Back to Normandy - Recently Added Listings - Execution spots https://backtonormandy.org/ Thu, 28 Mar 2024 10:18:51 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 Maarten van Gilse https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/215299-maarten-van-gilse.html
 

Bron: https://spanjestrijders.nl/bio/gilse-maarten-van

Maarten van Gilse was ‘een geboren zwerver, een zoeker’. Zo staat het in zijn overlijdensbericht in het verzetsblad De Vrije Kunstenaar van 15 november 1943, enkele weken nadat hij door de Duitsers was gefusilleerd. Het reizen en zwerven was hem min of meer met de paplepel ingegoten, omdat zijn vader, de musicus Jan van Gilse, in verschillende Duitse en Nederlandse steden symfonieorkesten dirigeerde. Maarten van Gilse werd geboren in München op 2 juni 1916 en woonde achtereenvolgens in Utrecht, Laren, Zürich en van 1927 tot 1933 in Berlijn. In deze stad vol dreiging van opkomend fascisme  bracht hij dus zijn tienerjaren door. Hij werkte  als hulpregisseur bij een jeugdtheatergezelschap, totdat het hele gezin Van Gilse na het aan de macht komen van Hitler Duitsland de rug toekeerde.

Maartens bijnaam werd al gauw ‘Mik’. Dat rijmde op Janrik, de naam van zijn oudere broer, waar hij enorm tegenop keek. Zozeer zelfs dat hij wel eens de schoenen van Janrik aantrok, die een paar maten groter waren.  Toch is het niet zo dat de jongere broer in de voetsporen van de oudere trad, het was eerder andersom: Maarten ging Janrik voor naar Spanje, en uiteindelijk ook in de dood. Ook werd Maarten niet lid van de CPN, de partij waar Janrik de beste tijd van zijn leven zou doorbrengen. Wel maakte Maarten al op jonge leeftijd deel uit van een kring linkse en linksige kunstenaars, schrijvers en fotografen in Amsterdam, waartoe ook (arbeiders-)fotograaf Carel Blazer en de schrijvers C. J. Kelk en Walter Brandligt behoorden. Hij trok vooral met Carel Blazer op. Ze maakten reisreportages en probeerden die aan de bladen te verkopen.

Maarten haalde de krant in 1935, toen hij een reis maakte door Frankrijk, Zwitserland en Italië. Daar raakte hij per ongeluk verzeild op militair terrein, waarop Mussolini’s marechaussee hem arresteerde en een maand gevangen zette, verdacht van spionage. Zijn familie had zich razend ongerust gemaakt. Maarten van Gilse wist zich dankzij dit incident op de kaart te zetten als voormalig ‘regisseur bij het Berlijnse jeugdtoneel’, thans freelance journalist, ‘verbonden aan enkele bladen’ (Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad, 28 december 1935). Lef had deze negentienjarige in elk geval.

In maart 1937 vertrokken Carel Blazer en Maarten van Gilse voor drie maanden naar Spanje. Ze gingen vermoedelijk liftend en bleven een paar dagen in het Zuid-Franse Cagnes-sur-Mer hangen, waar zowel C.J. Kelk als Walter Brandligt een huis had. De Vrije Kunstenaar van 15 november 1943 memoreert: ‘In Spanje verrichtte hij belangrijk werk…in samenwerking met verscheidene fotografen stelde hij belangwekkende reportages samen, waarvan de publicatie door den oorlog werd verhinderd.’ In het onderzoek voor deze biografische schets is het niet gelukt om deze reportages, in gepubliceerde of ongepubliceerde vorm, te achterhalen. Mogelijk zijn ze in buitenlandse bladen verschenen. Zeker is dat zij dit journalistieke werk als een vorm van antifascistische strijd beschouwden. Op de terugweg moet Maarten het pad van zijn broer Janrik gekruist hebben, die op weg was om politiek commissaris voor de CPN en de Komintern in Albacete te worden. Maarten ging in Nederland werken bij het Jeugdtoneel.

Het motto van de broers Van Gilse was: ‘Onder schat de tegenstander nooit, wees permanent op je hoede’. Daarmee gingen ze allebei in mei 1940 de illegaliteit in. Maarten richtte samen met zijn vader en Gerrit van der Veen De Vrije Kunstenaar op, een orgaan voor de kunstenaars die het vertikten lid te worden van bij de Kultuurkamer. Het verscheen vanaf mei 1942. Via Gerrit van der Veen sloot Van Gilse zich aan bij de Persoonsbewijzen Centrale, die eind 1942 op grote schaal kon gaan opereren. Zo’n honderd medewerkers vervaardigden 65.000 valse persoonsbewijzen en 75.000 bonkaarten en Maarten was daar een van. Net als Van der Veen specialiseerde hij zich in de gecompliceerde techniek van de watermerken.

Van Gilse was ook betrokken bij de door oud-Spanjestrijder Gerrit Kasteinopgerichte sabotagegroep CS6 en deed mee met de voorbereiding van de aanslag op het Amsterdamse Bevolkingsregister in maart 1943.  Hij werd verliefd op Marianne van Raamsdonk, die ook voor CS6 en de Persoonsbewijzen Centrale werkte. Het stel zat ondergedoken in het atelier van de bevriende beeldhouwer Piet Damsté aan de Prinsengracht, op steenworp afstand van het Achterhuis en de Westertoren. Maarten verfde zijn haar en liet een snor groeien om de Duitsers om de tuin te leiden.  Dag en nacht werkten ze aan het vervalsen van documenten, er was speed voor nodig – Pervitine – om het koortsachtige tempo vol te kunnen houden. In de zomer van 1943 vertrokken ze om de liefde te vieren voor een paar weken naar Eijsden, waar Piet Damsté een kasteeltje had gehuurd om er een trefpunt voor kunstenaars van te maken. Behalve veel vrienden ontmoetten ze in dit Kasteel Oost een leuk hondje, dat ze ‘Troela’ doopten. Eenmaal terug in Amsterdam met deze aanwinst, ging het vrijwel meteen mis.

De Sicherheitspolizei was bezig de groep CS6 op te rollen na een aanslag op generaal Seyffardt. In dat kader deden ze op 23 juli 1943 een inval in het atelier op de zolder aan de Prinsengracht. Van Gilse liet zich langs de regenpijp naar beneden zakken, werd in zijn voet geschoten en even later toch opgepakt. De volgende dag werd de voet nog keurig geopereerd, maar twee maanden later kreeg hij een kogel recht in zijn hart. Samen met achttien anderen, onder wie Walter Brandligt, werd Maarten van Gilse op 1 oktober 1943 in de duinen geëxecuteerd. Hij rust nu op de erebegraafplaats in Bloemendaal.

De ‘epiloog’: Marianne van Raamsdonk had meteen na de inval op 23 juli de potkachel opgestookt om alle compromitterende documenten te verbranden. Omdat het een snikhete dag was, liep dat nogal in de gaten. Ook zij werd gearresteerd en via Vught naar Duitsland getransporteerd. Daar overleefde ze diverse concentratiekampen. Gerrit Kastein doodde zichzelf door kort na zijn arrestatie uit het raam te springen van de kamer waar hij verhoord zou gaan worden. Het hoekkamertje aan het Binnenhof, waar toen de Sicherheitsdienst huisde, is op 20 juni 2017 officieel omgedoopt tot ‘Kasteinkamer’. Janrik van Gilse trof het zelfde lot als zijn broer, hij werd op 28 maart 1944 doodgeschoten. Het is niet bekend waar hij begraven is. In de Van Gilsestraat in Amsterdam Slotermeer zijn de broers sinds 1953 weer herenigd. Vader Jan van Gilse, die ook in 1944 overleed, leeft nog voort in zijn composities. 

Bronnen: 
  • P.H. Heere, A. Th. Vernooij, De Eerebegraafplaats te Bloemendaal(Den Haag 2005) p 306
  • Marianne van Raamsdonk, Met het verleden bezig. Beelden en verhalen 1940-1945. Red.  Max van den Berg, Silvia de Groot (z.j.) pp 34-49
  • Arnhem de Genoeglijkste jrg 13 (1993) 3
  • De Vrije Kunstenaar, 15 november 1943
  • https://artistiekbureau.com/2017/04/12/de-oorlog-doorkomen/https://spanjestrijders.nl/sites/all/modules/contrib/extlink/extlink_s.png"); width: 10px; height: 10px; text-decoration: none; background-position: 2px center; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">(link is external)
Auteur: 
Margreet Schrevel
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fredvogels Tue, 11 Apr 2023 10:46:41 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/215299-maarten-van-gilse.html
Jan Hendrik (Janric) van Gilse https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/215298-jan-hendrik-janric-van-gilse.html

Jan Hendrik (Janric) van Gilse (München, 5 juni 1912 – Den Haag, 28 maart 1944) was een Nederlandse communist en verzetsman tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Van Gilse, reclametekenaar/graficus van beroep, was een zoon van de componist Jan van Gilse, en broer van Maarten van Gilse, eveneens verzetsstrijder.

