“..with regard to ..Jews ..I’ve found myself remaining inactive. There’s no sense in adding uselessly to ..difficulties of ..moment. One acts more shrewdly when one bides one’s time.” Adolf Hitler.
There is a terrible hatred paroling this World from only a temporary reprieve, any of which is leasing back a Humanity stolen from it. The fact of the inhumanity that is to be discussed, which will never return us to where civilisation had brought us toward, is the most horrendous crime in all of history. This, the most vitriolic hatred ever envisaged and conceived of was conducted during these times by a Hitler regime designed for the purpose to destroy, annihilate and obliterate every conceivable trace of any Jewish presence in our midst. That Hitler practicably achieved much of this resolve, die Endlosung der Judenfrage, is tantamount to the most accursed accusation that has ever been aimed at us in all of history. From Hitler’s spoken word, which always sought to articulate the literal threat to the Jews of Germany, spreading widely over all of Europe and then finally the conflagration to then be carried to the World of Jewry, and in a punitive way, is documented so well proven.
“..Poles. ..pliant ..servile to their masters ..joyously ..fervently anti-Semitic just short of advocating pogroms in ..camps ..incredibly ignorant and chauvinistic.” David Rousset.
If there was any eloquence from Hitler as to what the world heard, it was largely ignored as the expiation of 6,000,000 Jews commenced. Immediately upon Hitler’s ascendency to the power brokerage he was fixed upon, and on a World stage, with the murder’s of Jewish Citizen’s running concurrently alongside his expressions of all hatred for all Jews, the political and religious World receded from its moral and ethical substance. While many commentator’s, historians and writer’s so often refer to the hate and bile of Hitler’s words as mere word play, we simply cannot ignore the fact that his words re-framed his intentions. Not only can Hitler’s words not be seen as just the merest of his hate filled rhetoric, but when all about him the Jewish People were being subjected to ridicule, abuse, assault and murder, it is preposterous notion. We can clearly identify that under Hitler’s steely gaze and command, his wishes were carried out and to the wider German public, enacted upon.
“..total Jewish population of ..world was estimated at 17,000,000 in 1937. ..over 10,000,000 were in Europe.” Dr. Richard Korherr.
Here every edict of what Hitler clearly determined appropriate for a quickly marginalised Jewish People was enacted upon by the widest structure of German society, business and institution. Other nations too took heed of what Hitler was being enabled to achieve and those like Poland, who as a sovereign state was the first to feel the full weight of Hitler’s intentions toward the Jews of Europe, acted similarly. Poland was to be no hiding space for their Jews, 3,000,000 of whom would prove the tenacity of Hitler’s hatred. As Hitler had clearly expressed, and for more than seven years since gaining power, Jewry would be confronted totally and annihilated mercilessly. For me still, the correct response to what is The Holocaust has yet to be made judicious or commendable. As the World of brutal conflict rages on and its torn people are continually tortured by strife, Jewish existence is continually under threat. What this ensures is that not only have the lessons of The Holocaust not been clearly identified, they are as far reaching in their forming of some acceptance of its gravest wrong. But no response should EVER seek to deny the place of 6,000,000 Murdered Jews in the space of European History, which some who seek to redefine their loss to us would suggest we should do.
“..Once I really am in power ..my first ..foremost task will be ..annihilation of ..Jews. As soon as I have ..power to do so ..I will have gallows built in rows ..at ..Marienplatz in Munich ..as many as traffic allows. ..Jews will be hanged indiscriminately ..they will remain hanging until they stink ..they will hang there as long as ..principles of hygiene permit. As soon as they have been untied ..next batch will be strung up ..and so on down ..line ..until ..last Jew in Munich has been exterminated. Other cities will follow suit ..precisely in this fashion ..until all Germany has been ..cleansed of Jews.” Adolf Hitler.
The European Continent, that has been so liberally littered with the ashes of the Jewish People and has been literally marked so indelibly with such brutal inhumanity, all of this must be clearly acknowledged as such. Along with the blood soaked soil of every nation within Europe, and with that the desecration of our clutch on humanity, we clearly must attribute all of this catastrophe to Hitler’s urging. What proved such an unprecedented and unparalleled massacre, so much so that comparison of any sort will only trivialise our loss, is to be recognised in every facet of the move toward the Jews final cataclysm and affront to what we see as our civilising principles. Here, part of the denial aimed at these 6,000,000 Murdered Jews is the inability by the hate filled denial lobby to process that fact. Clearly the intention is what Hitler had dedicated statisticians pointing him toward, and this was the very presence of more than 17,000,000 Jews in the World.
“..We shall regain our health only by eliminating ..Jews.” Adolf Hitler.
Dr. Richard Korherr would come along and draw up the statistical analysis for which The Wannsee Conference would then draught its own compliance to. That The Wannsee Conference recognised that 11,293,300 Jews could be Murdered, is essential in determining what we know are the accounting for which Hitler made full use of. With that in mind, any response to any form of denial of The Holocaust must Always be unequivocal and responded to with the completed facts that are its integral truth. The narrative of The Holocaust must never moderate its stance on the truthful conveyance of each and every pertinent identification of the final course with the clearest and relevant facts pointing toward it. What cannot be denied in all that Hitler spouted, with his defining threat to annihilate the Jews would be met precisely with their extermination.
Tuesday August 22nd. 1939. “..destruction of Poland is in ..foreground. ..aim is ..elimination of living forces ..not ..arrival at a certain line. I shall give a propagandist cause for starting ..war ..never mind if it is plausible or not. ..victor will not be asked later on whether he told ..truth or not.” Adolf Hitler.
