Source:
https://codoh.com/library/document/partisan-war-and-reprisal-killings/
An
attempt to organize German reprisals during the military campaign against the
USSR
By
Germar Rudolf, Sibylle Schröder
Published: 2003-08-01
Last updated on April 8, 2024
Since
the publication of Daniel Goldhagen’s book Hitler’s Willing Executioners and the
general attention, which the Anti-Wehrmacht propaganda exhibition received in
Germany,[1] the center of gravity of the discussion about the ‘Holocaust’ has
changed. At least today the attention is directed less intensively to the
alleged high-tech mass murder in “homicidal gas chambers,” which are in every
regard still totally inconceivable even today, but considerably more to the
actual or only claimed mass murder behind the eastern front, allegedly committed
above all, but not exclusively, by the so called Einsatzgruppen and committed
especially, but not only, against Jews residing in the then Soviet Union.
Opinions about this subject vary widely within historical revisionism from
positions, which are not very different from the established opinion, to those
who deny such mass murders completely. The following article tries to summarize
the current knowledge from one revisionist viewpoint, which revised exaggerated
claims of mass murder and brings the issue into the context of wartime
reprisals-and reprisal excesses-against illegal partisans. We hope that this may
trigger a vivid discussion and a start into further, more detailed research into
this field.
Allied Reprisals against Germans
German
newspapers rarely carry articles about reprisals threatened or implemented by
the western Allies at or after the end of the war. However, the Stuttgarter
Zeitung, for example, reported that the French had threatened reprisal
executions at a ratio of 1:25 even in the event that shots would be taken at
their soldiers at all, regardless of the actual outcome.[2]
On April 4, 1992, the Paderborner Zeitung reported an incident where
the Americans had taken harsh revenge for the death of their General Maurice
Rose, who had been shot in regular combat: 110 German men not involved in the
event were killed.[3] Probably there are a great many more
such examples, where harsh reprisals or unlawful acts of revenge were inflicted
on the German population. We know very little today about conditions prevailing
from 1945 to 1947, especially in West Germany, since these actions on the part
of the victors were never prosecuted. The Germans were forbidden to prosecute
because of a law that is still in effect today, and the victors, naturally
enough, had no particular interest in such prosecution.[4]
The fact that East and Central Germany saw some dreadful excesses is somewhat
more fully documented, on the other hand, since this was in the interests of the
anti-Communist western powers.
The
Partisan War in the East 1941-1944
Dr. jur.
Karl Siegert, Professor at the University of Göttingen, drew up a legal expert
report shortly after the end of World War Two, in which he showed that reprisal
killings were, to a certain degree, common practice and not against
international law.[5] Hence, reprisals and shootings of
hostages can be considered as tactically questionable and possibly as morally
reprehensible, but strictly speaking this was not against the law at that time.
This should always be kept in mind when the topic at issue is the reactions of
German troops in Russia and Serbia, i.e., in vast regions where a weak
occupation power had to battle brutal partisans in order to facilitate the
oft-disrupted flow of supplies to the eastern front. Partisan attacks began
immediately following the start of the eastern war; certain partisan units
deliberately let themselves be overrun, in order then to engage in sabotage
behind the advancing German troops and to commit horrific atrocities against
soldiers and civilians they caught unaware. Later on, partisan units as large as
entire divisions were flown into the hinterland of the German troops, or
smuggled in through the lines.[6]
Naturally, the data to be found in the subject literature about the numbers of
partisans and the damage they caused vary widely, since there are few reliable
documents about this kind of unlawful warfare and since the Soviet Union also
always had a strong propagandistic interest in the historiography of partisan
warfare. The most reliable data seems to be that provided by Bernd Bonwetsch,[7]
who gives the numbers of partisans as follows: late 1941: 90,000; early 1942:
80,000; mid-1942: 150,000; spring 1943: 280,000; by 1944, skyrocketing to
approximately half a million. These figures are based both on Soviet and on
contemporaneous Reich-German sources. The damage done by the partisans,
especially in the area of Byelorussia, is considerably more difficult to
quantify. Wilenchik tells of impressive quantities of weapons and ammunition
that were allegedly at the partisans’ disposal, as well as of extensive
crippling of the German supply lines through paralysis of railway lines,
especially in 1944.[8] In general terms, this is confirmed
by Werner.[9]
Professor Franz W. Seidler from the University of Munich is one of the few
historians who try to keep a balanced view on the events of World War Two and
opposes in a very scholarly way. His book on the Wehrmacht in its war against
partisans is an excellent example of a thorough refutation of many myths. Castle
Hill Publishers will try to publish several of Prof. Seidler's books in English
editions over the next years. Translators working for fair prices as well as
financial support for these projects are more than welcome. Please get in touch
with us.
Regarding the numbers of German soldiers and civilians killed by partisans,
Bonwetsch contrasts the claims from Soviet sources-up to 1.5 million-with those
from the German side: 35,000 to 45,000,[10] which he considers
to be more reliable, since allegedly the German sources would have had no reason
to minimize the figures. However, he overlooks the fact that it is generally
customary in war to downplay one’s own losses. Seidler[11]
recently published a balanced up-to-date study about the Wehrmacht’s struggle in
the partisan warfare, showing not only the disastrous and probably decisive
effects of the partisan’s attacks against German units and especially their
supplies, but he proves also that most of the German reactions were totally
covered by international law-although not always most far-sighted. Furthermore,
he shows that those orders from higher up which broke international laws (e.g.,
the infamous “Kommissar order,” which might be considered morally appropriate,
but politically stupid and judicially untenable) were in most cases sabotaged by
the front units, and that these orders, after long-lasting and massive protest,
were eventually revoked.
In a
book critically discussed by the renowned German historians Andreas Hillgruber
and Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, Boris Semionovich Telpuchowsky writes:
“Within
three years of the war, the Byelorussian partisans eliminated approximately
500,000 German soldiers and officers, 47 Generals, blew up 17,000 enemy military
transports and 32 armored trains, destroyed 300,000 railway tracks, 16,804
vehicles and a great number of other material supplies of all kinds.”[12]
The data
also diverge greatly regarding the personnel (and concomitant costs) involved in
the Germans’ efforts to maintain security behind the frontlines: 300,000 to
600,000 persons were needed according to Soviet sources, vs. roughly 190,000
according to German sources.[10]
To what
degree these data were inflated in order to glorify the partisans is not known,
but there is no doubt that the policy of scorched earth[13]
practiced by the Red Army in their retreat in 1941-42, together with the
acts of sabotage and murder by the partisans, were the major contributing
factors in the defeat of the German army in the East. The brutality with which
the Red Army and especially the partisans fought, right from the start of the
war and on orders from the highest echelons, was described vividly by J.
