JJ2014:
Please be assured that I researched the topic thuroughly before posting it or even including it. The information I have is from a series of groups, including the Jewish Holocaust Site and the translation of the letters and papers belonging to the Commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolph Hoss. I did indeed speak to a Jehovah's Witness member for my research, as well, but her information did not take precedence over the information from my other sources. Thus, having my information from both the 'Jewish' side and the 'Nazi' side, among others, I feel confident that my research was all-encompassing. If you wish to cite where your information/ opinions originate, I would be happy to further investigate this.
I feel personally that even if there were only a half-dozen victims in a specific group, to not report those victims would be an injustice. Any victim is a victim, and to ignore one group due to later misconceptions, misreporting, or lack of numbers (or even name changes), is ignoring part of history. In this case, the Jehovah Witnesses are listed as victims of religious/ political persecution. While their numbers and tortures may not have been as great or as obvious as those of the Jewish people, they did indeed suffer and were imprisoned. Thus, they are included in this report. I agree that the majority of known victims were indeed those of Jewish faith; however, they were not the only victims nor the 'most important' victims. To place one group above another or to place more value on one group above another is, in my opinion, what the Nazi party did during the Holocaust.
The very idea of this blog is to inform people that there were other victims, even if of lesser numbers or perhaps lesser degrees of torture and slaying. While the Jewish people suffered a great injustice, they were not the only vicims as many people surprisingly seem to believe. To not report on any of the victims is an injustice in and of itself.
Thank you for your input.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Works Cited
The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise
Dwork, Deborah, and Robert Jan van Pelt. Holocaust A History. New York City
Edward L. King. Nazism. http://www.masonicinfo.com/nazism.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).
Hoss, Rudolph, and Primo Levi. Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz . Edited by Steven Paskuly. Translated by Andrew Pollinger. New York City
Karen Silverstrim, University of Arkansas
Laffin, John. "1939-9-the Nazi War Cult." In Jackboot: a History of the German Soldier 1713-1945, 160-68. New York City
Levi, Primo, and Philip Roth. Survival in Auschwitz : the Nazi Assault on Humanity. Translated by Stuart Woolf. New York City
Louis Bulow. Angel of Death: Josef Mengele. http://www.auschwitz.dk/Mengele.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).
Lynott, Douglas. "Josef Mengele." Tru.TV. Time/Warner. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/history/mengele/index_1.html (accessed April 13, 2011).
Matalon Lagnado, Lucette, and Sheila Cohn Dekel. Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz . Reprint. New York City
Pine, Dan. "‘Giants’ a Stirring Story of Jewish Dwarfs Who Survived the Holocaust." JWeekly, February 18, 2005. http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/25140/-giants-a-stirring-story-of-jewish-dwarfs-who-survived-the-holocaust/ (accessed April 27, 2011).
Speer, Albert, and Eugene Davidson. Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs by Albert Speer. Translated by Richard Winston and Clara Winston. New York City
Terese Pencak Schwartz. Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims. http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/Newsletter.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).
Yehuda, Koren. "Mengele and the Family of Dwarfs." History Today 55, no. 2 (February 2005): 32-33. http://web.ebscohost.com.jsc-proxy.libraries.vsc.edu/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=18&sid=9e5c25c8-0c1a-4b41-91ad-48b63bf73365%40sessionmgr15&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLHVybCx1aWQmc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZl#db=aph&AN= (accessed April 27, 2011).
Twins
Dr. Mengele was a physician assigned to work at Auschwitz concentration camp. He was responsible for keeping the prisoners healthy so they work or making sure those who were too sick died by a Phenol injection directly to the heart. He would also meet the trains in order to select who would be put into work group and who would be sent to die immediately (1). However, Dr. Mengele was also given permission to conduct genetic experiments* on the prisoners. Among the new arrivals, Dr. Mengele chose as many sets of identical twins as he could. “While the twins were spared from outright execution, they were delivered to a decidedly crueler fate. Mengele reserved a special barracks for his twin subjects, as well as for dwarfs, cripples and other "exotic specimens." The barracks was nicknamed the Zoo, Mengele's holding pen. The twins were his favorite subjects, and they were afforded special treatment, such as being able to keep their own hair and clothing, and receiving extra food rations. The guards were under strict orders not to abuse the children, and were to look after their well being lest one should fall ill and die. Mengele became explosively irate if one of his beloved specimens should happen to die. These twins were referred to as "Mengele's Children (2)." During selection, most often the families were separated at the train platform. Twins were chosen by Dr. Mengele and the rest he sent to gas chamber (3).