Bearing all this in mind, we must never enter into any discourse which is other than the historical truth and everything which has been gained with such historical accuracy. Its the entirety of The Holocaust, from the research of those facts which delivers to posterity its posthumous legacy that history remains truthful. The entirety of history has gained the essential proof that historically cannot be compromised, especially in the case of more than the abundantly surveyed nature of The Holocaust. Fundamentally, all of humanity must be regrouped and even reborn from the ashes of the Death Camps, from the Ghetto’s and from the Killing Sites and for the World to recognise the very flawed nature of the human fall from grace. What has been proven by Survivor’s from their witness testimony, so replete with the horror’s they too endured, has been fully corroborated by the evidence to be sought.
“..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.
Along with the first hand knowledge of what emanated from practically day one, and with the somewhat depleted evidences of those who completed their murderous duty with relish, we have gained more than that copious awareness of the increasing move toward The Final Solution. Throughout what I will present here, facts that are emitted by all those whose knowledge of the truth of The Holocaust has been stated, Hitler’s call for the enactment of a eugenics programme was seen to be the preliminary toward marking the Jewish People more significantly for slaughter. What may be argued over, and has now been denounced has been the conflated terms then denied by lesser beings than humanity requires. But the truth holds sway over all of the inconsistency of hatred, which sweeps through community’s at the behest of those who seek to divide us along racist lines. Those who seek to diffuse the truth, to suit their own racist agenda, cannot bend the truth to those of a recognisably ignoble diminishing of the truth.
“..essential ..we do not proclaim our views ..before ..world. ..no need for that ..main thing ..we ourselves know what we want. .. Nobody must be able to recognise that it initiates a final settlement. This need not prevent our taking all necessary measures ..shooting ..resettling ..we shall take them.” Adolf Hitler.
One of the constituent preambles of the denial lobby too is the confusing issuance of the place of The State of Israel in their narrative. Israel, which truly began its existence as a regard to such Jewish losses as remain unimaginable, cannot be a bargaining chip over 6,000,000 Jewish losses. Also, Israel was delivered by the World as a purge of conscience over what led to our own human failings. Truly, as indifference to the Jewish struggles in their moments of most urgent need, raged about us, we did not stand firmly enough for what should of commanded us, our humanity. As The Holocaust emerged, and for the duplicitous and complicit nature that reigned while 6,000,000 Jewish People were being Murdered, we stand before the alter of History, fully accused. We cannot allow this factual criticism of our behaviour to escape when the incrimination of humanity for what we as human beings achieved is clearly evident. What was finally allowed to happen to 6,000,000 of our own, simply because they believed differently to us or were born with an immeasurably remarkable gene pool, is a scandal we must bear as the controversy of The Holocaust is the slaughter of 6,000,000 Human Beings who happened to be Jews.
“..Where ..Jews were left to themselves ..in Poland ..most terrible misery and decay prevailed. ..In Poland this state of affairs has been fundamentally cleared up. If ..Jews there did not want to work ..they were shot. If they could not work ..they had to succumb. ..This was not cruel ..even innocent creatures ..have to be killed ..so that no harm is caused by them. Why should ..beasts who wanted to bring us Bolshevism be spared more.” Adolf Hitler.
None of this sorry saga of indifference and slaughter does credit to what civilisation has posed for itself, let alone a supposed enlightenment that was meant to shine for other’s. For me, all of this carnage makes the deaths of anyone, even other than these Jews who are the subject of my own committed remit during the World War II, inexcusable nor can we process them as any the less significant. Nor does the lessons we should have supposedly gained explain why The Balkans exploded, the Rwanda tragedy erupted or that the My-Lai massacre did in fact occur. Nor indeed can The Holocaust explain why humanity has yet to step up to the plate to stem the flow of innocent lives still being lost and entire continents remaining awash with innocent blood. My study of such human loss is not unique in the terms of reference laid before you, and while it has been engrossed in the many facets of The Holocaust horror, there is the very detailed terror to expand upon.
“..Russian campaign ..to decimate ..Slav population by 30,000,000 ..troop of low characters would have to be formed.” SS Obergruppenfuhrer Erich von dem Bach-Zalewski.
The devastation, which struck at the heart of 11,293,300 Jews of Europe and consigned far more than 50% of these to annihilation, troubles my senses as I still seek out the detailed horror in order to add clarity to what is so clearly lucid. For any being to interpret the humanity of another with clearly such distorted a view as can deliver such purging of humanity, my own mind is then steeped in their vacant call for a vengeance, a retribution or even a response they cannot make. There has been this vastly misunderstood claim, that revenge has ever been the call of Israel. Also, such retribution as would be entirely appropriate has not emanated those Survivor’s who are burdened by the sheer loss all too many of these Survivor’s have also endured. However, the Survivor’s call for Justice echoes humanity’s own much anticipated demand and as yet this has been largely ignored. As the fate of 6,000,000 Murdered Jews has been sought out by all too many to be left to the past, we urge the memory of their presence to continue to the future.
“..Our strength is our quickness and our brutality. Jenghis Khan had millions of women and children hunted down and killed ..deliberately and with a gay heart. History sees in him only ..great founder of States. What ..weak Western European civilisation alleges about me ..does not matter. I have given ..order ..and will have everyone shot who utters but one word of criticism ..that ..aim of this war does not consist in reaching certain geographical lines ..but in ..enemies’ physical elimination. Thus ..for ..time being only in ..East ..I put ready my Death’s Head units ..with ..order to kill without pity or mercy all men ..women ..children. ..Only thus will we gain ..living space that we need.” Adolf Hitler.