Hoffmann,[14] for example, and again recently by A.E.
Epifanow[15] and Franz W. Seidler[16];
A.M. de Zayas, in his study of the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, also confirmed
and corroborated much of the material which the Reich government had already
collected even in those days to document the atrocities committed by not only
the Red Army.[17] De Zayas also reports that the German
wartime leaders did not resort to reprisals as a standard matter of course, but
rather for the most part after carefully weighing the pros and cons. Especially
in Russia, however, this could not prevent the fact that lower-ranking units,
acting on the basis of their own experiences with the Soviet manner of warfare,
engaged in reprisals (and revenge) not ordered or approved by higher ranks.[18]
Finally, it must be noted that since July 1943 both the German army and the SS
agreed to treat partisans like regular combatants, which meant for example that
they would not be executed if captured, which was permitted by international law
and common practice, but that they would be treated as normal POWs.[19]
This is a measure whose generosity and humanity is, to my knowledge, unheard of
anywhere in world history.
As we
know today, the German Wehrmacht deployed in the East fought not only for the
survival of the Third Reich, but after they abandoned all illusions of
imperialism, they also fought for the freedom of all of Europe from Stalinism,[20]
and therefore, in light of Prof. Siegert ‘s findings, we must observe that there
was nothing unlawful and very little immoral about the merciless battle of the
German security forces against unlawful Soviet partisans, even if that battle
did involve draconic reprisals. If the official Soviet information about the
numbers of German soldiers and/or their allies killed by partisans should be
accurate, then it must be noted that reprisal killings of several millions of
people (ratio 1:10) would have been theoretically justified. But even
the numbers given by German authorities (some 40,000 victims) could have
resulted theoretically in reprisal killings of about 400,000 civilians. It goes
without saying that such numbers are horrific, and we can just be thankful that
reprisal killings are forbidden nowadays and hope that the law will be observed.
We must, however, ask whether such killings actually took place in those days.
Einsatzgruppen for the Fight against Partisans.
The
so-called Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and the SD (Security
Service) were among others the units in charge of combating the partisans.[21]
They started with not more than 4,000 men in summer 1941, but at the end of 1942
up to 15,000 Germans and 240,000 natives were involved,[22]
an increase of manpower which indicates very well the parallel increase of
partisan warfare at that time. Considering their relatively unsuccessful efforts
at curbing partisan activity, we must note that these initially numerically weak
troops were obviously entirely overwhelmed by their task of policing the
enormous region (many hundred thousands of square kilometers), which they were
in charge of and whose more remote areas were increasingly under the control of
partisans.[23] Thus it appears a bit ridiculous when H.
Höhne states:[24]
“Heydrich’s Death envoys started their cruel adventure: 3,000 men were hunting
Russia’s five million Jews.”
Höhne
omits to say that at the same time these troops were fighting against some
100,000 partisans. The allegations made against these troops today-namely, that,
aside from their hopeless battle against the partisans, they also cooperated
with many Wehrmacht soldiers to kill several million Jews as part of the Final
Solution-beg the comment that, as Gerald Reitlinger says, this is absolutely
unbelievable.[25]
Partisans prepare to blow up a railway track leading from the West to Moscow:
The delay and destruction of supplies results in the death of ten thousand of
German Soldiers.
As
documentary evidence for the number of Jews shot by the Einsatzgruppen
behind the Russian front, the so-called event reports (Ereignisberichte)
are frequently quoted. These reports are said to have been prepared by the
Einsatzgruppen, who also supposedly sent them to Berlin, where these
documents were found after the war. One of the most well-known experts on the
subject of Einsatzgruppen, however, Hans-Heinrich Wilhelm,[26]
stated as early as in 1988 that he is not certain whether or not the event
reports are correct. Because he could show that the statistics in these reports
about the number of murdered Jews are unreliable, he warned his colleagues as
follows:[27]
“When
the reliability [of these reports] in non-statistically
areas is not greater, which can only be verified by comparing them with other
sources from the same region, historical research would be well advised to be
much more suspicious in future than it was so far when using any SS-sources.”
This
remark was only consequential, since he did express similar doubts about the
reliability of these documents already in his first book, when he speculated:[28]
“that
here as well at least several ten thousand exterminated Jews were added to the
report in order to ‘improve’ it, which was otherwise thought to be hardly
justifiable, because the number of killed partisans was far too low.”
Elsewhere he noted that one of the event reports of the Einsatzgruppen
was evidently manipulated by adding a zero to 1,134, thus turning the total to
11,034.[29] The forgers-this is what we deal with
here-evidently had an interest in suggesting victim counts as high as possible.
In case the Einsatzgruppen were the forgers, then one would assume that
they believed that somebody in Berlin desired to see as many Jews murdered as
possible. But what if someone else was the forger?
The
Problem of the Event Reports in the Case of “Babi Yar”
Babi Yar
is the name of an erosion ditch system in the vicinity of the Ukrainian city of
Kyiv. After German troops had conquered Kyiv in September 1941, 33,771 Jews
(men, women, and children) were allegedly shot in Babi Yar on September 29 and
30.
Sources
for this are the Ereignismeldungen and Tätigkeits- und Lageberichte
(action- and situation reports) of the Einsatzgruppen, as well as
witness testimonies. Especially important is the Event Report No. 6, report time
Sept. 1 to 31, 1941.[30] It states:
“The
bitterness of the Ukrainian population against the Jews is exceedingly high,
because they are blamed for the dynamiting of Kyiv. They are also considered the
informer and agents of the NKVD, who are responsible for the terror against the
Ukrainian people. All Jews were arrested as reprisal for the arson in Kyiv and a
total of 33,771 Jews were executed on September 29 and 30. Money, valuables, and
clothing were secured and made available to the NSV[31]
for the provision of local German civilians and also partly to the temporary
city administration to help needy residents.”
1.
Dynamitings in Kyiv
At this
point, a few explanations from established sources are necessary about the
dynamiting mentioned in the above Tätigkeits- und Lagebericht. Wilhelm
writes about this event:
“When in
the week after the occupation [of Kyiv] several
explosions caused considerable personal and material damages, this was
immediately used as a welcome pretext for ‘corresponding retaliatory measures’
[…]”[32]
Gerald
Reitlinger explains:
“On the
24th [September 1941], an enormous explosion
destroyed the Hotel Continental, in which the military command of the Sixth Army
was stationed. The fire spread quickly, and Blobel, who had arrived on the 21st,
had to vacate his offices. 25,000 people lost their homes, and hundreds of
German soldiers were killed, mostly while attempting to extinguish the flames.”[33]
German
General Alfred Jodl commented about this in Nuremberg before the IMT (June 4,
1946):[34]
“Shortly
before that, Kyiv had been abandoned by the Russian armies, and we had barely
occupied the town when one detonation after the other occurred. The larger part
of the inner city burned down. 50,000 people lost their homes. We had
considerable losses, because during this fire further huge explosives blew up.
