Nazis Use Gas Chambers to Facilitate Mass Murder in Poland

[Globalization41]

London, By Wireless to The New York Times, by Milton Bracker, Monday, July 26, 1943: The German murder toll in Poland is reaching a new high with the total victims estimated at 3,200,000, including 1,800,000 Jews as of May 1, it was asserted today by Wladyslaw Banaczyk, Polish Minister of Home Affairs. [The Poles had set up a government in exile when the Germans and Soviets occupied the country in 1939.] ... Not only the statistics, but the method of slaughter detailed by M. Banaczyk -- including the kicking to death of small children -- were so appalling as to draw from a British reporter at the press conference a question as to the basis for the "assumptions" M. Banaczyk was making. ... The Minister was not in the least annoyed by the query. He simply explained that the Polish underground system had a special statistical section engaged primarily compiling the black deeds for which some day the Nazi regime will have to answer. ... Moreover, it was obvious that even if the toll were only a fraction of the figure given, it would still be safe to charge the Nazis with a virtually unparalleled campaign of extermination. ... M. Banaczyk said that conditions were worst in the Lublin area, though only today the latest reports indicated that they were also frightful in Cracow and Radom. ... Around Tomaszow, Hrubieszow, Krasenystaw, Zamosc, Lubartow, and Pulawy they were being wiped out, he said. ... He told the story this way: "The Germans began acting with the Bilgoraj district, in which there is not a single Pole left. In seven other districts extermination is in full swing. The districts present an appalling spectacle, for the towns and villages are completely empty. Cattle are wandering loose about the countryside, frightened away from the farms by the sounds of shooting, bombing, and fighting." ... "The entire population is being removed from the areas involved. A considerable percentage of them is shot on the spot. Small children are killed with a kick. Males from 14 years to 50 are deported to an unknown destination in sealed trucks. Children of up to 13 years, woman, and all over 50 are deported to the Majdanek death camp in the Lublin District, where they were slaughtered in masses in death chambers as were the Jews before them." ... "On July 2 and 5 two trains of 30 cars each, with 100 persons per car, ran into Majdanek siding. Within a few hours on each of those days more than 3,000 persons were murdered in gas chambers. Such executions are taking place every day." ... "Many persons -- the number estimated at 100,000 -- have fled to the forest. The Germans are trying to catch them with cordons of SS men [Elite Guard] around the districts involved. They are using artillery and tanks and dropping bombs." ... Indicating that brutal anarchy is prevailing in the stricken land of the Poles, he said that although technically there was supposed to be a death warrant signed for every execution, Dr, Hans Frank, the German Governor had actually signed only 140,000 such documents. The general picture at present was one of stark terror regardless of whether or not the figures could be accepted in the most literal sense. ... It was M. Banaczyk's theory that the German policy was to completely rid a belt of 100 kilometers [a kilometer is .621 of a mile] wide in eastern Poland of Poles and thus form an "eastern belt of ethnographic security" which would also serve as a "belt of strategic security" in German defense plans on the Eastern Front. ... Regarding the Jews, the Minister said there was evidence now that Nazis were creating artificial ghettos in the hope of luring to them the Jews who had escaped previous massacres. ... Despite the black over-all picture, M. Banaczyk said that the downfall of Mussolini [on Sunday] and the fascist system had found Poland prepared for the final "armed conflict" against her oppressors. The Polish Directorate of Civil Resistance was eager for battle, he said, and one thing was certain -- there would be no Polish Quisling. [Quisling was the Norwegian Nazi leader.]

[The above article was transcribed from the below link.]

Italy Put Under Martial Law by Badaglio; Hamburg Blasted; Russians Encircling Orel

[Globalization41.]

[Davey Boy]

The region of Bilgoraj, referred to in the article, was one of the main centers of the Zamosc uprising, which was a reaction to German attempts to begin Generalplan Ost in Eastern Europe.

The Germans started chasing out and killing the Polish peasants of the Zamosc region, and also kidnapping young children for forced Germanization. In their place they brought in ethnic Germans from the Balkans. However, the Poles began to fight back, often using local forests as bases for attacks on German units and the new settlers.

Eventually the Germans postponed the operation, due to the military and economic costs it was incurring.

