The Holocaust
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11 Bella Fromm, Blood and Banquets: a Berlin Social Diary, London 1943, page 167. The diplomatic correspondent of the Vossische Zeitung, Bella Fromm reached the United States as a refugee in 1940.
12 List of prisoners ‘known to have been killed in Dachau’: Manchester Guardian, 27 September 1935.
13 These figures were given in the SS newspaper, Das Schwarze Korps, on 1 July 1935.
14 See Naomi Shepherd, Wilfrid Israel, German Jewry’s Secret Ambassador, London 1984, page 104.
15 Article ‘Finish up with the Jews’ in the book The SA Man, published on 27 July 1935: International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, document PS-3050.
16 Hakenkreuzbanner, Mannheim, 1, 26 and 28 August 1935.
17 Leslie Frankel, in conversation with the author, Johannesburg.
18 Lowenthal, The Jews of Germany: a History of Sixteen Centuries, op. cit., page 407, note 1.
19 Das Schwarze Korps, 5 September 1935.
20 Law respecting Reich Citizenship of 15 September 1935, Reich Law Gazette, 1935, part I, page 1146.
21 Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour of 15 September 1934, Reich Law Gazette, 1935, part I, page 1147. The German national flag was now the swastika.
22 Report by Ralph W. Barnes, Nuremberg, 15 September 1935: New York Herald Tribune, 16 September 1935.
23 The Times, 17 September 1935.
24 Neue Züricher Zeitung, 22 September 1935.
25 Report of 6 October 1935: Foreign Office papers, 371/18859.
26 Letter of 12 November 1935, to the Chief Secretary, Government of Palestine: Foreign Office papers, 371/19919.
4. AFTER THE NUREMBERG LAWS
1 Kölnische Zeitung, 13 October 1935.
2 Quoted in The Yellow Spot, page 117.
3 New York Times, 20 October 1935.
4 Bella Fromm, diary entry for 20 October 1935: Fromm, Blood and Banquets: a Berlin Social Diary, op. cit., page 181.
5 Quoted in the Manchester Guardian, 28 March 1978, when Dr Hans Puvogel, then Minister of Justice in the State of Lower Saxony, was under pressure to resign, after the publication of excerpts from his thesis, which also argued in favour of castrating dangerous sex offenders as part of the plan to ‘strengthen the valuable hereditary streams of our people while gradually drying out the inferior ones’.
6 Frankfurter was released in 1945, at the end of the war, and emigrated to Palestine. In February 1950 he wrote an account of the assassination of Gustloff in Commentary magazine. In 1976 a Swiss film was made of the killing, entitled Konfrontation—assassination in Davos. Frankfurter died in Israel in 1982, aged 71.
7 Shalom Lindenbaum, in conversation with the author, Jerusalem.
8 David Shtokfish (editor), Pshitik. A Memorial to the Jewish Community of Pshitik (Przytyk), Tel Aviv 1973, page 157.
9 Yakov Lashtoshinsky, ‘The Przytyk Pogrom’ (Yiddish) in Sefer Przytyk, Tel Aviv 1973, pages 168–87.
10 Memorandum on the Development of the Jewish National Home, 1936, Geneva, June 1937, page 6.
11 Figures from the Palestine Post, individual issues from 15 April 1936 to 15 May 1936: see also Martin Gilbert, The Arab—Israeli Conflict, Its History in Maps, London 1974, map 20.
12 Telegram of 9 June 1936, Central Zionist Archive, S 73/193: in Shepherd, Wilfrid Israel, German Jewry’s Secret Ambassador, op. cit., page 122.
13 Arnold Hahn, Vor den Augen der Welt! Warum starb Stefan Lux? Sein Leben—seine Tat—seine Briefe, Prague 1936.
14 Celia S. Heller, On the Edge of Destruction: Jews of Poland Between the Two Wars, New York 1977, page 104.
15 World Federation of Polish Jews, ‘The Migration of Polish Jewry in Recent Times’, Yearbook, New York 1964, pages 7–27.