The local commandant of Kyiv first thought of sabotage by local residents until
we captured a detonation chart. This chart listed about 50 or 60 objects of
Kyiv, which had been prepared for a long time to be blown up. This was also
verified right away by the results of investigations by our pioneers. There were
at least 40 such objects ready to be blasted, and most of the detonations were
to be ignited remotely through radio signals.”
Burning German supply train in the Soviet Union.
2.
Retaliatory Action
It is
therefore established that not only the inner city of Kyiv burn down as a result
of these detonations-with corresponding losses of the local population-but also
that the German troops lost hundreds of soldiers and almost their entire
military leadership staff. Both the city’s military commandant as well as the
Ukrainian population first thought of sabotage. Reprisal shootings for such
partisan attacks would have been the normal-and justified-reaction during
wartime. Hence, these attacks did not serve “as a pretext,” as Krausnick put it.
According to the event report 97 of September 28, 1941, a “public execution of
20 Jews” was planned.[35] In the following reports no. 98
(Sept. 29), 99 (Sept. 30) and 100 (Oct. 1)-exactly on those days when the
executions were to have occurred-no references to such executions can be found.
Only the
event reports no. 101 of October 2 and no. 106 of October 7 report of the
alleged execution of 33,771 Jews. The description by Krausnick/Wilhelm is not
quite clear.[36] They do not quote these event
reports-something which should be at least expected for the proof of about
34,000 murders-but a quotation from an essay by Alfred Streim of the year 1972.[37]
Why did they not use the original text of these event reports-if they exist at
all? The conspicuous unclear note “ibid.” in Krausnick,[38]
which may refer to event report no. 101 as well as event report no. 106, cannot
be considered sufficient in this case as proof for 33,771 murders.
The
question whether or not the report about 33,771 shootings can be found in event
report no. 101 or in event report no. 106 is not answered uniformly in the
literature, which is an indication that none of the authors really checked out
the sources, but that one copies always from the other. Hilberg is for event
report no. 101,[39] also Klee/Dreßen/Rieß,[40]
Reitlinger decided for event report no. 106,[41] as does
Streim, to whom Krausnick referred.[42] By the way,
Streim distanced himself completely from quoting an event report in a later
work, but mentions as the only source the
Tätigkeits- und Lagebericht Nr. 6 (Activity- and
Situation Report no. 6).[43] Krausnick refers also to
this Tätigkeits- und Lagebericht Nr. 6
for the month of October 1941.
That an
event report, which among others lists individual arrests and shootings, does
not report the execution of 33,771 Jews, is hard to believe, but that seems to
be exactly the case.
3.
Source Value and Truth of the Event Reports
The work
by Krausnick/Wilhelm is the first and only thorough study about the activity of
the Einsatzgruppen.
The authors used as the main source for their work the
Ereignismeldungen UdSSR (Event
Reports USSR).[44] These event reports are only one part
of a group of documents, which is labeled as follows:
1.
“Ereignismeldungen
UdSSR des Chefs der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD” (Event Reports USSR of the
Chief of the Security Police and the SD) for the period from June 23, 1941, to
April 24, 1942. 194 documents survived from a total of 195.
2.
“Meldungen aus den
besetzten Ostgebieten vom Chef der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD-Kommandostab”
(Reports from the occupied eastern territories by the Chief of the Security
Police and the SD command staff) for the time period of May 1, 1942, to May 21,
1943-there are 55 reports.
3.
“Tätigkeits- und
Lageberichte der Einsatzgruppen der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD in der UdSSR”
(Activity- and Situation Reports of the Security Police and the SD in the USSR.)[45]
An
Eye for an Eye! Top: Killed German Soldiers behind the front line, murdered by
partisans; below: execution of Soviet partisans.
Hans-Heinrich Wilhelm declared the following about the “event reports USSR as a
historic source:”[46
“These
reports were received always several days later, and not three times daily or at
least daily, as with military communications. Trained personnel for the
preparation of these reports was not everywhere available. For the transmission
via radio and telex, mostly third parties, like military units, had to be used,
which caused bothersome problems due to the frequent change in location.
Furthermore, the ‘reporting discipline’ was simply bad, and this did not change,
no matter how much Heydrich fulminated. The simplest rules were not followed.
For example, exact information like when and where a reported event occurred
were quite frequently missing, which was unthinkable for a military report. Or
the editor of the ‘event reports,’ who could always check back with the original
notifications when in doubt, forgot to include the data from the message header
into the text body, when the data received via telex was dictated to a typist,
and those typed reports were left unchecked for misunderstandings and typos.
Because the Einsatzgruppen and Kommandos worked at different speeds, messages
frequently crossed each other or were frequently left unattended for extended
periods of time because of their excessive length and low priority, some events
were not only once or twice, but several times transmitted, and occasionally a
backup message was sent days or weeks afterwards, it is not surprising that the
editor at the RSHA[47] mixed up
the chronology of events. It seems that they themselves could hardly keep an
overview. Very soon, these reports were not complete anymore either. This
impression quickly results when comparing, for example, the interim balances
about the killing of Jews of some Einsatzkommandos, which came in on a
fortnightly basis, with the corresponding individual reports about completed
actions.”
The last
sentence could be an attempt of an explanation, why, for example, there is
evidently no event report about the alleged shooting of 33,771 Jews in Kyiv (Babi
Yar)-in case that there really is no such an event report-but only a mention of
the execution in the “Tätigkeits- und Lagebericht Nr. 6.”
The
opinion that there does not exist an event report about these shootings is
backed by the explanations of Alfred Streim, which he made during the Stuttgart
Congress from May 3 to 5, 1984, about the subject “The Murder of the European
Jews during the Second World War.” While talking about the murders in the Babi
Yar ravine, he did not refer to an event report, but to the “summary of the
executions,” i.e., to the “Tätigkeits- und Lagebericht.”[37]
The
event reports were transmitted from the front via radio or telex to a department
of the RSHA in Berlin. The official in charge there, who was responsible for the
final written form of the reports-as they exist today-was Dr. Günther Knobloch
(born 1910). During a hearing by the Central Office Ludwigsburg in 1959 Knobloch
gave the following description about the preparation of the event reports and
the Activity- and Situation Reports:[48]
“From
the incoming flood of messages I always marked the interesting parts red and our
secretaries knew exactly, in what form to bring these messages.
[…] It was important at that time that the messages were quite
voluminous. […] Because of this I saved material from
days, when we received many messages, for days with only a few messages. The
messages from the individual Kommandos and Groups were always filed under these
Kommandos and Groups, and an error can of course not necessarily be ruled out.
