The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 (133 page)

37. Susan Zuccotti,
Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy
(New Haven, 2000), pp. 267–68. At times the Jews who attempted to flee to Switzerland were turned back by the Swiss and, at times, turned over to Germans by Italian collaborators in the border towns. The Germans did not shy away from executing the betrayed Jews on the spot. In some cases they also burned the corpses on the spot to erase all traces. See, for example, Alexander Stille,
Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish families under Fascism
(New York, 1993), p. 89.

38. Stille,
Benevolence and Betrayal
, p. 161.

39. Mark Mazower,
Inside Hitler’s Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941–44
(New Haven, 1993), p. 252.

40. For these details see Götz Aly, “Die Deportation der Juden von Rhodos nach Auschwitz,”
Mittelweg 36: Zeitschrift des Hamburger Instituts für Sozialforschung
12 (2003), pp. 83ff. Aly’s argument about the “economic importance” of the booty seized from the Jews of Rhodes and Kos is unconvincing: The booty could have been seized without deporting these Jews to their death. For the further significance of this particular deportation, see also Walter Laqueur, “Auschwitz,” in Michael J. Neufeld and Michael Berenbaum, eds.,
The Bombing of Auschwitz: Should the Allies Have Attempted It?
(New York, 2000), pp. 189–90.

41. Berlin was well informed of the Hungarian intentions to change sides and, moreover, Hungary’s raw material reserves were considered vital for the pursuit of the war. On this aspect see Christian Gerlach and Götz Aly,
Das Letzte Kapitel: Realpolitik, Ideologie und der Mord an den ungarischen Juden, 1944/1945
(Stuttgart, 2002), p. 97.

42. Goebbels,
Tagebücher
, part 2, vol. 11, 1994, pp. 397–98.

43. About the concentration and deportation from the provinces, see Randolph L. Braham,
The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary
, vol. 2, pp. 595ff. Farther on, both the 1981 original two-volume edition of Braham’s
The Politics of Genocide
and the 2001 abridged edition will be used. The original edition is identifiable by the use of the volume number.

44. See Yehuda Bauer,
Jews for Sale? Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933–1945
(New Haven, 1994), p. 157.

45. For various arguments of the controversy, see Rudolf Vrba, “Die missachtete Warnung: Betrachtungen über den Auschwitz-Bericht von 1944,” in
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte
, vol. 44 (1996), pp. 1–24; and Yehuda Bauer, “Anmerkungen zum ‘Auschwitz-Bericht’ von Rudolf Vrba,” in
Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte,
vol. 2 (1997), pp. 292ff.

46. For this statement see Braham,
The Politics of Genocide
, vol. 2, p. 705.

47. See in particular Randolph L. Braham, “The Role of the Jewish Council in Hungary: A Tentative Assessment,”
Yad Vashem Studies
10 (1974), pp. 69ff. See also Braham,
The Politics of Genocide
, p. 84.

48. Both groups of Orthodox Jews and Zionist youth groups used escape over the borders as the main avenue to safety. Between 7,000 and 8,000 Jews may have succeeded in escaping Hungary to Yugoslavia, Slovakia and mainly Romania between March and September 1944. Fighting in these areas put an end to the escapes. For these details see Robert Rozett, “Jewish and Hungarian Armed Resistance in Hungary,”
Yad Vashem Studies
19 (1988), p. 270. Bauer mentions the much lower number of 4,000 to 4,500. Bauer,
Jews for Sale? Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933–1945
, p. 160.

49. Braham,
The Politics of Genocide
, p. 84.

50. See Eleanore Lappin, “The Death Marches of Hungarian Jews Through Austria in the Spring of 1945,”
Yad Vashem Studies
28 (2000), p. 203.

51. For the excerpting and translating of Broad’s statement, see Jeremy Noakes and Geoffrey Pridham, eds.,
Nazism, 1919–1945: A Documentary Reader
, vol. 3:
Foreign Policy, War and Racial Extermination
(Exeter, UK, 1998), p. 592.

52. Paul Steinberg,
Speak You Also: A Survivor’s Reckoning
(New York, 2000), pp. 97–98.

53. Rudolf Höss,
Kommandant in Auschwitz: Autobiographische Aufzeichnungen.
, ed. Martin Broszat (Stuttgart, 1958), p. 152.

54. Primo Levi,
Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault on Humanity
(1958, reprint, New York, 1996), p. 132.

55. Ibid., pp. 134–35.

56. Braham,
The Politics of Genocide
, p. 161.

57. Hillgruber,
Staatsmänner
, vol. 2, pp. 463–64.

58. Braham,
The Politics of Genocide
, p. 161.

59. For Horthy’s vacillation during these weeks, see Randolph L. Braham,
The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary
, 2 vols. (New York, 1981), vol. 2, pp. 743ff.