16 Ben Helfgott, in conversation with the author, London.
17 Lowenthal, The Jews of Germany, op. cit., page 424.
18 House of Commons, debate of 14 April 1937: Hansard.
19 William L. Shirer, diary entry for 4 June 1937: William L. Shirer, Berlin Diary: the Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934–1941, London 1941, page 66.
20 ‘Law relating to measures to be taken in the former Upper Silesian Plebiscite area’, 20 June 1937, published in the Reichsgesetzblatt, no. 76 of 2 July 1937.
21 Memorandum on the Development of the Jewish National Home, 1937, Geneva, June 1938, page 4.
22 The number of German Jews admitted to Palestine had dropped from 8,180 in 1936 to 3,601 in 1937, the number of Polish Jews from 11,596 in 1936 to 3,636 in 1937.
23 Figures of Jewish and Arab dead are taken from the daily issues of the Palestine Post.
24 Central Zionist Archive, 87/558: in Shepherd, op. cit., page 116.
25 Poster for ‘The Eternal Jew’ exhibition: facsimile in The Judaica Collector, October 1983.
26 Isaac Landman (editor), The Universal Jewish Encyclopaedia, New York 1943, volume 9, page 261.
27 Nathaniel Katzburg, Hungary and the Jews: Policy and Legislation, 1920–1943, Ramat Gan, Israel 1981, page 104.
5. ‘HUNTED LIKE RATS’
1 According to statistics presented in a letter from A. L. Eastermann to the Foreign Office in London on 12 April 1946, between 200 and 225 Jews had been murdered in Germany between 30 January 1933 and 25 April 1938. Statistics compiled in 1938 by the Reich Representative of German Jews: Foreign Office papers, 371/57545.
2 Germany Reports, Paris 1938: quoted in G. E. R. Gedye, Fallen Bastions: the Central European Tragedy, London 1939, pages 341–2.
3 Oswald Dutch, Thus Died Austria, London 1938, page 246.
4 Idem.
5 Gedye, op. cit., pages 306–7.
6 Dutch, op. cit., page 250.
7 Testimony of Fleischmann: Eichmann Trial, 24 April 1961, session 17.
8 Lowenthal, The Jews of Germany, op. cit., epilogue, page 430.
9 Gedye, op. cit., page 310.
10 David Hindley Smith to Winston S. Churchill, 18 March 1938, Churchill papers, 2/318, published in Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill, document volume 5, part 3, ‘The Coming of War’, London 1982, page 949.
11 Lowenthal, op. cit., page 430.
12 Dutch, op. cit., pages 246–7.
13 Ibid., pages 247–8.
14 The Austrian census of 22 March 1934 listed 769 localities with Jewish inhabitants.
15 R. T. Smallbones, Despatch no. 48 of 5 May 1938: Foreign Office papers, 371/11635.
16 Germany Reports, Paris 1938: in Gedye, op. cit., page 342.
17 Beda died in Auschwitz in 1942, at the age of fifty-nine.
18 Getzel Kressel, ‘Beda, Fritz Loehner, 1883–1942’: Encyclopaedia Judaica, Jerusalem 1972, volume 4, column 368.
19 Report of 28 June 1938, smuggled out of Berlin to Lord Samuel in London, Samuel papers, House of Lords Library: quoted in Shepherd, Wilfrid Israel, op. cit., pages 126–7.
20 Bella Fromm diary, 28 June 1938: Fromm, Blood and Banquets, op. cit., pages 235–6.
21 Report for June 1938, dated 16 July 1938: Foreign Office papers, 371/21635.
22 J. Hope Simpson, The Refugee Problem, Report of a Survey, London 1939, pages 323 (France), 340 (Britain), 350–1 and 353 (Belgium), 356 (Scandinavia), 397 (Switzerland), 473 note 1 (USA) and Appendix VI, tables LXV and LXVI.