[…] Practically no changes in content occurred.
[…] I would like to add, however, that SS-Gruppenführer
Müller […] frequently made handwritten changes also to
the actual content. […] I also had often the impression
that the information contained exaggerated events and numbers.[…]
At some
time in the year 1942, we had to summarize the daily event reports in
fortnightly reports, and later these were even changed to monthly reports. But
it is also possible that the sequence was reverse. These summaries were prepared
by me as well. […] These reports were based exclusively
on the daily event reports.”
The
“time in the year 1942” mentioned by Knobloch is either a printing error in the
book or Knobloch remembered it wrong, since these Tätigkeits- und
Lageberichte exist since June 1941, that is since the very beginning of the
Russian campaign. The meaning of these summaries, however, is not clear. Why
these repetitions in the Tätigkeits- und Lageberichte, which actually,
as Wilhelm noticed while comparing them with the event reports, were often no
repetitions but new reports?
From
both Wilhelm’s and Knobloch’s descriptions the following can be deducted:
reports from the front, prepared by non-qualified persons-some of them in double
or even multiple versions-were received by the RSHA in Berlin by radio or telex,
often with considerable delays. There they were reviewed by Knobloch, important
parts highlighted, rewritten by secretaries and sent out unchecked and
uncorrected as the final event reports. Later on, after weeks, summaries were
prepared from these event reports, to which, however, new data were added while
others were deleted on an unknown basis. These summaries were issued as
Tätigkeits- und Lageberichte (Activity and Situation Reports).
Krausnick and Wilhelm call these reports with their dubious history “authentic”
documents. According to the opinion of the same authors, this authenticity is
further supported by the following:[49]
1.
they were captured
by the U.S. units;
2.
they were cited in
Nuremberg in all relevant trials;
3.
no defense lawyer
ever seriously attempted to question their authenticity;
4.
the editors who were
responsible within the RSHA for their preparation as well as numerous recipients
of the report at that time did identify them.
Partisan warfare during the Russian campaign. Similar pictures became well-known
in America only after the U.S. Army applied similar tactics during the Vietnam
war.
Regarding #4, the responsible report editor Knobloch testified the following,
when photo copies of these reports were submitted to him in Ludwigsburg:[50]
“The
photocopies of the reports submitted to me can be considered as the event
reports issued at that time in regards to their form.”
“In
regards to their form”-Knobloch said either nothing about their content or we
are not told about it!
Although
the above mentioned points made by Krausnick and Wilhelm do in no way prove the
authenticity of the submitted documents, they still could be authentic. However
the problem in this case is that the events reported in these presumably
authentic documents are evidently incongruent with reality, as is clear from the
descriptions of Wilhelm and Knobloch.
4.
Were 33,771 Jews Murdered?
The
question of how many Jews were murdered in those two days in Babi Yar is
controversial in the literature. Hilberg writes that “the success of the Kyiv
action is difficult to evaluate.”[51] According to event
report no. 97 of Sept. 9, 1941, 50,000 Jews were intended for the shooting, but
then 33,771 were reported. However, Paul Blobel, the leader of the
Sonderkommando 4a, which was responsible for executions, maintained later in
Nuremberg that no more than 16,000 were shot.[52] As a
matter of fact, event report no. 97 announced also that the city commandant
recommended the public execution of 20 Jews.[35] The Soviet document USSR-9,
which was submitted during the main trial in Nuremberg, even states that more
than 100,000 men, women, children, and elderly people were shot in Babi Yar.[53]
This number, however, was not mentioned anywhere else.
The
number generally agreed upon seems to be 33,771. Krausnick maintains that this
number was “reported several times,”[54] namely in an
event report, which he does not specify, and in the Tätigkeits- und
Lagebericht no. 6. This would, of course, mean that this number was not
reported several times, but maybe only once, and that it was then repeated in a
transcript!
Reitlinger also quotes event reports and action reports, but he confuses their
names. When talking about “Activity Reports,” he actually refers to event
reports and vice versa. He also claims that the number of 33,771 is verified,
because the “activity report no. 106 and the event report No. 6 both contain the
same number 33,771.”[55] Here a transcript of a report is
also supposed to confirm the report itself. It is doubtful whether Reitlinger
has even seen “event report no. 106,” which he mentions only in his text,
because if he had, he probably would have quoted the document correctly.
For
Wolfgang Benz the “number of the murdered” (33,771) “is also corroborated by
testimonies of perpetrators, spectators, and several survivors of the massacre.”[56]
Herbert Tiedemann reported extensively about the completely chaotic, arbitrary
picture, which those alleged ‘witnesses’ and other reporters drew about Babi Yar,
and he has shown that these testimonies can in no way be accepted as proof for
anything.[57]
But how
could such a number erroneously slip into the reports? Could multiple reports
about the same event and typos have led to it? The exact process of this
possible number explosion can probably not be reconstructed.
There
is, however, at least one example for a similar miracle of numbers in
the reports of the Einsatzgruppen, which Wilhelm discovered. In a
report of the outpost Dünaburg of the Commander of Security Police in Latvia
dated Nov. 11, 1941, a number of 1,134 murdered Jews is mentioned. In a summary
report of February 1942, the same number was-by typo?-inflated to 11,034.[58]
A zero changed one thousand to ten thousand. However, Wilhelm thinks that the
latter number is the correct one, because this number is also mentioned in an
undated report of Einsatzgruppe A.[59]
In
conclusion it can be said that a critical investigation of the documents
referred to here has still to be done, not least in order to determine what
their exact content is.[60] But based upon known
information about the history and origin of these documents, it can concluded
that the Ereignismeldungen (event reports) and the Tätigkeits- und
Lageberichte (activity and situation reports), even if they are authentic,
do-according to scientific standards-not conclusively prove the reality of the
event described in them. For this, other and qualitatively better evidence has
to be presented.
5.
Certainty Derives from Material Evidence and Unsuspicious Documents only
As a
result of the discovery of air photos, we are in the fortunate position to prove
beyond reasonable doubt that this alleged mass murder did at least not occur at
that claimed location.[61] These pictures of Babi Yar,
taken by German reconnaissance planes between 1939 and 1943, prove that this
ravine never underwent any noticeable topographic changes, and by a lucky
coincidence, a German reconnaissance air plane even made pictures of this area
exactly at a time when-according to eye witnesses-the corpses of all the
murdered Jews were allegedly exhumed from their mass graves and supposedly
cremated on gigantic pyres. Nothing of this is shown on these pictures.