Here though, and there are those who see within the vagaries of such a hatred for the Jewish People, which seeks to secure some need to retard The Holocaust memorial, we ensure that no such validation for their hatred can be gained. For some seeking to even reinterpret The Holocaust on some narrative level, this is grossly distorting of a loss we should feel more deeply. This sought after re-emphasis of the very stringent terms which The Holocaust occupies is wrong on a number of levels. The onerous fact of the slaughter, which is both factual and the realising truth which sees the memory of 6,000,000 Murdered Jews holding the integrity of history, emits its own accusation. There is no debate on The Holocaust which is clearly seeking to obscure. There is though, on a matter of fact level, that which exists as it evolved from what was expressed, then intended and finally carried out for Hitler and toward The Final Solution. The continuous arguments over the when, why and what constitutes The Holocaust narrative does not detract from the single fact that it exists in our history.
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.
The Holocaust itself governs its own space in the unprecedented and unparalleled nature of its predominance over all of our own humanity. Perhaps we can recognise its lack of merciful incline and therein lies a fact which subscribes for us and toward seeking the very nature of a comprehension which will never arrive. In all of this there is no doubt as to the veracity of the very existing detail of the crimes committed, perpetrated, witnessed, established, ignored, accepted or with a complete ambivalence toward what was and did happen to these Jews of Europe. All of this is the known truth that remains The Holocaust. This certainty in no way allows for denial to enter the arena that is the proper discourse we deliver on the subject of Hitler’s intention for the Jews of Europe and to understanding what remains incomprehensible to all of humanity. That 6,000,000 Men, Women and Their Children of either the Jewish Faith or Jewish antecedence were killed in cold blood, were clearly sought out and systematically slaughtered, is not a bargaining framework in which denial will persist.
“..At ..beginning of May 1942 SS Oberfuhrer Brack from ..Fuhrer’s chancellery suddenly came to Lublin. With Globocnik he discussed resuming ..extermination of ..Jews. Globocnik said he had too few people to carry out this programme. Brack stated that ..euthanasia programme had stopped and that ..people from T4 would from now on be detailed to him on a regular basis so that ..decisions taken at ..Wannsee conference could be implemented. As it appeared that it would not be possible for ..Einsatzgruppe to clear individual areas of Jews and ..people in ..large Ghettos of Warsaw and Lemberg by shooting them ..decision had been taken to set up 2 further extermination camps which would be ready by August 1st. 1942 ..Treblinka and Sobibor. ..large scale ‘Vernichtungsaktion’ extermination programme ..due to start on August 1st. 1942.” SS Untersturmfuhrer Josef Oberhauser.
I use so often what I consider my motto over a widely entered into arena in the hope that it implants upon those reading their words, the moral intention that is both ethically sought and is furnished with truth. The integrity of what this truth as it pertains to these Jews of Europe must mean that it has to be borne factually so as not to distort nor corrupt all of human history. That essential is relevant as it gives rise to a required remembrance for the 6,000,000 Slaughtered Jews who remain as a reminder as to why hatred must never be acceptable. So with my use of these words, Always to Remember, Never to Forget, they again resonate for me as a clarion call to those who would seek to further diminish the intensity of the assault on our memory for these Jews of Europe. For this mediocre minority, whose denial seeks to deflect our attention away from those who were and are still responsible for The Holocaust enactment, their vain effort will not vandalise the truth nor betray our search and reliance upon it.
“..I saw them myself ..Chelmno ..Treblinka ..Sobibor ..Belzec.” SS Obersturmbannfuhrer Rudolf Hoess.
Mankind displays its inhumanity before the doors of the Gas Chambers and toward other’s of all humanity so as to reign above those they might perceive or consider unequal to them. Whether that is termed racially or religiously, the Jews of Europe were packed tightly into these Death Camps and so brutally driven toward annihilation. I had learned fully of these spaces and when I wrote my first book on the subject of The Holocaust, it was clearly drawn from the Testimony of all those who had been involved in even this obscene spectre of the catastrophe. It was essential at the time to make a statement, and be they the Survivor, the Witness, the Perpetrator, the Bystander or even those we consider the Participator, their evidence all added to a more complete jurisdiction over the crimes we have come to learn of. At pains to bring about an objective view of the words I used I wanted the reader to emerge at the end of the work with all evidences intertwined and without the crucial identification of that evidence not appearing in any way subjective. But also in that title was the acknowledgement that we were losing the ability to learn from those very People immediately knowledgeable of what it is we seek to know of, as it is the Survivor who knows the truth we have so far discerned and corroborated through them.
“..Wirth conducted ..Aktionen in Bernburg. Subordinate to him were ..burners ..disinfectors and drivers. He also supervised ..transportation of ..mentally ill and ..corpses. One day in ..winter of 1941 Wirth arranged a transport of euthanasia personnel ..to Poland. I was picked together with about 8 ..10 other men and transferred to Belzec. ..I don’t remember ..names of ..others. Upon our arrival in Belzec ..we met Friedel Schwarz and ..other SS men. ..They supervised ..construction of barracks that would serve as a gas chamber. Wirth told us that in Belzec all ..Jews will be struck down. For this purpose barracks were built as gas chambers. I installed shower heads in ..gas chambers. ..nozzles were not connected to any water pipes ..they would serve as camouflage for ..gas chamber. For ..Jews who were gassed it would seem as if they were being taken to baths and for disinfection.” SS Unterscharfuhrer Erich Fuchs.