23 Huttenbach, The Destruction of the Jewish Community at Worms, 1933–1945, op. cit., pages 142–3.
24 Sirkka Purkey, ‘The Treatment of Jewish Refugees in Finland during the Hitler Era’, letter to the author, 13 March 1984 (based upon Elina Suominen, Death Boat SS Hohenhorn, Helsinki).
6. ‘THE SEEDS OF A TERRIBLE VENGEANCE’
1 Letter of 25 October 1938, from Sir George Ogilvie-Forbes to Oliver Harvey, and comment: Foreign Office papers, 371/22536.
2 Testimony of Zindel Grynszpan: Eichmann Trial, 25 April 1961, session 14.
3 Recollections of Rosalind Herzfeld: Jewish Chronicle, 28 September 1979, page 80.
4 Nathan Eck, ‘Ringelblum, Emanuel, 1900–44’: Encyclopaedia Judaica, Jerusalem 1
972, volume 14, column 189.
5 Testimony of Zindel Gryszpan: Eichmann Trial, 25 April 1961, session 14.
6 E. L. Woodward and Rohan Butler (editors), Documents on British Foreign Policy, 1919–39, London 1950, third series, volume 3, telegram 294, page 262.
7 Paul Oestereicher, ‘Terror, on Berlin’s Night of Broken Glass’, in The Times, 9 November 1978.
8 Wim van Leer, Time of My Life, Jerusalem 1984, pages 166–8.
9 Lowenthal, The Jews of Germany, op. cit., page 436.
10 Letter dated Leipzig, 21 November 1938: submitted to the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, as document L-202.
11 Dr Arthur Flehinger, ‘Flames of Fury’, Jewish Chronicle, 9 November 1979, page 27.
12 Eric Lucas, manuscript, ‘The Sovereigns’, Kibbutz Kfar Blum (Palestine) 1945, pages 169–71.
13 Huttenbach, The Destruction of the Jewish Community of Worms, op. cit., pages 20–1.
14 A thousand million marks was the equivalent in November 1938 of £84,000 million in 1985.
15 H. D. Leuner, When Compassion was a Crime: Germany’s Silent Heroes, London 1966, pages 113–14.
16 Sir George Ogilvie-Forbes, Despatch no. 1224 of 16 November 1938: Foreign Office papers, 371/21637.
17 News Chronicle, 23 November 1938.
18 Associated Press photographs, 50343a and 50343c, with captions.
19 Testimony of Dr Ernest Abeles, active in the Orthodox community in Slovakia, and in the Slovak office of the American Joint Distribution Committee: Eichmann Trial, 23 May 1961, session 49.
20 Testimony of Benno Cohn: Eichmann Trial, 25 April 1961, session 15.
21 Wim van Leer, op. cit., page 174.
22 The Times, 3 December 1938.
23 Hull Committee of the Council for German Jewry. Letter to potential supporters, 7 December 1938: archives of Hull Jewry, Jack Lennard papers.
24 ‘Plan for Assisting Emigration of Jews from Germany’, note by Roger Makins, 8 December 1938: Foreign Office papers, 371/22539.
25 Cabinet no. 59 of 1938, London, 14 December 1938, Conclusion 6: Cabinet papers, 23/96; Captain Foley to Sir George Ogilvie-Forbes, 17 January 1939: Foreign Office papers, 371/24079.
26 Baynes (editor), The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922—August 1939, op. cit., page 741.
27 Quoted by Goering in his letter to Heydrich of 31 July 1941: International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, document PS-710.
28 Judith Tydor-Baumel, ‘The Kitchener Transmigration Camp at Richborough’, in Livia Rothkirchen (editor), Yad Vashem Studies, XIV, Jerusalem 1981, pages 233–46.
29 Lucas, ‘The Sovereigns’, op. cit., pages 187–90.
30 Ibid., page 190.
31 Ivone Kirkpatrick, Minute of 13 February 1939: Foreign Office papers, 371/24087.
32 Deputation of 18 May 1939: Foreign Office papers, 371/24983.
33 Inter-departmental conference, 26 May 1939, Minutes: Foreign Office papers, 371/24090.
34 Julius Lowenthal (now Yehuda Guy), in conversation with the author, Ramat Aviv, Israel.
35 Letters of 11 March 1939 and 13 May 1939: archives of the Hull Committee of the Council for German Jewry: Jack Lennard papers.
