herman, Matityahu; Herman, Wife: Herman, Yechiel (Miller); Herman, Wife; Herman, Child; Herman, Child (Or more): Hersh, Yidel (Shoemaker); Hersh, Wife; Hersh, Child;  Hersh, Child (Or more): Himmelboim, Hershel (Hatmaker); Himmelboim, Wife; Himmelboim Child; Himmelboim, Child (Or more): Himmelboim, Rivka; Himmelboim, Husband; Himmelboim, Child; Himmelboim Child (Or more): Himmelboim, Sime Pese (Hatmaker); Himmelboim Husband; Himmelboim, Child: Hirshbein, Chaim Zishe; Hirshbein, Wife; Hirshbein, Child;                        Hirshbein, Child (Or more): Hirshbein, Felitzia: Hochboim, Toltzeh; Hochboim, Child;            Hochboim, Child (Or more): Hochboim, Yankel; Hochboim, Wife; Hochboim, Child: Hochman, Yankel; Hochman, Wife; Hochman, Child; Hochman, Child (Or more): Horaha, Moreh:

Isaacs, Meir Yoel (Wagoner); Isaacs, Wife; Isaacs, Child; Isaacs, Child (Or more):

Kalenko, Moshe (The Blonde One); Kalenko, Wife; Kalenko, Child; Kalenko, Child: Kalinka, Wife; Kalinka, Son; Kalinka, Daughter: Kamienyetzka, Sara; Kamienyetzka, Child;            Kamienyetzka, Child (Or more): Kapshtack, Alter; Kapshtack, Wife; Kapshtack, Child;             Kapshtack, Child (Or more): Kaptchak, Moishe (Veves) (Wagoner); Kaptchak, Family:              Kaptchak, Moshe; Kaptchak, Wife; Kaptchak, Child; Kaptchak, Child (Or more): Kaschemacher, Alter: Kashemacher, Sheindel (Bartek); Kashemacher, Shalom (Son of Sheindel): Kashemacher, Yisachar; Kashemacher, Wife; Kashemacher, Child; Kashemacher, Child (Or more): Kashenmacher, Eli (Tailor); Kashenmacher, Wife; Kashenmacher, Child; Kashenmacher, Child (Or more):                         Kashenmacher, Shmuelke (Tailor); Kashenmacher, Wife; Kashenmacher, Child;                   Kashenmacher, Child (Or more): Kashtenboim, Chana; Kashtenboim, Child;                        Kashtenboim, Child (Or more): Katz, Avraham Mordecai (Dispatch Clerk); Katz, Family: Katzenelboigen, Motiye (Bashe’s Son): Kaveh, Gershon; Kaveh, Family:                                   Kavelblum, Yisrael Hersch (Baker); Kavelblum, Child; Kavelblum, Child (Or more): Kawelblum, Family: Keiytelgisser, Yehoshua; Keiytelgisser, Wife; Keiytelgisser, Child; Keiytelgisser, Child (Or more): Kimmel, Shmuel; Kimmel, Wife; Kimmel, Child; Kimmel, Child (Or more):                         Kirszner, Chanina (Butter Merchant); Kirszner, Wife; Kirszner, Child; Kirszner, Child (Or more);     Klein, Meir (Ritual Slaughterer); Klein, Wife; Klein, Child; Klein, Child (Or more): Kleinbaum, Family: Kleinboim, Shimon; Kleinboim, Wife; Kleinboim, Child: Kleinman, Mendil; Kleinman, Wife:    Kleinman, Aaron Hersh; Kleinman, Wife; Kleinman, Child; Kleinman, Child (Or more): Kleinman, Leah: Kleinman, Shmuel (from Kotzk); Kleinman, Wife; Kleinman, Child: Kleinman, Tzviah;      Kleinman, Husband; Kleinman, Child: Kleinman, Yosef; Kleinman, Wife; Kleinman, Child;       Kleinman, Child (Or more): Klezmer, Velvel; Klezmer, Family: Kligsberg, Nechama; Kligsberg, Child; Kligsberg, Child (Or more): Klinkeh, Moishe: Kochman, Dovid (Baker); Kochman, Wife;                    Kochman, Child; Kochman, Child (Or more): Kopelman, Hershel; Kopelman, Wife:                  Kopelman, Neche (Kaplak): Koptshak, Itzele (Wagoner); Koptshak, Family:                      Koptshak, Mordechai (Wagoner); Koptshak, Family: Koptshak, Pinchas (Wagoner); Koptshak, Family: Koptshak, Shaye (Wagoner); Koptshak, Wife; Koptshak, Child; Koptshak, Child (Or more):     Koptshak, Shimon Hersh (Wagoner); Koptshak, Family: Koptshak, Simcha Geler (Wagoner);  Koptshak, Family: Koptshak, Tileh; Koptshak, Family: Kotlarska, Menuchle:                             Kotzker, Hershel  (Shoemaker); Kotzker, Wife; Kotzker, Child; Kotzker, Child (Or more):             Kotzker, Yankel (Shoemaker); Kotzker, Wife; Kotzker, Child; Kotzker, Child (Or more):     Koveblum, Chaim Shimon; Koveblum, Wife; Koveblum, Child: Kovelblum, Heitze; Kovelblum, Child; Kovelblum, Child (Or more): Kovelblum, Yosef Ahron (Baker); Kovelblum, Wife:                               Kratzshtein, Meir Laizer; Kratzshtein, Wife; Kratzshtein, Child; Kratzshtein, Child (Or more):         Krein, Yaakov Leib (Tailor); Krein, Wife; Krein, Child; Krein, Child (Or more): Krein, Yankel (Tailor); Krein, Wife; Krein, Child; Krein, Child (Or more): Kroinenberg, Mechel (Wagoner);             Kroinenberg, Family: Kronenberg,  Dovid (Wagoner): Kuperschmidt, Yosef; Kuperschmidt, Wife; Kuperschmidt, Child; Kuperschmidt, Child (Or more): Kuperschmit, Zalman (Shoemaker); Kuperschmit, Wife; Kuperschmit, Child; Kuperschmit, Child (Or more):                                                  Kupietz, Avraham Chaim (Dry Goods Merchant); Kupietz, Wife; Kupietz, Child;                              Kupietz, Child (Or more): Kupietz, Benjamin (Wood Merchant); Kupietz, Chana Bracha; Kupietz, Child; Kupietz, Child (Or more): Kupietz, Mendel; Kupietz, Wife; Kupietz, Child: Kupietz, Shimon;       Kupietz, Wife; Kupietz, Child; Kupietz, Child (Or more): Kupietz, Yaakov Moshe; Kupietz, Wife; Kupietz, Child: Kupietz, Yantshe; Kupietz, Wife: Kupitz, Roisia; Kupitz, Eliyahu (Rosia’s 15 yer old Son):

Label der Lomer (Teacher from Lom); Label der Lomer, Wife; Label der Lomer, Child;                     Label der Lomer, Child (Or more): Lamke, David; Lamke, Wife; Lamke, Child; Lamke, Child (Or more): Leichter, Yitzchak; Leichter, Wife; Leichter, Child; Leichter, Child (Or more):                                     Leiner, Rebbe Shmuel  Shlomo (The Great Scholar); Leiner, Shifra Mirl, (nee Kalish); Leiner, Brakha; Leiner, Hadasa; Leiner, Iuta; Leiner, Khava; Leiner, Mordekhai Eliezer; Leiner, Sara Zelda;           Leiner, Mother; Leiner, Sister: Lemberg, Yisroel (Shoemaker); Lemberg, Wife; Lemberg, Child; Lemberg, Child (Or more): Levenda, Shlomo (Smith); Levenda, Wife; Levenda, Child;          Levenda, Child (Or more): Levi, Feige Rivke; Levi, Husband; Levi, Child:                                                   Levi, Gittele (Avraham Moishe’s Daughter): Levi, Rishe; Levi, Family: Levi, Shammai (Scribe);          Levi, Wife; Levi, Child; Levi, Child (Or more): Levi, Yankel; Levi, Wife; Levi, Child; Levi, Child (Or more): Levinstein, Itsche; Levinstein, Wife; Levinstein, Child; Levinstein, Child (Or more):                  Levy, Levi (Shoemaker); Levy, Wife; Levy, Child: Libfreind, Simcha:                               Lichtenstein, Beril (Son of Yoel Midlarnick); Lichtenstein, Wife; Lichtenstein, Child:            Lichtenstein, Berl (Son of Yankel Lichtenstein): Lichtenstein, David: Lichtenstein, Dovid;    Lichtenstein, Wife; Lichtenstein, Child; Lichtenstein, Child (Or more): Lichtenstein, Isroel (Teacher); Lichtenstein, Family: Lichtenstein, Leibel; Lichtenstein, Wife; Lichtenstein, Child;                         Lichtenstein, Child (Or more): Lichtenstein, Sender; Lichtenstein, Wife; Lichtenstein, Child: Lichtenstein, Shimon; Lichtenstein, Wife: Lichtenstein, Simon: Lichtenstein, Yantshe (Painter Artist); Lichtenstein, Wife; Lichtenstein, Daughter: Lichtenstein, Yocheved; Lichtenstein, Child;     Lichtenstein, Child (Or more): Lichtenstein, Yosef Midlarnick (The Soapmaker); Lichtenstein, Wife; Lichtenstein, Child; Lichtenstein, Child (Or more): Lieberzon, Lieber (Shoemaker); Lieberzon, Wife; Lieberzon, Child; Lieberzon, Child (Or more): Lifshitz, Moshe; Lifshitz, Wife; Lifshitz, Child;         Lifshitz, Child (Or more): Lifshitz, Shaul: Lipe, Hershel (Teacher); Lipe, Wife; Lipe, Child;                            Lipe, Child (Or more): Lozer, Henia: Lozer, Yaakov; Lozer, Wife; Lozer, Child; Lozer, Child (Or more): Lublinerman, Leibel; Lublinerman, Wife; Lublinerman, Child; Lublinerman, Child (Or more):           Luft, Mottele (Scribe); Luft, Wife; Luft, Child: Luft, Shlome Dovid; Luft, Wife; Luft, Child;                  Luft, Child (Or more): Lust, Charne; Lust, Child: Lust, Yossel (Mezzuzah Scribe); Lust, Family:         Lynn; Mendil:

Mandelbaum: Maneshes, Hinde (Yoel Isaac’s Wife); Maneshes, Family: Mantshaz, Yosel;     Mantshaz, Wife; Mantshaz, Child; Mantshaz, Child (Or more): Meicher, Chaim (Tailor);           Meicher, Wife; Meicher, Child; Meicher, Child (Or more): Meicher, Esther; Meicher, Child;     Meicher, Child (Or more): Melinasz,  Chaim Zelig (Scribe); Melinasz, Wife; Melinasz, Child;     Melinasz, Child (Or more): Melinasz, Mordechai (Pamp); Melinasz, Wife; Melinasz, Child;      Melinasz, Child (Or more): Meria, Shia (Glazier); Meria, Wife; Meria, Child; Meria, Child (Or more): Mletshak, Nissan (Tailor); Mletshak, Wife; Mletshak, Child; Mletshak, Child (Or more):      Moishele, The Rabinical Judge; Moishele, Family: Monish, (Shoemaker); Monish, Wife;             Monish, Child; Monish, Child (Or more): Montshaz, Elimelech (Harness Maker); Montshaz, Wife; Montshaz, Child; Montshaz, Child  (Or more): Morgenshtern, Sarah’tshe; Morgenshtern, Child: Mushkat Esther: Mushkat, Shlomo; Mushkat, Wife; Mushkat, Child; Mushkat, Child (Or more):

Neiman,  Mordechai (Barber); Neiman, Wife; Neiman, Child; Neiman, Child (Or more):         Nirenberg-Hochmans, Sarah; Nirenberg-Hochmans, Child; Nirenberg-Hochmans, Child;       Nirenberg-Hochmans, Child: Nirenberg, Yossel; Nirenberg, Wife; Nirenberg, Child;                 Nirenberg, Child (Or more): Nissboim, Efraim (Porter); Nissboim, Wife; Nissboim, Child;        Nissboim, Child (Or more): Nissboim, Fishel (2nd. hand Goods Dealer); Nissboim, Wife;         Nissboim, Child; Nissboim, Child (Or more): Nissboim, Moishele; Nissboim, Wife; Nissboim, Child; Nissboim, Child (Or more): Nissenboim, Henik (from Yoellasvinsk); Nissenboim, Son;         Nissenboim, Grandson; Nissenkorn, Menachem; Nissenkorn, Family: Nissenkorn, Moshe; Nissenkorn, Family: Nissenkorn, Tziril; Nissenkorn, Husband; Nissenkorn, Child;                    Nissenkorn, Child (Or more): Nissenkorn, Yossel; Nissenkorn, Family: Nussblat, Yisroel;           Nussblat, Wife; Nussblat, Daughter; Nussblat, Daughter (Or more): Nussboim, Henich;         Nussboim, Wife; Nussboim, Child; Nussboim, Child (Or more): Nussboim, Hershel; Nussboim, Wife; Nussboim, Child; Nussboim, Child (Or more): Nussboim, Moshe; Nussboim, Wife; Nussboim, Child; Nussboim, Child (Or more): Nussboim, Yankel; Nussboim, Wife; Nussboim, Child;        Nussboim, Child (Or more):    

Pasternak, Pesach (Pietsh) (Water Carrier); Pasternak, Wife; Pasternak, Child;                          Pasternak, Child (Or more): Patchkes, Dovid: Pesachovitz, Moishe Laizer (Tailor); Pesachovitz, Wife; Pesachovitz, Child; Pesachovitz, Child (Or more): Pinkus, Sholom; Pinkus, Wife; Pinkus, Child;     Pinkus, Child (Or more): Pomerantz, Avishi Melech (Merchant); Pomerantz, Family:           Pomeranietz, Bayleh (Woolen Scarf Maker); Pomeranietz, Child; Pomeranietz, Child (Or more): Pomerantz, Reuven (Porter); Pomerantz, Wife; Pomerantz, Child; Pomerantz, Child (Or more): Ponczaks, Family: Pontshak, Yitzchak (Shoemaker); Pontshak, Wife; Pontshak, Child;                    Pontshak, Child (Or more): Pontshak, Yechezkel  (Shoemaker); Pontshak, Wife; Pontshak, Child; Pontshak, Child (Or more): Pontshak, Lieber (Shoemaker); Pontshak, Wife; Pontshak, Child; Pontshak, Child (Or more): Pshenitza, Mottel (Tailor); Pshenitza, Wife; Pshenitza, Child;        Pshenitza, Child (Or more): Pshenitza, Yankel (Tailor); Pshenitza, Wife; Pshenitza, Child;        Pshenitza, Child (Or more): Pshenizeh, Yosef Eli; Pshenizeh, Wife; Pshenizeh, Child;         Pshenizeh, Child (Or more):

Ratushnik, (Doctor); Ratushnik, Wife; Ratushnik, Child: Ravniak, Moshe (Paver); Ravniak, Wife; Ravniak, Child; Ravniak, Child (Or more): Ravniak, Yekutiel (Paver); Ravniak, Wife; Ravniak, Child; Ravniak, Child (Or more): Reichenberg, Leibel; Reichenberg, Wife; Reichenberg, Son:          Reichnadel,  Berl (Barrel Maker); Reichnadel, Wife; Reichnadel, Child; Reichnadel, Child (Or more: Rimasz, Chaim; Rimasz, Wife; Rimasz, Child; Rimasz, Child (Or more): Rimasz, Shalom;               Rimasz, Wife; Rimasz, Child; Rimasz, Child (Or more): Roitman: Roitman, Broche; Roitman, Child; Roitman, Child (Or more): Rosenberg, Dovid (from Sochavol); Rosenberg, Wife; Rosenberg, Child; Rosenberg, Child (Or more): Rosenberg, Itsche (Baker); Rosenberg, Child;                               Rosenberg, Child (Or more): Rosenboim,  Elchanan; Rosenboim, Wife; Rosenboim, Child;  Rosenboim, Child (Or more): Rosenboim, Kalman; Rosenboim, Wife; Rosenboim, Child;       Rosenboim, Child (Or more): Rosenboim, Meir (Quilter); Rosenboim, Wife; Rosenboim, Child; Rosenboim, Child (Or more): Rosenboim,  Reuven (Barber); Rosenboim, Wife; Rosenboim, Child: Rosenboim, Shammai; Rosenboim, Wife: Rosenboim, Yankel (The Blind One); Rosenboim, Wife; Rosenboim, Child; Rosenboim, Child (Or more): Rosenboim, Yeshiah; Rosenboim, Wife;         Rosenboim, Child; Rosenboim, Child (Or more): Rosenfeld, Laibel; Rosenfeld, Wife; Rosenfeld, Child; Rosenfeld, Child (Or more): Rosenfeld, Shlomo: Rosenkrantz, Yankel; Rosenkrantz, Wife; Rosenkrantz, Child; Rosenkrantz, Child (Or more): Rosenwald, Itche; Rosenwald, Wife;                 Rosenwald, Child; Rosenwald, Child (Or more): Rosenwald, Shaul Henich; Rosenwald, Wife; Rosenwald, Child; Rosenwald, Child (Or more): Rotberg; Rotberg, Family: Rotberg, Abatsche (Tailor); Rotberg, Wife; Rotberg, Child; Rotberg, Child (Or more): Rotberg, Dovid (Feivush’s) (Tailor);   Rotberg, Wife; Rotberg, Child; Rotberg, Child (Or more): Rotberg, Feige; Rotberg, Child;           Rotberg, Child (Or more): Rotberg, Pessach; Rotberg, Wife; Rotberg, Child:                          Rotberg, Tove Gritzmacher; Rotberg, Child: Rotberg, Yonale; Rotberg, Wife; Rotberg, Child;    Rotberg, Child (Or more): Rotshtein, (Yisroel Shimon’s Wife); Rothshtein, Child;                     Rothshtein, Child (Or more): Rotshtein, Moishe Shayeh; Rotshtein, Wife; Rotshtein, Child;   Rotshtein, Child (Or more): Rotshtein, Rochele; Rotshtein, Child; Rotshtein, Child (Or more):  Rotstein, Berl (Shoemaker); Rotstein, Wife; Rotstein, Child; Rotstein, Child (Or more):       Rubinshtein, Hershel; Rubinshtein, Wife; Rubinshtein, Child; Rubinshtein, Child (Or more): Rubinshtein, Tabeh: Rubinstein, Yankel; Rubinstein, Wife; Rubinstein, Child;                              Rubinstein, Child (Or more): Rubinshtein, Yehoshua (Yoresh); Rubinshtein, Wife; Rubinshtein, Child; Rubinshtein, Child (Or more): Rubinstein, Berl (Saloon Keeper); Rubinstein, Wife; Rubinstein, Child; Rubinstein, Child (Or more): 

Saltzer, Dinah; Saltzer, Family: Saltzer, Sarah: Saltzer, Shimon (Tailor); Saltzer, Wife; Saltzer, Child:  Saltzer, Yisroelke; Saltzer, Family: Samiatizki, Moshe; Samiatizki, Wife: Sapir, Chava (Watchmaker); Sapir, Husband; Sapir, Child; Sapir, Child (Or more): Sarahke-Fanes, Reuven (Miller);                      Sarahke-Fanes, Wife; Sarahke-Fanes, Child; Sarahke-Fanes, Child (Or more): Scheinmann, Eliyahu; Scheinmann, Wife; Scheinmann, Son: Schneider, Hershel (Bartek); Schneider, Family:             Schneider, Yoel; Schneider, Wife; Schneider, Child: Schtzupak, Mishel; Schzupak, Wife;               Schzupak, Child: Schtzupak, Mordecai; Schtzupak, Wife; Schtzupak, Child: Schtzupak, Yoseph; Schupack, Bobeshi Basia-Gella; Schupack, Idessa; Schupack, Husband;                                           Schupack, Daughter (5 years of age): Schupack, Meier (Lublin Prison February 17th. 1942):  Schupack, Sonia: Schuster, Yankele; Schuster, Child; Schuster, Child (Or more):                                   Scniezsac, Tzalkeh (Shoemaker); Scniezsac, Family: Seltzer, Israel; Seltzer, Wife:                          Shaimes’ (Daughter Chaya Yehudith); Shaimes’ Grandson: Shampam  Chaim Leib (Shoemaker); Shampam, Wife; Shampam, Child; Shampam, Child (Or more):                                                            Shapiro-Turkeltoib, Miriam (School Teacher): Shlafshtein, Avraham  Porter); Shlafshtein, Wife; Shlafshtein, Child; Shafshtein, Child (Or more): Shlafshtein, Yoel (Merchant); Shlafshtein, Wife; Shlafshtein, Child; Shlafshtein, Child (Or more): Shlep, Yonaleh (Storekeeper); Shlep, Wife;          Shlep, Child; Shlep, Child (Or more): Shlimak, Yitzchak; Shlimak, Wife: Shteinberg, Pinieh;  Shteinberg, Wife; Shteinberg, Child; Shteinberg, Child (Or more): Shteinberg, Smuel Gottel (Butcher); Shteinberg, Wife; Shteinberg, Child; Shteinberg, Child (Or more): Shteper, Chaim; Shteper, Wife; Shteper, Child; Shteper, Child (Or more): Shtshetshshinaz, Chayah Esther; Shtshetshshinaz, Child; Shtshetshshinaz, Child (Or more): Shuchmacher, Avraham; Shuchmacher, Wife; Shuchmacher, Son: Shuchmacher, Yaakov (Teacher); Shuchmacher, Avramke (Son of Yaakov):                        Shuchmacher, Yankel (Pepper Grinder); Shuchmacher, Child; Shuchmacher, Child (Or more): Shulshtein, Aharon (Baker); Shulshtein, Wife; Shulshtein, Child; Shulshtein, Child (Or more): Shulshtein, Yaakov Zelig; Shulshtein, Wife; Shulshtein, Child; Shulshtein, Child (Or more):       Shumlak, Leybel (Wagoner); Shumlak, Child; Shumlak, Child (Or more): Shuster, Shmuel Leib; Shuster, Wife: Slavic, Yaakov Shmuel (Tailor); Slavic, Wife; Slavic, Child; Slavic, Child (Or more): Slimak, Family: Smetanka, Meir (Pantsmaker); Smetanka, Wife; Smetanka, Child;                  Smetanka, Child (Or more): Smetanka, Moishe (Pantsmaker); Smetanka, Wife; Smetanka, Child; Smetanka, Child (Or more): Smetanka, Mordechai (Pantsmaker); Smetanka, Wife; Smetanka, Child; Smetanka, Child (Or more): Smetanka, Motel (Shoemaker); Smetanka, Wife; Smetanka, Child; Smetanka, Child (Or more): Sonnenschein, Isser (Lublin Prison February 17th. 1942):                        Spector, Yosef (Painter Artist): Steinberg, Meir; Steinberg, Family: Steinberg, Mrs: Stollar, Shmuel; Stollar, Wife; Stollar, Child; Stollar, Child (Or more): Sudberg, Chanina; Sudburg, Family:                     Sudberg, Nachman Yudel (Tailor); Sudburg, Wife; Sudburg, Child; Sudburg, Child (Or more): Szelonikviat, Shalom (Butcher); Szelonikviat, Wife; Szelonikviat, Child:                                         Szonche, Moishe (Syngogue Sexton); Szonche, Wife; Szonche, Child; Szonche, Child (Or more):  

Tannenboim, Moshe (Kugeleh); Tannenboim, Wife; Tannenboim, Child;                              Tannenboim, Child (Or more): Tenenboim, Eliyahu Chaim (Brick Layer); Tenenboim, Wife:                   The Yellow, Itshe (Butcher); The Yellow’s, Wife; The Yellow’s, Child; The Yellow’s, Child (Or more): Tikatchinsky, Avraham Moishe; Tikatchinsky, Wife; Tikatchinsky, Child; Tikatchinsky, Child (Or more): Tikatchinsky, Finkel; Tikatchinsky, Wife; Tikatchinsky, Child; Tikatchinsky, Child (Or more): Tikatchinsky, Hershel (Newspaper Vendor): Tikatchinsky, Mnachem Yehoshua:                    Tikatchinsky, Motke (Humorist); Tikatchinsky, Wife; Tikatchinsky, Child;                                      Tikatchinsky, Child (Or more): Tikatchinsky, Yisroelke (Artist-painter); Tikatchinsky, Wife; Tikatchinsky, Child; Tikatchinsky, Child (Or more): Trackternick, Orele (Dealer Old Clothes); Trackternick, Wife; Trackternick, Child; Trackternick, Child (Or more): Trackternick, Yankel; Trackternick, Wife; Trackternick, Child; Trackternich, Child (Or more): Tratsch, Yehoshua;         Tratsch, Wife; Tratsch, Child; Tratsch, Child (Or more): Tshepelinski, Avraham; Tshepelinski, Wife; Tshepelinski, Child; Tshepelinski, Child (Or more): Tshervien, Shlomo (Porter); Tshervien, Wife; Tshervien, Child; Tshervien, Child (Or more): Tshervien, Velvel; Tshervien, Wife:                              Tszerwin, Moishe (Patsch); Tszerwin, Wife; Tszerwin, Child; Tszerwin, Child (Or more):                Tubman, Yehoshua; Tubman, Wife; Tubman, Child; Tubman, Child (Or more):                           Tunkelroit, Chaim Shieh; Tunkelroit, Wife; Tunkelroit, Child; Tunkelroit, Child (Or more):   Turkeltaub, Chaya: Turkeltaub, Idessa: Turkeltaub, Idl: Turkeltaub, Mendl: Turkeltaub, Velvel: Turkeltoib, Fishel; Turkeltoib, Wife; Turkeltoib, Child; Turkeltoib, Child (Or more):                   Turkeltoib, Kraindel; Turkeltoib, Child; Turkeltoib, Child (Or more): Turkeltoib,  Natan (Pinchas); Turkeltoib, Wife; Turkeltoib, Child: Turkeltoib, Nathan; Turkeltoib, Wife; Turkeltoib, Son:    Turkeltoib, Pinchas; Turkeltoib, Wife; Turkeltoib, Child; Turkeltoib, Child (Or more):        Tzimmerman-Kovelblum, Tziporah, (Tailor); Tzimmerman-Kovelblum, Child:

