The Operation Reinhard Death Camps, Revised and Expanded Edition

Yitzhak Arad

Description

Under the code name Operation Reinhard, more than one and a half million Jews were murdered between 1942 and 1943 in the concentration camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka, located in Nazi-occupied Poland. Unlike more well-known camps, which were used both for slave labor and extermination, these camps existed purely to murder Jews. Few victims survived to tell their stories, and the camps were largely forgotten after they were dismantled in 1943. The Operation Reinhard Death Camps bears eloquent witness to this horrific tragedy.

This newly revised and expanded edition includes new material on the history of the Jews under German occupation in Poland; the execution and timing of Operation Reinhard; information about the ghettos in Lublin, Warsaw, Krakow, Radom, and Galicia; and updated numbers of the victims who were murdered during deportations. In addition to documenting the horror of the camps, Yitzhak Arad recounts the stories of those courageous enough to struggle against the Nazis and their "final solution." Arad's work retrieves the experiences of Operation Reinhard's victims and survivors from obscurity and exposes a terrible chapter in humanity's history.

Preface
Introduction
Part One: The Extermination Machine
1. The Jews of the General Government, September 1939–June 1941: Deportations and Ghettoization
2. The Road to Operation Reinhard
3. Operation Reinhard: Organization and Manpower
4. Belzec: Construction and Establishing the Method of Annihilation
5. Construction of Sobibor
6. Construction of Treblinka
7. Preparing for the Deportations
8. Expulsion from the Ghettos
9. The Trains of Death
10. Belzec: March 17 to June, 1942
11. Sobibor: May to July, 1942
12. Treblinka: July 23 to August 28, 1942
13. Reorganization in Treblinka
14. The Mission of Gerstein and Pfannenstiel
15. Jewish Working Prisoners
16. Women Prisoners
17. Improving Extermination Techniques and Installations
18. The Annihilation of the Jews in the General Government
19. Deportations from Bialystok General District (Bezirk Bialystok) and Reichskommissariat Ostland
20. Transports from Other European Countries
21. The Extermination of Gypsies
22. The Economic Plunder
23. Himmler's Visit to Sobibor and Treblinka
24. The Erasure of the Crimes
Part Two: Life in the Shadow of Death
25. Portraits of the Perpetrators
26. The Prisoners' Daily Life
27. The Prisoners and the Deportees
28. Faith and Religion
29. Diseases, Epidemics, and Suicide
30. Social Life
Part Three: Escape and Resistance
31. The Cognizance and Reaction of the Victims in Occupied Poland
32. Escapes from the Trains and Spontaneous Acts of Resistance
33. Escapes from the Camps
34. The Underground in Treblinka
35. The Plan for the Uprising in Treblinka
36. August 2, 1943: The Uprising in Treblinka
37. Pursuit and Escape from Treblinka
38. Ideas and Organization for Resistance in Sobibor
39. The Underground in Sobibor
40. The Plan for the Uprising in Sobibor
41. October 14, 1943: The Uprising in Sobibor
42. Pursuit and Escape from Sobibor
43. Survival among the Local Population
44. Operation Reinhard and Reports about the Death Camps in Polish Wartime Publications
45. An Evaluation of the Uprisings and Their Results
Part Four: The Final Stage of Operation Reinhard
46. Operation Erntefest
47. The Liquidation of the Camps and the Termination of Operation Reinhard
48. Assessing the Number of Victims of Operation Reinhard
Epilogue
Appendix A. The Deportation of the Jews from the General Government, Bialystok General District, and Ostland
Appendix B. The Fate of the Perpetrators of Operation Reinhard
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• 20th Century
• Jewish
• Modern
• Holocaust
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Jews
• The Holocaust
• Jewish studies
• Modern history
• History of Europe
• Eastern
• Obermodern-Zutzendorf
• Holocauste
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 13 juillet 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9780253034472
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