Another
example of a sensational discovery which was not reported by the mainstream
media has a similarly devastating effect upon the thesis of Goldhagen & Co: In
the summer of 1996, the city of Marijampol in Latvia decided to erect a memorial
in memory of the tens of thousands of Jews who were allegedly murdered by the
Einsatzgruppen. In order to erect it at the proper place, an attempt
was made to locate the exact position of the mass graves. Excavations were
therefore carried out at those locations which were identified by witnesses,
but-oh wonder-Not a single trace of any mass graves could be found.[63]
Further excavations in the vicinity of the alleged locations of mass murder did
not result in anything else but untouched virgin soil either.[64]
Did ‘the Germans’ commit the perfect crime by succeeding to completely hide all
traces of their mass murder and even restore the soil to its original layering?
Could they commit evil wonders after all? Or were the witnesses wrong?[65]
The
following is a translation of one page of a German wartime report on their fight
against partisans. the original of the document is depicted to the right. Click
on the icon to the right to view the German original.
|
The
Reichsführer-SS |
Field-Command
Post
December 29, 1942 |
|
Subject: |
Reports to the
Führer about |
|
|
Combat against
Bandits. |
|
|
R e p o r t No. 61 |
|
|
Russia-South, Ukrain, Bialystok. |
|
|
Success of Combat against Bandits from Sept. 1
to Dec. 12, 1942 |
|
1.)
Bandits: |
|
a) Confirmed
Deaths after Combats (x) |
|
August: |
September: |
October: |
November: |
Total: |
|
227 |
381 |
427 |
302 |
1337 |
|
b) Prisoner
immediately executed |
|
125 |
282 |
87 |
243 |
737 |
|
c) Prisoners
executed after thorough interrogation |
|
2100 |
1400 |
1596 |
2731 |
7828 |
|
2.)
Bandit associates and bandit suspects |
|
a) Arrested |
|
1343 |
3078 |
8337 |
3795 |
16553 |
|
b) Executed |
|
1198 |
3020 |
6333 |
3706 |
14257 |
|
c) Jews
executed |
|
31246 |
165282 |
95735 |
70948 |
363211 |
|
3.)
Renegades because of German Propaganda |
|
21 |
14 |
42 |
63 |
140 |
|
(x) Since the
Russians carry off or immediately bury their killed soldiers, the
losses are much higher, even according to statements of prisoners. |
Causes of the East-European Anti-Semitism
Does
this mean, that no Jew was ever shot by the SS in the east, the German Wehrmacht,
or the Einsatzgruppen? Of course not. It is undeniable that German
military units shot numerous civilians behind the front in connection with the
“Bandenkämpfe” (combats against partisans), especially in the form of
reprisal killings.[66] During the war in the east, which
was fought with extreme brutality, it is furthermore likely that
reprisal-excesses occurred occasionally, that is, where not only partisans and
their supporters as well as criminal elements (and possibly also POW’s) were
killed as reprisals in accordance with international law, but that it also came
to killings of innocent civilians with no connection to reprisals. If this would
not have happened on the German side, the German army would be the first in the
history of mankind who would consist only of angels, which can be ruled out.
Obviously, in selecting the victims of such reprisals, one would not choose
Ukrainians, Byelorussians or members of the Balkan, Baltic or Caucasian peoples,
of whom considerable numbers fought in German units. The fact that the Jews were
predominantly unpopular amongst these peoples was mainly due to fairly recent
causes. In the previous decades many people had had terrible experiences with
Communist commissars, disproportionately many of whom were of Jewish descent,
especially in the first few decades of Soviet Bolshevism. The Russian Jewess
Sonja Margolina has made some interesting points regarding the involvement of
the Russian Jews in the Bolshevist reign of terror:[67]
“Nevertheless: the horrors of revolution and civil war, just like those of the
repressions later, are closely tied to the image of the Jewish commissar.”
(p. 47)
“The
Jewish presence in the instruments of power was so impressive that even such an
unbiased contemporaneous researcher as Boris Paramonov, a Russian cultural
historian living in New York, asked whether the promotion of the Jews into
leadership positions may perhaps have been a ‘gigantic provocation’.” <(p.
48)
Margolina has written a particularly detailed analysis of a book which appeared
in 1924 under the title Rußland und die Juden. This book examines the
causes of the Russian Jews’ conspicuously above-average participation in the
excesses of the October Revolution and the dictatorship that followed it, and
analyzed the consequences of this involvement. In their appeal “To the Jews in
all nations!” the authors of this book discussed by Margolina wrote:
“‘The
Jewish Bolsheviki’s overeager participation in the subjugation and destruction
of Russia is a sin that already bears within itself the seeds of its
retribution. For what greater misfortune could happen to a people than to have
its own sons engage in excesses. Not only will this be counted against us as an
element of our guilt, it will also be held up to us as reproach for an
expression of our power, for a striving for Jewish hegemony. Soviet power is
equated with Jewish power, and the grim hatred of the Bolsheviki will transform
into a hatred of the Jews […]
All nations and peoples will be swamped by waves of Judeophobia. Never before
have such thunderclouds gathered above the heads of the Jewish people. This is
the bottom line of the Russian upheaval for us, for the Jewish people.’”
(p. 58)
Margolina quotes further from this anthology:
“‘The
Russians have never before seen a Jew in power, neither as governor nor as
policeman, nor as postal official. There were both good and bad times in those
days too, but the Russian people lived and worked and the fruits of their labors
were their own. The Russian name was mighty and threatening. Today the Jews are
at every corner and in all levels of power. The Russians see them at the head of
the Czarist city, Moscow, and at the head of the metropolis on the River Neva
and at the head of the Red Army, the ultimate mechanism of self-destruction.
[…]
The Russians are now faced with a Jew as judge as well as executioner; they
encounter Jews at every step, not Communists who are just as poor as they
themselves but who nevertheless give orders and take care of the interests of
the Soviet power […]
It is not surprising that the Russians, in comparing the past to the present,
conclude that the present power is Jewish, and so bestial precisely because of
that.’” (p. 60)
In the
early 1990s, Professor Dr. Ernst Nolte also pointed out the Jews’ intimate
entanglement in Communism, though naturally he rejects equating the Jews with
Bolshevism. Nolte writes:[68]
“For
readily apparent social reasons, was not the per-centage of persons of Jewish
extraction particularly great among the participants in the Russian Revolution,
different from the percentages of other minorities such as the Latvians? Even at
the start of this century Jewish philosophers were still pointing with great
pride to this extensive participation of the Jews in Socialist movements. After
1917, when the anti-Bolshevist movement-or propaganda-stressed the topic of the
Jewish People’s commissars above all others, this pride was no longer expressed,
[…]
But it took Auschwitz to turn this topic into a taboo for several decades.