In his work, Dr. Mengele wanted to study the effects of different procedures or chemicals on people. What better way to determine the results than by affecting one twin and studying the changes, using the other twin as a baseline? “As twins, they were nature's natural guinea pigs. One child was used as a control and the other had experiments conducted on her/him. If a twin died, the other twin was killed by an injection into the heart and comparative autopsies were done on the two (4).”
“A camp [Auschwitz] where affection and comfort were lavished upon the children living in the Zoo, only so as to keep them healthy enough for twisted and pointless experimentation; a camp where Mengele himself escorted his beloved "children" to the gas chambers, referring to their walks as a game he called "on the way to the chimney (5)."
Auschwitz had another, less infamous, doctor who also performed horrendous experiments on children, though it is not clear if she singled out twins or all children. “Dr. Herta Oberhauser killed children with oil and evipan injections, removed their limbs and vital organs, rubbed ground glass and sawdust into wounds (6).”
In Auschwitz, an estimated 3,000 twins were chosen by Dr. Mengele. Of these, 160 were rescued by the Russian Army (7). Despite his barbaric experiments, many of the survivors who were younger children at the time recall Dr. Mengele as a nice man who treated them well, brought them presents, befriended them, and personally took them to their experiments. He was almost a surrogate father figure to them (8).
*The range of tests and cruelties performed on these children encompass both extremes: gentle measurements and barbarous and deadly surgeries or treatments or experiments. They are so numerous and varied, that I have chosen to relay them as direct quotes. They are explicit. Some people may wish to avoid reading them.*
“In addition to the selections and beatings, Mengele occupied his time with other numerous acts of the most base cruelty, including the dissection of live infants; the castration of boys and men without the use of an anesthetic; and the administering of high-voltage electric shocks to women inmates under the auspices of testing their endurance (9).”
“Ironically, it was his very experiments that extracted the heaviest physical toll on the children upon whom he lavished such care and affection, and hundreds ended up dying as a result of his gruesome deeds. As with other inmates at Auschwitz, Mengele's imagination knew no bounds when it came to devising physical torments for his victims. Preliminary examinations of the twins were routine enough. The children filled out a questionnaire, were weighed and measured. However, a more gruesome fate awaited them at Mengele's hands. He took daily blood samples from his children, and sent these to Professor von Verschuer in Berlin. He injected blood samples from one twin into another twin of a different blood type and recorded the reaction. This was invariably a searingly painful headache and high fever that lasted for several days. In order to determine if eye color could be genetically altered, Mengele had dye injected into the eyes of several twin subjects. This always resulted in painful infections, and sometimes even blindness. If such twins died, Mengele would harvest their eyes and pin them to the wall of his office, much like a biologist pins insect samples to styrofoam. Young children were placed in isolation cages, and subjected to a variety of stimuli to see how they would react. Several twins were castrated or sterilized. Many twins had limbs and organs removed in macabre surgical procedures that Mengele performed without using an anesthetic. Other twins were injected with infectious agents to see how long it would take for them to succumb to various diseases (10).”
"Dr. Mengele had always been more interested in Tibi. I am not sure why - perhaps because he was the older twin. Mengele made several operations on Tibi. One surgery on his spine left my brother paralyzed. He could not walk anymore. Then they took out his sexual organs. After the fourth operation, I did not see Tibi anymore (11).”“The girls, like other twins, had to undergo hundreds of tests. Their heads and body parts were measured and compared. Once they had all their blood transfused with the blood of another set of twins. As a result of that experiment, the girls became very ill and developed a high fever.
The girls reported that Mengele injected his subjects’ eyes with chemicals and dyes to find out if they could be turned into the right shade of Aryan blue. He "swapped" parts of their organs from one set of twins to another. He injected their bodies with poisons and an unknown number of viruses and diseases to compare results from one set of twins to another.