Vaiazshor, Aiver (Tailor); Vaiazshor, Wife; Vaiazshor, Child; Vaiazshor, Child (Or more):       Vasserman, Mendel: Vassershtrom, Eiszesche; Vassershtrom, Mashe: Vebman, Velvel;            Vebman, Wife; Vebman, Child: Vebman, Velvel; Vebman, Wife; Vebman, Child;                         Vebman, Child (Or more): Veidenboim, Roise (Dzabak); Veidenboim, Child;                         Veidenboim, Child (Or more): Veidenboim, Shmuel (Dyer); Veidenboim, Wife; Veidenboim, Child; Veidenboim, Child (Or more): Verubel, Laizer; Verubel, Wife: Vetshtein, Chava; Vetshtein, Child; Vetshtein, Child (Or more): Viazcszher, Yudel (Tailor); Viazcszher, Wife; Viazcszher, Child;   Viazzszher, Child (Or more): Vinappel, Mottel: Vinderboim, Gittel (Dzabak); Vinderboim, Child; Vinderboim, Child (Or more): Vinderboim, Itzil; Vinderboim, Wife: Vinderboim, Shmuel;   Vinderboim, Wife; Vinderboim, Child: Vinderboim, Yankel (Bookeeper); Vinderboim, Wife: Vinderboim, Yisrael (Dzabak); Vinderboim, Wife; Vinderboim, Child; Vinderboim, Child (Or more): Vineappel, Mottel (Barber); Vineappel, Wife; Vineappel, Child; Vineappel, Child (Or more): Vineappel, Rochele (Midwife): Vishkovski, Yehoshua (Brick Layer); Vishkovski, Wife:             Vishnieh, Dan (Saloonkeeper); Vishnieh, Wife; Vishnieh, Child; Vishnieh, Child (Or more):        Vohiner, Avraham (Miller); Vohiner, Wife; Vohiner, Child; Vohiner, Child (Or more):        Vohiner, Yasha (Miller); Vohiner, Wife; Vohiner, Child: Voves, Yisrael; Voves, Child;                        Voves, Child (Or more): Vrubal, Chanina (Glazier); Vrubal, Family: Vrubal, Leibele (Glazier);       Vrubal, Family:

Warshever, Leibush (Shoemaker); Warshever, Child; Warshever, Child (Or more):              Wasserman, Berele (Gravedigger); Wasserman, Wife; Wasserman, Child;                              Wasserman, Child (Or more): Weidenbaum: Weidenboim, David (Dry Goods Merchant); Weidenboim, Wife; Weidenboim, Child; Weidenboim, Child (Or more): Weisman, Eliezer:     Weisman, Leibel (Hatter); Weisman, Wife: Weisman, Mordechai; Weisman, Child;                  Weisman, Child (Or more): Weisman, Uziel; Weisman, Family: Weissmann, Usiel; Wolf, Chantshe; Wolf, Daughter: Wolf, Hentziah (Chaya Blechovitz Sister in Law): Wolf, Yitzchakl; Wolf, Family:

Yazger; Yazger, Family: Yonah; Yonah, Wife:

Zabikover, Moshe (Harness Maker); Zabikover, Wife: Zaidel, Sarah Dintshe; Zaidel, Family: Zaltzshtein, Eliyahu (Shoe Sticher); Zaltzshtein, Wife; Zaltshtein, Child; Zaltshtein, Child (Or more): Zambakofsky, Yankel (Feldsher Barber); Zambofsky, Wife: Zavidowitz, Berl; Zavidowitz, Wife; Zavidowitz, Child; Zavidowitz, Child (Or more): Zegman, Leibishel (Baker); Zegman, Wife;        Zegman, Child; Zegman, Child (Or more): Zeidel, Yisrael (Carpenter); Zeidel, Wife; Zeidel, Child; Zeidel, Child (Or more): Zhlaza, Leah: Zigelman, Eliezer: Zilberberg, Avremele (Money Changer); Zilberberg, Wife; Zilberberg, Child; Zilberberg, Child (Or more): Zilberberg, Shlomo; Zilberberg, Wife; Zilberberg, Child; Zilberberg, Child (Or more): Zilberberg, Yeshiah; Zilberberg, Wife:        Zilbermintz, David; Zilbermintz, Wife: Zilbermintz, Lippe; Zilbermintz, Wife; Zilbermintz, Child;  Zilbermintz, Child (Or more): Zshita, Yossel; Zshita, Wife; Zshita, Child; Zshita, Child (Or more): Zuckerman, Yitzchak Eli (Watchmaker); Zuckerman, Wife; Zuckerman, Child;                         Zuckerman, Child (Or more): Zuker, Hershel (Knop); Zuker, Wife; Zuker, Child; Zuker, Child (Or more): Zuker, Mosheh (Knop); Zuker, Child: Zysman, Beinem; Zysman, Wife: Zysman, Dobe; Zysman, Child; Zysman, Child (Or more): Zysman, Dovidtshe; Zysman, Wife; Zysman, Child; Zysman, Child (Or more): Zysman, Pesach; Zysman, Wife; Zysman, Child; Zysman, Child (Or more): Zysman, Shimon Velvel; Zysman, Wife; Zysman, Child; Zysman, Child (Or more): Zysman, Yisroel Hersh; Zysman, Wife; Zysman, Child; Zysman, Child (Or more): Zysman, Yossele; Zysman, Wife; Zysman, Child;               Zysman, Child (Or more): Zysman, Zyshe; Zysman, Child; Zysman, Child (Or more): Zyto, Eva.

“..I met Yosef Schupak in ..Boneh Concentration Camp where he was working as an electrician. I met him at a time when I was suffering hunger ..and he often shared his bread and his soup with me.”  Yehoshua Rosencrantz.

Tragically, all history of The Holocaust will inevitably fail, and in large part due to what no longer remains of 6,000,000 Jews. In listing merely these meagre 1,500 Name plates, in place of all those who should be known to us, we scratch the surface of Jewish Radzyn’s disappearance. Without even looking at what the loss to the Jewish World must mean to us, we glide past too much of what their loss must mean to them. It is for the Jewish Survivor though, who has drawn upon the last breath of 6,000,000 other Jews, to deliver testimony for those slain Jewish Men, Women and Their Children who did not capitulate their lives but had all life torn from them.

It is they, the memorialised Jews, who take all of their People forward and into our memory of what was allowed to happen to them, we require every evidence to. So here, with this partial Necrology index of Radzyner Jews, who were detained into the catastrophe, all of which was enforced upon them and was wholly engulfing of their former lives, this must strike more meaningfully and deeply at us. These Jews though are not as fully contained in any way necessary for us to remember them in real terms. Names are crucial. So what we achieve, in a reliance upon those I have found identified and clearly mentioned, these are the permanently confirmed into our Memory.

However, as we recall those like Joseph Schupack, who lived a life between 1922 and that interrupted Camp existence, he took us to such deliberate a place of atrocity till he passed from us in 1989. Here, as we secure Joseph’s, and their memory, all added to the testimony of evidence Joseph has delivered, in ages coming they will be remembered. For those like Joseph, and the other’s who have passed far too soon, we recognise in this passage their inordinate number and the countless and endless streams of almost anonymous Wives and Children. For these, seemingly without specific title, they too belong to a memory which guards them from further extinction. For those out there who can add a name, a title or just a reference to any of these Jews of Radzy, there is never a better time than right now.

Always to Remember, Never to Forget.



Echo of Radzyn

Uncategorised Posted on Fri, April 23, 2021 20:37:50

An echo of Radzyn

There are countless places just like Radzyn that resonates with Transnistria and all other spaces dealing in Death for the Jewish People. There is sometimes the inexplicable that guides my hand, and as I was interrupted in what I was planning to add to my Monthly blog, I will explain. I was nearing the finish line of editing my next Blog, a piece on the Jews of Radzyn and remember, I have no faith whatsoever in anything that pertains to the mystical. I was stood in Treblinka and was drawn to a Stone, it was for the Jews of Sokoly. From where my odyssey began, I was standing in a place where their journey had ended. I was just reading from Felicia Carmelly’s Memoir and I was drawn merely by an impression that I needed to add this Katzenelson poem beforehand.

So, in order that there is further remembrances from amidst the terms of the hatred that are being presented I will offer a second piece for which Ardyn features. I had somehow waited these too many years to read the Memoir of Felicia Carmelly and had long felt cheated by her passing. As I could not now have both of her Books signed for me, it was to be my great loss and was a missed opportunity to inform her too, of my efforts on a Jewish behalf. This opportunity to meet, greet and share efforts with Felicia was now forever lost to me! However, I still felt Felicia’s voice urge me on, to recall that Memory will not allow us ever to forget, and this is indeed a repair process.

The words Felicia has always afforded us were convincing enough, though I was not ready to see the effect of a repaired memory changing history anytime soon. I have always realised that I had learned much from Felicia, all that had been Shattered across a river to the Nistria. For that, I am wholly indebted to her. For the sense of feeling that I had physically visited The Holocaust in Romania and then on and into Transnistria, I have gained such an impression all through Felicia’s work. Felicia indeed has eloquently and elegantly expressed, in her tikkun olam effort, that this was to assist a World to repair itself and be repaired after The Holocaust.

Though I see no chance of repair, as Justice will not now ever be served, Felicia engendered a hope that Jews must persist with. In the Jewish need to emerge from the utter devastation the World has not adequately recorded, we too must endeavour to offer up the sticking plaster to hold back the surge of despair still to be unlocked. I had always hoped Felicia knew I was on her side, and while coming from the opposite direction, this was in the hope we would meet in the middle building on her wish to repair the wrongs and damages done. Sadly, for me, her ability to sign both my Books of hers also concealed a wish to meet her and compliment her on her work.

This too is now lost to me, but I will always continue. I am directed to confront the gravest wrongs done to a Jewish Community which somehow adds to Felicia’s and I offer it as a part of my effort. Though this might remain a minor recompense to all 6,000,000 Jews shown no respect in life, death nor afterwards, it is no less my effort. In the beginning, I had not intended visiting Poland though Paul, a Survivor, convinced me I should do so. Having survived Belsen, Paul saw death in the camps as not too different as to how the slaughter in the Death Camps had been envisioned and intended.

What we cannot afford is to lessen the effect of any Death upon any of the Jewish People, no matter when and where it occurred. However, I definitely wanted to separate out all the spaces of Death for Jews from the specific detail of the Death Camps as factories of annihilation. The prime factor in securing for Hitler’s Final Solution the mass murder of the Jewish People, to be accomplished on an industrial, managed, and mechanised scale, were to be within these 6 standalone Death Camps he had erected in Poland. However, and wherever Hitler found the Jews they would be extinguished, though not on the resettlement transports to these 6 centres of decimation set aside for them in Poland.

So, while I was here reading from Felicia’s powerful works, and I was adding pieces of a poem to the Radzyn blog, I was recognising places I had been to in Poland, Lublin, Warsaw, Wlodawa to name but a few. I felt too that there was more in these verses that should be called forward to newer remembrance. So here I am, further borrowing from the text of words left to us, so that we too can somehow add to the memory we seek to deliver. I will fully return to the blog piece on Radzyn, knowing full well that Felicia Carmelly offered me a further route toward knowing more of what is essential in The Holocaust.

Felicia has allowed me to know more fully of the places I have not visited, but essentially have come to know through other’s experiences. Here I can connect with the travesty to face each and every Jewish Community I read of because others have landed in the midst of them. I know too that Felicia saw a concern with the contention she felt in letting some historians seek their own accusation of the Jewish survival. While it is clear to any reasonable accounting of the period, there is no need for any Jew having the need to feel any guilt for Surviving. I see only that for any Jew to have Survived, was against the intentions levelled against them.

Survival at all has afforded us a way to gain their insight and a clearer expression of the horror and terror which we can barely imagine. I would offer the Jewish Survivor what Primo Levi tells us:

“..Its not my fault if I live and breathe

And eat and drink and sleep and put on clothes.” Primo Levi.

So to use a Yiddish term, it is nebbish to assert a guilt upon a Jewish People whose intended choice did not include survival in any way, shape or form. For me, nobody dies whose memory is worth preserving and what the Survivor delivers is a memory of those who would be otherwise lost to us. Sadly of course, here is where there are countless numbers of these testimonies, and from amongst the Survivors who I did not get to know. In that, I have not met all those I have wished I had met and so where I can, I leave an indent of what I needed to state of what I would wish to have said to them.

Amongst these many lost, the female Survivor is too few and from whom we are learning from their under represented expression of the travesty itself. Female Jews, who took the brunt of the overtly perverted abuse of the Nazis and their collaborators, are too many lost without names attached to Husbands and even Family’s. Seen as the weaker half of a Jewish population, they were exploited to the full gratification of the hatred they were forced to endure. For a vast majority of these Female Jews, wholly discarded before the mantle of Nazi hierarchy, nothing could prevent nor even hide their searched out supplication before the overt power of the gaoler and executioner.

Constantly I am reminded, by those I have sought out, in order for me to learn from their experience, are the lessons of what it is I wish to know. So that I may pass the lessons along in the hope of somehow aiding the healing process, I continually search. I was doing a piece on the Jews of Radzyn and having discovered I am not alone in recognising that Radzyn is written about, is recognised and is therefore remembered, I add to their loss. Here then, with a Poem from Yizkhok Katzenelson on the Radzyner Rebbe of Radzyn, Rebbe Samuel Shlomo Leiner, I am reminded of a lesson Felicia Carmelly taught me.

In what Judaism recognises in tikkun olam, I too have sought to attempt my own form of a repairing of the World, which I suggest cynically will never happen. From the aftermath of The Holocaust I see no way this World will be repaired, for as long as antisemitism continues the exact the same hatred which devoured more than 6,000,000 Jews, the hatred will retain a strangle hold over the lessons we can ill afford not to learn. If, and there are far too many states in Europe to this day who continue to disown their own position in the wake of 6,000,000 Jews, and more, Slaughtered out of all existence, how can we even begin to suggest repair.

“..girl from Holland walled up in four walls ..who wrote about her childhood without a tomorrow ..her quiet ashes ..spread by ..wind ..her brief life held inside a crumpled notebook.” Primo Levi.

From those like Rachel Auerbach, Felicia Carmelly, Danuta Czech, Lucy Dawidowicz, Anne Frank, Etty Hillesum, Nora Levin, Miriam Novitch, Dalia Ofer, Livia Rothkirchen, Nechama Tec, Leni Yahil and Susan Zuccotti to name but a few, they are my shul of learning and without their need for any house of prayer to do so. What I have learned of that side of their god has enlightened me, opened my discourse to their influence and they have placed me in touch with their Shekhina, a feminity more brutally attacked and crushed in the midst of the great conflagration. Felicity is one who came back across the Nistria to deliver to us on the fate of a shattered Romanian Jewry and what such a term as Transnistria meant for those Jews shoved across the Dniester.

For the Goy, its clay smelted into the ash of more than 6,000,000 Jews it no longer protects, no Jew was shielded from the hatred imbibed with such ferocity that the malevolence of greed and avarice overtook humanity. So here, and within Katzenelson’s Poem, these are the sonnets of an understanding of The Holocaust that share an appreciation of the devastation which surrounds the Jewish People. There is an understanding that life will never be the same for those who might just emerge. It recognises that as I read through the pages afforded us by those like Etty, Felicia, Leni or Rachel, I have much still to learn in order to present to you, and understanding of why today there are more like me who would not have stood back.

Song of the Radzyner Dedicated to my Hana

Yizkhok Katzenelson July 1st. 1943

Part I

Introduction

“..I want to sing you a hero song

Oh, don’t laugh at me brothers

and don’t wonder how a Jew

comes to sing songs of heroes?

Hero-songs… yes, like this!

So why are you afraid?

Are hero’s songs only for Gentiles ?

Only they have the right…

Gentiles theirs is the victory!

They, only they are the heroes!

They kill in war

and destroy whole worlds.

So this will be hard for me,

because a Jew has in long years

not carried a weapon

He wears spurless boots,

He brandishes no sword,

He does not learn to shoot.

And clean are his hands and pure is his heart

and clear, clear is his conscience

And if a Jew must shed blood

it is his, his own.

So I sing you the song of a hero

of a very different kind.

Vlodova! True yes Vlodova, yes

a little town like that in the Polish crown

I’ve never been there but I have indeed heard

that a town like that exists on our earth.

I’ve heard it mentioned more than once

along with other towns both blessed and cursed

towns all around, some rich and some poor

towns neglected or proud

strewn over valleys and climbing up hills,

houses of brick, of wood and of clay

no matter of what but warm as a home.

Jews with their Gentile neighbors share

one sun, one sky, one God in their hearts.

A church tower tall, and beys medresh low,

a little store empty, a beys medresh full.

and another beys medresh and another two, three,

a Rabbi, a teacher and faithful Hassidim.

The stores are deserted, the Hassidim house lively

Vlodova! One of many such towns

Vlodova! I recognize the name

but I feel as if I know all of her ways

as if I have lived there all of my days.!

Oh let me go in to Vlodova at night,

lead me there and leave me alone

I’ll walk oh with eyes closed I will walk!

And find that small Jewish street though it be narrow

A Yiddish street is yearning for Jews

She calls me: here I am! She calls without voice.

The little Yiddish street though narrow and small.

is broader than broad and bigger than big

A mother’s lap can it be too narrow? Can it be too small?

A mother’s arm can embrace all,

all the little chicks with her arms around,

she warms them close without a sound.

She winks to me from afar: come, come here.

She winks and lets fall a hot hidden tear

Oh come though my skin is folded and wrinkled,

hard is the bed and dry is the bread

she calls to me with her quiet wink,

Come dear son, comfort me and be comforted here.

Oh Vlodova, poor little town

poor and little? Oh you are not, NO!

Your cast away poor street is rich

with houses of study, with Torah, with Talmud

with questions and answers, of Rashi, and Rambam,

sweet and delicious with stories and

tales of many wise, righteous ones.

And holy the words and noble the language

that is heard in your tents

Vlodova the learned, Hassidic world!

Hassidic world! Vlodover teachers

are young, youngsters still

look, look into their faces and see their core

you look into their eyes and see their soul

the eyes are dark black, their look intense, bright.

Their faces are pale, their side burns are dark

they are sometimes hotheaded, and so warm are their hearts

Oh Vlodover Hasidim none compare with you?

the Rabbi comes out from Radzyn here to you.

The young Rabbi Sh, sh

They’re looking for the Rabbi who comes from Radzyn.

They’re looking in Vlodova, with anger they search

and while they are searching they revile him and curse.

Do not be afraid of a mad dog that barks,

but a German watch out while he curses!

The Germans break into the small prayer house

calling with wild cries for Rabbi to be there alive,

“The Holy Rabbi, you Jews must tell us where he is

”We want to shoot him, and only him”, they confide

“One Jew instead of all! Say where? Where is he?

And we’ll let you live, we’ll leave you be.”

“He’s nowhere in Radzyn the holy man”

“He is among you, here with you!”

The Jews raise their shoulders in fear

“He’s not here with us dear people;

The Rabbi is dead, he’s long gone,” they insist.

“The Rabbi is young bring him right away

and if you don’t bring him, we’ll shoot you today.”

And the people hear this terrible threat

and move out of the prayer house silently

move into the city pretending to seek

the young Rabbi who comes to them

from Radzyn. Oh God!

Time passed and the Rabbi was seen here

and how different the sky was as the sun appeared

the earth became happy and turned to green

The Rabbi, the Rabbi is here from Radzyn!

Breezes blew freely, happily, awake

birds peeped and sang out from the roof without fear

tweet tweeting with joy

the Rabbi, the Rabbi, the Rabbi is here!

Long may he live he lives in this house!

Oh little birds don’t let this secret out!

Oh little light breezes, don’t make a sound

Little green grass blades grow and then wilt.

Sun high in the sky don’t shine so bright!

Until the feared hour of threat has passed

we must all hold the secret fast.

Oh let it be secret, let heaven forbid

let not one syllable tell he’s been hid.

No wink of an eye, no movement of hand,

look mute to yourselves and blank as a wall.

Vlodova knows how, she can keep a secret

But where can this great mercy be hidden?

It drifts in the streets, it speaks and it calls

One hears it, one sees it adrift in the air

It pours into eyes like a radiant beam

It penetrates down into everyone’s heart

It pours itself deep within and without

a holy bright light, splendid, sublime

Vlodova the city and the light of Radzyn!

The honey is tasty and where is the bee?

Can the Shekhina be resting  and God not have been there?

If light begins falling from the dawn sky

can it be that no golden sun is nearby?

Great joy floats together paired with great fear.

It seems what is not known is somehow known here.

It’s known as clear as the dawn appears

The Rabbi, the Rabbi, the Rabbi is here

Do let him live he is still so young

at thirty he’s pure as a child of a year

A year old was Saul when promised to be King

But when it came to pass he was thirty

and pure as a babe.

As it was with our King so with the Rabbi

His eyes like doves, his head full of dew

he came to Vlodova and not by himself.

Vlodova can sense it from end to end.

It senses its ancestors Moses and Aaron

holy forebears from long ago

from a never forgotten past time.

His father, may he rest in peace and grandfather too,

his prayer shawl woven with your heavens’ blue thread

trails him like the sunlight

and encircles the entire city.

Now everyone knows, big and small

they are silent, to each other say nothing at all.

Little birds tweet and peep all kinds of things

but not of the Rabbi -they don’t peep or sing

and winds blow around in and out of the streets

but take care to control their owns sounds

They know a lot but are not sure

what can be said and what not.

Meanwhile the Rabbi has lived quietly

with them in Vlodova for almost two years

no one in Vlodova knows about that

only birds, wind, sun and the Jews

They’re all happy for it and mute in their joy

they bless each other and are quietly blessed

and all are blessed by the Rabbi and his ways

living among them for almost two years

the Rabbi who defends Vlodova as if

he had lived there all of his days.

All quietly praise his name

which is known and not known by anyone

and all live in the grace of his merits.

Two years are past almost two

Radzyn has suffered great misfortune

and Vlodova, she has had good fortune.

The Rabbi’s among you for almost two years

Poland is demolished, ruined and laid waste.

The evil enemy robs, shoots and kills

The raids have hit hard in Vlodova

The Poles have been punished and Jews even more

The more innocent one is, the more certain his death,

and so great is the need and poverty deep.

At home one is fearful, afraid to be there

One hides in closets and cells wherever one can

from day into night, from early ’til late.

We are wakened from sleep and flung from our beds

Who dares move in the street will never come back!

He dies his death there what luck!

And black are the nights and still blacker the days

and tragedy and terror are one and the same

But Vlodova has a weak comfort:

let the Rabbi live to watch over them.

He stands watch. Oh what can a Rabbi prevent, overlook?

A holy man, what can he do when robbers capture and rule

How can he help us, the holy man of Radzyn?

We are trapped, bound tight in a spider’s dark web.

She has woven us stuck and locked in the dark

Oh Rabbi how does it help us that you keep watch?

What good does it do that you raise your arms high

to the high heavens so far away?

They are as locked there for us just as locked here on earth…

Your lip Rabbi trembles, your eyes full of tears

you pray hard for us great man?

Is there any way that we can be saved?

Do you not know the suffering? Do you not see the poverty?

the old people murdered, the young people killed?

We all are condemned to death by our foes

no one knows who dies tomorrow, or who dies today

You guard with great love and great your desire

but how does it help that you watch over us?

How does it help us that you stand watch and pray?

We are now just a few who once were so many,

We remain now as though we never were here

And God, our God as if he would not see

As if He never heard and He never knew

How empty the streets, the houses deserted

One sees no old person, one hears not one child

The wind tears through open doors

they open themselves and close themselves too

Where are they, the Jews? Oh don’t ask me where?

The doors open up by themselves

No one is at home and crying is heard!

One hears the crying and sees no tears

Tears that are hidden pierce even more

who cries in the Jewish home day and night?

When everyone there has been killed!

The wind is crying does not want to be there

these are cries of wild wind that rip in and out

rip with wild haste out and in

from street into houses and houses to street

Oh Rabbi, you stand guard it is of no use!

My street is orphaned, my home is destroyed

Here one sees no one old, one sees no one young

Out on to roads they have sent me blinded!

They’ve sent me naked out into the street,

shot in the market place, poisoned with gas

into forests and fields far away I’ve been led

packed into wagons, then set ablaze,

squeezed in tight like close cabbage heads,

sealed, set aflame and then choked until death,

old ones and young ones all go together

Hey, make way! The death train rides!

And if there’s a station, the train will run past

It goes on without stopping through fields, rushing fast

No one steps down and no one steps up.

Where do you go cattle cars?

Say where you go? To death, to mass death

without trial, without law

without law, without judge

Who is knocking? Who knocks?

Is it the train? Or Jews in the train?

The Rabbi, he stands awake and he guards

quiet his gaze, and sure are his steps

He is so young and strong as a giant

and faithful and pious as can be!

Oh Rabbi you are not at peace, I know

you have broken out in cold sweat

You are not so sure, no you are not!

Why do you look around with every few steps?

And young though you are you are not so young and strong

your forehead is wrinkled and bent is your neck

If your father and grandfather, both of them great

came out of their graves to stand beside you

Oh young little Rabbi, you are older than they!

Your grandfather wove the holy prayer shawl

Your father did he ever live, see or imagine

that which his son on this strange earth has seen?

A shudder goes through our bodies so cold.

Oh young, so young Rabbi and already so old!

Oh holy Rabbi, you stand quiet and watch

But you are not calm! You act as if you are

very calm and so sure. But you are not certain

no longer sure. And you are no longer

young and no longer strong.

You lift up your eyes and your hands to the heights

you still believe. To whom do you lift your hands?

Wring them in sorrow and beat, beat your loins!

Tear your hair out of your head in despair:

and let your tear filled eyes look down

Oh devout Rabbi you no longer believe!

Do not show the heavens your hot tears

Don’t open for Him your broken heart

And show instead your faith, your pain

Pray no more in silence be mute

Oh devout Radzyner, you’re no longer devout!

You still love your Heavenly Father, you do

In your goodness forgive him, do forgive him,

He sees the death of his people

and is as helpless and powerless as you

He stands guard say who would -if not he

would stand in the dark night by the ruins

of the broken shul? If not he who but he

the Radzyner has the strength to stand open-eyed

to see the downfall? The shul goes under

Who sees it? He sees oh Rabbi save yourself!

