Cruel World (104 page)

Read Cruel World Online

Authors: Lynn H. Nicholas

137.
Lukas,
The Forgotten Holocaust
, pp. 198–99.

138.
Interview, Olga K. Pavlovskaia, Moscow, 2000.

139.
Interview, Nikolai A. Mahutov, Moscow, 2000.

140.
The accounts of the Vitebsk families are from
“Dann kam die deutsche Macht,” Weissrussische Kinderhäftlinge in deutschen Konzentrationslagern, 1941–1945, Eine Dokumentation
(Cologne, 1999).

141.
Jan Wosczyk, in Hillel and Henry,
Of Pure Blood
, pp. 173–74.

142.
Interview, Nikolai N. Dorozhinski, Moscow, 2000.

143.
“Dann kam die deutsche Macht,”
pp. 101–3.

144.
Reitlinger,
The House Built on Sand
, p. 281.

145.
NA RG 238/M894/16, Doc.031-PS, “Re: Evacuation of Youths from the Territory of Army Group Center (Heu-Aktion),” 12 June 1944.

Chapter 12. Seek and Hide: Hidden Children

    1.
See Hilberg,
The Destruction of the European Jews
, pp. 170–74, for a brief analysis of this process.

    2.
Marrus and Paxton,
Vichy France and the Jews
, p. 246.

    3.
Flim,
Omdat hun hart sprak
, pp. 19, 24–26.

    4.
See de Jong,
Het Koninkrijk
, Vol. 7a, pp. 274–85.

    5.
My principal source for the activities of the Dutch
Kinderwerkers
is Flim,
Omdat hun hart sprak
. For an excellent account in English, see Dwork,
Children with a Star
, Chapter 2. See also de Jong,
Het Koninkrijk
, passim.

    6.
Interview, Mance Post, Amsterdam, 2000.

    7.
Flim,
Omdat hun Hart Sprak
, pp. 38–40

    8.
Ibid., Chapter 4.

    9.
Ibid., p. 139.

  10.
Ibid., pp. 151–52

  11.
Ibid., p. 138.

  12.
Virrie Cohen, quoted ibid., p. 164.

  13.
Gerhard Hirschfeld, “Niederlande,” in Wolfgang Benz, ed.,
Dimension des Volkermörds
(Oldenbourg, 1991), p. 163; Flim,
Omdat hun hart sprak
, p. 469, n. 140.

  14.
Hetty Voute, in Flim,
Omdat hun hart sprak
, p. 84.

  15.
Piet Meerburg, in Dwork,
Children with a Star
, pp. 51–52.

  16.
Jooske de Neve, in Flim,
Omdat hun hart sprak
, p. 99.

  17.
Mien Bouwman, ibid., p. 244.

  18.
Flim,
Omdat hun hart sprak
, pp. 156–57.

  19.
Ibid., pp. 74–75.

  20.
Rut Matthijsen, ibid., p. 92.

  21.
André Stein,
Hidden Children: Forgotten Survivors of the Holocaust
(New York, 1994), pp. 86–87.

  22.
Petrow,
The Bitter Years
, Chapter 15.

  23.
Marrus and Paxton,
Vichy France and the Jews
, p. 148.

  24.
Ibid., pp. 161–64.

  25.
Ibid., pp. 226–28.

  26.
Ibid., pp. 323–26.

  27.
Ibid., pp. 254–55.

  28.
Georges Wellers,
de Drancy à Auschwitz
(Paris, 1946), pp. 56–57, cited in Marrus and Paxton,
Vichy France and the Jews
, p. 264.

