The Holocaust

by Martin Gilbert

  17 Jean Ancel, ‘Dombroveni’, Encyclopaedia Judaica, Jerusalem 1971, volume 6, columns 157–8.

  18 Jean Ancel, ‘The Rumanian Jewry between 23.8.1941 and 31.12.1947’, doctoral thesis, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, submitted September 1979.

  19 Zalman Grinberg diary, quoted in speech, op. cit.

  20 Le Massacre des Juifs de Jassy (documents and photographs): Yad Vashem photographic archive, F.A.50.

  21 Eye-witness account, first published in Mantuirea: ‘Expulsion of the Remaining Jews of Jassy’, Bulletin, London, op. cit., copy in Foreign Office papers, 371/51116.

  22 Information provided by Jean Ancel.

  23 Reports No. 1324 of 4 July 1941 (Roman), No. 4457 of 6 July 1941 (Prabova-Inotesti) and No. 10,252 of 6 July 1941 (Jassy): Le Massacre des Juifs de Jassy, op. cit.

  24 Friedman, Roads to Extinction, op. cit., pages 246–8.

  25 Testimony of Leon Weliczker Wells: Eichmann Trial, 1 May 1961, session 22.

  26 Testimony of Joseph Melkman: Eichmann Trial, 10 May 1961, session 34; see also Presser, The Destruction of the Dutch Jews, op. cit., page 70.

  27 Ainsztein, op. cit., pages 464–6.

  28 Datner, Walka, op. cit., page 14.

  29 Eichmann cross-examination: Eichmann Trial, 19 April 1961, session 10.

  30 Testimony of Dr Aharon Peretz: Eichmann Trial, 4 May 1962, session 28.

  31 ‘Recapitulation of Executions Carried Out in the Area of Strike Commando 3 until 1 December 1941’, Kovno, 1 December 1941: Raul Hilberg (editor), Documents of Destruction, Germany and Jewry 1933–1945, London 1972, page 47.

  32 Operational Situation Report, USSR, no. 17, 9 July 1941: Yad Vashem archive.

  33 Falstein, op. cit., page 361.

  34 N. M. Gelber (editor), Lwow Volume, Tel Aviv 1956, page 681.

  35 Jack (Idel) Kagan, in conversation with the author, London, 21 May 1984.

  36 Report of 1 December 1941: Hilberg, op. cit., page 47.

  37 Yitzhak Arad, Ghetto in Flames: the Struggle and Destruction of the Jews in Vilna in the Holocaust, Jerusalem 1980, pages 75–7.

  38 Scenes of Fighting and Martyrdom Guide, op. cit., page 62.

  39 Landau diary, 14 July 1941: Yad Vashem archive, Photograph Collection.

  40 Kishinev Memorial Book, Tel Aviv 1950; The Jews of Bessarabia (Memorial Book), Jerusalem 1971; Theodor Lavi, ‘Kishinev’, Encyclopaedia Judaica, Jerusalem 1972, volume 10, column 1068.

  41 Itzhak Alfassi, ‘Zirelson, Judah Leib, 1860–1941’: Encyclopaedia Judaica, Jerusalem 1972, volume 16, column 1183.

  42 F. H. Hinsley and others, British Intelligence in the Second World War, Its Influence on Strategy and Operations, volume 2, London 1981, appendix 5, page 671.

  43 D. B. Levin, ‘We Will Never Forget and Never Forgive the Fascist Criminals’ (in Russian), Saratov 1942, page 34. I am grateful to Yigael Zafoni of Leningrad for this reference.