"We had no idea of what was in store for us. The atmosphere was horrible." The girls went with other twins to face Mengele. They remember standing naked before him and the other SS men. They were told they would be impregnated by identical male twins. They remember having blood transfusions from incompatible donors in preparation for the breeding program (12).”
“Mengele performed both physical and psychological experiments, experimental surgeries performed without anesthesia, transfusions of blood from one twin to another, isolation endurance, reaction to various stimuli. He made injections with lethal germs, sex change operations, the removal of organs and limbs, incestuous impregnations (14).”
“So called camp doctors, especially the notorious Josef Mengele, would torture Jewish children, Gypsy children and many others. "Patients" were put into pressure chambers, tested with drugs, castrated, frozen to death, and exposed to various other traumas (15).”
“Mengele was almost fanatical about drawing blood from twins, mostly identical twins. He is reported to have bled some to death this way (16).”
“Once Mengele's assistant rounded up 14 pairs of Gypsy twins during the night. Mengele placed them on his polished marble dissection table and put them to sleep. He then proceeded to inject chloroform into their hearts, killing them instantaneously. Mengele then began dissecting and meticulously noting each and every piece of the twins' bodies (17).”
“Near the end of the war, in order to cut expenses and save gas, "cost- accountant considerations" led to an order to place living children directly into the ovens or throw them into open burning pits (18).”
Sources:
(1) Hoss, Rudolph, and Primo Levi. Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz. Edited by Steven Paskuly. Translated by Andrew Pollinger. New York City: Da Capo Press, 1992.
(2) Lynott, Douglas. "Josef Mengele." Tru.TV. Time/Warner. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/history/mengele/index_5.html (accessed April 13, 2011).
(3) Candles Holocaust Museum. Candles Holocaust Museum. http://www.candlesholocaustmuseum.org/ (accessed March 25, 2011).
(4) Candles Holocaust Museum. Candles Holocaust Museum. http://www.candlesholocaustmuseum.org/index.php?sid=4&id=4 (accessed March 25, 2011).
(5) Lynott, Douglas. "Josef Mengele." Tru.TV. Time/Warner. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/history/mengele/index_6.html (accessed April 13, 2011).
(6) Louis Bulow. Angel of Death: Josef Mengele. http://www.auschwitz.dk/Mengele.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).
(7) Matalon Lagnado, Lucette, and Sheila Cohn Dekel. Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz. Reprint. New York City: Penguin, 1992.
(8) Louis Bulow. Angel of Death: Josef Mengele. http://www.auschwitz.dk/Mengele.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).
(9) Lynott, Douglas. "Josef Mengele." Tru.TV. Time/Warner. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/history/mengele/index_4b.html (accessed April 13, 2011).
(10) Lynott, Douglas. "Josef Mengele." Tru.TV. Time/Warner. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/history/mengele/index_5.html (accessed April 13, 2011).
(11) Louis Bulow. Angel of Death: Josef Mengele. http://www.auschwitz.dk/Mengele.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).
(4) Candles Holocaust Museum. Candles Holocaust Museum. http://www.candlesholocaustmuseum.org/index.php?sid=4&id=5 (accessed March 25, 2011).
(13) Louis Bulow. Angel of Death: Josef Mengele. http://www.auschwitz.dk/Mengele.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).
(14) Louis Bulow. Angel of Death: Josef Mengele. http://www.auschwitz.dk/Mengele.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).
(15) Louis Bulow. Angel of Death: Josef Mengele. http://www.auschwitz.dk/Mengele.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).
(16) Louis Bulow. Angel of Death: Josef Mengele. http://www.auschwitz.dk/Mengele.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).
(17) Louis Bulow. Angel of Death: Josef Mengele. http://www.auschwitz.dk/Mengele.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).
(18) Louis Bulow. Angel of Death: Josef Mengele. http://www.auschwitz.dk/Mengele.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).
Resistance Fighters and Those Whom Helped Others
These include: the Polish Underground; German citizens who disagreed with the Final Solution, Euthanasia Policy, or other policies they witnessed; Russian Partisans; and other militant or civilian groups or individuals who defied the Nazi Regime to help themselves and their neighbors.