That said, the title of my very first book emerged as Testimony and Fading Memory in The Holocaust which does not alter the wrenching detail nor the essential need to connect with the testimony. We take that marker from all of those evidence deliverer’s and we see them all as essential to us knowing ever more detail of their truth, no matter if that detail is the act itself from the Perpetrators themselves. It is essential, and no matter how reprehensible some of these perpetrator, participator or even these witness evidence’s continually deliver, it is more than evident that we look objectively upon each to develop the whole. Hitler knew, in the very detail of the atrocity his daily reports referred to, that there was a human failing to acknowledge fully what mankind was capable of so readily achieving. But in coming to terms with the incomprehensible nature that is The Holocaust, we clearly demand the horror that the Survivor endured. It is essentially revisited and even relived for the benefit of world history but also for some who will never accede to the truth that humanity is prone to this gravest atrocity.
“..midsummer ..early autumn 1942 ..arrived at Treblinka from Belzec. ..Malkinia station ..already dark by ..time I reached Treblinka. In ..camp there were bodies lying everywhere. ..they were all swollen. ..dragged through ..camp to ..upper section by Jews. ..working Jews were forced to keep moving by ..Ukrainian guards ..also ..Germans. ..saw them being beaten. ..tremendous confusion and a horrible din. ..went walking around ..camp. ..established ..some ..guard squads were with girls and ..put down their rifles. ..I established order. I reported to Wirth in ..dining room Wirth ..Stangl ..Oberhauser were there. ..next day ..no longer ..bodies lying around. ..about 9:00 am ..transport arrived. ..men ..already standing naked in .. reception yard.” SS Untersturmfuhrer Kurt Franz.
That we continually demand of the Survivor their return to these barren shadow lands is both a cruel and necessary concern for us that their story is still to be learned. I have looked into the eye of the Survivor and I have seen their pain. In acknowledging that this pain is both for what they witnessed and then endured, we must come to terms with that it is also for what we allowed to happen to them. We had become the bystanders to a cataclysmic catastrophe as we either looked the other way or shuffled aside to allow the fuller progress toward The Holocaust happen. The role of History therefore, is not to refute those who seek to deny the truth but to place the integrity of what we know as factually correct. We then place all we have learned to know and before the alter to posterity, we ensure that which judges our own inappropriate response is recognised. Denial is not just the threat that its illiterate and inarticulate refutation of the truth, which cannot be bargained with, seeks to suggest. We have the truth. Their argument is weakened by our relevance and the truth it contains stands before all time to accuse the inability of the world of the time to stem the flow of so much Jewish blood.
“..Between 1937 and ..beginning of 1943 ..Jewish population of Europe should have decreased by an estimated 4,000,000 ..partly due to excess mortality of ..Jews in Middle and Western Europe and partly due to ..evacuations ..mainly in ..Eastern territories.” Dr. Richard Korherr.
We have the exacting and even audited accounts of the cruellest detail and I have written the books to show my own acceptance of this very detail which 6,000,000 Jews of Europe underwent. My accusation therefore, of the guilt of the many in all of this, is also what drives the denial lobby forward. It appears a nonsense as to how these racist deniers can still adhere to any form of reverence for a criminal past so as to legitimise an illegitimate political cause. We have our own Allied fighters who fought the good fight and died as a consequence of Hitler’s rabid ambition, are they too to be denied their place in the integrity of our history. How can it be even acceptable to advocate for a distorted view of our own past that will desecrate our present and obscure our future from that past. In this political revisionist nonsense, I guess in essence they seek to alter the truth for which constituted nations and churches would not want to have itself named as either complicit in such inhumanity or have duplicity levelled at it! Which of any of these nations of Europe, responsible in part for what Hitler managed to achieve would seeks to accept it was both complicit and even active in the scale of the atrocity!
“..I ..never knew ..total number ..I have nothing to help me make an estimate. ..I ..remember ..figure in ..larger actions ..repeated to me by Eichmann or his deputies. ..I ..no longer remember ..figures for ..smaller actions ..insignificant in comparison with ..numbers given. I regard ..total of 2,500,000 ..far too high. ..Auschwitz had limits to its destructive possibilities ..Upper Silesia ..Polish territory under German rule 250,000 Germany ..Theresienstadt 100,000 Holland 95,000 Belgium 20,000 France 110,000 Greece 65,000 Hungary 400,000 Slovakia 90,000 .” SS Obersturmbannfuhrer Rudolf Hoess.
I look to Poland, and what it is trying to achieve in refashioning its past in order to shift the emphasis of The Holocaust, and am aghast that Polish historians can allow for such a Polish distortion. Poland’s attempt to move The Holocaust geographically away from their Polish lands, where The Holocaust was largely conducted, or where it became the conduit for all that Hitler wished for Poland is not to be connived over in any single way. I am constantly asked why Poland does this sought after shift from responsibility, or even its non-Jewish peoples complicity in some of what is The Holocaust, and it appears as simple. Poland is the gravest yard in all of History where some Polish collusion, certain Polish collaboration and even Polish effort all enters a minefield of Polish complicity. While there remains a dearth of duplicitous behaviours, which have scored an indelible wound on all of Polish history, and that too must be confronted, we owe it to those Jews, Polish Jews especially who were Murdered on Polish soil, to acknowledge that fact. We do not sit here to defend against denial nor promote accusation for its own sake nor can we alter the geographical spectrum to obfuscate the reality we know is the truth.
