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…
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…
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….
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….
1942-01-29 / Guidelines for the Occupied Eastern Territories: “Elimination of Jewry […] Fairly Rapid Solution of the Jewish Question”
On 29 January 1942, the office of the Reichsführer-SS forwarded to the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories a proposed version of guidelines for the “Jewish question.” The guideline states that “the Jewish question must be solved generally for all of Europe” and that “measures in the occupied eastern territories which serve the final solution of the Jewish question…
1941-09-04 / “All Jews Were liquidated” – A Lithuanian Police Report During Nazi Occupation
Report dated September 4, 1941, from the Kaišiadorys police precinct (Trakai district, Lithuania) to the head of the Trakai district. The document records that “on August 27 … all citizens of Jewish nationality were liquidated – shot by members of the auxiliary police who had arrived from Kaunas and by German soldiers.” The author then turns to administrative matters and…