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to clean up with the war criminals,
once and forever, to create for our descendants a more beautiful and eternal
Germany. We don't sleep here. Every week 3-4 actions, one time gypsies, the
other time Jews, partisans, and other rabble. It is very nice that we have now
an SD unit [SD Aussenkommando] with which I can work excellently."
(NO-5655.) |
In another letter this officer becomes very
sentimental and is sorry for himself that he is far away from home and thinks
of his children, "One could weep sometimes. It is not good to be such a friend
of children as I was." However, this does not prevent him from taking up
lodging in a former children's asylum. |
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"I have a cozy apartment in a
former children's asylum. One bedroom and a living room with all the
accessories." (NO-2653.) |
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE
ENTERPRISE |
|
One million human corpses is a concept too
bizarre and too fantastical for normal mental comprehension. As suggested
before, the mention of one million deaths produces no shock at all commensurate
with its enormity because to the average brain one million is more a symbol
than a quantitative measure. However, if one reads through the reports of the
Einsatzgruppen and observes the small numbers getting larger, climbing into ten
thousand, tens of thousands, a hundred thousand and beyond, then one can at
last believe that this actually happened the cold-blooded, premeditated
killing of one million human beings.
Operation Report 88, reporting on
the activities of only one Kommando, states that up to 6 September 1941, this
Kommando 4a "has taken care of a total of 11,328
Jews."
Einsatzgruppe A, reporting its activities up to 15 October
1941, very casually declares, "In Latvia, up to now, 30,000 Jews were executed
in all." (L-180.)
Einsatzgruppe D, reporting on an operation
near Kikerino, announces that the operational area has been "cleared of Jews.
From 19 August to 25 September 1941, 8,890 Jews and Communists were executed.
Total number 13,315." (NO-3148.)
This same Einsatzgruppe
communicated from Nikolaev as of 5 November 1941, that total executions had
reached the figure of 31,767. (NO-3159.)
Reporting on one
month's activities (October 1941), Einsatzgruppe B advised that "during the
period of the report, the liquidations of 37,180 people took place."
(NO-2656.)
Einsatzgruppe C, reporting on its operations in Kiev
as of 12 October 1941, declared that Sonderkommando 4a had now reached the
total number of more than 51,000 executions. (NO-3155.)
The
Commissioner General for White Ruthenia reported with self-approbation on 10
August 1942
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427 |