[Lynn R]

print location: page 9, column 1 - Tuesday 27 July 1943


see also: page 6, column 3 - Thursday 2 July 1942 ~

ALLIES ARE URGED TO EXECUTE NAZIS

Report on Slaughter of Jews in Poland Asks Like Treatment for Germans

CURB ON REICH IS SOUGHT

'Only Way to Save Millions From Certain Destruction,' Says the Appeal

Wireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES
LONDON, July 1 — The Polish Government in London has been urged in a report on the slaughter of 700,000 Jews in German-occupied territories to call on the Allied governments to adopt a policy of retaliation that will force the Germans to cease their killings.

"We believe," the report says, "That Hitler's Germany in time will be punished for all its horrors, crimes and brutality but this is no comfort for the millions menaced with death. We implore the Polish Government, the guardian representative of all the peoples of Poland, to protect their against complete annihilation, to influence the Allied governments to apply similar treatment against Germans and fifth columnists living at present in Allied countries.
"Let all Germans know this, know that punishment will be meted out to Germans in the United States and other countries.
"We realize we ask the Polish Government to do something most difficult and unusual but this is the only way to save millions of Jews from certain destruction."
The report, describing the Jews' ordeal in occupied Poland and German attempts to exterminate the Jewish population, reached London through underground channels. Szmul Zygelbojm, Jewish Socialist leader and member of the Polish National Council in London, received it and vouched for its trustworthiness. He said the sources were absolutely reliable, although the story seemed too terrible and the atrocities too inhuman to be true.

<snip>

The story goes on to describe atrocities, give numbers of dead, and mentions "gas chambers on wheels" sent to "Western Poland, territories incorporated in the Reich" taking "90 persons at a time" in the village of Chelmno, "1,000 gassed daily" from various townships between November 1941 and March 1942, including "two thousand 'gypsies'" and "35,000 Jews in Lodz between Jan. 2 and Jan. 9" as well as deportation of Jews from Lublin ("a few were detained in the suburb of Majdanek: the others disappeared.") and a "blood bath" arranged in the Warsaw ghetto on the night of April 17.

The call for the retaliatory action in all Allied countries certainly affects the reception of the information reported and I'm sure wasn't forgotten when any further reports from such sources were received.

[David Thompson]

For interested readers:

Foreign Relation of the United States (FRUS) 1941, vol. 1, Allied declarations condemning German atrocities in occupied territories
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bi ... e&page=445

FRUS 1942, vol. 1, Allied declarations condemning German atrocities in occupied territories; proposal for the creation of a United Nations commission for the investigation of war crimes
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bi ... 01&isize=M

FRUS 1942, vol. 3, Efforts by the United States and Other Governments to Have the Pope Protest Publicly Against Nazi Atrocities in German Occupied Areas
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bi ... 03&isize=M

FRUS 1943, vol. 1, Allied declarations and warnings regarding Nazi atrocities; establishment of the United Nations Commission for the Investigation of War Crimes
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bi ... 01&isize=M

FRUS 1944, vol. 1, Allied declarations and warnings regarding Nazi atrocities
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bi ... 01&isize=M

[Globalization41]

Stockholm, Sweden, By Telephone to The New York Times, Monday, April 12, 1943: The population of the Warsaw ghetto has been reduced from 500,000 to approximately 40,000, according to the annual report just published by the Swedish Israel Mission, a Swedish "Aryan" organization aiding Jewish victims of German persecution. "Hunger typhus" rages among the survivors and starvation further raises the mortality rate. [Earlier reports said the the Germans had eliminated the ghettos of Lodz and Krakow.] ... The Jews incarcerated in the Jewish reservation behind nine-foot walls and barbed wire may leave the ghetto only under armed guard to perform only forced labor for the Germans. For a ten-hour day they receive the equivalent of 20 cents but 12 cents is deducted for the mid-day meal. A loaf of bread costs $5. ... The report also covers the situation of Jews in Vienna, where only 7,000 remain of the original 200,000. The rest have been deported either to Theresienstadt in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia or to Lodz, called Litzmannstadt by the Germans, in the former Polish province now called Warthegau. The few who have been allowed to remain in Vienna are so-called privileged cases -- families in which one spouse is "Aryan" and the children are being raised as Christians. ... The Jews still in Berlin are vagabonds who have to get along without ration cards and without a fixed place of residence. They hide out with whoever dares to shelter them and feed them a bite to eat from time to time. The Polish Jews have been given up by the Swedish organization as "hopelessly lost." They can no longer be reached by gift packages. Only money remittances are allowed by the Germans and these do not mean much because of the restrictions limiting the purchasing capacity of a Polish Jew.

