Killing & Atrocity Centers | Nazis: Reinhold Heydrich |
The Demonic Blueprint of Genocide
It
was not that there had been no other aktions or severe,
violent persecutions and mass killings of the Jews and others; these had
already been occuring systematically all over Europe in the occupied
territories through the Einsatzgruppen, ; or organized genocide squads
under Heydrich, aptly named the Butcher of Prague. ;
Aktion Reinhard, was in fact named for Reinhold Heydrich. ; Aktion
Reinhard, in short, was the deliberate, planned and systematic attempt to
kill as many Jews in Poland and Belarus in as short amount of time as
possible, and then covertly cover up the aktion. ; While the killing
centers such as Auschwitz and others were already in operation, certain
centers, such as Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka and Majdanek were set up specifically for that purpose:
thousands and thousands of deaths in any way possible: hangings,
shootings, gassings, electrocutions, carbon monoxide poisonings,
introduction of disease, and some deaths so cruel as to be difficult to
believe. (See Plaszow-Brinlitz).
The Conference at Wannsee
Killings and deportations were underway in mass as soon as the Nazis hit Austrian and Polish soil in 1938-39. In November of 1938, Krystallnacht and the deportation of Jewish men to Dachau began, and they became the "November Jews" to note the time of interment. Tens of thousands were already being deported, as this was the reason the young Grynspan assassinated the bureaucrat Vom Rath, at the young man's parents being deported. But even with the deportation of thousands to aid in the Third Reich's plan of Lebensraum and to 'solve' the "Jewish Question" note, a more intense plan of genocide against the Jews and outcasts of Europe had been conjectured but not fully planned. Himmler ordered Eichmann to bring together a178,045,960 German Reichsmark confiscated (700 million)
Deaths Estimated: 2,000,000 ; 713,555 between 1942 -43
Camps: Belzec, Sobibor, Majdanek and Treblinka with subcamps; Also Janowska, Gross-Rosen and others.
Reinhard Heydrich's Death: May 27, 1942, just prior.
Central Principle: ; Endlosung: The Final Solution of the Jewish question.
The Mass Killing Centers
Even before "Aktion Reinhard" the plans of mass executions were already underway. The killings began before the war with the mass extermination of mental patients and the developmentally delay under the rubric of "Euthanasia" (it was this that Bishop Galen had decried in the White Rose Pamphlets at first.) Killings progressed to Soviet prisoners and prisoners of Conscience who opposed the war effort. As the war took hold, in addition to war deaths, more and more Jews began to be killed, some in the Ghetto, others in 'forced conditions' such as slavery and disease, and many already in the early killing centers such as Flossenberg, Dachau, Mauthausen, and related camps. (Auschwitz was a full killing center by 1941, first of Soviet P.O.Ws followed by Jews and other prisoners.) Heydrich, known as the "Butcher of Prague" coordinated the designated efforts of "Einsatzgruppen" or the slaughter of thousands of Jews with the help of local militia, citizens and police especially in the Ukraine and surrounding areas, but the decision was made that this type of killing was too tiresome and troubling for the soldiers. [The largest of these killings was in Babiyar.] The solution for the Nazis was to create and build, or adapt present locations into Killing Centers which could process with precisions the extermination of the Jews of Europe in the least amount of time possible, with the least trace possible. Centers such as Belzec, Majdanek, Treblinka and Sobibor were built with exactly that purpose: they were to be in existence for a short time, kill hundreds of thousands, and then be erased as quickly and neatly as possible leaving no trace of the crime.
The Plan of Operation Reinhold
For 6 months the Plan for Aktion or Operation Reinhold was formed. Plans were operation a full 2 months before the onset of the Wannsee Conference. Himmler appointed Globocnik as head of the Operation. Most of the Staff and participants which would carry out the plans for the extermination of the Polish Jews were already well-equipped at killing programs: they had come from T-4 Program. The T-4 program of "Euthanasia" had given the Nazis a springboard of investigation into what methodologies lead to the most killings in the least time, with the least problems for the killers. In 1943, , April 27, Globocnik in a letter to Berlin denotes 434 men from T-4 as being involved. Ukrainian and German guards were also employed, training at Trawiniki camp and the Old Lublin Airport: their methods from German accompanied by perfected research meant the most effective genocide in history.The Plan had two Divisions:
A Deportation team in accordance with the IVB4 Procurement Office of the Reich Security Office. and
An Inspectorate under Capt Wirth which managed the Construction of the three Major camps.
The goals of the Operation, part Military and part philosophical were:
- The Extermination of Polish Jews and then other European Jews
- Slave Labor for the rebuilding of the Reich, followed by killing
- Confiscation of Jewish Property such as holdings, valuables etc
- The securing of assets such as real Property, Homes, land etc. [USHMM-Operation Reinhard]
The Progression of Killing under the Third Reich
1.The Euthanizing of the Mentally Ill, Decapacitated and 'retarded'
2.Executions of Politcal Dissidents and Soviet P.O.W.s
3. The Einsatzgruppen Deaths
4. The First Deaths at Concentration Camps: many means
5. The Use of Gassings: Zyklon B and Monoxide Poisonings
6. The Non-Stop, 24/7 Mass Executions of Jews, Roma-Sinti, P.O.W.s, Resistance Workers, Religious Objectors, Political Prisoners, the Ill and Infirm, Academics, Homosexuals, 'Degenerates & Criminals' and others deemed 'Undesireable ' by the Reich.
NOTE: There was of course, overlap in the types and times of death, but the above is a general guideline.
OUTSIDE LINKS:
noteIn the beginning, even the Jews and Jewish and Humanitarian Organizations did not understand what the deportations were leading to. Deportations were presented to the public as a means of 'relocating' a people whom the Germans had 'disenfranchised' as citizens and labelled as 'guests' in Germany, although many of their families went back as far as most Aryans. While the deportations and robbery of civil rights was decried as Anti-Semitic and unjust by the Jews and the rest of the world, in the early days of the Reich, while many feared where it might lead, few, even the Jews could imagine the propensity of what lay ahead. As more and more clandestine killings were occurring, word began to filter back: that many persons could not just 'disappear' or die of natural causes without a trace in so short a time. Other evidences likewise began to appear: reports on both sides, persons happening on mass graves where even Eichmann reported the ground trembling and blood oozing from the ground, reports of prisoners and escapees, records and so on: even eyewitnesses though failed to convince thoroughly until way into the war.
Killing & Atrocity Centers | Nazis: Reinhold Heydrich |