  44 Operational Situation Report, USSR, no. 31, 23 July 1941: Yad Vashem archive.

  45 Operational Situation Report, USSR, no. 32, 24 July 1941: Yad Vashem archive.

  46 Friedman, op. cit., page 249.

  47 The five attacks were reported in Operational Situation Report, USSR, no. 37, 29 July 1941: Yad Vashem archive.

  48 Steckel, Destruction and Survival, op. cit., page 34.

  49 Operational Situation Report, USSR, no. 38, 30 July 1941: Yad Vashem archive.

  50 Landau diary, 28 July 1941: Yad Vashem archive.

  51 Friedman, op. cit., page 199, note 30, and page 200, notes 31–33.

  52 Ibid., page 200, note 34.

  53 Ibid., page 291.

  54 Melech Ravitch, ‘Kacyzne, Alter, 1885–1941’: Encyclopaedia Judaica, Jerusalem 1972, volume 10, columns 657–8.

  55 Kishinev memorial book, Tel Aviv 1949.

  56 Einsatzgruppe ‘C’, reports for 17–31 July 1941: Yad Vashem archive.

  57 Report entitled ‘Attitude Towards the Civilian Population in the East’, written in Kassel, Germany, on 3 January 1942: International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, documents USSR-293. Quoted in Levin, The Holocaust, op. cit., pages 260–1.

  58 Letter of 31 July 1941: International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, document PS-710.

  59 Letter of 1 August 1941: Falstein, op. cit., page 141.

  60 Lodz Chronicle, 28 and 29–31 July 1941: Dobroszycki, op. cit., pages 67, note 79, and 68.

  61 Archive of YIVO, New York.

  62 Diary of W. Sakowicz, 27 July—2 August 1941: The Paneriai Museum, Vilna 1966, pages 6–7. I am grateful to Boris Kelman of Leningrad for this reference.

  63 Yad Vashem photographic archive.

  64 Hilberg, op. cit., page 49.

  65 Operational Situation Report, USSR, no. 40, 3 August 1941: Yad Vashem archive.

  66 Falstein, op. cit., pages 337 and 340.

  67 Hilberg, op. cit., page 49.

  68 Operational Situation Report, USSR, no. 43, 5 August 1941: Yad Vashem archive.

  69 Yad Vashem archive, information provided by Dr Jean Ancel.

  70 Maja Abramowicz (Zarch), op. cit., page 27.

  13. ‘A CRIME WITHOUT A NAME’

  1 Yitzhak Arad, ‘The Lithuanian Ghettos of Kovno and Vilna’, Patterns of Jewish Leadership in Nazi Europe, 1933–1945, Jerusalem 1979, pages 97–8.

  2 Abraham Turi (Avraham Tory, formerly Golub), ‘Debate’, Patterns of Jewish Leadership, op. cit., pages 181–2.

  3 Sarah Neshamit, ‘Debate’, Patterns of Jewish Leadership, op. cit., pages 183–4.

  4 Isaiah Trunk, Judenrat: the Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe under Nazi Occupation, New York 1972 (paperback edition 1977), page 446.

  5 Letter of Salomon Speiser, Warsaw 1945: Hurben Gliniane (‘The Tragic End of Our Gliniany’), New York 1946.

  6 Trunk, op. cit., page 444.

  7 Idem.

  8 Operational Situation Report, USSR, no. 47, 9 August 1941: Yad Vashem archive.

  9 Lohse directive, 15 August 1941: International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, document NO-4539.

  10 Dr Zalman Grinberg, diary, op. cit.

  11 Testimony of Dr Aharon Peretz: Eichmann Trial, 4 May 1961, session 28.

  12 Scenes of Fighting and Martyrdom Guide, op. cit., page 61.

  13 Report of 1 December 1941: Hilberg, Documents of Destruction, op. cit., page 49.

  14 Operational Situation Report, USSR, no. 54, 16 August 1941: Yad Vashem archive.

  15 Maria Rubinstein, in conversation with the author, Beersheba.

  16 Operational Situation Report, USSR, no. 51, 13 August 1941: Yad Vashem archive.

  17 Operational Situation Report, USSR, no. 56, 18 August 1941: Yad Vashem archive.

  18 Operational Situation Report, USSR, no. 58, 20 August 1941: Yad Vashem archive.

  19 Operational Situation Report, USSR, no. 60, 22 August 1941: Yad Vashem archive.

  20 Joseph Gottfarstein, ‘Debate’: Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust, op. cit., pages 61–2.

  21 Colonel Grigoriy Matveyevich Linkov, War in the Enemy’s Rear: Ainsztein, Jewish Resistance in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, op. cit., page 282.

  22 Arad, Ghetto in Flames, op. cit., page 98.

  23 Broadcast of 24 August 1941: quoted in Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill, volume 6, op. cit., pages 1173–4.

