The Holocaust (138 page)

60
Testimony of Yehuda Bakon: Eichmann Trial, 7 June 1961, session 68.

61
Czech, ‘Kalendarium’,
op. cit.
: entries from 15 May to 31 May 1944.

62
‘Transportliste’, 16 May 1944: Archivio, Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea, Milan.

63
Testimony of Pavilas Tcherekas: Klarsfeld,
op. cit.
, page 546.

64
Braham,
op. cit.
, page 993.

65
Ibid.
, pages 605–6.

66
Report of 25 May 1944: International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, document NG-5608.

67
Garlinski,
Fighting Auschwitz, op. cit.
, page 323.

68
Braham,
op. cit.
, page 608.

69
‘Secret’ Report No. 18, ‘Horrors of Oswiecim’: Foreign Office papers, 898/423.

70
‘The Vrba—Wetzler’ and ‘Mordowicz—Rosin’ reports: International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, document L-022.

71
Report of 25 May 1944: International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, document NG-5608.

72
Report of 31 May 1944: International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, document NG-5624.

73
Report of Dr Loewenherz (of Vienna): Eichmann Trial, 31 May 1961, document 1125.

74
Leon Szalet,
Experiment ‘E’
, New York, 1945, page 42: quoted in Des Pres,
op. cit.
, page 73.

75
Halina Birenbaum,
Hope is the Last to Die
, New York 1971, page 134: quoted in Des Pres,
op. cit.
, page 60.

76
Louise S., ‘The Camp at Birkenau’:
Bulletin, op. cit.
, November 1945. Louise S. had reached Birkenau from Cluj on 27 May 1944.

77
Testimony of Rudolf Kastner (Reszo Kasztner): Eichmann Trial, 30 May 1961, session 56.

78
The train with the 1,686 Hungarian Jews left Hungary for Belsen and then Switzerland on 29 June 1944. On 22 August 1944, 318 of the Hungarian Jews reached the Swiss city of Basle from Belsen. The second group, of 1,368 Jews, reached Switzerland on 7 December 1944: Braham,
op. cit.
, pages 956–7.

79
For a full account of these negotiations, see Martin Gilbert,
Auschwitz and the Allies
, London 1981, pages 212–61.

80
Recollections of Freda Silberberg (Wineman), in conversation with the author, London.

81
Czech, ‘Kalendarium’,
op. cit.
, entry for 30 June 1944.

82
Molho,
In Memoriam, op. cit.
According to a recent account by Shlomo Karmiel, the 260 Jews from Canea who were seized on 20 May 1944 were executed on Crete, and their bodies put on board the ship, which was sunk to destroy
the evidence. They were shot, he believes, ‘because they were involved in helping British Intelligence in plans to abduct General Kreipe, who commanded the Nazi forces in Crete.’ (Marcel M. Yoel, ‘Canea Jews—the truth’,
Jewish Chronicle
, 19 November 1984.)

83
Sam Modiano, ‘Island’s Jews Saved by Greek Archbishop’:
Jewish Chronicle
, 3 November 1978. See also Molho,
op. cit.

84
Lodz Chronicle: Dobroszycki,
op. cit.
, page 498, note 20.

85
Lodz Chronicle, 8 June 1944:
ibid.
, pages 499–500.

86
Lodz Chronicle, 9 June 1944:
ibid.
, page 500.

87
Diary entry for 6 June 1944: Eisenberg,
Witness to the Holocaust, op. cit.
, page 323. The boy’s name and fate are unknown.

88
Anne Frank, letter of 6 June 1944:
The Diary of Anne Frank, op. cit.
, pages 203–4.

35. ‘MAY ONE CRY NOW?’

1
Reuven Dafni, in conversation with the author, Jerusalem.

2
Klarsfeld,
Memorial to the Jews Deported from France, op. cit.
, pages 642 and 645.

3
Szajkowski,
Analytical Franco-Jewish Gazetteer, op. cit.
, page 150.

4
‘Leon Yitshak Sakkis (1925–44)’: letter from Moshe Sakkis to the author, Athens, 26 September 1983.

5
Szajkowski,
op. cit.
, page 150; Klarsfeld,
op. cit.
, page 643. On 29 June 1944 Isaac Ben Zimra, aged twenty-three, was shot for resistance: he had been born in French North Africa, in Oran.

6
Report of 13 June 1944: International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, document NG-5617.

7
‘Transports come to Dachau camp (of new interned and from other camps) for the time 22.3.1933–29.4.1945’: KZ-Gedenkenstatte Dachau, Museum-Archiv-Bibliothek.

