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Click on an image to see a larger, more detailed picture.
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| 1942: The "Final Solution" |
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pg. 351 |
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Polish Jews in the Kremenets (Ukraine) Ghetto violently resisted the Nazi deportations. On September 9, 1942, 1500 Jews, among them the ghetto's leadership, were transported to a ghetto five miles away. Incensed, a young Jew shot and killed six Germans and Ukrainians who were part of the "liquidation squad," forcing the Nazis temporarily to retreat. The next day another ten Nazis were killed. On August 11, rather than accept deportation and certain death, the remaining Jews set the ghetto on fire. Among the buildings destroyed was the ghetto's synagogue, pictured here.
Photo: Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive
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Glimpsing freedom and safety ahead, Jewish refugees cross over the border into Switzerland. Few were so fortunate as this group since the Swiss, citing their need to protect their neutrality, turned a cold shoulder toward most refugees, especially Jews. One official referred to his country as a "crowded little lifeboat," and in 1942 the Swiss government instructed border officials to turn back refugees at the French border, essentially dealing death sentences to Jews.
Photo: Ullstein Bilderdienst / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive
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Serbia
On the heels of their invasion of Yugoslavia, the Nazis constructed concentration camps. Especially notorious was Sajmiste (pictured), across the river from Belgrade in the town of Semlin. Sajmiste became a killing site for Serbian Jews, mostly women and children. In retaliation for partisan attacks, the German Army shot 100 hostages for every soldier killed. Some 4000 to 5000 males, mostly Jews and Gypsies, were killed in reprisal for German losses. Their wives and children were transported to Sajmiste for detention, where they were housed in rough barracks awaiting deportation. Seeking a way to rid themselves of Jews more efficiently and economically, German authorities in Serbia used a mobile killing van in the spring of 1942. Victims were told they were being relocated, but instead they were gassed and buried near Belgrade. In 1942 Nazi commanders crowed that Serbia was judenrein (cleansed of Jews).
Photo: Arhiv Jugoslavije / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archive
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August 15, 1942: The Germans open Jawiszowice, a slave-labor camp located near Auschwitz.
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August 15, 1942: One thousand Belgian Jews, including 172 children, are deported to their deaths in the East.
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Mid-August 1942: A healthy Jewish teenage boy is removed from a deportation train at the Belzec death camp, stripped naked, hung upside down from gallows for three hours, and then killed as camp guards use sticks to force sand down his throat.
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August 17, 1942: 341 French-Jewish children from the ages of two to ten, as well as 323 girls up to the age of 16, are gassed at Auschwitz. Two of the victims are Suzanne Perl, seven, and her sister Micheline, three.
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August 17-18, 1942: 2500 Jews from Drogobych, Ukraine, are murdered at the Belzec death camp.
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August 18, 1942: 998 Jews, including 287 children, are deported to the East from Belgium.
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| 1942: The "Final Solution" |
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pg. 351 |
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The Holocaust Chronicle
© 2009 Publications International, Ltd.
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