A Summer of Mass Murder

George Eisen

Description

Most accounts of the Holocaust focus on trainloads of prisoners speeding toward Auschwitz, with its chimneys belching smoke and flames, in the summer of 1944. This book provides a hitherto untold chapter of the Holocaust by exploring a prequel to the gas chambers: the face-to-face mass murder of Jews in Galicia by bullets.

The summer of 1941 ushered in a chain of events that had no precedent in the rapidly unfolding history of World War II and the Holocaust. In six weeks, more than twenty thousand Hungarian Jews were forcefully deported to Galicia and summarily executed. In exploring the fate of these Hungarian Jews and their local coreligionists, A Summer of Mass Murder transcends conventional history by introducing a multitude of layers of politics, culture, and, above all, psychology—for both the victims and the executioners.

The narrative presents an uncharted territory in Holocaust scholarship with extensive archival research, interviews, and corresponding literature across countries and languages, incorporating many previously unexplored documents and testimonies. Eisen reflects upon the voices of the victims, the images of the perpetrators, whose motivation for murder remains inexplicable. In addition, the author incorporates the long-forgotten testimonies of bystander contemporaries, who unwittingly became part of the unfolding nightmare and recorded the horror in simple words.

This book also serves as a personal journey of discovery. Among the twenty thousand people killed was the tale of two brothers, the author’s uncles. In retracing their final fate and how they were swept up in the looming genocide, A Summer of Mass Murder also gives voice to their story.

List of Illustrations

The Main Characters: Survivors, Witnesses, Rescuers, Perpetrators

Author’s Note

Preface

1. Prologue: A Primer to the Holocaust

2. The Ostjuden: The Galicianer in the Hungarian Imagination

3. Galicia: An Exile into the Unknown

4. Kamenets-Podolsk: The Anatomy of a Massacre

5. Galicia 1941 – 1942: The Delirium of Murder

6. Weapon of War: Rape and Sexual Violence

7. Return from the Abyss: Rescue and Survival

8. Opening Old Wounds: Responsibility and Consequences

9. Requiem for a Deportation: Unanswered Questions

Epilogue: Looking for Closure

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Sujets

• Holocaust
• Histoire
• Hungría
• Nazismo
• Ucrania
• Segunda Guerra Mundial
• Nazism
• The Holocaust
• Kamianets-Podilskyi
• Galicia
• World War II
• Hungary
• Final Solution
• Shoah
• Nazisme
• Germany
• History
• Heinrich Himmler
• Gestapo
• Galice
• Holocauste
• Ukraine
• Seconde Guerre mondiale
• Hongrie

Informations

• Publié par: Purdue University Press
• Date de parution: 15 décembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781612497778
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

A SUMMER OF MASS MURDER
A SUMMER OF MASS MURDER
1941 Rehearsal for the Hungarian Holocaust
George Eisen
Purdue University Press West Lafayette, Indiana
Copyright 2023 by Purdue University. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from the Library of Congress.
978-1-61249-775-4 (hardback)
978-1-61249-776-1 (paperback)
978-1-61249-777-8 (epub)
978-1-61249-778-5 (epdf)
An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high-quality books Open Access for the public good.
Cover image: Holocaust by bullets in the Soviet Union. Courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives.
For the memory of two brothers, Samu and Karcsi, whose story is told in this book.
For my mother, Ibolya-Breindel, who has never hesitated to fight injustice.
For my grandchildren, Amaris, Baila, Calder, and Aviva, with a message to remember the story of the Holocaust.
Finally, with special love to my wife, Cynthia.
The Holocaust is integrally and organically connected to the Vernichtungskrieg, to the war in 1941, and is organically and integrally connected to the attempt to conquer Ukraine.
T IMOTHY S NYDER , H ISTORIAN

The 1941 deportation was a Jewish as well as a national trauma.
R ANDOLPH L. B RAHAM , H OLOCAUST H ISTORIAN

Everything that one might have considered once unthinkable, there it happened to us.
L SZL Z OBEL , S URVIVOR