Save yourself on a board

A little board, just look, can swim over to you

grab on to the board, swim and don’t ask where to

The wish though wild, without way and path

will surely lead you to shore somewhere

So sit yourself on the board and run away, run

wherever you land you will be welcome

They will hide you just as holy Torah is hidden

O Rabbi you are older and holier still!

You are like the Torah and you’re still something more

the Torah is immense. A Jew is still more

Oh don’t stand Radzyner, don’t stand by the ruin.

I stand. yes I stand. did someone laugh here

Who was it who said that I stand guard

who laughs at the Radzyner Rabbi? Oh who?

Who laughs and quietly sheds a tear?

It is laughter mixed with cries

the Radzyner alone, the Rabbi himself

it was he who laughed, laughed at his fate.

A hidden Jew at this place stands guard

and while hidden still makes fists with his hands

he would have pulled a sword from its scabbard

in hiding here he would pay back the Germans, the wicked ones.

He balls his fists and gnashes his teeth

Who laughs here and cries? The Rabbi alone

He reminds himself hidden: I stand by the ruin

I stand here and guard and he smiled

Here I stand guard, here’s where I watch?

The Rabbi! Then the Rabbi did laugh!

And lets fall a hot tear there oh woe is me!

To stand like this so helpless to be!

News comes from Lublin

from there to here and here to there

news that makes you turn cold and makes you turn hot

that falls like thunder and cuts like lightning

Lublin! The crown city the mother city

the old one, the faithful, the Jewish home

the city of the Jew, of the old printing press

Every gemara sends us regards,

the spirit of Noah reaches out wide

the old one, the Torah is Lublin renewed

The old one, the Torah, new in her dress

Lublin sends you a bride to be kissed!

Lublin gazes at Sinai and

sends old celebrations into new print.

Lublin! Oh the news that arrives

to the Rabbi. What can be done?

What to begin to do? The news comes

that Lublin is ravaged!

The Rabbi lifts his arms skyward

then wrings his hands.

Lublin, the old Jewish holy city

Lublin she is doomed oh God save us!

News comes freezes your blood

What can be done? He doesn’t know what.

the Rabbi stands in a corner and hears

what is happening to Jewish Lublin

What has been done to its Jews his worst fears

He smiles the Rabbi, still he smiles.

The smile is bitter. The tears are salt

They drip and drop, he is not aware

tears escape to his brow, from brow

to his cheek, and cheek to his beard.

He stands frozen stiff in his place and

suddenly the Rabbi cries out through his tears

Father in Heaven I don’t stand alone

We stand here we two standing guard here

You too look to Lublin from afar but you too

are hidden as I am here you look on

just like me and you cannot do anything

for your people

I do not watch here alone between the walls

You too and the Rabbi wrings his hands.

Father of All, what do we do? he asks

and looks around in doubt and in fear

Why does he raise his head up and look up to Him

He too is hidden here with him He too

wrings his hands in his grief

the Rabbi again looks around and

jumps up and grasps his head It is

because of me, for me you are here! He

watches over me, to save me you are here?

Oh dear God, great God and he runs to

open the door: Out! Go to Lublin!

Lublin needs you more more who

am I compared to a group! A whole community

of Jews is far more worthy. Go Go

help your Jews and save them!

You drive me away? Do I imagine that?

Or does Rabbi hear His voice loud and clear

you drive me

I drive you, I drive you yes yes!

To Lublin to Lublin! I don’t need you here

Obey Moyshe Rabenu’s request, obey

Dear God go save your people!

Radzyner! You are wrong not enough

that you drive the God of your people to battle,

I can be in many places with you here

and in Lublin there with them and

help in all places – I can yes I can

I’ll do it

But the Radzyner he must not see

He need not see so far away

You drive me out you have no time

you stand on hot coals and burn

you do and make whatever you can if you can

and rave if you cannot

You are my holy my very good Jew!

You yell at me and stamp with your foot

and drive me out of your place

I will take it with love as do you

and like you I find in comfort in trouble

Don’t beg me, command me I love your command

you are for plain Jews and I here, here I am

for the future that is yet to be I am for Radzyn!

Part II

Radzyn! What of Radzyn? And Fshiskha and Ger?

Little towns in Poland, no longer are there!

And the Rabbis? One cannot deny Holy Jews!

A holy Jew is one Jew and no more

and one Jew may be big, or may be small

and no one comes to stand with Jews much at all!

Ten Jews for a minyan! And more are a tribe!

And for twelve tribes a sea will split in two!

And God Blessed be He comes down to them

and God gives them a Torah and Tablets Two

leads them through the desert and gives them a land.

They blow the rams horns and cause walls to come down

and sanctified are when they come into the town

They do not touch a thing, all is for God!

Only one Jew. And one alone sins.

He may be big. He may small but is one!

He may be strong or he may be weak.

Blessed may Jews be many of them!

Radzyn! What of Radzyn? Yes I really was

a Rabbi in the town of Radzyn

My tribe like the town is both old and fresh.

In the house of my father I led his table!

My grandfather’s talles I pulled its blue thread

I would have kept pulling that light bright thread too

But that was not what I wanted to do

Radzyn had become too small for me

not what I wanted, not what I longed for.

Oh little Radzyn is not really small

so many Hassidim God knows, not small at all.

Radzyn had a fine reputation for years

people came by train, by cart from everywhere.

They came to Radzyn from all over the globe

Hassidim no lack of Jews.

Dear Hassidim and loyal too

So what could be more an ordinary Jew is more

many Hassidim though great in number

Jews we are all here at once!

Radzyn! What Radzyn Warsaw! She! She!

The Rabbi tightened his lips and whistled quietly.

Warsaw! It is she that I want!

The Rabbi catches himself ashamed in case

someone heard no matter

Warsaw like Rachel and Leah a city

he compared her to the ancestors who had Jews in their bellies!

In her they float and ruminate.

Jews in hats of all kinds no matter

no difference as long as a Jew. They

may not be observant or they may be

observant but Jews the Rabbi looks around

a Jew half converted is still a Jew

So that’s what I want

Half a Jew weighs more than a whole Gentile

A whole Gentile is generally not whole

A whole Goy is not whole for he’s missing the half,

the suffering and broken part

He’s missing a sorrowing heart…

When he is in a dark mood does he care?

does he think of the Jew full of worry

at the fair?

He harnesses his horse and rides off in a hurry.

The Goy lacks great disaster. God send me disaster

For after a disaster comes joy. The Goy

did not slave in Egypt and was not freed

He doesn’t carry a heavy yoke, burn bricks

knead clay. He lifts not his eyes longing for home

though sweet is the dying for His great name.

A goy doesn’t know or want to know that.

He was not driven out of his homeland in shame

his conquered wrecked land

He did not go into exile in shame

and does not suffer injustice from strangers

He lacks troubles; suffering

a half of a Jew therefore carries more weight.

A goy weak are his thoughts, strong his language,

weak in his thinking but moves easily about.

Strong in expression and light in mood

Did you see him at the fair?

He sits on the straw covered wagon secure

And Jews encircle him and shout,

but he doesn’t give value for what they paid out.

and all pay him and make him rich.

This one pays him one coin and that one two

for hay on the wagon, a fowl in the cage

for potatoes in a sack a Jew loves

to buy things, he’s ready to pay.

But the goy’s not always a salesman and he’ll

take the pay but keep the hay

Still it’s good that he does not talk with his hands without end.

He might kill a person in the heat of a row

with an axe in his hand

and still not be found guilty you wonder how?

Because he doesn’t talk with his hands like a Jew.

Lucky is he who is experienced and proves he’s a goy

for he does not wave his hands in the air.

A whole goy is not whole

He is like his cloister so big and so mighty, a giant.

He is like his cloister arrogant and proud

hard as its gates and stiff as its wood.

They carry a cross of gold on their breast.

Decorated outside and empty within

dark inside and polished without.

The goy is like his cloister not whole

out of him comes the voice of a stranger

and cold is the prayer and cold is the house

sounds like an echo from an empty barrel

Not his the love, not his the hate

You hear what he says and know at once

if he comes from the priest? The bar? Or the forest?

A Goy is like his cloister, a Jew is like his shul!

Outside neglected and inside full!

See in the synagogue see for yourself

Open a door and come, do come in

a light floods you with warmth

a great light.

Warsaw a big house of study in joy!

In streets and in squares all spread out,

in yards, cellars and attics up high!

Your breath is felt, the warmth of it high

In Yiddish Warsaw throughout the whole city

one big house of study! Not just for God

it is more for his Jew, for his daily use!

The Shekhina she rests there for sure

The Jew is there but most important, the Tanakh.

It’s a house not for Sabbath. Its more for the week!

You come into this holy place

and let yourself have it on a week day.

Go slowly by there and stand anywhere

see the movement of hands, the head how it moves;

one to the other swears and fool one another

But you, do not fear and don’t be upset

I swear it is legal so don’t get mad.

So one fools the other! the other fools them

but they have never killed anyone, yet.

I love a House of Study and not just because

the Holy Ark that I love is within

and that the Torah is crowned and wrapped

in a silken coat You say what you will!

In the small space where I live, I hope

to stand holy and clean and it’s

not a house of study, oh no. The Torah yes, yes,

is honored in its place but where I

live there is no community of Jews.

This one can’t stand and that one can’t walk.

This one cannot take a book from its shelf

and the one who hums while he

learns under his breath. One hears no

news from a circle, no one throws

his prayer shawl over his shoulders

and lifts his belt up higher, or stands at the

washbasin washing his hands, or thanks

God for natural processes. No one

looks around silently to seek a small

interest free loan and no one is buying

or selling a house! It is not a

Bes Medresh, a house of study and prayer.

The Torah! of course not me and not you

The Torah! The Torah! It all depends on where

the Holy Torah resides and with whom

Could be in an attic, a cellar, could be,

in a hall in a palace. The important thing is

to do what she tells us all to do.

Down from the sky she came to earth

Lucky are we who received her!

She alone is Sabbath and speaks holy words.

Don’t climb up to Sinai. One hears her in the valley

She lifted us up and came down.

The main thing is to guard her

the Torah, protect. And listen well

to her again and again.

And the Sabbath will be

a needed part of your week

that lifts it up

The week is raised up and Sabbath is gone

The week needs the work of repairing the world.

You are needed to help in the week

poverty is made less by your help

Sabbath in the week can bless

as God’s breath into the first person.

One Shabbes balances the bustle of the week

Oh Warsaw streets! Gzhibon and Tvarda and Gensha

and Smotche! Blessed be their buzz and hum.

I disappear there and become nothing, no one

and more in a street full of Jews

What am I and who?

Up Marshalkovska and higher on Leshno

where once I was a Rabbi, a person!.

Not erased was I heaven forbid.

and not denied by the non-Jewish street

By non-Jews a Rabbi, by Jews no not!

I love to be mixed in the midst of Jews

A Jew needs no Rabbi he can reach understanding

together alone with his God.

The Torah is the same for all the Tfilin, a pair,

the very same Gemorah no different by a hair

A hard law to interpret? He presses and tries

and then understands it

And ask me: do I need to be the go between?

I’ve no need for the honor, what for?

Warsaw, oh you are the apple of my eye.

Jewish Warsaw is waiting I wash my hands

Blessed is the hour I recognized you.

I recognized you and blessed is the hour,

Jewish Warsaw there is no other!

I know no other though Warsaw is big,

do not confuse her with Jewish Warsaw

When seldom I ventured down to the non-Jewish part

I covered my head with a shtreiml

Whether in my own home, in the street or in the shul

my hat I would wear I loved to have

a Jewish hat on my head it’s light and it’s small

and that’s what Jews wear and in that lies it’s beauty!

That’s why it’s holy I want to be like you!

With my heart, with appearance equal to you

I don’t want to be wine from the flask of the drunk

nor golden coin from the wealthy man’s purse.

I want to be a salted drop in the sea,

in the taste of Warsaw.

Warsaw! Like David to Zion did his praise sing,

I would for my Warsaw do the same thing.

Warsaw! I long for Warsaw I long

for the Nalevka hub-bub to the Gensher crowds

and Murano! and Djuka! and Mila a breath!

I mix in with the crowds go find me!

Show me a trick search for me and find!

You cannot recognize me, my faithful Hassid

You don’t recognize your Rabbi so why?

So what is the difference?

You don’t see me so what!

Take just any Jew by the hand

put a shtreiml on him, oh my little Hassid

and he’ll be a Rabbi with luck for you!

But don’t ask him why him and don’t ask him how

Put on him a shtreiml and a gartl too

He may be a tailor, a shoemaker now

Don’t ask who he was yesterday do not ask

don’t search for his vocation or his tone.

Catch a Jew, any Jew, and call him Rabbi! It is in his core

Call him Rabbi! And follow him

Warsaw! I really mean Warsaw,

the Jewish view, the Jewish beauty

that flows over all, all at once

and especially outside the stone of a wall

calls out! Holiness! a stone! yes a stone

Listen, listen, you understand Yiddish? Here’s what I mean

that even on stones from pavement

she rests the Shekhina Look, look

and be glad and go close and feel, touch them,

they are like Jews it doesn’t hurt them

A Jew, if you rub up against him is for himself and for you

In case one of you has a wound

a blister to hide, doesn’t matter how big

it will burst by itself and drain itself out.

Drain yourselves out secretly in deep sleeves

don’t hurry home from the street

You are joined in a debt to each other

Get acquainted, get to know and do business together!

Argue together, it won’t hurt, it dries the wound,

You both will come home both healthy and fresh.

Wrangle together, bicker, it won’t hurt a hair!

If you make a mistake, well, you are learning!

You jump up from your benches

look sore at each other

is this about a law or money in millions?

Whatever each of you meant

to the study of Torah its all the same!

You struggle to understand and turn

things around

And use your thumb to twist and consider

and find proof that supports your claim

And argue and come to some conclusion

and learn the passage

Whether its Gemara or matters of women

the process of learning is the same melody

you jump from your benches

stare mad at each other

you find the right page

you pull your own beard

and hold your head then anger leaves

the deal is made and you agree to sum up.

Warsaw, Jewish Warsaw, a Jew

glows with excitement walking her streets

and feels the heat approaching

like Moses to Sinai you have just seen Sinai

But before you come closer to him, look see

It comes toward you you too are a Sinai!

slender as a thorn and dry as a stem

your eyes are bright with the holy flame!

It burns, flames up strong

lights up part of the city like a part of Mt. Sinai.

You stand in its light and look into it deep

Look upon Warsaw, take in its radiance

and know, understand it what it means

to the little dot of a Jew in the grand span of time

the eternal Jewish people in every wild desert

and know, understand you yourself who you are!

The Jew of old is still the one of today

and the long ago first is like the last!

Warsaw! the golden Yiddish core.

Do business and make a L’khayim, you may!

A Jew when he buys, sells and drinks

is like a happy student of Torah.

He trades with gusto and drinks that way too

bargains when he buys and when he sells

down a coin, up a coin, that’s how it goes.

The shelf can be empty and the pocket be full.

Call me, I’ll come to your bottle of wine!

Call me for a wedding, call me for a bris

call for more business, why not?

Warsaw people! All that you make and all

that you do is holy, is fine and is good!

Bring the schnapps bottle here!

Don’t look for the cork the bottle is open

and my glass is filled.

I open it easily, the bottle that’s corked.

Easier still to open your purse. No need to

open it already was! Before I could say

it happened! It was not you alone

who made a good deal,

but lonely and sick little orphans

schools and hospitals profited well

people who’ve lost their fortunes

from here and not here, they too

have been taken care of.

Now I open a door and meet at the table

a row of Jews, more poor than rich

For the rich there is herring for poor the fish

Wash up and enjoy it all of you!

Drink l’khayim drink wine.

You didn’t make the good deal this time

God Blessed be He He made the deal

Blessed and Praised be our God.

And now in this great disaster of ours

Warsaw is a solace that comforts us.

She shines out in the darkness surrounding us.

There is no place where we are not being destroyed.

The entire province is one bloody bath!

All Lithuania, Ukraine and Russia oh God

You are left alone here, alone in the world

Your people don’t live here their tents have been burned

Without a beys medresh on earth here

and without Jews without Jews what will You do then?

Who will recite psalms? Who will quietly weep?

And who, who will suffer though innocent here on this earth?

Who will lift eyes to heaven? And You

Your comfort to whom will you send? Say where and to whom?

Who will then want it? The Gentiles will not!

And Jews? Will a murdered Jew still need your comfort?

Your sunshine Your comfort will fall

wasted on graves, wasted on fields and on pits

Only Warsaw still breathes a bit free.

Oh now in our darkness God stand by her, our mother.

Warsaw she calls me, she sends for me now

Autos come, autos go: oh don’t stay out in the country!

“Why do you need me? I,  I alone

I need you more but I will not go,

into the ghetto pressed hard in tight crowds,

where you do not have food and do not have drink,

They die in the streets there and when you pass away

the dead are thrown into the street.

And great is the loneliness and terrible the need

But Warsaw survives, she’s stronger than death,

She doesn’t need me! I’ll not go there

News comes here to me from Lublin

I fear Lublin no longer has need of me

Lublin is being erased from this earth

some houses remain the stones as well,

Jews there, they go up in smoke

or they’re gunned down or put into boxcars and whew!

Away into wastelands in fields where? One doesn’t know

I’m not going to Warsaw with you

I have a funeral and the Rabbi takes his head in his hands

Part III

I have a funeral, Lublin is demolished

The Torah trashed, shuls smashed

Jewish houses and homes laid waste.

The sun breaks into windows in vain

No one is there to benefit, to enjoy

the light of the sun’s warm rays.

No one to thank your name and say: I believe

in your mercy that comes with your great light.

But Papa-Father how does it help you

to send out your light clear down to here?

No one is here now, no one any more

except those shot right here in this house.

They still lie in bed just as in a grave.

In their own bed and in their own blood.

They lie now, lie silenced, at peace

Wasted your light on the dead in bed

wasted his kisses, wasted each caress.

Your light, great God falls wasted like my tears.

Their eyes never will open again!

It is so in the houses and out on the streets

Oh streets of Lublin, how red and how wet,

wet with tears, red with blood

Lucky you dead ones, you now have it good!

Pieces of brain from a smashed head

look down at the dead one from a thick wall,

look at him without thought, cold and strange

Oh Jewish brain you are so dull!

You had hotly just thought, now burned and over

It’s good for him now, this dead one, this Jew

though his blood is still warm and still scarlet red.

It’s bad for the dead ones who are not yet dead,

who must wrestle with death in great pain,

in the street, on the bridge neither here nor there.

They lie on the border of lies and truth

gunned down but not totally out

Oh lying life, extinguish us now!

Take us, death, who is truth, into your lap

the German intentionally did not aim the shot well

Lucky the Jews who are dead!

It is so in the streets, so in the markets

People on the run wringing their hands, necks bent forward.

Mothers and fathers, daughters and sons

where are you running to, Jews, oh tell where?

If we knew we would tell you,

they pursue us no one knows where.

The son is hit by a bullet and sinks down

the father runs on, does not stop

the skin and bones mother is hit, falls like lead

the daughter has seen it and runs on

No one is chasing you! They chase us, yes, yes!

They shoot from their autos, one shot and gone!

Gone is the auto, gone the SS

gone is the Jew a corpse in the street

Lucky is he who is felled in the street, in his yard

in his house, in his bed, on the steps of his house

died, though not buried is gone!

Gone gone who can make peace with this kind of death?

A tallow candle has gone out with its wick.

A person, dear Father in Heaven, NO, NO!

A person should leave his bones in the earth!

A person should have his little hill of dust

to shed a tear there and be praised

his name to be read off in time from a stone

Don’t allow it dear God, oh NO!

Don’t let them be abandoned on cobblestone streets

You don’t look at Jews who live,

and the dead the dead lift

extinguished eyes to You endlessly.

Consider the dead ones, the Jews woe, woe

See all of the streets are full of them,

all of Lublin! All streets, squares and markets,

abandoned corpses form Jewish mountains!

All of them killed, countless slaughtered

and all cry to you in one voice:

“You don’t help us in life, in our need

Be merciful God to those who are dead!”

In sorrow the Rabbi lowers his head

and his tears fall down heavy

Why does the Rabbi cry?

And why does he bow his head so low, why?

Don’t bow your head low

Lift your eyes and cry!

And let the walls melt here from your sorrow

and let everyone see the flow of your tears

Oh, don’t bow your head down

do not mourn quietly what happened here.

Do not stifle your deep sighs.

Do not hide the pain

Sigh sorrow out loud, cry out your pain, rave and shout!

Scream suffering far, call loud to announce the disaster!

Let your scream split the earth, make a hole in the sky!

The devil will come out, and God will come down

Oh, don’t bow your head

Don’t hide your tears! Cry out! Be seen!

Let it be shaken, the whole sick, sinning world,

and let it be mirrored in your tears.

Oh no, do not bow down your head.

The Rabbi starts crying Oh hide it don’t cry!

Hide your face, so the world will not see

the world, oh the world! The poor world oh

She could, God forbid, still be shamed!

fool herself with a story

She did not conspire,

avoid evil nor witness the joke

Her conscience might plague her Oh my!

the conscience of the world is not to be found

Germans do what they do, the world sees and stands by

Which one is worse? What say you!

No don’t lift your bowed head, No, No

and let the world not hear how you cry.

Nor mirror her dirty self in your tears.

She loves the prophets, but loves sin more.

There is white in her eye, her soul is dark

she sins all the while she beats her heart.

And vulgar her thoughts while noble her speech

In her hand the Bible, in her heart seven horrors.

O do not raise your bowed head

And let her not see you, the world as you cry

The world oh the world who thinks of the world,

gone, not a sign of her in the tent,

the Rabbi’s tent meanwhile is left alone.

No one is within, only God, Blessed is He.

The Rabbi, the Rabbi, he breaks into tears

cries before God and does not care

if the world sees him or not crying there.

He denies the world, the mysteries hidden

He denies her as she denies his God

to whom he has hung down his weary head

He cannot, the Rabbi, witness God’s suffering,

he cannot look into His face

His face is clouded, His heart full of grief

the One On High, poor one, feels ashamed,

the Rabbi cries softly, he can hardly be heard

He has, the Radzyner, pity for God

who cries and God chokes on his tears

and the Radzyner bows his head low.

Now from Warsaw a messenger comes

He enters in silence and sees

the Rabbi the Rabbi a broken sail

who does not see nor hear him So he waits

then goes to the Rabbi and says quietly

“Ride, Rabbi to Warsaw, the car waits for you

a closed car and very secure”.

“I won’t go to Warsaw!”.

“Go Rabbi Go!

The auto is standing in front of the house

The chauffeur is German Come Rabbi, go out,

and ride to Warsaw with us, Warsaw waits.”

The Rabbi is angry, his answer is harsh

“I will not go to Warsaw!”,

“Go Rabbi, Go!

The auto is here and there is money too.

The road is secure, the danger not great

yet should something bad happen we’ll buy our way out.

We’ll take you to Warsaw. Warsaw awaits.”

“I’ll not go to Warsaw I have a funeral” and he bows his head.

“Oh Rabbi the auto awaits at the door

and Warsaw wants you oh Rabbi, woe’s me!”

“Warsaw awaits me, Warsaw the city!

I’ll not go alone when my God hears me!

If I were Jonah, the prophet, I would go

to Nineveh yes and would want to

rescue the Gentiles

Warsaw, however is not guilty as she.

Warsaw, my Warsaw does not need me

Warsaw wants to save me, she wants

to take me away quick and in secrecy.

She sends me a car and gold here.

Here, give the gold here and more give me more!

I need all the gold I can get.

They should send me more.

I must rescue the dead a dead Jew

yearns for a grave, wants to be covered with dirt

wants to have peace go into his rest

Burial money, Jews, send burial money to me!”

His stature and the clear bright blue eyes

Is this the Rabbi? Or is it a Goy?

He’s in front of the small forest, the one going dark.

And the Rabbi has rolled up his sleeves!

With a shovel in hand he works there, he digs

with the Jews who’ve just survived

together with them, he digs graves

in a little forest, a big cemetery.

The corpses are carried and more and more come

they lie like trees chopped down into moss,

they lie there and wait. A grave in the woods

does not dig itself fast, nor so soon.

The number of corpses grows in the woods

the eyes glazed, the faces like wax.

The mountain of dead grows high into sky,

The sack filled with gold slowly shrinks down.

The last holy martyr no more carried there

the sack has been emptied, empty and bare.

All this has taken from dawn until late

one sees them the mounds of earth there.

One sees they lay separate but close, oh so close.

And every mound speaks and demands and demands

we don’t demand anything, we lie calmed and soothed

died and were buried, now we are well off

Now thank God we are through being punished

The tree branches now sway over them: sleep

Sleep, millions of Jews choked and poisoned,

wish for a handful of Jewish burial sand

We were brought to a Jewish burial ground

so sleep now darkness comes falling together with night

and quiets the suffering and silences woe

Yisgadal! Oh who will say Kaddish for them?

the Rabbi, the Rabbi, he says it

Swiftly a wind comes, blind unseeing

it carries and blows the sad words far away.

And Jews answer into the wind and they cry.

The Radzyner alone, the Rabbi himself

the Rabbi says Kaddish and someone is crying

Who cries? Who is crying into the night?

We have brought our dead people to Kever Yisroel

and you, you, you live

Don’t cry and do not bow down your heads.

We’re not crying Rabbi, we rejoice silently

martyrs who are buried do not ever die

A mother’s womb or a mound of earth

we celebrate, Rabbi, what is meant for us

to have been rescued and to help you, yes

to bring those who lie here to Kever Yisroel.

We rejoice Rabbi and remain standing still

near the Rabbi wrapped deep in the night

The Rabbi he can’t be untroubled, serene

He listens intently and hears, hears the sounds.

Someone cries here surely not the dead,

and those who survived, they sit here with us.

The peasants have left us to go to their homes

Who cries, and so hidden, so secretly?

Does it come from the mountains or come from the valley

The Rabbi is following the crying sounds.

He does not see the path. But he feels, understands

the Rabbi knows it, the path that he takes

He goes toward the fields and there he stands.

At once, the moon becomes bright

out from a cloud, thick and radiant rays

light the long lonely train with a light, blue and cold.

Box cars like graves stand opened and bare

every box car with its wide open mouth.

The Rabbi observes this in the pale shine,

no one is inside yet it is as if someone is there.

Inside someone’s crying: the Rabbi inquires!

