21 Völkischer Beobachter, 20 March 1943: ‘Aufruf des Großmufti gegen die Todfeinde des Islams, Araber werden für ihre Freiheit an der Seite der Achse kämpfen’.
22 Gensicke, op. cit., pp. 134–9.
23 NARA T–77, Roll 895, and T–501, Roll 264 and 268. For the Croatian legion see Tomasevich, The Chetniks, p. 395.
24 NARA T–120, Roll 5793, and Hoover Institution, Heinrich Himmler Collection, Box 5.
25 Redzic, p. 178.
26 Stein (1996), pp. 179–80.
27 NARA T–175, 94/2614801, see also the Kersten Memoirs, pp. 258ff.
28 Hoover Institution, Himmler Collection, Box 5, File 281. Vrančić’s letter was forwarded to Phleps who passed it on, with comments, to Hans Jüttner in the SS Head Office in Berlin.
29 Quoted in Gensicke (2007), pp. 116–9 for an account of el-Husseini’s journey.
30 NARA T–120, Roll 5782 and 5783.
31 NARA: T–120, Roll 2908, E464782.
32 Hoover Institution Archives, Himmler Collection, Box 5, File 281.
33 See Trigg (2009), p. 83.
34 Diary of Erich Braun, quoted in Lepre, pp. 41–2.
35 Report by the German police commander in Sarajevo to Einsatzgruppe E in Zagreb, 15 July 1943, National Archives Microcopy T–175, Records of the Reich Leader and Chief of the German Police, roll 140, frame 952; Glaise-Horstenau, Die Erinnerungen, 254; Letter from SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Artur Phleps to Himmler, 7 July 1943, T–175/140/955; Memorandum on the Meeting of Phleps and Himmler, 28 July 1943, T–175/140/952; Letter from Himmler to Phleps, 6 August 1943, T–175/140/949.
36 T–175 roll 70: Dienstanweisung für Imame der 13. SS-Freiwilligen b.h. Geb. Div. (Kroatien).
37 ‘Rede des RFSS Heinrich Himmler vor den Führen der 13. SS-Frchw. B.h. Goerings-Division (Kroatien) im FuhrerheimWestlager, Truppenübungsplatz Neuhammer am 11. Januar, 1944’, BA NS19/4012, 6–16.
38 See E. Serotta, Survival in Sarajevo: Jews, Bosnia and the Lessons of the Past (Vienna, 1994).
39 NARA, T–175, roll 70.
40 Handzar, Folge 7, 1943, quoted by Lepre, pp. 77–9.
41 NARA T–175, Roll 126.
42 Report on the Villefranche mutiny, generously shared by George Lepre.
43 Quoted in Lepre, p. 101.
44 NARA T–175, roll 94.
45 NARA T–175, roll 94: Rede des Reichsführers auf der Tagung der RPA-Leiter, am 28 January 1944.
46 Hoare, pp. 279–80.
47 NARA T–175 roll 70 and T–175 roll 21, Berger to Himmler, 26.1.44, Brandt to Berger 31.1.44, and Berger to Himmler 18.2.44.
48 I am grateful to Jonathan Trigg for first-hand descriptions of Bosnia. See Himmler’s Jihadis (2009), p. 110.
49 Trigg (2009), p. 93.
50 NARA T175, roll 7013 SS-Division Kommandeur, Briefe No 8, 25.2.44.
51 Peter Broucek, Ein general in Zwielicht: Die Erinnerungen Edmund Glaises von Horstenau (Vienna, 1988), p. 231.
52 Personal communication, George Lepre, 2008.
53 Hitlers Lagebesprechungen: Die Protokollfragmente seiner militärischen Konferenzen, 1942–1945, Heiber, Stuttgart (ed.) (1962), p. 560.
54 See for example The Berlin-Baghdad Express: The Ottoman Empire and Germany’s Bid for World Power, 1898–1918 by Sean McMeekin (2010), which repeats figures from David G. Dalin’s biography of the Grand Mufti Icon of Evil (2008).