60. See the exchange of documents about these late deportations in Jenö Lévai,
Eichmann in Hungary: Documents
(Budapest, 1961), pp. 128ff.

61. Nuremberg doc. NG-2263.

62. Randolph L. Braham, “Hungarian Jews,” in
Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp
, ed. Yisrael Gutman and Michael Berenbaum (Bloomington, 1994), p. 466.

63. Leni Yahil,
The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932–1945
(New York, 1990), p. 640.

64. First published in Eugene Levai,
Black Book on the Martyrdom of Hungarian Jewry
(Zurich, 1948), p. 232.

65. Braham,
The Politics of Genocide
, p. 240.

66. Michael Phayer,
The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930–1965
(Bloomington, 2000), p. 90; Randolph L. Braham, “The Christian Churches of Hungary and the Holocaust,”
Yad Vashem Studies 29
(2001), pp. 248–49.

67. Braham, “The Christian Churches of Hungary and the Holocaust,” pp. 250ff.

68. Quoted in ibid., p. 264.

69. Phayer,
The Catholic Church
, p. 109.

70. Ibid., p. 106.

71. Quoted in Braham, “The Christian Churches of Hungary and the Holocaust,” pp. 258–59.

72. For the details of these contacts, see Bauer,
Jews for Sale? Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933–1945
, pp. 163ff.

73. Krüger-Bulcke and Lehmann,
ADAP
, Series E, vol. 7, p. 602.

74. Bauer mentions these arguments but appears inclined to believe that already at that time Himmler was interested in putting out genuine feelers to the West. Despite some circumstantial evidence regarding various contacts apparently initiated by the Reichsführer, the very course of the deportations from Hungary would seem massive evidence to the contrary. See Bauer,
Jews for Sale? Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933–1945
, pp. 168ff.

75. Tuvia Friling,
Arrows in the Dark: David Ben-Gurion, the Yishuv Leadership, and Rescue Attempts during the Holocaust
(Madison, WI, 2005), vol. 2, pp. 7ff.

76. According to Brand’s postwar declarations, Eichmann offered to liberate one hundred thousand Jews! See Bauer,
Jews for Sale? Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933–1945
, p. 174.

77. Martin Gilbert,
Auschwitz and the Allies
(New York, 1981), p. 227.

78. Braham,
The Politics of Genocide
, p. 208.

79. Quoted in Tom Segev,
The Seventh Million: The Israelis and the Holocaust
(New York, 1993), p. 113.

80. Krüger-Bulcke and Lehmann,
ADAP
,
Ser. E,
vol. 3, p. 194.

81. Ibid., p. 222.

82. Richard Breitman, “Nazi Jewish Policy in 1944,” in
Genocide and Rescue: The Holocaust in Hungary 1944
, ed. David Cesarani (New York, 1997), p. 78.

83. Helmut Heiber,
Reichsführer! Briefe an und von Himmler
(München, 1970), p. 276.

84. Bauer,
Jews for Sale? Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933–1945
, pp. 196ff.

85. A sensational trial in Israel in the 1950s brought up grave accusations against Kastner and led to his assassination in Tel Aviv. A second trial before Israel’s Supreme Court rehabilitated him posthumously. The core of the public issue focused on Kastner’s choice of whom to include among the train’s passengers.

86. Jean-Claude Favez and Geneviève Billeter,
Une Mission impossible?: Le CICR, les déportations et les camps de concentration Nazis
(Lausanne, Switzerland, 1988), p. 331. (These details are included only in the original French edition.)

87. Ibid., p. 332.

88. On this well-known deal, see in particular Raul Hilberg,
The Destruction of the European Jews
, 3 vols. (New Haven, CT, 2003) vol. 2, pp. 886–87.

89. Quoted in Neufeld and Berenbaum, eds.,
The Bombing of Auschwitz: Should the Allies Have Attempted It?
, p. 250.

90. Weissmandel’s letter is quoted in Lucy S. Dawidowicz, ed.,
A Holocaust Reader
(New York, 1976), p. 321ff.

91. Neufeld and Berenbaum, eds.,
The Bombing of Auschwitz: Should the Allies Have Attempted It?
, p. 256.

92. Ibid., pp. 258, 259.

93. Ibid.

94. Gilbert,
Auschwitz and the Allies
, p. 285.

95. Sybille Steinbacher,
Auschwitz: A History
(London, 2005), p. 109.

96. Zygmunt Klukowski,
Diary from the Years of Occupation, 1939–44
, ed. Andrew Klukowski and Helen Klukowski May (Urbana, IL, 1993), pp. 344–45.

