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1. In December 1941, during the evacuation of the Riga ghetto, the 81-year-old historian Simon Dubnow was shot. The story is told that Dubnow's last words were an admonition to his fellow Jews: 'Write and record!' (Yidn, shreibt un farschreib'). It was a phrase written on walls and scraps of paper in a last desperate act of defiance when the victims saw their immediate demise. These 'last gasps' can be found in many thousands of locations, including Fort IX, Kovno, the Sipo-SD School Rabka and in the last transport bringing the Jewish workers of the 'death brigade' from Belzec to Sobibor where they were all shot on arrival. Return
2. Where possible I have written or contacted photographic sources. Some have replied, some have not. Acknowledgement is shown where possible. Return
3. Raol Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, 3 vols (vol. 1). Return
4. Heinz Paechter, Nazi Deutsch: New York 1944, 1-128. Return
5. See: Viktor Klemperer, Language of the Third Reich, (trans. by Martin Brady), London, 1999. Return
6. In a Nazi circular issued by Martin Bormann (No. 33/43), one finds the following: 'By order of the Fuehrer. In public discussions on the Jewish Question any mention of a future total solution must be avoided. However, one may discuss the fact that all Jews are being interned and detained to purposeful compulsory labour forces.' Return
7. See Claud Lanzmann, Shoah, London 1985, 103-4. Return
8. Orth, KZs, 310. Return
9. Mark Mazower, Dark Continent, London 1998, 174. Return
10. Hilberg, Destruction, vol. 3, 1205. Return
11. Ibid, 1009. Return
12. See Sandküler Endlosung,71-76. Return
13. One of the plusses of going direct to the High Court records was that I found material not generally kept in police prosecution files, i.e., psychological assessment reports obtained by Court Medical psychologists, namely Dr. Gercke of the Hamburg Court. Dr Gercke must have spent many hours interviewing Rosenbaum prior to sentencing. Return
14. Hans Krueger Sipo-SD Fuehrer in Krakow just before he was to taken up duties in the Zakopane and Rabka Sipo-SD School. Return
15. Ibid. Statement of Dr Gercke, psychiatric expert witness for the prosecution. 'I remember Rosenbaum as a young, witty Unterfuehrer. He was the type of young inexperienced Unterfuehrer who froze with respect before a superior.' Return
16. Ibid. Return
17. Dieter Pohl: Hans Krueger and the Murder of the Jews in the Stanislawow Region (Galicia) Return

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18. IMT. HMSO, Part 3, 184. The set-up and administration certified by Dr Otto Ohlendorf, Chief of Amt 1V of the RSHA (prisoner indicted), and by Walter Schellenberg, Chief of Amt V1 of the RSHA (prisoner indicted). Himmler's decree of 27.9.1939 amalgamated Sipo and the SD into one organisation under Heydrich, (Reichssicherheitshauptamt) Reich Security Main Office. (RSHA), which had now grown from the original 280 men, to nearly a quarter of a million men – the instrument for the Security of the State and the annihilation of the Jews. Return
19. Hitler never bothered to abolish the Weimar Constitution and resisted all attempts by Reich Interior Minister Frick to give the Reich a constitution. Return
20. Heinz Paechter, Nazi-Deutsch (New York, 1943), 114, 119. Hereafter Paechter. In Nazi speak – Nation, National: these terms were replaced by Volk, Volkisch of Reich. The Nazis distinguished Volksnation – the nation identical with a race – from Staatsnation – a nation created by the State (such as Italian Fascism). Return
21. 'Volkischer Beobachter', 30th January, 1936. Return
22. Paechter, 73. Nothing exceptional in this remark, as it is a fundamental basic principle of any rank structure. Return
23. Ibid. Decree: 4/14/33, giving the NSDAP status of a corporation under public law (12/1/33), purging civil service from republicans (4/7/33, making Hitler Fuehrer and Chancellor (8/1/1934), giving the NSDAP control of civil service nominations (1/26/1937). Abolition Equality before law and of Independent Justice (suspension of civil liberties 2/28/1933) etc. Return
24. E.J. Feutwanger, 'Nuremberg Laws', unpublished paper. Return
25. Paechter, 114. Return
26. Raol Hilberg, Destruction of the European Jews (3 vols), Vol. 1, 35. Hereafter 'The Destruction'. See also, Martin Gilbert, History of 20th Century (Harper-Collins 1996), 835. Return
27. Feuchtwanger. Return
28. The Euthanasia program was rationalised along the lines of Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche's book, Life Unworthy of Living, published sometime in 1920. The Hoche thesis suggested that Euthanasia was a kindness to the patient. This was followed up by the research analysis of psychiatrist Ewald Meltzer, who published a paper on the subject in 1925, hoping to prove them, misguided, but to his astonishment was forced to agree and enhance their theories. He discovered that 73% of parents were in favour of killing their children provided that they were not presented with the facts. See Mini Gelbard, 'An Aspect of the Holocaust – A Master Psychologist', unpublished document, 3. Return
29. Paechter, 83. Return
30. Feutwanger. Return
31. The Trial of German Major War Criminals, HMSO, London 1946. IMT, Speeches, 19. Return
32. Sipo-SD training academies were established in 1935 when they came under Zentralamt II (Personnel Office), Hauptabteilung III (Training, education and recruitment of the Sicherheitshauptamt). With the amalgamation of all security services in 1936, they crossed the corridor to the RSHA. Return

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33. Dr Schoengarth was a regular attendee of the Evangelist church before he joined the HHE. Return
34. Paechter, 127 Return
35. Ibid. 128. Teutonic Creed Movement, German Race Church (spiritualistic circle). Return
36. Ibid. Return
37. Effective power resided with three men of 'The Triumvirate': Goring, Himmler and Bormann who controlled the SS and police, and the NSDAP. Hermann Goring, 'Reichsmarschall', the highest economic authority and of home administration, Heinrich Himmler, 'Reichsminister des Inneren, Reichsfuehrer SS und Chef der deutschen Polizei', and Martin Bormann, 'Chef des Stabes des Stellvertreters des Fuehrers', who could veto any nomination of civil servants and labour service leaders. His agreement was required for discussions on regional administrative authorities regarding laws. Return
38. George C. Browder, Hitler's Enforcers (Oxford University Press, London, 1996), 103. Return
39. In most Holocaust literature there is an overuse of the word 'Gestapo' (Geheime Staatspolizei = Secret State Police). The early Prussian version under Goering was the Gestapa – Geheime Staats Polizeamt. The later Gestapo had offices all over the Reich. In popular parlance, however, it is applied to all police institutions created since 1933. See: Paechter, Nazi Usage, 79. The organisation of the Sipo-SD in Galicia, of the BdS and KdS, which replicated the five departments of the RSHA: Personnel, Administration, Intelligence, Secret State Police, and Criminal Police. Department IV dealt with Jewish matters. Return
40. Rupert Butler: The Gestapo, London, 1992, 51. Typewriters always seemed to be in short supply and during 'operations' officers left their posts, not to join in, but to seize any typewriters that may have been available. Return
41. In recent times, police forces outside Germany have sought radical solutions to solve policing problems: leadership by means of direct entry to supervisory positions, amalgamations, police academies of excellence, senior command courses, special squads to deal with particular issues, such as terrorism and drugs, major crime and the special branch. Return
42. The HHE organised and supervised these changes from the newly-established RSHA Amt V, under the direction of Arthur Nebe. Return
43. Rupert Butler, The Gestapo, Allen, London, 1992, 51. Return
44. Sereny, Stangl, 30-37. The author suggests one treats Stangl's explanations with scepticism. Return
45. Ibid. Return
46. Browder, Enforcers, 57. Among the earliest members of the Sipo und SD, 20% came from the lower ranks of the civil service. Return
47. 'Carrying' a uniform is a police phrase which, in this meaning, reflects a professional, hard working, officer. It can however also mean 'uniform carrier', an officer who wears a uniform and draws his pay, but does little work. Return

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48. After ignoring the Concordat with the Holy See, signed in July 1933 in Rome, the Nazi Party carried out a long and persistent persecution of the Catholic Church, its priesthood and congregation members, including police officers. Return
49. Sereny, Stangl, 37. Return
50. Browder, Enforcers, 212. Return
51. Andrew Ezergalis, The Holocaust in Latvia, Washington, DC, 1996, 146. Return
52. Martin Gilbert, 20th Century, 841. Return
53. Acknowledgement to Krystyna Kynst: See Zoe Zajdlerowa, The Dark Side of the Moon, London, 1989, 55. Over one million were deported by the Soviets during their occupation. Mass deportations occurred: February, April and June 1940, June 1941. Return
54. Some of the educational courses at the Rabka School can be gleaned from the School curriculum in Befehlsblatt des Chefs der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD, No. 41, Berlin, 15^th September, 1942. See also KGB Trials Archive, Delo No. 292, and Archive No. 28446. Return
55. Polish intelligentsia, particularly those Poles who had taken part in the referendum held in Silesia after the First World War and voted against Germany. Strechenbach and his EG then turned their attention to the Jews before moving on to the town of Jaroslav. (Bruno Strechenbach later served on the Russian front where he was captured. He was tried by the Russians after the war and sentenced to a period of imprisonment. On his release, well after the war, he was closely questioned on the Nazi leader's orders for the implementation of the 'Final Solution of the Jewish Question'.) Nowy Targ was assigned to the Third Company of EG, commanded by Dr E. Hasselberger. See Rabka and District Memorial Book, HMM, Washington, DC. (RO November, 1997) Return
56. Ibid. Return
57. Memorial Book of Rabka and District, (including the Ben-Ami Documentation) The Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington. DC. Return
58. Alexander Ben-Ami, The Zakopane Judenrat (known as the Ben-Ami Documentation), HMM, Washington .DC. Return
59. After the war, both Weissmann and Samish were tried for war crimes in the town of Frieburg, Germany. The trial lasted for 5 months. Many of the prosecution witnesses fainted in the course of giving detailed evidence of the murders and other crimes. Weissmann was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment for having taken part in the murder of 111 Jews. Return
60. Memorial Book. Return
61. The Mauer brothers were to serve with Hans Kruger in Stanilslawow for the murder of over 20.000 Jews. Return
62. Nowy Targ Memorial Book. Return
63. Ibid. Return
64. Ibid. Return
65. Ibid. Return
66. Ibid. See Adolf Hutler? Return
67. Ibid. Return