“Who cries there say who?”, he asks and enters the train,

and in its darkest corner he stood.

A figure in the darkest corner is there

silent and hurting. He stood listening

to the crying of God Himself

the Rabbi remained standing still, a very long time

deep in the empty dark railroad car

the Rabbi did not move a muscle

To his God above he listened and bravely heard

God’s crying

Silently he stood and said

not one word of comfort to Him.

He doesn’t want to comfort His suffering

More important to him to comfort the mourners

Jews shamed and despondent on God’s earth

The Rabbi continues to hear more and more

Rabbi you stand in one place you try to go

to the second railroad car and hear Him crying there

and the third, the fourth, and further go

hear how with each car, the further you go

the more bitter the tears. The greater

the pain, the deeper the lament

listen to yourself but don’t, don’t give in to Him

you must not comfort Him and do not comfort

those poor souls that also need comfort not yet

it is too soon.

The Rabbi, he goes from car to car and fills

himself with the One Above’s tears,

deep is his sadness and grave is his fear.

At dawn the Rabbi went to the small forest.

The Jews that survived had been waiting,

waiting for the Rabbi. He says to them sternly:

“To Vlodova Jews!” and says nothing more.

He starts on his way, and they follow him.

The Rabbi’s in the city and the sun shines bright

He stops at his house but does not go in

He knocks on the door in great haste:

“Bring out my taless and tfillin!

Take my white robe and bring it to the shul!”

Now the shul was suddenly full!

The people are frightened: The Rabbi woe, woe!

is paler, more frightened than they

He stands before the Holy Ark. He wants to

call out something loud here in the shul but is silent.

He heard something behind him and stops cold;

the same as last night, the very same cries he heard in the dark

in the cars of the train

come forth from inside the closed Holy Ark.

At that Rabbi turns around to the Blessed Holy One

And shouts into the curtains that cover the Ark

“Do not cry, not You!

You cry in the Ark and in each car of the train

Don’t cry! You have something else You must do!

Then the people said “We! We want to cry”

The Rabbi turned to them and said,

“Jews! I pronounce our entire community must fast!”

The Rabbi wanted to add something more but stopped,

The people now know where he had been

and what he feels in his heart, he knows

and the Jews in the shul cried passionately

and inside the Ark silence A whole city

of persecuted Jews cries harder than God!

One sees the ocean of tears, where it comes from

flowing down hard  one doesn’t need to be

a holy Rabbi for that

The Rabbi himself then began to cry

joined with his Jews in their crying.

June 1st. 1943

No. He did not keep silent, stubborn he is

He broke down and cried too

the whole city cried

Great Almighty Jewish God

You envy peoples tears

You want to cry too but cannot NO

Sh Sh. Quiet!  A German stomps into the shul

The Rabbi! He dare not be here for a minute

Quickly he’s surrounded, sheltered in the crowd and moved out

My God remains alone there and weeps softly in his house

He who called out the fast has fled and fled far

the fast was renewed in cities and towns

Jews in ghettos near and far, joined and renewed it.

Lublin is annihilated no longer there

The Germans learned of the fast and ordered

the Rabbi to police headquarters.

His wife warned him: “Don’t go!”

He looked at her with longing and said:

“Oh if I died like Rabbi Akiva to honor God’s name

my body combed with hot iron combs

Don’t sin my wife, don’t cry!

I earned that rite for my people, my God”

And he went away, and did not come back.” Yizkhok Katzenelson.



Hitler’s Weltanschauung – The Holocaust

Uncategorised Posted on Tue, March 16, 2021 00:15:50

“..To The Past

To the past, the way has been barred.

And what do I need the past for now?

What is there? Bloodied flagstone

Or a bricked up door or an echo

That still cannot die away

However much I beg.” Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister.

I was reminded by a Friend that all aspects of our lives are interconnected in many ways, especially with how we pass through our space in time. Whether we knew then what we now know, from say 30 years ago, this has all added to how we have developed as the people we are, and as we still progress. Perhaps I am blurring the lines of comparison somewhat, but between what a few sought to teach me and what it is certain we all must eventually learn, I forged a way through to what was essential in knowing. What with life’s experience, and my chosen route in writing, what I have and am committed to, I manage to find those words I need and when I need them.

“..Hitler’s strategic objectives were governed ..by ..needs of ..war economy.”  Field Marshal erich von manstein.

So whilst some of our lives run in concentric circles, their outer reaches, these radius’s that physically touch us with senses of hope, joy, loss and forgotten wishes, I find traces of hidden meanings in what I read. The opinion I hold, in relation to all that was not done for the Jewish People, is my reason to write on their behalf. It is with assertions too from those who conducted warfare on behalf of a tyrant, that they field the reasoning to avoid the truth which is a component part of Hitler’s Final Solution. The larceny, theft and robbery of any Jewish ownership was gained from the spoils of this genocide and aided the cloak of war.

“..as a German officer I am deeply concerned for ..honour and prestige of German arms.”  Major General frederick wilhelm von mellenthin.

Of course my accusation, which is a contention that runs contrary to and goes against the grain of the conforming narrative of honour or prestige that is made by many, this is eminent in the specific detail of The Holocaust I deliver. We are becoming witness to that which sees our human nature subverted by fear or gain and is as such recognised with the very abandonment of the Jewish People in this consuming catastrophe. The entire entourage of a continental Jewish People is routed toward their very destruction, and the transports that passed by were waved along without objection. For anyone, supposedly seeking to understand the incomprehensible detail that is The Holocaust, we can never know what the Jewish murdered knew nor what the Jewish Survivor has endured.

“..Today we must conduct ..same struggle that Pasteur and Koch had to fight. ..cause of countless ills is a bacillus ..Jew. ..We will become healthy if we eliminate ..Jew.” adolf hitler.

For all searchers of this truth, we must be acutely aware of that fate which the Jews were consigned to and by those who sought to satiate their hatred, as they were engaged in this atrocity. It also remains a truth, and this must not be allowed to excuse the world that stood on the side lines from where the Jewish People were wholly destroyed, that they are the willing witnesses to an unfolding tragedy that has swamped any sense of humanity. Here, there was indeed an infection, and antisemitism was that disease which so engulfed these Jews of Europe in a wild fire of such intensity, the conflagration has discoloured how civilisation is now recognised.

“..things I’ve experienced. In Latvia ..near Dvinsk ..there were mass executions of Jews carried out by ..SS. ..about 15 SS men ..perhaps 60 Latvians ..known to be ..most brutal people in ..world. ..one Sunday morning ..kept hearing ..salvos followed by small arms fire. ..Men ..Women Children ..counted off ..stripped naked. ..executioners first laid all ..clothes in one pile. Then 20 women had to take up their position ..naked ..on ..edge of ..trench. ..shot ..fell ..into it.” Lieutenant General heinrich kittel.

With such a callous intolerance that was fully hinged upon Hitler’s hatred, millions of ordinary human beings took exception to the Jewish People in order to Slaughter them. For these Jews of Europe of course, who were so clearly abandoned by the rest of humanity, we visit this past to renew our obligation to all of what humanity should and must have meant. Here too, as we seek the evidence of those few who actually managed to witness the atrocity without intervention, we search out those fewer still who even attempt to save some of their own Jewish Neighbours. Here, the balance of the books of hatred is somehow skewed in favour of those who could and should have done something but chose not to.

“..When ..ovens were burning ..leaping flame was 5 metres high and could be seen from ..railroad station…station ..full of civilians. No one said a thing. ..furlough trains ..often stopped in Auschwitz. ..Sometimes ..whole station was fogged in ..Wehrmacht officers asked there was such a sweet smell. ..no one had ..courage to ask ..what is going on. ..no sugar refinery. Why are these chimneys here.”   ss unterscharfuhrer oswald kaduk.

Still, we manage to find the Righteous and they are regularly recognised, and in full commemoration of their good deed. As they should, they have orchestrated a defence of many others, hidden in the shadows too afraid to admit to this piece of humanity. However, it is not acceptable to some within their community’s that some acted with a compassion so evidently missing from many more. But, in such short number as the Righteous  appear, the witness to perpetration offers excuses beyond every human compassion. That evidence, which puts into perspective the wrongs done, of the wrong doers doing them, is a source of deep despair and a pain in the psyche of humanity. Pitiful as this human effort to save the Jews was, the ability to save any Jew is quite a lamentable account of human failing, even though this too has some exceptions. 

“..When ..soldier had besmirched ..honour of ..army by some base action. ..there could be no mercy.” Field Marshal erich von manstein.

This verifiable fact, absorbed  from amongst the 6,000,000 Jews who were Slaughtered, of not having the courage for saving any one of these particular Jews is a truth clearly recognised. In that fact alone, which sees some 6,000,000 Jews of Europe torn from us, excuse piles high on top of lies and then opens the door to complete denial. That the Jewish People were totally eviscerated from all existence is clear to all in history and this was visibly aware to all those who took to time to look, to listen and then sense the truth that permeated the arena. For that awareness, barely a handful of human beings, out of an entire European population, are today recognised as those righteous enough to act.

“..One talks generally of ..occupation forces ..and only thinks in this connection of ..armed forces. ..decisive factor is ..person who exercised ..power ..executive power ..namely.. Commander in Chief ..civil administration in conjunction with or by their police forces.”  Field Marshal wilhelm keitel.

Then, as we look back to engage in a search from within this wilful assault upon all of reason and human compassion, those commanding Hitler’s force, are already preparing their own defence. It is a common attempt, of following the order’s of those in power, which betrays the very honour of a military force engaged within The Holocaust. Recognising too, in its detail as it was commissioned, along their lines of supply, of communication and logistics, truth cannot be hidden. Here, from those in the military, we recognise an inhumanity not borne out of any christian efficacy worthy of any belief system. But, we recognise the hatred is of a system of power which both conform to and administer from military general’s and field marshal’s of the Reich who have betrayed all that so many Germans fought and died for.

“..Mental institutions ..Army Group North. Russians regards ..feeble minded as sacred beings. Killing them is necessary ..non the less.” General franz halder.

For all of those like Nonna Bannister here, who recorded her homage to the past, which can somehow be barred to her, these are memories that are primarily confronting those hate filled facts that so consumed her own Jewish People. Also, and for the hugely traumatic effort needed to control that past, which also sought to savage all of European Jewry, we must spend all the time necessary to placate that memory. Such is the measure of Hitler’s hatred though that the German military was wholly engaged in the endeavour to do all that they could to enshrine the very hatred of their leader into actions. Here too, the German military memory ensures that our future learning has been corrupted by obfuscating with the truth.

“..Even if ..figures are not correct ..I mean ..those are things which can absolutely be characterised as criminal ..or even as completely crazy and mad.” Lieutenant General ferdinand heim.

The necessity for all of history’s lessons must be a positive one, whilst recognising the complicity of these German efforts become necessary, so as to deliver in war a detail that is not warfare. Again, our reliance upon such evidence is added to the testimony of those would be victims who would be thrown under the wheels of the hatred set to crush their very existence.  What we are about to creep up upon is an astonishing legacy left over to all of humanity that has 6,000,000 Jews detained within its reach. In order for that past to be restrained from consuming the Jewish presence amongst us, or destroying their memory further, we must never allow anyone to remove their essence of being, ever.

“..No document ought to be lost ..since otherwise it may fall into ..hands of ..enemies Intelligence Service. Orally transmitted matters are not provable ..they can be denied by us in Geneva.” Field Marshal wilhelm keitel.

With such testimony added to and accrued from the Survivor, all semblance of what they relay to us must be guarded against distortion and by those who would wish to convey a disingenuous view and even deny the intrinsic truth in testimony.  For far too long the argument of Hitler’s lack of knowledge echoes through time and undermines the very existence of a dictatorial power. This power, which evoked its threat and demand over the German people was promoted further by those who sought to future proof both Hitler’s, and their own knowledge of such heinous crimes against humanity. Also, there is that threatening demand served, where the German people complied with the most avaricious and exploitative hatred ever imagined.

“..There can hardly be any more talk of a Jewish question. In several places ..provisioning of Jewish children and infants left without parents sometimes created difficulties ..however ..remedial action has since been taken by ..SD.” Lieutenant General hellmuth koch.

In order to comply, so as to deliver for Hitler the carcass of 11,293,300 Jewish lives, and then ensure a profit was to be made from the carnage of Jewish destruction, this all so profited more than just the Reich. All too many irresponsible perpetrators and participators sold their soul for a monetary gain and with a monstrous atrocity so bewildering, we do not yet come to terms with such a violent horror. Within that very context of parallel destruction, leading to a Reich’s and many individual’s wealth gain, this bled from the remains of 6,000,000 Jews of Europe. The reservoir of blood them seeped into the soil of Poland largely, but all other Countries too. The fact that the Jews were sold out by society’s everywhere, and by humanity in particular, has not profited the truth however, from being evidenced led.

“..Hitler issued an order to ..Armies operating against Russia that no Russian prisoners would be evacuated to ..German home area. ..reasons were obvious. Hitler wanted no contamination of German people.” General franz halder.

For me in my search, I cannot ever begin to imagine what Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister experienced though her words have delivered to usage the delicate ability to confront the very past which is a truth no longer barred to us. While those Survivors see memories bricked up, and their silences are pulled apart so as to increase the volume to a scream, I choose to amplify even that scream. We executor’s of history all convey those past echo’s, all of which must invoke the very memory of far too many Jews catapulted into oblivion. For that demand then, for no contamination of thought that would fail to extend the reverberation of such an echo to 11,293,300 Jews of Europe, we raise the incrementally raised volume of accusation.

“..Finally ..an illusion ..equally notorious ..so called Kommisar Order.”   General heinz guderian.

Here, we do not allow for the intensity of what these Jewish People demand, to be so dismissed when even the effort of the German military seeks to confront the past with lies. There is a lack of credible knowledge which is deceitful, and to such an immense degree, we can devalue their testimonies. The Jews, so removed from their homes and butchered in Poland in the main, were often times conducted by those same Wehrmacht troops whose general’s did not admit to the criminality of their own actions. But, and not to excuse anything exercised in the pursuit of Hitler’s demands, no one who acted for him can exempt themselves from the terms of the Slaughter measured by them.

“..What do I care about Good Friday ..because a filthy Jew was hanged umpteen years ago?” Major General wilhelm ullersperger.

Throughout the whole of Europe, Jews of every conceivable national cohort were in practice, prone to be murdered where they were found whether or not the German military was in any position to confront the ss excesses. However, with the establishment of the Death Camps within Poland, which was essential to Hitler’s plans for The Final Solution, the military was moved sideways. From the immediate responsibility in the mechanised and industrialised slaughter of as many as 4,500,000 Jews within Poland. Europe too played its part in delivering for Hitler that essential in delivering as many Jews as could be transported toward destruction.

“..Polizei ..SD ..or other parts of ..SS except units of ..Waffen SS were never under jurisdiction of ..Armed Forces or received orders from it. They were under ..sole jurisdiction of Reich Leader Himmler.”  Field Marshal wilhelm keitel.

As we read through the many reports to emerge, we are aware that with the Kommisar Order being issued and forwarded on by Divisional Security Section, complicity in all future crimes is attaching itself to every level of German military operations. It is without doubt that what Hitler envisaged as The Jewish Question, his own commander’s in the field fully understood its implications, reviewing its imposition and acting upon its commissioning detail. While the de facto leader of the ss, waffen ss and polizei were governed by other sets of instructions, this did not suggest the German military had no control over its place on the front line.

“..If one were to destroy all ..Jews of ..world simultaneously ..there wouldn’t remain a single accuser. Those Jews are ..pest of ..East.” Lieutenant General heinrich kittel.

Clearly though, and given that there were 3,650,000 Polish Jews in Poland, the rest of Europe could forego the necessary accommodation of this cohort of Polish Jews and ensure their abandonment was within the Polish catchment. For that certain criteria, the siting of the Death Camps was that very essential for delivering the nearer completion of the Final Solution. But, and not only does the christian World remonstrate with the Jews for The Holocaust for their own destruction, it chooses to forget the very Jewish nature of its own religious saviour. For the Jews during the period of The Holocaust, betrayed by what any sense of compassion was supposed to be serviced by christian ideals, christian morality was simply thrown away.

“..I looked at them with despair ..their appearance and ..way they spoke left no illusions. ..I felt an overwhelming sense of shame for my own helplessness and fear.” Antonina Zabinska.

For the Jew, it was never a case of all or nothing, as they had no choice in the matter of dying and could not choose between death, annihilation or destruction. The Jews would be continually subsumed by any lack of choice they did not have and then were consumed thereafter by the devastating effect Hitler heaped upon them all. Here too, the christian world ignores the debt owed to Judaism as the founding monotheist belief system it has stolen from, and abandons its indebted relationship because of it. However, interweaving this into the Jewish life and the troubles with allowing the Jews to continue living, envy and even greed of what a Jew is, has led to the most unprecedented Slaughter in all of history. 

“..They seized 3 year old children by ..hair held them up ..shot them ..threw them in. I saw that for myself. One could watch it.” Lieutenant General heinrich kittel.

With honesty, the chance to remind ourselves of what must have been known, or even who might have known of any part of the atrocity, this effort has been removed in its detail. Similarly, by that exact same space in time we have traversed, though separately, it is for memory that we attempt to occupy the empty spaces left behind by 6,000,000 murdered Jewish souls. In any German military’s reference to symbol’s of christian belief, a good Friday, or even from a German officer and his acknowledgement of Auschwitz, both such reality’s are a position so out of any moral or ethical concern, it is a criminal undertaking.

“..An order like ..Kommissarbefehl was utterly unsoldierly.”    Field Marshal erich von manstein.

What I identify two military commanders with, as having recognised the criminal act of the murder’s of any or all prisoner’s of War during conflict, they then cannot simply excuse themselves from both the knowledge and placation of the mass murder of the Jews within their field of operation. While many German generals and field marshal’s are quite happy to characterise this order as unsoldierly, some actually see this criminality as some form of an illusion. Though equally notorious is this order, it is with a caveat thrown in which disowns its very evidence as a so called edict, enacted without the knowledge of all of those who acted upon it.

“..I didn’t bother about that. I only found that they did become more reasonable. ..women question is a very shady chapter. You’ve no idea what mean and stupid things are done.” Lieutenant General heinrich kittel.

Also, it is for the of physician of the mind to search through for that which we cannot learn of about anything of humanity when the Slaughter here of Women is a question that is shady. True, what we hear from those who could have done more, said more or admitted to more, it fully betrays their fundamental humanitarian concerns within all of our proposed humanity. Counter to this, and though deep within Germany, we do so learn from those like Antonina Zabinska, and those other Righteous amongst us, exactly what humanity resembles and why we should at least laud those who acted with such a moral concern, and far above those whose concern was either selfish or self serving.

“..objections arise from ..military concept of chivalrous warfare. This is ..destruction of an ideology. Therefore I approve and back ..measures.” Field Marshal wilhelm keitel.

This is why Antonina did not sit so idly by as she offered her hand to some of those Jews who would have been resolved within Hitler’s solution for them. It is obvious too that The Final Solution was a recognisable aspect of the greatest secrecy within the Jewish Question we are not supposed to have any testimony of. What many, who were also the ideologically guilty, or who were simply the involved in such atrocious carnage, there were far too many like those of Germany’s Wehrmacht who were privy to such knowledge and did not act against it, and this is quite telling. We have every facet of the indoctrination and obeyance of Hitler’s ideologue to counter the German military immoral adherence to orders.

“..In Upper Silesia ..they simply slaughtered ..people systematically. They were gassed in a big hall. There’s ..greatest secrecy about all those things.” Lieutenant General heinrich kittel.

For us, and so as to ensure we can reconstruct the very obscenity that is the German military’s acquiescence in all that was accomplished against innocent civilians, within The Holocaust, they acted because the civilians were Jews. Clearly, it is not enough for us to simply glance over what has been detailed, about the systematic slaughter conducted in big gassing halls, without recognising the field of operations. Unfortunately, what is all too often said of the secrecy, this is a deliberate fallacy to cover the truth from those wishing to know it. Surely, when the usage of camera crews from many of the divisional commands of the Reich were engaged, how could this not facilitate the open wound that the secrecy could not curtail. 

“..Sometimes 2 Jews were killed ..or 10 or more on other occasions. In spite of all that ..Germans were taken by this spectacle and brought along cameramen to film ..occasion for posterity.” Zeew Kibel.

Detailed in logging atrocity after atrocity, so as to ensure no such secrecy exists in history, there is a far more accurate record for Hitler to digest when all the evidence’s were made available to him. We know for instance, and all too well this cinematic expertise was unlocked by leni Riefenstahl, she was commissioned by Hitler to film. For her then, while leni was apparently in the field to film, but at times without film, the ludicrous nature of such an assertion hides a deliberate intention to focus the truth away from Hitler. It is abundantly clear, and if leni riefenstahl was the prodigious film maker she seems to assume, how selective was she in her commissioning role.

“..Leni Riefenstahl has ..right idea ..she scours ..villages in search of ..peasant types she requires.” adolf hitler.

While it is true that she filmed the locals going about their daily lives, admittedly under an occupation, daily life had taken on a differing concern. When leni uttered an outrage at having witnessed what was not supposed to be an open secret, the filming she was supposed to be engaged in was abandoned. Is it questionable then, while we have not seen the filmed footage of such an atrocity, is it simply an oversight to which riefenstahl is excused. It is almost certain too that Hitler was either treated to such a filmed evidence, as much such evidence was available to him, he was at least informed of what this Slaughter looked like from riefenstahl’s perspective.

“..meeting ..Hitler was ..biggest catastrophe of my life.” leni riefenstahl.

For me, even Auschwitz was on the distant horizon of the biggest catastrophe in human existence, as War approached newer atrocity’s. As I sought eventually to visit the Death Camps, and they were to be some way down the line of learning, I digested much of what the Survivor’s provenance proved to be. With each of the visits to the all these 6 Death Camps established within Poland, and where this catastrophe was largely played out, I was ill prepared for the sense of devastation that would surround me. I was to visit each and everyone of these murder installations, knowing the facts of the slaughter detailed within their confines. Still, such was the depth of emotion to descend upon me in each of them, I had to formulate more than a spiritual appreciation of the encounters. So altogether, and within these administered centres for annihilation, I gained a newer perspective of what I wished to state, given words which appeared from an inner space, and from wherever I sought them out. 

“..7,000 people at one time or another ..from ..Waffen SS served in Auschwitz.” rudolf hoess.

I have said this often and each and every time I have sought to relay my feelings upon entering each individual factory of destruction, I knew that I at least would be walking back out from amongst the ruins of a Jewish loss too huge to come to terms with. It would appear that much of what I was to gain came from the mouths of stilled Jewish voices whose words then emerged. I then sought to admonish the many who stood at their front doors, as I saw those front doors, but they made it appear this was as far from the conflagration as was possible for them to get. This is clearly and wholly untrue. Then, as I recall reading the detailed exploits of the German armies in their battles, and wondered how even the waffen ss could focus on a War when they knew they were expendable, perhaps there was some cosmic levelling of a restitution we cannot provenance.

“..officer personnel was furnished by ..State Police ..Kripo ..SD. ..Waffen SS ..Ordnungspolizie. ..State Police ..Kripo furnished most of ..experts ..troops were furnished by ..Waffen SS and ..Ordungspolzei. ..Waffen SS and ..Ordungspolzei were each supposed to supply ..Einsatzgruppe with one company.”  ss gruppenfuhrer otto ohlendorf.

For the waffen ss and other’s, who had set foot in The Final Solution, once they had been to Auschwitz to train, they could see how comfortable Death Camp duty was. Also, they could not fail to recognise that for these Death Camp ss, free of the Eastern Front and the Russian welcome, War was one to be avoided. What we recognise too, from many of Hitler’s general’s, and more especially those not only challenged to deliver on Hitler’s demands, options were not limited. But, and for the ordinary soldier to manipulate their own stay away from the Russian Front was truly an impossibility Hitler would not countenance. It is for Wehrmacht officer’s therefore, decrying ss excess, to see the wrongs they were doing in Hitler’s name. While issuing their own protests at the ss shooting of those Jews and other’s, they same General’s were not necessarily critical of the shooting itself.

“..If you shoot people in ..wood or somewhere where no one can see ..that’s your own affair. But I absolutely forbid another day’s shooting here. We draw our drinking water from deep springs ..we’re getting nothing but corpse water there.” Lieutenant General heinrich kittel.

For those from the German officer korps, it only appears so sensitive an issue to the hydrating needs of those forces they were commanding. As such, the threat that such a spectacle presented to German sensitivity was that these Slaughters should not be conducted out in the open. Also, and where it was at risk of contaminating the drinking water, the atrocity should prove less distasteful further down the road from their rest areas. I have so much time to consider my own position as I invoke a remembrance of what 6,000,000 Jews were forced to endure. So in order to state the case for accusing those who knew and did nothing, I willingly use my words to confront them all.

“..Jewish Question ..Ukraine ..more difficult ..in ..cities ..Jews ..major part ..population. ..more than 50%. ..elimination ..profound ..consequences ..military economy. ..systematic shooting ..Jews ..by ..Order Police. ..in public ..assistance ..Ukrainian militia ..members ..Wehrmacht. ..Aktionen ..men ..women ..children ..all ages ..manner ..carried out ..appalling. ..executions involved. ..150,000 to 200,000 Jews ..executed in ..Ukraine.” Professor peter heinz seraphim.

I have not gained an insight into all the answers I seek, but while I can bring you back to when I was about 5, I will see if I can show why I am so inquisitive. Having lost a Dad and 2 Sisters, I recognise I have been on that search for questions, so as to gain answers to, not yet knowing all of the questions. My inquisitive nature saw in many people their bias against some People that is a condemnation of what makes us all uniquely different. I had recognised early on that people sought out other’s differences, but I did not know why that has become such an objectionable bias toward them. For instance, I had known this young Girl when we were both 8, 9 and then 10 years of age, living round the corner from each other.

“..They faced ..trench ..then 20 Latvians came up behind and simply fired once through ..back of their heads ..they fell ..forwards into ..trench like ninepins.”  Lieutenant General heinrich kittel.