55 R. Birn (1991), pp. 360–1.
12 The Road to Huta Pieniacka
1 Now , Huta Penyats’ka in Ukraine.
2 http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/en/19/188/
3 Archiwum Akt Nowich, Warsaw, Signatur 203/XV/14. Source: Hendy papers.
4 Antoni Szczesniak & Wieslaw Szota, Droga na nikad (Warsawin, 1973).
5 Hendy papers, interview with Miecelslaw Bernacki, 2004, quoted with permission.
6 The spelling ‘Reinhardt’ rather than ‘Reinhard’ suggests another possibility. The new plan may have referred to the German State Secretary of Finance Fritz Reinhardt.
7 I am grateful to Julian Hendy for generously sharing his research materials referred to here as: Hendy, unpublished manuscript (2003). See also: Michael Hanusiak, Lest We Forget (New York, 2nd Edn, May 1975); and Ukrainischer Nationalismus: Theorie und Prazis (Globus Verlag, Wien, 1979), both cited by Hendy.
8 Trawniki ID file 3191, photograph of SM Fostun in AUFCGB, Almanac 2 1964–1980 (London, 1980), p. 14; cited in Hendy, unpublished manuscript (2003).
9 Quoted in Black, Die Trawniki Männer.
10 http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-1st-circuit/1531166.html
11 United States District Court, Southern District of Florida, Case 77–2668-Civ NRC, 25 July 1978. USA Plaintiff v. Feordor Fedorenko, defendant.
12 Arad (1987), p. 197.
13 Wolfgang Scheffler, Helge Grabitz, Der Ghettoaufstand Warschau 1943 – aus der Sicht der Taeter und Opfer in Aussagen vor deutschen Gerichten (München, 1993), pp. 131, 396; fn. 23.
14 See Trawniki personnel files cited in Hendy (2003) for men all entering on 13.02.43: Myron Samyliuk from Tlumacz district, Trawniki ID No 3198; Peter Samiliuk from Tlumacz district, Trawniki ID No 3200; Wasyl Hudyma from Tlumacz district, Trawniki ID No 3202; Iwan Merenda from Tlumacz district, Trawniki ID No 3227; Dmytro Drysliuk from Kolomea district, Trawniki ID No 3245; Jurko Budnyckyj from Kolomea district, Trawniki ID No 3263; Wasyl Bojczuk from Tlumacz district, Trawniki ID No 3293 – OSI documents. It would appear that more than 100 new recruits joined the Trawniki unit on this day. The Germans had a severe shortage of guards at the time.
15 Wolfgang Scheffler, Helge Grabitz‚ Der Ghetto Aufstand Warschau 1943: aus der Sicht der Täter und Opfer in Aussagen vor deutschen Gerichten (München, 1993), pp. 194ff.
16 BA R58/1005: Meeting, 10.6.43. I am grateful to Ray Brandon for drawing my attention to this document.
17 Quoted in Merridale (2005), p. 162.
18 Beevor (1998), p. 398.
19 See for example ‘Meldung 51a’, December 1942 NARA, T175, 81/260/1524.
20 See Cooper (1979), pp. 78–9.
21 See for example Logusz (1997), Chapter 5.
22 BA NA A3343-SSO–213B, Wächter, Personalakt. For other career details, see Pohl (1996).
23 ZStL, 208 AR 797/66.
24 Malaparte, pp.98ff., 144ff.
25 According to the researcher Robin O’Neil: ‘The leading decision-makers in the Nazi hierarchy who argued for total Jewish extermination by gassing were now coming to the fore, and among the leading advocates in the General Government who were in favor of gassing were Dr Wilhelm Dolpheid, SS-Obersturmbannführer, Dr Ludwig Losacker, SS-Obersturmbannführer Helmut Tanzmann, SS-Gruppenführer and Governor, Otto Wächter.’ http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/belzec1/bel050.html