“..Lublin [read Majdanek] 24,733 ..Belzec 434,508 ..Sobibor ..101,370 ..Treblinka ..713,555.” SS Sturmbannfuhrer Hermann Hoefle.
For world history, denial is too weak and tawdry a hatred to be concerned with and any rewriting of our history cannot alter the facts as we surely know them. What we have in the infinitesimal integrity of The Holocaust is its factual truth, all of which adds to bolster our clearer and totally objective narrative. We uphold here the traditions of History with the factual truth and its integrity assigned to it. We tell it as it is! There is no debate. The puerile essential necessary for those in this denial hatred is that the Jewish People, and while their Jewish Faith has held stronger than their wanton lack of tolerance for their being, we guard against the intrusion of illegitimacy. For the Jewish People, who had felt the sting of hatred, and endured this progress toward their almost complete annihilation for more than 2,000 years, 6,000,000 Murdered Jews of Europe, these Men, Women and Their Children stand in accusation against us for the near accomplishment of such an offensive tragedy.
“..SS expert on burning bodies ..ordered us to put women ..particularly fat women ..on ..first layer of ..grill ..face down. ..second layer could consist of whatever was brought ..men ..women ..children ..and so on ..layer on top of layer. ..expert then ordered us to lay dry branches under ..grill and to light them. Within a few minutes ..fire would take so it was difficult to approach ..pyre from ..50 meters away. ..work was extremely difficult. ..stench was awful. Liquid excretions from ..corpses squirted all over ..prisoner ..workers. ..SS man operating ..excavator often dumped ..corpses directly onto ..prisoners working nearby ..wounding them seriously.” Yechiel Reichman.
Here at Treblinka the offence of annihilation and its attempt to obliterate all traces of its undertaken has been considered and will be face a forensic investigation till time ends. What is to be recognised in the unbridled, unprecedented and unparalleled accumulation of all these factors though, will never be reconciled while deceit and the attempt to hide from the truth cements such hatred. The sheer detail in hostility, bigotry and denial is the subjective tenet of a hatred still to climb out of the inhuman abyss. So while we search to deliver the most comprehensive study of each facet of The Holocaust, we must explore every factor of this atrocity to not only secure the memory of the Jewish losses, but to ensure we are aware of all that was done to the Jews of Europe and by those leading the charge. In achieving The Holocaust, and the atrocity itself is what for Hitler remains a posthumous endeavour of sheer brutal atrocity and the inhuman accomplishment above all others which Hitler sought out in his putrid life.
“..Then began ..general exhumation and burning of corpses ..it may have taken from November 1942 to March 1943. ..incineration’s went on day and night ..without interruption ..initially at one ..then at two sites. At one of ..sites it was possible to incinerate about 2,000 corpses within 24 hours. Approximately four weeks after ..start of ..incineration operation ..second site was set up. ..on an average ..a total of 300,000 corpses were burnt at one site within about five months ..and 240,000 at ..second one during a 4 month period. These are obviously estimates of averages. It would probably be correct to put ..sum total at 500,000 corpses.” SS-Scharfuhrer Heinrich Gley.
This effort to conceal too, and it was the case for Belzec and every one of the x6 Death Camps on Polish soil which I have stood upon and recognised the hollowed out essence of a disappeared Jewish People. But such is the certainty that it is an unanswerable question as to whether we will ever know the very detail that remained unexpressed outside the gates of Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, Treblinka or Auschwitz and Birkenau. It is a further tragedy though that we expect many of those who managed to escape the confines of these spaces, these Death Camps of Hitler’s, his Vernichtunglager, to revisit their horror so that we can come up with the impossible comprehension to this incomprehensible atrocity against these Jewish People. The very detail of The Holocaust will not be denied by the admittance that some Poles, acted better than too many Poles. In that descriptive, by the way, no accusation is aimed at All Poles, just merely at some Poles who acted in unison with Hitler’s intention to Murder those Polish Neighbours who were Jews.
“..SS Scharfuhrer Herbert Floss arrived at this time who must previously have been in another camp. He then had ..installation built for burning ..corpses. ..incineration was carried out by placing railroad rails on blocks of concrete. ..corpses were then piled up on these rails. Brush wood was placed under ..rails. ..wood was drenched with gasoline. Not only ..newly obtained corpses were burnt in this way ..but also those exhumed from ..ditches. ..burning of corpses proceeded day and night. When ..fire had died down ..whole skeletons or single bones remained behind on ..grating. Mounds of ash had accumulated underneath it. A different prisoner commando ..der Asche Bande ..Ash Gang ..had to sweep up ..ashes ..place ..remaining bones on thin metal sheets ..pound them with round wooden dowels ..and then shake them through a narrow mesh metal sieve ..whatever remained in ..sieve was crushed once more. Bones not burnt and which could not easily be split were again thrown into ..fire. ..camp leadership was faced with ..problem of how to get rid of ..huge heaps of ash and bone fragments. Experiments at mixing ..ashes with dust and sand ..in an effort to conceal them ..proved unsuccessful. Finally it was decided to pour ..ash and bone fragments back into ..empty ditches and to cover them with a thick layer of sand and garbage. Alternate layers of ash and sand were poured into ..ditches. ..top layer consisted of 2 metres of earth.” SS Oberscharfuhrer Heinrich Matthes.