It was in Senior School where difference, or even the intolerance to us as learner’s was confirmed and my opinion on toleration was greatly formed. Now I am learning that there were Latvians too who could swallow the hatred pill Hitler had offered them and with an acceptance that not all People are equal. I had always been tutored in the belief that we are all equal so how could I look at The Holocaust without the wrongs done. Considering how German general’s and even field marshal’s could consider a being as other than human is a monstrous precipice for civilisation to fall over. The terms of reference here too altered incomparably, and beyond the simple consideration of what makes us equal, so that when some were considering the Jewish People as somehow subhuman we know what humanity demands.

“..Therefore ..soldier must have full understanding for ..necessity of a severe but just revenge on subhuman Jewry. ..Army has to aim at another purpose ..annihilation of revolts in hinterland ..as experience proves ..have always been caused by Jews.” Field Marshal walther von reichenau.

This then brings me to that early encounter with both brutality and an intolerance I was to learn fully did not belong in any religious faction, whatsoever. Asked to essay on the difference between us and Protestants, it was too easy for me to offer a response as I greatly understood the human dynamics of what has formed us. For me, with this as a simplistic solution, I was to state that they go to a different Church from us as my Friend had informed me, and with no other markedly physical, philosophical or apparent difference I was aware of, I shared my disbelief in differences. But, when I stated that apparent difference also applied to my Cousin, I caused this so called educator some form of consternation.

“..Let me tell you ..gassings are by no means ..worst. ..people dug their own graves ..then ..firing squad arrived ..and shot them. Many of them weren’t dead ..a layer of earth was shovelled in between. They had packers there who packed ..bodies in ..because they fell in too soon. ..ss did that. ..I knew an SS leader pretty well ..we talked about this and that ..and one day he said ..if you ever want to film one of ..these shootings ..it doesn’t really matter. These people are always shot in ..morning. If you’re interested ..we still have a few left over ..and we could also shoot them in ..afternoon if you like.” General edwin graf von rothkirch und trach.

With deep incredulity this teacher, small letters, a member of a religious order, whose governance was the words of god, he was so incensed. He was not prepared to about to listen to other than what he had taken exception to in my words. While we are to become a witness to what von rothkirch evidenced from the Kutno Massacre, I recognised that while I was reeling from this religious educator’s example at the time, I recognised the false narrative expressed in agreeing to equality belonging to all. We must not be witnesses without speaking out but I was too young to appreciate that at the time. However, since then I have sought never to leave the debate without issuing only the truth must be known. 

“..I am actually ashamed to be an officer.” General ritter von thoma.

At that time though, I was merely questioning, while the response was such a vexed and contentious confrontation with my rather naive assessment of what I considered was difference. As if I could have had a Cousin who surely must have been a catholic also, and this was entirely true. I sensed though that no element of shame, which should belong to those who exert this form of response to a Child, did not attach itself to a person of god. But, and this was the thing that appeared to rankle with him most, as my Cousin, from my Mom’s sister’s Family, lived about 7 miles away from us he too went to a different church. For that affront to this particular individuals grasp on reality, I was beaten mercilessly until my hands rang out with a hidden rage.

“..Did they weep? Have ..people any idea what’s in store for them?” Lieutenant General hans schaeffer.

Here, the end of religion became an incrementally significant issue and which for me meant I could not reconcile any religious belief through a religious order. This person has semblance of anything that would have to do with any god. For me it was clear, those closest to any god who could act with such savagery could hardly appreciate that a god of love and compassion could not be evidenced through hate, fear, intimidation or simple brutality! I also formulated then that we cannot be impressed into believing through a force of belief in faith. A few years later, leaving Dublin behind as Birmingham awaited, I met the same religious stigmatism, a certain bias and from another religious order that could not present for me a god of goodness.

“..principal task of ..Einsatzgruppe of ..SD was ..annihilation of ..Jews ..Gypsies ..Kommisars.” ss obergruppenfuhrer erich von dem bach-zalewski.

From here on in I sought to find my own way in finding out where I belonged and what to then believe in without the pressure of abuse and brutality to convince me of what was so wrong. So while I was keen on History, I knew I had no need of any bias to afford all but the truth and not a thing other than that very factual truth which proved its veracity was contained within it. My study, research and the search for all that seemed to matter, was delivered by History for me in that there could be no deviation from right, truth, honesty and its integrity. So I set my sights on learning from the military past an answer to why conflict was so wrong and that the past was there to ensure the future could not be as badly interpreted.

“..I have now decided ..time has come when I must share my life story ..perhaps with all those who are interested to know what life was like for many of us on ..other side of ..world before and during World War II. I wish to speak ..truth and nothing but ..truth ..but some things I shall keep to myself ..nobody needs them but me.” Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister.

That search evolved into a glimpse of The Holocaust which has secured a more essential observation and I have no doubt there are those like Nonna who can teach us much of what we need to learn. In as much as Nonna wishes she did not have to conceal, I am certain there is a degree of fear and horror so terrifying, how can this be suppressed. The depth of despair, having been reached, Nonna must wish somehow her truth could reside elsewhere. For Military History, and for me in particular though, the devastation wreaked upon all innocence threw up its own concern. When those who chose to introduce a role for such as a god who stood either side of the divide in every conflict, which god would prove right.

Thursday November 23rd. 1939.  “..I must in all modesty say that my own person is indispensable. Neither a military nor a civilian personality could replace me. ..I am convinced of ..strength of my brain and my resolution . ..fate of ..Reich ..dependent entirely upon me.” adolf hitler.

There would be priests in all of these conflicts who would bless the troops of their Armies before battle and send them forward with god on their side. In this part of a speech, which Hitler was giving to the commanding generals of the Wehrmacht, god had been transplanted by him. With the euphoria of success, Hitler fully embraced victory as his reward after Poland was defeated and as the Reich had cowed down as a subordinate entity to Hitler. None of this in any way diminishes those who operated outside all moral, ethical and criminal law from their own personal responsibility. For their displays of allocation or adherence to atrocity, this was all fuelled by the primary hate Hitler always sought to deliver.

“..Of course ..Hitler knows all about it. Secretly ..he’s delighted. Of course ..people can’t make a row ..they would simply be arrested and beaten if they did.” General ritter von thoma.

Regardless of the fact that the Jews were not the only victims of Hitler, it is clear that for the Jewish People in particular, they were always the victims. No one in life, nor History, can so disown their moral efficacy, given so effectively within humanity, that they can give their moral compass away and without any dereliction of their duty to such as ethical probity requires. Also, any awareness that Hitler was in complete command of all that was waged against the Jews is being cloaked in an obfuscation that resounds with the same hatred Hitler had for the Jewish People. It is clear that the lesson to be learned from the horror of The Holocaust has not been as clearly learned as humanity must insist.

“..Jews have to vanish ..annihilated. ..carrying out of larger Jewish actions is not ..task of ..divisional units. They are carried out by civilian or police authorities ..ordered by ..commandant of White Ruthenia ..if he has special units at his disposal ..or for security reasons and in ..case of collective punishments. When smaller or larger groups of Jews are met ..they can be liquidated by divisional units or be massed in ..ghettos near bigger villages designated for that purpose ..where they can be handed over to ..civilian authority or ..SD.”  Major General anton von bechtolsheim.

That being the case, it was uncertain to me which was my response to a humanity that I would come down upon. In that I would be able to state unequivocally that there was no god for me in a world betrayed by a godliness abandoned to order. Essentially, how could any such entity, who was on the moral side of the rights or wrongs of humankind, appear to be engaged in or on any and even in all conflicts. I had long drawn upon the historian’s craft and had that blended into a scientific effort which I learned could be mastered in delivering all I had sought to impart. Here too there was that forensic approach to war as it applied to the historian’s commitment to the discipline required. I also sought to ensure if there was such a position for art in the treatment or understanding of war.

Sun Tzu – The Art of War. (600 BC)

“..We shot women as if they had been cattle. ..a large quarry where 10,000 men ..women ..children were shot. They were still lying in ..quarry. We drove out on purpose to see it. It was ..most bestial thing I ever saw.” Lieutenant General fritz von broich.

I would not find the artistry in conflict as it appeared in this particular book, but which delivers what is an essential in ensuring all that is needed for the soldier to know. What is to be given over to those soldiers, who will be in the conflict, must be deliberately led and given clearly expressed commands so that the details cannot be misunderstood. I was neither satisfied, nor was I convinced in other than the spectre of war being so wrong it could only destroy any vista of any conflict. That it is clear war was both brutal and deadly and could hardly be accepted in an art form, became an obvious focus upon my move into the humanitarian search The Holocaust would provide.

“..If words of command are not clear and distinct ..if orders are not thoroughly understood ..then general is to blame.” Sun Tzu.

Though in a military sense, the need to exploit tactical awareness could be perceived as artful, in much the same way as we view chess. But, no war is without the carnage of inter action to visit us with pain and even grief after its effects had been felt. It is recognisable throughout the millennia that there were great soldiers who were lauded as such, and this glossed over the deadly effects combat brought to the fore. As always, it is with the inordinate penalty paid for by those soldiers in the field, who are somewhat cushioning the blow for those who usually have directed them from behind closed doors.

“..I’m going to hold my tongue about what I do know of these things.” Lieutenant General heinrich kittel.

These military leaders are those who I would draw my ire for, closeted away from the conflict knowing each day brings its reprisal upon human existence. The truth too of course is linear, which in its detailed effect on the progression of all conflicts, must forever keep its factual integrity on that tightrope of consistency. The truth within War must be as straight as it is directed toward its goal of achievement, and must not deviate to where it is in conflict with morality. This is especially true in History where any deviation, even distortion, will ensure that the lineage of evidence, is corrupted and thus corrupt.

 “..If a fellow human being is in distress and I can help ..then it becomes my duty and responsibility. Were I to refrain from doing so ..then I would betray ..task that life ..or perhaps god ..demands from me.” Johanna Eck.

Drawn from the past, only the evidence that is verifiable must be delivered or it will skew our present so as to deliver a rather blurred image. Thus, any view from when the future looks back upon what that truth really is will not contain the necessary integrity truth demands. Humanity was betrayed within the realm of The Holocaust, and not just within spaces like the Death Camps in Poland. Those who professed any religious belief, be that christian or muslim, who enjoined the Hitlerite focus upon the hatred for the Jewish People, and to then seek the destruction of the Jews for being Jews, this is against all which belief systems suppose to engender. In all of this, I retain my love of History and am tired of any biased view which seeks deliberately to pervert its truthful discourse.

December 11th. 1938. “..Shortly after ..First War I came to ..conclusion that we should have to be victorious in 3 battles if Germany were to become powerful again:

I              ..battle against ..working class ..Hitler has won this

II             Against ..Catholic Church ..perhaps better expressed against Ultramontanism and

III           Against ..Jews.” Col. General von Fritzsche.

Carl von Clausewitz – On War (1832)

“..War is not merely a political act but a real political instrument ..a continuation of political intercourse ..a carrying out of ..same by other means.” Carl von Clausewitz.

There are some who hold, with their contempt for the past, an issue which exposes their flawed interpretation of a fact, a truth, the integrity of which cannot be distorted and certainly cannot be denied. Here, when we looked to the strategies von Clausewitz, sought out by military historians to explore, we see the magnification of the essential in all wars that is political gain. What this embodies is for the use of the people as cannon fodder, so as to alleviate the crimes of those political demands foisted upon us. For many other people, the power to impress them into conflict has drawn mankind toward every available conflict for millennia.

“..attitude of ..troops toward SD and police alternates between abhorrence and hatred. Every soldier ..disgusted by ..crimes committed in Poland by ..Reich ..representatives of our state.”    General johannes von blaskowitz.

Basil H. Liddell-Hart – The Other Side of The Hill. (1948)

“..in Croker’s correspondence and diaries ..on a journey with Wellington ..he and ..Duke passed ..time by guessing what kind of country they would find on ..other side of each hill on ..way. When Croker expressed surprise at Wellington’s successes in forecasting it ..latter replied ..Why ..I have spent all my life in trying to guess what was at ..other side of ..hill.” Basil Henry Liddell-Hart.

Wars are always waged by those who would then seek to benefit from the conflict, and these are nothing new in our history. But what Hitler proposed in the Slaughter that consumed 6,000,000 European Jews, is a profitable monetary gain the World has been living off of for well over 90 years now. Unfortunately too, for the legion of soldiers who entered War as a duty, as some obligation to national standing, they were betrayed by both political and commercial motivation. Mostly death and destruction only awaited the soldier either side of those hills and for the advance guard, it arrived sooner for them.

“..nearing our final objective step by step in this icy cold and ..troops suffering from ..appalling supply situation. ..difficulty of supplying us by railroad ..constantly increasing ..main cause of our shortages ..without fuel ..cannot move.”  General heinz guderian.

The forward skirmishers, who set out to know the lie of the land, when their essential was to retrace their steps so as to inform the command structure what stood against them, there was always to be an enemy on the other side of the hill. In terms of what The Holocaust would present, there was always that mound that was on the other side of the divide. In between immorality and the destruction of the Jewish People, the all consuming influence of hatred was attached to the psyche of all who witnessed the stirring of a moral decay in the immense inhumanity shown.

“..it doesn’t need to be a Jew to accuse us we ourselves must bring ..charge ..we must accuse ..people who have done it.” Major General paul von felbert.

Marc Bloch – The historian’s craft. (1954)

“..Tell me ..Daddy. What is ..use of history. ..a young lad in whom I had a very special interest questioned is historian father. I wish I could say of this book that it is my answer.” Marc Bloch.

I was never fortunate enough to ask my Father all too much of anything that has concerned me in my questioning search of answers. So I have engaged in gleaning from other’s, writer’s in no small part, what I sought for truth to be substantiated. That truth, an historian’s search for a crafted science, deeply etched with an artistic vent, dons the words of 6,000,000 Slaughtered Jews. For what these Jews have been deprived of, and while these have been and are my words, the words have also become an extension of the precarious hold the Jews, who are The Holocaust, have had upon that life deprived of them.

“..We must uphold ..principle of only having carried out orders. We must stick to that principle if we are to create a more or less effective defence.” Lieutenant General ferdinand heim.

Even after the very existence of all of these Jewish People has been removed from the vibrant life they had held on to, history is not to be content. Admittedly, in that effort for there to be an opportunity to remove the Jews from the conscious demand to secure them to memory, these slaughtered Jews are absorbed into our a past to be forgotten. Of course, it is but a demand from a very small section of pseudo historians who seek to forget the relationship between the slaughter of the Jews and Hitler’s presence. For objectivity, and for obvious reasons, I cannot tell you I have Not read those works, nor have I been able to rid my shelves of their obvious depiction of a close quarter view, but they affect the direction I now pursue.

“..To glorify Hitler as an infallible genius ..whose gigantic designs were frustrated by treachery ..or to condemn him as ..greatest criminal of all time ..would be equally irresponsible and superficial.”  Major General frederick wilhelm von mellenthin.

More tellingly, these books of military science remain a permanent fixture on my bookshelves, though separated from my study of The Holocaust. They are placed upon differing shelving for clearly pertinent reasoning, so as not to contaminate the intention to learn from the past. For what is only essential to deliver to the future, no work can exclude any part of the knowledge they are confronted with. There can be no excuse worthy of exemption, even in detailing the fuller abandonment given over to the precepts of orders. Orders are orders but must have an ethical basis bounded by the morality of that culture that civilised us.

“..With regard to ..physical annihilation of ..Jewish People ..until I lost my post and was transferred to ..waffen ss ..only thing ..I knew was that ..der Einsatztruppe ..of ..Security Police und ..Security Service had received orders to liquidate by shooting ..supporters of Communist ideology ..particularly ..Jews. ..not aware of ..details of this order and its origin. ..not until later ..I heard from SS General Dr. Stahlecker ..order came from Hitler ..passed on by Heydrich to ..Operational Troops.” ss sturmbannfuhrer wilhelm hoettl.

adolf hitler – Mein Kampf. (1925)

“..Today it seems to me providential that Fate should have chosen Braunau on ..Inn as my birthplace. ..this little town lies on boundary between two German states which we ..have made it our life work to reunite by every means at our disposal.” adolf hitler.

It should come as no surprise to history that this little Austrian corporal, who set out to achieve a political power, accomplished far greater power than he could have imagined. What Hitler’s demands suggested would then evidence of his own demand for empire building of his Weltanschauung emerging as The Holocaust. While warfare would secure this global expansion happening, no one should then doubt it was his hatred of the Jewish People which delivered upon this. Hitler so conformed too many other’s to his will, so as to annihilate these Jews, and in their entirety. No one should even doubt that Hitler had the fullest knowledge of all that he had set in motion to resolve his Jewish Question. For those, who set before us a questioning of this position, do so to satisfy their own bias and even hatred in doing so.

“..I must assume ..after all I have read about ..Fuhrer ..that he knew all about it.” Major General johannes bruhn.

heinz guderian – Panzer Leader. (1952)

“..My main activity ..between ..two wars was ..creation of a German armoured force.” heinz guderian.

The harsher lessons of World War I were learned and those like the compliment of exponents of the panzer blitzkrieg proved there was an expedient in killing that the Panzer was equipped for. With the ability to kill quicker and more efficiently those forces the mechanised Army would encounter, Hitler’s panzer’s led a bloody campaign which has taught the future much about the conflict with armed warfare, but not with War. There is no looking back with bleary eyes stretching back to some halcyon or romantic notion that War somehow gifted a civilising influence on anything. For me, it is improbable and indeed impossible for any of the German military commanders in the field to not know what is taking place on the field of battle. 

“..I am here in this World ..having endured ..survived The Holocaust and remain alive purely by chance. To this day I suffer from ..terrible consequences of ..absolute destruction wrought upon us by ..Germans ..one blow followed by another and another ..seemingly without end.” Anna Rubinstein-Podgajecki.

It matters little whether that field of conflict extends for 10, 20 or 30 miles as no commander can ignore what yet might be facing them on the other side of the hill. For forward echelons of those scouting patrols, sent forth to view the enemy lines, these would have criss-crossed the sites of extermination and excavations of Jewish killing sites. All too many of these execution sites, just outside Jewish communities, such exterminations were soldiered by the Wehrmacht, were officiated over by waffen ss and observed by each and every branch of the armed wing of Hitler’s Reich. Within sight, earshot or even sensing the stench from the blood and decay, no command centre was immune from such knowledge. 

“..when one tremendous explosion after another occurred. ..major part of ..inner city burned down ..50,000 people were made homeless. German soldiers were used to fight ..flames ..suffered considerable losses ..because further large amounts of explosives detonated during ..fire.” Colonel General alfred jodl.

erich von manstein – Lost Victories. (1955)

“..This book is ..personal  narrative of a soldier ..in which I have deliberately refrained from discussing political problems or matters with no direct bearing on events in ..military field.” erich von manstein.

How it could be at all possible, for these who had notions of epitaphs to read, of lost victories not be accountable, we search for the values lost in every humanitarian aspect of life. What leni riefenstahl witnessed, what langhauser was informed of, surely this was the conversation piece amongst those ranked above the ordinary soldier. It would be impossible for any soldier not to so inform his commander in the field who would be duty bound to let the commander in chief know what was happening within the sphere of immediate influence. Do not forget, that this military field for those exponents of this swifter form of military intervention extended the lines of communication and logistics for 100’s of miles. 

“..Leni Riefenstahl ..rushed into ..office of Major General Langhauser ..chief intelligence officer. She had seen 22 Jews shot and could not continue work.” Gerald Reitlinger.

It is also essential to acknowledge that these lines included the usage of Langhauser’s own intelligence command for both Wehrmacht and Waffen ss, as they would become engaged in the Slaughter of 1,250,000 Jews alongside der Einsatzgruppe. Though manstein allows for von Clausewitz to pointedly link political demands with military direction, manstein here is abrogating his own personal responsibility. Whether that responsibility is concerned with the  excesses and murders of prisoner’s of war or were Crimes Against Humanity, manstein would have been a witness to much he was informed of and as such becomes complicit in the atrocity itself.

“..They know perfectly well. They are apathetic. I’m not sensitive myself ..but such things turn my stomach.” Lieutenant General heinrich kittel.

f. w. von mellenthin – Panzer  Battles. (1955)

“..This book is ..my experiences during ..Second World War. As an officer of ..German General Staff I took part in some of ..greatest campaigns in Africa ..Russia ..West ..and came into close contact with many of Germany’s outstanding soldiers.” friedrich wilhelm von mellenthin.

I am forced to ask my self the searching questions so omitted by these German military who would have objections to the use of waffen ss in their . So would any of these outstanding soldiers include those of the waffen ss, or even der Einsatzgruppe who themselves stood at the gates of the Russian capitol, Moscow. Along with the glut of atrocity, supposedly only attached to elements of these ss forces, all mobilisations extended their killing range beyond the premeditated slaughter of the Jews, which Hitler had openly called for. While many German general’s and field marshal’s were discussing amongst themselves, and in derisory terms, the lack of soldierly qualities in evidence for these ss detachments, they were keen to use their fanatical approach to render the opposing force a deadly blow.

“….drive on Moscow ..favoured by Guderian ..and temporarily abandoned in August in favour of ..conquest of Ukraine ..might have yielded decisive results if it had been ruthlessly pursued as ..dominating ‘Schwerpunkt’ of ..invasion.”  Major General frederick wilhelm von mellenthin.

Of course! History is not above bias and even discrimination when it comes to which side of the divide in War, or the wholesale Slaughter of 6,000,000 Jews you choose to come down on. Perhaps we are closer to witnessing what Hitler had always strained his eyes to envisage, the destruction of the largest Jewish populations still in existence. Here, and in the Ukraine, such a centre existed in Kiev, and the military thrust which military spokespeople speak of was of a southerly thrust, one that would be swift to encase the Jews of Kiev in their further destruction. We see it too with the 6th. ss Army thrown into Hungary, even as the death knell of Hitler’s Reich was ringing, and as 750,000 Hungarian Jews awaited their fate.

“..When we were in ..Kiev district ..my CO of signals ..came back quite horrified. ..an engineer Battalion commander ..and this engineer Battalion had ..task of blowing up site ..in which were those 32,000 Jews including women and children.” Lieutenant General otto elfeldt.

adolf hitler – The Secret Book. (1961)

“..In August ..1925 ..I formulated ..fundamental ideas of a National Socialist foreign policy.” adolf hitler.

The fundamental ideas Hitler forged were both nationalistic and aggressive, with no social value to anyone other than to whom Hitler connived with. The very remonstrations with his ideas for a Weltanschauung, Hitler’s world view would not only see the bridging of the divide between Germany and Braunau, on the River Inn, but would sink the World into the most devastating and ruinous War of attrition imaginable. For this, the ss would service these demands whilst ordinary soldiers would be preached to upon the excellence of tactical awareness. With the mobilised military of Germany, the manoeuvrability of that awareness was honed into a lightening swift and winning formula.

“..Of course ..Hitler knew all about it. He’s ..man who is responsible. He even discussed it with Himmler.” Major General paul von felbert.

However, once the dust had finally settled, the dead still needed to be counted and it is essential in acknowledging Hitler’s responsibility in all of this. Firstly, Hitler’s plan was for an expansionist policy and alongside this, the intake of Jews from all of Europe signalled the last coming of The Final Solution of The Jewish Question. When that resulted in the Slaughter of 6,000,000 innocent Jews of Europe, in a blood letting unparalleled in all of history, we recognise the unprecedented world view which became the serving aim of the mass murder of as many Jews as could be managed. Here, from the need to balance out those previous books by Germany’s military commanders I have just written of, I will introduce a balance which does not shy away from the whole truth but encloses it.

“..Auschwitz was ..turning point in my life ..end of my youth ..my illusions. I hadn’t done anything special to deserve such a history lesson. I regret to say that I was one of ..innocente.” Eva Tichauer.

For these works, written by those whose connection to Hitler, and by those very experts who had availed Hitler of the territorial demands he had sought, all was clearly so as to wield a destruction upon the Jewish People. For Hitler, he so definitely recognised a World’s indifference to the Jewish People and this would not prevent him from acting with impunity against them. Today, some of those books I had once held as essential, in realising my understanding of what the sway of conflict can bring to the opposing position, have been superseded. Here, I have set out a number of unambiguous works on The Holocaust, books which scream out from their inner core to articulate my very own wish to accuse.

“..pure myth ..Jews ..merely passive. ..Jews fought back ..to a degree no other community anywhere ..would have been capable of. ..they fought against hunger ..starvation ..disease ..a deadly Nazi economic blockade. They fought against murderers and ..traitors within their own ranks ..and ..were utterly alone in their fight. ..forsaken by God and ..man ..surrounded by hatred or indifference. ..there was much heroism ..little beauty ..much toil ..suffering ..no glamour. We fought back on every front ..biological ..economic ..propaganda ..cultural ..with every weapon ..possessed. In ..end ..ruse ..deception ..cunning beyond anything ..world had ever ..seen ..accomplished what hunger ..disease ..terror ..treachery ..could not. What defeated us ..Jewry’s unconquerable optimism ..eternal faith in ..goodness of man ..even a German ..a Nazi ..could never have ..renounced ..own humanity as to murder women ..’children’ coldly ..systematically. ..when we finally took up arms ..we inscribed in ..book of history epic of ..Ghetto Uprising.”    Michal Berg.

I cannot possibly know the fuller intention of these fine writers and their usage of words, and so what I intend is to use them as my own resource so as to secure further memory for those we seek to remember. From amongst all of these writer’s, who have written an almost default position that recognises why The Holocaust was allowed to destroy 6,000,000 Jews without reproach, we recognise perhaps a loss of innocence. There has been a capitulation of civilisation and a very dark descent from the culture we had been cultivating for 1,000’s of years to enable Hitler to infest all too many with the desire to eradicate the Jewish People. Here is where I lend my borrowed words, so as to add to theirs, in a unity of purpose for a violated Jewish People and building upon the essential to remember why we write.

September 12th. 1941. “..ruthless and energetic action ..first of all against ..Jews as well ..as ..main bearers of Bolshevism.” Field Marshal wilhelm keitel.

Leon Poliakov – Harvest of Hate (1951)

 “..This book is devoted to ..most tragic page in Jewish history ..extermination in cold blood of 6,000,000 Jewish Men ..Women ..Children ..with ..result that in a few short years ..total number of ..European Jews was reduced by two thirds. Such blood letting is without precedent in European history ..nazi enterprise was unique in its very principle.” Leon Poliakov.