36 Note by Patrick Reilly, 24 July 1939: Foreign Office papers, 371/24100.
37 Letter of 30 July 1939: Neville Chamberlain papers.
38 Cabinet Committee Minutes, 7 August 1939: Cabinet papers, 27/651.
39 Report on Slovak Jewry, 17 August 1939: Foreign Office papers, 371/24085.
40 J. Rimon (editor), The Jewish Community of Szrensk and the Vicinity: a Memorial Volume, Jerusalem 1960, page 43.
41 Eva Michaelis, ‘Youth Aliyah Report, August 25th—September 7th 1939’: Central Zionist archives, S 75/746.
7. SEPTEMBER 1939: THE TRAPPING OF POLISH JEWRY
1 Yad Vashem archive, Photograph Collection.
2 Alexander Zvielli (Wojcikiewicz), ‘The Day the Nazis Went to War’, Jerusalem Post, 31 August 1979.
3 Joseph Kermish, The Destruction of the Jewish Community of Piotrkow by the Nazis during World War II, Tel Aviv 1965, column 5.
4 Jacob Apenszlak (editor), The Black Book of Polish Jewry, New York 1943.
5 Kermish, op. cit.
6 Czestochowa memorial book, Jerusalem 1967.
7 Poland: the Communities of Lodz and its Region, Jerusalem 1976, page 94, entry for Widawa.
8 Bedzin memorial book, Tel Aviv 1959.
9 Scenes of Fighting and Martyrdom Guide, War Years in Poland, 1939–1945, Warsaw 1968, page 161.
10 Quoted in Nora Levin, The Holocaust: the Destruction of European Jewry 1933–1945, New York 1968, page 153.
11 The fullest account of these events is in Szymon Datner, 55 Dni (1. ix—15x 1939) Wehrmachtu w Polsce, Warsaw 1967.
12 Testimony of Eda Lichtmann: Eichmann Trial, 28 April 1961, session 20.
13 Przemysl memorial book, Tel Aviv 1964.
14 Poland: the Communities of Lodz, op. cit., entry for Sieradz.
15 Order No. 7, quoted in Louis Falstein (editor), The Martyrdom of Jewish Physicians in Poland, New York 1963, page 172.
16 Kermish, op. cit., column 6.
17 Copies of this secret note of the discussion were sent to the Army High Command, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Food and the Economy, to the Commissioner for the Four Year Plan, as well as to chiefs of the Civilian Administration of the Occupied Territories. International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, document PS-3363.
18 Eliezer Tash (Tur-Shalom), The Community of Semiatych (Siemiatycze), Tel Aviv 1965.
19 Emanuel Ringelblum, notes, 26 April 1941: Jacob Sloan, (editor) Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto: the Journal of Emanuel Ringelblum, New York 1958, page 168.
20 Maria Feferman-Wasoff, typescript, ‘The Processed’, 1979, page 10.
21 Abraham Isaiah Altus, ‘The Nazi Invasion of Raciaz’ in Gal-Ed Memorial Book to the Community of Raciaz, Tel Aviv 1965.
22 Kermish, op. cit., column 9.
23 S. L. Shneiderman (editor), Warsaw Ghetto: a Diary by Mary Berg, New York 1945, page 16.
24 Testimony of Joseph Berger-Ezrahi: Yad Vashem archive, 0–3/447, quoted in Shmuel Krakowski, ‘The Fate of Jewish Prisoners of War in the September 1939 Campaign’, Yad Vashem Studies, XII, Jerusalem 1977, page 303.