In 1937 vertrok Janric van Gilse naar Spanje, waar hij voor het CPN-bestuur de verbindingsman was voor de Nederlandse leden van de Internationale Brigades in Barcelona. Eind 1938 keerde hij terug. Op grond van zijn Spaanse ervaring kreeg hij kort na de Februaristaking de opdracht van de militaire commissie van de CPN het militaire verzet in Nederland te organiseren. 

Samen met Max Meijer en Gerben Wagenaar richtte hij de Militaire Commissie, of Militair Contact (MC) op. Voor de CPN vervalste hij persoonsbewijzen en was hij betrokken bij verschillende aanslagen en overvallen. In februari 1944 bevrijdde hij, samen met onder andere Karel Pekelharing, zijn echtgenote Truus van Everdingen, die uit het Arnhemse Huis van bewaring naar het ziekenhuis vervoerd werd. 

Op 28 maart 1944 zou er een vergadering plaatsvinden in de Fultonstraat 19 in Den Haag. Als gevolg van verraad waren er SD-agenten in het pand aanwezig. Er was geen tijd meer mensen te waarschuwen, en de verzetsliedenliepen die middag de een na de ander in de SD-val. Van Gilse werd bij een vluchtpoging doodgeschoten. Het is onbekend waar hij begraven ligt. Op 1 oktober 1943 was zijn jongere broer Maarten (Mik) van Gilse ook al door de Duitsers geëxecuteerd.

Source Wikipedia

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fredvogels Tue, 11 Apr 2023 10:40:27 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/215298-jan-hendrik-janric-van-gilse.html
A young Ukrainian boy executed https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/214034-a-young-ukrainian-boy-executed.html

A young Ukrainian boy is brought to the site of his families execution shortly before being executed himself by Einsatzkommandos. Zboriv, Ukraine, 5 July 1941.

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fredvogels Sun, 28 Jun 2020 15:24:44 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/214034-a-young-ukrainian-boy-executed.html
Albanian 21st SS Skanderberg Division killing in Velika https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213642-albanian-21st-ss-skanderberg-division-killing-in-velika.html

On July 28, 1944, the Division, supported by the Albanian 21st SS Skanderberg Division, made up mostly of Muslims from Kosovo and engaged in a systematic policy of ethnic cleansing against the Kosovo Serbian and Jewish populations, surrounded the village of Velika and in an orgy of looting and killing massacred 428 Serbs, looted and burned down 300 houses. In the village of Blagaj, 520 men, women and children killed in a most cruel way by being hit over the head.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 21:36:44 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213642-albanian-21st-ss-skanderberg-division-killing-in-velika.html
Yugoslavia massacre, Glina https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213641-yugoslavia-massacre-glina.html

The Glina massacres were killings of Serb peasants in the town of Glina in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) that occurred between May and August 1941, during World War II. The first wave of massacres in the town began on 11 or 12 May 1941, when a band of Ustaše led by Mirko Puk murdered a group of Serb men and boys in a Serbian Orthodox church before setting it on fire. The following day, approximately 100 Serb males were murdered by the Ustaše in the nearby village of Prekopi. Estimates of the overall number of Serbs killed from 11–13 May range from 260 to 417.

Further killings in Glina occurred between 30 July and 3 August of that same year, when 700–2,000 Serbs were massacred by a group of Ustaše led by Vjekoslav Luburić. Ljubo Jednak, the only survivor of these killings, went on to testify at the trials of the several prominent figures in the NDH after the war. Puk was captured by British forces in 1945 while attempting to flee to Austria and was extradited to Yugoslavia the following year, where he committed suicide. Luburić escaped Yugoslavia after the war and moved to fascist Spain, where he was killed by a person generally assumed to be an agent of the Yugoslav State Security Service.

An estimated 2,000–2,400 people were killed in the Glina massacres. In 1969, a monument was erected and a memorial museum was built to commemorate the victims of the killings. Following the independence of Croatia from Yugoslavia, the monument was removed by Croatian authorities in the town. After the Croatian War of Independence, the local authorities failed to restore it and dismantled it instead. The memorial museum was converted into a generic cultural institution, to the dismay of the local Serbian population.

 

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 21:13:39 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213641-yugoslavia-massacre-glina.html
Yugoslavian massacre, Livno https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213640-yugoslavian-massacre-livno.html

On April 28, 1941, Units of the Croatian Ustashi Army, a militia created by the Croat Prime Minister, Ante Pavelic, surrounded the villages of Gudovac and Brezovica and killed 234 inhabitants who held Serbian nationality. They were told to go home to Serbia or convert to Roman Catholicism, refusal to do so ended in death. In the village of Blagaj, 520 men, women and children, were murdered in the most cruel way by being hit over the head.

In the Koprivnica Forest near Livno, around 300 souls were subjected to the most unspeakable acts of brutality before being killed. Hands and legs were cut off, eyes gouged out, heads of small children were severed and thrown onto their mothers laps, breasts were severed and children's hands pulled through and tied together. In the Livno area alone, the Ustashi killed 1,243 Serbs including 370 children.

In the Risova Greda Forest, over 800 Serbs were killed and their bodies hurled into ravines. On July 10 in the town of Glina, around 700 Serbs were gathered in the local Serbian Orthodux church, ostensibly for conversion to Catholicism. Locked inside the church, all were beaten with wooden mallets, clubs, rifle butts and stabbed with bayonets and knives before being left to die as the church was set on fire and burned to the ground.

The Ustashi commander, General Dragutin Rumler, filed a report stating that so far, around 10,000 Serbs, Jews and Gyspies had been killed to date. The German occupation forces at that time turned a blind eye to the slaughter, after all, the Ustashi were doing what the Nazi Gestapo and S.D. units had come here to do. By far the worst crime committed by the Ustashi was the murder of children from the Mount Kozara region.

The Serb children were separated from their parents and taken to various interment camps set up by the Ustashi. In the camp at Sisak, 6,693 children were housed in filthy conditions and soon 1,600 died. At the camp at Jastrebarko, 3,336 children were housed in the same pitiful condition. Soon after their arrival the local cemetery caretaker had buried 768 boys and girls. In Plot 142 in the Mirogoj Cemetery in Zagreb lie the remains of 862 children who had died after being rescued by the Red Cross.

Hundreds of families in Zagreb adopted 938 of these children without even knowing their names or identity. Fifty years after this tragedy, a final count was made. The crimes committed by the Ustashi troops in 1941 and 1942 took the lives of 11,176 children (6,302 boys and 4,874 girls) The average age of these children was 6.5 years.

This crime of Genocide, committed by the pro-German Catholic Croatians on the Orthodox Serbian population during World War Two is something the outside world knows little about. (On December 12, 1941, the Independent State of Croatia declared war on the United States following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor) Ante Pavelic, fugitive war criminal, escaped the slaughter of Bleiburg only to surface several years later in Argentina.

After an attempt on his life in April, 1957, Pavelic moved lock, stock and barrel to the safety of fascist Spain. There, on December 28, 1959, he died from complications relating to injuries received during the assassination attempt.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 21:05:39 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213640-yugoslavian-massacre-livno.html
Yugoslavian massacre, Blagaj https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213639-yugoslavian-massacre-blagaj.html

On April 28, 1941, Units of the Croatian Ustashi Army, a militia created by the Croat Prime Minister, Ante Pavelic, surrounded the villages of Gudovac and Brezovica and killed 234 inhabitants who held Serbian nationality. They were told to go home to Serbia or convert to Roman Catholicism, refusal to do so ended in death. In the village of Blagaj, 520 men, women and children, were murdered in the most cruel way by being hit over the head.

In the Koprivnica Forest near Livno, around 300 souls were subjected to the most unspeakable acts of brutality before being killed. Hands and legs were cut off, eyes gouged out, heads of small children were severed and thrown onto their mothers laps, breasts were severed and children's hands pulled through and tied together. In the Livno area alone, the Ustashi killed 1,243 Serbs including 370 children.

In the Risova Greda Forest, over 800 Serbs were killed and their bodies hurled into ravines. On July 10 in the town of Glina, around 700 Serbs were gathered in the local Serbian Orthodux church, ostensibly for conversion to Catholicism. Locked inside the church, all were beaten with wooden mallets, clubs, rifle butts and stabbed with bayonets and knives before being left to die as the church was set on fire and burned to the ground.

The Ustashi commander, General Dragutin Rumler, filed a report stating that so far, around 10,000 Serbs, Jews and Gyspies had been killed to date. The German occupation forces at that time turned a blind eye to the slaughter, after all, the Ustashi were doing what the Nazi Gestapo and S.D. units had come here to do. By far the worst crime committed by the Ustashi was the murder of children from the Mount Kozara region.

The Serb children were separated from their parents and taken to various interment camps set up by the Ustashi. In the camp at Sisak, 6,693 children were housed in filthy conditions and soon 1,600 died. At the camp at Jastrebarko, 3,336 children were housed in the same pitiful condition. Soon after their arrival the local cemetery caretaker had buried 768 boys and girls. In Plot 142 in the Mirogoj Cemetery in Zagreb lie the remains of 862 children who had died after being rescued by the Red Cross.

Hundreds of families in Zagreb adopted 938 of these children without even knowing their names or identity. Fifty years after this tragedy, a final count was made. The crimes committed by the Ustashi troops in 1941 and 1942 took the lives of 11,176 children (6,302 boys and 4,874 girls) The average age of these children was 6.5 years.

