Voices from the Holocaust

by Jon E. Lewis

  Strange, I am completely unmoved. No pity, nothing. That’s the way it is and then it’s all over. My heart beats just a little faster when involuntarily I recall the feelings and thoughts I had when I was in a similar situation.

  On 24 July 1934 in the Bundeskanzleramt, when I was confronted with the machine-gun barrels of the Heimwehr, then there were moments when I came close to weakening. I would not have allowed it to show. No, that would have been out of the question with my character. ‘So young and now it’s all over.’

  Those were my thoughts, then I pushed these feelings aside and in their place came a sense of defiance and the realization that my death would not have been in vain. And here I am today, a survivor, standing in front of others in order to shoot them. Slowly the hole gets bigger and bigger. Two of them are crying continuously. I keep them digging longer and longer: they don’t think so much when they’re digging.

  While they are working they are in fact calmer. Valuables, watches and money are put into a pile. When all of them have been brought to stand next to one another on a stretch of open ground, the two women are lined up at one end of the grave ready to be shot first.

  Two men had already been shot in the bushes by our Kriminal Kommissar; I did not see this as I had to keep my eyes on the others. As the women walked to the grave they were completely composed. They turned round. Six of us had to shoot them.

  The job was assigned thus: three at the heart, three at the head. I took the heart. The shots were fired and the brains whizzed through the air. Two in the head is too much. They almost tear it off. Almost all of them fell to the ground without a sound. Only with two of them it didn’t work. They screamed and whimpered for a long time. Revolvers were no use. The two of us who were shooting together had no failures.

  The penultimate group had to throw those who had already been shot into the mass grave then line up and fall in themselves. The last two had to place themselves at the front edge of the grave so that they would fall in at just the right spot.

  Then a few bodies were rearranged with a pickaxe and after that we began the grave-digging work. I came back dog tired but the work went on. Everything in the building had to be straightened up. And so it went on without respite.

  28 July 1941

  In the evening we drive into town. Here we experience things it is impossible to describe. We drive to the prison. The streets tell of murder. We would like to take a closer look at everything, but it is impossible to enter the gas-chambers and cellars of the prison without gas-masks. In a side turning we notice some Jewish corpses covered with sand. We look at each other in surprise. One living Jew rises up from among the corpses. We dispatch him with a few shots.

  Eight hundred Jews have been herded together; they are to be shot tomorrow. We drive further along the street. Hundreds of Jews with bloodstained faces, with bullet holes in the head, broken limbs and gouged-out eyes, run ahead of us. One of the Jews carries another one, who is bleeding to death.

  We drive to the Citadel. Here we see things no one has ever seen on earth before. It is absolutely impossible to describe them. Two soldiers stand at the entrance to the citadel. Wielding sticks as thick as fists, they lash furiously at the crowd. Jews are being pushed out from inside. Covered with blood, they collapse on top of one another – they scream like pigs – we stand and look on.

  Who gave the order to kill the Jews? No one! Somebody ordered them to be set free.

  They were all murdered because we hate them.

  Himmler Watches a Demonstration Shooting of Jews, Minsk, August 1941

  SS GENERAL KARL WOLFF

  Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer of the SS, was the prime architect of the genocide of the Jews, the man who shaped Hitler’s dream into a concrete plan. Karl Wolff was the Reichsführer Liaison Officer at Hitler’s HQ.

  An open grave had been dug and they had to jump into this and lie face downwards. And sometimes when one or two rows had already been shot, they had to lie on top of the people who had already been shot and then they were shot from the edge of the grave. And Himmler had never seen dead people before and in his curiosity he stood right up at the edge of this open grave – a sort of triangular hole – and was looking in.

  While he was looking in, Himmler had the deserved bad luck that from one or other of the people who had been shot in the head he got a splash of brains on his coat, and I think it also splashed into his face, and he went very green and pale; he wasn’t actually sick, but he was heaving and turned round and swayed, and then I had to jump forward and hold him steady and then I led him away from the grave.

  After the shooting was over, Himmler gathered the shooting squad in a semi-circle around him and, standing up in his car, so that he would be a little higher and be able to see the whole unit, he made a speech. He had seen for himself how hard the task which they had to fulfil for Germany in the occupied areas was, but however terrible it all might be, even for him as a mere spectator, and how much worse it must be for them, the people who had to carry it out, he could not see any way round it.

  They must be hard and stand firm. He could not relieve them of this duty; he could not spare them. In the interests of the Reich, in this hopefully Thousand Year Reich, in its first decisive great war after the take-over of power, they must do their duty however hard it may seem. He appealed to their sense of patriotism and their readiness to make sacrifices. Well, yes – and then he drove off. And he left this – this police unit to sort out the future for themselves, to see if and how far they could come to terms with this – within themselves, because for some it was a shock which lasted their whole lives.