Some of these rescuers had unofficial titles, such as the Kindertransports (a group of people who rescued Jewish children from Germany and sent them to England to live in safety) or the Hidden Children (Jewish children in the Netherlands were hidden in Catholic families or moved around from family to family to keep them safe). Other individuals had now-famous names, such as Schindler or Wallenberg. However, there were millions of people who resisted the Nazi Regime and its policies. Some lived in cities or country homes, some lived in forests, some even lived in the camps or Nazi barracks. People were transported, hidden in homes and businesses, given false papers, and helped in varying other ways.
These people who helped were considered enemies for the very fact that they resisted the Nazis and aided the ‘enemies’ of the Nazis. Often, if someone was caught who was part of resistance, he or she would be imprisoned or executed. Some wore purple triangles as conscientious objectors, others wore the red triangle of political prisoners or the black triangle of the asocials (1)(2).
One law in the Nazi regime demanded that German citizens divorce those who were considered inferior or enemies (Jews, African descended, etc.). If the German citizen refused this divorce, he or she was imprisoned. Many of these prisoners did not survive (3).
According to one of the survivors from Auschwitz, Primo Levi, an Jewish Italian chemist, “One section of the camp itself is in fact set aside for civilian workers of all nationalities who are compelled to stay there for a longer or shorter period in expiation of their illicit relations with Haftlinge (prisoners), This section is separated from the rest of the camp by barbed wire, and is called E-Lager, and its guests E-Haftlinge. ‘E’ is the initial for ‘Erziehung’ which means education (4).”
Sources:
(1) Terese Pencak Schwartz. Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims. http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/Newsletter.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).
(2) Hoss, Rudolph, and Primo Levi. Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz. Edited by Steven Paskuly. Translated by Andrew Pollinger. New York City: Da Capo Press, 1992.
(3) Terese Pencak Schwartz. Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims. http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/Newsletter.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).
(4) Levi, Primo, and Philip Roth. Survival in Auschwitz: the Nazi Assault on Humanity. Translated by Stuart Woolf. New York City: Touchstone: Simon & Schuster, 1996, page 83.
Religious Leaders, Priests, Pastors, and Clergy
(i.e.: Catholics, Christians, Lutherans, etc.)
Also known under the title of conscientious objectors or pacifists, religious authority figures represented many religions, even those religions in which Nazi’s had been baptized or raised. Like the Jewish people and the Jehovah Witnesses, these other religious figures were persecuted for refusing to embrace the Nazi state, criticizing the Nazi Regime’s policies, assisting Jews and other refugees, and pacifism (1). According to one source, Hitler wanted to wipe out organized religion and replace it with a worship of the Nazi ideology, something insupportable by religious leaders (2).
“4. Pastor Martin Niemoller is the originator of the now-famous quotation: “In Germany
Punishments ranged from a few days in jail, street executions and brutality, concentration camp imprisonment, and executions (4)(5)(6). Hundreds of thousands were massacred in Soviet villages (7). In Poland
As most religious affiliations, aside from Jewish or Jehovah’s Witnesses, were not recorded in concentration camp records, it is uncertain the full number of incarcerated or executed. However, Dachau had 2,579 Catholics and 141 ‘other’ religious prisoners, 1,034 who died in the camp, 132 who were transferred out or liquidated or exterminated, 314 who were released prior to the liberation of Dachau, and 1,240 who were liberated on April 29, 1945 (11).
Many of the deaths of these religious figures were listed officially as accidents or illness, however it is uncertain. The victims died under ‘mysterious’ circumstances while awaiting trial or serving their sentences (12).
Sources:
(1) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
(2) Terese Pencak Schwartz. Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims. http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/non-jewishvictims.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).
(3) Hoss, Rudolph, and Primo Levi. Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz . Edited by Steven Paskuly. Translated by Andrew Pollinger. New York City
(4) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
(5) Terese Pencak Schwartz. Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims. http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/non-jewishvictims.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).
(6) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
(7) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
(8) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
(9) Terese Pencak Schwartz. Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims. http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/non-jewishvictims.htm (accessed April 15, 2011).
(10) Lynott, Douglas. "Josef Mengele." Tru.TV. Time/Warner. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/history/mengele/4b.html (accessed April 13, 2011).