If ever a title was ripe for picking, 6,000,000 Jews would concede that they have been harvested by the most grievous hatred ever invented. As such, Leon Poliakov has chosen his words so very well and articulated a concern which remonstrates with history. The extermination process which delivered the Jews of Europe up for extinction, is the most aggressive and virulent hatred to have ever lasted. Such a hatred has been in existence ever since other’s considered the worth of the Jews, exploitable and to be exploited. This the World has done and continuously for 5,000 years, the Jews have been marginalised, confined and exhumed from all existence. Make no mistake, the precedent has been set, the bar of extreme atrocity has been raised and the Jewish People have been recorded as a genocide among nations.

“..My Father took me on a streetcar. This memory is etched in my mind because it is ..last time I ever saw my father. We rode to ..end of ..line. I remember getting off with him. I remember walking what appeared to me to be a long distance. He knocked on a door and a woman answered. I went inside. That was ..last time I ever saw my father.” Jeannine Burk.

Philip Friedman – Their Brothers’ Keeper. (1957)

 “..vast area of Europe seized ..held by ..nazis and their accomplices ..contained approximately 7,300,000 Jews. It is estimated that 6,000,000 perished by nazi lethal devices ..disease ..starvation. Considering ..Hitler mobilized all of Germany’s resources for ..avowed purpose of annihilating ..Jews ..he found willing helpers and collaborators among ..native population in almost all nazi occupied countries ..a miracle more than 2,000,000 remained alive.” Philip Friedman.

Leading on from where Poliakov has shared with us, and how humanity has divested itself of two thirds of European Jewry, there needs to be a reassessment we would conclude that Wannsee had prepared for. With the aimed for annihilation of 11,293,300 Jewish People, such an atrocity would recognise the loss of more than 7,500,000 Jewish People from the Continent of Europe. That being said, the moral issue of who is thy Brother must be extended to all People’s, whatever their belief system, ethnical origin or antecedence. Here too is where I differ with Friedman’s contention, and for me, it is a miracle that any single Jew managed to escape the rancid hatred Hitler imbued a sovereignty of nations with.

“..I heard one woman talk about ..thoughtless Jews and how they had started an uprising in what was left of ..Ghetto. They were complaining that they could not keep ..windows open on a beautiful April day ..because ..Jews were burning.” Janina Dawidowicz.

Arthur D. Morse – While 6,000,000 Died (1967)

“..nazi destruction of 6,000,000 Jews ..as chronicled to date ..is essentially a history of ..killers and ..killed. ..rest of ..world ..with ..notable exception of pope pius XII ..has been unscarred by accusation as a mountain of literature rises above ..nameless graves of ..6,000,000. It is as if there were no other world ..as if two circling antagonists ..one armed ..other unarmed ..inhabited an otherwise vacant planet.” Arthur D. Morse.

We know all too well we are looking back upon the siege of nations so as to purge each individual state of its Jewish content. Human beings who professed either the Jewish Faith, or Jewish Parentage were a target for hatred so as to define some as better than anyone else. One cannot exclude the other and so, not only did a vacant World not exist, a vacant Continent was open to the fact that 11,293,300 Jews were under immediate threat. Not only was each Country of that European Continent contaminated by a plague of hatred, it’s despicable nature was visible on every street corner. Within City’s, Towns, Villages and Shtetl’s, where Jewish existence sought to persist, all these places of solace or shelter for the Jews added to a collaborative effort in ensuring the 6,000,000 fact of that Jewish Slaughter.

“..Pesach has come to the Ghetto again.

The wine has no grape, the matzah no grain.

But the people anew sing the wonders of old,

The flight from the Pharaohs, so often retold.

How ancient the story, how old the refrain.” Binem Heler.

David S. Wyman – The Abandonment of the Jews. (1984)

“..Between June 1941 and May 1945 ..5,000,000 to 6,000,000 Jews perished at ..hands of ..nazis and their collaborators. Germany’s control over most of Europe meant that even a determined Allied rescue campaign probably could not have saved as many as a third of those who died.” David S. Wyman.

What we are admitting to, in the course of such a title that loudly confronts our human compassion, is a fact that the defined nature of such abandonment of the Jews of Europe is endorsed by the knowledge of its factual existence. The possibility, even probability that with any concerted effort to intervene in the Slaughter, this would have, could  have or even might have saved a further 500,000 Hungarian Jewish People, at least. There are those who will insist that we could have done nothing to save any of these 6,000,000 Jews from what Hitler demanded for them. But from which stand point within humanity does it state we must not try, we must not make an effort and we must remain guilty of shying away from our moral duty to do something.

“..She was a very ..very special lady. ..Mother felt so terrible for all ..people who had lost their children. They lost their babies ..and she brought one back. And at ..same time she didn’t want me to have ..memories she had. So she didn’t talk about it.” Vera Polgar.

Yehuda Bauer – Jews for Sale. (1994)

“..Jews attempted to save Jews from ..nazis through negotiations ..and for varying motives a few nazis entered into such discussions. Most ..attempts failed ..some succeeded to a limited degree. ..considering them ..of importance ..because they raise a host of ..historical ..philosophical ..and moral issues.” Yehuda Bauer.

I have been in communication with Professor Bauer, to seek advice and offer up what my words are aimed at. Often I have wondered, how difficult it must have been to even write this as a title to a Book while knowing it as a fact. Indeed, Jews were for Sale, and this is the case for many Jews who were openly betrayed by those who took all or any monetary gain. For many, to then ensure a ransomed Jew would still fulfil Hitler’s resolve for The Final Solution, betrayal was an endorsement of all aims against the Jewish People. With the obvious demise of morality and ethical probity, this has all led to a decimation within humanity which cannot be repealed. The continuation of such a fraud as could be engaged against the Jewish People, morality was disengaged. For to have bargained with the devil, one must pay the devil’s asking price and that has also been seen in the loss of so much humanity. In every negotiation too, those with the upper hand deal the cards before us and for the Jewish People, seared from a life they had been carefully nourishing, that deck of cards was loaded against them. For the Jews of Europe of course, for sale by deed, private treaty and with the haul of military paraphernalia engulfing them. We are now in need of exhuming from memory what could be left of these chosen for annihilation from amongst the 11,293,300 Jews of Wannsee. From the very ashes of the 6,000,000 Jews already consumed, this must warrant every means at our disposal to Remember them.

“..Anything was better than being in Auschwitz ..you never knew if you were going to live through ..day. At first ..when ..ss women asked us who wasn’t feeling well ..we foolishly thought they wanted to take care of ..sick. It didn’t take long for us to realize that those who went with ..ss women never came back.” Irene Safran.

Samuel D. Kassow – Who Will Write Our History. (2007)

“..Ringelblum’s greatest fear was that no one would survive to tell ..story and ..world would never know about ..archive.” Samuel D. Kassow.

I have long delved into this repository of Ringelblum’s intention for the words of those Jews within Warsaw, who would face destruction, sooner or later. Kassow’s title is quite telling as ever since Rachel Auerbach and other’s dug up what remained of the treasure trove of evidential testimony, we have scoured their pages. For what we know is missing from the very vibrancy of a Jewish People we write the history of, pages flow and words mount that recall their presence. The shameful fact remains though that no Jew should have been forced to catalogue what was approaching them, what consumed them or what we must choose to recall in their name. Theirs is a memory so being dismissed from us, we who take up the challenge write further on their behalf.

“..Those exiled from ..West believed ..they were taken to labour camps. In 1943 ..Polish Jews knew already that Sobibor is a death camp ..and refused to get off ..trains when arrived there.  ..ss forced them off with whips and lashes and shootings randomly.” Ilana Safran.

Ladislaus Lob – Dealing with Satan (2008)

 “..camp I ad left ..Belsen ..stunned but alive and safe. I was not alone ..but 1 of 1,670 Jewish Men ..Women ..Children from Hungary who had been released from Belsen thanks to a unique deal between another Hungarian Jew ..Rezso Kasztner ..and adolf eichmann ..chief architect of The Holocaust. In fact Kasztner saved many more.” Ladislaus Lob.

It is impossible to ever imagine the deal being dealt to the Jewish People, at a time when we can safely say more than 5,000,000 of them had been Murdered. With the tide of War running away from Hitler’s grasp, the momentum of the response to the Jewish Question was escalated further for the Jews of Hungary. Here though, a man intervened and it should not matter  that Rezso Kasztner was a Jew heading for the exact same extermination centre at Birkenau. What separated Kasztner from oblivion here, is an enormous miracle taking place in which, from the gaping jaws of Hitler’s hatred, 1,670 more Jews of Hungary Survived.

“..We need to understand what happened. To see ..underlying causes of hatred and to learn from them. My hope and prayer is that telling our stories will strengthen you ..young people ..to challenge prejudice wherever it raises its ugly head. And in doing so ..help ensure that hatred and what it brings will be reduced and one day eliminated.” Freda Wineman.

Alan Confino – A World Without Jews. (2014)

“..Scenes of biblical fury combining audacity and transgression took place all across Germany.” Alan Confino.

The unimaginable was upon us as Hitler poured every human physical resource that he could into securing for himself, the removal of all the Jewish People from existence. Where the major transgression did indeed commence in Germany it was more strategically adopted and played across the entire European Continent. Though the entire devastation was more acutely delivered in its industrially managed and mechanised format within Poland, wherever the Jewish People were, Jewish People fell. Here though and in Poland alone, from amongst an assessment made of there being 3,650,000 Polish Jews, there was a closeness to totality that was almost arrived at.

“..One day ..2 lorries came to ..Children’s hospital. ..told all ..children to go to ..lorries. ..Children didn’t want to go ..hiding ..behind us. I didn’t know what they’re going to do with ..Children and I can’t go with them ..Mother is at home. ..Children left ..and. ..They finished them in ..lorries ..gassed them.” Barbara Stimler.

3,000,000 of these Polish Jews added to the catalogue of this biblical fury, and fewer than 10% of Polish Jewry was allowed to Survive. With such a ringing endorsement of Hitler’s demands, for many of Polish Jewry who finally managed to survive, they could not then escape the further fury of their former Polish neighbours. All too often the position for the Jews within Poland is all too easily articulated as Polish Jewish Survivor’s are reminded. Polish Jews, amongst other Jews from other nations were never expected to return so why should Poles and other’s give up what they have taken. Restitution and even recompense is a sorry story of theft from the Jews, but then, so is the theft itself from Jews still not expected to reclaim.

“..Hitler promised to get rid of all of ..Jews ..and here they come home.” Lea Evron.

So let us leave the written word of those writer’s aside for a moment and visit back to where I had stumbled across the Jewish Christian Association in Birmingham. I had been corresponding with Lily Gompertz, without ever realising my future route was back to the Jewish trauma and a catastrophe beyond comparison. I had not been giving much thought to anything to do with differences between Jews and the remainder of society as I simply communicated with a fellow human being. Lily was a very warm, sincere and endearing human being and it mattered not one iota that Lily was a Jew. Lily in effect was a fellow human being who simply went to a different church, even if it was a Synagogue.

“..I had always liked to play make believe ..but somehow they made me understand that this game was real. I never gave away my secret.” Judy Abrams.

I was keen though to somehow find my way into a space where I could be seen as a cooperative hope for the narrative history of The Holocaust. Mine was a reflective of Always to Remember, Never to Forget that I was continually formulating. At the same time, I did not have any wish to see my work imposed upon a Jewish People all too well aware of the sense of grief, loss, fear, terror and abandonment they had already were forced to deal with. I had long started my research and now, I started tentatively to ask those who knew what it was I wished to learn from, and these were questions which the Survivor alone could provide. 

“..Mother refused to believe that Father wasn’t coming home. For months ..she would go every day to ..Lutetia Hotel ..headquarters for survivors was set up in order to inquire about his fate. Only many months later she was forced to accept ..fact that she would probably never see him again.” Madeleine Testyler.

But, and no matter how much I tried, I could not escape the sheer weight of the horror to be imposed upon those I made contact with. That which the Survivor must be asked to relive must be the accusation that is to be continuously aimed at those who are guilty, not blameless, the perpetrator, participator and the complicit. I recognised that any image, which every word could so confront with a memory of their past, and for these Jews who survived, it was to be a torment re-enacted. How then could I not confront their past without its shocking detail and at the same time sense their pain and know their loss. 

“..It all seemed ..normal to me ..I had little else to compare it to. I could remember nothing of our life in Germany ..so  I did not miss ..material things we had enjoyed there. Besides ..no one else in Westerbork had much of value either.” Marion Blumenthal Lazan.

I felt I had been used to writing to Survivor’s and often times, when I was asked if I had seen their video evidence that had been posted on youtube, I found another avenue of exploration. I knew well of the Fortunoff data base of such evidence’s and looked to see what this other platform might offer. While I could evidence the testimony, the medium also attracted the scurrilous race haters we have come to know. There became such a tirade of relentless denial, I came to the conclusion it served the memory of The Holocaust in no way, and was upsetting to the Survivor’s in all too many ways.

“..I looked around at where I was. It was foul. I was meant to sleep here until I was executed ..next morning. I asked if I could have something to scrub ..floor. ..guard looked uncomfortable. He said that I would probably be shot tomorrow ..and that I shouldn’t worry about cleaning ..cell. ..Tomorrow is tomorrow. Today I am alive and I am not going to live like a pig.” Sabina Haberman.

I am nothing if not resilient and I do not quit, but there was no support from those who owned the platform. The intense level of the abuse of the Survivor’s truth, was to be sustained by the hatred being focused upon those willing to afford us their testimony, this was truly shocking. I grew tired of pointing back to the truth, only for it to be so cynically dismissed, as if the facts can be so easily denied. But I hope I left my mark amongst the many Survivor’s I added my comments to their Testimony. As I was keen for those Survivor’s to know, there were more like me who are troubled and responding to what was allowed to happen to them.

“..I told him to go with my Mother because Mothers are ..people who take care of sick children. I didn’t know that with my advice I killed my Brother because all ..Mothers and all ..children were taken to ..gas chamber right away.” Elizabeth Mann.

I have always made it a point, when I meet with Survivors, to apologise to them on behalf of what an ostensibly ‘christian’ body of people has done. For the whole of Humanity that Sin of Perpetration, Intolerance or Indifference is a stain upon our own legitimacy as human beings. So just in case I do not get the opportunity to greet you in person, I apologise to You for the inability of those 6,000,000 Murdered Jews of The Holocaust who cannot direct their appreciation and respect for what you have done and what you have achieved. In each of you the World entire has been saved.

“..Dear Patrick. I am 91 years old ..a faded old beauty ..born in Jaworzno ..Poland. I came from a family of 8. My father and Mother Ichak and Rosalia Mehlman. Kind law abiding people along with my three sisters Eva 29 ..Regina 28 ..Salusia 12 years old ..my nephew Willy 6 ..my niece Frieda 6 months old ..that I never saw. ..In 1942 was slaving ..starving ..infested with lice ..eaten by bedbugs in a Concentration Camp in Czechoslovakia ..for 3 years until ..blessed day when we 350 very lucky young innocent girls ..were liberated by ..raggedy tired but victorious Red Army. ..God bless all liberators of this time in history.” Natalie Mehlman-Scharf.

Initially then, with the case of the on line encyclopaedia wiki, and this is a worrying one for me, and especially as I began the process of editing the errors I found in their pages. What was alarming was the editing away of those edits I had carefully placed before them, exemplifying with the truth, the very fact of the integrity I have always sought. I set before you examples where I would seek to question why the below Authors are Not recognised as Jews and are somewhat led through hoops to suggest other than that initial fact. There is a circuitous route to forming the fact that if these Author’s were born into Jewish Families, they are clearly Jews themselves.

[wiki – Yitzhak Arad (Hebrew: ???? ????) (né Icchak Rudnicki) (born November 11, 1926), is an Israeli historian, author, retired IDF brigadier general and a former Soviet partisan, director of Yad Vashem from 1972 to 1993. He specialised in the history of the Holocaust.]

“..Jews were compelled to establish relations with an alien ..hostile government that regarded them as subhuman ..fit only for exploitation and extermination. ..human values in which they believed and on which they had built their lives tottered and collapsed. In this cruel reality ..Vilna Jewry struggled to survive and seek rescue. ..daily struggle was for life itself ..survive in ..face of hunger ..disease. Jewish Vilna embodied ..majority of hardships ..torment ..European Jewry ..underwent during The Holocaust ..its responses sum up most of ..options ..available to ..Jews during this tragic epoch. Vilna Jewry was a microcosm of ..fate of all Jewish communities in Eastern Europe.”  Yitzhak Arad.

[wiki – Yehuda Bauer (Hebrew: ????? ??????; born April 6, 1926) is an Israeli historian and scholar of the Holocaust. He is a professor of Holocaust Studies at the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.]

“..People seldom learn from history. Can we be an exception.”    Yehuda Bauer.

[wiki – Paul Celan (/’s?læn/; German: [‘tse?la?n]; 23 November 1920 – c. 20 April 1970) was a Romanian-born German-language poet and translator. He was born as Paul Antschel to a Jewish family in Cernau?i (German: Czernowitz), in the then Kingdom of Romania (now Chernivtsi, Ukraine), and adopted the pseudonym “Paul Celan”. He became one of the major German-language poets of the post–World War II era.]

“..Only one thing remained reachable ..close and secure amid all losses ..language. ..In spite of everything ..it remained secure against loss. ..it had to go through ..own lack of answers ..through terrifying silence ..through ..thousand darkness’s of murderous speech. It went through. It gave me no words for what was happening ..but went through it. Went through and could resurface ..’enriched’ by it all.” Paul Celan.

[wiki – Kitty Hart-Moxon, OBE (born 1 December 1926) is a Polish-English Holocaust survivor. She was sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in 1943 at age 16, where she survived for two years, and was also imprisoned at other camps. Shortly after her liberation in April 1945 by American soldiers, she moved to England with her mother, where she married and dedicated her life to raising awareness of the Holocaust. She has written two autobiographies entitled I am Alive (1961) and Return to Auschwitz (1981).]

“..how can I help not looking back to remember.” Kitty Hart.

[wiki – Esther “Etty” Hillesum (15 January 1914 – 30 November 1943) was the Dutch author of confessional letters and diaries which describe both her religious awakening and the persecutions of Jewish people in Amsterdam during the German occupation. In 1943 she was deported and killed in Auschwitz concentration camp.]

“..If there were only one decent German ..then he should be cherished despite that whole barbaric gang ..and because of that one decent German it is wrong to pour hatred over an entire people.” Etty Hillesum.

Esther Hillesum was born on January 15th. 1914, a Jew and into a Jewish Family and surely the fact that she was Murdered in Auschwitz, on November 30th. 1943, having been deported to Auschwitz and who was detained before she was sent to Auschwitz was because she was a Jew. We are allowing for this site to extinguish much that identifies the quality of the person we seek to learn from, and because they are Jewish. To be so disingenuous with the very fact of what sought Etty Hillesum out for selection to die, is to diminish her Jewishness and Etty Hillesum herself. Far too often I have been forced to retreat from my position, and even that space I have chosen to occupy in what has been a concerted effort to both censor what I have to say and to conceal what is the truth.

“..What I put down on paper ..must be perfect straight away.” Etty Hillesum.

That there is a bias against the Jews of The Holocaust, that is being orchestrated is apparent, as the word Jew appears to be removed from the evidence of the Jews being and belonging to the Jewish tradition. Also, to conceal from other’s what not only happened to these 6,000,000 Jews but was allowed to happen to them, I am somewhat aggrieved that this truth is subordinated further. The facts speak for themselves and cannot and will not be hidden from where it belongs in the History that must matter to all. Without history we have no truth and today extends the lie of yesterday if it has not been delivered with all facts carefully woven into it. 

[wiki – Dr. Samuel D. Kassow (born 1946) is an American historian of the history of Ashkenazi Jewry.]

“..At ..very end of his life Lichtenstein reaffirmed his belief in ..future of ..Jewish People. ..he reminded posterity that Jews were not just victims ..they were People ..part of a living ..resilient nation.” Samuel D. Kassow.

For that reason, it is more essential for me that I have written the 4 Books already in circulation, as they are a triumph over those who would seek to deny any effort to recall and remember these 6,000,000 Jews. Lamentably too, and how ill considered it is that Dr. Kassow is not recognised as a Jew fighting to ensure the Jewish heritage he is keen to preserve for us. Perhaps I missing some point or other, but surely if we are not to recognise the writer as a Jewish Author, it is questionable as to why that should be so.

[wiki – Anita Lasker-Wallfisch was born into a German Jewish family in Breslau, then Germany (present-day Wroclaw, Poland), one of three sisters (Marianne and Renate). Her father Alfons, brother of noted chess master Edward Lasker, was a lawyer; her mother a violinist. They suffered discrimination from 1933 but as their father had fought at the front in World War I, gaining an Iron Cross, the family felt some degree of immunity from Nazi persecution.]

“..No other genocide is as comprehensively documented as The Holocaust. There are hours of interviews with survivors ..countless reports that you can read ..should you wish to.  And yet there are still ..deniers ..people who claim that all ..accounts are fabricated and that The Holocaust never happened.” Anita Lasker-Wallfisch.

[wiki – Hetty Esther Verolme (born 24 February 1930 in Antwerp, Belgium) is an Australian writer, educator and Holocaust survivor. She now lives in Australia. Verolme has written about her experiences as a child in Bergen-Belsen. She is a recipient of the Australian “Most Successful Migrant” award.]

“..during ..German occupation of Holland ..Germans decided to concentrate ..Jewish population in Amsterdam East. I was 11 years old. ..We saw families dragged from their homes ..never to be heard of again. ..God only knew what was happening to them.”  Hetty Verolme.

[wiki – Elie Wiesel (/’?li ?vi?’z?l/, born Eliezer Wiesel Hebrew: Éli?ezer Vizel; September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.]

“..Open your eyes ..visitor ..and gather your inner strength ..what you will see here may put your mental sanity and moral quest in peril. You will see here all that cannot be seen anywhere else ..infinite ability of tormentors and also their victims’ endless agony.” Elie Wiesel.

It is not simply that there are some who fully seek to diminish and dismiss these 6,000,000 Jews, who were ritually Slaughtered by a Hitlerite bigotry all too many were willing to conform to. From our own history we cannot continue to allow the hatred to fester so that will not happen while I enter the words as truthful as they are honestly factual. For those who wish to redeem either Hitler or his entourage from the midst of this atrocity, I give them no room to manoeuvre out of an accusation that owns them all. It is equally important to me that all who have read, owned and have discovered the content of my Books, know their value to me and for the 6,000,000 Slaughtered Jews, who are The Holocaust they represent.

“..Hunger prevailed in ..Ghetto and there were many smugglers who risked their lives and smuggled some food. They were murderously bitten while caught and also executed to death. In spite of this ..smuggling food continued. I remember ..it was close to ..deportation ..10 food smugglers were caught who brought in to ..Ghetto food from Lodz. All of them were sentenced to be executed by hanging.” Henia Milsztajn.

These works, my works and all of their words are enshrined in pages embossed with testimony and none of these pages can be altered and they will not be changed. Though there well might be a contestation within their combined pages, their content is an open debate on how I chose to serve the memory of those 6,000,000 Jews. Where a World would simply forget if not prompted to recall, remember and remind itself of such a grave wrong done, we provoke a reminder for no one ever to forget. There can be no fault with the factual truth, even while we know that we will never completely come to terms with the true extent of The Holocaust loss to Jewish existence.

“..Of ..transport from Hrubieszow ..8,000 souls ..3 Women remained in Sobibor. ..only thing left of all ..rest are heaps of clothes and shoes. Of those 3 ..I am ..only one to have survived.” Ada Lichtman.

Here then, and for the uninitiated in all that I have sought to achieve are those 4 Books I have offered to the memory of these 6,000,000 Slaughtered Jews. Make no mistake, my words, the effort to keep focused on this gravest wrong ensures we are Always to Remember, Never to Forget. That we as human beings have neglected wholly our duty to these 6,000,000 Jews, first taken from all they had ever known and for them to be and feel abandoned by a World’s unconcern, is an assault upon what defines us. The Jewish People, Men, Women and Their Children were so wilfully removed to the margins of history by an increasing few, 6,000,000 of them were Slaughtered. The brake must be placed upon any effort which seeks to diminish further the importance such remembrance must play in all of our history enjoined.

“..Life changed immediately really ..because ..orders came from ..Jewish community ..you must give up this ..that and ..other. And so one slowly had to give up one’s comforts.” Lily Fischl.

For my own books, and I leave them to those who choose to read from them, for they will know I have chosen to remember the Jewish People. In that, I see the Slaughter of the Jews as an unmitigated failure of the Western powers to save them. As the Jews were abandoned on a graduating scale, the need for justice ran in an opposing gradient. This growing awareness of what was approaching the Jews, and by a World appraised of the Slaughter by so many, we know that more should have been done than has been adequately risked so as to indict, judge and even condemn more than have been. The stench of hypocrisy and its accusation is palpable.

“..I have to die ..but I did my thing. I would like ..memory of my paintings to survive.” Gela Seksztajn-Lichtensztein.

Patrick Dempsey – Testimony and Fading Memory in The Holocaust. (2002)

“..This Book is not just about The Holocaust and ..destruction of ..Jewish People ..though perceptibly it is very much an account of it. This Book is ..very detail of The Holocaust ..in extraction.” Patrick Dempsey. 

Patrick Dempsey – der Einsatzgruppe and The Destruction of European Jewry. (2003)

“..To hurt a fellow human being ..to have ..capacity to inflict pain upon another person is a terrible indictment which we have inflicted upon mankind. To threaten to inflict pain on another person ..and then to carry it out to its most horrendous ..murderous and destructive conclusion ..is an even more vicious and pernicious evil.” Patrick Dempsey.

Patrick Dempsey – Babi Yar A Jewish Catastrophe. (2005)

“..I want my work to have validity ..and I do not simply want to communicate ..condemnation ..of all that was done against ..Jewish People ..but I roundly condemn all those who perpetrated these crimes ..without us learning from ..process.” Patrick Dempsey.

Patrick Dempsey – Hitler’s Belzec. (2016 )

“..Belzec was born out of Kozielsk Hill and Hitler’s desperation to rid Europe of its Jews. This place was to be Hitler’s Endlosung. ..locals referred to ..formative Death Camp established formerly as a Labour Camp situated just outside ..Village of Belzec as ..Camp on ..Hill or Kozielsk Camp.” Patrick Dempsey.