8
Krzystof Dunin-Wasowicz, ‘Zydowscy wiezniowie KL Stuffhof’,
Biuletyn
, Warsaw,
op. cit.
, number 63, 1967, pages 11–17.

9
Testimony of Madame Claude Vaillant Couturier, 28 January 1946:
The Trial of German Major War Criminals, op. cit.
, page 190.

10
David Horovitz, ‘40 Years of Despair’:
Jerusalem Post
, 23 November 1984.

11
Testimony of Vera Kriegel: Horovitz,
op. cit.; Jerusalem Post International Edition
, week ending 16 February 1985.

12
‘The Mengele Case—a Summary’, document no. 50/4, JS 340/68, 19 January 1981: Ernie Mayer, ‘The Case against Josef Mengele’,
op. cit.

13
‘The Story of an Unsung Hero’:
The Voice of Auschwitz Survivors in Israel
, number 27, June 1984.

14
Report from a Tribunal held at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, in February 1985;
Jewish Chronicle
, 8 February 1985;
Jerusalem Post International Edition
, 16 February 1985.

15
Testimony of Yossl Rosensaft (Chairman of the Belsen Committee after the liberation of Belsen in 1945), talking (in Yiddish) to Sam Goldsmith, a war correspondent: Goldsmith papers (first published in Hebrew in
Haboker
, Tel Aviv, 9 May 1945; reprinted in English in S. J. Goldsmith,
Jews in Transition
, New York 1969).

16
Proclamation No. 416, 16 June 1944: Lodz Chronicle, 16 June 1944: Dobroszycki,
op. cit.
, pages 503–4.

17
Lodz Chronicle, 16 June 1944:
ibid.
, pages 503–5.

18
Lodz Chronicle, 22 June 1944:
ibid.
, page 513.

19
Lodz Chronicle,
ibid.
, page 503, note 21.

20
Lodz Chronicle, 23 June 1944:
ibid.
, pages 513–14.

21
Lodz Chronicle, 24 June 1944:
ibid.
, pages 514–15.

22
Lodz Chronicle, 25 June 1944:
ibid.
, page 515.

23
Testimony of Mordechai Zurawski: Eichmann Trial, 5 June 1961, session 65.

24
Testimony of Mordka (Mordechai, Mieczyslaw) Zurawski, of Wloclawek: Lodz, 29 October 1945: Bednarz,
Das Vernichtungslager zu Chelmno am Ner, op. cit.
, page 210.

25
Testimony of Shimon Srebnik: Eichmann Trial, 6 June 1961, session 66.

26
Note of 9 September 1944: Bednarz,
op. cit.

27
Cholawski,
Soldiers from the Ghetto, op. cit.
, pages 176–7.

28
Czech, ‘Kalendarium’,
op. cit.
, entry for 24 June 1944. Galinski’s camp number was 531; Mala Zimetbaum’s, 19880.

29
Fenelon,
The Musicians of Auschwitz, op. cit.
, pages 160–1.

30
Recollections of Lena Berg: Donat,
The Holocaust Kingdom, op. cit.
pages 309–10.

31
Testimony of Raja Kagan: Eichmann Trial, 8 June 1961, session 70.

32
Recollections of Lena Berg: Donat,
The Holocaust Kingdom, op. cit.
, page 310.

33
Fenelon,
op. cit.
, page 167.

34
Testimony of Raja Kagan: Eichmann Trial, 8 June 1961, session 70.

35
Recollections of Lena Berg: Donat,
The Holocaust Kingdom, op. cit.

36
Fenelon,
op. cit.
, pages 166–7.

37
‘List of Jews Executed in France’: Klarsfeld,
op. cit.
, pages 641–54.

38
Lederer,
Ghetto Theresienstadt, op. cit.
, page 218. More than two hundred thousand unarmed people, Jews and Soviet prisoners-of-war, had been murdered at Maly Trostenets between the autumn of 1941 and the summer of 1944. The murders had been carried out in two hamlets near the villages of Blagovshchina and Shashkovka. Soviet research after the war estimated that about one hundred and fifty thousand people had been murdered in Blagovshchina and a further fifty thousand in Shashkovka, where the Germans had built a special ‘incinerator-pit’:
Byelorussian Soviet Encyclopaedia, short encyclopaedia
, volume 1, Minsk 1979, page 699. I am grateful to Yigael Zafoni for this reference.