  24 Hinsley, British Intelligence, op. cit., appendix 5, page 671.

  25 Randolph L. Braham, ‘The Kamenets Podolsk Massacres’, Yad Vashem Studies, IX, Jerusalem 1973, pages 139–40.

  26 Jaeckeln was later in charge of carrying out the ‘final solution’ in the Baltic states. He was given a one-day trial in Riga on 3 February 1946, and hanged that same afternoon (Gerald Reitlinger, The Final Solution: the Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe, 1939–1945, London 1953, page 194, note 1).

  27 Testimony of Leslie Gordon: Eichmann Trial, 6 June 1961, session 62.

  28 Iosif Bregman, ‘The Dubossary Ghetto’: Sovetish Geimland, number 4, Moscow 1968, pages 48–9.

  29 V. I. Bek
esh, ‘The Names of the Heroes are not Forgotten’, Folksshtime, number 46, Moscow, 21 March 1968.

  30 Ringelblum notes, 30 August 1941: Sloan, op. cit., page 197.

  31 Testimony of Dr Aharon Peretz: Eichmann Trial, 4 May 1961, session 28.

  32 Hersh Smoliar, Resistance in Minsk, Oakland, California, 1966, pages 9–16.

  33 Recollection of former SS General Karl Wolff, The World at War, Thames Television documentary, London, 27 March 1974.

  34 Testimony of Abba Kovner: Eichmann Trial, 4 May 1961, session 27.

  35 Figures in the Jaeger report of 1 December 1941: Hilberg, op. cit., page 53.

  36 Avraham Sutzkever (Abram Suzkever), Vilner Ghetto: Azriel Eisenberg (editor), Witness to the Holocaust, New York 1981, pages 180–1. Sutzkever’s wife, who was in the same prison, later escaped: Sutzkever reported what she had seen when he gave evidence to the International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, on 27 February 1946.

  37 Testimony of Abba Kovner: Eichmann Trial, 4 May 1961, session 27.

  38 Testimony of Meir Mark Dvorjetsky: Eichmann Trial, 4 May 1961, session 27.

  39 Ringelblum archive, YIVO, New York.

  40 Report of 1 December 1941: Hilberg, op. cit., page 54.

  41 Evidence of Avraham Sutzkever (Abram Suzkever), International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 27 February 1946.

  42 Directive of 12 September 1941 regarding ‘Jews in the Newly Occupied Eastern Territories’: International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, document NOKW-3292.

  43 Shmuel Spector, ‘The Jews of Volhynia and their Reaction to Extermination’, Yad Vashem Studies, XV, Jerusalem 1983, page 160.

  44 Kermish, The Destruction of the Jewish Community of Piotrkow, op. cit., columns 26–7.

  45 Leah Leibowitz (Klompul), in conversation with the author, Johannesburg.

  46 Mary Berg diary, 20 September 1941: Shneiderman, op. cit., page 93.

  47 ‘Testimony of a German Army Officer’, Prisoner of War No. 2406004, 15 August 1945: Shaul Esh (editor), Yad Washem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance, number 3, Jerusalem 1959, pages 303–20.

  48 Information communicated by Professor Alexander Lerner. After the war, Judith Lerner had another daughter, Sonia, who was allowed to leave the Soviet Union for Israel. Lerner and his wife were refused permission to leave. After thirteen years in refusal, Judith Lerner died. Now aged seventy-one, Professor Alexander Lerner remains in Moscow, an outcast in his own society, an inspiration to many younger Soviet Jews, but still denied the right to go to the homeland with which he, as a Jew, wishes to be united.

  49 Report of 1 December 1941, Hilberg, op. cit., page 52.

  50 Yitzhak Arad (Rudnicki), The Partisan, from the Valley of Death to Mount Zion, New York 1979, pages 39–42, and 100–1.

  51 Shalom Ben-Shemesh Sonenson, the Last Days of Ejszyszki (in Hebrew) in the Eishyshok memorial book, Jerusalem 1950. Of the 4,000 Jews murdered in Ejszyszki 1,000 came from the nearby village of Olkeniki and other hamlets. (Olkeniki in Flames, Tel Aviv 1962).