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68. One of the training priorities was the 'V'-Agents. Return
69. It was very common for Jews in Eastern and Central Europe to speak many languages – Yiddish, German, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian etc. Return
70. In the District of Neumarkt (Nowy Targ) Krakow. Shown on present day maps as Nowy Sachs. Return
71. The earliest blueprints for the Russian campaign were known as 'Aufbau Ost', or Eastern Build. This directive, which set out the basic strategy and the date of the 15^th May, 1941, for the attack, was submitted to Hitler on December 17, 1940. Hitler made two changes, 1; the direction of the attack, and 2, the name of the operation would be 'Barbarossa'. Return
72. At the end of July/early August. 1941. Return
73. Our understanding of the Holocaust in Galicia is indebted to the work of Dieter Pohl, especially his Nationalsozialistische Judenverfolgung in Ostgalizien 1941-1944 (Munich, 1996). In 1998, Pohl published a study for Yad Vashem entitled Hans Krueger and the Murder of the Jews in the Stanislawow Region (Galicia), which is now available on-line in English (See http//www1.yadvashem.org.il/ odot_pdf/Microsoft Word – 2292.pdf). Pohl's research, combined with the well-known report from Brigadier Katzmann to Krueger (Nuremberg doc L-18), enables us to identify conclusive sources that demonstrate the co-ordinated genocide carried out by the Nazis in the region. Return
74. See Zoe Zajdlerowa, The Dark Side of the Moon, London, 1989, 55. Over one million were deported by the Soviets during their occupation. Mass deportations occurred: February, April and June 1940, June 1941. Return
75. ZbV – units by definition (special group) were used elsewhere, particularly in the opening phases of the invasion of Poland in September 1939. E.g., SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Udo von Woyrsch at Kattowice whose zbV unit was responsible for murdering many thousands. Return
76. Confirmation of Schoengarth's zbV appointment can be seen: Affidavit Dr Otto Ohlendorf, 5^th November 1945, IMT 2620 PS. Return
77. Krueger Verdict: Hans Krueger statement 8 January 1962: See the composition of zbV and the named Sipo-SD officers, are shown in a number of sources: Dieter Pohl. Berlin Document Centre Personnel Files of the SS (Yad Vashem) – BDC, Stellebbesetzung des KdS Krakow (Abschrift): Dienstelle; Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD fur den Distrikt Krakow (1940-1943), Zentralkartel erganz am: 23^rd October 1962, hereafter Krakow KdS (Yad Vashem). The personnel 'cards' clearly show the progress of these officers from Krakow to their postings in East Galicia. Return
78. Yehoshua Buechler, 'Kommandostab Reichsfuehrer-SS', 13 (Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Vol. 1. No. 1, 11-25. Return
79. PRO: WO 2890 IMT No. 2890, statement of Ohlendorf. Return

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80. Krueger Verdict: statement of Hans Krueger. Return
81. Hilberg, Destruction, vol. 11, 406. Return
82. Krueger Verdict. See also PRO: WO 3644. Document No. 3644, statement of Erwin Schulz who describes the Sipo-SD actions in Lvov. Return
83. Christopher Diekmann, The War and the Killing of the Lithuanian Jews (National Socialist Extermination Policies, Ed. Ulrich Herbert, Oxford, 2000, 240). Return
84. Ralf Ogorreck, Die Einsatzgruppen der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD im Rahmen der 'Genesis der Endlosung, Berlin, 1996, as cited by Dr Dieter Pohl in correspondence to RO. Return
85. PRO: NTD 2620-PS. Affidavit Otto Ohlendorf. (My underline). See also University of Southampton Archives (Ohlendorf) NMT/9/14/1) r.21. Return
86. See Garrard, East European Jewish Affairs, vol. 28, number 2, winter 1998/9, 22.). Return
87. B. F. Sabrin, Alliance for Murder, NY, 1991, 64. Return
88. Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men 241. Return
89. Hilberg, Documents of Destruction, London, 1972, 88. Return
90. Goetz Aly, Political Prehistory, (National Socialist Extermination Policies, ed. Ulrich Herbert, Oxford, 2000, 71). Return
91. Krueger Verdict: statement of Hans Krueger 8 January 1962 (my brackets). Return
92. Thomas Sandkühler, Galicia, Oxford, 2000, 113. Return
93. Menten Verdict. Return
94. Ibid. Return
95. See Browning, Path to Genocide, Cambridge U.P. 1992, 105. Return
96. Ibid. 107. Return
97. Dieckmann, 246. Return
98. Hans Frank must have been tearing his hair out. All efforts to get rid of his Jews were now compounded by events. Return
99. See Recollections on the life and Martyrdom of Jewish Medical Doctors in the Lvov Ghetto by: Dr. Marek Redner, Translated from Polish by: A.S. Redner Edited by: Isabel Alcoff. I met A.S. Redner on a journey to the official opening of a memorial service at the site of the former Belzec death camp in 2004. Return
100. The composition of zbV and the named Sipo-SD officers are shown in a number of sources: Dieter Pohl, 'Nationalsozialistische Judenverfolgung in Ostgalizien 1941-1944', Munich, 1996, 411-423. Berlin Document Centre Personnel Files of the SS (Yad Vashem)-BDC, Stellebbesetzung des KdS Krakow (Abschrift): 'Dienstelle; Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD fur den District Krakow (1940-1943)', Zentralkartel erganz am: 23 October 1962, hereafter Krakow KdS (Yad Vashem). Return
101. Hilberg, The Destruction, vol. 1, 296. Return
102. The Redner Papers. Return

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103. The form of murder was based not on any individual trait but simply on membership of a certain group: the murder of the Polish intelligentsia had been a priority objective of German policy ever since they occupied Polish territories in 1939. Under the heading 'AB' (Allgemeine Befriedung: general pacification) SS Gruppenfuehrer Bruno Streckenbach (Schoengarth's predecessor) had since the spring of 1940 organised the murder of 5000 university people, artists and intellectuals. At the time a colonel in the NKVD was attached to the Soviet liaison officer to Dr Hans Frank (GG); he can scarcely have been unaware of Operation AB. Dr Otto Rasch (EG 'C') with the OUN and Wehrmacht, whose actions were approved by the High Command of the 17th Army, shot all Jewish males of military age. See also Operation Station Report USSR No. 10, 2^nd July, 1941 (Arad, EG Reports, 2). Return
104. Thomas Sandkühler, Anti-Jewish Policy and the Murder of the Jews in the District of Galicia, 1941/2 (National Socialist Extermination Policies, Oxford, 2000, 109). Return
105. The rank of Sonderfuehrer may be described as a specialist officer functioning above his rank. In Krakow, Schoengarth and Menten were on first name terms and may be described as friends. Menten was thieving Jewish art for the benefit of the SS. When zbV was being put together, Schoengarth invited Menten to join zbV for the Lvov venture. Menten was never trained (like other Sonderfuehrers) for this duty, but when in East Galicia, committed theft and atrocity, as we shall see. The information about Menten mainly comes from his trial notes (Menten Verdict), and from Mrs Dorothea Schoengarth in correspondence to the trial investigators to seek a pension after her husband had been convicted for the murder of Americo S. Galle, the American airman who had baled out over Holland and shot by Schoengarth's security department. Return
106. The personnel 'cards' clearly show the progress of these officers from Krakow to their postings in East Galicia. Another interesting point: a number of these men were involved in the massacres committed in Poland late 1939 and further atrocities in May 1940. They were trained killers. Many on this list appear in the list of Sipo-SD stationed in East Galicia. Return
107. BDC 806. Return
108. Krueger Verdict. Return
109. PRO WO235/631. Heim and Menten teamed up together in the plunder of Jewish art in Lvov (statement of Dorothea Schoengarth). Return
110. In late August 1941, Rosesbbaum returned with Dr Schoengarth to Krakow where he was the Head of the Sipo-SD Training School at Bad Rabka. Dr Schoengarth remained in Krakow to administer and supervise the Jewish destruction. He was the main perpetrator in the Krakow District consolidating 'AR', liaison with the HSSPF F.W. Krueger, SSPF Globocnik (Lublin), and the HHE in Berlin. Return

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111. Ministry of Justice trial transcripts, 'The Netherlands v Pieter Menten 1977-1980' (hereafter Menten Verdict). A surprise witness at the Menten trial after the war was Hans Geisle who had been a member of zbV, and remembered Menten being added to the Commando as 'guest and interpreter.' There is further corroboration, surprisingly as it may seem, from Dorothea Schoengarth (wife of Dr Schoengarth), who after the war in the trials of both Menten and Rosenbaum gave evidence that her husband had taken Menten along because he had an antiques shop in Lvov. Her husband had given him a uniform to perform his duties as interpreter for the commando. She also stated which the court interpreted as a defensive line, which Menten was sent back to Krakow without his uniform as he and SS-Obersturmfuehrer Heim were mixed up in shady antiques deals. (See Rosenbaum trial statement of Mrs Schoengarth RAD Az.1 141 Js 856/61, 141 Js 61/65), 2436-2444. See also PRO WO235/631. Return
112. Menten Verdict. Malcolm MacPherson, The Last Victim, 1984, 98. (This faction/fictional account by MacPherson has been well researched. Where I have sourced this material it has been corroborated, usually by trial references. Through Kiptka, Menten met Wilhelm Rosenbaum at the Magrabianka SS Club in Rabka. Menten, Kiptka and Dr Schoengarth had stayed at the residence in the winter of 1941. Return
113. A number of SS-officers of Scharfuehrer rank were either in the first transport, or joined up with the team later. Several were transferred in to the Sipo-SD offices when they were established. We are able to identify a number of them from the Stanislawow Office of Sipo-SD: Heinrich Schott (Jewish Affairs), Josef Daus, Kurt Giese, Hans Greve, Wilhelm Hehemann, Walther Lange, Otto Ruckerich, Kurt Wulkau, and the Mauer brothers, ethnic Germans who had served with Hans Krueger when he was commandant of the Sipo-SD Training School at Bad Rabka (Rosenbaum had replaced Krueger as commandant). These non-commissioned officers held the principal decisions over 'life or death' in the coming actions. Return
114. The Sipo-SD arrested: Professor Tadeuz Boj-Zelenski, a member of the Union of Soviet Writers, and author of numerous literary works, Professor Roman Recki of the Medical Institute, Vladimir Seradski, Dean of the University and Professor of Forensic Medicine, Roman Longchamp Deberrier, Doctor of Law, together with his three sons, Professor Tadeusz Ostrovski, Professor Jan Grek, Professor Henryk Gilarowicz the surgeon, Professor Anton Tesziaski the Stomatologist, Witfold Nowicki, Professor of Pathological Anatomy, Vladimir Stozhek and Anton Lomnicki, Doctors of Physico-Mathematical Sciences, Academician Solovi, Kazimir Bartel, an honorary member of many academies of science, Stanislav Pilat, Doctor of Chemical Science, Kaspar Vaisel, Roman Witkiewicz and Vladimir Rukowskin, Doctors of Technical Science, Professor Stanislaw Progulski, Professor Mendzewski, Adam Fiszer the ethnographer, Kazimir Vetulyani, Doctor of Technical Science, the prominent lawyer Professor Mauricius Arerhand, a member of Poland's Codification Committee, the Lvov authoress Galina Glyska, the critic Ostap Ortvin, the university lecturers Auerbach and Piasiecki, Vander the physicist, Simon Blumental the engineer, Ruff the surgeon, Czortrover, a university lecturer and other professors and teachers employed in local educational establishments. It is interesting to note that this elite 'men of letters' survived under Soviet rule that was a contradiction to Soviet policy. See The Soviet Take-over of the Polish Eastern Provinces, 1939-41, London 1991, edited by Keith Sword. See also Bogdan Czaykowski, 'Soviet Policies in the Literary Sphere: Their Effects and Implications', 102-130. These intellectuals collaborated and were protected to play the 'Polish Card'. Return

