Posted on 12/09/2013 4:05:44 PM PST by Former Fetus
I wanted to go to Belzec (pronounced Biwzhets) because no one really does. One million Jews died there in the span of nine months - and hardly anyone knows about it. I felt it was a pilgrimage to a holy site: the second largest (after Treblinka) Jewish graveyard in history.
Mike Tregenza was my guide. He is a non-Jewish, English historian who lectures at Lublin university. According to Sir Martin Gilbert, he is the world expert on Belzec.
Belzec is a sleepy little hamlet in southeast Poland. A few thousand people live there. All seem to be related in some way. We stopped for a drink in a bar and the natives seemed unfriendly enough. All in all, it's a pretty innocuous place. One would never guess that of the million Jews who arrived there in 1942, only two survived.
Mike told me that he interviewed the station-master who worked at Belzec during the war. On every cattle car that arrived, there was written a number; the number of "pieces" (as the Germans would say) contained therein. He kept a tally. When he reached seven figures, he could no longer continue.
Belzec was a part of "Operation Reinhardt." Its purpose, which was accomplished, was to destroy the Jewish communities of Eastern Poland - specifically the main centers of Warsaw, Lublin, Cracow and Lvov.
Operation Reinhardt began in March 1942 with the construction of Belzec and ended in August 1943 with the destruction of Treblinka. It utilised three camps: Treblinka in the north, Sobibor and Belzec in the south. It was masterminded by Sturmbahnfuhrer Christian Wirth and Belzec was his prototype " his baby.
(Excerpt) Read more at virtualjerusalem.com ...
Unterscharführer Hackenholt was making great efforts to get the engine running. But it doesn’t go. Captain Wirth comes up. I can see he is afraid because I am present at a disaster. Yes, I see it all and I wait. My stopwatch showed it all, 50 minutes, 70 minutes, and the diesel did not start. The people wait inside the gas chambers. In vain. They can be heard weeping, “like in the synagogue,” says Professor Pfannenstiel, his eyes glued to a window in the wooden door. Furious, Captain Wirth lashes the Ukrainian assisting Hackenholt twelve, thirteen times, in the face. After 2 hours and 49 minutes—the stopwatch recorded it all—the diesel started. Up to that moment, the people shut up in those four crowded chambers were still alive, four times 750 persons in four times 45 cubic meters. Another 25 minutes elapsed. Many were already dead, that could be seen through the small window because an electric lamp inside lit up the chamber for a few moments. After 28 minutes, only a few were still alive. Finally, after 32 minutes, all were dead...Dentists hammered out gold teeth, bridges and crowns. In the midst of them stood Captain Wirth. He was in his element, and showing me a large can full of teeth, he said: “See for yourself the weight of that gold! It’s only from yesterday and the day before. You can’t imagine what we find every day—dollars, diamonds, gold. You’ll see for yourself! “[24][25]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belzec_extermination_camp
Thanks for passing this on as I had never heard of Belzec before!
None of my grandmother’s brothers and sisters and all their children/relatives, survived Belzec, Auschwitz or the street executions in Lvov (Lemberg).
We will never forget or forgive!
Later, as the Russian 1943 offensive gained steam, frantic efforts were made to dig up corpses and incinerate or crush the bones to eradicate evidence of the crimes. But they could never erase the evidence of crimes on such a massive scale.
Yes. It’s Hess the flyboy.
Yes. It’s Hess the flyboy.
I’ve been to Mathuosen in Austria and it didn’t hit me until we walked through the small showers and I wondered why there were seals on the shower’s doors. Duh! My wife got the heebie jeebies and we got out of there fast.
Supposedly all the death camps were outside Germany but Mathausen was a death/work camp in Austria. To kill British prisoners of war, they made them walk up over a hundred stones of granite to the top of the quarry where the camp was. If they couldn’t go on, they were just pushed over the edge to fall to their death, if they made it to the top, their load was increased until they to succumbed. Tragic, evil, sadism all in one place and this was a small camp unlike the enormous Auschwitz.
I was nauseous just thinking about it and less than 100 miles away, beautiful Vienna. They had to know. They didn’t kill millions of Jews with just Hitler, Himmler and Goering. They used lots of college educated men to do the dirty work. Someone from Thysen sent an engineer or a few to increase the efficiency of the crematorium. It’s simply amazing how this machine of people, equipment and death operated and we’re supposed to believe it was only a small number of people who knew what was going on.
There were even people saying, “If only the Fuhrer knew, he would stop it.” Hell, it was his idea, just read Mein Kampf. If more people had read it, maybe things would have turned out differently, but then again, probably not.
The Nazis razed Sobibor after the prisoners revolted and escaped.
It was quite embarrassing to them. They didn’t want anyone else getting ideas, I guess.
That’s Goering. Hess is at .46 seconds. Goering made them look like fools. He spoke four languages so while he was supposedly listening to the translation, he was actually massaging his answer to look like he knew nothing and had a razor sharp mind, too. They should have never weened him off of drugs because he was the third smartest defendant there.
Unfortunately for him and the other Nazis, they kept meticulous records which sealed Goering and several others doom. Goering committed suicide the night they were to be executed with a cyanide pill. All evidence points to a US soldier who allowed Goering access to his luggage in order to retrieve the drug in exchange for one of Goering’s watches.
Hoess was portrayed very well in "War and Remembrance."
That was "Hess", who spent the rest of his days at Spandau. Hoess, was executed by the Poles in 1946, at Auschwitz.
Thanks ct. Himmler phoned Hitler to tell him about the early “successes” of the Holocaust, and Hitler scolded him over it, saying he wasn’t to speak of it over the phone, because the line might be tapped. That’s so bizarre.
Defiance was a really, really good movie.
“Europa, Europa” is also an excellent movie.
Also, Andzej Wajda’s “Korczak.”
Please add to that list:
Life Is Beautiful (1997)
The Pianist (2002)
Fateless (2005)
“The House on Garibaldi Street” was also a terrific book.
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