Germany - 1939 (III)Poland became the testing ground for the "Final Solution," under Hans Frank, the governor-general of Occupied Poland. Frank said that Poland was a colony of Germany and the Polish people were "slaves" of the German Reich.
According to The Holocaust Chronicle, from which most of this material is taken, Frank "annihilated the Polish aristocracy, military and political leaders, priests and intelligentsia. He robbed art treasures, exploited material resources, and forced tens of thousands into slave labor. As people suffered, Frank lived ostentatiously in the royal palace in Krakow."
But Frank was frustrated by the fact that the Nazis had "dumped" so many Jews in Poland. He was unhappy about having to shoot or poison three and a half million Jews, but promised he would do his best.
From the invasion to the liberation of Poland, about six million people were murdered in that country, half of which were Jews. Frank was tried and executed as a war criminal in 1946.
* October 8 - The restriction of Jews to ghettos begins in Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland.
* October 10 - The Nazis establish a Generalgouvernement in Poland which is considered "an administrative area" and not part of Greater Germany. The death camps will be located in this Generalgouvernement.
* Mid-October - The SS starts the mass-killing of "mental defectives" in a forest near Danzig.
* October 24 - Jews in Wloclawek are required to wear a yellow triangle.
* October 26 - A decree is issued making slave labor mandatory for all Poles between the ages of 14 and 60.
* October 30 - SS chief Himmler sets a goal of clearing all Jews from rural areas in Western Poland in three months. Thousands of Jews will be uprooted from their homes and ousted from their communities with nothing more than what they can carry on their persons.
* November - Several German generals plot to overthrow Hitler at Zossen, Germany but it is never carried out.
Hans Frank establishes the first Judenrat (Jewish council) in the ghettos. The council leaders are required to follow Nazi orders.
* November 7 - Jews are deported en masse from western Poland.
* November 8 - Hitler narrowly escapes death from an assassin's bomb in Munich.
* November 11 - German troops in Ostrow Mazowiecki, Poland, murder six hundred Jews.
* November 12 - Jews begin to be deported from other parts of Poland.
* November 13 - 53 Jewish men are executed by the SS because they happen to live at the same address as a Jewish man who shot a policeman to death.
* November 15-17 - The Nazis destroy every synagogue in Lodz, Poland.
* November 23 - When Polish Jews go out in public they are required to wear white armbands with a blue Star of David.
* November 29 - Himmler orders that all German Jews who fail to report for deportation will be executed.
* December - The commander-in-chief of the Germany Army Group East, Johannes Blaskowitz, says that many Jewish children sent to the concentration camps are frozen when they arrive.
* December 1 - In Chelm, Poland, 1350 Jews are murdered.
* December 1 - 9 - A forced march of 1800 Jewish men results in the death of 1600.
* December 5-6 - The Nazis seize all Jewish property in Poland. They take businesses, homes, furniture, money, bank accounts, etc. The Jews have nothing left to keep them alive.
* December 12 - In eastern Germany, all Jewish males between 14 and 60 must serve two years at forced labor.
* December 16 - In Lodz, Jewish girls are forced to clean latrines with their blouses which are then wrapped around their faces.
The ghettos established in Poland in 1939 were intended to be transitional areas to hold Jews removed from their homes. Soon, however, the ghettos became the point of departure to the death camps in Poland.
The ghettos deteriorated rapidly and became places of immense suffering. They were places of hunger, disease, squalor, despair and death. And there was no way out, except to an exterminaton camp.
This link connects to a five-minute video of the IAF (Israel Air Force) flying over the Auschwitz death camp. It is quite moving and well-worth your time.
1 comment:
The link you mentioned re the Israeli air force fly over was most moving! At least we know some people do want to remember and are working very hard to prevent the loss of another 6 million Jews if Hamas, Hezbollah and others have theior way. They know they cannot depend upon others to prevent such a happening, so they stay armed and ready.
Bob Poris
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