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115. Albert Zygmunt, Murder of the Lvov Professors in July 1941, Wroclaw' Poland 1989, 69-99. Bartel had been earmarked by General Sikorski to take over as Ambassador to Moscow should the Soviets denounce the two treaties with Germany of August and September 1939. See also Soviet Polish Relations, Vol. 1. No.93, 118. Return
116. The Hamlyn Marcus Collection, Soviet Government Statements on Nazi Atrocities, London, nd). – Communiqués issued by the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission for ascertaining and investigating crimes committed by the German-Fascist invaders and their accomplices: 242-255. NB: These reports must be treated with care. See report concerning the 'Katyn' shootings (107-135) that is complete fabrication of the facts. However, the Lvov murders have been corroborated elsewhere and I am reasonably confident of their findings. Return
117. Ibid. Return
118. These 'Murders' were so secret that nothing leaked out until after the war. However, direct corroboration of the Lvov professor murders was being enacted on about the 8th October 1943. The notorious Blobel Commando 1005 was active in the Lvov area. A surviving Jew of that Commando, Leon Weliczker (Wells), The Janowska Road, London, 1966), 197: 'I was chosen to go with an “elite” group. It was all hush, and we cannot Figure: out why. We go to a sector of the town called Wulka. We are put to digging in a small area of ground. In fifteen minutes bodies become visible. We could tell they were very important people by their clothes and their jewellery. Some of them had been buried in tuxedos. We remove all the bodies and load them into an, including the professors, (Abbreviated) insulated truck, and then the pyre to be burnt. The documents show that among these dead are Professor Kazimierz Bartel, Dr Ostrowski, Professor Stozek, T. Boy Zelenski, and others. There were 38 bodies – the very cream of Poland's social and intellectual life. On the 9^th October we burn over 2,000 bodies.' Return

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119. Ibid. Return
120. In June 1942, Himmler ordered Colonel Paul Blobel to dig up and burn all corpses from locations where massacres had occurred. Return
121. Leon Wells, The Janowska Road, London, 1979. Return
122. Soviet Special Commission report, 244. Two witnesses are named, but which one made the statement is not recorded. The Commission resolved that 70 of the most prominent representatives of science, technology and art were murdered. Return
123. Wells, 201. Return
124. Krueger Verdict: final remarks, of Prosecuting Counsel, 1167-1174. After the war, Hans Krueger was interviewed whilst in detention in Munster. He was asked to name his fellow culprits in the Professors' murder but he refused. Another witness to the Professors' murder, and a witness in the Oberlander trial in East Germany, was Max Draheim, a senior police officer who was present at the execution of the professors. All Draheim could say was that the officer had the rank of SS-Untersturmfuehrer – he couldn't recall his name. Many years later when Wiesenthal had obtained a photograph of Kutschmann, the witness Draheim was dead. Return
125. Correspondence author-Wiesenthal 1997. Return
126. Knoop, 59. Return
127. Menten also sealed 6 other apartments and seized valuable art property. This included the apartment of Professor Jan Grek. Menten posted an official bonding order (in Polish and German), a decree that made the premises Reich property. Jadwina Roswadovska, one of the few remaining members of the Ostrowsky family after the war, testified to having seen Menten's nameplate on the door of her dead stepfather's house, Knoop, 59. Return
128. Rosenbaum Verdict: Jewish witnesses, Ettinger and Schon who were both retained during this time at the School. See also Malcom MacPherson, The Last Victim, London, 1984, 108. Return
129. This is an interesting point and the nearest explanation I have found is in an article written by Bogdan Czaykowski (See The Soviet Take-over of the Polish Eastern Provinces, 1939-41, edited by Keith Sword, London, 1991), 102-130. Return
130. Zygmunt Albert, The Extermination of the Lvov Professors in July 1941, in idem (ed.), Kazn profesorow Lvovskich, lipiec 1941. Studia oraz relacje i dokumenty (Wroclaw: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wroclawskiego, 1989), pp. 69-99 (Albert, Kazn profesorow); Slawomir Kalbarczyk, 'Okolicznosci smierci profesora Kazimierza Bartla we Lvovie w lipcu 1941 r.,' Biuletyn Glownej Komisji Badania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, 34 (1922), 112-123. Return
131. Dr Redner, Papers to the author: Original Memoirs (in Polish) written between 1944 and 1949.
     The manuscript is preserved by Yad Vashem, file 03/430 in Jerusalem, Israel. Return

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132. Ibid. Return
133. Ibid. Return
134. Ibid Arad, Krakowski, Spector, The Einsatzgruppen Reports, London 1989, 2. The NKVD on the 25.6.41 in Lvov bloodily suppressed Ukrainian insurrection movements. About 3000 were shot by NKVD. EK 4a and EK 4b have arrived in Lvov'. Operation Report USSR No.10. There were three prisons in Lvov: Brygdik at Kazimierzowska Street, the prison at the former police headquarters on Lecki Street; and the prison at the former military headquarters on Zamarstynowska Street. Return
135. Their population consisted mostly of criminals and political prisoners from the Lvov area. Many of them had been murdered by the NKVD and buried in the prison courtyard. The Lvov Jews were made to dig up the corpses and photographed in the process for propaganda purposes – 'look at the Jewish-Bolshevik murderers whom we have just caught red-handed!' (See David Kahane, The Lvov Ghetto Diary, 4). Return
136. Krueger Verdict: Statement Hans Krueger, 8^th January 1962. Return
137. Ibid. Return
138. The commander of EG 4a, Paul Blobel, delivered in Sokal on 27^th June 1941, made similar demands. He gathered his men around him and explained that the Jews must be killed and that everybody must participate, as the order to do so was a 'Fuehrer Order'. See YVA TR-10/616, 137, 142. See also Helmut Krausnik, Anatomy of the SS State, London, 1968, 262. Dr Otto Rasch, commander of EG 'C', made similar demands. Return
139. Ibid. The shooting of women and children was now taking place on a daily basis, although it would appear there was no authorisation for it. I would suggest that Himmler was influenced by zbV's actions that subsequently resulted in a directive to kill all genders of all ages. (I refer to this later.) Return
140. Ibid. For many of the junior ranks this was their first introduction of what was expected of them. Some refused, some looked to more senior officers for help. On this aspect Schoengarth was not approachable. Return
141. Ibid. I think the point to highlight here is that these SD commanders were acting on their responsibility (vide the Hitler-Himmler Directive). It is interesting to see how many writers have gone along with the excuse: 'Orders are orders' and their refusal or failure to pull the trigger was never the subject of reprisal by the senior officers. It is shown: J. and C. Garrard, East European Jewish Affairs, vol. 28, number 2, winter 1998/9, note 22, 19. See also Klee, Dressen, Riess, Those were the days, London 1988), 77. This subtle point, I would suggest, has been overlooked in both cases. Return
142. Ibid. Return

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143. Krueger Verdict: statement of Hans Krueger, statement 8 January 1962. In the first paragraph I am not sure that this was the case and that it may have been a defensive lie on behalf of Krueger. The second paragraph seems more likely. Return
144. See Klee, Dressen and Riess, xiii Belzec Verdict. Return
145. The villages in the Stryj valley – see below. Return
146. The Mauer brothers had previously done this job, but had left Bad Rabka to join Hans Krueger, as part of the SD team in Stanislawow and never returned. Return
147. RAD: Statement of Rosenbaum, 11^th January1962, 729-745. Return
148. Ibid: Statement of Johann Bornholt, 19^th September1962, 96-102. Return
149. Ibid: Statement of Rosenbaum, 30^th July 1963, 138-6. Oder, Wozdolowicz, Jaworski and Proch (all 'Zugfuehrer') were the expert killing instructors. Using Walther PPK, calibre 765 pistols, they would shoot Jews in the back of the neck at a distance of 10-20cm. Proch was very central to the murders in the School and in the town where he would shoot anyone he took a dislike to – Jew or non-Jew. Beck usually accompanied Proch when collecting the Jews from Nowy Sacz for labour. Return
150. He shot many Jews, several at a time, before returning to the SD School. See RAD, statements of the Jews Grossbard and Blatt (Rosenbaum cross-examination statement, 20^th September 1963, 1398-1411). See also Wiesenthal, The Murderers Amongst Us, London, 1987. Wiesenthal tracked down Proch (Austrian) in 1947 in Blomberg, a village near Salzburg. He was subsequently sentenced to 6 years imprisonment for his activities in the Rabka School. Return
151. Yad Vashem Archives. Return
152. RAD. Statement of Dr Kurt Neiding, Wiesbaden 1^st January 1962, 765-776. SS-Hauptstumfuehrer Dr Neiding was a lawyer by profession and had been drafted into the SD-Sipo apparatus as legal adviser and interrogator to the BdS in Krakow in July 1942, where he prosecuted SS officers. He was a long-standing colleague and personal friend of Dr Schoengarth. He also knew Rosenbaum and the set-up in Bad Rabka Return.
153. RAD. Statement of Schon (604-614). Helen Bauman was brought from Zakopane by Hans Krueger where she was his maid. She was awaiting orders to move with Hans Krueger to Stanislawow, but was shot by the SS when the Rabka Jews were killed, much against Krueger's wishes. Helen was a close friend of Sarah Schon. (Mark Goldfinger to the author, 1998). Return
154. Rabka and District Memorial Book (National Archives, Washington, DC). Return
155. See www.vineland.org. Edited by Mrs Genia Kuhnreich. Return
156. RAD. Part of the Jewish workers in the School was finally transported to Belzec in August, 1942 and the rest in September, 1943, to Plaszow Concentration Camp. Return

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157. Ibid. The observations are based upon the statements of (non-Jews) – Dr Bath, Hans Krueger, Meta Kuck, Elfiede Bohnert, Dr Hann, Draheim, Oder, Dr Neiding and Alfred Kuck. Return
158. Ibid: The behaviour of Rosenbaum towards friends and subordinates is described in statements of: (non-Jews) Alfred Kuck, Ilse Raemisch, Dittmar, Draheim, Muller, Czakainski and Bohnert.
     See also Statement of Friedrich August Glienke, 16^th June, 1961, 274-277. Return
159. Ibid: Jewish witnesses stated that Rosenbaum wore an SS ring from which two spikes protruded as if they were large teeth, or maybe the eye-sockets. Return
160. Ibid. Return
161. Ibid. No German witness from the Rabka trials has ever referred to 'live training', which is not surprising. The evidence comes mainly from Jewish witnesses (Ettinger, Goldfinger and Schon), all present at the School during the relevant period. Return
162. Once the School was established it became the approved centre in west Galicia where small groups of prisoners were brought from outside areas for immediate execution. A phone call to the School reception was sufficient to organise an execution party. Return
163. RAD: Statement of Rosenbaum cross-examination of 20^th September, 1963, 1398-1411, refers to the witness Steiner's allegations of 19^th June, 1962. Return
164. Ibid: Ettinger, Schon and Goldfinger – Statements and interview with the author. Return
165. Reuben Ainsztein, 'The Collector', New Statesman 27^th February 1981, 9 Photograph by kind permission of Krystyna Kynst sent to the author. During my visit in 1998, I found several mature trees that still bore the marks of bullet holes. Return
166. The bark of these trees was still weeping after all this time. I confirmed this with the help of Jan Krakowski (Secretary of the present-day School for deaf and dumb children) and a metal detector which registered when placed against these locations. Return
167. Lord Russell of Liverpool, Scourge of the Swastika, London, 1964, 58. Return
168. Ibid. Return
169. In answer to allegations by former employment Head in Neu Markt, Grimmlinger, Statement 4^th July, 1962, 13. Grimmlinger opened a whole 'bag of worms'. Return
170. Ibid. The cellars and stables which were used for imprisonment are directly under present-day converted sleeping quarters. Return
171. Ibid. Rosenbaum cross-examination, 3^rd January, 1962, 675-681. Return
172. Ibid. Return
173. Ibid. Return
174. Lord Russell of Liverpool, The Scourge of the Swastika, London, 1964, 212. Return
175. Rabka and District Memorial Book for the town of Makov Podhalanski. Return