Let the facts speak for themselves so that the truth is evident and it will confront denial as the truth constitutes the answer to all the lies the deniers wish to spread. Truth openly expressed further dilutes the deniers ability to fashion any argument which is not immediately rounded upon by even those unlearned in the ways of rebuttal. Floss’s arrival at Treblinka from Sobibor linked the entire operation to Blobel’s SK 1005 which was ultimately under Eichmann’s jurisdiction and we have another element of the truth. Even this Eichmann connection did not avail the operatives of SK 1005 access to any of SS Gruppenfuhrer Odilo Globocnik’s Aktion Reinhard Death Camps, a secure position he held onto tightly. Typical in this denial forgery is that The Auschwitz Museum is often accused in statements suggesting it looks purely to the mass Murder of the Jews. The Auschwitz Museum itself pays close attention to these other’s murdered within its own confines and particularly for those Poles who died within Poland and indeed within the entire Death Camp system established by Hitler within Poland.
“..of ..1,300,000 deported to ..Camp, they were from amongst 20 nationalities, and these nations gave up their Jews also. Of that total, some 400,000 were registered and kept as Slave Labour and 900,000 were immediately Gassed. While Jews constituted 85% of all those deported here, they represented more than 90% of all those who were murdered. The 400,000 Slave Labourers were gradually degraded till they could persist no longer and added finally to the total number of those Jews and others Gassed or otherwise Murdered. That stated, we assess that of the 1,100,000 who were Murdered from all 1,300,000 deported to the Camp, some 900,000 Jews were Gassed immediately or otherwise murdered in the camp. Of the 400,000 of those registered for Slave Labour, 200,000 died or were otherwise Murdered. These included some 100,000 Jews, 64,000 Poles, 21,000 Gypsies, 14,000 Russian POW’s and a further 10,000 other nationals.” The Auschwitz State Museum.
While there are those who truly knew the full detail of what they administered, there are those who from outside the confines of these detaining spaces, pieced together the sense of what was being achieved outside their own front doors. Many, who give as precise an account as can be established for history, do not rely wholly upon the evidence those like Hoess can deliver. So I shared with you the uncompromising approach history takes as it settles before you what the Museum of Auschwitz affirms to be the Truth. Clearing this out of the debit door, I have been confronting a certain narrative recently which stems from a voided argument that the Polish people are not all innocent. Realistically, they are accused of some charges levelled against them for crimes against their fellow Poles, Jews who were Murdered during the period of The Holocaust, and on their soil. All of a sudden though the questions are being shared with Poland’s Ministry of Culture, so I can only assume that the narrative is being directed along the lines of Poland’s recent desire to alter and redirect The Holocaust historical account. These questions appear to present themselves to us with a less than moderate concern for the actual truth.
“..highest number of gassings in one day was 10,000. ..most that could be carried out in a day with ..available facilities.” SS Obersturmbannfuhrer Rudolf Hoess.
But then, what equates the lies that can be attributed to all out denial of the factual truth that is The Holocaust, when 6,000,000 Murdered Jews of Europe, all ramifications are clearly a concern when the truth is being confronted. Obfuscation must not be the premise of any state, nor the deliberate obstruction by any nation to gather and harness the whole truth. All elements of Polish present day intention, which must deal with Hitler’s attention to 3,000,000 of Poland’s Jews, cannot be sequestered arbitrarily. In my 20 years of effort on the subject of The Holocaust I have never budged from that direct and unambiguous response to anyone who cites other than 6,000,000 Jews of Europe, be they Men, Women or Their Children cannot be abandoned again. It even seems that there are those who seek to promote an improper discourse in their own Country’s, and Survivor’s and Jews are being faced by the forms of abuse that denial issues forth. It is important too, that while we Remember the loss to the Jewish People, we do not allow for those other’s, to be forgotten.
“..transports to Belzec ..gassing operations ..stopped ..suddenly. ..staff members of ..Belzec camp ..informed ..place would be rebuilt completely. ..group of Jews ..in charge of ..demolition work. ..March ..April 1943 ..cremation of ..corpses ..terminated and ..graves ..levelled. ..camp ..emptied entirely and levelled. ..some planting ..done there. ..Jewish work commando ..to Sobibor. I remained in Belzec for two more days ..clearing ..loading. ..I was in Sobibor ..heard during ..transport of ..Jewish work commando ..Belzec to Sobibor ..mutiny ..shooting took place which led to some deaths.” SS Oberscharfuhrer Werner Dubois.
Though not as systematically chosen for slaughter as were the Jewish People, those who died as a result of Hitler’s Worldview are remembered, Lest We Forget. But the component parts of this Weltanschauung view of Hitler’s recognises that there are some 50 to 70 million people felled World War II who remain to reside alongside the Jews as victims of Hitler’s hatred. Hitler and his Nazi’s were unrestrained in their abuse of the power they fully exercised against the Jews of Europe. As has been recognised, and against any other’s of those who stood before Hitlerite intention in this World. Those who seek to deny the Jewish People their space also deny the efforts of so many Allied forces set to confront Hitler. For the denial arguments too, the capacity to slaughter is also to be their misguided dispute and is totally undermined by the factual truth. I am here to prove that the sheer capacity to murder all of the Jews of Europe though was not fully engaged as Hitler demanded. Hitler was clearly short of murdering these 11,293,300 Jews of Europe, as were identified in The Wannsee Conference, by sheer lack of time and not by any other factor that was his own indisputable intention for the Jewish People.