It is
all the more remarkable that in 1988 the publication
Commentary, the voice of right-wing Jews in America, published an
article by Jerry Z. Muller who recalls these indisputable facts-though of course
they are open to interpretation:
‘If Jews
were highly visible in the revolution in Russia and Germany, in Hungary they
seemed omnipresent. […]
Of the government’s 49 commissars, 31 were of Jewish origin
[…] Rakosi
later joked that Garbai (a gentile) was chosen for his post ‘so that there would
be someone who could sign the death sentences on Saturdays’.
[…] But the
conspicuous role of Jews in the revolution of 1917-19 gave anti-Semitism (which
‘seemed on the wane by 1914’) a whole new impetus.
[…] Historians who have
focused on the utopian ideals espoused by revolutionary Jews have diverted
attention from the fact that these Communists of Jewish origin, no less than
their non-Jewish counterparts, were led by their ideals to take part in heinous
crimes-against Jews and non-Jews alike.’”
Referring to the causal nexus Nolte had postulated between GULag and Auschwitz,
Muller concludes:
“The
Trotskies make the revolutions [i.e.,
the GULag] and the Bronsteins pay the bills
[in the Holocaust].”[69]
Thus it
seems understandable that National Socialism, and the eastern peoples fighting
alongside for their freedom, equated the Jews in general with the Bolshevist
terror and the activities of the commissars-though such an identification, being
sweeping and collective, was unjust. Nevertheless, it is therefore more than
plausible that it was Jews, first and foremost, who were made to pay for the
partisan warfare and other war crimes of the Soviets. Anyone who (rightly)
criticizes this, however, should also not omit to consider where the blame for
this kind of escalation of the war in the East was to be found. And clearly it
was to be found with Stalin who, as an aside, had treated the Jews in his sphere
of influence at least as mercilessly ever since the war had begun, as Hitler
had.[70]
Notes
First
published as “Partisanenkrieg und Repressaltötungen” in Vierteljahreshefte
für freie Geschichtsforschung 3(2) (1999), pp. 145-153.
Translated by Fabian Eschen. All but one picture reproduced
in this article were taken from the book Die Wehrmacht im Partisanenkrieg
by Franz W. Seidler (Pour le Merite, Selent 1998).
|
1 |
Just recently, this exhibition has come to the
U.S. as well, in a slightly revised version; cf. Johannes Heer,
Klaus Naumann (ed.), Verbrechen der Wehrmacht 1941-1944,
Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 1995; Klaus Sojka (ed.), Die Wahrheit
über die Wehrmacht. Reemtsmas
Fälschungen widerlegt, FZ-Verlag, Munich
1998; Franz W. Seidler, Verbrechen an der Wehrmacht, Pour
le Mérite, Selent 1998; Bogdan Musial, “Bilder einer Ausstellung.
Kritische Anmerkungen zur Wanderausstellung ‘Vernichtungskrieg.
Verbrechen der Wehrmacht 1941-1944,’” Vierteljahrshefte für
Zeitgeschichte, 47(4) (1999), pp. 563-591; Krisztián Ungváry,
“Echte Bilder – problematische Aussagen,” Geschichte in
Wissenschaft und Unterricht, 50(10), (1999), pp. 584-595; Klaus
Hildebrandt, Hans-Peter Schwarz, Lothar Gall, cf. “Kritiker fordern
engültige Schließung,” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Nov.
6, 1999, p. 4; Ralf Georg Reuth, “Endgültiges Aus für
Reemtsma-Schau?,” Welt am Sonntag, Nov. 7, 1999, p. 14;
Walter Post, Die verleumdete Armee, Pour le Mérite, Selent
1999. |
|
2 |
hoh, “Die Franzosenzeit hat begonnen,”
Stuttgarter Zeitung, 25.4.1995 |
|
3 |
Cf. Heinrich Wendig, Richtigstellungen zur
Zeitgeschichte, issue 8, Grabert, Tübingen 1995, p. 46.
In fact, this has not been a reprisal, but merely
a mass murder; cf. also ibid., issue 2 (1991), pp. 47ff.;
issue 3 (1992), pp. 39ff.; issue 10 (1997), pp. 44f. |
|
4 |
One exception is a recently publicized case of
the unwarranted murder of 48 German soldiers who had already
surrendered: Michael Sylverster Kozial, “US-Kripo ermittelt nach 51
Jahren,” Heilbronner Stimme, September 24, 1996; “Später
Fahndung nach Mördern in US-Uniform,” Stuttgarter Zeitung,
September 27, 1996, p. 7. |
|
5 |
Prof. Dr. jur. Karl Siegert, Repressalie,
Requisition und höherer Befehl, Göttinger Verlagsanstalt,
Göttingen 1953, 52 pp; English translation: Ernst Siegert,
“Reprisals and Orders from Higher up,” in: G. Rudolf (ed.),
Dissecting the Holocaust, 2nd ed., Theses &
Dissertations Press, Chicago, IL, 2003, pp. 530-550. |
|
6 |
Relevant orders were issued by Stalin and were
broadcast via all Soviet Russian stations; cf. Keesing’s Archiv
der Gegenwart, 1941, July 3rd + 21st 1941; cf. Sowjetski
Partisani, Moscow 1961, p. 326. |
|
7 |
Bernd Bonwetsch, “Sowjetische Partisanen 1941-1944,”
in Gerhard Schulz (ed.), Partisanen und Volkskrieg,
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1985, pp. 99, 101. |
|
8 |
Witalij Wilenchik, “Die Partisanenbewegung in
Weißrußland,” in Hans Joachim Torke (ed.), Forschungen zur
osteuropäischen Geschichte, v. 34, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden
1984, pp. 280f., 285, 288f. This chapter
has a certain anti-Fascist undertone. |
|
9 |
S. Werner, Die 2. babylonische Gefangenschaft,
originally self-published by author, Pfullingen 1990; 2nd
ed. Grabert, Tübingen 1991, pp. 88-93 (online: vho.org/D/d2bg/I_II.html);
English online only (vho.org/GB/Books/tsbc). |
|
10 |
B. Bonwetsch, op.cit. (note 7), pp. 111f. |
|
11 |
Franz. W. Seidler, Die Wehrmacht im
Partisanenkrieg, Pour le Mérite, Selent 1998; cf. Hans Poeppel
(ed.), Die Soldaten der Wehrmacht, 3rd ed.,
Herbig, Munich 1999. |
|
12 |
B.S. Telpuchowski, Die Geschichte des Grossen
Vaterländischen Krieges 1941-1945, Bernard & Graefe Verlag für
Wehrwesen, Frankfurt/Main 1961, p. 284; comparable Seidler, op.
cit. (note 11), p. 36f.; similar data may also be found in
Heinz Kühnreich, Der Partisanenkrieg in Europa 1939-1945,
Dietz, Berlin (East) 1965; for further interesting information, see
I.I. Minz, I.M. Rasgon, A.L. Sidorow, Der Große Vaterländische
Krieg der Sowjetunion, SWA Verlag, Berlin 1947; it is said that
the Washington National Archive’s document copies regarding partisan
warfare in the former Soviet Union have recently been made
unavailable to the public. This information and the preceding
references are courtesy of Fritz Becker; cf. also Becker, “Stalins
völkerrechtswidriger Partisanenkrieg,” Huttenbriefe 15(4)
(1997), pp. 3-6 (online: vho.org/D/Hutten/Becker15_4.html). |
|
13 |
Cf. Walter N. Sanning, “Soviet Scorched-Earth
Warfare,” in The Journal of Historical Review, vol. 6/No.