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176. 'Soviet Government Statements on Nazi Atrocities', London 1946, 19-20. (Report signed by Molotov, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Moscow, and 6^th January, 42). See also Russell, 'Swastika', 119. Return
177. Ibid. Return
178. Ibid. Return
179. Klee, Dressen, Reiss, Those were the Days, 120. Return
180. RAD. Statement of Ettinger and interview with the author Haifa 1997. Return
181. Ibid. Return
182. Ibid. Statements of the Jews – Derschowitz, Kolber and Dattner and Goodrich. Return
183. Ibid. Return
184. Ibid. Statements of the Jews – Form, Goodrich, Derschowitz, Kolba, Mendel, Lustig, Kesterbaum, Gold. Frolich, Farber, Susskind, Statter, Steiner, Kalfus, Grossbard, Lonker and Zwi Schiffeldrin. Return
185. Interview Mark Goldfinger and Sarah Schon (brother and sister) with the author, June, 1997, Israel and London. A few days after the murder of Mrs Kranz, Sarah Schon identified her grandmother's dress that had arrived in the laundry room for processing. She recognised the dress as the one worn by her grandmother on Shabbat. Return
186. Ibid. Return
187. Rosenbaum states that he made it his policy to obtain Schoengarth's approval for all his actions. This was not the conclusion of the court. Return
188. Interview with Norman Salsitz, survivor of the Pustkow camp in Washington DC, November, 1997. There were thousands of camps, of all sizes and for many purposes in Poland and Ukraine. Many of the camps sound or are spelt very much the same. For reference purposes: Hitlerowskie Obozy Na Ziemiach Polskich W Latach 1939 - 1945, obtained from the Polish Underground Trust, West London. Return
189. Rosenbaum Verdict: Mishana Dolne, nearer to Rabka but was under the jurisdiction of the Nowy Sacz Gestapo. Whereas Rosenbaum chose his execution place in the Rabka School, Hamann chose the village of Mishana Dolne for his executions. He demanded that the Judenrat collect an exorbitant amount of money to stop the deportations. When the Judenrat could not pay, Hamann gathered 800 Jews in the Square and murdered them. Hamann, after the war, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the Mishana-Dolne murders. Return
190. Ibid. Return
191. Ibid. Statement of Johann Bornholt, 19^th September 1962, 96-102. Bornholt was a police officer with the Grenzpolizeikommissariat (Krakow District). Return
192. Ibid. See also Klee, Those Were The Days, 76. Return
193. Ibid. The Jews Grun and Regina Weiss. Return

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194. Several Jews were able to escape unnoticed with the help of the J.E.O. By marking up cards 'dead', these cards were destroyed by the German Authorities, along with the identity. Return
195. RAD. On this transport from Nowy Targ were the Jews: Statter, Derschowitz, Henry Frolich, Joseph Grossbard, Alexander Lustig, Mendel Lustig, Kolber, Appel, Farber, Stammberger, Steiner, Lonker, Sammy Frolich (brother of Henry), Zwickler, Einhorn, Wenger, Wolkowitz, Kauffer, Buxbaum, Gutwirt, Kalman, Tiefenbrunner, Wildfeuer, Wildstein and Schermer. Return
196. Ibid. Return
197. Ibid. Return
198. Ibid. Return
199. Ibid. 410. 16,000 Jews deported from this region to Belzec. Return
200. Ibid. Return
201. Ibid. Return
202. Ibid. Among them were the Jews Form (who had just arrived from Neu Markt), Susskind, Goodrich, Kalfus and others. Return
203. Ibid. Statement of the Jew Form. Return
204. Ibid. Return
205. Ibid. Statement of Rosenbaum, 20. 9. 1963, 1398-1411, cross-examination of the Jews Steiner and Blatt. It is probable that this group, which numbered about 50 and may have been political executions as they were shot, were clothed, which was unusual. Return
206. Ibid. Although denied by Rosenbaum, witnesses stated that over 2000 Jews were murdered in the School. Return
207. Ibid. Statements: The Jews Form, Goodrich, Derschowitz, Kolber, M, Lustig, Kestenbaum, Dattner, Ettinger, Zollmann, Grossbard. Return
208. Historia Rabka: Komendant szkoły Wilhelm Rosenbaum co jakiś czas odwiedzał biuro i nakazywał wymeldować rozstrzelanych z adnotacj¹ zmarł na zawał serca. Return
209. SPP-3.18.1. Polish Underground and Movement Study Trust, London, German Reprisals, 17, 25.10.1941. Return
210. RAD. Statement of Frania Tiger. Interviewed by the author, Israel, 1997. Return
211. Ibid. Statement of the Jew Goodrich. Return
212. RAD. Statement of the Jew Form. Return
213. Ibid. Statement of Fruederich August Glienke. Return
214. Ibid. Statements of the Jews Goodrich, Bar-Sade, Ettinger, Zollmann, Zwi Schiffeldrin, Abraham Schiffeldrin, Alicja Nogala, Elfyd Trybowka, Schon, Blatt, Czarnowicki, Derschowitz, Steiner, Farber and Mendel Lustig. Return
215. Mark Goldfinger, interview with the author. Return

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216. The witness Schon who gives an account of the Jordanow action obtained from residents brought to Rabka, and the atmosphere in the Rosenbaum household on the day of the action. Return
217. Ibid. Return
218. RAD. The practice of throwing young children in to the air (see notes re Janowska camp) and shooting them was demonstrated by the instructors to impress (and show off) to those present, and to convey the contempt of any value that was to be placed on the Jews; the pit and plank procedure was demonstrated, shooting in the back of the neck was demonstrated, torturing and interrogation techniques were demonstrated, hitting children with the butt of the rifle was demonstrated, and the 'sardine method' (lining up children/adults one behind the other and shooting them with a single bullet) was demonstrated. Return
219. Ibid. Statement of Dr. Neiding. Return
220. Ibid. Statement of Rosenbaum. Return
221. According to Mark Goldfinger, who knew the Ettinger brothers very well, the Ettinger brothers appear to have been cushioned from the normal harassment and were able to find comfortable jobs at Rabka, the kitchens in Plaszow and finally with the Madritsch and Schindler transport. 'You didn't get this sort of treatment without having to offer in return'? Return
222. Michael Ettinger, shown on the Schindler list as number 69014. Return
223. Sources: The testimonies of Julian Feuerman and Joachim Nachbar have been published: Julian Feuerman, 'Pamietnik ze Stanislawowa (1941-1943)' in: Biuletyn Zydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego 59 (1966), pp. 63-91; Joachim Nachbar, Endure, Defy and Remember. Memoir of a Holocaust Survivor (Southfield, Mich., 2003) [first published in 1977, by Joachim Nachbar]. There are many testimonies quoted in Elisabeth Freundlich: Die Ermordung einer Stadt namens Stanislau, (Vienna: Österreichischer Bundesverlag, 1986) and also Towiah Friedman (ed.), Schupo und Gestapo Kriegsverbrecher von Stanislau vor dem Wiener Volksgericht: Dokumentensammlung (Haifa: Institute of Documentation in Israel for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes, 1957). There are two excellent German studies about the annihilation of the Jews in Distrikt Galizien that contain much information concerning the events in Stanislawow: Dieter Pohl, Von der 'Judenpolitik' zum Judenmord. Der Distrikt Lublin des Generalgouvernements 1939-1944 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1993) and Thomas Sandkühler, Endlösung' in Galizien. Der Judenmord in Ostpolen und die Rettungsinitiativen von Berthold Beitz 1941-1944 (Bonn: Dietz, 1996). Dieter Pohl has also published an article mainly focused on Stanislawow: 'Hans Krueger and the Murder of the Jews in the Stanislawow Region (Galicia)' in Yad Vashem Studies 26 (1997), pp. 239-264. In Pinkas Hakehillot Polin: Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities, Poland, Volume II, Eastern Galicia (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1980) on pages 359-67 there is an entry about Stanislawow. There are many survivor testimonies in the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw and in the Yad Vashem Archives in Jerusalem. Especially RG-302 (Diaries and Testimonies) at the JHI contains several very detailed and useful personal accounts.
     Contemporary German documentation on the administration of Distrikt Galizien can be found in Archive of the Institute for National Memory (IPN) in Warsaw, the Archive of New Documents (AAN) in Warsaw and documents from Stanislawow itself in the State Archive of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (DAIFO). The documents from the Stanislau trial in Münster against Hans Krüger and others can be found in the Zentrale Stelle Dortmund (ZSt Dortmund), the Bundesarchiv-Aussenstelle Ludwigsburg (BA-L) and also in the Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Munich (IfZ). Return

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224. South-eastern Poland (Galicia) became the 5th District of the Generalgouvnement by enactment of a decree (signed by Hitler, Keitel, and Lammers), 17^th July 1941, NG - 1280. See Hilberg, The Destruction Vol, 1, 349. Return
225. Krueger Verdict/Pohl. Return
226. My findings appear to be corroborated (independently) by Thomas Sandkühler, National Socialist Extermination Policies, edited Elrich Herbert, Oxford, 2000, 109. Return
227. See Hans Mommsen, The Realisation of the Unthinkable Translated by Alan Kramer and Louise Willmot, from Die Realisierung des Utopischen, functional analysis, Yad Vashem, 1983, 381-420. Return
228. (1906 – 1957), SS officer. Fritz Katzmann joined the Nazi Party in 1928 and the SS in 1930. From November 1939 to August 1941 he served as SS and Police Leader in the Radom district of the Generalgouvernement. Next, he was appointed SS and Police Leader in the Galicia region, a post he held until the fall of 1943. In this capacity, Katzmann was in charge of the implementation of the 'final solution' for the Jews of Galicia. Under his direction, most of the Jews of Eastern Galicia were exterminated. On 30^th June, 1943 Katzmann submitted a report to his superiors, in which he described in great detail how he and his men had eliminated almost all of the Jews who lived in the region, either by shooting them on the spot, or by deporting them to their deaths at forced labour or extermination camps. His report also made mention of cases of Jewish resistance to his actions. In 1944 Katzmann was appointed SS and Police Leader in Military District XX, whose main offices were located in the city of Danzig. After the war, Katzmann falsified his name and went into hiding; he died in 1957. No other details are known about his post-war life. Return
229. SD Jewish Department 11/112 (Surveillance of Ideological Opponents/Jewry) in the Berlin HQ, to emerge as RSHA 1VB4. The Judenreferate (section for Jewish affairs) was a mechanism in radicalising the persecution of the Jews, which since 1933 kept a watching brief on the numerous anti-Jewish legislation. Every citizen in Germany could refer to this legislation by referring to the Reichsgesetzblatt (Official Gazette). Return