“..As soon as ..ramp had been erected in ..castle ..people started arriving in Kulmhof (Chelmno) from Litzmannstadt in lorries. ..people were told that they had to take a bath ..that their clothes had to be disinfected and ..could hand in any valuable items beforehand to be registered. When they had undressed they were sent to ..cellar of ..castle and then along a passageway on to ..ramp and from there into ..gas-van. In ..castle there were signs marked “to ..baths”. ..gas vans were large ..about 4-5 meters long ..2.2 meter wide ..2 meter high. ..interior walls ..lined with sheet metal. On ..floor ..a wooden grille. ..floor of ..van had an opening which could be connected to ..exhaust by means of a removable metal pipe. When ..lorries were full of people ..double doors at ..back were closed and ..exhaust connected to ..interior of ..van.” SS Scharfuhrer Walter Burmeister.
What we are certain of, if the application of the very detail of die Endlosung der Judenfrage had to be accommodated in any one of the x6 Death Camps, it could have been wholly achieved. While we firstly register what Hoess must have known in terms of the capacity to murder within Auschwitz and Birkenau, we acknowledge that range to do so would have achieved 3,650,000 Murdered Jews. This would have been achieved in the space of a single year on estimates liberally applied. The capacity issue therefore has been fully resolved by the lead industrial killer himself, Hoess himself. Belzec too, which murdered 884,700 of its Jews in a 10 month period, could have murdered these 6,000,000 Jews of Europe within a 6 year time frame. So while Auschwitz was in operation, and Slaughtering Jews on a mechanised and industrial scale for more than 3 years, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka were not in the least bit idle, combining totally a final resolve for Hitler’s solution.
“..You must ..guarantee that ..bodies of these ..Jews will either be burned or buried in every location ..that nowhere can anything else of any kind happen with these bodies.” Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler.
While the killing had been continuous however for more than 5 years in Auschwitz, and prior to Birkenau, another eye became focused on the traces of the atrocity, once the end for Nazi Germany was encroaching upon the killing space. Also, as is the case for the 21 Gassing Vans which were in operation during the period of World War II, their entire capacity was aligned to what the Death Camps and Killing Sites achieved and what the Ghetto and other Camps also functioned to achieve. All the while Hitler is seeking to ensure that the truth would not be told or written as Himmler was directed to ensure. East, as each of these Gassing Vans, many with the capability to Murder 1,500 Jews in a matter of 15 hours sees the detailed atrocity for 31,500 Murdered Jews managed on any given day, let alone working on a 24 hour basis could accommodate a capacity in excess of Wannsee’s 11,293,300 target. So in under a year, the target that Hitler had fully set for The Wannsee Conference would have been completed, without the added volume of der Einsatzgruppe shootings, or the fullest emergence of all x6 of the Death Camps.
“..inside ..camp ..each member of ..permanent staff had a specific function ..commander of ..Ukrainian auxiliaries ..leader of a working group ..excavation of pits ..erection of barbed wire fences. ..when a transport with Jews arrived there was so much ‘work’ ..regular activity was interrupted ..everyone on ..permanent staff had to participate somehow in ..routine extermination process. Primarily each member ..of ..permanent staff took place in ..unloading of ..transports.” SS Oberscharfuhrer Hermann Erich Bauer.
Also, and along with the starvation which the ravaged Ghetto’s with the additionally compounded neglect of those interned within the Concentration Camps, capacity is far from being either negligible nor was it unachievable. Nor have we ventured or forgotten the impoverishment of every single Jew that was still remaining alive in Europe, so that all excess and destruction was practicably achievable by whatever means Hitler engaged his intention. I clearly do not point to the Facts here, merely to the supposition of the possibility given over to Hitler’s effort. With that annihilatory task comes the assured suppression of those denials which would suggest the capacity, nor the will to achieve all that Hitler sought from the Jew of Europe was not there. Please, and though this will wound the hearts and souls of those of You who are sickened by what the Jewish People were put through, it is essential for those who do not know yet these truths, to face this confrontation with the true reality of the hatred so audibly expressed.
“..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.
The deliberate confrontation with our senses is NEVER my entire intention, though the capacity to achieve this is paramount in what Hitler sought to finally resolve. While you are saddened by what we, an ostensibly ‘christian’ communion of nations allowed the Jewish People to endure, my sadness is engraved upon my inner being, and though perhaps not as indelibly as yours, it sears my conscious being. My words so often emanate from a space no longer occupied by 6,000,000 Jews and I use their intention to mark my own intention for them. For those of you who are left reeling by those vagrants who seek to deny any or all of this, I stand between you and them to ensure the truth is known. Clearly, Hitler could have all too easily accomplished the wilful Slaughter of as many Jews as he so wished, and with impunity too. Certainly, Hitler acted without any restraint, and given the World’s abandonment of the Jewish People, Hitler recognised the vacuum he would operate in. For those of you touched in any way by this awful Catastrophe for the Jews of Europe, your tragedy is our loss.
“..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 know the many millions of other’s whose lives were also forfeit and while I have clipped some of these passages from my own study of the Einsatzgruppen, not to simply show what was managed, but that they seek to confirm what could be more speedily accomplished. If these are then added to the overall resolve for Hitler’s Final Solution, and while Hitler sought to extinguish the very existence of 11,293,300 Jews from within Europe, it was achievable and without equivocation. There are attempts to this day, even from within the passages of an enlightened history that is fully seeking to allow for the further diminishing of the space remaining to 6,000,000 Annihilated Jews. It is a matter for me, of the honest integrity for history in general that such a term as The Holocaust can only belong to the Jewish People. No other People were so confronted and so systematically sought out for their Slaughter, than these 6,000,000 Murdered Jews of Europe.
“..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.