26 See Pohl (1997) for a detailed account of infighting between Hitler’s potentates.
27 NARA, T175/70/2586239–60.
28 Quoted in Melnyk, p. 12.
29 Tgb. N. 10443g,28/4.1943.
30 Feldkommandostelle 28/03/1943, Tgb.Nr 47/82/43 Rf/Bn. HFD, H/10/6.
31 Berger, 6/05/1943, cdSSHA/BE/Dr/VS-Tgb.Nr2239/43g. HFD, H/10/12.
32 See Jurgen Thorwald, The Illusion: Soviet Soldiers in Hitler’s Armies (New York, 1975), pp. 135ff.
33 The minutes are recorded in HFD, H/10/14.
34 For details see Pohl (1996), pp. 182ff., 280ff.
35 A caveat is in order here. In July 1942, the SS recruited two Ukrainian police auxiliary units, the 102nd and 110th.Once training had been completed the units were assigned to duties in Belarus. Two years later, the SS redesigned the two units as Schuma battalions, which were later absorbed by the 30th Waffen-SS Grenadier Division (Weissruthenische No 2). After the Allied landings in Normandy, the Germans decided to use this bodged together division to combat French Maquis units (now known as the Forces Frangaises de l’lnterieur, or FFI) in the ‘Belfort Gap’ in the Vosges. This completely unexpected turn of events dismayed the Ukrainians who had expected to fight the Soviet army. In August 1944, the Ukrai
nians shot their German officers and joined the FFI. After the war, some of the Ukrainians were deported to the USSR and ended up in Soviet camps. Others joined the French Foreign Legion and fought in Indochina and North Africa. See R. Sorebey, Forum for the Study of the UPA (2005).
36 Tgb.N1043g.28/4/1943.
37 Quoted in Melnyk, p. 26.
38 HFD, H/10/26, 10 May 1943.
39 Berger to Himmler, 3 June 1943. HFD, H/10/34.
40 Quoted in Melnyk (2005), p. 30.
41 Cüppers (2006), p. 420.
42 Brandon, personal communication.
43 Quoted in Housden (2003), pp. 206ff.
44 Zvi Weigler, Yad Vashem Bulletin, No 1 (1957).
45 See for example Logusz (1997), a partisan account of the SS division’s formation and history, pp. 492ff.
46 Minutes of the Meetings of the Military Board ‘Galicia’: Brotherhood of Veterans, (Toronto, 1993), pp. 90–5.
47 See also in Polish S. Wronski & M. Zwolakowa, Polacy Zydzi, 1939–1945 (Warsaw, 1971); and in English T. Piotrowski (1998), pp. 229ff.
48 NARA, RG242, frames 0689–1843. Quoted in Blood, p. 76.
49 See Förster, Die Sicherung des ‘Lebensraumes’, p. 1240.
50 Melnyk includes Himmler’s complete speech in ‘To Battle’, Appendix VIII.
13 ‘We Shall Finish Them Off’
1 Noakes & Pridham (1988), p. 996.
2 Evans (2008), pp. 618ff.
3 See The Kersten Memoirs (New York, 1957).
4 Longerich (2008), p. 728.
5 Pridham & Noakes (1998), p. 928.
6 This account of the Polish uprising is based on Davies (2004), Ciechanowski (1974) and Hanson (1982). I am grateful to the Warsaw Rising Museum for their assistance in Warsaw.
7 Frank, Diary, p. 310.
8 Kershaw, Nemesis, p. 725.
9 These details are provided in the ‘Bach Zelewski files’ held at the Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltung Ludwigsburg:
Wehrmachtkommandatur Warschau
Korpsgruppe von dem Bach
Kampfgruppe Reinefarth
Waffen-SS:
SS-Pz.Gren.Ausb.u.Ers.Btl (SS-Kampfgruppe)
SS-Kav.Ausb.u.Ers.Abt.8
SS-Flak-Abt.5
SS-Sonder-Rgt. Dirlewanger
Polizei (17)
Inc, Schutzmannschaftsbataillon Kos. Batl.209
Wesiruth.Btl. 13 (Sipo)
Kampfgruppe
Korpsgruppe BZ:
29. Waffen SS (RONA)
SS-Brigade Dirlewanger
Kampfgruppe Reinefarth
Inf.Btl. 1/111 Aserbeidschan
II Btl. Bergmann Aserbeidschan
Kosaken-Regt.3
IV.Kosaken-Sicherungs-Rgt. 57
Kosaken-Abt. 69
Kosaken-Abt. 572
10 ZStL: BA 162/19784, Bach-Zelewski interrogation.
11 NARA, RG 242, T175/R 109/2632683–85.
12 NARA RG 153, interrogation of Dr Wilhelm Gustav Schüppe, April 1945, cited by Breitman (1991).
13 Gerhard von Mende’s handwritten curriculum vitae can be accessed at Humboldt University, Berlin: UAHUB, M138 Bd.1, 16/11/1939. His daughter married Bjorn Østring, the Norwegian SS volunteer I interviewed in Oslo, and his son Erling still lives in Berlin.
14 See Johnson (2010), pp. 19–21.
15 Hauner (1981), Chapter Two.
16 NARA RG 238, M–1019/R 33/222, interrogation of Prince Veli Kajum Khan, 27 February 1947.
17 Littlejohn (1987).
18 Heiber & Glatz (2005), p. 73.
19 Bräutigam (1968).
20 Johnson (2010), pp. 26–7.
21 The Wannsee Conference and the Genocide of the European Jews (Berlin, 2002), p. 89.
22 Gerhard von Mende and others claimed that the Germans spared the ‘Mountain Jews’ of the North Caucasus. But a new study by Kiril Feferman has shown that many ‘Mountain Jews’ were also killed. A few Bergjuden communities escaped because German race experts were divided about the ethnic identity of these mysterious peoples. Some believed they were ‘Tats’, descended from Iranians. HGS, V, No 1 (spring 2007).
23 Trials of the War Criminals before the Nürnberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No 10 (Washington DC) Document No 1818: Leibbrandt and Berger: ‘Agreement between the Reich Leader SS and Chief of the German Police and the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories’, 15 March 1943.
24 See P. Klein, ‘Curt von Gottberg’, in K. Mallmann & G. Paul, Karrieren der Gewalt: NS Täterbiographien (Darmstadt, 2004).
25 Quoted in Maclean, pp. 182ff.
26 See Schulte, pp. 172ff.
27 Ibid., p. 175.
28 Teske, Die Silbernen Spiegel: Generalstabdients unter der Lupe (Heidelberg, 1952).
29 For more details see: Leonid Rein, ‘Untermenschen in SS Uniforms: 30th Waffen-Grenadier-Division of Waffen SS’, in The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 1556–3006, Vol. 20, Issue 2 (2007), pp. 329–45.
30 Erickson (1983), pp. 272–3.
31 Ibid., p. 329.
32 Noakes & Pridham, op. cit., VIII, p. 952.
33 Reported by Davies, Blood & Hanson, op. cit.
34 The pretext may have been an incident when RONA men raped and killed two German women of the Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy) organisation.
14 Bonfire of the Collaborators
1 Author interview, November 2007.
2 H. Heiber (ed.), Hitler and his Generals: Military Conferences 1942–1945 (London, 2002), pp. 711–4.
3 Longerich (2007), pp. 754ff.
4 De la Mazière (1922–2006) was interviewed in Marcel Ophuls’ documentary about occupied France, Le Chagrin et la Pitié (1969), and wrote the autobiographical La Rêveur Casqué (Paris, 1973) and La Rêveur Blessé (Paris, 2003). His notoriety has obscured his importance.
5 See Susan Zucotti, The Holocaust, the French and the Jews (Basic Books, 1993), pp. 13ff.
6 Quoted in E. Weber, Action Francaise (Stanford, 1962), p. 199.
7 Le Pays Réel, 30 June 1943, quoted in Conway, p. 342.
8 Müller (2008), p. 135.
9 De Bruyne/Rikmenspoel (2004), pp. 120ff.
10 Conway (1993), p. 261.
11 Degrelle (1985), pp. 198ff.
12 Ibid., p. 201.
13 Quoted in Conway, p. 249.
14 As it turned out, the new submarines, delivered in June 1944, immediately developed serious teething problems. They would have been almost useless without a fleet of reconnaissance aircraft – and the production of the Ju290 was halted in the summer after Allied raids damaged production centres. See Evans (2008), p. 672.