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230. It is still not clear who – Schoengarth, Tanzmann, or Katzmann – issued the precise orders for the mass murders carried out in the eastern Galicia. Decisions on the 'Final Solution' throughout Europe were being made at that time in Berlin, such as deportations of Jews to the East; such decisions were reached around the 18^th September, 1941, with the agreement between Himmler and Globocnik (SSPF Lublin) to set up the first extermination camps. The question to ask: 'Why did they commence immediately with the mass murder of Jewish men, women and children in the Galician District, while in the other Generalgouvnement districts the authorities waited until the extermination camps had been completed?' Return
231. Ibid. A flour mill owned by Samuel Rudolf. A large red brick, unoccupied building, several stories high situated on Halitska Street. This building was to remain the central feature of the occupation which was to serve the Germans as a temporary prison and execution site guarded by Ukrainian and Jewish auxiliaries (police and fire brigade). With the influx of the Hungarian Jews there was a desperate effort by the local Jews to feed them. The Jewish baker, Yaakov Krigel, scavenged the town collecting food and clothing for these refugees. (See also Norman and Amalie Petranka Salsitz, Against All Odds: A Tale of Two Survivors, NY, 1990, and Pinkas Hakehillot, Vol. 11, 359 - 376). Hereafter PH. Return
232. Amalie Salsitz (wife of Norman) who lived with her family in Stainslawow at the time and had a brief association with a Hungarian Count, who was privy by his position, to have some knowledge of the German intentions. Return
233. Referred to by Amalie Salsitz as the 'stately courthouse' on Bilinski Street. Return
234. Official communication authorisation dated from Goring to Heydrich to prepare for the implementation of the Final Solution of the 'Jewish Question'. Return
235. Krueger Verdict/Pohl: Krueger had a staff of 25 made up of the various security sub-sections, i.e. Gesapo, Kripo and SD etc.; for the Grossationen, Krueger relied on augmenting his forces from outside, including railway police. This was a very common factor with the Security Forces and in particular the SS/SD engaged in the 'Operation Reinhardt' Camps. Very few SS were actually engaged in the camps – 12-15 SS was not uncommon. The SD and their Jewish Departments were very small, even in the Action Reinhardt extermination camps, SD/SS staff was at a minimum. The 'workers' were mainly the auxiliaries, and of course the Jews. Return
236. Dieter Pohl – Krueger Verdict. Return
237. Amalie Salsitz was assaulted and robbed of her purse by locals whom she knew. Return
238. In November, 1938 Hungary joined Germany in the carving up of Czechoslovakia, annexing some Slovakian districts and a part of Ruthenia. In March, 1939, when Slovakia declared itself an independent state, Hungary occupied the rest of Ruthenia.
     In August, 1940 Hungary received northern Transylvania from Rumania. On the 22^nd June, 1941, Hungarian forces joined the Germans in invading Russia and acquired further territory in Eastern Galicia. The Hungarians placed the same restrictions on her newly acquired Jews but the Hungarian military did not countenance any pogroms against Jews or mass executions in the area under their control; they even prevented a number of such actions: 'Isolated operations against Jews carried out by militia. In the second half of August, 1941, Hungarians prevented a massacre of Jews in Kolomyja. This was on the initiative of Krueger, since the Gestapo detachment for Kolomyja did not arrive there until the first week in September, 1941' (see report: Tuvia Friedmann, 'Police Battalion 24/Company 7, to the Order Police in Galicia, September, 24, 1942.' Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltugen, Collection UdSSR, vol. 410, 508-10. Hereafter Friedmann. Return

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239. Arad. RSHA 1V – A-1. Operation Report USSR No. 23 (32 copies) July 15, 1941. Return
240. Dieter Pohl to author. Return
241. Ibid. Also personal recollection by Amelia Saltsitz to RO. Among those Jews assembled included: Lawyers, engineers, physicians, pharmacists, teachers, Rabbis (including Rabbi Horowitz and the preacher Bartish), Mohels and many others.
     These men were kept for two days in the courtyard next to the jailhouse before taken away for execution. Return
242. Gilbert, The Holocaust, London, 1987, 179. Return
243. Krueger Verdict, Statement Hans Krueger 22. 5. 1963. Return
244. Alfred Rosenberg (12^th January 1893 – 16^th October 1946) was an early and intellectually influential member of the Nazi Party. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart; he later held several important posts in the Nazi government. He is considered one of the main authors of key Nazi ideological creeds, including its racial theory, persecution of the Jews, Lebensraum, abrogation of the Treaty of Versailles, and opposition to 'degenerate' modern art. He is also known for his rejection of Christianity, having played an important role in the development of Positive Christianity, which he intended to be transitional to a new Nazi faith. At Nuremberg he was tried, sentenced to death and executed by hanging as a war criminal. Return
245. Hilberg, 'The Destruction', vol.2, 812. Return
246. Ibid. Return
247. Ibid. Return
248. Ibid. A local witness recalls that a grave was about to be covered when a man shouted from the dead: 'I am a Hungarian doctor, I live!' (Statement of Marek Langer, 28^th January, 1948, reported in T. Friedmann's collection of 'Stanislawow reports', (Haifa, 1957), 37-39. Also statement of Marie Durr in same collection.
     Sent to RO by Friedmann December, 1997. Return

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249. Von Thaden to RSHA dated 6. 1. 43. In this report it was quoted, 'A Jew walked up to a German police sergeant and had declared in Yiddish-German jargon: “Sergeant, I am a Jew, and you can't do anything to me because I am a Hungarian soldier.”' See Hilberg, 'The Destruction', vol. 2, 810. Return
250. Ibid. The Kursk reference escapes me. In Brest-Litovsk it was alleged that Jews from these battalions were stealing property in the presence of the Wehrmacht. See Hilberg, 'The Destruction', 811. Return
251. The first 'Final Solution' conference was held in Berlin. Frank sent his representative (Buhler) to find out the latest thinking on the 'Jewish Question'.
     Buhler returned to brief the conference in Krakow on the 16th December, 1941.
     Those attending: Hans Frank; Health President Dr Walbaum; Labour President Dr Frauendorfer; Dr Schoengarth, Governor Kundt (Radom) and Amtschef Dr Hummel. Return
252. Up until December, 1941, only 45 Jews had been sentenced to death and only 8 sentences had been carried out for contravention of Nazi Jewish regulations. This fact was the impetus that goaded Frank and his cohorts into action. From then on there was no looking back. Return
253. Krueger Verdict/Pohl. Statement of Hans Krueger 22.5.1963. Return
254. Ibid. The more one reads into the detail of how those responsible went about their business of murdering the Jews, the more one realises that an overall blueprint had been drawn up for the implementation of these actions. This blueprint was probably drawn up within the RSHA and circulated to the HSSPF. I am thinking of the promises, deceptions, ruses, lies, etc. Return
255. bid. In Stanislawow there were a total of about 50 Security personnel with about 50% on duty at any one time. Krueger, Brandt and Erwin Linauer of the Gestapo, Heinrich Schott of the judenreferent (Jewish Department), the ethnic-German Mauer brothers who had served in the Rabka School, (Amelia Salsitz knew the Mauer brothers very well. She stated that the woman in charge of the domestics in the Gestapo building was Frau Z., who argued with her direct boss, Josef Daus (Gestapo) of the way he was treating the domestic staff. Daus slapped Frau Z across the face, not realising that Frau Z was the aunt of the two Gestapo men, the Mauer brothers. Amelia Salsitz not only cleaned the room of Daus, she also cleaned the room of Willi Mauer and therefore knew these men personally. She was to have further contact with Willi Mauer when her sister Celia was arrested and deported), Kurt Giese, Hans Greve, Wilhelm Hehemann, Walther Lange, Otto Ruckerich, and Kurt Wulkau, all who had seen service with the Krakow KdS. Also in the team were Werner Hagemann from Zamosc, and Franz Mause from Warsaw District. Werner Sandowsky, KdS Galicia joined Krueger later. These were all non-commissioned officers, with the rank of Scharfuehrer, who had the power of life and death over tens of thousands in their hands. (KdS personnel cards-Krakow AGK. CA 375.) See also Pohl documentation and Amelia Saltsitz who particularly remembers Hans Krueger and Oscar Brandt. Return

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256. See Dieter Pohl. Krueger initiated the 'Grenzpolizei-Kommissariat' for the purpose of securing the border passes on the borders with Hungarian-annexed Ruthenia. Return
257. Ibid. Rudolf Muller (Wyszkow Pass) and Ernst Varchmin (Tartarow) were radical anti-Semites; there were also security detachments in Kalusz, Dolina, Nadworna, and Tlumacz, but these were manned by Polish and Ukrainian Police. Return
258. The highest level of civilian administration in the Stanislowow District was the County Superintendent or Town Major (September, 1941) Heinz Albrecht, an official of the internal affairs department who had previously held a similar post in Konskie. Return
259. Commanded by Paul Kleesattel. Kleesattel was the subject of a SS trial for his brutal treatment of Poles. Return
260. Ibid. Return
261. Trial Verdict: Zstl, 208 AR 967/69, 39. See also 'Browning, Ordinary Men', 132. Return
262. Ibid. All the evidence suggests that this was the start of mass execution to the Jews. Return
263. Ibid. The SS/SD were issued with the 9mm Parabellum pistol, model 08, or the Luger FIR 1411/2, FIR 6307/ According to the preference of the EG Commanders a number of machine guns and pistols were used. Krueger preferred the Russian machine gun, while other units preferred the German FWW.sub-machine guns MP 28 and 35. Most of the shell casings at mass murder sites were from these weapons (Nelson cartridges). We found similar cartridges at Belzec in 1998, at a location I believed was the Lazeret (bogus field hospital). Return
264. The plank/pit device was introduced by Krueger to students of the Rabka School. Return
265. At the Stanislawow cemetery in the presence of Hans Krueger, scores of Jews were standing in a long line at the open grave, waiting for their death. In the 'line-up' one Jew, a butcher by trade, was openly inciting other Jews to attack the Germans. One of the Jews replied, 'Don't forget that there are still several thousand Jews left in the town. Are you prepared to have them on your conscience?' The man lowered his head and gritted his teeth, and waited patiently for his death. See David Kahane, 'Lvov Ghetto Diary', 74. This is an interesting point and goes some way to explain the term 'led to their death, like sheep to the slaughter' (Ringelblum). This was not an act of cowardice, but an act of honour. What was the alternative? Return
266. Correspondence sent to the author August 1999, by Renate Krakauer, daughter of Stanislawow survivor. Return
267. David Kahane, 42. Return