My work is an unfinished quest and it is hoped, that given an appetite for further reading, future publications of my works will appear. Of course, while what I contend is essential in Remembering that the selective processes recorded mostly Jews, we know other’s too were killed and were murdered. While these works, and their words prove unacceptable to any of those who see Hitler as other than the mass murderer he is, they will provide further, a response against all manner of hatreds. Our uncertainty over who the 6,000,000 Jews of The Holocaust are remains a concern for all of us and being exact in knowing all who are lost to us, and to history must continue till we can know no more.

“..What we were unable to shout out to ..world ..we hid underground. May this treasure end up in good hands ..may it live to see better times. May it alert ..world.” Dawid Graber.

But, and not only is it that 6,000,000 Jews were Murdered, but why they were Slaughtered and how the World stood aside to allow this to happen. Again, all of this comes down to the truth of perception and how we perceive in that intrinsic truth, nothing but its factual integrity. Perhaps we can agree also, that while not all Nations did little or nothing, it is abundantly clear that all States could have amplified their opposition to Hitler and his Final Solution and could even have done more than merely watch as 6,000,000 Jews of Europe were removed from existence. We owe these 6,000,000 Human Beings, Slaughtered as Jews for being Jews, nothing less.

“..very existence of this archive ..is a testimony. Few texts live a life as intense as these ..written by ..deaths of 1,000’s.”  Hersz Wasser.



Otto Frank

Uncategorised Posted on Mon, March 01, 2021 15:07:52

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

This solitary picture of Otto Frank says everything any People ever needs to know about the devastation of The Holocaust and even, perhaps, its Survival from it. For Otto, seen here in the empty space of that not so Secret Annexe, he ponders the darkest depths of human imaginings. Does he reflect upon his own luck, what we first perceive as his good fortune, or do we sense the misery to come of an experience he had lived and no human being should have been forced to endure. Or is Otto stood here simply so as to wonder if His Wife and his 2 Children would have been as fortunate as it seemed to him he had been at the time that, or it appeared he had been.

“..We cannot change what happened anymore. ..only thing we can do is to learn from ..past and to realize what discrimination and persecution of innocent people means. I believe that it’s everyone’s responsibility to fight prejudice.” Otto Frank.

The longing and the hope of Otto and all too many other’s just like him, is etched in such an image of deep despair knowing full well that some people are not in the least good at heart. It would be a disaster of imaginings for Otto at such a moment to even consider other than that his Family too had lived to survive. Also, did any those other’s from the hiding place, did they survive and did any of those Otto had dearly wished to come back through those doors, did they suffer what he witnessed and survived as Jews for being Jews. Could Otto hold with the idea that what Anne had held the view of, and in his emerging from the catastrophe, was there a consideration that in human beings there was any goodness at all.

“..I have not enough faith in God. ..only thing to do is to pray that God will ..save some of them.” Anne Frank.

As it then inevitably dawned upon Otto that neither Edith Frank, Margot Frank, Anne Frank, Auguste van Pels, Hermann van Pels, Peter van Pels nor Fritz Pfeffer had survived, how deep a well is despair. Would or could any of them have had the ability to have survived the unimaginable horrors Otto himself had become exposed to. Here, reflecting back upon the sheer weight of the atrocity inflicted upon so many Jewish People, and it is certain Otto cannot yet know the fate of those he was searching for, nor could he even contemplate the loss to humanity that is measured in 6,000,000 Jewish lives lost.

“..I shall remember ..look in Margot’s eyes all my life.” Otto Frank.

But for Otto, as he traversed The Holocaust carnage of human descent, how could he ever conceive of the fact that was to be laid out before him as the realisation over took his every hope. It is patently clear too, that any human being, Otto included, is ill prepared for any coming to terms with what the World was to be made fully aware of. There would be nothing within him that could alter what had happened, nor all that had happened to him certainly and more specifically, and for all that was subsequently done to those he most loved in the World he was re-emerging into. For Otto Frank, the leap of faith he had possibly taken, in the hope that all who were nearest and dearest to him would return, was within a belief system that had hoped for at least some of the 7 other’s to return.

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

When Otto surely knew that not all could be so lucky, and his hope was pinned upon the stomach wrenching hope that all would emerge from the horrors, he was failed again. Then there was time to reflect on those images of Edith, nor Anne and even in considering those last moments with Margot, as he retraced those very steps backwards toward final memories, the richness of memory must have so amplified his grief to come. Of course, at this moment in time, as he gazed into the emptiness of what had seemed a vibrant space, and from another era and before they were betrayed, these thoughts were not as yet his final memories of any of them.

“..How ..thought always torments me ..I have no idea how Edith and ..Children are.” Otto Frank.

For Otto, and until all his nagging doubts or even suspicions were finally confirmed, surely he had some hope that his despair might be momentary. However, for the destructive capacity of The Final Solution of the Jewish Question that had all but consumed the bloodline of many Jewish Family’s of Europe, it too had taken all 7 other’s of those taken from the Annexe. As we know from history, that momentary grasp of hope fell into a deeper despair than mere mortals could ever imagine. How crushing then might that lapse of despair be for us, as remote witnesses upon the fringes of such huge excesses and exorbitant cruelty.

“..poor people are being shipped off to filthy slaughterhouses like a herd of sick and neglected cattle. But I’ll say no more on ..subject. My own thoughts give me nightmares!” Anne Frank.

Where we seek to but cannot begin to comprehend the far reaching atrocity for 6,000,000 Jewish People, let alone find any part of the catastrophe in any way acceptable, the Jews have to find something to comfort or console them. Yet what Anne learned from such as the BBC, this should have alerted other than Anne, and certainly all those within the confines of the Annexe, and the wider European continent that the public, having such knowledge did not qualify this as concern for the Jewish struggle. I tire so often with the repeated peel of those accusations I have levelled at the World which stood on the side-lines and watched as the trains transported the Jews of Europe to destruction.

“..We all had lots of stories of our sad experiences ..they mourned ..death of my wife with me ..but we were hopeful that ..Children would return.” Otto Frank.

As all of those trains arrived, and were dislodged within Poland at the gates to those 6 Death Camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka. These exterminating facilities, placed within Poland because of the enormous pool of Jewish existence that resided there, and in all of Europe, what the local non Jewish population clearly knew, had to have informed the rest of the World. It becomes essential to history that above all other considerations, the mass slaughter of 6,000,000 Jewish People, they were chosen simply for this primitive and ignorant hatred known as antisemitism.

“..we’re Jews in chains ..chained to one spot ..without ..rights ..with a 1,000 obligations. ..put our feelings aside ..be brave ..strong ..bear discomfort without complaint .. do whatever is in our power ..trust in God. One day this terrible war will be over. ..time will come when we’ll be people again and not just Jews!” Anne Frank.

That such a hatred which emanated and was conducted into the destruction of a People, who were chosen simply because they were Jews, warrants a show of contempt for its emergence, history will take into eternity. For Edith Frank’s presence here, and at any given moment in that time which had lapsed since she was taken away, death was a given, a written accord not detailed in signatures. For Margot and Anne too, we know that they too were dying, almost immediately before him, while he could not know this. That Otto would have to wait to find that all 3 member’s of his Family had finally succumbed to a moribund hatred that has attached itself to humanity for 4,000 years too long, is a heart wrenching fact.

“..There are no walls ..no bolts ..no locks that anyone can put on your mind.” Otto Frank.

In acknowledgement that humanity had exposed its civilising influence and had descended into an abyss of hatred, the culture of hatred from the few has searched for newer meanings to what is civilisation. The truth of course grows deeper and darker as we unravel those last months, weeks, days and even some of those last moments of Edith and Otto’s Children, Margot and Anne both. For we have gleaned from the past the intrinsic detail of the truth as it presented itself to Otto, and as far too much despair that he could not decline to bring with him into the future. This is civilisations crossroads and we know full well, from what Anne has sought to deliver, the fork in the road takes us further from where civilised life delivered us.

“..what I would so like to be ..what I could be ..if there weren’t any other people living in ..world.” Anne Frank.

In the innocent words of a Child, who should not have known what she was so apparently aware of, Anne’s are words to surpass us. It is no small detail for a Child like Anne to suspect that in places like Auschwitz where she would arrive, and in a space known to infamy as Birkenau, that such Slaughter Houses of a Human Cargo of Jews truly did exist. Anne’s nightmare was a reality for her and for 1,100,000 other Jews who would not awake from the reality of the grasp upon them in Birkenau. Here in Birkenau also, where both Margot and Anne were closest to the infringement upon their very existence, and by such a pernicious evil, an abomination confronted them.

“..I hope Anne’s book will have an effect on ..rest of your life so that insofar as it is possible in your own circumstances ..you will work for unity and peace.” Otto Frank.

Margot and Anne had indeed been taken away from any consideration, only seeing in them but a herd of sick and neglected cattle. Here too, and where Edith Frank perished and Hermann van Pels was gassed in the filthy slaughterhouse of human beings, all led by a degenerate brutality like no other, Belsen awaited both Margot and Anne. In the annals of all of The Holocaust, while the mentions are often made and directed toward the Jewish People as being less than human, it is to their murderer’s, these perpetrator’s of the foulest crimes ever imagined, it is for them that we must attach such a label.

“..If it’s that bad in Holland ..what must it be like in those faraway ..uncivilized places where ..Germans are sending them. We assume ..most ..are being murdered.” Anne Frank.

I have often reproached some people for calling these perpetrator’s animals, and yet, while I rein in my own angers and disgust, this is not as contentious a reproach as it might seem. For within the human race there has always been a small minority who will always seek their way to the bottom of inhuman behaviours. Here, in each and every Death Camp, Concentration Camp, Ghetto, Killing Site, City, Town, Village and Shtetl that was to reach into the body of Jewish existence in order to extinguish it, Jewish hope still emerged from the inhumanity of human beings toward them. In the midst of the very spirit of a People who had passed through an immolation process, they have been all too often burdened by the hatred seeking to totally consume them.

“..We all had lots of stories of our sad experiences ..they mourned ..death of my wife with me ..but we were hopeful that ..Children would return.” Otto Frank.

The immediate tragedy for the World, that was only to become a recognisable fact as World War II was written into the pages of history, became wider known than allied intention had evidenced. Here, it is with the failure of one man, in aiming for a single goal to erase all of Jewish persistence, that it remains for us to digest having to identify with that collaborative effort so abandoning of the Jewish People. Tragically though, for a World now ridden with tragedy and in terms of loss, this page in all of our histories is written in the names of 6,000,000 Slaughtered Jewish lives. As yet though, we have failed to fully name and identify all of these Jews, eviscerated from life in an accord all too many took so liberally to their hearts.

“..I have not enough faith in God. ..only thing to do is to pray that God will ..save some of them.” Anne Frank.

For me, and it is with deep sadness that we do know the names Edith Frank, Margot Frank, Anne Frank, Auguste van Pels, Herman van Pels, Peter van Pels and Fritz Pfeffer who now all belong to such a terrifying indictment The Holocaust is of human kind. That said, we recognise that other humans, acting with an exorbitant penchant in and for all manner of cruelty, acted in exacting that unparalleled vengeance against the human spirit we should recognise. Clearly, by acting without compassion, without morals and devoid of the ethical efficacy human beings must always demand of themselves, and from those around them, they have strayed beyond what we can imaginatively call humanity.

“..I hope Anne’s book will have an effect on ..rest of your life so that insofar as it is possible in your own circumstances ..you will work for unity and peace.” Otto Frank.

It is essential therefore Always to Remember, Never to Forget and I bolster this human demand with an acute understanding of the grave wrongs this World has done to those Jewish People! Those like Otto Frank, who had to stand again amongst those very same people who stood by him, or those who did not stand by him, not knowing all who stood against him, or the individual who even betrayed him. To then become aware that there are those amongst humanity who then Murdered his very love for a Wife and their Progeny. While reasoning the source of human conscience and attempt to recount to this, with the loss he would endure for ever, the missing credential of a conscience of so many is evident.

“..There is an urge and rage in people to destroy ..kill ..murder. ..until all mankind ..undergoes ..change ..will have to begin all over again.” Anne Frank.

It is clear that what originated in Germany, and was then conducted throughout all of Europe, and more particularly within Poland, is a confrontation with all of humanity. That such an assault as has never been witnessed before, and in all of history, both civilised and not, this should alert and warn us of the confusion of hatreds that are resident within national socialism. The strength of any Nation belongs to the body of the People it is made up of and that includes at the very least, all of its People! Where this then equates to the values of what Socialism recognises, it is an equanimity which belongs to All and not just to the few.

“..I think it is not only important that people go to ..Anne Frank House to see ..secret annex ..but also that they are helped to realise that people are also persecuted today because of their race ..religion or political convictions.” Otto Frank.

Wherever the Jewish People choose to reside, they are no less a component part of any and all communities they remain equal within. Given their right to humanity’s civilising essential, we are all for each other and each of us must uphold all the rights of the other. We must always recognise what nazism proposed for the Jewish People did Not stop with the killing of the Jewish People only. It did not cease with killing Jews as it tortured, abused, mistreated and assailed Jews as it recognised in every Jew, a victim. What is also so essential in what we must come to recognise is that while not all victims were Jews, All Jews Were Victims. Here too we must recognise that in each and every nation within Europe, while not all non-Jews betrayed their Jewish Neighbours, not all non-Jews assisted or reached out to save them.

“..I get frightened when I think of close friends who have now been delivered into ..hands of ..cruellest brutes that walk ..earth. ..all because they are Jews.” Anne Frank.

The removal of every facet of opposition within Europe was to embellish an elitism that served a corrupted model of what corrupts all of human nature, avarice and the greed of hatred. This suggests the question as to when, those like Poland, will come to terms with what some of its own people achieved against their own Jewish People. In line with the overall genocidal resolve, that forgets that 6 million of its own citizens were torn from Polish society, how can there be those within Poland seen to elect nazism as other than a reviled and failed strategy of hate and greed. For us as human beings from such a simple message, that was written into a single Book and by a very Young Child, Anne Frank, this lesson tells Poland that it neglects too that 3,000,000 of those who were shredded from existence, were Polish Jews.

“..I can no longer talk about how I felt when my family arrived on ..train platform in Auschwitz and we were forcibly separated from each other.” Otto Frank.

So because they were Polish Jews, and had stood amongst their fellows, in community’s across the nation for millennia, a level of respect and honour is due to these Jews of The Holocaust. Here, and in lieu of an immense failing to save any of these 3,000,000 Polish Jews, Poland’s dishonour exudes the welcoming removal of the very existence of the Jews from amongst them. How is it then that to this day, that for some within Poland and even Germany, they can forget that when the hate filled thrust toward defeat was always in order to resolve The Final Solution of The Jewish Question, not only Jews suffered.

“..Hungary has been occupied by German troops. ..still a million Jews living there ..they too are doomed.” Anne Frank.

Clearly, the lessons to be learned have not reached all corners of a Continent ringing with the treachery of such hatred when we recognise deep in the depths of a defeat, the Jewish Question rises higher in expectation. Indeed, and for some Germans who fought for a fatherland, and who were callously disposed of to ail a degenerative disease that defines an antisemitic resolution, such hatred disowns their sacrifice in War. What effort expended on the Slaughter of the Jews, so as to deliver to posterity the evil that is The Holocaust, might have saved some of Germany’s own. So wherever nazism meets opposition to its perversion of humanity, it greets it with a carnage of death and the destruction of those it will victimise.

“..It was about 10:30. I was upstairs in ..van Pels’s part of ..house ..in Peter’s room ..doing schoolwork with him. Suddenly someone came running up ..stairs. Then ..door flew open and a man stood before us holding his pistol aimed at my chest. Downstairs all ..others were already assembled. My Wife and ..Children and ..van Pels family were standing there with raised hands. Then Fritz Pfeffer came in ..followed by another stranger. ..policemen ordered us to hand over our valuables. Silberbauer took Anne’s briefcase. He shook everything out ..dumping ..contents on ..floor ..so that Anne’s papers and notebooks and loose sheets lay scattered all over ..floorboards.” Otto Frank.

The World, after the end of a Second World War, recognises 50/70 million dead and a genocide of 6,000,000 Jews we affirm is, The Holocaust. What we do not accept, and must never recognise, are the same or even similar hatred’s which bore such a fruit as to have consumed 6,000,000 Jewish lives, all Men, Women and Their Children of them. True, The Holocaust has been a bitter and distasteful fruit which bore a resolve to enact a total solution which proved deadly to far too many Jewish People. It is then not unreasonable to contemplate why we have not leaned enough of this hatred to ensure no such hatred ever permeates our environs, and that ever again means, Never Again.

“..long lines of good ..innocent people ..accompanied by crying Children ..walking on and on ..ordered about by a handful of men who bully and beat them until they nearly drop. No one is spared. ..Sick ..Elderly ..Children ..Babies ..Pregnant Women ..all ..marched to their death. ” Anne Frank.



Distortion in Denying the Hatred.

Uncategorised Posted on Wed, February 17, 2021 00:01:18

February 17th. 1945

“..Einsatzgruppe ..established after an agreement between ..Chiefs of ..RSHA ..OKW ..and OKH ..in regard ..use of ..Sipo in ..area of operation. ..Einsatzgruppe ..first appeared during ..Polish campaign. ..agreement with ..OKH and OKW ..first arrived at before ..beginning ..Russian campaign. ..agreement specified ..official of ..Sipo and SD should be assigned to ..Army Groups ..or ..Armies ..and ..this official would have at his disposal mobile units of ..Sipo and ..SD ..in ..form of Einsatzgruppe ..subdivided into Einsatzkommandos. ..Einsatzkommandos should be assigned to ..Army Units as needed ..to ..particular Army Group or Army. ..agreement must have been reached about 1 or 2 weeks before ..beginning of ..Russian campaign. ..As far as ..actual instructions of ..Chiefs of ..Sipo and SD ..concerned ..guided by ..general practice that they could issue orders to ..Army if ..operational situation made it necessary.” otto ohlendorf.

When I was first sent the image of Tovah ‘Tokele’ Olshak, I sought to find out about her and why some poles would consider, as Hitler did, she was unworthy of life. This is the genesis of a journey that has taken me to Poland, to all of the 6 Death Camps placed there by Hitler, and spoken to museum’s and centres for learning of a Jewish past that has been extinguished from within Poland. For what I have learned of Tokele’s short life, and I have read extensively from the words and works of Dr. Szymon Datner, Michael Maik and Avraham Kalifowitz to find her, from what they recorded, witnessed and escaped from here in Sokoly, Poland, innocence and beauty was too readily destroyed.

“..mass resettlements of Jews began ..and on October 18th. 1942 ..Germans ordered all Jews to go to Izbica. We walked ..five hours ..Zolkiewka to Izbica. We all gathered in front of ..cinema ..divided by groups according to ..towns we came from ..Krasnystaw ..Piaski ..Turobin ..Zamosc ..Zolkiewka. ..I remember it was very cold and raining that day. ..Germans ordered ..inhabitants of Zolkiewka must go to ..train. ..whole group ran to ..train ..then ..Germans changed ..order ..sent another group ..we were tormented until ..evening. ..they shot at us. ..killed victims ..rain ..blood ..crying ..screaming. ..Rabbi Feldhendler ..Wife ..Daughter were killed. My family and I went to ..train. ..cattle cars for animals ..on ..floor ..chlorine. ..air was stifling .. huddled in this cattle car ..some ..were dying ..some ..dead ..we stood on their bodies and ..chlorine stung our eyes. ..no food ..water ..I stood close to ..wall. Through ..hole in ..wall ..I could gather ..spoon of rainwater ..to drink a little of it. I was able to write a letter to Mr Krol ..I threw it out. After three hours ..train started in ..direction of Belzec we knew exactly where we were going. ..men pulled out ..grate in ..window. People started to jump out of ..train. My brother had already jumped out ..my mother told me ..’Jump out ..my child ..you have so many girlfriends ..they will help you’ ..I jumped out after ..second railway station ..Zawada ..I was lucky ..I landed in ..ditch. Others ..jumped out ..under ..next train ..or were ..killed by ..German bullets. ..I got a bullet in my thigh but I did not feel it. I had sprained both legs ..I could not walk. ..a man with a big heart ..called Marcin Szewc. He drove by with a horse and wagon ..he found me. ..asked me what ..happened ..I lied ..saying I was a Pole and ..Germans wanted to deport me to Germany for slave labour but I had escaped them. Mr Szewc ..put me on his wagon ..took me to his home.” Mila Szternzys.

From there has been a huge omission of decency and acceptance to emerge of an ignominy for this little town in Poland. Here in Sokoly, where hatred meets a 4 year old Jewish Girl, this grows with each evocation of edicts or laws aimed at discrediting the discredited deeds of these collaborationist Murders. That individual hatred alone shown toward Tokele was also written with a greedy fuelled enterprise from local poles seeking to enrich themselves from what Sokoly’s Jews owned and what local poles had taken from them and sought to retain. I cannot begin to validate the hatred  without pointing an accusation at an entire nation which seems capable of accepting the distortion of a history they must never deny.

Friday December 12th. 1941 “..In respect of ..Jewish question ..make a clean sweep. ..world war is here ..annihilation of ..Jews must be ..necessary result. This question is to be regarded without sentimentalism. We are not here to have sympathy with ..Jews ..but ..with our German people. If ..German people have sacrificed 160,000 dead in ..eastern campaign ..authors of this bloody conflict will have to pay for it with their lives.” adolf hitler.

Here though, where this innocent 4 year old Child Tokele was Murdered, and simply because she was Jewish, and while this coincided with a general polish hatred, Sokoly acquiesces to where this becomes compatible with an intention to add to Hitler’s demands. Tokele was not meant to Survive what was Hitler’s demand for her, and within that Final Solution to destroy all of European Jewry, Tokele is now one of the 6,000,000. It is obvious from many nations within Europe, and clearly, and perhaps even especially here in Poland, and with Jews having Survived and seeking to return to their Homes, too many poles did not want to lose all they had gained.

“..Germans could not tell ..Jews apart from ..other Polish soldiers. ..depended on ..Poles to tell them that.” Shep Zitler.

For the poles to relinquish their hold on what they had taken from their Jewish neighbours, and for whom they had never expected to survive, placed the avarice of greed ahead of humanity, compassion or even a christian conscience. What was formerly owned by Polish Jewry would not be relinquished once it had been worn, trodden on or dwelt in by unconscionable poles. This too has had governmental interventions to ensure all of this theft has been endorsed ever since the end of the War. For me, these Jews of Sokoly I have learned from, are the Jewish Survivor’s who confirm this brutal fact of hate filled Murder toward them, even though they are former allies in the fight against Hitler and Nazism.

“..when ..walls will fall ..when a new life will open ..we shall be able to look our brothers in ..face ..and ..if some day a monograph of ..ghetto ..be written ..we will be mentioned favourably.” Moshe Berman.

So with all that there is to learn, and I have come to appreciate that there is No recompense that would be extensive enough to cover 6,000,000 losses. There are no such restitutions that are available which would lessen the blow to humanity for the abandonment of these 6,000,000 Jews. How then could there ever be a retribution worthy of Justice that will satiate the hunger for that lack of justice that these 6,000,000 Jews cry out for. From the beginning of Hitler’s intervention in Poland, there were some 2,000 Jewish residents of Sokoly, Poland, Friday September 1st. 1939, also unleashing his formative Einsatzgruppe murder squads.

“..decided that of 3,000 Einsatzgruppe they were aware of ..just 24 ..highest ranking commanders would be indicted simply because there was not enough room in ..dock.” Benjamin Berell Ferencz.

For these Polish Jews, who were under immediate threat without realising it then, and from the occupying German forces they assumed were civilised, they were still awakening from what the hatred within Poland had soured for them. It is clear from the abundance of evidences that not all was well for the Jewish presence prior to, during and even after Hitler declared his intention for the Slaughter to emerge. Neither from within the local community, as many non-Jewish poles vied for the space still occupied by their Jewish neighbours, could the hatred for the Jews be harnessed more gravelly. However, it was after Hitler launched his attack on Russia, operation Barbarossa, Sunday June 22nd. 1941 that things for the Jewish People became increasingly more precarious across the rest of Europe.

“..teachings ..about ..world ..people ..ethics ..faith ..I had to learn ..by myself in ..hell of concentration camps ..without my Mother who was put to death in ..Gas Chambers in Majdanek ..my Father ..put to death and burnt in ..crematorium in Treblinka ..my Brother ..my Sister in law ..so young ..but cared for me like my Mother ..tormented and burnt in Auschwitz. ” Halina Birenbaum.

Already, some of the Jews of Sokoly were being murdered into killing pits alongside some 600 Jews from Tykocin on Thursday July 17th. 1941. Then with some 1,500 Jews from Tykocin on Monday August 25th. 1941 at the killing site in Lupochowo Forest, these Jews joined their former Friends, Relatives and Jewish Community. But not until Monday 2nd. November 1942, when 850 of Sokoly’s own Jews were removed toward Bialystok, did these fuller ramifications hit home. Bialystok was to be the gathering space for the Jews from all around the region and here they awaited their eventual resettlement to one of 3 Death Camps in Poland, either Birkenau, Majdanek or the more likely journey to  Treblinka.

“..big speculators are sitting at home in Warsaw and Lublin ..where ..special organisations ..send their people with truck  loads of goods out to ..huts around Treblinka. ..entire region ..far and near ..sucks blood out of this greedy slaughterhouse. It is their direct interest to keep Treblinka going to keep its valuable by-products flowing ..money ..gold ..diamonds.”  Richard Glazer.

With a further 500 more of Sokoly’s Jews, who were expelled on Sunday 11th. April 1943, the increasing gloom was to settle over the Ghetto here, and it could not be lifted. Meanwhile, of the Jews being assembled in Bialystok, many were shot and otherwise killed while awaiting their turn to be delivered to the Death Camps. For Alter Ginzburg, the Sokoly Judenrat Chairman, his Wife Ida and the local dentist and their son Monik, these boarded the 1st. Transport to Treblinka from the Bialystok Ghetto on Tuesday 9th. February 1943. We learn from Efraim Barash, speaking on that Spring deportation from the Bialystok Ghetto, that Barash, the Judenrat Chairman, while believing that work would fully secure a Jewish future, totally endorsed the uprising there and suggests:-

“..who knows ..with Gods help ..it would be a real springtime for all of us.”    Efraim Barash.