This crime of Genocide, committed by the pro-German Catholic Croatians on the Orthodox Serbian population during World War Two is something the outside world knows little about. (On December 12, 1941, the Independent State of Croatia declared war on the United States following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor) Ante Pavelic, fugitive war criminal, escaped the slaughter of Bleiburg only to surface several years later in Argentina.

After an attempt on his life in April, 1957, Pavelic moved lock, stock and barrel to the safety of fascist Spain. There, on December 28, 1959, he died from complications relating to injuries received during the assassination attempt.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 21:03:19 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213639-yugoslavian-massacre-blagaj.html
Yugoslavian massacre, Brezovica https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213638-yugoslavian-massacre-brezovica.html

On April 28, 1941, Units of the Croatian Ustashi Army, a militia created by the Croat Prime Minister, Ante Pavelic, surrounded the villages of Gudovac and Brezovica and killed 234 inhabitants who held Serbian nationality. They were told to go home to Serbia or convert to Roman Catholicism, refusal to do so ended in death. In the village of Blagaj, 520 men, women and children, were murdered in the most cruel way by being hit over the head.

In the Koprivnica Forest near Livno, around 300 souls were subjected to the most unspeakable acts of brutality before being killed. Hands and legs were cut off, eyes gouged out, heads of small children were severed and thrown onto their mothers laps, breasts were severed and children's hands pulled through and tied together. In the Livno area alone, the Ustashi killed 1,243 Serbs including 370 children.

In the Risova Greda Forest, over 800 Serbs were killed and their bodies hurled into ravines. On July 10 in the town of Glina, around 700 Serbs were gathered in the local Serbian Orthodux church, ostensibly for conversion to Catholicism. Locked inside the church, all were beaten with wooden mallets, clubs, rifle butts and stabbed with bayonets and knives before being left to die as the church was set on fire and burned to the ground.

The Ustashi commander, General Dragutin Rumler, filed a report stating that so far, around 10,000 Serbs, Jews and Gyspies had been killed to date. The German occupation forces at that time turned a blind eye to the slaughter, after all, the Ustashi were doing what the Nazi Gestapo and S.D. units had come here to do. By far the worst crime committed by the Ustashi was the murder of children from the Mount Kozara region.

The Serb children were separated from their parents and taken to various interment camps set up by the Ustashi. In the camp at Sisak, 6,693 children were housed in filthy conditions and soon 1,600 died. At the camp at Jastrebarko, 3,336 children were housed in the same pitiful condition. Soon after their arrival the local cemetery caretaker had buried 768 boys and girls. In Plot 142 in the Mirogoj Cemetery in Zagreb lie the remains of 862 children who had died after being rescued by the Red Cross.

Hundreds of families in Zagreb adopted 938 of these children without even knowing their names or identity. Fifty years after this tragedy, a final count was made. The crimes committed by the Ustashi troops in 1941 and 1942 took the lives of 11,176 children (6,302 boys and 4,874 girls) The average age of these children was 6.5 years.

This crime of Genocide, committed by the pro-German Catholic Croatians on the Orthodox Serbian population during World War Two is something the outside world knows little about. (On December 12, 1941, the Independent State of Croatia declared war on the United States following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor) Ante Pavelic, fugitive war criminal, escaped the slaughter of Bleiburg only to surface several years later in Argentina.

After an attempt on his life in April, 1957, Pavelic moved lock, stock and barrel to the safety of fascist Spain. There, on December 28, 1959, he died from complications relating to injuries received during the assassination attempt.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 21:01:00 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213638-yugoslavian-massacre-brezovica.html
Yugoslavian massacre, Gudovac https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213637-yugoslavian-massacre-gudovac.html

On April 28, 1941, Units of the Croatian Ustashi Army, a militia created by the Croat Prime Minister, Ante Pavelic, surrounded the villages of Gudovac and Brezovica and killed 234 inhabitants who held Serbian nationality. They were told to go home to Serbia or convert to Roman Catholicism, refusal to do so ended in death. In the village of Blagaj, 520 men, women and children, were murdered in the most cruel way by being hit over the head.

In the Koprivnica Forest near Livno, around 300 souls were subjected to the most unspeakable acts of brutality before being killed. Hands and legs were cut off, eyes gouged out, heads of small children were severed and thrown onto their mothers laps, breasts were severed and children's hands pulled through and tied together. In the Livno area alone, the Ustashi killed 1,243 Serbs including 370 children.

In the Risova Greda Forest, over 800 Serbs were killed and their bodies hurled into ravines. On July 10 in the town of Glina, around 700 Serbs were gathered in the local Serbian Orthodux church, ostensibly for conversion to Catholicism. Locked inside the church, all were beaten with wooden mallets, clubs, rifle butts and stabbed with bayonets and knives before being left to die as the church was set on fire and burned to the ground.

The Ustashi commander, General Dragutin Rumler, filed a report stating that so far, around 10,000 Serbs, Jews and Gyspies had been killed to date. The German occupation forces at that time turned a blind eye to the slaughter, after all, the Ustashi were doing what the Nazi Gestapo and S.D. units had come here to do. By far the worst crime committed by the Ustashi was the murder of children from the Mount Kozara region.

The Serb children were separated from their parents and taken to various interment camps set up by the Ustashi. In the camp at Sisak, 6,693 children were housed in filthy conditions and soon 1,600 died. At the camp at Jastrebarko, 3,336 children were housed in the same pitiful condition. Soon after their arrival the local cemetery caretaker had buried 768 boys and girls. In Plot 142 in the Mirogoj Cemetery in Zagreb lie the remains of 862 children who had died after being rescued by the Red Cross.

Hundreds of families in Zagreb adopted 938 of these children without even knowing their names or identity. Fifty years after this tragedy, a final count was made. The crimes committed by the Ustashi troops in 1941 and 1942 took the lives of 11,176 children (6,302 boys and 4,874 girls) The average age of these children was 6.5 years.

This crime of Genocide, committed by the pro-German Catholic Croatians on the Orthodox Serbian population during World War Two is something the outside world knows little about. (On December 12, 1941, the Independent State of Croatia declared war on the United States following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor) Ante Pavelic, fugitive war criminal, escaped the slaughter of Bleiburg only to surface several years later in Argentina.

After an attempt on his life in April, 1957, Pavelic moved lock, stock and barrel to the safety of fascist Spain. There, on December 28, 1959, he died from complications relating to injuries received during the assassination attempt.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 20:58:13 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213637-yugoslavian-massacre-gudovac.html
Novi Sad thousands of Jews and Sebians https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213636-novi-sad-thousands-of-jews-and-sebians.html

In the Hungarian occupied part of Yugoslavia, local partisans were conducting a low key guerrilla war against the occupiers.

On January 23, 1942, seventeen Hungarian soldiers were gunned down near the town of Novi Sad. The commander of the Hungarian troops, General Ferenc Teketehalmi-Czeydner, retaliated by unleashing his troops and Arrow Cross militia on the town.

Rounding up 550 Jews and 292 Serbians, they forced them to march across the frozen river Danube at Novi Sad until their weight broke the ice plunging them into the icy waters where they all drowned or were shot by the Hungarian fascists.

Over a six day period, another 2,467 Serbs and 700 Jews and anti-fascist Magyars were massacred. The General was later court-martialled but the charges were quashed by the head of state, Admiral Horthy. After the war, General Frenec was extradited to Yugoslavia where he was sentenced to death in the Vojvodina Supreme Court on October 31, 1946.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 20:49:53 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213636-novi-sad-thousands-of-jews-and-sebians.html
Cherson massacre https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213635-cherson-massacre.html

During the month of September, 1941, Action Group A, consisting of around eight hundred men, and commanded by SS General Otto Ohlendorf, was operating on the Russian southern front.

In the period, 16th to 30th September, in the area around Nikolaev, and including the town of Cherson, they rounded up and massacred 35,782 Soviet citizens, mostly Jews. This was the figure reported to Hitler from the SD office, in a letter dated October 2, 1942.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 20:42:45 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213635-cherson-massacre.html
Nikolaev massacre https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213634-nikolaev-massacre.html

During the month of September, 1941, Action Group A, consisting of around eight hundred men, and commanded by SS General Otto Ohlendorf, was operating on the Russian southern front.

In the period, 16th to 30th September, in the area around Nikolaev, and including the town of Cherson, they rounded up and massacred 35,782 Soviet citizens, mostly Jews. This was the figure reported to Hitler from the SD office, in a letter dated October 2, 1942.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 20:40:17 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213634-nikolaev-massacre.html
Korsun slaughter https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213633-korsun-slaughter.html

During the freezing cold night of February 16, five divisions of General Hube's 1st SS Panzer Army, (54,000 men) including the 5th SS Division Viking and the Belgian Volunteer Brigade Wallonie, made a last desperate bid to break out of the Russian encirclement around the towns of Korsun and Shandrerovka in the lower Dnieper south-west of Kiev (Kyiv).

At 4am, elements of the 8th Army formed up into two marching columns of around 14,000 men each and flocked into two parallel ravines in the surrounding countryside, and where the two ravines met, the troops, now in complete disorder, then emerged into open country and headed out towards the town of Lysyanka. There, disaster struck as troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, under General Konev, were waiting.