25 Ringelblum Archive: quoted in Krakowski, op. cit., page 302.
26 Vitka Kempner, in conversation with the author, Jerusalem.
27 Pultusk memorial book, Tel Aviv 1971.
28 Tarnobrzeg memorial book, Tel Aviv 1973.
29 Apenszlak, op. cit., page 143, quoting Documents of Crime and Martyrdom, Cracow 1945.
30 Testimony of Max Burger: Eichmann Trial, 27 April 1961, session 19.
31 Draft of an oral report, eventually given on 6 February 1940, criticizing atrocities committed by the SS and the police in the General Government in December 1939: International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, document NO-3011.
32 Nachman Blumenthal (editor), Obozy, Lodz 1946, pages 127–8.
33 Eimann was found guilty of murder, and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, and three years’ deprivation of citizen’s rights: Tregenza collection, London.
34 David Wdowinski, And We Are Not Saved, London 1964, page 27.
35 Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, Warsaw Death Ring, 1939–1944, Warsaw 1968, page 21.
36 Ordinance of 26 October 1939: General Government Official Gazette, no. 1 of 1939, pages 6–7.
37 Yisrael Guttman, ‘The Concept of Labour in Judenrat Policy’, Patterns of Jewish Leadership in Nazi Europe, 1933–1945, Jerusalem 1979, pages 155–7.
38 Kermish, op. cit., columns 9–10; information provided by Ben Helfgott.
39 The Radomsko ghetto was set up on 20 December 1939, the Lodz ghetto on 1 May 1940.
40 Mary Berg diary, 3 November 1939: Shneiderman, op. cit., page 20.
41 Contra-Komintern, 2 November 1939.
42 Chaim Kaplan, diary entry for 17 November 1939, in Abraham I. Katsch (e
ditor), The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, New York 1973 (1965 edition entitled Scroll of Agony), pages 71–2.
43 Ordinance of 23 November 1939: General Government Official Gazette, no. 1 of 1939, page 61.
44 Lucas, ‘The Sovereigns’, op. cit., page 191.
45 ‘Verzeichnis der deportierten Juden’, Heimatblatter des Kreises Aachen, 1980, page 70.
8. ‘BLOOD OF INNOCENTS’
1 Bartoszewski, Warsaw Death Ring, op. cit., page 28.
2 Poland: the Communities of Lodz, op. cit., entry for Zdunska Wola.
3 Circular of 12 November 1939, signed by Koppe, Higher SS and Police Chief, Warthegau: in Wladyslaw Bartoszewski and Zofia Lewin, Righteous among Nations: How Poles Helped the Jews, 1939–45, London, 1969, pages 621–3.
4 Wdowinski, And We Are Not Saved, op. cit., page 24.
5 Ibid., page 26.
6 Ibid., pages 24–5.
7 Official notice, published in the Nowy Kurier Warszawski on 2 December 1939: Bartoszewski, op. cit., page 23.
8 Ibid., page 23.
9 Litzmannstadter Zeitung, 16 November 1939.
10 Quoted in the Frankfurter Zeitung, 28 March 1941.
11 Kaplan diary, 18 November 1939: Katsch, op. cit., page 74.
12 Nowy Kurier Warszawski, 30 November 1939: Bartoszewski, op. cit., page 24.
13 Bartoszewski, op. cit., pages 24–5. Landau, arrested by the Germans in 1944, was never seen again. The German Security Police Commander in the Warsaw district, responsible for the execution, Joseph Meisinger, was sentenced to death in Warsaw on 3 March 1947.
14 Falstein, The Martyrdom of Jewish Physicians in Poland, op. cit., page 493.
15 Wdowinski, And We Are Not Saved, op. cit., page 28.
16 Ibid., page 24.
17 Mary Berg diary, 1 December 1939: Shneiderman, op. cit., page 22.
18 Kermish, The Destruction of the Jewish Community of Piotrkow, op. cit., columns 14–15.
19 Testimony of Hirsch Pachter: Eichmann Trial, 1 May 1961, session 21.
20 Bartoszewski, op. cit., pages 26–7. The Jews were all from Losice: Zygmunt Ochsenhorn, Mojse Marmelstein, Dawid Goldfarb, Stanislaw Mohsbock, Moses Gojnberg, and Dawid Rosenbind.