June 2026

Report dated April 5, 1942
Contemporary Source

1942-04-05 / German Army in Mariampol (Lithuania): Reinforce “Jewish Graves With an Additional Covering of Earth”

Medical Services Report issued by the Ortskommandantur in Mariampol (Lithuania) on 5 April 1942. the report notes the need to reinforce “the Jewish graves at the edge of the barracks grounds with an additional covering of earth, because runoff from precipitation and flooding (the graves are located directly on the bank of the Sesupe River and are covered only by a 50 cm layer of earth) have washed away the covering layer and exposed the corpses”.

Situation report dated January 13, 1944
Contemporary Source

1944-01-13 / Security Police Kovno Situation Report: “64 Laborers Deployed At Fort IX As Part Of Operation 1005 B Broke Out”

Situation report dated 13 January 1944 from the Commander of the Security Police and SD in Kovno. According to the report, on 25 December 1943, “64 laborers deployed at Fort IX as part of Operation 1005 B broke out”. Subsequent search operations resulted in the recapture of “37 of the escapees” of whom “5 were shot while fleeing”. The escape involved Jewish prisoners assigned to the Sonderkommando 1005 body-disposal site at Fort IX. The incident was later reported up the chain of command to Himmler, including discussion of how to deal with the guards held responsible.

Perpetrator

Willi Lenz (1894–1945): The “Doctor” of Kulmhof

Willi Lenz, a Schutzpolizei officer born in 1894, was one of the most brutal perpetrators at the Kulmhof (Chełmno) extermination camp. Known as the “Doctor,” he supervised forced laborers in the forest camp, personally shot those who were exhausted or survived the gas vans, and later used his experience in operations to exhume and burn the bodies of Nazi victims. Returning to Kulmhof in 1944, he continued killing prisoners during the liquidation of the Łódź Ghetto. In January 1945, while helping to execute the camp’s remaining Jewish prisoners before the German retreat, Lenz was killed during their resistance in the granary.

Report dated November 11, 1943 Vilna Ghetto executions
Contemporary Source

1943-11-11 / The Security Police in Vilna: “8,019 Jews, Jewesses, and Jewish Children Have Been Executed”

On 9 November 1943, the Commander of the Security Police and SD in Lithuania sent a telex to the Vilna office and ordered the preparation of a report on the “executive/security situation in all of Lithuania for the year 1943 up to the present”. The Security Police office in Vilna submitted its report two days later, on 11 November 1943. On the Jews, the report stated that the Vilna Ghetto and the smaller rural ghettos together had contained “24,180 Jews”. Of these, “8,019 Jews, Jewesses, and Jewish children have been executed”, while a further “14,000 Jews were registered and dispatched in collective transports” for forced labor in the Vaivara oil shale region. According to the report, only “2,382 Jews in the city district of Vilna and 1,720 in the rural district” remained.

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