  Operational Situation Report from Einsatzgruppe C, Kiev, USSR, 7 October 1941

  SS-GRUPPENFÜHRER DR OTTO RASCH

  I

  KIEV

  An advance commando of the Sonderkommando 4a, led by SS Obersturmführer Häfner and Janssen, fifty men strong, arrived on 19 September 1941, with the fighting troops in Kiev. The main commando of the Sonderkommando 4a reached Kiev on 25 September 1941, after SS Standartenführer Blobel had already been in Kiev on 21 and 22 September. The advance commando of the Einsatzgruppe staff, Police Captain Krumme, SS Obersturmführer Dr Krieger and Breun and SS Oberscharführer Braun, arrived in Kiev on 21 September 1941. The Einsatzgruppe staff followed on 25 September 1941 ...

  The Army first of all systematically secured public buildings, factories, and stocks of the scarcest goods, so that no large-scale plunder occurred either by members of the Army or by the population. Reports on mines and other explosive material in public buildings and apartment houses were made by the population in great numbers from the very first day of the occupation of Kiev. On 20 September 1941, a delayed-action mine exploded in the citadel where Artillery Headquarters were located … On 24 September 1941, an explosion occurred in the offices of the Rear Area German Military Headquarters and developed during the day into a large fire, because of the lack of water. A large part of the city centre and several large buildings in the suburbs were destroyed by further explosions and resulting fires. In order to control the fire, the Army was forced to blow up more buildings to prevent the fire from spreading to other districts. As a result of these necessary explosions, the office of the Einsatzgruppe headquarters and of the Sonderkommando 4a had to be evacuated …

  II

  EXECUTIONS AND OTHER MEASURES

  Public feeling against the Jews was very strong, partly because of the better economic situation of the Jews under the Bolshevist regime and their activities as NKVD informers and agents, partly because of the explosions and the resulting fires (which deprived about 25,000 people of shelter). As an added factor, it was proved that the Jews participated in the arson. The population expected appropriate retaliatory measures by the German authorities. Consequently, all Jews of Kiev were ordered, in agreement with the city commander, to appear on Monday, 29 September, by 8 a.m., at a designated place. These announcements were posted throughout the city by members of the Ukrainian militi
a. At the same time it was announced orally that all Jews were to be resettled. In collaboration with the Einsatzgruppe staff and 2 commandos of the Police Regiment South, the Sonderkommando 4a executed 33,771 Jews on 29 and 30 September. Money, valuables, underwear, and clothing were confiscated and placed in part at the disposal of the NSV for the use of Volksdeutsche and in part given to the city’s administrative authorities for the use of the needy population.

  It was accomplished without interference. No incidents occurred. The ‘resettlement measure’ against the Jews was approved throughout by the population. The fact that in reality the Jews were liquidated was hardly known until now; in the light of the latest experiences, however, there would scarcely have been objections. The measures were also approved by the Army. The Jews who were not caught before, as well as those who returned to the city little by little after their flight, were in each case treated appropriately.

  Round-up Report of Einsatzgruppe A to 15 October 1941

  Einsatzgruppe A, after preparing vehicles for action, proceeded to their area of concentration, as ordered, on 23 June 1941, the second day of the campaign in the East. Army Group North, consisting of the 16th and 19th Armies and Tank Group 4, had begun their advance the day before. Our task was, with all dispatch, to establish personal contact with the commanders of the Armies and with the Commander of the Army of the rear area. It must be stressed that cooperation with the Armed Forces was from the start under General Höpner, it was very close, almost cordial. Misunderstandings with some authorities which cropped up in the first days were settled principally through personal discussions ...

  For the Security Police it appeared, at the start of the Eastern campaign, that its special work had to be done not only in rear areas, as was provided for in the original agreements with the High Command of the Army, but also in the combat areas, and this, on the one hand, because the consolidation of the rear area of the armies was delayed because of the quick advance and, on the other hand, because the subversive Communist activity and the fight against partisans took place intensively within the areas of actual warfare…

  To carry out the tasks of the Security Police, it was desirable to enter into the larger towns together with the Armed Forces. We had our first experiences in this direction when a small advance squad under my command entered Kovno together with the advance units of the Armed Forces on 25 June 1941. When the other larger towns, specifically Libau, Mitau, Riga, Dorpat, Reval, and the larger suburbs of Leningrad were captured, a Security Police commando was always with the first troop units. Above all, Communist functionaries and Communist documentary material had to be seized, and the Armed Forces themselves had to be safeguarded against surprise attacks inside the towns; the troops themselves were usually not able to take care of that because of their small numbers. For this purpose the Security Police, immediately after entry, set up volunteer formations of trustworthy indigenous residents of all three Baltic provinces who successfully performed their duties under our command ...

  Similarly, in the first hours after our entry, even under considerable hardships, native anti-Semite elements were induced to start pogroms against Jews. In conformity with orders, the Security Police was determined to solve the Jewish question with all means and full decisiveness. It was, however, desirable that the Security Police should not be visible, at least in the beginning, since the extraordinarily harsh measures would attract attention even in German circles. It had to be demonstrated to the world that the native population itself took the first measures by way of natural reaction against decades-long suppression by the Jews and against the terror exercised by the Communists in the preceding period.

  After reaching the Dvina River and therewith Riga, the Einsatzgruppe, to begin with, detached itself from the further advance of the Army Group North, and concentrated its forces on the pacification of the Lithuanian and Latvian area ...