Soon after 6am, the slaughter began. Soviet tanks drove into the two German columns crushing hundreds under their tracks. Fleeing in panic, the troops were then bombed and shelled before being confronted by units of Cossack cavalry who started hacking them to pieces with their sabres, There was no time to take prisoners and in the short space of three hours around 20,000 German soldiers lay dead, their bodies later dumped in holes dug in the ground.

The hundreds of wounded and medical personnel left behind were butchered by the Cossacks. Only a few officers survived, most had fled the scene by plane some days before. (Russian sources put the number of dead during the two weeks of fighting at over 70,000)

To reach Lysyanka the troops had first to cross the raging Gniloy-Tikich river. Reaching the opposite side many were transformed into blocks of ice their uniforms frozen to their bodies. About eight thousand others, who had fled the scene and were hiding in the woods, were rounded up during the next few days and taken prisoner. For this great victory, General Konev was awarded the title 'Marshal of the Soviet Union'.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 20:36:22 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213633-korsun-slaughter.html
Babi Yar https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213632-babi-yar.html

A picturesque ravine situated in the Syrets suburb of the city of Kiev (Kyiv). It was about three kilometres long, over fifty metres deep and separated from the residential area by the local Jewish cemetery and a civilian prison. Soon after the German takeover a series of horrific explosions rocked the city demolishing a number of buildings that housed the German administration and the army hierarchy.

On September 26, the military governor, Major General Friedrich Georg Eberhardt, decided that in retaliation for the atrocity all the Jews in Kiev were to be put to death. There, on September 29/30, the SS Einsatzgruppe C, with the help of the Ukrainian police, herded the whole Jewish population of Kiev and the surrounding area into the ravine and systematically began to slaughter the entire 33,771 souls.

The killings took two whole days and nights the victims being machine-gunned and their bodies hurled into the ravine. A layer of sand then covered the corpses before the next batch of naked victims were brought in. All Monies, valuables and clothing from the victims were distributed among the ethnic Germans living in the area.

In the months that followed, thousands of Gypsies and Russian P.O.W.s were slaughtered here. In August, 1943, as the Soviet Army began its march westwards the decision was taken to erase all evidence of the mass killings, in fact, to efface it from history. Russian prisoners and 327 men, including 100 Jews, from the nearby slave camp at Syretsk began the task of digging up the bodies.

The remains were then burned in pyres, built on slab gravestones taken from the Jewish cemetery, each pyre containing around 2,000 corpses. This gruesome task ended on September 19, 1943. Only fourteen of the 327 slave labourers survived by escaping from Babi Yar. Later, the SS brought in excavators and bulldozers and the ravine was again filled in. In early October, Moscow informed the outside world of the discovery of the mass graves.

The West, mistrustful of the Russians, dismissed the news as 'products of the Slavic imagination'. During the 778 days of the German occupation of Kiev, many thousands of Russian P.O.W.s, Ukrainians, Gypsies and other nationalities, were murdered at Babi Yar. Of a total population of around 900,000, only 180,000 were living in Kiev at the end of the German occupation.

SS Brigdefuhrer Paul Blobel, commander of Sonderkomando 4a was later brought to trial and at Nuremberg and sentenced to death. He was hanged in June 1951. In 1976, a 15 metre high bronze memorial 'To the victims of Fascism' was unveiled on the site to commemorate the Russian P.O.W.s and the 'People of Kiev' who were killed there. However, no reference is made to the Jews or number of Jewish dead.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 20:32:03 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213632-babi-yar.html
Chartsysk, dead bodies of many children aged from 14 to 16 years https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213631-chartsysk-dead-bodies-of-many-children-aged-from-14-to-16-years.html

During the Soviet army retreat in the direction of Yeletsk, the retreating soldiers came upon a small ravine between Chartsysk and Snizhy stations about sixty kilometres from the city of Stalino (Donetsk) The horrible sight that befell their eyes was the dead bodies of many children aged from 14 to 16 years that partly filled the ravine.

They were dressed in the black uniform of the F.S.U. Trade and Craft School in Stalino. It was discovered that the children were being evacuated from the school as the German army neared the city.

After walking nearly 60 kilometres they became utterly exhausted and had begged for transport. Their guardians promised to send trucks but instead a detachment of Russian political police (NKVD) arrived. Carrying machine-guns, they starting shooting the children in cold blood and throwing the bodies into the ravine. The Soviet soldiers counted the bodies of 370 slain children.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 20:23:50 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213631-chartsysk-dead-bodies-of-many-children-aged-from-14-to-16-years.html
160 German soldiers fell into the hands of the Russian Army https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213630-160-german-soldiers-fell-into-the-hands-of-the-russian-army.html

On the shores of the Black Sea, on the Crimean Peninsula, stands the port city of Feodosia.

On the 3rd of November the city was captured by the German 46th and 170th Infantry Divisions.

As the attack on Sevastopol was about to take place, most of the German forces were withdrawn to concentrate on the forthcoming battle. Left behind in the city were a small detachment of troops and all the wounded soldiers convalescing in the city's hospitals. On the afternoon of December 29, the city was bombarded by the Soviet Black Sea Fleet and a landing was made by Soviet marines followed by infantry.

On the 18th of January, 1942, after their failure to capture Sevastopol, the German Wehrmacht was able to return and recapture Feodosia.

They found that most of the German military personnel had been murdered. Wounded soldiers had been thrown out of the windows of the hospital to make room for Russian wounded. Water was then poured on the near dead bodies and then left to freeze.

On the beach, piles of bodies were found where they were thrown from a wall several metres high after being beaten and mutilated, their bodies left in the surf so that the sea water froze and covered them with a sheet of ice.

There were some twelve survivors who had hidden in cellars when the Russian troops arrived. Their testimony before a German court of inquiry confirmed that some 160 wounded soldiers were liquidated this way.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 20:16:27 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213630-160-german-soldiers-fell-into-the-hands-of-the-russian-army.html
Einsatzkammando No 2 killings at Skede https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213629-einsatzkammando-no-2-killings-at-skede.html

During the German occupation of Latvia in 1941 the Jewish citizens of the town of Liepaja were ordered to stay indoors for the next two days.

During this time around 2,700 Jews were forced into trucks and transported to the nearby village of SKEDE where they were all shot by members of the German Einsatzkammando No 2. The perpetrators were assisted by the local Latvian militia.

German sources state that the shootings took place to "clean Eastern European territories as completely of Jews as possible". It has been established that a total of 2,731 Jews and 23 communists from Liepaja were murdered at Skede.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 20:10:08 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213629-einsatzkammando-no-2-killings-at-skede.html
A dozen survivors of the Skaudvile Jews https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213628-a-dozen-survivors-of-the-skaudvile-jews.html

Situated on the Ancia river in western Lithuania, the town of Skaudvile had a Jewish population of 1,590 in 1941.

In September, units of the Nazi SS Einzatsgrupen 'A' attached to the Army Group North, entered the town. Their orders were to kill all Jews "infected with communism". In conjunction with Lithuanian paramilitary units and civilians, who displayed a willingness and a passion for the killing of their fellow Jewish neighbours, all Jews were herded into the town's square.

There the men were separated from their wives and children and marched the four kilometres to the Puzai Forest where they were all shot and killed. A few days later, all the women and children (about 800) were loaded onto trucks and driven to the Gryblaukis Forest to be murdered in a most brutal fashion.

There were about a dozen survivors of the Skaudvile Jews.

Mass Burial Sites for the Jewish People of Skaudvile, Lithuania

The Puzai Forest four kilometers from Skaudvile. Three hundred men are buried here. They were murdered on July 15, 1941.

The Gryblaukis Forest in Batakiai , twenty-two kilometers north-east of Tavrig on the Tavrig-Skaudvile road. One thousand Eight Hundred women and children are buried here They were murdered September 21, 1941.

The Town of Upyna , Within the Jewish Cemetery, there are one hundred victims buried there. They were murdered in the latter part June in 1941

About 240,000 Jews lived in Lithuania prior to the German invasion, only between six and seven thousand survived. Today, Skaudvile has a population of around 3,000 but none are Jewish.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 20:01:18 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213628-a-dozen-survivors-of-the-skaudvile-jews.html
Baltic executions november 1941 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213627-baltic-executions-november-1941.html

Within two weeks of the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on August 1, 1940, almost the entire intelligentsia of these countries had been liquidated. The German attack on these provinces forced the withdrawal of the Soviet troops and paved the way for Hitler's Einsatzgruppen to start their roundup of all resident Jews. About 3,000 had already fled with the retreating Red Army but the 57,000 left behind in Vilna, faced a terrifying future.

When the Germans ocupied Lithuania they found thousands of Jews were already killed, murdered by their own neighbours, the non-Jews. Einsatzgruppen 'A' operated in the Baltic Provinces under the command of SS Major General Stahlecker who, after five months, reported to Himmler (Document 2273-PS) that 229,052 Jews had been shot. Thousands more were housed in ghettos as they were urgently needed for slave labour.

In Duenaburg, on November 9, 1941, a total of 11,034 Jews were executed.

At Libau, two weeks later, another 2,350 fell victim to SS bullets.