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268. Hilberg, 'The Destruction', vol. 1 292. Return
269. Ibid. Hilberg, 496. Return
270. Again we have an instance where there was a subtle change of direction by the Nazis. This would have not gone unnoticed in RSHA, Berlin, and may well have influenced subsequent 'Actions'. Not for the first time, particularly zbV under Schoengarth's direction, were making it up as they went along. Return
271. Dieter Pohl to author 1996. Return
272. Underground report, Ringelblum Archive, June, 1942. See also Krueger Verdict, fols. 294-306. Belzec was open for business from about the 17^th March, 1942. Return
273. See Hilberg, 'The Destruction', vol. 1.496. Return
274. Ibid. This was the largest single transport to Belzec up until that time. Krueger Verdict. Return
275. Ibid. Return
276. PH. Amongst the Judenrat that were taken: Goldstein, Fogel, Horowitz and Akhoiz, only Goldstein returned to the ghetto. Return
277. Krueger ordered all the Jews in the Mill to be liquidated. SS. Schott (Gestapo and Jewish Department), and Schupo Lieutenant Ludwig Grimm carried out the killings in Rudolf Mill. Return
278. Ibid. Goldstein had attempted to escape to Hungary but this had failed. This new Judenrat consisted of 24 Jews, including: Have, Ziskind, Aaron Kaush, Shifer, Baumer, Mandler, Scmuel, Gotlieb, Herman, Halpern, Buchwald, Nachber, Wilhelm Zukerberg, Imanuel Weingarten, Kimmel, Reich, Bires, Drach, Avzeig, and Younis. Return
279. Krueger Verdict. Statement and later recollections of Amalie Salsitz. Photograph produced of Jews hanging from lamp posts. The Officers identified in this action were Hauptmann Strege and Lieutenant Grim, both Schupo from Vienna. Return
280. The Karaites were a sect of Jews who had broken away from the mainstream of Rabbinic Judaism in the eighth century. Followers refused to accept the authority of the Talmud or any oral tradition, adhering only to strict interpretations of the Bible, the written law. Only two towns in Poland had a Karaite community: Troki, near Vilnius (now Lithuania), and Halitz in southern Poland not far from Stanislawow.
     The German authorities decided that the Karaite communities were, in reality, Turks, not Jews, and left them alone. Return
281. See Hilberg, 'The Destruction', vol.1. 496. Statement of Alois Mund, December, 5, 1947, and the statements by survivors and Order Police personnel of Stanislawow, 1947 and 1948, in the collection of T. Friedmann. Return
282. PH. A Railway official saved 150 Jewish workers who were allowed to remain in the city. Return

[Page 281]

283. Very much like what Oskar Schindler and Julius Madritsch had done in Krakow. Return
284. These employers in Stanislawow, many of which were German, have not had books or films recording their actions! Jewish resistance was centred in this factory in early 1942. Leading this small armed Jewish resistance unit of Stanislawow residents was the Jewess Anda Luff.
     She was killed on 11 May, 1942. Return
285. The owner of this factory saved many Jews by hiding them in his basement at 54, Safeizinska Street. Return
286. Some references to the Menten story hereafter are based on the book The Menten Affair first published by Robson Books in 1979, by the author Hans Knoop, and the book, The Last Victim, published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984, by the author Malcolm MacPherson. Hereafter 'Knoop' and 'MacPherson'. Return
287. Ainsztein, R, 'The Collector', New statesman, 11.2.1981. The Jew Stieglitz stated in 1976, that a number of the paintings then in Menten's apartment had originated from Lvov where he had been engaged with Menten in the seizure of art from the Polish intelligencia between 1939-41. Stieglittz stated that he and Menten knew too much about each other and on no account would he (Stieglitz) return to Holland and give evidence. Knoop, 31. Dirk Menten corroborates that in his brother's Aerdenhout apartment there were many paintings that had been brought from Poland in 1943. Knoop, 28. Return
288. The SD power and efficiency in Galicia was mainly due to the web of spies nurtured over several years before the war, especially during the opening phases of the war. Return
289. Knoop 32-33. The Dutch Consul in Lvov was Jacob Jan Broen who remarked, 'He was really getting on thick with the Nazis and saluting them in the Nazi way... he told me that he had decided to stay in Krakow to get back his fortune that he had lost on Lvov.' In 1945 Broen was interviewed and confirmed that on Menten's arrival in Krakow in December, 1939, he had only a few possessions, which shows that his subsequent acquisitions were obtained between December, 1939 and when he was banished from Poland by the Nazis in 1943. Return
290. Ainsztein, R, 'The Collector', New Statesman, 11.2.1981. The Jew Stieglitz stated in 1976, that a number of the paintings then in Menten's apartment had originated from Lvov where he had been engaged with Menten in the seizure of art from the Polish intelligencia between 1939-41. Stieglittz stated that he and Menten knew too much about each other and on no account would he (Stieglitz) return to Holland and give evidence. Knoop, p.31. Dirk Menten corroborates that in his brother's Aerdenhout apartment there were many paintings that had been brought from Poland in 1943. Knoop, p. 28. Return

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291. In 1977, when Menten was finally arrested he denied that he was a Dutch citizen and that the police had no jurisdiction over him. When it was suggested that he be sent to Poland where there was an arrest warrant out for him, he changed his mind. Return
292. Knoop, 38.
Return
293. Knoop, 3 Menten Verdict: The Podhorodse murders were not part of any organised Sipo-SD action. It was a personal vendetta instigated by the zbV Sonderfuehrer SS-Scharfuehrer Pieter Menten. Menten, before the war was an agent of the SD Abwehr and the landed agent of a small group of villages in the Stryj valley. Return
294. Menten had made it his business to return to the area to take revenge of some blighted property disagreements. Return
295. Ibid: This is absolute proof of Menten's independent actions and culpability in mass murder outside of his military attachment to zbV, however bogus. Menten lived in this village for many years before the war, and was now extracting revenge on past enemies. He had used the confusion in Lvov to slip away, taking with him SD personnel. According to the witnesses, although not the leader of this group, he was giving all the orders. Return
296. Ibid: Menten's (zbV) entry in this district, at this time, was well before the official action by Hans Krueger on the 1st September 1941, when he targeted this area for clearance. Menten had already done it. I am not sure that Menten's action was ever authorised. Return
297. Ibid. Return
298. Menten Verdict: Statements of Tuzimek etc. as above. Some of the murdered Jews: Philip Wecker, (son-in-law of Isaac Pistiner) Benzion Neuman, Josel Nass, Moshe Halpern, Uzik, Shabtai Katz, Alfred Favel, Mendel Yeckel, Mordechai Londer, Voit Heeler, Pinchas Bernstein, Mr Greenberg, Geiwel Hellmar, Haim Jakov, Schlossberg and Schleiffer and Zuckerman. Return
299. It is interesting to note that in the Tarnopol region, several hundred Women and children were killed out of a total of 5,000 Jews, between the 4^th and 11^th July, 1941). Return
300. In Brest on 10 July 1941, over 6,000 Jews, men women and children were shot into pits by the 'EG'. Return
301. Menten Verdict: In one of the Menten trials after the war, Menten had tried to establish that is was impossible for him to have been in the Podhorodse area at this time as the Wehrmacht was heavily engaged there and that battles were being waged all around. This defence was rebutted by Hans van der Leeuw, the researcher from the Rijks Institute for War Documentation who presented the Nazi Order of Battle from archives in Berlin, proving that Menten, as part of an SS-Einsatzgruppen, could easily have driven to Podhorodze on that day. However, I believe Menten must have been authorised unless he was taking advantage of the turmoil in Lvov at that time.
     It was important enough for him to make this detour, with or without authorisation. Return

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302. Ibid. This technique was taught at the Rabka School in late 1941 (see Krueger verdict). Of four Jews who watched this execution in concealment from a nearby attic, Michael Hauptmann, and Henryk Schleiffer survived to testify at Menten's trial after the war. Return
303. Knoop, see Chapter 4. Return
304. Reuben Ainsztein, New Statesman, 8. Return
305. Ibid. Statement of Dr Karl Neidling 24. 1. 1962, 765-776. Return
306. Ibid. Statement of Teege, 19. 1. 1962, 751-2. Return
307. Ibid. The whole question of using the services of Blobel 1005 was allegedly discussed between Teege and Rosenbaum. See Rosenbaum Statement 11. 1. 1962, 729-786. With the prospect of over 2, 000 bodies lying in the School graves there had been discussions on whether1005 should be used. However much the Nazis tried to destroy the evidence, they would have been unsuccessful as shown by our investigation at the Belzec death camp 97/99. Return
308. In 1943, Paul Blobel, an SS colonel, is given the assignment of co-coordinating the destruction of the evidence of the grossest of Nazi atrocities, the systematic extermination of European Jews. As the summer of 1943 approached, Allied forces had begun making cracks in Axis strongholds, in the Pacific and in the Mediterranean specifically. Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS, the elite corps of Nazi bodyguards that grew into a paramilitary terror force, began to consider the possibility of German defeat and worried that the mass murder of Jews and Soviet prisoners of war would be discovered. A plan was devised to dig up the buried dead and burn the corpses at each camp and extermination site. The man chosen to oversee this yearlong project was Paul Blobel. Blobel certainly had some of that blood on his hands himself, as he was in charge of SS killing squads in German-occupied areas of Russia. He now drew together another kind of squad, 'Special Commando Group 1005,' dedicated to this destruction of human evidence. Blobel began with 'death pits' near Lvov, in Poland, and forced hundreds of Jewish slave laborers from the nearby concentration camp to dig up the corpses and burn them– but not before extracting the gold from the teeth of the victims. Return
309. Ibid. Statement of Kriminalkommissar Helmuth Armbrecht, Hannover, 19. 6. 1961, 243. Return
310. Reading closely into these statements I am reasonably satisfied as to their accuracy. Return
311. Ibid. Statement of Willy Teege, 19. 1. 1962, 751-2. Teege was an established teacher in the last phase of the School and a close friend of Rosenbaum, personally and professionally. Return
312. Ibid. Return

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313. Ibid. Statement of Kriminalkommissar Heinz Bohm, Dusseldorf, 29. 6. 1961, at the School June - December 1944, 92. See also Paul Enders, Solingen, 26. 6. 1961, 210, who was the School between 15. 6. 44 and 15. 12. 1944, 210. Return
314. Ibid. Rosenbaum. Return
315. Ibid. Rosenbaum/Teege. Return
316. Ibid. Return
317. RAD. OKW law/WFSt Op.Nr. 00 2811/42 (directive nr. 46) d.d. 18.8.1942 Return
318. RAD. Law 'Behaviour of the troops in the East' in the version 12. Inf. Div.Abt.Ic/la Nr. 607/41 geh. Dd. 17.11.1941. Return
319. RAD. Judgment X11 of the American Military Court in Nuremberg. Return
320. RAD. List of shootings within the bounds of the 11^th Army, June 22^nd, 1941. Return
321. RAD. Return
322. On October 4, 1943, Reischsfuehrer-SS Heinrich Himmler gave a speech to a secret meeting of SS officers, in Poznan, Poland. In this speech, he spoke frankly about the ongoing extermination of the Jewish people. Return
323. Acknowledgement to Dieter Pohl's assessment of Hans Krueger. Return
324. Ibid. Return
325. Simon Wiesenthal, 'Justice Not Vengeance': The Reluctant Murderer, Weidenfeld, London 1989, 164-173 Return
326. Krueger Verdict. Return
327. Ibid. When Kaltenbrunner was on trial after the war at Nuremberg, in his defence he produced a copy of the letter he had sent to the Red Cross concerning the release of Countess Lanckoronska. Kaltenbrunner was hanged in Nuremberg prison on 16^th October 1946. Return
328. Ibid. 'Breda Three' – the remaining life-term Nazi war criminals in Dutch jails. For years the 'Breda Three' had been a 'cause-celebre' in West Germany. Return
329. Ibid. Return
330. Lackoronska did not want her war memoirs published in her lifetime. After much persuasion, however, she consented to publication in Poland, by ZNAK Publishing of Krakow, in 2001, just a year before her death. The book, whose British version is titled Those Who Trespass Against Us: One Woman's War Against the Nazis, sold over 50,000 copies in the Polish original and is now selling well in English.
     The U.S. edition was published in hardback in spring 2007 by Da Capo Press (Perseus Publishing Group) under the new title, Michelangelo in Ravensbrueck.
     In 1967 Lanckoronska established the Lanckoronski Foundation, which promotes and supports Polish culture, awarding over a million złotych per annum (£208,000) for scholarships, publication of learned books, research into Polish archives in countries such as Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine, and similar projects. Return