Extrait

This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
Yad Vashem-The World Holocaust Remembrance Center
P.O.B. 3477
Jerusalem 9103401, Israel
[e-mail]
1987 by Yitzhak Arad
Updated English version 2018 by Indiana University Press,
Yad Vashem-The World Holocaust Remembrance Center, and Yitzhak Arad
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Arad, Yitzhak, author.
Title: The Operation Reinhard death camps : Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka / Yitzhak Arad.
Description: Revised and expanded edition. | Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press ; Jerusalem : Yad Vashem, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018001492 (print) | LCCN 2018017770 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253025791 (e-book) | ISBN 9780253025302 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253025418 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Operation Reinhard, Poland, 1942-1943. | Concentration camps--Poland. | Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) | Belzec (Concentration camp) | Sobibor (Concentration camp) | Treblinka (Concentration camp)
Classification: LCC D805.P7 (ebook) | LCC D805.P7 A728 2018 (print) | DDC 940.53/18538--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018001492
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CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART I: THE EXTERMINATION MACHINE
one The Jews of the General Government, September 1939-June 1941: Deportations and Ghettoization
two The Road to Operation Reinhard
three Operation Reinhard: Organization and Manpower
four Belzec: Construction and Establishing the Method of Annihilation
five Construction of Sobibor
six Construction of Treblinka
seven Preparing for the Deportations
eight Expulsion from the Ghettos
nine The Trains of Death
ten Belzec: March 17 to June 1942
eleven Sobibor: May to July 1942
twelve Treblinka: July 23 to August 28, 1942
thirteen Reorganization in Treblinka
fourteen The Mission of Gerstein and Pfannenstiel
fifteen Jewish Working Prisoners
sixteen Women Prisoners
seventeen Improving Extermination Techniques and Installations
eighteen The Annihilation of the Jews in the General Government
nineteen Deportations from Bialystok General District (Bezirk Bialystok) and Reichskommissariat Ostland
twenty Transports from Other European Countries
twenty-one The Extermination of Gypsies
twenty-two The Economic Plunder
twenty-three Himmler s Visit to Sobibor and Treblinka
twenty-four The Erasure of the Crimes
PART II: LIFE IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH
twenty-five Portraits of the Perpetrators
twenty-six The Prisoners Daily Life
twenty-seven The Prisoners and the Deportees
twenty-eight Faith and Religion
twenty-nine Diseases, Epidemics, and Suicide
thirty Social Life
PART III: ESCAPE AND RESISTANCE
thirty-one The Cognizance and Reaction of the Victims in Occupied Poland
thirty-two Escapes from the Trains and Spontaneous Acts of Resistance
thirty-three Escapes from the Camps
thirty-four The Underground in Treblinka
thirty-five The Plan for the Uprising in Treblinka
thirty-six August 2, 1943: The Uprising in Treblinka
thirty-seven Pursuit and Escape from Treblinka
thirty-eight Ideas and Organization for Resistance in Sobibor
thirty-nine The Underground in Sobibor
forty The Plan for the Uprising in Sobibor
forty-one October 14, 1943: The Uprising in Sobibor
forty-two Pursuit and Escape from Sobibor
forty-three Survival among the Local Population
forty-four Operation Reinhard and Reports about the Death Camps in Polish Wartime Publications
forty-five An Evaluation of the Uprisings and Their Results
PART IV: THE FINAL STAGE OF OPERATION REINHARD
forty-six Operation Erntefest ( Harvest Festival )
forty-seven The Liquidation of the Camps and the Termination of Operation Reinhard
forty-eight Assessing the Number of Victims of Operation Reinhard
Epilogue
Appendix A. The Deportation of the Jews from the General Government, Bialystok General District, and Ostland
Appendix B. The Fate of the Perpetrators of Operation Reinhard
Notes
Bibliography
Index
PREFACE
T HIS BOOK IS A STUDY of Operation Reinhard-the name the SS chose for the plan to exterminate the Jews who lived in the General Government of occupied Poland-and of three death camps in particular, Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka, established with the goal of implementing this plan. Concentration camps and death camps were an integral component of Nazi Germany s governing system and a tool for achieving its political aims. These camps were the responsibility of the SS, headed by Heinrich Himmler. The concentration camps served as places of detention and torture, centers of forced labor, and instruments for the physical elimination of those whom Nazi Germany considered hostile elements, including the Jews. Conversely, the death camps served but one purpose: the physical and total extermination of the Jewish people, regardless of their age or gender; human beings whose only crime was to have been born Jewish, or who were born to at least one Jewish grandparent. The crimes, cruelties, and murders committed by Nazi Germany against the Jews reached their peak in these death camps. Five death camps were erected and operated, all in Nazi-occupied Poland: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka.
This book describes the process and execution of the deportations from the ghettoes and relates the complete story of three camps in the General Government-Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka-from the preparations for their construction at the end of 1941 until their final razing in the fall of 1943. It depicts in full the physical layout of the camps, the transports to the camps, the process of extermination, and the methods and deeds of the SS men who commanded and operated the camps, as well as of the Ukrainian guards, who comprised the majority of the armed forces tasked with guarding the camps.
This book also tells the tale of the hundreds of thousands of people who were brought for extermination-although their stay in the camps usually lasted no more than a few hours-from the time they disembarked onto the railway platform until their corpses were removed from the gas chambers and buried in mass graves. In each of the camps, a few hundred Jews were removed from the transports and held in the camps to do the physical work involved in the extermination process, as well as some service jobs. Most of these Jews survived for only a short time, from a few days to several months, and were ultimately murdered, as were their brethren who were sent directly from the transports for extermination in the gas chambers. The book describes the daily life and work of these Jews, their underground organization, the revolts, and escapes from the camps. The number of victims in each camp, grouped by location of residence on the eve of deportation, and the timetables for the transports and murder are also included.
The death camps were the final station for the Jews of the General Government. But before reaching this destination, and their ultimate extermination, they were subjected to persecutions, deportations, torture, and murder. This book describes in general terms the German policy toward the Jews of Poland before the implementation of Operation Reinhard, how the decision regarding the operation was taken and its place within the general framework of the Final Solution of the Jewish Question, and the decisions regarding the physical extermination of all of European Jewry. In addition to the Jews of Poland, tens of thousands of Jews from Holland, France, Greece, Yugoslavia, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and the Soviet Union were murdered in these three camps.
This book is the fruition of extensive research on the camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. The primary sources were testimonies of the few survivors of these camps, German documents, sources of the Polish underground, testimonies by Poles and Germans, and German trial protocols. Nazi criminals who served in these camps stood trial in West Germany. The trial of the SS men who had served in Belzec was held in Munich in January 1965. The primary defendant was Josef Oberhauser; seven other SS men were also tried with him. The trial of the SS men who had served in Sobibor was held in Hagen from September 1965 until December 1966. The primary defendant was Kurt Bolender; eleven other SS men were tried with him. The first Treblinka trial, at which ten of the SS men who served in the camp were brought to trial, among them Kurt Franz, the deputy commander, was held in Dusseldorf between October 1964 and August 1965. The second Treblinka trial, at which Franz Stangl, the commander of the camp, w