  29.
Marrus and Paxton,
Vichy France and the Jews
, pp. 263–65.

  30.
Cited in Robert Aron,
Histoire de Vichy, 1940–1944
(Paris, 1954), pp. 465–66.

  31.
Ibid., pp. 256–57, and Mettay,
L’Archipel du Mépris
, pp. 68–69.

  32.
Serge Klarsfeld,
The Children of Izieu: A Human Tragedy
(New York, 1985), p. 22.

  33.
Lowrie,
The Hunted Children
, p. 217.

  34.
Klarsfeld,
The Children of Izieu
, p. 24.

  35.
Lowrie,
The Hunted Children
, p. 239.

  36.
Ibid., pp. 229–35.

  37.
Aron,
Histoire de Vichy
, p. 466.

  38.
Philip Hallie,
Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There
(New York, 1994), p. 187.

  39.
Wyman,
Paper Walls
, p. 133.

  40.
Lowrie,
The Hunted Children
, p. 220.

  41.
Ibid., p. 223.

  42.
Klarsfeld,
The Children of Izieu
, p. 25–26; Dwork,
Children with a Star
, pp. 59–62.

  43.
Hallie,
Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed
, passim.

  44.
Lowrie,
The Hunted Children
, p. 240.

  45.
NA RG 238, Nuremberg Doc. NO-1411, Knochen IV B 4, “Memorandum Concerning the Increase of the Number of Jews to Be Arrested Within the Province of the Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei in France,” 14 April 1944.

  46.
Marrus and Paxton,
Vichy France and the Jews
, pp. 334–35.

  47.
Klarsfeld,
The Children of Izieu
, pp. 31–35.

  48.
Stanley Hoffmann, “Etre ou ne pas être Français (I),”
Commentaire
, Tiré-à-part, Numero 70/Eté 1995, pp. 317–18; kindly provided to me by Dr. Charles G. Cogan.

  49.
Isaac Levendel,
Not the Germans Alone: A Son’s Search for the Truth of Vichy
(Evanston, IL, 1999), pp. 100–101.

  50.
Klukowski,
Diary from the Years of Occupation
, p. 247.

  51.
Sliwowska,
The Last Eyewitnesses
, pp. 3–4.

  52.
Ibid., pp. 153–63.

  53.
Ibid., pp. 48–52.

  54.
For an account of the activities of Polish nuns, see Ewa Kurek,
Your Life Is Worth Mine: How Polish Nuns Saved Hundreds of Jewish Children in German Occupied Poland, 1939–1945
(New York, 1997).

  55.
Sliwowska,
The Last Eyewitnesses
, p. 280.

  56.
Kurek,
Your Life Is Worth Mine
, p. 66.

  57.
Ibid., p. 60.

  58.
Sliwowska,
The Last Eyewitnesses
, p. 114, and account of Michal Glowinski, pp. 56–68.

  59.
Kurek,
Your Life Is Worth Mine
, p. 60.

  60.
Ibid., pp. 166–69, account of Sister Roberta Sutkowska, and pp. 185–88, account of Rachela G.

C
HAPTER
13. A
RBEIT
M
ACHT
F
REI:
F
ORCED
L
ABOR

    1.
This account comes from de Jong,
Het Koninkrijk
, Vol. 6b, pp. 547–98.

    2.
Ibid., p. 573.

    3.
Ibid., p. 597.

    4.
Ibid., p. 706, n. 1.

    5.
Ibid., pp. 704–28.

    6.
Ibid., p. 711.

    7.
Ibid., Vol. 7a, pp. 543–45.

    8.
For extensive documentation of this issue, see NIOD Archive 216, “Collectie Nederlandse Overheidsinstellingen (CNO) (1939) 1940–1945,” Section 107. NIOD finding aid No. 61 contains excellent abstracts of the documents.

    9.
De Jong,
Het Koninkrijk
, Vol. 7a, p. 560.

  10.
Macardle,
Children of Europe
, pp. 133–34.

  11.
Herbert,
Hitler’s Foreign Workers
, pp. 95–98.

  12.
Aron,
Histoire de Vichy
, p. 492.

  13.
Jacques Evrard,
La déportation des travailleurs français dans le IIIe Reich
(Paris, 1972), p. 80.

  14.
Ibid., p. 71.

  15.
Ibid., pp. 76–77, 91–92, 86; Aron,
Histoire de Vichy
, p. 576.

  16.
Evrard,
La déportation des travailleurs français
, pp. 128–42.

  17.
Aron,
Histoire de Vichy
, p. 576.

  18.
Evrard,
La déportation des travailleurs français
, pp. 92–93.

  19.
Claude Singer,
Vichy, l’université et les juifs
(Paris, 1992), pp. 193–97.

  20.
New York Times
, 27 June 1942.

  21.
Halls,
The Youth of Vichy France
, pp. 379–90.

  22.
Evrard,
La déportation des travailleurs français
, p. 93; Halls,
The Youth of Vichy France
, p. 389.

  23.
Interview, Othar Zaldastani.

  24.
Ibid.

  25.
Evrard,
La déportation des travailleurs français
, pp. 173–74.

  26.
Ibid., pp. 200–201.

  27.
See, on this subject, Herbert,
Hitler’s Foreign Workers
, pp. 313–40, and Evrard,
La déportation des travailleurs français
, Chapter 4.

