Execution @ MindSay 
The Conclusion to Aktion Reinhard
Heinrich Himmler the Reichsfuhrer –SS visited Lublin in March 1943 and toured the death camps of Sobibor and Treblinka, it became clear that the Aktion Reinhard death camps had fulfilled their gruesome task, and that virtually all of the Jews in the General Gouvernment had been exterminated.
The SS were determined to erase all traces of their crimes, and Himmler ordered all the corpses to be exhumed and cremated. In addition the camp structures were to be destroyed the area ploughed over, and trees to be planted.
The first camp to be dismantled and closed was Belzec, with transports ceasing in mid –December 1942, thereafter cremations became the main focus of activity.
SS-Oberscharfuhrer Heinrich Gley made a statement on the 6 February 1962 about the cremations in Belzec:
“I was assigned with a big Jewish work brigade to the cremation of the corpses by means of railway lines which served as a grate. About 80 -90 Jews then worked under my supervision in three shifts.
The cremation site was as long as a rail and about 4-5 m wide. The rails were placed on top of big rocks and narrow-gauge rails served as a cross-mesh.
The cremation surface could take about 200 corpses. First, a wood fire was kindled under the iron grate. During the course of the cremation operation the corpses later served as the only fuel.
From time to time the badly twisted rails had to be replaced by new ones.”
|
Gisela Gdula, On the right Michael Tregenza, Belzec investigator (circa 2002) |
Gisela Gdula a Belzec villager interviewed in 2004 said:
“We used to take round loaves to the camp from our bakery, we saw pyres like a volcano - the villagers had to scrape human fat off the windows.”
Another of the Belzec SS garrison SS-Scharfuhrer Werner Dubois testified:
“The transports to Belzec and consequently the gassing operations, stopped quite suddenly. As staff members of the Belzec camp, we were informed that the place would be rebuilt completely.
A working group of Jews whose size I don’t remember was in charge of the demolition work. It is worth mention that at the time (March – April 1943) the cremation of the corpses was terminated and the graves levelled.
The camp was emptied entirely and levelled accordingly. I heard that some planting was done there. The Jewish work commando, after accomplishing this work, was taken to Sobibor.
I remained in Belzec for two more days, together with some of my colleagues and guards, to carry out the last clearing and loading. Some time later when I was in Sobibor, I heard that during the transport of the Jewish work commando from Belzec to Sobibor some mutiny and shooting took place which led to some deaths.”
After the camp buildings were dismantled and the German and Ukrainian staff had left people from the neighbouring villages and townships started digging in the area of the camp, searching for gold and valuables. A Pole Edward Luczynski, who lived in Belzec, testified:
Read more about the conclusion to Aktion Reinhard here:
http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ar/arconclusion.html
The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
www.HolocaustResearchProject.org
Read more here
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
Jan. 3, 2007 – U.S. involvement in the Dec. 29 execution of Saddam Hussein amounted to providing helicopter transport at the request of the Iraqi government, a U.S. military spokesman said in Baghdad today. Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV emphasized to reporters that all aspects of the execution were a sovereign Iraqi matter.
Caldwell explained that while the U.S. military had maintained physical control over Saddam during his incarceration, the Iraqi government had legal custody of the deposed dictator throughout that time. Whenever transport was required - to bring Saddam to his courtroom appearances, for example - the U.S. military provided the transport at the request of the Iraqi government.
When the Iraqi government asked that Saddam be transported to his execution site, the general said, normal transport procedures were followed.
"I guess the most important thing to know is that we continued operating just as we always have, dealing with the logistics, specifically both the security and the transportation of Saddam; that is, the routine matter that we've been doing ever since we took physical control of him," Caldwell said.
After U.S. military police delivered Saddam to a holding room near the execution site at a Baghdad prison and appropriate legal paperwork was signed, American authorities "had absolutely nothing to do with any of the (execution) procedures or any of the control mechanisms or anything from that point forward," Caldwell said.
News reports say Saddam was taunted by some observers just before he was hanged and that others present may have taken cell-phone-video images of the execution. Some of that purported video has circulated on the Internet and portions of it have been broadcast by media outlets. The Iraqi government has called for an investigation of the matter, Caldwell said. News reports today say an Iraqi official has been arrested for allegedly taking images of the execution with a cell phone camera.
"We had absolutely nothing to do whatsoever with the facility where the execution took place," Caldwell emphasized. "We were not involved in any search of any people, we had nobody present, we did not dictate any requirements that had to be followed. ... The multinational force had absolutely no direct involvement with that whatsoever."
After the execution, Caldwell said, the Iraqi government requested U.S. helicopter support to fly some Iraqis from Baghdad to Tikrit. The Iraqis loaded Saddam's body into a helicopter, he said, and the former dictator's remains and they were transported north.
Caldwell acknowledged that coalition officials would not have made all the same decisions regarding the execution, but pointed out that those decisions were the Iraqi government's to make. "This is a sovereign nation; they made the decisions they made," he said. "But we, as a coalition force, would have done it differently."
Saddam was tried and found guilty of crimes against humanity by an Iraqi court. An appeals court upheld the former dictator's conviction and death sentence for his complicity in the murder of 148 people living in the Iraqi city of Dujail in 1982.
Article sponsored by criminal justice leadership; and, police and military personnel who have become authors.
Showing 1 - 5. [ Next ]
