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Copy.
Teletype message
From: The SS and Police Fuehrer in the District of Warsaw
Warsaw, 27 April 1943.
Ref. No.: I ab/St/Gr16 07Journal No. 555/43 secret.
Re: Ghetto Operation
To: The Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and General
of Police Krueger or deputy.
Cracow
Progress of operation on 27 April 1943. Start: 0900 hrs.
For today's operation I formed 24 raiding parties with the same task as on
several days of last week; they had to search the former Ghetto in smaller
groups. These search parties pulled 780 Jews out of dug-outs and shot 115 Jews
who resisted. This operation was terminated about 1500 hrs.; some of the
parties had to continue to operate because they had found more dug-outs.
At 1600 hrs. a special battle group, 320 officers and men strong, started
cleansing a large block of buildings situated on both sides of the so-called
Niska Street in the Northeastern part of the former Ghetto. After the search
the entire block was set on fire, after having been completely cordoned off. In
this action a considerable number of Jews were caught. As before, they remained
in the dug-outs, which were either below the ground or in the lofts of the
buildings until the end. They fired their arms to the last moment, and then
jumped down into the street, sometimes from as far up as the fourth floor,
having previously thrown down beds, mattresses, etc., but not until the flames
made any other escape impossible. A total of 2,560 Jews were caught today
within the former Ghetto, of whom 547 were shot. Moreover, Jews in a not
ascertainable number perished when dug-outs were blown up, or in the flames.
The sum total of Jews. formerly residing in the Ghetto caught in this action,
now amounts to 31,746.
We learned from an anonymous letter that there were a considerable number of
Jews in a block of buildings adjoining the Northeastern part of the Ghetto, but
outside of it. A special raiding party under the command of 1st. Lt. of Police
Diehl was dispatched to attack these buildings. The raiding party discovered a
gang of about 120 men, strongly armed with pistols, rifles, hand grenades, and
light machine guns, who resisted. They succeeded in destroying 24 bandits in
battle and arresting 52 bandits. The remainder could not be caught or
destroyed, since darkness
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