  28.
Evrard,
La déportation des travailleurs français
, pp. 371–73.

  29.
Kaplan,
Beyond Dignity and Despair
, pp. 174–75.

  30.
Anderson,
Hitler’s Exiles
, pp. 118–19.

  31.
Klemperer,
I Will Bear Witness
, pp. 47, 141.

  32.
Donald Bloxham, “Jewish Slave Labour and Its Relationship to the ‘Final Solution,’ ” in
Remembering for the Future: The Holocaust in an Age of Genocide
, ed. John Roth and Elizabeth Maxwell (London, 2001), p. 170.

  33.
Hilberg,
The Destruction of the European Jews
, pp. 181–82.

  34.
Gilbert,
The Boys
, p. 70.

  35.
Gitta Sereny,
Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience
(New York, 1983), p. 115.

  36.
Ibid., p. 219.

  37.
Klukowski,
Diary from the Years of Occupation
, p. 191.

  38.
Sereny,
Into That Darkness
, pp. 158–59.

  39.
Ibid.

  40.
Jan Karski,
Story of a Secret State
(Boston, 1944), pp. 344–50.

  41.
Gerda Weissmann Klein,
All but My Life
(New York, 1995).

  42.
Gilbert,
The Boys
, various references to Arek Hersh.

  43.
Gilbert,
The Boys
, pp. 135, 139.

  44.
Ibid., pp. 157–59.

  45.
Bloxham, “Jewish Slave Labour,” pp. 166–69.

  46.
Sereny,
Albert Speer
, pp. 413, 479–81.

  47.
Ibid., pp. 404–5.

  48.
Albert Speer,
Inside the Third Reich
(New York, 1970), p. 371.

  49.
For extensive discussion of this issue, see Herbert,
Hitler’s Foreign Workers
, pp. 124–36.

  50.
NSDAP leaflet, “Wie verhalten wir uns gegenüber den Polen?” 8 March 1940, cited ibid., p. 77.

  51.
Herbert,
Hitler’s Foreign Workers
, pp. 124–33, 269.

  52.
NA RG 238 M894/16 Doc. NO-1622, 26 March 1943.

  53.
NA RG 238 M894/16 Doc. NO-3520, 9 June 1943.

  54.
NA RG 238M894/16 Docs. NO-1383 and 4141, 27 July 1943.

  55.
NA RG 238M894/16 Doc. NO-4665, Hilgenfeldt to Himmler, 11 August 1943.

  56.
NA RG 238M894/16 Doc. 1753-PS, SD Sector Bayreuth, 25 October 1943

  57.
NA RG 238 M894/16 Doc. L-8 SD, Subdistrict Koblenz, 18 February 1944.

  58.
TWC
, No. 10, Nuernberg, October 1946—April 1949, Washington, 1950, Vol. 9. “Extracts from Testimony of Prosecution Witness Ernst Wirtz,” pp. 1112–19.

  59.
Ibid., p. 1120.

  60.
Ibid., p. 1111.

  61.
NA RG 238 M894/16 Doc. NO-5312, Gau-East Hannover, “Community Work,” 24 March 1944.

  62.
NA RG 238M894/16 Doc. NO-5311, “Immediate Reich Measures to Decrease the Dangers from Infiltration in View of the Numerous Births of Alien Race in Rural Areas,” 13 May 1944.

C
HAPTER
14. T
OTAL
W
AR

    1.
Koch,
The Hitler Youth
, pp. 239–43.

    2.
Herbst,
Requiem for a German Past
, p. 174.

    3.
Kern,
War Diary
, pp. 10–20.

    4.
Heck,
The Burden of Hitler’s Legacy
, passim.

    5.
B. A. Sijes,
De Arbeitsinzet: De gedwongen arbeit van Nederlanders in Duitsland, 1940–1945
(The Hague, 1990), pp. 689–91.