That even the denial of their final resting place is to be further exacerbated by any refusal to identify their uniqueness, in the terms The Holocaust provides, must not be given any space to postulate. Clearly, that even Wehrmacht General’s were both complicit and accepting of such murderous scenes and terms as they came to recognise, must not deliver to history other than the whole truth as to why we place an emphasis on the Jewish presence in The Holocaust. The assertion that many others of the 50 or even 70 million souls lost during World War II require that same space, both to be remembered as a eulogised space for them also, is a fallacy. What is fundamentally wrong in all this sought after space alongside the Jews, who are The Holocaust, is a further leaning toward excluding the Jewish People from the single most atrocious crime ever perpetrated by a human species upon Human Beings. That must not be allowed, as we recall how readily we allowed for the atrocity to occur in the first place
“..from June 1941 to January 1942 ..I was ..Commander of Sonderkommando 4 A. ..June 1942 ..entrusted by Gruppenfuhrer Mueller with ..task ..obliterating ..traces ..executions carried out by ..Einsatzgruppe ..East. ..orders ..report in person to ..commanders of ..Security Police ..SD ..pass on Mueller’s orders verbally ..supervise ..implementation. ..order ..top secret ..there was to be no correspondence in connection with ..task. ..September 1942 ..reported to Dr. Thomas ..Kiev ..passed ..order ..to him. ..May ..June 1943 ..made additional trips to Kiev ..after conversations with Dr. Thomas and ..SS Police Leader Hennecke ..order was carried out. During ..visit ..August ..observed ..burning of bodies in ..mass grave near Kiev. ..grave was about 55 meters long ..3 meters wide and 2.5 meters deep. ..top ..removed ..bodies ..covered with inflammable material ..ignited. ..about two days until ..grave burned ..to ..bottom. ..grave was filled in ..traces ..practically obliterated. Owing to ..moving up of ..front ..not possible to destroy ..mass graves further south and east which had resulted from executions by ..Einsatzgruppe. ..my orders ..should have extended ..duties over ..entire area occupied by ..Einsatzgruppe ..owing to ..retreat from Russia ..could not carry out my orders completely.” SS Standartenfuhrer Paul Blobel.
Though Hitler fully sought to wage War, this feint of War was all done to ensure the space required would exist to shield from view of the supposed German sensitivity to atrocity. Within that task, the Wehrmacht became the prime source of concealment and even participation. Those General’s, with their measured aristocracy of elite fighting precedence expose the entire rotten core of a German military echelon hell bent upon military achievement at the cost to their own humanity. The Final Solution of The Jewish Question, die Endlosung der Judenfrage crossed all boundaries. That specialist camps were designated for the purpose of this, die Endlosung der Judenfrage, which Hitler had established in Poland, we have to recognise the shedding of so much blood was to saturate the soil of Poland and not be traced back to a Germany to be unspoiled by such savagery.
“..After I had looked at everything ..I returned to Lublin ..following day. On Florstedt’s orders ..I and ..unit assigned to me began to cremate ..bodies that had been buried in ..Krepiecki forest towards Lwow. At first I excavated a pit ..but because cremation did not proceed quickly enough in this pit I devised ..following set up for cremation ..I spread old truck tarps over rocks piled to a considerable height ..ordered ..bodies placed on these ..and poured methanol over them. I had wood stacked beneath ..tarps and set on fire. In this way about 100 bodies could be burned at one time. Some of them had been dug up ..some were fresh ..just brought in from ..camp. After such a load had been reduced to ashes ..these were pounded to powder and dumped into ..pit whence we had removed ..bodies in ..first place. To pound ..ashes we used iron sheets and pounders. These tools were supplied by an SD functionary from Kommando 1005 who supervised my work. In this way I managed by ..end of October to cremate all ..bodies buried in ..forest and in ..region behind Compound V Majdanek. According to ..pertinent calculations I cremated approximately 6,000 bodies in ..forest and approximately 3,000 behind Compound V. These figures also include .. fresh corpses of inmates who died in ..camp during this time.” SS Unterscharfuhrer Erich Muhsfeldt.
Clearly then, the destruction of all of European Jewry, so roundly targeted, definitely identifies with the Jewish People as the systematic target solely sought. Why is it now that there is an effort seeking to diminish what was Hitler’s fullest remit for the entire Jewish race of People. With all due respect to these vast numbers of people either killed or even murdered during the period, Family member’s included, this was a War in which loss was an inevitable cost. None were so systematically sought out, legislated against, corralled and marched to their own destruction with such mechanised and industrialised precision. Also, and what was legislated for, which decries the very supposed ideological nature of these crimes, all future method was to be occupied to disguise, conceal and then obliterate these racist hate crimes. That was Hitler’s bequest to humanity, its perfected destruction in the detail of 6,000,000 Jewish lives and the exploitation of any and all material wealth to be pilfered. Hitler’s legacy lives on in the denial of a measly term which encapsulates all that he sought for the Jews, and as the greatest butcher in all of History whose edict was The Final Solution.
June 18th. 1947. “..During my visit in August 1943 I myself witnessed ..burning of corpses in a mass grave near Kiev. This grave was approximately 55 metres long ..3 metres wide ..2.5 metres deep. After ..cover had been removed ..corpses were covered with inflammable materials and set on fire. About 2 days passed before ..fire had burned down to ..bottom of ..trench. Afterwards ..grave was filled in and all traces thereby virtually obliterated. Because of ..advance of ..front it was not possible to destroy ..mass graves located in ..South and East which had resulted from execution by ..task groups.” SS Standartenfuhrer Paul Blobel.