Up until 10,000 Jews had been finally removed by Sunday 13th. February 1943, the transportation of much of what was left of Sokoly Jewry, and the random killing amongst all age groups of those Jews within Bialystok and the outer perimeters of Sokoly was relentless. In what is seen as a fact of Jewish Resistance though, and from within Sokoly itself, these Jews acted:-

                                             “..As Wolves before ..battlements.”

In the works of Dr. Szymon Datner, a Resistance Leader and head of the Bialystok Jewish Regional committee, he offers us both an insight into what was assailing the Jews of the region and their gradual demise. Also, as an historian of Bialystok, he regularly reported on the murders of his Jewish People from all of the outlying districts. As Jews had hoped sanity had at last arrived, just after the war ended in 1945, Dr. Datner was asked to compile his report on an atrocity that had occurred in Sokoly even before Wars end. What Dr. Datner was to discover, and he has evidenced many such attacks upon Surviving Jews by the local non-Jewish polish population, it is here at Sokoly where the tragedy that takes hold, this is where much that has directed me ever since began.

“..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.

On Saturday February 17th. 1945, this Sabbath day was interrupted by a group of local poles who had sought to ensure all they had stolen, acquired and gained from the Jewish People would not be returned to these Jews. What these hate filled poles managed to do is beyond the comprehension of those of us who studied the Survival of the Jews of Europe, recognising that 6,000,000 Jewish Men, Women and Their Children did Not Survive. Here in Sokoly, with the murders of some 9 of these Jewish Survivors, events such as these has cast a long shadow over what is still a plague within Poland, the antisemitic hatred of a growing few.

“..Jews must adjust themselves to all conditions ..we shall endeavour to create such conditions for them as will make ..adjustment difficult.”  Dr. Ludwig Fischer.

The report Dr. Datner compiled suggested that Tokele, a 4 year old Jewish girl, and the Daughter of Shaine Olshak’s Sister was amongst those murdered in Sokoly. There is a photo of Tokele, though this has become separated from the collective photograph of ‘The Last Victims of Sokoly.’ So here, Dr. Datner is to oversee what happened in the aftermath of those murder’s from amongst some 20 of Sokoly’s Survivors. These Jews, who had gathered at the home of the Gritzik family, we now extrapolate what has been a concern for me for more than 25 years. It is of course a deeply imbedded concern for the Jewish People that such hatred has been present for them since time immemorial.

“..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.

Reference too is made that this pogrom by local poles states that only Seven were murdered here and this might be explained by the fact that David Kostshevski was removed from the House, and died from his wounds in the Bialystok Hospital. Also, it is clear that Shaine Olshak had been shot outside of the house while she was attempting to escape, and this might skew the assessment somewhat. All told, some 20 or so Jewish Survivor’s were residing and visiting an apartment of the house of Mordechai Suraski on Mazowiecka Street 32, in Sokoly, Poland. They were made up of 3 Family Groups of about 12 People in all, of varying ages, from the Child Tovah, aged 4, and from there aged upwards.

“..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.

They had simply come together so as to afford each other some form of comfort after all they had struggled to Survive, and even for some them, surviving through the Death Camp system. So tragically that all too frequently the Jewish Survivor awaited news of those other’s who might as yet have Survived. While for us it is clear that no one Jew should have been expected to have lived through what Hitler had planned for and for what non-Jewish poles now seemed set to administer. There was also an engagement party to be celebrated, a signal of the continuance of Jewish persistence, even after the great catastrophe.

“..it is easy to cope with ..Jewish problem when ..Jews are small in number ..but it is more difficult in Poland where their number is so much larger.” jozef pilsudski.

These 12 Jewish People in total, from the above-mentioned 20 Jewish People who met to celebrate receiving the apartment, and also to celebrate the return of Dawid Kaszczewski, who had arrived back a few days earlier. He had returned to Sokoly from the camps to see the engagement of Benjamin Rachlew from Sokoly to Basia Wajnsztajn from Swiecieniny. The latter also returned from the concentration camp. So here we are on this Saturday February 17th. 1945, and this Sabbath day gathering of Jewish Survivor’s that was taking place no doubt filled with the sense of relief for their survival, this all gave a positive air to celebrating that fact.

“..When ..Poles saw how ..soldiers were victimising us they piled on ..too. ..a German guard was marching me ..some other men to ..nail factory. ..a Polish boy ran up ..stabbed me in ..hand.” William Schiff.

Their very Survival had been against all the odds that had been thrown at them, without realising a further throw of the dice was hurtling toward them. As we begin to see it, when a group of local poles sought to ensure that all that the local polish population had stolen, had acquired and had illegally gained would not be returned to these Jews, a pogrom ensued. I denounce these poles as hate filled for what they managed to achieve in the murder of 9 of these Jewish Survivors. Their every effort in atrocity affords theses particular non-Jewish cowards, and even Poland to this day, their infamy in all of history.

“..arrived ..report to Camp Kommandant ..SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Bothmann. ..addressed us in his living quarters ..in ..presence of SS Untersturmfuhrer Albert Plate. ..explained ..we had been dedicated to ..Kulmhof extermination camp as guards and added that in this camp ..plague boils of humanity ..Jews ..were exterminated. We were to keep quiet about everything we saw or heard ..otherwise we would have to reckon with our families’ imprisonment and ..death penalty. ..extermination camp was made up of ..’castle’ and ..camp in ..woods. ..castle was a fairly large stone building at ..edge of ..village of Kulmhof. ..Jews ..transported by lorry or railway were first brought. ..lorry arrived ..following members of ..SS Sonderkommando addressed ..Jews ..Camp Kommandant Bothmann ..Untersturmführer Albert Plate ..Polizei Meister Willy Lenz ..Polizei Meister Alois Haeberle. ..explained to ..Jews ..would ..all be given a bath ..deloused in Kulmhof ..then sent to Germany to work. ..Jews then went inside ..castle. ..to get undressed. ..sent through a passage ..to ..ramp to ..castle yard where ‘gas van’ ..parked. ..back door of ..van would be open. ..Jews ..made to get inside ..van. ..done by three Poles ..sentenced to death. ..Poles hit ..Jews with whips if they did not get into ..gas vans fast enough. When all ..Jews were inside ..door was bolted. ..driver then switched on ..engine ..crawled under ..van ..connected ..pipe from ..exhaust to ..inside of ..van. ..exhaust fumes ..poured into ..truck so that ..people ..suffocated.”  Polizei theodor malzmueller.

But this is Not all of why I write, as words have mattered to me many more years than I have imagined the horror of The Holocaust. Clearly though, this sense of rage gained pace as I recognised the gravest hatred was waged against those who have already been abused, accosted and brutalised enough, and assumed they had reached safety. All the Survivor’s in one nation or another are still faced by other’s who now perpetrated these exact same crimes. This is why I have chosen to write on the Murder of a 4 year old Jewish Girl, who remains confined within the Slaughter of the 6,000,000 Jewish People, her People, who are The Holocaust.

“..attitude of ..non–Jewish population ..almost all Poles ..was hateful. They rejoiced at our misfortune ..enriched themselves with Jewish property.” Betzalel Papial.

There are 6,000,000 Jews of whom faced complete ignorance in their own homelands, total hatred in their supposedly christian community’s and found a complicit destruction that inveigles many, nations and nationals. For me it is quite simple and how dare any pole choose to deny to this 4 year old Child a life and because she is a Jew. Tovah ‘Tokele’ Olshak should have lived to being near her 80th. year and yet, all of those intervening years were trashed by the ignorance of a pole whose hatred matched clearly the collaborative effort Hitler fully expected in Poland, from Poles. I am from an era which arrived after the Jewish Catastrophe.

“..Bitterness ..pain fill ..Children’s recollections of those poles who hunted them ..betrayed them ..handed them to ..common enemy ..of cruelties perpetrated by other children ..of every human ignominy. ..there are few such testimonies ..reason ..simple ..painful ..children ..are not here to record their stories.” Maria Hochberg-Marianska.

I am not a descendant of one of those Jews who we can rightfully attribute to themselves the term Holocaust Survivor, but I am no less concerned. There are so many I have seen, heard from, spoken to and I have sensed their overwhelming pain. As I listen to Rivka Yosselevska, or read Primo Levi and know the words of Etty Hillesum, whose words are to survive her, I learn to know and more of what they were fully cognisant of. Their evidence has placed the darkest emphasis on all that was done and achieved against 6,000,000 of their fellow Jews for being Jews and amongst them are these here listed, those Jews of Sokoly, Poland Murdered when hope had re-emerged for the Surviving Jew, even in Poland.

“..I knew ..Tokele ..she is Tovah Olshak ..the Sister of Shaina Olshak. Both of Tokele’s Parents were previously shot in the nearby Lupochowo Forest and she had been cared for and Loved by a Christian woman.” Yaffa Litwak.

(1)          Tokele, aka Tolkele aka Tulkale, aka Tulka,  and though the Last Survivors Photo p.136 does not list her we know that she was 4 years of age. I am now reliably informed by a Survivor, Yaffa Litwak, who knew of Tokele, that she is (Tovah Olshak) That said, Tovah Olshak is listed as the Sister of Shaina Olshak and in Last Survivors this lists her as Tovah Olshak. Both of Tokele’s Parents were previously shot in the nearby Lupochowo Forest and Tokele had been cared for and Loved by a Christian woman. Sadly, and though with difficulty, Tokele was given back to her Cousin by marriage, Shaine.

(2)          Shaine (Shaina) (Sheine) Olshak was a Cousin by marriage of Tokele, she was 22 years of age, the Wife of Zeev Velvel Olshak of Zeremow. Shaine Olszak nee Nilovitzki was born in Kobylin, Poland in 1923 to Shmuel and Ester and the Last Survivors lists her. Shaine was shot while attempting to flee the scene of the carnage.

(3)          David Zholti (Zholty) was born in 1939 and was 35 years of age and the Last Survivors lists him.

(4)          Yankele Litwak was shot by a Polish soldier while in Bialystok, a few weeks after the War and was 15 years of age. Yankele was the Brother of Shaikele, Shammai and Yaffa Litwak, formerly Shainie. Shainie (Yaffa Litwak-Cohen) now resides in Kiryat Bialystok Israel.

(5)          Shaikele (Sheike)(Yehoshua)(Shaikeleh) Litwak appears in the Last Survivors Photo p.136 which lists him and was 13 years of age. Shaikele was the Brother of Yankele, Shammai and was the Son of Chaim?

(6)          Chaim (Tuvia) Litwak, who was the blacksmith from Siemietitz was the Father of Yankele, Shaikele, Shammai and Yaffa Litwak.

(7)          Shammai Litwak is in the Last Survivors which lists him was 19 years of age. Shammai was the Elder Brother of Yankele, Shaikele and Yaffa Litwak.

(8)          Batya Weinstein was 20 years old, she had managed to survive Auschwitz and had been born in Swiecienin, and

(9)          David Kostshevski (Koschevsky)(Koschavsky) who had Survived both Auschwitz and Majdanek was 28 years of age. David was the Son of the Milliner Itza (Yitzhak) Koschevsky, who were also shot in a room there. All were staying or visiting in the home at the time. David is named in the Last Survivors which lists him. David died from his wounds in Bialystok.

There are those who still managed to survive the attempt by these anti-Semitic poles were and these are:-

I)             Zeev Gritshak,

II)           Avraham Kalifovitz, and

III)          Issur Wondolowicz.

Both Benyamin Ratzlev(Rachlev), who had been engaged to Batya Weinstein, and Benyamin Gorkovitz, who had accompanied Avrahamel Goldberg to Lendowa-Budy to take back his Sister’s Daughter, Feigele Tabak, from a Woman Farmer, these were away at the time. Upon their return to Sokoly, they found out about what had transpired and felt powerless to do anything to gain the form of justice the carnage necessitated after what had been waged. For me, all of this is in Memory of Tokele, a four year old Jewish Girl, who was murdered while 6,000,000 of her fellow Jews were laid to waste.

ALWAYS to REMEMBER, NEVER to FORGET.

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“..On Sabbath ..February 17th. 1945 ..Survivors had a celebration in Sokoly at Mordechai Surasky’s house near ..Mazowieckie road. During ..first period of ..liberation ..residence of Colonel Dubroshin ..Soviet Kommandant. ..10 days before ..fateful evening ..Colonel Dubroshin handed over ..Surasky house to 3 Jewish families numbering 12  souls.

..celebration took place

..a) as a housewarming for ..3 families

b) to celebrate ..engagement of one of ..survivors from Sokoly ..Benyamin Rachlev ..to Batya Weinstein from Swieciany, Lithuania ..a survivor of ..death camps

c) that same week ..a boy from Sokoly ..David Koschevsky ..Son of Itza (Yitzhak) ..milliner ..had arrived from ..death camps.

About 20 people were gathered in ..house where ..celebration took place. ..torn ones who had suffered so much now celebrated ..evening with happiness and joy. ..young people played cards ..elderly talked among themselves ..women took care of ..kitchen and fried latkes. In ..kitchen ..there was a conversation led by ..young engineer David Zholty ..who accompanied Sheintze Gritshak home after her visit to ..Zholty family. Suddenly ..back door opened. A pole with a large moustache ..and dressed in an Army uniform ..came in with an automatic rifle in his hand. Zeev Gritshak saw ..Pole first ..and cried out ..Robbers have come. He ran to ..other room and locked ..door. ..Pole opened a round of fire. With ..first shots he killed engineer David Zholty and ..bride from Swieciany. Batya Weinstein ..who had been frying latkes ..fell dead with a knife in her hand. A third victim was ..pretty ..4-year-old orphan Tulkale. After that ..murderer entered ..room full of guests and started shooting again. Panic arose. For a moment ..his rifle jammed. A number of celebrants succeeded in breaking ..window and escaping through ..front door ..and they thereby were rescued from death. But a few ran in panic and hid under ..beds. A kerosene lamp that stood on ..table fell down on ..wood floor. ..kerosene spread and a fire broke out. Additional robbers entered ..room and shot Shammai Litvak and David Koschevsky. Shammai Litvak’s body covered Avraham Kalifovitz. ..shots did make holes in his clothing ..but he was saved by a miracle. Issur Wondolowicz ..who was standing behind ..closet ..was also saved. Shaina Olshak ..22 years old ..who had been recently married ..fled outside and was shot on ..spot by ..robbers guard. ..robbers stole ..boots and shoes from their victims ..as well as possessions from ..beds and closets. In ..middle of ..robbery ..13 year old boy ..Sheike Litvak ..came in. ..robbers asked him ..To whom are you going. He answered ..To my brother. One of ..robbers shot ..boy in ..face. ..boy instinctively covered his face with his hands and cried. ..Are you still alive .. asked ..murderer ..and shot him a second time. ..boy fell down ..rolling in his own blood. 7 victims fell in that bestial murder ..6 of them on ..spot. ..seventh victim ..David Koschevsky ..was wounded. They took him in a military vehicle to ..hospital in Bialystok. After suffering horribly for a few days ..he returned his soul to his Maker. He was fully conscious until his last moments.” Michael Maik.

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“..On Saturday night ..I visited Zeev Griczak ..Raclav and Zeev Olshak ..who lived together in Mordechai Surasky’s house. A number of other friends gathered there. ..apartment had 4 rooms and it had 2 entrances ..one at ..front of ..building and one in ..back. ..4 Poles approached Zeev Griczak ..and asked him if he lives here. ..Behind Zeev ..they invaded into ..kitchen and opened fire on those who were there. ..Jews who were sitting in an inner room began to flee. Being ..last of those who were sitting there ..I hesitated to run ..lest they injure me. I succeeded in hiding between ..closet and ..bed ..and Shammai Litvak lay on my legs. ..one of ..rioters entered ..room. ..saw Shammai ..yelled ..Yaatcza yadin Zhid ..Another Jew. ..Pole ..shot 3 bullets at Shammai. ..victim fell to ..ground and covered my feet with his body. One of ..rioters moved ..bed away from ..wall to see if there was another Jew. I moved my body together with ..bed. ..Sheikele Litvak ..a boy of 12 ..appeared in ..doorway. ..robber asked him who did he come to see. Sheikele answered ..My brother. ..Immediately he shot 2 bullets into ..boy’s head. ..rioters began to chop one of ..doors ..with an axe to discover more victims to kill. Those who had been in the room were lucky enough to have escaped outside earlier ..through ..window. ..members of ..gang ..lurking outside signalled their companions and they ran away from ..place. ..gang of murderers numbered 9 men. I went out of ..house and ran to ..police. ..next day I saw that my jacket was punctured. At ..time of ..shots ..I had felt something pass by a part of my body. In ..house ..we were 19 Jews. 7 of our companions were shot to death ..and ..rest succeeded in escaping. After ..murder ..I remained in Sokoly for 3 days and ..together with my friends ..I left my town forever. Our path led to Bialystok. ..events of these sorrowful days had a strong influence on my mind. For many months ..I felt ..horrors and saw before my eyes my murdered friends ..and how I laid under ..bed and Shammai ..who was killed ..was spread over my legs. I sometimes burst into tears and was attacked by spasms over my entire body. I was not able to calm down and stop crying. Even today ..when I bring up ..memory of that terrible day of blood ..I am choked with tears. My hatred and anger grow within me ..against ..Polish murderers who helped ..Germans to shed ..blood of refugees ..few in number ..from The Holocaust.” Avraham Kalifowitz.

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Do not allow for distortion to deny the hatred of some poles toward their Jewish Community in the ‘Pogrom’ of

June 8th. 1935 in Grodno, Poland.

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Do not allow for distortion to deny the hatred of some poles toward their Jewish Community in the ‘Pogrom’ of

March 9th. 1936 in Przytyk, Poland.

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Do not allow for distortion to deny the hatred of some poles toward their Jewish Community in the ‘Pogrom’ of

April 30th. 1936 when the {onr oboz narodowo-radykalny}, attacked 5 Jews returning from Warsaw to Minsk-Mazowiecki.

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Do not allow for distortion to deny the hatred of some poles toward their Jewish Community in the ‘Pogrom’ of

June 1st.1936 in Minsk-Mazowiecki.

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Do not allow for distortion to deny the hatred of some poles toward their Jewish Community in the ‘Pogrom’ of

May 13th. 1937 when the Jews of Brest were attacked by locals and police who looted, robbed and beat up the local Jews and the Jewish store owners and their workers.

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Do not allow for distortion to deny the hatred of some poles toward their Jewish Community’s in those ‘Pogrom’ conducted on April 5th. 1938 which raged across Poland.

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Do not allow for distortion to deny the hatred of some poles toward their Jewish Community in the ‘Pogrom’ of

April 15th. 1938 Dabrowa-Tarnowska, Poland which sees Jews Murdered.

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Do not allow for distortion to deny the hatred of some poles toward their Jewish Community in the ‘Pogrom’ of

April 29th. 1938 Vilna, Poland when Jews were Murdered.

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“..In memory of the Jews of Jedwabne and surrounding areas, Men, Women, and Children, fellow-dwellers of this land, murdered and burned alive at this site on 10 July 1941.” Memorial.

Do not allow for distortion to deny the hatred of some poles toward their Jewish Community in the ‘Pogrom’ of

July 10th. 1941 those 340 Jewish Men, Women and Their Children were Burned to Death in a Barn at the hands of their non-Jewish neighbours. All told, more than 1,600 of Jedwabne Jews were Murdered, most at the hands of an Einsatz kommando.

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Thursday October 15th. 1942 “..camp ..located near ..town ..Belzec ..well known all over Poland from ..tales of horror ..circulated about it.” Jan Karski.

Do not allow for distortion to deny the hatred of some poles toward their Jewish Community when we are made aware of what all should have known. Unless we are going to revise the words of such a distinguished, and Polish scholar, what the Polish locals knew should have defined their resolve to do something to cease the annihilation of their Jewish neighbours, as they faced it at the front door of every Polish community within Poland.

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August 1943 “..return of ..Jews to their jobs and workshops is ..out of ..question ..even if ..number of Jews is greatly reduced. ..non-Jewish population has filled their places in ..towns ..cities ..in much of Poland this is a fundamental change ..final in character. ..return of masses of Jews would be perceived not as an act of restitution ..but as an invasion against which they would have to defend themselves ..even by physical means.” Roman Knoll. Polish Foreign Affairs Office.

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“..murders of Survivors right after ..War ..intimidated many who might have sought their property back. Fearing for their lives ..many made no attempt to retrieve their assets.” Naphtali Lavie.

Do not allow for distortion to deny the hatred of some poles toward their Jewish Community in the ‘Pogrom’ of

February 17th. 1945 in Sokoly where local poles murdered 7 Jewish Survivors.

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Do not allow for distortion to deny the hatred of some poles toward their Jewish Community in the ‘Pogrom’ of stealth of March 8th. 1946 when Poland decreed Jewish Restitution claims for Property, Homes and Possessions to be made by end of 1947. At the end of this period, a year’s extension is granted.

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Do not allow for distortion to deny the hatred of some poles toward their Jewish Community in the ‘Pogrom’ of

July 4th. 1946 in Kielce when polish soldiers, polish police officers and polish non-Jewish civilians Murdered 42 Polish Jewish Survivors and more than 40 other Polish Jews were wounded.

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Do not allow for distortion to deny the hatred of some poles toward their Jewish Community in the ‘Pogrom’ of stealth of December 31st. 1948 when Polish Measures are brought to bear to ensure Jews cannot reclaim what Jews have been deprived of.

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July 11th. 2001 “..We can have no doubt that here in Jedwabne Polish citizens were killed at  ..hands of fellow citizens.” President Aleksander Kwasniewski.

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Anna Pyzewska in the 2005 IPN bulletin of the Bialystok Institute of National Remembrance described what happened in Sokoly: Kazimierz Kamienski, made in 1953. This event is also mentioned by reports of both the Polish underground and PUBP in Wysokie Mazowieckie – in these materials, however, apart from general information about the number of victims, there are no details about the course of the incident. ” Anna Pyzewska.

 “..bandits had come. ..Pole opened fire ..killing Dawid Yellow ..Basia Wajnsztajn and 4-year-old Tolka Zytawer. ..there was a fire. ..attacker’s weapon jammed ..some of ..gathered  ..managed to escape. ..further victims ..in a room adjacent to ..kitchen 20 year old Szamaj Litwak was shot (he hid under bed) ..Dawid Kaszczewski ..died a few days later in ..hospital ..was shot. 22 year old Szajna Olszak was shot outside ..house by ..guards. ..last victim was 13 year old Szyjke Litvak. Shamaj’s brother. ” Anna Pyzewska.

“..huzar did not deny his presence in Sokoly on February 17th. 1945. As he claimed ..on that day ..when he was returning with his unit from Kobylin ..he met a 4 man self defence unit led by Karol Gasztoft ..who was going to Sokoly to liquidate 1 person of Jewish nationality. Revenge was to ask huzar to take part in ..action as well. As huzar argued ..he did not know ..name of ..person who was supposed to die ..nor ..reason for ..liquidation. ..he went to Sokoly together with his unit. His unit took care of setting up a ..post.” Anna Pyzewska.

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February 28th. 2019 Wyborcza Poland. “..On ..occasion of ..National Day of Remembrance of .. Cursed Soldiers on Friday March 1st. President Andrzej Duda is to lay flowers at ..monument to Kazimierz Kamienski (huzar) and his subordinates in Wysokie-Mazowieckie. ..same ‘huzar’ who participated in ..murder of Jews who survived The Holocaust in February 1945 ..including children. In February 1945 in Sokoly ..40 kilometres away from Bialystok ..70% before ..war inhabited  by Jews ..a branch of Karol Gasztoft ..revenge murdered Jews who survived The Holocaust. 7 people of Jewish nationality were murdered ..including 3-year-old Tolka and 13-year-old Szyjke. ..unit of .huzar participated in ..murder.” Anna Pyzewska.

It is so obvious for me, that Poland would be better placed evaluating all that it had failed to do to save 3,000,000 of its own Murdered Jews. As Poland seeks to hide behind a continuous hatred that is out of sync with humanity and human compassion, and dare I mention christian morality, History must reclaim its past from lies and distortions. Poland it seems has so disowned everything Hitler established in Poland except what has proved lucrative to them, including the Destruction of 3,000,000 of their own Polish Jews. It is ever more essential with that in mind that we do not allow for any such distortion to then deny the hatred of some poles toward their own Polish Jewish Community.

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October 2020 “..Will we live to see ..day when ..Polish authorities also admit that hostility toward Jews was widespread among Poles ..and that Polish complicity in The Holocaust is an historical fact.” Katarzyna Markusz.

Sadly, even after the departure of Hitler’s forces the hatred of and for the Jews of Poland continued and in the intervening years 1934 to 2021, it has little abated. Within Poland itself, much of the hatred directed toward the Polish Jewish Community is aligned to what Hitler sought in the territory’s he wished to remove all Jews from. It is a confusing mix of considerate and compassionate Polish People being led toward the same hatred which has blighted their humanitarian credentials by those ignorant of the torrent of bitterness antisemitism esposes. The lessons of the past are there for the many Poles who seek it out, and I have spoken to many of those who know the truth of The Holocaust is worth defending despite the truth of former poles who betrayed all humanity to deliver what Hitler sought.

Memorial for the Holy Martyrs of Sokoly

“..We dipped our pen into the valley of tears

To record an immortalization for the holy martyrs of Sokoly

Every page of the book is a scroll of fear

About our dear ones, who were cut off with a sharp sword.

We lived in the community, we spent time together

We drank gladness and poison from the same cup

The dynasty of his grandfather – the grandson the blacksmith

A continuation of the generations of the Nation of Israel.

We sat on the same bench of learning

In the same “cheder” we expounded Torah

We had the same study hall, rules and procedures

The same cemetery and the same graves.

We walked the same roads and streets

Young girls and youths, grandfathers and grandmothers

Under the wedding canopies we heard, with rhythm,

Notes of a Jewish melody of joy and sadness.

We were transported to those Treblinkas in multitudes

We were squeezed into cattle cars like sheep

Our destination was massacre, we turned into dust

The story of our people is written here in the book.

Where are you, Sokoly, you were our cradle

You were eroded like dust and broken like clay

Where are your Jews, infants and fathers

Old people, grooms and beautiful brides?

Where are the pulpits of gemara, and around them the sounds of commentary

Of the yeshiva students explaining portions of the Midrash

Prayers and hopes lifted up to G d on high

Were choked off, were silenced with the smoke of destruction.” Reuven Lev.



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