    6.
J. Nowak, in Schmik-Gustavus,
Hungern für Hitler
, p. 55.

    7.
Ibid., pp. 59–60.

    8.
The history of these children is beyond the scope of this book. For a vivid memoir of a child’s experience in such a camp, see Ernest Hillen,
The Way of a Boy: A Memoir of Java
(New York, 1995).

    9.
New York Times
, 11 August 1997, p. A 10.

  10.
See, on this subject, Arnold Krammer,
Undue Process: The Untold Story of America’s German Alien Internees
(New York, 1997).

  11.
Ibid., pp. 10–11.

  12.
Ibid., p. 116.

  13.
Ibid., p. 38.

  14.
Ibid., pp. 98–99.

  15.
For the full story of the Oswego camp, see Wyman,
The Abandonment of the Jews
, pp. 268–76. Wyman’s book is also my principal source for the following account of the establishment and activities of the War Refugee Board.

  16.
Ibid., pp. 178–80.

  17.
Ibid., p. 193.

  18.
For an excellent account of the occupation of the Netherlands from a child’s point of view, see Fuykschot,
Hunger in Holland
, from which many of these examples are taken. I am also indebted to Helen Walker and many others for their reminiscences.

  19.
Ibid., pp. 112–13.

  20.
Robin Lumsden,
Himmler’s Black Order
(Gloucestershire, UK, 1997), p. 133.

  21.
Steinhoff et al., eds.,
Voices from the Third Reich
, p. 217.

  22.
Maschmann,
Account Rendered
, p. 157.

  23.
Robert Goralski,
World War II Almanac, 1931–1945
(New York, 1981), p. 273.

  24.
Erich Andres, in Steinhoff et al., eds.,
Voices from the Third Reich
, p. 205.

  25.
Goralski,
World War II Almanac
, pp. 273–75.

  26.
Steinhoff et al., eds.,
Voices from the Third Reich
, pp. 210–12.

  27.
Edwin Shanke, Associated Press, 25 November 1943.

  28.
Käthe Schlechter-Bonnesen, in Steinhoff et al., eds.,
Voices from the Third Reich
, p. 462.

  29.
Catalog, “The White Rose Exhibition on the Resistance by Students Against Hitler, Munich 1942/43,” White Rose Foundation, Munich, 1991.

  30.
Peter Hoffmann,
The History of the German Resistance, 1933–1945
(Cambridge, MA, 1979), p. 278.

  31.
NA RG 331/54/2814, dossier on the search for the “July 20” children.

  32.
Fey von Hassell,
Hostage of the Third Reich: The Story of My Imprisonment and Rescue from the SS
(New York, 1989).

  33.
Interview, Corrado Pirzio-Biroli, Washington, DC.

  34.
Von Hassell,
Hostage of the Third Reich
, p. 116.

  35.
Rempel,
Hitler’s Children
, p. 189.

  36.
Irene Vrijenhoek,
Oorlogskinderen in Nederland tijdens de Duitse bezetting
(Amsterdam, 1994), p. 56.

  37.
“Mittagslage vom 26 July 1943,” from
Hitler’s Lagebesprechungen
, cited in George H. Stein,
The Waffen SS: Hitler’s Elite Guard at War, 1939–1945
(Ithaca, NY, 1966), pp. 207–8.

  38.
Koch,
The Hitler Youth
, pp. 243–47.

  39.
Rempel,
Hitler’s Children
, pp. 235–44.

  40.
Steinhoff et al., eds.,
Voices from the Third Reich
, p. 410.

  41.
Koch,
The Hitler Youth
, p. 250.

  42.
Percy A. Scholes,
The Oxford Companion to Music
(Oxford, 1956), p. 887.

  43.
Sereny,
Albert Speer
, p. 507.

  44.
Klukowski,
Diary from the Years of Occupation
, 27 October 1943, p. 286.

  45.
Ibid., 19 June 1943 and 3 May 1944, pp. 262 and 323.

  46.
Karski,
Story of a Secret State
, pp. 270–71.

  47.
Ibid., p. 301.

  48.
For a description of such activities, see Mark Bles,
Child at War: The True Story of Hortense Daman
(London, 1992).

  49.
Karski,
Story of a Secret State
, p. 285.

  50.
Bles,
Child at War
, Chapter 10.

  51.
Genevieve De Gaulle, “La condition des enfants au camp de Ravensbrück,”
Revue d’histoire de le deuxième guerre mondiale
45 (January 1962), annex and pp. 80–81.