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331. Jonathan Petropoulos, based on his book Art as Politics in the Third Reich, London 1997. Return
332. Ainsztein, R, 'The Collector', New Statesman, 11.2.1981. The Jew Stieglitz stated in 1976, that a number of the paintings then in Menten's apartment had originated from Lvov where he had been engaged with Menten in the seizure of art from the Polish intelligencia between 1939-41. Stieglittz stated that he and Menten knew too much about each other and on no account would he (Stieglitz) return to Holland and give evidence. Knoop, 31. Dirk Menten corroborates that in his brother's Aerdenhout apartment there were many paintings that had been brought from Poland in 1943, Knoop, 28. Return
333. Ibid, 34 Return
334. Malcom MacPherson, The Last Victim, London 1984, 285. Return
335. Knoop Return
336. Ibid. Return
337. Ibid Return
338. Ibid Return
339. Ibid Return
340. Ibid. Return
341. Ministry of Justice, Trial Transcripts , The Netherlands vs Pieter N. Menten, 1961 - 65, 1977-80. Return
342. MacPherson, 296-299 Return
343. Schoengarth, Dr. jur. Eberhard (22.4.1903-15.5.1946) [SS-Brigadefûhrer und Generalmajor der Polizei] – NSDAP: 2848857; SS: 67174; commander, Secret State Police (Geheime Staatspolizei – Gestapo) Bielefeld 1937-1938; commander, Gestapo Dortmund Jan-Mar 1938; commander, Gestapo Muenster Mar 1938-Oct 1939; Inspector, German Security Police and Security Service (Sicherheitspolizei und Sicherheitsdienst - Sipo/SD) Dresden Oct 1939-Mar 1941; commander, Sipo/SD Cracow Mar 1941-Jun 1943; commander, Action Group (Einsatzgruppe) for Special Tasks Jul-Aug 1941; service, 4th SS Division 'Polizei' Jul 1943-Jul 1944; commander, Sipo/SD the Hague (Den Haag) Jul 1944-May 1945; Senior SS and Police Commander 'Northwest' (HSSPF 'Nordwest') (Netherlands) 10 Mar 1945-Apr 1945 as Hans-Albin Rauter's substitute {arrested and put on trial by a British military tribunal at Burgsteinfurt for the murder of an RAF air crew member POW at Schede, Netherlands on 21 Nov 1944; convicted and sentenced to death by hanging 11 Feb 1946 (History of the United Nations War Crimes Commission and the Development of the Laws of War p. 532, United Nations War Crimes Commission, London: HMSO, 1948) or 3 Apr 1946 (LT 13 Feb 1946:3d); executed at Hameln 15 May 1946 (Allgemeine-SS p. 87; Hilberg 713; Ency Holo 1592; 'Hameln 1945-49,'http://home.c2i.net/sudeten/Seite_1/194 ... 5-49.html; Dienstaltersliste der Schutzstaffel der NSDAP [9 Nov 1944]).} Return

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344. Ibid. A similar order by Hitler, dated 18^th October, 1942, referred to the slaughter of Commandos to the last man after capture (498-PS) Return
345. IMT (HMSO) – R-110.) 'Opening Speeches', 32. Return
346. Ibid 058-PS Return
347. See Michael Bloch, Ribbentrop, Bantam Press, London, 1992, 402. Return
348. WO 311 1304 Interrogation of Walther Albarth. When Joachim von Ribbentrop was arrested on the 14th June, 1945 and examined by a doctor he was found to have a small tin of poison attached to his lower parts (The Times 16 June 1945). Herman Goering managed to use his poison the evening before he was due to be hanged. Return
349. Statement 11^th August 1945. See WO 311/1304.Return
350. Ibid 15^th August. Return
351. Ibid 16^th August. Return
352. Ibid 16^th August. Return
353. Ibid 12^th September. Return
354. Ibid 22th August. Return
355. WO, 3544. 235 / 102A, 35-44. Return
356. This was to be a recurring factor in the War Crimes Trials of the 'Rabka Four'.
     Each would support the other in some way or other. In my opinion, Menten was the most dangerous and devious, and his actions resulted in the destruction of many careers in the process. Return
357. Corroboration of fact re the agreement of the 'Rabka Four'. See PRO, WO/235 – report from War Crimes Section (Gr.Capt. Legal Staff, requesting information as to the identity of this man Menten, dated 14.6.1946, to the War Crimes Investigation Unit, ref. BAOR/15228/2/c.7.JAG.) Return
358. Ibid, reply to request for information vide report dated 17.10.46, ref. BAOR/WC/CMisc C.19. Return
359. Rijks Institute for War Documentation. On the 6th March, 1944 the Dutch Resistance mounted an attack on Rauter's chauffeur-driven BMW staff car in the village of Woeste Hoeve (between Arnhem and Apeldoorn) in an attempted assassination on Rauter (Kommissar-General fur das Sicherheitsdienst in den Niederlanden). Return
360. Ibid. Return
361. Ibid. Post-mortem report of the bodies found. Return
362. J. C. H. Blom: The Public Historian. Vol. 6, No. 4 (autumn, 1984), 37 - 48 (edited by author). Return
363. Originally published in Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, Volume 13: The Holocaust and its Aftermath, edited by Antony Polonsky and published by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization for the Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies and the American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies (Oxford and Portland, Oregon, 2000). Return

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364. There are two other documents written by eyewitnesses. Both were SS visitors to the camp. The first was Kurt Gerstein, a disinfection expert. Deeply shaken by what he saw, he tried unsuccessfully to pass his knowledge on to the neutral parties, the Swedish and Vatican legations in Berlin. In French custody after the war he wrote a harrowing account of his visit, which included a 'show gassing'. The other was Wilhelm Pfannenstiel, a professor of hygiene. He went to Belzec with Gerstein and also accompanied Himmler on a visit in Nov. 1942. He did not come forward voluntarily to testify about Belzec, but was interrogated about it after the war, first by the Allies and then twice by German legal authorities. Return
365. The name Distrikt Galizien refers to a fifth province of the Generalgouvernement created by the Nazis in July 1941 with Lvov (Lwow L'viv) as its provincial capital.
     It consisted of three pre-war voivodeships situated in south-eastern Poland: Lvov, Tarnopol, and Stanislawow. Return
366. In a deposition taken down in Krakow in 1945 by the Regional Jewish Historical Commission (Collection of Testimonies of Jewish Survivors, Zydowski Instytut Historyczny, Warsaw, file 302/162) Reder says that he was betrayed to the Germans by two Ukrainians: Edward and Marjan Kobzdej. The information was omitted from the book. (All notes in this chapter are mine – M. M. Rubel.) Return
367. The German in question was a German career railway official by the name of Rudolf Goekel (1883? – 21 Aug. 1960). In 1941 he was posted to Belzec as a station-master. When Jewish transports began to arrive at Belzec in the middle of Mar. 1942, he was relieved of his post and became a liaison officer between the station and the camp. In 1946 Goekel was arrested in Berlin and in May 1947 deported to Poland, where he was kept in protective custody in Zamosc. There, on 19 Nov. 1948, he was interrogated by Hieronim Rolle, the district attorney. In the course of the inquiry Goekel stated that: 'I stayed in Belzec from July 1941 until January 1943. During that period I worked as a station-master. If I remember well, transports with Jews were coming to Belzec from about Pentecost 1942 until September that year. I cannot be sure, but not all trucks were always full: only five to six trucks on average. I was not allowed to look inside the trucks, nor had I the right to inspect them in any way. Trucks that were empty were open. I did not count Jewish transports arriving in Belzec. Therefore, I cannot say how many came. I also do not know the number of victims, but I could see that most of them were already dead on arrival… I did not have permission to enter the camp, and therefore know nothing about what was going on inside. But, on the basis of hearsay and talks with the locals, I imagined the camp in Belzec to be like other concentration camps of isolation which received and dispatched transports. I believed that only bodies of those already dead were burnt there, and not of those who had arrived alive.' In 1950 Rudolf Goekel was released from protective custody without charge. He returned to Germany a free man. (See Coll. OB, 2 pt. 11, Archiwum Glownej Komisji Badania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, Warsaw.) Return

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368. In normal circumstances Zugsfuehrer meant 'train master'. In the camp's usage the term referred to fifteen or so Jews selected from the death brigade, led by an Oberzugsfuehrer, with the task of being present at the ramp to meet each transport as it arrived. Return
369. SS Hauptscharfuehrer Fritz Irrmann (11 Oct. 1914 – 1942) was in charge of a platoon of Ukrainian guards. He was accidentally shot dead in Belzec sometime in the autumn of 1942 by his colleague Heinrich Gley in a scuffle during an escape attempt by two Ukrainian guards. (See Dr Janusz Peter'Kordian', W Belzÿcu podczas Okupacji, Diaries, no. 221, Z.ydowski Instytut Historyczny, Warsaw.) 'You are going to take a bath now. Afterwards you will be sent to work.' The text of the speech varied, according to different testimonies. But it contained two basic elements: an instruction to undress in order to take a bath, and a vague promise of work. It was not always delivered by Irrmann, but by any member of the SS garrison who was at the ramp on duty. Return
370. The building with the gas chambers had six cubicles, each about 25 sq. m. It is almost impossible to squeeze such a large crowd into such a small space. The figure of 750 people was provided by Christian Wirth, the camp's first commandant, to a company of high-ranking SS officers who visited the camp in the middle of Aug. Return
371. 1942. Wirth's purpose was to impress them with the efficiency of his methods of murder, which they had come to improve. The figure must then have become official, although highly unrealistic, and the source of the wild overestimate made by Reder after the war of 2.5 million victims. See n. 32. Return
372. This was the outlet of a gas pipe. Return
373. The first building housing the gas chambers, which was constructed some time towards the end of 1941, was made of double wooden planks with the spaces in between filled with sand. It was only half the size of the second gassing installation described by Reder, and had only three gas chambers. This building was taken down some time in June or July 1942, during the camp's extensive modernization. Return
374. Between 20 July, the date when the camp was reopened after modernization, and 11 Dec. 1942, the date of arrival of the last transport from Rawa Ruska, no fewer than c.520, 000 Jews were murdered in Belzec, of which c.38, 000 died between 20 and 31 July, c.172, 000 in Aug., c.132, 000 in Sept., c.110, 000 in Oct., c.61, 000 in Nov., and c.10, 000 in Dec. Return
375. The engine, said to have come from a captured Russian tank, was installed and supervised by SS Scharfuehrer Lorenz Hackenholt (b. 25 June 1914), a mechanic responsible for the gassing installations constructed first in Belzec and then in Sobibor and Treblinka. Apart from the two askers, the engine was switched on and off by a Jew called Moniek, a taxi-driver from Krakow. This incriminating information comes from Reder's interrogation by Jan Sehn. The interrogation took place in Krakow on 29 Dec. 1945 (Collection of Testimonies of Jewish Survivors, Zydowski Instytut Historyczny, Warsaw, file no. 102/46). The information was omitted from the printed edition of Reder's booklet. Return

