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The routes of the “special trains” Europe’s railway network played a crucial role in the perpetration of the Holocaust. Several million people were transported by “special trains”. Pas-senger and freight cars crossed Europe, arriving at ghettos, execution fields, and transit and death camps. The SS chartered sometimes scarce rolling stock, often forcing the Jews to buy one-way tickets to the camps. The Holocaust was to cover its own costs. This map approximates deportation routes from ghettos inside Poland to Treblinka. Below is an extract from a timetable for one of the “special trains”. On 25 September 1942, it left Szydlowiec with a “full load” (800 tonnes) and reached Treblinka the next day at 11:24. The “empty train” (600 tonnes) returned to Kozienice, arriving after midnight. That is, full loads to Treblinka, empty on return. Day after day, month after month, from July 1942 to August 1943. 74
Franz Stangl Discussions about the perpetrators of the Holocaust often revolve around expressions such as “desktop killers” administering the “machinery of death” from afar. Nonetheless, it should be realised, as historian Christopher Browning wrote: “Ultimately, the Holocaust took place because at the most basic level individual human beings killed other human beings in large numbers over an extended period of time.” Even the death camp commanders were people like us. Franz Stangl was initially commander of Sobibor, after that of Treblinka. In the 1960s, he was arrested in Brazil and sent back for trial in West Germany, where he was convicted of the murder of hundreds of thousands of human beings. Yet while overseeing an enormous process of murder, he was also a father and husband. The following quote illustrates a choice that was never made, because during the war the question was never posed.A journalist interviewed Stangl’s wife, and asked her this question: “Would you tell me what you think would have happened if at any time you had faced your husband with an absolute choice; if you had said to him: ‘Here it is; I know it’s terribly dangerous, but either you get out of this terrible thing, or else the children and I will leave you.’” Theresa Stangl replied: “I believe that if I had ever confronted (him) with the alternatives: Treblinka – or me; he would …yes, he would in the final analysis have chosen me.” In reality, her husband chose voluntarily to direct the murder of over half a million people. The Treblinka death factory Arrival at Treblinka. The gas chamber building is outside the picture, to the left. At the far end of the long hut to the left is where the “pathway to Heaven” begins – leading to the gas chambers. In the large open square, the “sorting squad” is depicted going through the mountain of personal belongings left by the victims. In the background an earth mover is seen at the mass graves. Close to a million people were sent to Treblinka. Only about one hundred survived. This drawing is by Samuel Willenberg, a survivor of Treblinka, and was published in his book “Revolt at Treblinka”. Willenberg was forced to cut women’s hair before they were driven into the gas chambers. He also sorted the victims’ possessions for shipment back to Germany. Willenberg participated in the revolt which occurred at Treblinka on 2 August 1943. He made his way back to Warsaw and joined the Polish national resistance movement, taking part in its August 1944 rebellion. 75
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In 1997, the former Swedish Prime M
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STéPHANE BRuCHfELD AND PAuL A. LEV
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Table of contents 6 foreword 7 Chil
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Children as guinea pigs
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“I intend to deal with the Jewish
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ment were realised in Europe and th
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1919 1933 16 Sept. Adolf Hitler joi
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Anne frank Anne Frank was born in F
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In 1926, the state of Bavaria passe
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The handicapped and “asocials”
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Persecution Although German Jews nu
Page 25 and 26: International reactions When Hitler
Page 27 and 28: The November pogrom On the morning
Page 29 and 30: The ghettos are formed During the M
Page 31 and 32: Life in the ghetto The first ghetto
Page 33 and 34: to the toilet. (…) They die durin
Page 35 and 36: Death in the streets Death was ever
Page 37 and 38: 1940 Jan. First trials to gas
Page 39 and 40: The deportation “to the East”,
Page 41 and 42: At the Umschlagplatz, people someti
Page 43 and 44: Separations On 12 July 1942, Hertha
Page 45 and 46: An expert on “the Gypsy nui
Page 47 and 48: 1943 18 Jan. The first rebellion in
Page 49 and 50: “Buses arrive in Hadamar several
Page 51 and 52: The Einsatzgruppen “Operation Bar
Page 53 and 54: Sweden and the Holocaust At the beg
Page 55 and 56: “Fundamentally, our ability and o
Page 57 and 58: The “new Germany” as seen from
Page 59 and 60: Reactions to the November pogrom Th
Page 61 and 62: “Business as usual” - everyday
Page 63 and 64: “Do we not even now remain silent
Page 65 and 66: “One day, these heinous crimes wi
Page 67 and 68: Sweden’s Foreign Office fights g
Page 69 and 70: The White Buses and other res
Page 71 and 72: What does the Holocaust mean for Sw
Page 73 and 74: from bullets to gas After Germany
Page 75: Sign at Treblinka: “Attention War
Page 79 and 80: Pictures from Birkenau in this book
Page 81 and 82: Women and children “of no further
Page 83 and 84: Working in hell The so-called Sonde
Page 85 and 86: “Most of you will know what it me
Page 87 and 88: Annihilation through work The Germa
Page 89 and 90: Resistance and rescue One of the mo
Page 91 and 92: The Warsaw ghetto revolt After more
Page 93 and 94: The death camp revolts Of all the a
Page 95 and 96: swear an oath of allegiance to Hitl
Page 97 and 98: The democracies close their doors N
Page 99 and 100: Witnesses to genocide From the day
Page 101 and 102: “These past few days the Jews fro
Page 103 and 104: The Holocaust - lessons to be learn
Page 105 and 106: O you who know did you know that hu
Page 107 and 108: “My past is always at my side, bu
Page 109 and 110: Lindberg, H., Svensk flyktingpoliti
Page 111: p. 101 Levi, P., p. 37. p. 101 Delb
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