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N0KFQ > TODAY 18.01.13 17:30l 54 Lines 2602 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 34627_KB0WSA
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Jan 18
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<IK6ZDE<VE2PKT<KA0MOS<KQ0I<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 130118/1522Z 34627@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.53
...
Jan 18, 1943:
Germans resume deportations from Warsaw to Treblinka
On this day, the deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the
concentration camp at Treblinka is resumed_but not without much
bloodshed and resistance along the way.
On July 18, 1942, Heinrich Himmler promoted Auschwitz camp commandant
Rudolf Hess to SS major. He also ordered that the Warsaw ghetto, the
Jewish quarter constructed by the Nazis upon the occupation of Poland
and enclosed first by barbed wire and then by brick walls, be
depopulated_a "total cleansing," as he described it. The inhabitants
were to be transported to what became a second extermination camp
constructed at the railway village of Treblinka, 62 miles northeast of
Warsaw.
Within the first seven weeks of Himmler's order, more than 250,000
Jews were taken to Treblinka by rail and gassed to death, marking the
largest single act of destruction of any population group, Jewish or
non-Jewish, civilian or military, in the war. Upon arrival at "T. II,"
as this second camp at Treblinka was called, prisoners were separated
by sex, stripped, and marched into what were described as
"bathhouses," but were in fact gas chambers. T. II's first commandant
was Dr. Irmfried Eberl, age 32, the man who had headed up the
euthanasia program of 1940 and had much experience with the gassing of
victims, especially children. He was assisted in his duties by several
hundred Ukrainian and about 1,500 Jewish prisoners, who removed gold
teeth from victims before hauling the bodies to mass graves.
In January 1943, after a four-month hiatus, the deportations started
up again. A German SS unit entered the ghetto and began rounding up
its denizens_but they did not go without a fight. Six hundred Jews
were killed in the streets as they struggled with the Germans. Rebels
with smuggled firearms opened fire on the SS troops. The Germans
returned fire_machine-gun fire against the Jews' pistol shots. Nine
Jewish rebels fell_as did several Germans. The fighting continued for
days, with the Jews refusing to surrender and even taking arms from
their Germans persecutors in surprise attacks.
Amazingly, the Germans withdrew from the ghetto in the face of the
unexpected resistance. They likely did not realize how few armed
resisters there were, but the fact that resistance was given at all
intimidated them. But there was no happy ending. Before this new
incursion into the ghetto was over, 6,000 more Jews were transported
to their likely deaths at Treblinka.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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