  52 Shalom Ben Shemesh Sonenson, op. cit.

  53 Idem.

  54 ‘Jew, go back to the grave!’: Yaffa Eliach, Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust, New York 1982, pages 53–5 (based on Yaffa Eliach’s interviews with Zvi Michalowski).

  55 Recollections of Konstantin Miroshnik: Babi Yar memorial volume, Tel Aviv 1978.

  56 Recollections of Golda Glozman: ibid.

  57 Report of 1 December 1941, Hilberg, op. cit., page 54.

  58 Testimony of the Lukianov cemetery watchman: Babi Yar memorial volume, op. cit.

  59 Testimony of David Rosen: ibid.

  60 Testimony of Victoria Shyapeltoh: ibid.

  61 A. Anatoli (Kuznetsov), Babi Yar, London 1970, pages 110–11 and 113.

  62 Anatoli, ibid., page 73.

  63 Report of 2 October 1941: International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, document NO-3137.

  64 Recollections of Hadassah Rosen: Eisenberg, op. cit., pages 309–10.

  65 Report of 1 December 1941, Hilberg, op. cit., page 52.

  66 Information from the archive of Moshe Jekutiel Lubetzky (whose father Jekutiel, mother Polina and sister Sarah were all murdered in the action at Alytus, thirty-five kilometres from Butrimonys).

  67 ‘Number of Jewish Victims in the Aktionen, June 24—December 23, 1941’: Arad, Ghetto in Flames, op. cit., pages 210–11.

  68 Evidence of Avraham Sutzkever, International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, 27 February 1946.

  69 Arad, Ghetto in Flames, op. cit., pages 175, 210–11.

  70 Testimony of Abba Kovner: Eichmann Trial, 4 May 1961, session 27.

  71 Arad, ‘The Lithuanian Ghettos of Kovno and Vilna’, op. cit., page 100.

  72 Zalman Grinberg, op. cit.

  73 Maja Abramowicz, typescript, op. dr., page 33.

  74 Eye-witness account of Major A. Zalcman, published in Nasze Slowo, no. 7, Lodz 1947: Ainsztein, op. cit., page 258.

  75 Directive of 10 October 1941: International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, document D-411.

  76 Order of the Day of the Eleventh Army, 20 November 1941: International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, document PS-4064. The Crimean executions of Einsatzkommando D were reported in detail on 12 December 1941 (NO-2828), 19 January 1942 (NO-3338) and 8 April 1942 (NO-3359).

  77 Account by ‘MZ’: Bulletin, London, November 1945, op. cit.

  78 Order (signed by Hans Frank) of 15 October 1941: Law Gazette of the General Government, no. 99, 25 October 1941, page 595: Bartoszewski and Lewin, Righteous among Nations, op. cit., page 632.

  79 Report from Warsaw: Poland Fights, 30 June 1942.

  14. ‘WRITE AND RECORD!’

  1 Hans Frank Diary, op. cit., speech of 9 October 1941.

  2 Eichmann Trial, 18 May 1961, session 44, document T.264.

  3 Report by Captain Künzel, 13 November 1941: B. Ajzensztajn (editor), Ruch podziemny w ghettach i obozach, Lodz 1946, pages 203–6.

  4 Testimony of Hildegarde Henschel: Eichmann Trial, 11 May 1961, session 37.

  5 Lodz Chronicle, 7 May 1942: Dobroszycki, op. cit., pages 165–6.

  6 Lodz Chronicle, 29 June 1942: ibid., page 216.

  7 Lodz Chronicle, November 1941: ibid., page 83.

  8 Lodz Chronicle, 6 December 1941: ibid., page 93.

  9 Lodz Chronicle, 14–31 January 1942: ibid., page 123.

  10 Leuner, When Compassion was a Crime, op. cit., page 138.

  11 Arad, ‘The Lithuanian Ghettos of Kovno and Vilna’, op. cit., page 102.

  12 Arad, Ghetto in Flames, op. cit., pages 150–3.

  13 Yitzhak Rudashevski, The Diary of the Vilna Ghetto, June 1941—April 1943, Tel Aviv 1973, pages 38–9.

  14 Arad, Ghetto in Flames, op. cit., page 151.

  15 Report of 1 December 1941, Hilberg, op. cit., page 54.

  16 ‘Activity and Situation Report No. 6’: International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, document R-102.