In Lithuania, under the Nazi's, 136,421 Jews were put to death in numerous single actions by Lithuanian mercenaries with the help of the German police squads. In this total were 55,556 women and 34,464 children all shot to death in a deep moat surrounding the 19th century Tsarist Ninth Fort outside Kovno. In the White Russian Settlement Area, around 41,000 executions had taken place. In Vilna, around 32,000 Jews were murdered during the first six months of German occupation.

When Vilna was liberated by the Red Army on July 13, 1944, a few hundred Jews who had been hiding in the surrounding forests suddenly appeared in the city square. Altogether, between three and four thousand Jews out of the original 57,000, survived in the concentration camps in Germany. (The Einsatzgruppen, which followed behind the four German armies, consisted of 3,000 men. Their orders were to hunt down and kill Russia's five million Jews.

The Wehrmacht could not intervene as these murderers were under the control of Himmler. By the end of the 1941-42 winter the SS had reported that 481,887 Jews had been liquidated in Russia.) Pre-war Vilnius had 105 Synagogues and houses of prayer. Today, only one survives, it was used by the SS as a medical store. Ninety percent of Vilnuis Jews were murdered, only 24,000 survived.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 19:45:56 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213627-baltic-executions-november-1941.html
Baltic executions https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213626-baltic-executions.html

Within two weeks of the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on August 1, 1940, almost the entire intelligentsia of these countries had been liquidated. The German attack on these provinces forced the withdrawal of the Soviet troops and paved the way for Hitler's Einsatzgruppen to start their roundup of all resident Jews. About 3,000 had already fled with the retreating Red Army but the 57,000 left behind in Vilna, faced a terrifying future.

When the Germans ocupied Lithuania they found thousands of Jews were already killed, murdered by their own neighbours, the non-Jews. Einsatzgruppen 'A' operated in the Baltic Provinces under the command of SS Major General Stahlecker who, after five months, reported to Himmler (Document 2273-PS) that 229,052 Jews had been shot. Thousands more were housed in ghettos as they were urgently needed for slave labour.

In Duenaburg, on November 9, 1941, a total of 11,034 Jews were executed.

At Libau, two weeks later, another 2,350 fell victim to SS bullets. In Lithuania, under the Nazi's, 136,421 Jews were put to death in numerous single actions by Lithuanian mercenaries with the help of the German police squads. In this total were 55,556 women and 34,464 children all shot to death in a deep moat surrounding the 19th century Tsarist Ninth Fort outside Kovno. In the White Russian Settlement Area, around 41,000 executions had taken place. In Vilna, around 32,000 Jews were murdered during the first six months of German occupation.

When Vilna was liberated by the Red Army on July 13, 1944, a few hundred Jews who had been hiding in the surrounding forests suddenly appeared in the city square. Altogether, between three and four thousand Jews out of the original 57,000, survived in the concentration camps in Germany. (The Einsatzgruppen, which followed behind the four German armies, consisted of 3,000 men. Their orders were to hunt down and kill Russia's five million Jews.

The Wehrmacht could not intervene as these murderers were under the control of Himmler. By the end of the 1941-42 winter the SS had reported that 481,887 Jews had been liquidated in Russia.) Pre-war Vilnius had 105 Synagogues and houses of prayer. Today, only one survives, it was used by the SS as a medical store. Ninety percent of Vilnuis Jews were murdered, only 24,000 survived.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 19:41:37 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213626-baltic-executions.html
Volhynia (Volyn) area killings by local Ukrainian nationalists https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213625-volhynia-volyn-area-killings-by-local-ukrainian-nationalists.html

In the Volhynia (Volyn) area of north western Ukraine, local Ukrainian nationalists formed themselves into a resistance army, the Ukrainian Uprising Army (UPA) to fight the Nazi occupiers. Unfortunately their anger turned against the local Polish minority. (In the area lived some 346,000 Poles) In an attempt to drive all Poles out of Wolhynia and Ukraine, in anticipation of an independent Ukrainian state after the war, the UPA started a war of ethnic cleansing that was to prove disastrous for both populations.

The UPA marched from village to village and killed all civilians of Polish nationality. Some 167 towns and villages were entered in this orgy of slaughter. In the village of Poryck, 157 Polish civilians were shot while attending mass in the local Catholic church.

These massacres continued for a year in the rural areas until all Polish residents were either killed or expelled from their homes. These ethnic massacres were completely ignored by the German occupation forces. The exact number of Poles murdered remains unknown but is estimated by a number of historians to be in the region of 35 to 60 thousand.

In this ethnic strife period around 20,000 Ukrainians were killed by Poles. In July, 2003, on the 60th anniversary of the massacres, the presidents of the two nations, Poland and Ukraine, called for a move towards reconciliation and mutual forgiveness. Today, there are over 600 mass grave sites in Volhynia containing the bodies of murdered Polish civilians.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 19:37:10 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213625-volhynia-volyn-area-killings-by-local-ukrainian-nationalists.html
Dubno killings https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213624-dubno-killings.html

The town of Dubno in western Ukraine was the scene of a horrifying massacre of Jews.

Near the town's airstrip, the SS and Ukrainian troops herded scores of Jewish men. women and children into three previously dug deep pits each 30 metres long and 3 metres deep, and then shooting them to death.

For days the grizzly work of the SS continued, killing 1,500 persons daily until over 5,000 helpless victims had been shot. In the pits, the bodies were piled up row upon row and then covered with layers of earth.

At one point, this massacre was witnessed by Captain Axel von dem Bussche an officer in the elite 9th Infantry Regiment which had no Nazi officers in its ranks. Distressed by what he had seen at Dubno, Bussche immediately volunteered to personally assassinate Hitler when Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg recruits him into the Conspiracy.

This attempt on the Führer's life fails.

Photo: Axel Freiherr von dem Bussche-Streithorst

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 19:32:22 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213624-dubno-killings.html
The reprisal in Ilja, 900 were burned to death https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213623-the-reprisal-in-ilja-900-were-burned-to-death.html

At Ilja, a small town in western Russia, a number of Jews were sent to work on a small farm near the town.

They escaped into the forests and joined up with a group of partisans who had set up their headquarters there.

Next day, the two Jewish leaders of Ilja, who had refused to name the escapees, also fled to the woods to join the partisans.

The reprisal was horrific. All the old and sick Jews of the town were shot in the streets or in their homes and around 900 more were rounded up and locked inside a building which was then put to the torch. All 900 were burned to death.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 19:26:53 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213623-the-reprisal-in-ilja-900-were-burned-to-death.html
Kamenets-Podolsk and killing of 23,600 Jews https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213622-kamenets-podolsk-and-killing-of-23-600-jews.html

The first five-digit figure of murdered Jewish victims occurred at Kamenets-Podolsk in South-Western Ukraine, the first in Holocaust history.

Around 23,600 Jews were brutally put to death in August 27/28. 1941.

In July of that year, Hungary deported 14,000 of its Jews to Kamenets-Podolsk, all of whom were murdered by the SS. The other 19,600 were local Jews who were marched ten miles to their place of execution and guarded by a unit of the Ukrainian Militia.

There, they were shot to death by the SS under the leadership of Friedrich Jeckeln. Later, the town was over-taken by Hungarian troops, who were fighting alongside the German Wehrmacht against the Soviet Union. After the war, Jeckeln was tried by a military court, sentenced to death and hanged.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 19:20:13 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213622-kamenets-podolsk-and-killing-of-23-600-jews.html
Kortelisy its entire population of 2,892 men put to death https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213621-kortelisy-its-entire-population-of-2-892-men-put-to-death.html

Due to partisan activity around the village Kortelisy in Ukraine, its entire population of 2,892 men, women and children were put to death by SS and SD execution squads helped by local pro-German Ukrainian police.

The village was then razed and burned to the ground, the fires of which blazed for four days.

All over Ukraine around 459 villages were destroyed with all or part of their population massacred. In the Volhynia province, villages suffered the same fate and in the Zhitomir province 32 villages were destroyed. There were at least 27 villages, in which every man, woman and child was killed and their houses completely destroyed.

Most of the SS and SD units operating in the Ukraine consisted of locally recruited pro-German Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Estonians and White Russians. In all of central Russia there were only two regiments of German security police.

The village of Bajki, in Belarus, whose inhabitants had originally welcomed the German troops as liberators from communist oppression, was burned to the ground when the Nazis retreated on January 22, 1944. Of the 1,011 inhabitants of the village, 987 were shot and the 120 houses of the village set on fire. (About one and a quarter million Jews perished in Ukraine during the Nazi occupation.)

Photo: Page 1 of Operation Order dd. 22.9.1942, facsimile in Tobias, Verbrechen, p. 16. The original document is kept in the Moscow Central Archives

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 19:16:20 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213621-kortelisy-its-entire-population-of-2-892-men-put-to-death.html
The Unknown Holocaust https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213620-the-unknown-holocaust.html

Known as the 'Unknown Holocaust'.