  52.
Lucy S. Davidowicz,
The War Against the Jews, 1933–1945
(New York, 1981), p. 449.

  53.
Hilberg,
The Destruction of the European Jews
, p. 207.

  54.
Davidowicz,
The War Against the Jews
, Chapter 15; Hilberg,
The Destruction of the European Jews
, pp. 199–210.

  55.
Lukas,
The Forgotten Holocaust
, Chapter 7; Courtois et al., eds.,
The Black Book of Communism
, pp. 372–74.

  56.
See Mazower,
Inside Hitler’s Greece
, for a definitive analysis of this complex history.

  57.
Nicholas Gage,
Eleni: A Savage War, a Mother’s Love, and a Son’s Revenge: A Personal Story
(New York, 1983), p. 83.

  58.
Interview, Costas Gkioulekas, Athens, 1998.

  59.
Keitel order of 16 November 1942, cited in Mazower,
Inside Hitler’s Greece
, p. 152.

  60.
Deas Archive, Benaki Museum, No. 262/4, Note pour Mr. le President, 14 January 1943; No. 262/5, “Extraits d’un rapport sur le voyage d’inspection du 17–20 Aout 1943 de M. Wenger accompagné de Mme Hiadis.”

  61.
Deas Archive No. 262/4, telegramme P. L. Christodimos, 25 October 1943; M. Bickel and M. Helger, “Rapport comparatif de la situation en Epire d’une part et celle de la region d’Aegion, Patras et Kalavryta en Peloponese de l’autre,” November 1943.

  62.
Deas Archive No. 262/5, Metropolitan Theoclitus of Grevina to Minister of National Planning, 30 December 1943.

  63.
Mazower,
Inside Hitler’s Greece
, p. 212.

  64.
Interview, Aleco Zaoussis, Athens, 1998; Deas Archive No. 262/6—Sheets 200–210 and 223 contains numerous documents on Distomo; Macardle,
Children of Europe
, p. 86.

  65.
Mazower,
Inside Hitler’s Greece
, pp. 212–14.

  66.
Sarah Farmer,
Martyred Village: Commemorating the 1944 Massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane
(Berkeley, CA, 1999), p. 136.

  67.
For a good description of these events, see ibid., pp. 20–28.

  68.
Deas Archive, No. 262/5, E. Wenger, “Rapport sur nos voyages en province du 15 au 21 Septembre 1944,” p. 5.

  69.
S. Courtois and Jean-Louis Panné, “The Comintern in Action,” in Courtois et al., eds.,
The Black Book of Communism
, pp. 330–31.

  70.
Interviews, C. Stamatopoulos and C. Gkioulekas, Athens, 1998.

  71.
Countess Marion Dönhoff,
Before the Storm: Memories of My Youth in Old Prussia
(New York, 1990), pp. 177–78.

  72.
NA RG 331/57/2936, “Evacuation of Civilians from South East Europe into the Reich. Position at End October 1944,” SHAEF G-2 GBI/OI/Docs/R1258, 13 March 1945.

  73.
NA RG 331/57/2912/1 SHAEF G-5/DP/2711/5, “Analysis of Evacuation of Refugees and Displaced Persons in Germany,” 10 February 1945, pp. 2–3.

  74.
Andrzej Strzelecki, “Evacuation, Liquidation and Liberation of the Camp,” in Piper and Swiebocka, eds.,
Auschwitz
, pp. 264–89.

  75.
Von Hassell,
Hostage of the Third Reich
, p. 157.

  76.
Theodore Schieder, ed.,
Documents on the Expulsion of the Germans from Eastern-Central Europe
. Vol. 1:
The Expulsion of the German Population from the Territories East of the Oder-Neisse Line
(Bonn, undated), Doc. No. 23, p. 140.

  77.
Ibid., Doc. No. 20, p. 135.

  78.
Ibid., Doc. No. 33, pp. 144–45, 41.

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