One only wonders how people who consider themselves Hungarians and Christians as well as responsible administrators are not afraid of the retribution that their lawless actions might precipitate.
M ARGIT S LACHTA , R ESCUER
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
The Main Characters: Survivors, Witnesses, Rescuers, Perpetrators
Author s Note
Preface
1. Prologue: A Primer to the Holocaust
2. The Ostjuden : The Galicianer in the Hungarian Imagination
3. Galicia: An Exile into the Unknown
4. Kamenets-Podolsk: The Anatomy of a Massacre
5. Galicia 1941-1942: The Delirium of Murder
6. Weapon of War: Rape and Sexual Violence
7. Return from the Abyss: Rescue and Survival
8. Opening Old Wounds: Responsibility and Consequences
9. Requiem for a Deportation: Unanswered Questions
Epilogue: Looking for Closure
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
ILLUSTRATIONS
F IG P.1 Galicia and surrounding region, August 1941 .
F IG P.2 A AND P.2 B Two brothers, Samu, with a customary bottle of wine, and Karcsi (standing on the left), who was the quiet one. Courtesy of George Eisen .
F IG 2.1 Hungary s territorial gains, 1938 - 1941 .
F IG 3.1 Collecting Jews for transportation to the train station in the city of Hust in Carpathian Ruthenia. Picture by Erzs bet Szap ry. Courtesy of the Hungarian National Museum/Photo Archives .
F IG 3.2 Delivering the Jews to the cattle cars for transfer to the transit camp in K r smez . Picture by Erzs bet Szap ry. Courtesy of Memorial de la Shoah .
F IG 3.3 Picture of Captain N ndor Batizfalvy from the National Central Alien Control Office (KEOKH). Courtesy of Ester Horompoly .
F IG 3.4 Hungarian Jews arriving in Skala: The Jews were dumped alongside of the road the soldiers got tired of transporting them the only thing remaining for them is the ditch by the road. At last this tolerated them. July 23, 1941. Hungarian National Museum/Photo Archives, courtesy of B la Soml .
F IG 3.5 Deportees abandoned by the Hungarian military in Skala. While the women tended to the children, the men sat on the ground with vacant stares looking into the distance. July 23, 1941. Hungarian National Museum/Photo Archives, courtesy of B la Soml .
F IG 4.1 Decree by the military commander of Kamenets-Podolsk: All Jews over 10 years old to wear at all time a white armband with the Zionist-Star on the right arm. July 24, 1941. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of the State Archives of Khmel nyts kyi Region, Ukraine .
F IG 4.2 Decree by the military commander of Kamenets-Podolsk: from August 9, 1941, all Jews must move into the Old Town Ghetto. August 8, 1941. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of the State Archives of Khmel nyts kyi Region, Ukraine .
F IG 4.3 The final decree by the military commander of Kamenets-Podolsk, before the mass murder: From now on, selling food for Jews is forbidden; Jews are forbidden to purchase food outside of the Old Town. The guilty will be severely punished. August 24, 1941. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of the State Archives of Khmel nyts kyi Region, Ukraine .
F IG 4.4 Orinin: Former Soviet fortification served as mass grave for over two thousand Hungarian deportees. August 26, 1941. Courtesy of George Eisen .
F IG 4.5 Reichsf hrer SS Heinrich Himmler converses with SS Obergruppen F hrer Alfred Wunnenberg. To Himmler s immediate right is Friederich Jeckeln. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives, courtesy of James Blevins .
F IG 4.6 A day before the massacre: All the Hungarian Jews were transferred to the new town, to the barracks near the train station. August 26, 1941. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives, courtesy of Ivan Sved .
F IG 4.7 Marching to the mass execution: German soldiers armed with whips stood 10 steps apart and beat the Jews who ran past them. August 27 - 29, 1941. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives, courtesy of Ivan Sved .
F IG 4.8 In front of the mass graves: Hungarian Jews are waiting for their final fate. August 27 - 29, 1941. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives, courtesy of Ivan Sved .
