Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews Peter Longerich (grave mercy .TXT) 📖

hundred members formed early in 1942. In October 1942 the attempt to bring a

group of resistance fighters out of the ghetto failed; the secret organization was

eliminated by the occupying forces. 64

386

Extermination of the European Jew, 1942–1945

Continuation of the Deportations

German Reich

After Hitler’s decision in September 1942 to replace those Jews still working in

armaments production, the preparations for a sudden (schlagartig) deportation of

this group began in late 1942. In view of the large-scale recruitment of foreign

workers planned for early 1943, the replacement of Jewish skilled workers did not

seem to pose an insuperable problem. 65

The ‘withdrawal of all Jews still engaged in the work process’ began on

27 February 1943. In Berlin alone, the SS Bodyguard units (Leibstandarte) arrested

some 7,000 people in their workplaces or homes; a few days later they were

deported to Auschwitz. 66 At this point there were no plans to deport Jews living in ‘mixed marriages’; they were also arrested, but they were released to go home.

In Berlin, however, hundreds of men from this group were held in two buildings

belonging to the Jewish community, presumably to have staff available to replace

the deported employees. Remarkably, there was a spontaneous public protest by

the families of these men, who stood for days outside the building on Rosen-

strasse. But the fact that the Gestapo finally released the men held in Rosenstrasse

was not the result of this protest; at this point there had been no plans to deport

them in any case. 67

After this surge in deportations (between early January and mid-March 1943 a

total of sixteen transport trains, most of them carrying 1,000 people each, had

gone to Auschwitz68), 31,897 people of Jewish origin still lived in the Reich, more than 18,515 of them in Berlin. Of the Jews living in the Reich 17,517 were free of the

obligation to wear the yellow star. 69 From then on the deportations continued only on a smaller scale. 70

The major deportations to Theresienstadt in the summer of 1942 were followed

by numerous smaller transports. From November 1942 until mid-1943 there were

almost 100 of these, each one usually carrying 50 or 100 people. The only special

train to Theresienstadt, involving more than 1,200 people, left Berlin on 17 March

1943. 71

In December 1943 the RSHA ordered the ‘change of residence’ to Theresien-

stadt of certain groups hitherto spared deportation. This was to start at the

beginning of the year and particularly affected were the Jewish spouses of mixed

marriages that no longer existed, and who—because of the existence of children

who were not deemed to be Jewish—had been free of the obligation to wear the

yellow star. 72 In 1943, ten transports had gone from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz, each carrying more than 1,000, but in some cases far more than 2,000 people. 73

During the whole of 1944 further smaller deportations left the Reich

for Auschwitz. In particular, during that year further large transports left

Murders and Deportations, 1942–3

387

Theresienstadt for Auschwitz: three carrying 2,500 people in May, and a further

eleven in September and October, with between 1,500 and 2,500 people. 74

In January 1945, in one last action, the RSHA planned to deport those Jews still

‘on work deployment’ to Theresienstadt, but also the elderly, the sick, and

children hitherto excluded from the deportations. But because of military devel-

opments this plan could not be carried out across the whole of the Reich. 75

Netherlands

In the Netherlands, 76 from which 38,000 people had been deported by the end of 1942, the deportations resumed in January 1943, after a one-month ‘Christmas

break’. As a rule, one train per week travelled to Auschwitz from the collection

camp of Westerbork. In the middle of January a second camp was opened at

Vught. In March, when the murder of the Jews from Thessaloniki began in

Auschwitz, the Dutch transports went to Sobibor extermination camp, where

almost all deportees were murdered immediately on their arrival. In May, pre-

sumably in connection with the general radicalization of Judenpolitik after the

Warsaw ghetto uprising, the RSHA ordered that the number of those to be

deported from the Netherlands be raised forthwith: between 18 May and 20 July,

almost 18,000 people were deported to Sobibor, including children from the

Vught labour camp, accompanied by their mothers. Of the 34,313 people

who came to Sobibor from the Netherlands by 20 July, only 19 would survive.

After a five-week break the deportations resumed on 24 August at weekly inter-

vals—with interruptions in September/October and between November and

January—primarily to Auschwitz. From September 1944 some transports also

went to Theresienstadt and some to the ‘delivery camp’ (Auslieferungslager) of

Bergen-Belsen. It was only in the spring of 1944 that the pace of the deportations

slowed. However, on 3 September 1944, another 1,019 people were deported to

Auschwitz; the last deportation from the Netherlands, to Bergen-Belsen, was

carried out on 13 September. 77 Overall, 107,000 Jews living in the Netherlands were deported; around 102,000 of those died.

Belgium

From the end of 1942 the RSHA and the German department of the Foreign

Ministry urged that Jews of Belgian citizenship, who had so far been spared,

should now be deported. In December 1942 Luther requested that the Brussels

office of the Foreign Ministry, ‘in association with the military commander,

consider the possibility of extending the measures already taken to all the Jews

in Belgium, and round them up in the collection camps until they could be

transported . . . A thorough cleansing of Belgium of the Jews must occur sooner

388

Extermination of the European Jew, 1942–1945

or later at all costs.’ The deportation of Belgian Jews should begin as soon as

possible. 78

The director of the Foreign Ministry office in Brussels, Werner von Bargen,

confirmed in January 1943 that after the deportation of all foreign Jews it was also

planned to ‘get rid of’ some 4,000 Jews with Belgian citizenship ‘at the same time’;

however, because of a shortage of rolling stock no deportations were possible. And

the capacity of the single camp, Mechelen, was not enough to intern all the

country’s Jews there. 79 It was not until 29 June that the Gestapo office in Brussels informed Mechelen camp that because of an order from Himmler, ‘Jews of Belgian

citizenship must now be included in the deportation actions without delay’. 80

On 3 and 4 September large numbers of Belgian Jews were arrested in a raid in

Brussels