(11) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
(12) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Refugees
There were about 30,000 anti-Nazi and illegal refugees in Belgium and France. Also, the International Brigade of the Spanish Civil War had fled to France in 1939. These Spanish refugees consisted of about half a million people, mostly children, women, and elderly, and were put into Mediterranean concentration camps by the French government. In 1941, these Spanish refugees were sent to official concentration camps; tens of thousands were sent to Mauthausen alone. In early 1945, there were about 3,000 Spanish refugees listed alive; however, between February and April, this number was reduced by 2,163 due to killings.
Sources:
The final number of Spanish Refugee survivals was around 837.
Sources:
Karen Silverstrim, University of Arkansas. Overlooked Millions: Non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust. http://www.ukemonde.com/holocaust/victims.html (accessed April 15, 2011).
Prisoners of War (POWs)
Many soldiers, and some civilians, were captured during World War II and the military actions directly before the war. Among these POWs were Soviets, Americans, English, French, Czechs, and many others. Statistics of POW deaths usually concentrate on those of Soviet descent, making finding totals of victims difficult.
The Nazi regime held an especial hatred of Soviets, due to their Communist government. They began what was considered a war of annihilation against the Soviets, considering them sub-humans. Slavs and Jews were also included in the Soviet roundup, including Soviets with ‘Asiatic’ features. The POWs were considered the biggest threat, as they were linked in Nazi thinking to the ‘Jewish conspiracy’. They called the Soviet POWs ‘the Bolshevik Menace’ (1).
Rudolph Hoss, the Commandant of Auschwitz, wrote “The second-largest group (of prisoners), who were supposed to build a POW camp at Birkenau, were the Russian prisoners of war (2).”
There were approximately 5.7 Soviet POWs. Of these, about 1 million were released as ‘auxiliaries’ of the Army and the SS groups. Another half million escaped or were liberated by the Soviet Army. By January of 1945, there were 930,000 Soviet POWs remaining in German custody. 3.3 million Soviet POWs had been killed or died of circumstances before the end of the war (3).
Of the American and British POWs, there had been 231,000 taken prisoner. 8,3000 of them died. (4)
The difference between the Soviet POWs and the British and American POWs was their treatment. Most of the American and British POWs were kept in a separate section of the camp from other prisoners. They were allowed their uniforms, and were often provided medical attention and food. Soviets, on the other hand, were subject to harsher conditions, poor clothing, poor food, and hard labor. (5)(6)(7)
Many Soviet POWs were killed by gassing or shooting. The following two quotes were written by Rudolph Hoss in his memoirs:
“On that very same day the first execution of the war took place in Sachsenhausen. It was a Communist who refused to perform his air raid duties in the Junker aircraft factory in the city of Dressau. Plant security reported him and he was arrested by the State Police and brought to the Gestapo in Berlin for questioning. The report was presented to Himmler, who then ordered his immediate execution by firing squad (8).”
“I remember well and was much more impressed by the gassing of nine hundred Russians which occurred soon afterwards in the old crematory because the use of Block 11 caused too many problems (9).”
Those who weren’t killed with Carbon Monoxide, Cyclon-B gas, or Firing Squads were worked, starved, and neglected until they died.
Sources:
(1) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org (accessed April 13, 2011).
(2) Hoss, Rudolph, and Primo Levi. Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz. Edited by Steven Paskuly. Translated by Andrew Pollinger. New York City: Da Capo Press, 1992, page 132.
(3) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org (accessed April 13, 2011).
(4) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org (accessed April 13, 2011).
(5) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. http://www.ushmm.org (accessed April 13, 2011).
(6) Levi, Primo, and Philip Roth. Survival in Auschwitz: the Nazi Assault on Humanity. Translated by Stuart Woolf. New York City: Touchstone: Simon & Schuster, 1996.
(7) Hoss, Rudolph, and Primo Levi. Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz. Edited by Steven Paskuly. Translated by Andrew Pollinger. New York City: Da Capo Press, 1992.
(8) Hoss, Rudolph, and Primo Levi. Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz. Edited by Steven Paskuly. Translated by Andrew Pollinger. New York City: Da Capo Press, 1992, page 98.
(9) Hoss, Rudolph, and Primo Levi. Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at Auschwitz. Edited by Steven Paskuly. Translated by Andrew Pollinger. New York City: Da Capo Press, 1992, page 156.
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