[The above article was transcribe from the below link.]

Allied Sweep Corners Rommel in Tunisa

[Globalization41.]

[Globalization41]

London, By Wireless to The New York Times, Saturday, August 7, 1943: Polish Labor Fights, a publication issued here today, printed an account of a house maintained by the Germans at Treblinka, Poland, for the extermination of Jews. In this place alone, it is said, the Germans have killed 2,000,000 persons. ... The account of the executions opens with an announcement the Germans pinned up on the station where the victims arrive. ... "You may be easy in your mind as to your future," the notice read. "You are going to the east to work and your wives will have care of your household. Before you leave you must have a bath and your clothing must be deloused. Your property will be restored to you in proper condition." ... Men and women comply with the order for disrobing and then, states Polish Labor Fights, comes the first scene in the last act of the Treblinka tragedy. ... The article continues: "Children with women go first, urged on by whips of the Germans. Faster and faster they are driven and thicker and thicker fall the blows on heads paralyzed with terror and pain. The silence of the woods is shattered by the screams of women and the oaths of Germans." ... "The victims now realize their doom is near. At the entrance of the death house the No. 1 chief himself drives them to cells, freely using a whip. The floor of the cell is slippery. Some fall and are unable to rise because of the pressure of those behind. Small children are flung over the heads of the women." ... "When the cells are filled they are closed and sealed. Steam is forced through apertures and suffocation of the victims begins. At first cries can be heard but these gradually subside and after 15 minutes all is silent. The execution is over." ... "When the trap is opened to let the bodies drop down they fall in a compact mass, stuck together by heat and steam. Cold water is sprayed on them with a hose after which the gravediggers pile the corpses on a platform like the carcasses of slaughter animals." ... "Often a gravedigger is too weak to carry two bodies, as ordered, so he ties arms or legs together and runs to the burial ground, dragging them behind him." ... "The execution of men is carried out in the same way. They are driven along the same path through the woods. On their way to death the reactions of the victims differ. Some blaspheme, but all are eventually silenced by the blows." ... "At times not all victims can be squeezed into the death cells at once, and those remaining are kept near the house of death. They can see and hear all that takes place, but are so numbed by their senses that there is no sign of the instinct of self-preservation." ... "This is clear proof of the condition to which they have been reduced by ill treatment and starvation."

[The above article was transcribed from the below link.]

Red Army Pincers Threaten Kharkov; Germans Suffer Heavy Losses

[Globalization41.]

[David Thompson]

For a previous discussion of the death-by-steam allegation, see:

Murder methods in "Aktion Reinhardt" camps (steam)
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=64864

[Globalization41]

[Thanks David. I checked out the links you suggested.]

Liberty, N.Y., Special to he New York Times, Saturday, September 11, 1943: An appeal to President Roosevelt for vigorous action against abandoning Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe to their fate was made the subject of a resolution adopted tonight by Agudas Israel of America in convention at Ferndale. ... The convention heard Max Stein of Brooklyn, chairman, charge that underground reports to Agudas Israel reveal that three widely known leaders of Polish orthodox Jewry recently were murdered by the Gestapo. ... A resolution was adopted requesting the British Government to open the gates to Jewish immigrants and for power to guarantee the religious character of Palestine. [The League of Nations delegated the Territory of Palestine, formally of the Turkish Empire, to Great Britain after WWI. Britain then separated the eastern section, Transjordan, from Palestine. The British granted Transjordan its independence in 1946, which changed its name to Jordan in 1950. Britain cancelled its U.N. Mandate over Palestine in 1948, which was then rechristened Israel.]

[The above article was transcribed from the below link.]

Port of Salerno Falls to Allies;
Italian Warships Surrender at Malta;
Red Army 94 Miles From Kiev;
Germans Resist East of Dnieper;
Jap Airfield Threaten in New Guinea;
B-25s Bomb Japanese in China;
Allied Bombers from India Raid Burma;
8th Air Force Targets French Airfields

[Globalization41.]