1, Spring 1985, pp. 92-116 (online (German):
vho.org/D/DGG/Niederreiter29_1.html). |
|
14 |
J. Hoffmann, Stalin’s War of Extermination
1941 – 1945, Theses & Dissertations Press, Capshaw, AL, 2001,
pp. 305-327. |
|
15 |
A.E. Epifanow, H. Mayer, Die Tragödie der
deutschen Kriegsgefangenen in Stalingrad von 1942 bis 1956 nach
russischen Archivunterlagen, Biblio, Osnabrück 1996. |
|
16 |
Franz W. Seidler, Verbrechen an der Wehrmacht,
Pour le Mérite, Selent 1998, pp. 5f.
(online: vho.org/D/ vadw/vadw.html); English in preparation. |
|
17 |
A. de Zayas, Die Wehrmachtsuntersuchungsstelle,
4th ed., Ullstein, Berlin 1984, passim., esp. pp.
273-307. |
|
18 |
Ibid., pp. 198-23. |
|
19 |
Franz W. Seidler, op. cit.
(note 6), p. 127 |
|
20 |
Cf. J. Hoffmann, “Die Sowjetunion bis zum Vorabend
des deutschen Angriffs,” in Horst Boog et al., Das
Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg, vol. 4: Der
Angriff auf die Sowjetunion, 2nd ed., Deutsche
Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1987; Hoffmann, “Die
Angriffsvorbereitungen der Sowjetunion,” in B. Wegner (ed.),
Zwei Wege nach Moskau, Piper, Munich 1991; V. Suvorov,
Icebreaker: Who Started the Second World War?, Hamish Hamilton,
London 1990; Suvorov, Der Tag M, Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart
1995; E. Topitsch, Stalin ‘s War: A Radical New Theory of the
Origins of the Second World War, Fourth Estate, London 1987;
cf. W. Post, Unternehmen Barbarossa, Mittler, Hamburg 1995;
F. Becker, Stalins Blutspur durch Europa, Arndt Verlag,
Kiel 1996; Becker, Im Kampf um Europa, 2nd ed.,
Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz/Stuttgart 1993; W. Maser, Der
Wortbruch. Hitler, Stalin und der Zweite Weltkrieg, Olzog
Verlag, Munich 1994. |
|
21 |
For more detaisl about this combat cf. F. W.
Seidler, op. cit. (note 11), pp. 69-132. |
|
22 |
Cf. H. Höhne, Der Orden unter dem Totenkopf,
Bertelsmann, Munich 1976, pp. 328, 339; cf. H. Krausnick, H.-H.
Wilhelm, Die Truppe des Weltanschauungskrieges. Die
Einsatzgruppen der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD 1938-1942,
Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1981, p. 147, cf. p. 287;
Richard Pemsel, Hitler – Revolutionär, Staatsmann, Verbrecher?,
Grabert, Tübingen 1986, pp. 403-407. |
|
23 |
For more information about the partisan warfare cf.,
e.g., Erich Hesse, Der sowjetrussische Partisanenkrieg
1941-1944 im Spiegel deutscher Kampfanweisungen und Befehle, 2nd
ed., Muster-Schmidt, Göttingen 1992; John A. Armstrong (ed.),
Soviet Partisans in World War II, Univ. of Wisc.
Press, Madison, Wisc., 1964; Tomas Nigel,
Partisan Warfare 1941-1945, Osprey, London 1983. |
|
24 |
H. Höhne, op. cit. (note 22), p. 330. |
|
25 |
G. Reitlinger, Die SS, Tragödie einer deutschen
Epoche, Desch, Munich 1957, p. 186; similar Efraim Zuroff,
Beruf: Nazijäger. Die Suche mit dem langen Atem: Die Jagd nach den
Tätern des Völkermordes, Ahriman, Freiburg 1996, p. 44, were he
says that 3,000 men, “mobil killing units, whose task was to kill
all Jews and communist officials in the area occupied by the
Wehrmacht.” This included the huge area
“from the suburbs of Leningrad in the north to the Asov sea in the
south.… Their weapons were conventional firearms. Nevertheless they
succeeded in killing 900,000 Jews in 15 months.” Zuroff wonders, but
he has no doubts. This has been possible, according to Zuroff,
because of the “fanatic support by the native population.” (p. 47)
That there has been a massive partisan warfare in the back of the
fighting German army is either unknown to Zuroff or he is not
interested in it. |
|
26 |
Together with Helmut Krausnick co-author of the
famous book Die Truppe des Weltanschauungskrieges, (The
Troop of the War of Ideology) op. cit. (note 17). |
|
27 |
H.-H. Wilhelm, lecture during an international
history conference at the university Riga, September 20-22, 1988, p.
11. Based on this recital Wilhelm wrote the article “Offene Fragen
der Holocaust-Forschung” (Open Question about the Holocaust
Research) in U. Backes, E. Jesse, R. Zitelmann (ed.), Die
Schatten der Vergangenheit, Propyläen, Berlin 1992 S. 403,
which however does not contain this section. I obtained this
information from Costas Zaverdinos, who had the manuscript of
Wilhelms Riga lecture and who reported about this during the opening
speech of the history conference on April 4, 1995 at the university
of Natal, Pietermaritzburg. |
|
28 |
H.-H. Wilhelm, op. cit. (note 17), p.
515. |
|
29 |
Ibid., p. 535. |
|
30 |
Document R-102 in Der Prozeß gegen die
Hauptkriegsverbrecher vor dem Internationalen Militärgerichtshof,
(IMT), vol. 1 – XXXXII, Nürnberg 1947-1949, here vol.
XXXVIII, 279-303, here p. 292f. |
|
31 |
Nationalsozialistischen Volkswohlfahrt,
National Socialist People’s Welfare |
|
32 |
H. Krausnick, H.-H. Wilhelm, op. cit.
(note 17), p. 189. |
|
33 |
Gerald Reitlinger, Die Endlösung. Hitlers
Versuch der Ausrottung der Juden Europas 1939-1945, Colloquium
Verlag, Berlin 41961, p. 262. |
|
34 |
IMT, XV, p: 362; vol.