39
Miklos Nyiszli,
Auschwitz, a Doctor’s Eye-Witness Account
, London 1962.

40
Arad,
Ghetto in Flames, op. cit.
, pages 446 and 460.

41
Lederer,
op. cit.
, page 228.

42
The Book of Alfred Kantor
, New York 1971, plate 78. I am grateful to Roland Gant for a copy of this book.

43
Ibid.
, page 80.

44
Lederer,
op. cit.
, page 229.

45
Steckoll,
The Alderney Death Camp, op. cit.
, page 92.

46
‘Transport Eb’ of 18 May 1944 and ‘Transport Ek’ of 28 September 1944: Lederer,
op. cit.
, pages 231–2.

47
‘Transport Eh’, 1 July 1944 (ten prisoners), ‘Transport Eg’, 4 July 1944 (fifteen prisoners) and ‘Transport Ej’, 27 September 1944 (twenty prisoners):
ibid.
, page 232.

48
Meir Ronnen, ‘The Legacy of Herr Doktor Candid’,
Jerusalem Post
, 20 January 1984.

49
Documents concerning Oscar Schindler: Yad Vashem archive.

50
Bartoszewski,
Warsaw Death Ring, op. cit.
, page 326.

51
Szajkowski,
Analytical Franco-Jewish Gazetteer, op. cit.
, page 81.

52
Jeno Levai (editor),
Eichmann in
Hungary
, Budapest 1961, page 126.

53
Report of 11 July 1944: International Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, document NG-5616.

54
Elenore Lester,
Wallenberg: the Man in the Iron Web
, New Jersey 1983; Alexander Zvielli, ‘Doomed Saviour’,
Jerusalem Post
, 15 July 1983.

55
Braham,
The Politics of Genocide, op. cit.
, volume 2, pages 788–9.

56
Lutz papers: Yad Vashem archive.

57
Testimony of Dr Aharon Peretz: Eichmann Trial, 4 May 1961, session 28.

58
Testimony of Dr Tania Ipp: Yad Vashem archive.

59
Testimony of Miriam Krakinowski: Yad Vashem archive.

60
Vera Elyashiv, recollections,
op. cit.

61
Testimony of Shalom Cholawski: Eichmann Trial, 12 June 1961, session 73.

62
Testimony of Abba Kovner: Eichmann Trial, 4 May 1961, session 27.

63
Testimony of Abraham Karasick: Eichmann Trial, 4 May 1961, session 27. Karasick joined the Red Army. He was demobilized in 1945 and went to Palestine. Interned in Cyprus by the British in 1947, he finally settled in Israel in 1949.

64
Hirshaut,
Jewish Martyrs of Pawiak, op. cit.
, page 228.

65
Eliezer Yerushalmi,
Pinkas Shavli
(memorial book of Siauliai—Shavli—Schaulen), Jerusalem 1958.

36. JULY–SEPTEMBER 1944: THE LAST DEPORTATIONS

1
Hizkia M. Franco,
Les Martyrs Juifs de Rhodes et de Cos
, Elizabethville (Katanga) 1952, page 91.

2
Ibid.
, pages 97–8.

3
Violette Fintz, in conversation with the author, Cape Town.

4
John Bierman,
Odyssey 1940
, New York 1984, pages 218–19.

5
Franco,
op. cit.
, page 99.

6
Violette Fintz, in conversation with the author, Cape Town.

7
Franco,
op. cit.
, page 101.

8
Violette Fintz, in conversation with the author, Cape Town.

9
Franco,
op. cit.
, page 104. (In the journey by sea, five Jews had died; at Haidar camp, and in the combined, sea and rail journey, twenty-two died.)

10
Bierman,
op. cit.
, pages 222–3.

11
Levai,
Eichmann in Hungary, op. cit.
, pages 127–9.

12
Falstein,
The Martyrdom of Jewish Physicians in Poland, op. cit.
, page 324.

13
Krakowski,
The War of the Doomed, op. cit.
, page 59.

14
Braham,
The Politics of Genocide, op. cit.
, volume 2, page 1073.

15
Levai,
op. cit.
, pages 142, 144, and facsimile of Iron Cross award, page 143.

16
Fritz Hesse,
Das Spiel um Deutschland
, Munich 1953 (Hewel was Ribbentrop’s liaison with Hitler, with the rank of Ambassador.)

17
‘Convoy 77, July 31, 1944’: Klarsfeld,
Memorial to the Jews, op. cit.
, pages 582–94.

18
Martin Gilbert,
The Jews of Hope
, London 1984, pages 157–61.

19
Lodz Chronicle, 22 July 1944: Dobroszycki,
op. cit.
, page 532.

20
Lodz Chronicle, 23 July 1944:
ibid.
, page 532.

21
Lodz Chronicle, 25 July 1944:
ibid.
, page 534.

22
Diary entry, 31 July 1944: Eisenberg,
Witness to the Holocaust, op. cit.
, page 324.