15 See Lumans (2006), pp. 353ff.
16 Melnyk, p. 162.
17 Lange report, quoted in Melnyk, op. cit., p. 174.
18 BA, NS 19/323.
19 I am grateful to Mr Hendy for allowing me to make use of his detailed research notes concerning the events in Slovakia. All quotations from ‘Hendy Documents’, op. cit.
20 Evening situation reports of the German Commander in Slovakia (Abendmeldungen des Deutschen Befehlshabers Slowakei), Czech State Archives, Prague, Fond 110, pp. 117–212, quoted by Hendy.
21 Hendy interview with Dr Jan Stanislav, Director of the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising, Banska Bystrica, 4 December 1998.
22 Quoted in Heike, op. cit., p. 200.
23 Bellamy, Total War, pp. 631ff.
24 BA-KO, NS 19/544.
25 Quoted in Evans (2009), p. 680.
26 Interview, 2006.
27 For the unit history of the SS ‘Charlemagne’ see Trigg (2006), Forbes (2006), Mabire (1975) and R. Soulat, unpublished manuscripts. I would like to thank M. Soulat for his assistance. Strictly speaking the 33rd SS Waffen-Grenadier Division ‘Charlemagne’ did not fight in Berlin in April 1945, but an SS Sturmbataillon comprising French volunteers who had survived Soviet attack in Pomerania and had chosen not to accept release from their oaths of allegiance.
28 Quoted in Forbes (2006), p. 354.
>
29 Ibid., p. 383.
30 Also referred to as the ‘Overkommando Oberrhein’.
31 Guderian, Panzer General (1953), p. 412.
32 Historical Division: United States Army, Europe, 30 June 1959: D–4O8 Personal Notes of Operations Officer Oberst Hans Georg Eismann; 280 pp; 1955. See also Under Himmler’s Command: The Personal Recollections of Oberst Hans-Georg Eismann, Operations Officer, Army Group Vistula, Eastern Front 1945 (2010).
33 Erickson (1983), p. 559.
34 Bernadotte’s negotiations remain controversial; he was later assassinated by the Zionist Stern Gang. For more details see: Sune Persson, ‘Folke Bernadotte and the White Buses’, in Journal of Holocaust Education, Vol. 9, Issue 2–3 (2000), pp. 237–68; David Cesarani & Paul A. Levine (eds), Bystanders to the Holocaust: A Re-evaluation (Routledge, 2002); A. Ilan, Bernadotte in Palestine (Macmillan, 1989), p. 37.
35 Goebbels, Final entries, Hugh Trevor-Roper (ed.) (2007), p. 162.
36 Bellamy (2007), pp. 652ff.
37 de Bruyne/Rikmenspoel, pp. 170ff.
38 Forbes (2006), p. 402.
39 Kershaw (2000), pp. 808–9.
40 See Maser (2002), pp. 360–1.
41 Forbes, p. 450.
42 Quoted in Forbes, p. 456.
43 Author interview, op. cit.
15 The Failure of Retribution
1 Degrelle (1985), pp. 326ff.
2 Kersten, p. 292.
3 National Archives,UK: ADM 1/30080. The circumstances surrounding el-Husseini’s return to the Middle East remain clouded. The Saudis may have pressurised the French to release their guest, and may have flown the el-Husseini part of the way. In any case, the Mufti was back.
4 Report by OSS, Quoted by Herf (2010), pp. 243–4.
5 Ibid., p. 234.
6 National Archives, UK CO 537/1317.
7 Arafat’s birth name was Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Hussein; his clan was only distantly related to the Grand Mufti’s.
8 See Ronald Nettler, Past Trials and Present Tribulations: A Muslim Fundamentalist’s View of the Jews (Oxford, 1987), pp. 72–89, cited in Herf, p. 309.
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