XV, p. 363: “Es waren ganze Stäbe in Kiew …
in die Luft geflogen.” |
|
35 |
H. Krausnick, H.-H. Wilhelm, op. cit.
(note 17), p. 189, Fn 161. |
|
36 |
Ibid., p. 190. |
|
37 |
Alfred Streim, “Zum Beispiel: Die Verbrechen der
Einsatzgruppen in der Sowjetunion,” in: Adalbert Rückerl (Hrsg.),
NS-Prozesse. Nach 25 Jahren Strafverfolgung. Möglichkeiten –
Grenzen – Ergebnisse, C.F. Müller, Karlsruhe 1972. |
|
38 |
H. Krausnick, H.-H. Wilhelm, op. cit.
(note 17), p. 190, note. 164, all sources are otherwise exactly
quoted. |
|
39 |
Raul Hilberg, Die Vernichtung der europäischen
Juden. Die Gesamtgeschichte des Holocaust, Olle & Wolter,
Berlin 1982, p. 213, FN 59. |
|
40 |
Ernst Klee, Willi Dreßen, Volker Rieß (Hg.),
“Schöne Zeiten.” Judenmord aus der Sicht der Täter und Gaffer,
S. Fischer, Frankfurt/M. 1988, S. 69. |
|
41 |
Op. cit. (note
27), p. 263. |
|
42 |
Op. cit. (note
31), p. 86f. |
|
43 |
Alfred Streim, “Zur Eröffnung des allgemeinen
Judenvernichtungsbefehls gegenüber den Einsatzgruppen,” in: Eberhard
Jäckel, Jürgen Rohwer (Hg.), Der Mord an den Juden im Zweiten
Weltkrieg. Entschlußbildung und
Verwirklichung, Deutsche
Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1985, S. 114. |
|
44 |
H. Krausnick, H.-H. Wilhelm, op. cit.
(note 17), p. 336. |
|
45 |
Ibid., p. 649. |
|
46 |
Ibid., p. 335f. |
|
47 |
Reichssicherheitshauptamt, Reich Security Main
Office. |
|
48 |
H. Krausnick, H.-H. Wilhelm, op. cit.
(note 17), p. 337f. |
|
49 |
Ibid., p. 335. |
|
50 |
Ibid., p. 338. |
|
51 |
Op. cit. (note
33), p. 227, note145 |
|
52 |
Affidavit of 6.6.1947, NO-3824. |
|
53 |
See IMT, VII, S. 612. |
|
54 |
Op. cit. (note
17), p. 190. |
|
55 |
Op. cit. (note
27), p. 263. |
|
56 |
Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.), Legenden, Lügen,
Vorurteile, dtv, München 1990, p. 40. |
|
57 |
“Babi Jar: Kritische Fragen und Anmerkungen,” in:
Ernst Gauss (Ed.), Grundlagen zur Zeitgeschichte, Grabert,
Tübingen 1994, p. 375-399. |
|
58 |
Op. cit. (note
17), p. 535. |
|
59 |
IMT, vol. XXX, S. 74. |
|
60 |
U. Walendy pointed out that these reports could
not possibly be designated as documents: no letter head, no
signature, no file number or letter-diary number.
It is simply a piece of paper written on it: U.
Walendy, “Babi Jar – Die Schlucht ‘mit 33.771 ermordeten Juden’?,”
Historische Tatsachen Nr. 51, Verlag für Volkstum und
Zeitgeschichtsforschung, Vlotho 1992, p. 21, as usual written with a
‘hot’ pen, but still a good starting point; see also:
Historische Tatsache Nr. 16 & 17, “Einsatzgruppen im Verband
des Heeres,” parts 1 & 2, ibid., 1983. |
|
61 |
See J.C. Ball, Air Photo Evidence, Ball
Recource Services Ltd., Delta B.C., 1992; ders., in: E. Gauss (Hg.),
Grundlagen zur Zeitgeschichte, Grabert, Tübingen, S.
235-248.; vgl. H. Tiedemann, ibid., p. 375-399. |
|
62 |
From: G. Fleming, Hitler and the Final
Solution, University of California Press, Berkeley 1984, ill.
6, pp. 92f. (source: The Nizkor Project:
www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/orgs/german/einsatzgruppen/images/ |
|
63 |
Lietuvos Rytas
(Latvian news paper), August 21,1996. |
|
64 |
Personal message from Dr. M. Dragan. |
|
65 |
I will not elaborate here on the equally
problematic gas wagons allegedly also utilized by the
Einsatzgruppen; see Ingrid Weckert in E. Gauss (Ed.), op. cit.
(note 50), p. 193-218. |
|
66 |
For the time between Jan. 1, 1943, and Oct. 31,
1944 (22 months), the German authorities have claimed 145,364
persons killed in the partisan warfare, 88,493 imprisoned, and
90,993 civilians “registered,” i.e., either sent into camps
or otherwise punished; cf. F. W. Seidler, op. cit. (note
12). |
|
67 |
S. Margolina, Das Ende der Lügen, Siedler,
Berlin 1992. |
|
68 |
E. Nolte, “Abschließende Reflexionen über den
sogenannten Historikerstreit,” in U. Backes, E. Jesse, R. Zitelmann
(eds.), Die Schatten der Vergangenheit, Propyläen, Berlin
1992, pp. 83-109, here pp. 92f. |
|
69 |
J.Z. Muller, “Communism, Anti-Semitism and the
Jews,” in Commentary, issue 8, 1988, pp. 28-39; for a more
ideological approach to National Socialist anti-Semitism cf. Erich
Bischoff, Das Buch vom Schulchan aruch, Hammer Verlag,
Leipzig 1929; on this expert opinion one of the best known National
Socialist anti-Semites, Theodor Fritsch, relied heavily: T. Fritsch,
Handbuch zur Judenfrage, 31st ed.,
Hammer-Verlag, Leipzig 1932; a comparison to modern Jewish critics
of Judaism is extremely revealing, cf. Israel Shahak, Jewish
History, Jewish Religion, Pluto Press, London 1994 (online:
codoh.com/zionweb/zishahak/zishahakan01.html). |
|
70 |
Regarding the question of the involvement of Jews
in the soviet partisan warfare against German troops cf. E. Jäckel,
P. Longerich, J. H. Schoeps (eds.), Enzyklopädie des Holocaust,
Argon, Berlin 1993, p. 1348; cf. Nechama Tec, Defiance, the
Bielski Partisans, Oxford University Press, New York 1993. |