  A. THE BALTIC AREA

  I Organization Measures

  (1) Formation of auxiliary police and police troops:

  In view of the extensiveness of the area of operations and the great number of Security Police tasks, it was intended from the very start to obtain the cooperation of the trustworthy population for the fight against the vermin in their land – that is, particularly the Jews and Communists. While directing the first spontaneous self-purging actions, which will be reported about elsewhere, care had to be taken that trustworthy elements should be harnessed to the purging job and assigned to regular auxiliary organs of the Security Police …

  In Lithuania, at the start of the Eastern campaign, activist nationalist elements formed so-called partisan units in order to take part in the struggle against Bolshevism …

  II Mopping-up and Security of the Area of Operations

  (1) Instigation of self-purging operations:

  Considering that the people of the Baltic countries had suffered very heavily under the dominion of Bolshevism and Jewry during the period they were incorporated in the USSR, it was to be expected that after liberation from foreign rule they would render harmless most of the enemies left behind after the retreat of the Red Army. The task of the Security Police was to set these self-purging aspirations in motion and to direct them into the proper channels in order to accomplish the purpose of the mopping-up operations as quickly as possible. It was no less important, for the time to come, to adduce the well-established and demonstrable fact that the liberated populace itself took the severest measures against the Bolshevist and Jewish enemy on its own, and hence no instructions by German authorities should be discernible.

  In Lithuania this was achieved for the first time by the readiness of the partisans in Kovno. Surprisingly, it was not easy at first to set in motion a pogrom against the Jews on a large scale. Klimatis, the leader of the partisan unit mentioned above, who was used primarily for this purpose, succeeded in initiating a pogrom on the basis of instructions given to him by a small advance unit operating in Kovno. He worked in such a way that no German order or German instigation was discernible. During the first pogrom on the night of 25 to 26 June, the Lithuanian partisans eliminated over 1,000 Jews, set fire to several synagogues or otherwise destroyed them, and burned down a Jewish quarter of about sixty buildings. On subsequent nights, about 2,300 Jews were made harmless in a similar way. In other parts of Lithuania similar actions followed the example of Kovno, though on a smaller scale, and extended to the Communists who had been left behind.

  These self-purging operations went smoothly because the Army authorities, who had been apprised, were understanding of this procedure. From the beginning it was obvious that only the first days after the occupation would offer the opportunity for carrying out pogroms. After the disarmament of the partisans, the self-purging operations automatically ceased.

  It proved much more difficult to set in motion similar mopping-up operations and pogroms in Latvia. Essentially, this was because the entire stratum of national leadership, especially in Riga, had been murdered or deported by the Soviets. Nevertheless, through appropriate influence, the Latvian auxiliary police did set in motion a pogrom against the Jews in Riga, in the course of which all synagogues were destroyed and about 400 Jews were killed. As the population of Riga quietened quickly, further pogroms were not feasible.

  So far as possible, both in Kovno and in Riga, motion-picture films and still photographs showed that the first spontaneous executions of Jews and Communists were carried out by Lithuanians and Latvians ...

  (2) Combating Communism:

  The fight against Communism and Jewry stood in the forefront of Security Police work in all parts of the area of operations …

  (3) The fight against Jewry:

  It was to be expected from the first that the Jewish problem in the East could not be solved by pogroms alone. On the other hand, in accordance with the basic orders, the mopping-up work of the Security Police had as its goal the annihilation, as comprehensive as possible, of the Jews. Sonderkommandos reinforced by selected units – p
artisan detachments in Lithuania, units of the Lettish auxiliary police in Latvia – therefore carried out extensive executions both in the towns and in the countryside. The operations of the execution commandos were performed without trouble. In assigning Lithuanian and Lettish forces to the execution commandos, men were chosen whose relatives had been murdered or deported by the Russians.

  Especially severe and comprehensive measures became necessary in Lithuania. In some places – especially in Kovno – the Jews had armed themselves and participated actively in guerrilla warfare and committed arson. Besides, the Jews in Lithuania had worked hand in hand most actively with the Soviets.

  The sum total of Jews liquidated in Lithuania amounts to 71,105.

  In the pogroms in Kovno, 3,800 Jews were eliminated; in the smaller towns about 1,200 Jews.

  Also in Latvia the Jews participated in acts of sabotage and arson after the entry of the German Armed Forces. In Dvinsk so many fires were started by Jews that a large part of the town was lost. The electric power station was burned out. The streets which were mainly inhabited by Jews remained unscathed.

  In Latvia up to now a total of 30,000 Jews was executed. Five hundred were rendered harmless by pogroms in Riga.

  Of the 4,500 Jews living in Estonia at the beginning of the Eastern campaign, most fled with the retreating Red Army. About 2,000 stayed behind. About 1,000 Jews lived in Reval alone.

  The arrest of all male Jews over sixteen years of age is nearly finished. With the exception of the doctors and the Elders of the Jews who were appointed by the Sonderkommandos, they were executed by the Estonian Home Guard under the supervision of Sonderkommando 1a. In Reval and Pernau able-bodied female Jews from sixteen to sixty years of age were arrested and put to peat-cutting or other required labour.