  17 M. Carp, Cartea Neagra, Bucharest 1947, volume 3, page 208.

  18 Dora Litani, ‘The Destruction of the Jews of Odessa in the Light of Rumanian Documents’: Yad Vashem Studies, VI, Jerusalem 1967, pages 135–41.

  19 Letter of 25 October 1941: International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, document NO-365.

  20 Dr Moshe Gross (Henryk Zeligowski), ‘The End of the Community’: I. M. Lask (editor), The Kalish Book, Tel Aviv, 1968, pages 258–60.

  21 Report of 30 October 1941, to the Commissioner General, Minsk: International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, document PS-1104.

  22 Letter dated 28 October 1941: Eichmann Trial, 17 May 1961, document 1559.

  23 Rabbi Ephraim Oshry, Reponsa from the Holocaust, New York 1983, papers 14–16.

  24 Testimony of Dr Aharon Peretz: Eichmann Trial, 4 May 1961, session 28.

  25 Dr Leon Bauminger, recollection: The Gazette, Montreal, 13 November 1982 (in the article by Paul Dalby, ‘How One Man Sent Thousands to Die’).

  26 Vera Elyashiv, ‘After 25 Years’, Jewish Quar
terly, London, volume 18, 1970.

  27 Helen Kutorgene, Kaunaski dnievnik (Kovno diary) 1941–1942, published in 1968: Arad, Ghetto in Flames, op. cit., pages 405–6.

  28 Testimony of Dr Aharon Peretz: Eichmann Trial, 4 May 1961, session 28.

  29 Kutorgene, op. cit., pages 405–6.

  30 Letter of Alter Galperin, 3 December 1945: Yad Vashem archive MI/E, 128/56.

  31 Recollection of Avraham Tory (Avraham Golub): The Gazette, Montreal, 13 November 1982.

  32 Testimony of Dr Aharon Peretz: Eichmann Trial, 4 May 1961, session 28.

  33 Report of 1 December 1941, Hilberg, op. cit., page 52.

  34 Zalman Grinberg, op. cit.

  35 Arad, Ghetto in Flames, op. cit., page 156.

  36 Testimony of Meir Dvorjetzky: Eichmann Trial, 4 May 1961, session 27.

  37 Abba Kovner, recollection of the ‘Bialystok Operation’: Eichmann Trial, 4 May 1961, session 27.

  38 Trunk, Judenrat, op. cit., page 438.

  39 Trunk, op. cit., page 466.

  40 Testimony of Haim Berendt: Eichmann Trial, 5 May 1961, session 29.

  41 Testimony of Haim Berendt: Eichmann Trial, 5 May 1961, session 29.

  42 Gertrude Schneider, Journey into Terror: the Story of the Riga Ghetto, New York 1979, pages 21–46.

  43 Letter from Dr Konstantin Bazarov to the author, 7 October 1978.

  44 Koppel S. Pinson (editor), Nationalism and History: Essays on Old and New Judaism by Simon Dubnow, Philadelphia 1968, pages 3 and 39.

  45 Joseph Gar, ‘Riga, Holocaust Period’, Encyclopaedia Judaica, Jerusalem 1972, volume 14, column 175.

  46 Schneider, op. cit., page 155. The trains reaching Riga left Berlin (27 November 1941), Nuremberg (29 November 1941), Stuttgart (1 December 1941), Vienna (3 December 1941), Hamburg (4 December 1941), Cologne (7 December 1941), Cassel (9 December 1941), Düsseldorf (11 December 1941), Bielefeld (12 December 1941), Hanover (15 December 1941), Theresienstadt (9 and 15 January 1941), Vienna (11 January 1942), Berlin (13, 19 and 25 January 1942), Leipzig (21 January 1942), Vienna (26 January 1942), Dortmund (27 January 1942) and Vienna (6 February 1942).

  47 Testimony of Dr Aharon Peretz: Eichmann Trial, 4 May 1961, session 28.

  48 Testimony of Dr Aharon Peretz: Eichmann Trial, 4 May 1961, session 28. The first group of German Jews to reach Kovno, one thousand in all, arrived on 25 November 1941.