In 1933, the communist leader of the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin, in a bid to crush Ukraine's growing spirit of nationalism, ordered millions of independent farmers (Kulaks) into collective farms. Any resistance to the order was dealt with by the OGPU (KGB) who executed all those who disobeyed. All roads leading out of Ukraine were blocked by Red Army troops, nothing came in and nothing went out. The farms were then deprived of all seed stocks, grain and farm animals. In a short while the Ukrainian farmers began dying of hunger, cold and sickness. In an attempt to stay alive they ate their pets, leather boots, belts and bark from the trees. It is recorded that some parents even ate their youngest children. According to KGB archives at least seven million, a quarter of Ukraine's population, starved to death.

The OGPU had made quota, shooting 10,000 victims weekly. Ukrainian party member Nikita Khrushchev helped supervise the executions. In other parts of the Soviet Union another six million peasant farmers were disposed of during collectivization. Many of the OGPU officers were Jews and during the Nazi occupation in World War II, Jews became the target of revenge by Ukrainians, Balts and Poles. Stalin murdered four times more people than Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao or Pinochet combined.

Ukraine was to suffer much more during and after the German invasion. As the Soviet Army retreated in front of the Nazi hordes, wholesale evacuation of Ukrainian industry, including 197 factories, were ordered by the Soviets. Between November, 1943, and March, 1944, everything was being looted, destroyed and burned again as the German troops retreated in front of the victorious Soviet Army. Some 150 museums, 62 drama theatres and around 600 movie theatres were destroyed by the Germans.

Around 28,000 villages and 714 towns were razed to the ground leaving ten million people without shelter. (Over 700 rare books, looted by the Nazis, were returned to the Ukraine by Germany on April 28, 1995). What the Soviets failed to destroy on their retreat in 1941 the Germans destroyed in their retreat in 1943/44. This scorched earth policy by two opposing armies caused devastation and suffering beyond belief. A total of 460,000 German soldiers were killed in Ukraine, most by partisans. Retaliation was to be 200 civilians executed for every soldier killed.

In Kiev alone, 700 citizens were put to death in November, 1941. All over the Ukraine the German Wehrmacht was treated as liberators and over 25,000 Ukrainians volunteered to fight on the German side against the Soviets as the 'Galicea Division SS'.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 19:09:46 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213620-the-unknown-holocaust.html
On October 27, 1942, the ghetto in Pinsk was liquidated. https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213619-on-october-27-1942-the-ghetto-in-pinsk-was-liquidated.html

Pinsk (Belarus) was under Soviet rule for seven months and under the German occupation from July 4, 1941 to 1943.

At the start of the Nazi occupation around 26,000 Jews lived in Pinsk.

A month later the first 'Aktion' against the Jewish inhabitants took place. Helped by their Polish police accomplices, the SS murder squads rounded up between 7 and 8,000 male Jews. All were executed. The rest, numbering some 18,287 including 6,400 women and children were incarcerated in the newly established ghetto ten persons to a room and forced to work for the occupation forces.

The ghetto, encompassed some 240 houses on 23 streets, all enclosed by a barbed wire fence 2,345 meters long.

On October 27, 1942, the ghetto was liquidated. At 6.30am, all Jews in the ghetto were ordered to gather near the Jewish cemetery at Karlin near the village of Posenich about four kilometres from town. All were deprived of their money and valuables before being led in groups to the execution site guarded by members of Police Battalion 310 of the 15th Police Regiment.

Those left behind in the ghetto, about 1,200 sick Jews and sick children, were simply shot. In the three days of slaughter around 11,000 Jews were murdered.

On July 14, 1944, Pinsk was liberated by the Red Army. They found only 17 half starved Jews alive after hiding in cellars for 620 days and nights. Almost the entire Gentile population of Pinsk did little to help their Jewish neighbours but waited passively for the opportunity to steal their possessions and move into their houses. Today, only about 500 Jews live in Pinsk.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 19:03:31 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213619-on-october-27-1942-the-ghetto-in-pinsk-was-liquidated.html
9,439 corpses discovered after kills by Stalin NKVD https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213618-9-439-corpses-discovered-after-kills-by-stalin-nkvd.html

Shortly after the occupation of the town of Vinnitsa in July, 1941, the German troops discovered a mass grave in the courtyard of the town's prison. The grave, twenty metres long by six metres wide, contained the bodies of 96 Ukrainian political prisoners.

They were killed when it was found impossible to evacuate them prior to the arrival of the German troops. Behind the prison, in another courtyard, a second mass grave was found but the bodies were not exhumed. However, persistent rumours among the civilian population of Vinnitsa resulted in the discovery of more graves at three different locations.

In a pear orchard, 2kms outside the town, 38 mass graves were found, in the old cemetery 40 graves were discovered and in the People's Park another 35.

Digging began on May 25, 1943 and it was soon established that the victims had died some five years before. The digging was interrupted some time later by adverse weather conditions. It was never resumed because the Red Army re-occupied the area soon after.

By the time the Soviets entered the town, a total of 9,439 corpses had already been counted. All had a bullet wound in the neck.

Ukrainian witnesses testified that since 1938 until the arrival of the German troops in 1941, trucks kept coming and going day and night bringing dead bodies to the burial ground from the NKVD prisons in the area. Most of the victims were farmers and field workers (Kulaks) who were classed as 'enemies of the people' and who had resisted Stalin's collectivization policies.

Famous photo: The last Jew of Vinnitsa, 1941

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 18:58:28 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213618-9-439-corpses-discovered-after-kills-by-stalin-nkvd.html
45 professors at the University of Lvov were executed by an Einsatzkommado https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213617-45-professors-at-the-university-of-lvov-were-executed-by-an-einsatzkommado.html

A total of 45 professors at the University of Lvov (now Lviv) were executed by an Einsatzkommado unit after the city was captured by the Germans on June 30.

Aided by the Ukrainian 'Nachtigall' battalion, they started the roundup of the professors their families and relatives. Most of the Jewish inhabitants of the city were simply shot on the spot.

Some 38 professors were taken to a place of execution in the Wulka hills outside the city and there shot to death.

Another seven, including Professor Dr. Bartel, a former Prime Minister of Poland, were shot in the courtyard of the Brygidki Prison, the same courtyard where days previously they found the murdered bodies of the prison inmates.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 18:51:17 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213617-45-professors-at-the-university-of-lvov-were-executed-by-an-einsatzkommado.html
Kremenets, between 100 and 150 were killed https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213616-kremenets-between-100-and-150-were-killed.html

During the week of 22/29 June, 1941, thousands of Ukrainian and Polish political prisoners were murdered in their cells by the Soviet NKVD (KGB). The Soviets' hurried retreat had tragic consequences for all political prisoners in the jails of Western Ukraine. Soon after the German attack on the Soviet Union, the retreating Soviets had no time to care for their prisoners locked up in prisons in the Ukraine, so they were simply killed.

In some cities the whole prison was set on fire and the helpless prisoners burned to death. In Lutsk, 2,800 out of the 4000 inmates in the NKVD prison, were murdered. When the German 49th Army Corps occupied the Polish-Ukrainian city of Lvov, (now Limberg) around 2,400 dead bodies were found by German troops in the NKVD prison. Some were killed by hand-grenades thrown into their cells, most were killed by a shot in the neck. In the cellars of the Brygidky Prison on Palczymska Street, 423 bodies were recovered.

Hundreds more were piled up in the courtyard. In the military prison at Samarstinov, which had been set on fire, 460 charred bodies were found, many showing signs of brutal torture. In the cellars, bodies were piled up layer upon layer almost to the ceiling. Owing to the stench of the decomposing corpses, the German commander of Lvov ordered all doors to the cellars bricked up after the bodies were covered with lime.

On June 26-27, 1941, some 520 Ukrainians were shot at Sambor, and at Zlochev, another 700, including the entire local intelligentsia, were arrested and shot on July 16, 1941. At Kremenets, between 100 and 150 were killed and when the bodies were recovered some bodies were without skin, having been thrown into boiling water.

Altogether, in the Ukraine, around 10,000 Ukrainian and Polish political prisoners were killed in their prisons. It is a sad fact that many members of the NKVD execution squads in the Ukraine, were Jewish collaborators. These collaborators were hated by other Jews more than the German SS. (A memorial plaque at the former headquarters of the NKVD/KGB in Simferpol, Ukraine, is engraved with the names of thirty NKVD agents who gave their lives in the Great Patriotic War (the Soviet name for World War II). The amazing thing is that all thirty names are Jewish!

About half a million Jews served in the Red Army and approximately 200,000 were killed. A total of 160,000 Jewish soldiers were decorated with Soviet awards, 145 receiving the highest Soviet award, 'Hero of the Soviet Union'. Two Jewish women were also awarded this honour. (Many Soviet soldiers, after capture, joined the Waffen SS. The 30th SS Division was composed of such troops.)

Photo: At the main gate to the Krzemieniec (now Kremenets, Ukraine) ghetto, Jewish

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 18:45:03 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213616-kremenets-between-100-and-150-were-killed.html
520 Ukrainians were shot at Sambor, and at Zlochev https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213615-520-ukrainians-were-shot-at-sambor-and-at-zlochev.html

During the week of 22/29 June, 1941, thousands of Ukrainian and Polish political prisoners were murdered in their cells by the Soviet NKVD (KGB). The Soviets' hurried retreat had tragic consequences for all political prisoners in the jails of Western Ukraine. Soon after the German attack on the Soviet Union, the retreating Soviets had no time to care for their prisoners locked up in prisons in the Ukraine, so they were simply killed.