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376. Reder is wrong. No French Jews were deported to Belzec. Some Dutch Jews were deported to Sobibor. Some Greek Jews were taken to Treblinka. But there were German Jews in Belzec; most came from different ghettos in Lublin district, where they had been taken after deportation from Germany sometime in the early months of 1941. Return
377. A Jew named Sanio Ferber employed in one of the SS workshops in Lvov testified after the war that 'Towards the end of December 1942 there came to our workshop once a young dentist whose name I do not recall. He told us that he escaped from Belzec. This dentist was in Belzec for three months. Because of his profession he was detailed to a dentist brigade, which numbered, if I remember correctly, fifteen men. Their job was to pull out gold teeth and bridges from corpses yanked out from the gas chambers.' What happened to this dentist afterwards is not known. (See Collection of Testimonies of Jewish Survivors, Zydowski Instytut Historyczny, Warsaw, file no. 4732.) See n. 18. Return
378. Lublin was the headquarters of Action Reinhardt, the operation consisting of the organized murder and plunder of the Jews in the specially designated murder camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. In charge of Action Reinhardt was Brigadefuehrer Odilo Globocnik, SS- und Polizeifuehrer for Lublin district. From 1 Aug. 1942 the responsibility for economic plunder was entrusted into the most capable hands of Christian Wirth (24 Nov. 1885 – 26 May 1944), Kriminalrat from the criminal police in Stuttgart, who became an inspector of SS garrisons in all three camps of Action Reinhardt after relinquishing the post of first commandant of Belzec. Part of his new job consisted in preparing for further use the mountains of clothing and personal items belonging to victims murdered in the Action Reinhardt camps. The spoils were collected in hangars at a disused airport in Lublin, where 500 Jewish workers did the job of sorting, checking, and preparing items for dispatch. Return
379. Money and precious metals were sent to Hitler's chancellery via Globocnik's headquarters. A final report of the financial gains of Action Reinhardt was submitted to Himmler by Globocnik in 1944 for approval. It was approved. Return
380. Heni, or Christian, Schmidt was a Volksdeutsch from Latvia with the rank of Zugwachtmann. He was one of the former Soviet prisoners of war trained in the camp at Trawniki for service in the murder camps of Action Reinhardt. These people were known to the Poles who lived in the vicinity of the camp as Ukrainian guards (prisoners of war of Ukrainian origin were in the majority), or askers. In German they were called either Trawniki Männer or Hilfswillige, Hiwis for short. Return

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381. Reder is wrong. Bills of lading were delivered to the German station-master. They contained not personal names, but average numbers and the names of the localities where the Judenzüge (Jewish deportation trains) originated. Belzec railway station was set on fire by a bomb dropped from a Soviet plane in 1944, and the documents did not survive. Documents from the other murder camps of Action Reinhardt were destroyed on Himmler's specific orders after the termination of the murder operations, to obliterate all traces – written and material – of the massacre. Return
382. Reder contradicts here his earlier and later testimonies. During an interrogation by Jan Sehn (see n. 13) he gave a list of four names of askers (Schmidt, Schneiner, Kunz, and Trottwein) and only three names of the members of the SS garrison (Irrmann, Schwarz, and Feix), which suggests that members of the Jewish death brigade had at least some contact with the Ukrainian guards and very limited contact with the Germans. This is confirmed by the fact that, during an interrogation in the office of a public prosecutor in Munich in Aug. 1960, Reder stated that he had never heard the names of Oberhauser, Fichtner, Floss, Hering, Schwarz, Dubois, Girtzig, Dachsel, Barbl, Groh (Groth), Kamm, Schluch, Zirke (Zierke), and Gley, although most of them had been members of the SS garrison in Belzec murder camp. (The name of Schwarz crops up in Reder's booklet on numerous occasions.) Return
383. Between 16 and 19 Oct. three transports came to Belzec from Zamosc via the transit camp in Izbica carrying between 12,000 and 16,000 victims, the majority of whom were foreign Jews. Return
384. The transport, which went via the transit camp in Izbica, carried 4,000 victims, among whom were the last Jews of Zamosc. Return
385. SS Oberscharfuehrer Gottfried Schwarz (3 May 1913 – 19 June 1944) held the post of deputy commandant of Belzec from the end of 1941 until May 1943, when the camp was dismantled under his supervision. In 1943 he was promoted by Himmler to the rank of SS Untersturmfuehrer. Return
386. Neither the first nor the second commandant of the camp held the rank of Obersturmfuehrer. Christian Wirth (see n. 15) was responsible for the construction of Belzec; he held the rank of SS Sturmbannfuehrer after promotion by Himmler in 1943. From 1 Aug. 1942 he was replaced by Gottlieb Hering (2 June 1887 9 Oct. 1945), Kriminalkommissar in the criminal police in Stuttgart, promoted to the rank of SS Hauptsturmfuehrer by Himmler in 1943. The description by Reder fits both Wirth and Hering. Both were known and feared for their extreme brutality. Return

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387. As is known from other sources, the gassing engine broke down on numerous occasions. One such breakdown occurred in the middle of Aug. 1942 during the 'show' gassing witnessed by Kurt Gerstein and Wilhelm Pfannenstiel, two SS experts on disinfection (see n. 1). The breakdown, timed by Gerstein, lasted for over two hours, with the victims locked inside. Return
388. Not SS Stabscharfuehrer but SS Hauptscharfuehrer; see n. 5. Return
389. SS Scharfuehrer (not Oberscharfuehrer) Reinhold Feix (3 July 1909 30 May 1969) was a supervisor of the Jewish death brigade (those who emptied gas chambers, dragged bodies, and dug pits). Reder spelt his name wrongly as 'Faix'. Return
390. See n. 23 Return
391. See n. 18. Return
392. According to Yitzhak Arad (Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhardt Death Camps (Bloomington, Ind., 1987), 165 9, Himmler never went to Belzec but visited Sobibor and Treblinka in 1943. However, according to the post-war testimonies of Polish inhabitants of Belzec and Tomaszow Lubelski, Himmler visited Belzec twice: once in Aug. then in Oct. or Nov. 1942. Return
393. Reder was brought to the camp on either 18 or 19 Aug. 1942. He escaped towards the end of Nov. that year, which makes it a little over three months – not four months, as he wrote earlier. Return
394. The figure given by Reder is a gross overestimate. Post-war estimates by Polish railway workers from Belzec give a figure of about 1 million. Polish commissions investigating Nazi crimes cut this figure by half. Arad (Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka) estimates c.518, 000 victims. My own estimate comes close to Arad's: c.520, 000 (see n. 12). Latest estimates based on digs carried out on the site of the camp during 1997 8 raise the figure to 550,000 and even 650,000. Return
395. In the 1960s, Waclaw Kolodziejczyk, a former worker at the Bełżec railway station, created 6 paintings showing Belzec during the German occupation. In the years 1939-1944 Kolodziejczyk supervised repairs to the rail tracks, and lived with his family in buildings close to Belzec station. Because he spoke and understood German well, the Germans used him as an interpreter for contact with the Polish railway staff. According to some testimonies by local inhabitants from Belzec, he was even temporarily employed in the Kommandant's house as the person responsible for the SS store. There he had contact with the Jewish prisoners from the death camp who worked in the SS houses, and he probably learned some details about the camp from them. He never personally entered the death camp. Return
396. No transports arrived at the camp after 11 Dec. 1942, but it is quite possible that Jews caught during the so-called Judenjagd (Jew hunt) were brought to the camp and shot there. The opening of pits and burning of bodies began immediately after the transports stopped. The burning continued for three months. By May 1943 the camp had been dismantled, the buildings taken down, and the ground levelled and planted with young conifers. Members of the Jewish brigade were loaded onto a train, which took them straight to Sobibor, where they were murdered on arrival after refusing to disembark. Return

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397. Berlin Document Centre (jetzt: Bundesarchiv, Aussenstelle Zehlendorf) is the central archive for research concerning former members of the SS. In this thesis, the author has referred to copies held in Yad Vashem, Israel. Further references have also relied on the comprehensive bibliography as shown in the publications of Dieter Pohl (OSTGALIZIEN) and Thomas Sandkühlrer (ENDLÖSUNG). Return
398. The Einsatz groups – and it is important that the full title be held in mind at all times – were the Offices of the Sipo-SD operating in the field behind the armies (Einsatzgruppen). When police control had been established in the newly occupied territory, the mobile Einsatz groups were disbanded and became regional offices under the commanders of the Sipo-SD in the occupied territories. Return
399. Gestapo (State) and SD (Party) are inextricably linked due to their indistinguishable criminal enterprises. Return
400. No one was compelled to join the Nazi Party, much less to become one of the leaders. Many joined for business, social or selfish reasons. There was no legal compulsion to join. Return
401. R.S.H.A. A department of the SS; substantially all of its personnel belonged to the SS. It was under the command of Heydrich (later Kaltenbrunner). In addition to the SD, which was always an SS formation, it included the Gestapo and the Reich Criminal Police both of which were State agencies. For this reason the R.S.H.A was also recognised as a department of the Reich Ministry of the Interior. Return
402. The SA should not be underestimated as to their contribution to the Nazi war effort, particularly as a combat unit for defence of the Party. They were used extensively as guards in Danzig, Posen, Silesia and the Baltic Provinces. Particular attention is drawn to their actions in the Kovno and Vilna ghettos in the guarding of Jews when digging up and burning corpses: See IMT Speeches, 45. Affidavit of Szloma Gol: International Military Tribunal: 'SPEECHES OF THE PROSECUTORS': The Trials of German Major War Criminals (London, 1946), 45. Hereafter IMT Speeches. Return
403. See for formation and daily duties of the Sonderdienst: Zygmunt Klukowski, DIARY FROM THE YEARS OF OCCUPATION 1939-1944, translated from the Polish by George Klukowski, ed. Andrew Klukowski and Helen Klukowski May (Chicago, 1993). Return
404. The W.V.H.A. was under the leadership of SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl who was charged with the administration of concentration camps (KZs), and the exploitation of labour. Return

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