Monday, March 31, 2008

The Holocaust Journal (Lest We Forget) - Germany 1946

Germany - 1946

The verdicts at the Nuremberg Trials were announced on October 1, 1946. Nineteen of the defendants were found guilty. Hjalmar Schacht, minister of economics, Franz von Papen, vice-chancellor of the Nazi government, and Hans Fritzsche, who headed the Propaganda Ministry's radio division, were acquitted.

Twelve of the defendants were sentenced to death by hanging. Seven got jail terms of 10 years to life.

That did not end the trials, however. Thousands of trials took place in various countries. But because of the number of people involved, there was no way to bring to justice everyone who was guilty of genocide and/or war crimes. The trials, did, however, show people all over the world the terrible horrors that the Nazis wreaked upon Jews and others.

* 1946 - Several noted Nazis, including Karl Haushofer and Otto Thierack commit suicide. Some 96,000 former SS troopers swear in affidavits they knew nothing of the horrible crimes committed against Jews and other people.

* February 3 - Friedrich Jeckeln, the SS man in charge of the Soviet Union and the Baltic Republics, is hanged in what was the Riga, Latvia ghetto.

* March - Members of a Jewish concentration camp orchestra play classical music and songs from the ghettos for persons involved in the Nuremberg Tribunal at the Nuremberg Opera House.

* March 12 - The former head of the Nazi-controlled government in Hungary is convicted of war crimes and executed.

* March 14 - In Warsaw, Polish gangsters stop a car carrying the British flag and shoot four people they think are Jews.

* March 19 - Chaim Hirszman, one of two survivors of the Belzec death camp, testified about the horrors at the camp in Lublin, Poland. Shortly thereafter he is murdered by anti-Semitic Poles.

* March 26 - Polish anti-Semites murder a group of Jewish leaders traveling from Krakow to Lodz.

* April 21 - Five Jews are murdered near Nowy Targ, Poland.

* April 24 - Also a Nowy Targ, Poland - 5,000 Jews attending a funeral for the five Jews are taunted by Polish anti-Semites.

* April 30 - Seven more Jews are murdered by Polish anti-Semites at Nowy Targ, Poland.

* May 1 - The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry recommends that 100,000 Jews be allowed to enter Palestine. The British refuse.

* May 25 - Switzerland agrees to cough up $58.1 million in gold to help rebuild Europe. Even though the Allies know this gold was stolen from Jews and other Nazi victims, the Allies say nothing. (Switzerland has between $300 and $400 million in looted gold.]

June 1946 - Two Jews are murdered in Biala Podlaska, Poland. All the other Jews leave town.

* July 4 - A Christian child disappeared from Kielce, Poland. Polish anti-Semites launch a progrom against the Jews. They kill 42 Jews. The Christian child is found unharmed. In other areas of Poland, progroms against Jews continue. Following this violence, 100,000 Polish Jews leave Poland for Palestine, the U.S. and other countries.

* July 11 - Cardinal August Hlond says it was the Jew's fault that they were murdered.

* July 22 - Jewish guerillas bomb the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which was being used as the British headquarters.

* August 13 - The British establish "detention" camps on Cyprus to contain Jewish refugees who were not allowed into Palestine.

* October 1 - The first Nuremberg Trial verdicts: Found guilty were Hess, Speer, Raeder, Donitz, Kaltenbrunner, Streicher, Frank, Funk, Schirach, Ribbentrop, Rosenberg, Goring, Frick, Sauckel, Seyss-Inquart, Jodl, Keitel, and Bormann (in absentia).

* October 11 - The Nuremberg Tribunal turns down the appeals of all convicted defendants.

* October 15 - Hermann Goring commits suicide a few hours before he is scheduled to hang.

* October 16: The following are hung at Nuremberg Prison: von Ribbentrop, Julius Streicher, Wilhelm Frick, Alfred Rosenberg, Fritz Sauckel, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Hans Frank, Alfred Jodl, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, and Wilhelm Keitel. Their bodies along with Goring's are burned in the Dachau ovens and their ashes are thrown into the Isar River.

* December 11 - The United Nations General Assembly validates the judgments of the Nuremberg Tribunal.

To be continued...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The Holocaust never ended. The denials continue. Not much has changed but Jews survived anyway.
Bob Poris

opinions powered by SendLove.to