[Paul Lantos]

Reasonably accurate reports about Belzec and Treblinka were sent from the Polish Resistance to the Gov't in Exile in London in 1942, basically as soon as these camps became operational. There are many such reports from 1942 quoted in Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka by Arad.

This is the earliest quoted report, from April 1942, published in London among the "Reports on the Situation in Occupied Poland" by the Polish Ministry-of-Interior-In-Exile.

Delegatura report, April 1942, regarding Belzec:

The camp was fully completed a few days before March 17, 1942. From that day transports with Jews began to arrive from the direction of Lvov and Warsaw... On the first day five transports arrived, afterward, one transport arrived daily from each direction. The transport enters the railway spur of Belzec camp after disembarkation, lasting half an hour, the train returns empty... The observations of the local population (the camp is within sight and hearing distance of the inhabitants near the railway station) led all of them to one conclusion: that there is a mass murder of the Jews inside the camp. The following facts testify to this:

1. Between March 17 and April 13, about fifty-two transports (each of eighteen to thirty-five freight-cars with an average of 1,500 people) arrived in the camp.
2. No Jews left the camp, neither during the day nor the night.
3. No food was supplied to the camp (whereas bread and other food articles had been dispatched to the Jews who had worked earlier on the construction of the camp).
4. Lime was brought to the camp.
5. The transports arrived at a fixed time. Before the arrival of a transport, no Jews were seen in the camp.
6. After each transport, about two freight cars with clothing are removed from the camp to the railway stores. (The guards steal clothes).
7. Jews in underwear were seen in the area of the camp.
8. In the area of the camp there are three barracks; they cannot accomodate even one-tenth of the Jews.
9. In the area of the camp, a strong odor can be smelled on warmer days.
10. The guards pay for vodka, which they drink in large quantities, with any requested sum, and frequently with watches and valuables.
11. Jews arrived in Belzec [the township] looking for a witness who would testify that Jews are being killed there. They were ready to pay 120,000 zloty... They did not find a volunteer... It is unknown by which means the Jews are killed in the camp. There are three assumptions: (1) electricity; (2) gas; (3) by pumping out the air.

With regard to (1): there is no visible source of electricity; with regard to (2): no supply of gas and no residue of the remaining gas after the ventilation of the gas chamber were observed; with regard to (3): there are no factors that deny this [possibility]. It was even verified that during the building of one of the barracks, the walls and floor were covered with metal sheets (for some purpose).

In the area of the camp huge pits were dug in the autumn. At that time it was assumed that there would be underground stores. Now the purpose of this work is clear. From the particular barrack where the Jews are taken for so-called disinfection, a narrow railway leads to these pits. It was observed that the "disinfected" Jews were transported to a common grave by this trolley.

In Belzec the term Totenlager ["death camp"] was heard in connection with the Jewish camp. The leadership of the camp is in the hands of twelve SS men (the commander is Hauptmann Wirth) who have forty guards for help.

[Globalization41]

What does "Arad" signify Paul? ... ... Here's one from just before the invasion of the Soviet Union:

Vichy, France, Wireless to The New York
Times, Saturday, June 21, 1941: The attention
of all Jews in unoccupied France was called
today to the provisions of the June 2nd law
compelling them within one month to make a
written declaration of their "race," religion,
family connections, professions, and
possessions. ... Laws regarding Jews differ
between the occupied and unoccupied zones.
In Paris regulations are issued in two forms,
one indicating that such regulations are ordered
by the occupying authority and the other
emanating directly from the Commissariat
General for Jewish Questions. In the
unoccupied zone the orders of the occupying
authorities do not have the force of law. ... In
today's decree the services of the commissariat
are described as "temporary." The word
"temporary" is used also in connection with the
personnel of the commissariat, which must not
exceed 252. Those not already belonging to
the civil service will be engaged on the
understanding that they may be dismissed with
one month's notice. ... Salaries range from
1,300 to 8,600 francs monthly. The salary of
the Commissioner, General Xavier Vallat, is
set for 150,000 francs a year [or 12,500 francs
monthly].

French Civil Service Reminds Jews to Register

Globalization41.

[Paul Lantos]

Arad = Yitzhak Arad, author of "Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps", which is THE reference for this subject. In the book he has an entire chapter devoted to knowledge of the death camps by the Polish Resistance.

[Globalization41]

Index

Globalization41.