97. Ibid., p. 345.

98. Ibid.

99. Ibid., p. 346.

100. For a powerful rendering of the Polish uprising see Norman Davies,
Rising ’44: The Battle for Warsaw
(London, 2003); see also a balanced account of responsibilities East and West in Max Hastings,
Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944–1945
(London, 2004), pp. 99ff.

101. Anonymous diarist quoted and excerpted in Alexandra Zapruder,
Salvaged Pages. Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust
(New Haven, 2002), pp. 368–96.

102. Lucjan Dobroszycki, ed.,
The Chronicle of the Lódz Ghetto, 1941–1944
(New Haven, 1984), p. lxii. Sonderkommando Bothmann reactivated Chelmno in April 1944.

103. Oskar Rosenfeld,
In the Beginning Was the Ghetto: Notebooks from Lódz
, ed. Hanno Loewy (Evanston, IL, 2002), p. 281.

104. Ibid., p. 312.

105. Quoted in Zapruder,
Salvaged Pages
, pp. 393–94.

106. Introduction, Dobroszycki,
The Chronicle
, p. lxv.

107. Ibid.

108. For the statistics, see Antony Polonsky, “Beyond Condemnation, Apologetics and Apologies: On the Complexity of Polish Behavior Toward the Jews During the Second World War,” in David Cesarani, ed.,
Holocaust: Critical Concepts in Historical Studies
, 6 vols. (New York, 2004), p. 31.

109. For details and numbers, see mainly Dov Levin, “July 1944—The Crucial Month for the Remnants of Lithuanian Jewry,” in
The Nazi Holocaust: Historical Articles on the Destruction of European Jews
, ed. Michael Marrus (Westport, CT, 1989), pp. 447ff.

110. Ibid., pp. 458–59.

111. Herman Kruk,
The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps, 1939–1944
, ed. Benjamin Harshav (New Haven, CT, 2002), p. 703.

112. Ibid.

113. Ibid., p. 704.

114. Ibid.

115. Ibid., p. 705.

116. Stephen G. Fritz, “‘We Are Trying to Change the Face of the World’: Ideology and Motivation in the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front: The View from Below.”
Journal of the Military History
60, A (Oct. 1996).

117. Walter Manoschek, ed.,
“Es gibt nur eines für das Judentum—Vernichtung”: Das Judenbild in deutschen Soldatenbriefen 1939–1944
(Hamburg, 1997), p. 73.

118. Quoted and translated in Noakes and Pridham,
Nazism
, vol. 4, pp. 632–33.

119. Manoschek,
“Es gibt nur eines für das Judentum—Vernichtung,”
p. 75.

120. Hillgruber,
Staatsmänner,
vol. 2, p. 494.

121. Ruth Bondy,
“Elder of the Jews”: Jakob Edelstein of Theresienstadt
(New York, 1989), pp. 396ff. and 441–42.

122. Ibid., p. 446.

123. On Murmelstein see Jonny Moser, “Dr. Benjamin Murmelstein, ein ewig Beschuldigter?,” in
Theresienstadt in der “Endlösung der Judenfrage
,” ed. Miroslav Kárný, Vojtech Blodig, and Margita Kárná (Prague, 1992), pp. 88ff.

124. See in particular Karel Margry, “Der Nazi-Film über Theresienstadt,” Ibid., pp. 285ff.

125. Vojtěch Blodig, “Die letzte Phase den Entwicklung des Ghettos Theresienstadt,” Ibid, p. 274.

126. See Egon Redlich,
The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich
, ed. Saul S. Friedman (Lexington, KY, 1992), p. 160 n. 19.

127. Aaron Kramer, “Creation in a Death Camp,” in
Theatrical Performance During the Holocaust: Texts, Documents, Memoirs
, ed. Rebecca Rovit and Alvin Goldfarb (Baltimore, 1999), pp. 181–83. See also David Bloch, “Versteckte Bedeutungen: Symbole in der Musik von Theresienstadt,” in
Theresienstadt in der “Endlösung der Judenfrage,”
ed. Miroslav Kárný, Vojtech Blodig, and Margita Kárná (Prague, 1992), p. 142.

128. For these estimates, see Hilberg,
The Destruction of the European Jews
, vol. 2, p. 455.

129. Redlich,
The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich
, p. 161.

130. Saul S. Friedman, introduction to ibid., p. xiv.

131. Martin Doerry,
My Wounded Heart: The Life of Lilli Jahn, 1900–1944
(London, 2004), pp. 250ff.

132. Livia Rothkirchen, “Slovakia” in Walter Laqueur and Judith Tydor Baumel, eds.,
The Holocaust Encyclopedia
(New Haven, CT, 2001), p. 600.

133. Livia Rothkirchen, “The Situation of the Jews in Slovakia between 1939 and 1945,”
Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung
7 (1998), p. 63.