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The main Jewish battle group, mixed with Polish bandits, had already retired during
the first and second day to the so-called Muranowski Square. There, it was reinforced
by a considerable number of Polish bandits. Its plan was to hold the Ghetto by every
means in order to prevent us from invading it. The Jewish and Polish standards were
hoisted at the top of a concrete building as a challenge to us. These two standards,
however, were captured on the second day of the action by a special raiding party.
SS Untersturmfuehrer Dehmke fell in this skirmish with the bandits; he was holding in
his hand a hand-grenade which was hit by the enemy and exploded, injuring him
fatally. After only a few days I realized that the original plan had no prospect of
success, unless the armament factories and other enterprises of military importance
distributed throughout the Ghetto were dissolved. It was therefore necessary to
approach these firms and to give them appropriate time for being evacuated and
immediately transferred. Thus one of these firms after the other was dealt with, and we
very soon deprived the Jews and bandits of their chance to take refuge time and again
in these enterprises, which were under the supervision of the Armed Forces. In order
to decide how much time was necessary to evacuate these enterprises thorough
inspections were necessary. The conditions discovered there are indescribable. I
cannot imagine a greater chaos than in the Ghetto of Warsaw. The Jews had control
of everything, from the chemical substances used in manufacturing explosives to
clothing and equipment for the Armed Forces. The managers knew so little of their
own shops that the Jews were in a position to produce inside these shops arms of
every kind, especially hand grenades, Molotov cocktails, and the like.
Moreover, the Jews had succeeded
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