In some cities the whole prison was set on fire and the helpless prisoners burned to death. In Lutsk, 2,800 out of the 4000 inmates in the NKVD prison, were murdered. When the German 49th Army Corps occupied the Polish-Ukrainian city of Lvov, (now Limberg) around 2,400 dead bodies were found by German troops in the NKVD prison. Some were killed by hand-grenades thrown into their cells, most were killed by a shot in the neck. In the cellars of the Brygidky Prison on Palczymska Street, 423 bodies were recovered.

Hundreds more were piled up in the courtyard. In the military prison at Samarstinov, which had been set on fire, 460 charred bodies were found, many showing signs of brutal torture. In the cellars, bodies were piled up layer upon layer almost to the ceiling. Owing to the stench of the decomposing corpses, the German commander of Lvov ordered all doors to the cellars bricked up after the bodies were covered with lime.

On June 26-27, 1941, some 520 Ukrainians were shot at Sambor, and at Zlochev, another 700, including the entire local intelligentsia, were arrested and shot on July 16, 1941. At Kremenets, between 100 and 150 were killed and when the bodies were recovered some bodies were without skin, having been thrown into boiling water.

Altogether, in the Ukraine, around 10,000 Ukrainian and Polish political prisoners were killed in their prisons. It is a sad fact that many members of the NKVD execution squads in the Ukraine, were Jewish collaborators. These collaborators were hated by other Jews more than the German SS. (A memorial plaque at the former headquarters of the NKVD/KGB in Simferpol, Ukraine, is engraved with the names of thirty NKVD agents who gave their lives in the Great Patriotic War (the Soviet name for World War II). The amazing thing is that all thirty names are Jewish!

About half a million Jews served in the Red Army and approximately 200,000 were killed. A total of 160,000 Jewish soldiers were decorated with Soviet awards, 145 receiving the highest Soviet award, 'Hero of the Soviet Union'. Two Jewish women were also awarded this honour. (Many Soviet soldiers, after capture, joined the Waffen SS. The 30th SS Division was composed of such troops.)

Photo: German and Russian soldiers stroll around Sambor after the German-Soviet invasion of Poland.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 18:41:35 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213615-520-ukrainians-were-shot-at-sambor-and-at-zlochev.html
520 Ukrainians were shot at Sambor https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213614-520-ukrainians-were-shot-at-sambor.html

During the week of 22/29 June, 1941, thousands of Ukrainian and Polish political prisoners were murdered in their cells by the Soviet NKVD (KGB). The Soviets' hurried retreat had tragic consequences for all political prisoners in the jails of Western Ukraine. Soon after the German attack on the Soviet Union, the retreating Soviets had no time to care for their prisoners locked up in prisons in the Ukraine, so they were simply killed.

In some cities the whole prison was set on fire and the helpless prisoners burned to death. In Lutsk, 2,800 out of the 4000 inmates in the NKVD prison, were murdered. When the German 49th Army Corps occupied the Polish-Ukrainian city of Lvov, (now Limberg) around 2,400 dead bodies were found by German troops in the NKVD prison. Some were killed by hand-grenades thrown into their cells, most were killed by a shot in the neck. In the cellars of the Brygidky Prison on Palczymska Street, 423 bodies were recovered.

Hundreds more were piled up in the courtyard. In the military prison at Samarstinov, which had been set on fire, 460 charred bodies were found, many showing signs of brutal torture. In the cellars, bodies were piled up layer upon layer almost to the ceiling. Owing to the stench of the decomposing corpses, the German commander of Lvov ordered all doors to the cellars bricked up after the bodies were covered with lime.

On June 26-27, 1941, some 520 Ukrainians were shot at Sambor, and at Zlochev, another 700, including the entire local intelligentsia, were arrested and shot on July 16, 1941. At Kremenets, between 100 and 150 were killed and when the bodies were recovered some bodies were without skin, having been thrown into boiling water.

Altogether, in the Ukraine, around 10,000 Ukrainian and Polish political prisoners were killed in their prisons. It is a sad fact that many members of the NKVD execution squads in the Ukraine, were Jewish collaborators. These collaborators were hated by other Jews more than the German SS. (A memorial plaque at the former headquarters of the NKVD/KGB in Simferpol, Ukraine, is engraved with the names of thirty NKVD agents who gave their lives in the Great Patriotic War (the Soviet name for World War II). The amazing thing is that all thirty names are Jewish!

About half a million Jews served in the Red Army and approximately 200,000 were killed. A total of 160,000 Jewish soldiers were decorated with Soviet awards, 145 receiving the highest Soviet award, 'Hero of the Soviet Union'. Two Jewish women were also awarded this honour. (Many Soviet soldiers, after capture, joined the Waffen SS. The 30th SS Division was composed of such troops.)

Photo: German and Russian soldiers stroll around Sambor after the German-Soviet invasion of Poland.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 18:37:49 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213614-520-ukrainians-were-shot-at-sambor.html
Samarstinov: thousands of Ukrainian and Polish political prisoners were murdered in their cells ... https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213613-samarstinov-thousands-of-ukrainian-and-polish-political-prisoners-were-murdered-in-their-cells-by-the-soviet-nkvd-kgb.html

During the week of 22/29 June, 1941, thousands of Ukrainian and Polish political prisoners were murdered in their cells by the Soviet NKVD (KGB). The Soviets' hurried retreat had tragic consequences for all political prisoners in the jails of Western Ukraine. Soon after the German attack on the Soviet Union, the retreating Soviets had no time to care for their prisoners locked up in prisons in the Ukraine, so they were simply killed.

In some cities the whole prison was set on fire and the helpless prisoners burned to death. In Lutsk, 2,800 out of the 4000 inmates in the NKVD prison, were murdered. When the German 49th Army Corps occupied the Polish-Ukrainian city of Lvov, (now Limberg) around 2,400 dead bodies were found by German troops in the NKVD prison. Some were killed by hand-grenades thrown into their cells, most were killed by a shot in the neck. In the cellars of the Brygidky Prison on Palczymska Street, 423 bodies were recovered.

Hundreds more were piled up in the courtyard. In the military prison at Samarstinov, which had been set on fire, 460 charred bodies were found, many showing signs of brutal torture. In the cellars, bodies were piled up layer upon layer almost to the ceiling. Owing to the stench of the decomposing corpses, the German commander of Lvov ordered all doors to the cellars bricked up after the bodies were covered with lime. On June 26-27, 1941, some 520 Ukrainians were shot at Sambor, and at Zlochev, another 700, including the entire local intelligentsia, were arrested and shot on July 16, 1941. At Kremenets, between 100 and 150 were killed and when the bodies were recovered some bodies were without skin, having been thrown into boiling water.

Altogether, in the Ukraine, around 10,000 Ukrainian and Polish political prisoners were killed in their prisons. It is a sad fact that many members of the NKVD execution squads in the Ukraine, were Jewish collaborators. These collaborators were hated by other Jews more than the German SS. (A memorial plaque at the former headquarters of the NKVD/KGB in Simferpol, Ukraine, is engraved with the names of thirty NKVD agents who gave their lives in the Great Patriotic War (the Soviet name for World War II). The amazing thing is that all thirty names are Jewish!

About half a million Jews served in the Red Army and approximately 200,000 were killed. A total of 160,000 Jewish soldiers were decorated with Soviet awards, 145 receiving the highest Soviet award, 'Hero of the Soviet Union'. Two Jewish women were also awarded this honour. (Many Soviet soldiers, after capture, joined the Waffen SS. The 30th SS Division was composed of such troops.)

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 18:10:14 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213613-samarstinov-thousands-of-ukrainian-and-polish-political-prisoners-were-murdered-in-their-cells-by-the-soviet-nkvd-kgb.html
Lutsk: Thousands of Ukrainian and Polish political prisoners were murdered in their cells by ... https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213612-lutsk-thousands-of-ukrainian-and-polish-political-prisoners-were-murdered-in-their-cells-by-the-soviet-nkvd-kgb.html

During the week of 22/29 June, 1941, thousands of Ukrainian and Polish political prisoners were murdered in their cells by the Soviet NKVD (KGB). The Soviets' hurried retreat had tragic consequences for all political prisoners in the jails of Western Ukraine. Soon after the German attack on the Soviet Union, the retreating Soviets had no time to care for their prisoners locked up in prisons in the Ukraine, so they were simply killed.

In some cities the whole prison was set on fire and the helpless prisoners burned to death. In Lutsk, 2,800 out of the 4000 inmates in the NKVD prison, were murdered. When the German 49th Army Corps occupied the Polish-Ukrainian city of Lvov, (now Limberg) around 2,400 dead bodies were found by German troops in the NKVD prison. Some were killed by hand-grenades thrown into their cells, most were killed by a shot in the neck. In the cellars of the Brygidky Prison on Palczymska Street, 423 bodies were recovered.

Hundreds more were piled up in the courtyard. In the military prison at Samarstinov, which had been set on fire, 460 charred bodies were found, many showing signs of brutal torture. In the cellars, bodies were piled up layer upon layer almost to the ceiling. Owing to the stench of the decomposing corpses, the German commander of Lvov ordered all doors to the cellars bricked up after the bodies were covered with lime. On June 26-27, 1941, some 520 Ukrainians were shot at Sambor, and at Zlochev, another 700, including the entire local intelligentsia, were arrested and shot on July 16, 1941. At Kremenets, between 100 and 150 were killed and when the bodies were recovered some bodies were without skin, having been thrown into boiling water.