F IG 4.9 The Jeckeln reports sent to Heinrich Himmler: The sum of three days of murder. August 30, 1941. Courtesy of Military Central Archive, Military Historical Archive Prague fund Kommando stab Reichsf hrer SS, 1941-1943.
F IG 4.10 General Friedrich Jeckeln: The profile of a mass murderer. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives, courtesy of Bundesarchiv .
F IG 5.1 Police Battalion 133 in Kolomea. Courtesy of www.military-archive.com .
F IG 5.2 A Letter by a defense witness for Anneliese Leideritz. Hessisches Staatsarchiv. Courtesy of Hans Peter Trautmann .
F IG 6.1, 6.2, AND 6.3 The three phases of mass murder of women and children: collection, undressing, and execution. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives, courtesy of Instytut Pamieci Narodowej .
F IG 6.4 The Gestapo building in Stanislaw w: The SS brothel was located on the fourth floor of the building. Courtesy of the Ghetto Fighter s House and Museum, Israel/The Photo Archives .
F IG 7.1 L szl Z bel was twenty-four years old when he was deported to Galicia with his mother. After wandering in Galicia, they were smuggled back to Budapest by a Hungarian intelligence officer. Courtesy of George Eisen .
F IG 7.2 Elizabeth Lubell and her mother, Brona Buchsbaum. She escaped from the Kolomea Ghetto with the help of smugglers that her parents hired. The parents remained behind and were among the last Jews to be shipped to Belzec extermination camp and killed. Courtesy of Barbara Lubell .
F IG 7.3 Herbert C. Pell, the American ambassador in Hungary. Public Domain, courtesy of the US National Archives .
F IG 7.4 Head of the Order of the Sisters of Social Service Margit Slachta, parliamentarian, politician, and rescuer. Named as Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel .
F IG 7.5 Baroness Erzs bet Szap ry, representative of one of the leading aristocratic families. She participated in rescue activities with Margit Slachta and Edith Weiss. Named as Righteous Among the Nations by the State of Israel. Courtesy of the Hungarian National Museum/Photo Archives .
F IG 7.6 Baroness Edith Weiss, daughter of the richest man in Hungary, Manfred Weiss. She was actively participating in the rescue activities with the Jewish leadership in Hungary. Courtesy of Daisy Strasser .
F IG 8.1 Two gendarmes with German soldiers. Courtesy of Dr. S ndor Szak ly .
F IG 8.2 General Henrik Werth, the chief of staff of the Royal Hungarian Army in the first phase of the war. He was responsible for the collection and transportation of the Jews to Galicia. He died in a Soviet prison in 1952. Courtesy of Dr. S ndor Szak ly .
F IG 8.3 mon P szt y, the former head of National Central Alien Control Office (KEOKH). He provided the legal framework for the deportation. P szt y was sentenced and executed for his crimes in Budapest in 1949. Courtesy of the llambiztons gi Szolg latok T rt neti Lev lt ra .
F IG 8.4 As the Hungarian prime minister in 1941, L szl B rdossy carried the ultimate responsibility for the 1941 deportation. He was convicted and executed in 1946. Fortepan, Public Domain, courtesy of Judit M sz ros .
F IG 8.5 Government Commissioner of Carpathian Ruthenia Mikl s Kozma assumed full responsibility for the deportation of two-thirds of those who were transferred to Galicia .
F IG 9.1 The site of the mass murder: Memorial Park in Kamenets-Podolsk. Courtesy of George Eisen .
F IG 9.2 Portrait of a religious Jewish farmer from Carpathian Ruthenia, his wife, and six of his children. The family was expelled to Galicia, returned, and then, in 1944, killed in Auschwitz. The farmer, Chaim Simcha Mechlowitz, became immortalized as the farmer in Roman Vishniac s collection A Vanished World. United States Holocaust Museum, Courtesy of Lisa Wahler .
F IG E.1 The painful memories of eight-year-old Valentina, who witnessed the Kamenets-Podolsk mass murder. Courtesy of George Eisen .
F IG E.2 Peaceful serenity: The Hungarian graves in Orinin, hidden in the former Soviet military fortification. July 26, 1941. Courtesy of George Eisen .
THE MAIN CHARACTERS OF THE STORY
Survivors, Witnesses, Rescuers, Perpetrators
C IPORA B RENNER , survivor of the Stanislaw w g