Altogether, in the Ukraine, around 10,000 Ukrainian and Polish political prisoners were killed in their prisons. It is a sad fact that many members of the NKVD execution squads in the Ukraine, were Jewish collaborators. These collaborators were hated by other Jews more than the German SS. (A memorial plaque at the former headquarters of the NKVD/KGB in Simferpol, Ukraine, is engraved with the names of thirty NKVD agents who gave their lives in the Great Patriotic War (the Soviet name for World War II). The amazing thing is that all thirty names are Jewish!

About half a million Jews served in the Red Army and approximately 200,000 were killed. A total of 160,000 Jewish soldiers were decorated with Soviet awards, 145 receiving the highest Soviet award, 'Hero of the Soviet Union'. Two Jewish women were also awarded this honour. (Many Soviet soldiers, after capture, joined the Waffen SS. The 30th SS Division was composed of such troops.)

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 18:03:55 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213612-lutsk-thousands-of-ukrainian-and-polish-political-prisoners-were-murdered-in-their-cells-by-the-soviet-nkvd-kgb.html
406 POW killed by Red Army https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213611-406-pow-killed-by-red-army.html

The area of Grischino lies to the north-west of Stalino (now Donets) an important industrial region in the Ukraine. Occupied by German forces, it was recaptured by a Soviet armored division and again recaptured by the German 7th Armored Division during a counteroffensive in February, 1943.

What they found was the bodies of 406 German soldiers, (P.O.W.s) 58 were members of the Todt Organization, 89 Italian soldiers, 9 Romanian soldiers, 4 Hungarian soldiers and some civilian workers, Ukrainian volunteers and German nurses.

A total of 596 souls had been killed. Most were shot after being dragged from their hiding places in cellars. Many of the bodies were horribly mutilated, ears and noses cut off and genital organs amputated and stuffed into their mouths. Breasts of some of the nurses were cut off, the women being brutally raped. In the cellar of the main train station around 120 Germans were herded into a large storage room and then mowed down with machine guns. It was realized that the Russians had killed every single German they had found there. As with most massacres, there were survivors and in this case, civilian witnesses.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 17:58:53 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213611-406-pow-killed-by-red-army.html
Broniki murders by Red Army https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213610-broniki-murders-by-red-army.html

On July 1st 1941, around 180 German soldiers of the 2nd and 6th Infantry Regiments and the 5th Artillery Regiment were taken prisoner by the Red Army in the town of Broniki. Most were suffering from battle wounds.

Next day, the 2nd of July, advancing Wehrmacht troops discovered 153 bodies in a clover field near the town. All had been brutally murdered. According to the twelve survivors of the massacre, they were taken to the field just off the main road and forced to undress.

All valuables such as money, rings, watches as well as their uniforms, shirts and shoes were stolen. Standing there naked, the prisoners were then fired upon by machine guns and automatic rifles.

A few managed to escape by fleeing to the nearby woods. Similar reports from other regiments gave rise to the suspicion that the Soviets, in the early stages of the war, were not taking any prisoners. There was a division order, according to which every Russian soldier who shoots twenty German soldiers, received a three day leave pass to go home. He also was decorated and raised in rank.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 17:50:21 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213610-broniki-murders-by-red-army.html
Kahtin massacre (Belarus) https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213609-kahtin-massacre-belarus.html

On 22 March 1943, a German convoy was attacked by Soviet partisans near Koziri village just 6 km away from Khatyn, resulting in the deaths of four police officers of Schutzmannschaft Batallion 118, which consisted mostly of Ukrainian collaborators, and Red Army prisoner-of-war volunteers and deserters. Among the dead was Hauptmann Hans Woellke, the battalion's commanding officer. Woellke was an Olympic champion in Berlin in 1936 and an acquaintance of Adolf Hitler.

Troops from the Dirlewanger Brigade, a unit mostly composed of criminals recruited for anti-partisan duties, entered the village and drove the inhabitants from their houses and into a shed, which was then covered with straw and set on fire.[8] The trapped people managed to break down the front doors, but in trying to escape, were killed by machine gun fire. 147 people, including 75 children under 16 years of age, were killed – burned, shot or suffocated in fire. The village was then looted and burned to the ground.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 17:45:36 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213609-kahtin-massacre-belarus.html
Katyn massacre https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213608-katyn-massacre.html

In 1939, during the Russian invasion of Poland, some 14,500 Polish officers were captured and interned in three P.O.W. camps in the Soviet Union. The next time the world heard of these prisoners was a news broadcast on April 13, 1943, from Radio Berlin. It stated that the German Army had discovered mass graves at Katyn, 18 kilometres north-west of Smolensk, near the village of Gneizdovo and containing the bodies of Polish officers.

Eight graves were opened and 4,253 bodies exhumed. All were dressed in Polish uniforms, with badges of rank and medals intact. No watches or rings were found on the corpses. It was established that the bodies were of Polish officers from the camp at Kozielsk, situated in the grounds of a former Monastery, near Orel. Two other camps, at Starobielsk (3,891 men) and at Ostashkov (6,311 men) were wound up and closed in the first days of April, 1940. Whatever happened to these 10,000 odd officers has never been established. They were never seen alive again. From evidence obtained after the war, all prisoners of Kozielsk camp were shot by Stalin's NKVD.


On April 13, 1990, fifty years after the massacre, the USSR for the first time admitted its responsibility for the murders. The whole controversy was finally laid to rest when Boris Yeltsin, handed over the secret files on Katyn to the Polish president, Lech Walesa, on October 14, 1992. In May 1992, in a wood near Kharkov, a Russian private investigation team discovered a mass grave containing 3,891 bodies of Polish officers from the camp at Starobielsk in the Ukraine.

In June of that year, Soviet authorities discovered 30 mass graves at Miednoje, one hundred miles north-west of Moscow. They contained the remains of 6,287 Polish prisoners from the Ostashkov island camp on Lake Seliguer. Before the massacre, 245 officers from Kozielsk, 79 from Starobielsk and 124 from the camp at Ostashkor , were transferred, for no apparent reason, to a camp at Pavlishchev Bor, a hundred miles north-west of the Kozielsk camp. These 448 officers proved to be the only survivors of the Katyn massacre. KGB files state that 21,857 Poles were shot as a result of Stalin's order. In other parts of the Katyn Forest, other graves were discovered containing the bodies of Russian political prisoners who were executed in pre-war days by the NKVD. It seems that the Katyn Forest was the main execution site for Stalin’s secret police. (Not to be confused with the Khatyn murder site near Minsk)

All mention of the Katyn atrocity has been removed from Soviet history textbooks.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 17:39:27 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213608-katyn-massacre.html
Mudering after raid on Norsk-Hydro Vemork plant at Rjukan https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213607-mudering-after-raid-on-norsk-hydro-vemork-plant-at-rjukan.html

TRANDUM FOREST In May, 1945, in the forested area of Trandum, near Oslo, several mass graves were discovered containing the bodies of 194 Allied commandos. Most were Norwegian, 15 were Russian and 6 were British prisoners of war (captured during Operation Freshman, part of the plan to blow up the heavy water plant at Vermok in 1943).

All were males in their early twenties. Some were buried alive as pathologists found their lungs contained sand. The bodies were exhumed and reburied in the Vestre Gravlund (Cemetery) in Oslo with full British and Norwegian military honours.

Fehlis, the head of the Gestapo in Oslo, who signed the execution order, committed suicide just days before Prince Olaf and British representatives accepted the surrender of all German troops in Norway on May 8.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 16:41:51 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213607-mudering-after-raid-on-norsk-hydro-vemork-plant-at-rjukan.html
900 kills at Iasi Rumania https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213606-900-kills-at-iasi-rumania.html

In 1940, the town of Iasi in north west Rumania, on the border with the USSR, consisted of around one hundred thousand inhabitants, many thousands of whom were Jews. Sparked by rumours that Russian parachutists had landed on the outskirts of the town, the national army, Antonescu's Iron Guard, conducted a search of all Jewish homes in the area in the belief that all Jews were Bolshevik agents and therefore allies of the Soviet Union.

Hundreds were arrested and marched to the courtyard of the police station where they were shot to death. Similar arrests and shootings took place in the town's movie theatre. Estimates put the number killed at 900.

The bodies were buried in mass graves previously dug by the victims prior to their deaths. Other Jews in the surrounding areas, between 2,600 and 3,500, were rounded up and put on two trains carrying them to Calarasi and other camps in the interior of the country.

Conditions on board one of the trains that left on the 30th of June were horrific, about one thousand died in transit mostly from suffocation and heat exhaustion during the seventeen hour journey. More died during their two months interment in the camps before being allowed to return to their homes. Only 1,076 Jews of Iasi survived the pogrom.

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fredvogels Tue, 24 Jan 2017 16:35:36 +0100 https://backtonormandy.org/the-history/nazi-terror/execution-spots/213606-900-kills-at-iasi-rumania.html