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{{Short description|Wehrmacht sergeant in World War II}}
{{notability|date=June 2014}}
{{Infobox person
[[File:Wilhelm Cornides.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Wilhelm Cornides]]
| name = Wilhelm Cornides
[[File:Cornides map.jpg|thumb|right|180px|German wartime map showing Cornides' route.]]
| image = Wilhelm Cornides.jpg
'''Wilhelm Cornides''' (July 20, 1920 – July 15, 1966) was a [[Wehrmacht]] sergeant in World War II known as the author of the ''Cornides Report'', a report concerning his first hand experience of the extermination of [[Jews]] at the [[Belzec extermination camp|Belzec]] concentration camp. He was the founder of Europa-Archiv (renamed [[Internationale Politik]] in 1995), the first post-war publication in [[Occupied Germany]] in Dec. 1946. In 1955 he was instrumental along with [[Theodor Steltzer]], [[Minister-President]] of [[Schleswig Holstein]] and former member of the [[Kreisau Circle]] with founding the [[German Council on Foreign Relations]], known by the [[acronym]] DGAP, for its German spelling (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik). Cornides was a member of the Oldenbourg family, owners of ''R. Oldenbourg Verlag'' (publishers). A German publishing house started in 1858 by Rudolf Oldenbourg.
| image_size = 200px
| caption = Wilhelm Cornides, magazine print
| birth_date = 20 July 1920
| birth_place = [[München]], Germany
| death_date = {{dda|1966|7|15|1920|7|20|df=y}}
| death_place =
| occupation = [[Publisher]]
}}
'''Wilhelm Cornides''' (20 July 1920 &ndash; 15 July 1966) was a [[Wehrmacht]] sergeant in World War II, serving in the [[General Government]] territory. He was the author of the ''Cornides Report'', which contains his account of the extermination of [[History of the Jews in Poland|Jews]] at [[Bełżec extermination camp|Belzec]] during [[The Holocaust in Poland|the Holocaust]]. In December 1946 Cornides became the founder of ''Europa-Archiv'' (renamed ''[[Internationale Politik]]'' in 1995), the first post-war magazine in [[Allied-occupied Germany]]. In 1955 he was instrumental along with [[Theodor Steltzer]], [[Minister-President]] of [[Schleswig Holstein]] and former member of the dissident [[Kreisau Circle]], in founding the [[German Council on Foreign Relations]] (''Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik'', DGAP). Through his mother Cäcilie (Cilla) von Oldenbourg, Cornides was a member of the Oldenbourg family, owners of ''Oldenbourg Verlag'' publishers; a German publishing house founded in 1858 by Rudolf Oldenbourg.<ref name="phdn1">{{cite web | url=http://www.phdn.org/histgen/cornides/index.html | title=Lire l'introduction sur Wilhelm Cornides. | publisher=Pratique de l'histoire et dévoiements négationnistes PHDN: depuis 1996 | work=Wilhelm Cornides notes sur Belzec - août-septembre 1942 | date=2014 | accessdate=7 May 2015 | author=Gilles Karmasyn}}</ref>

==Holocaust witness==
==Holocaust witness==
[[File:Cornides map.jpg|thumb|upright|German wartime map showing Cornides' route.]]
On August 30, 1942 Cornides, was in the [[Rzeszów]] rail station, on his way to [[Chełm]] by train. In his journal he wrote that a railway policeman had told him that ''‘a marble plaque with golden letters will be erected on 1 September, because then the city will be "Judenfrei"'' (free of Jews). The policeman also told him that trains filled with Jews ''"pass almost daily through the shunting yards, are dispatched immediately on their way, and return swept clean, most often the same evening."'' ''Some 6,000 Jews from [[Jarosław]], were recently killed in one day."''


On 30 August 1942, during the [[occupation of Poland]] by [[Nazi Germany]], Cornides was in [[Rzeszów]] (renamed Reichshof), on his way to the city of [[Chełm]] (Cholm) by train. He wrote a private journal to pass the time, recording things he would not want to talk about with anyone else. He wrote what a German railway policeman told him, that the area would soon be free of Jews (''[[Judenfrei]]''), since every day freight trains packed with Jews from the ''Generalgouvernement'' passed through the railway yard, and come back in the evening empty and swept clean. The policeman said he had seen 6,000 Jews from [[Jarosław]] (Jaroslau) recently killed in one day.<ref name="heart-cornides"/> Cornides made also several entries about what he had seen himself. His observations surfaced in 1959, typewritten on three letter size sheets.<ref>Gilles Karmasyn & PHDN (2009), [http://www.phdn.org/histgen/cornides/facsimcornides.html Facsimiles of Cornides notes with the French introduction.] Featuring photocopy of 3 typewritten pages (not the original diary), stamped by Institut fur Zeitgeschichte (ED-81).</ref> They were published in July 1959 by historian [[Hans Rothfels]] in the German quarterly ''Journal of Contemporary History'' (''Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte'').<ref name="phdn1"/> By that time, the much more revealing [[Gerstein Report]] which featured shocking details about the extermination process at [[Bełżec extermination camp|Belzec]] was already well known in Germany.<ref>{{citation |author=Florent Brayard |title=An Early Report by Kurt Gerstein (with introduction)|url=http://bcrfj.revues.org/index3022.html |year=2000 |publisher=Bulletin du Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem, 6 / 2000. }}</ref><ref name=dcgr>[http://www.deathcamps.org/belzec/gerstein.html Gerstein Report (in English translation)] ARC 2006. Retrieved 7 May 2015.</ref>
Cornides took a regular passenger train from Rzeszów to Chełm, he arrived in [[Rawa Ruska]] on August 31, and made further entries in his journal;


===Diary entries===
''"At ten minutes past noon I saw a transport train run into the station. On the roof and running boards sat guards with rifles. One could see from a distance that the cars were jammed full of people. I turned and walked along the whole train: it consisted of 35 cattle cars and one passenger car.''
Cornides took a regular German passenger train from Rzeszów to Chełm and spoke with the other passengers. He arrived at [[Rawa Ruska]] junction around noon on 31 August 1942 and made further entries in his journal later that day.<ref name="heart-cornides">{{cite web | url=http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ar/belzec/Belzec%20Eyewitness/Belzeceywitness.html | title=Cornides report | publisher=Holocaust Research Project.org | work=Belzec Death Camp | date=2007 | accessdate=6 May 2015 | author=S.J.; H.E.A.R.T | quote=''Sources:'' Martin Gilbert, Peter Longerich, Max Freiherr Du Prel.}}</ref>
''In each of the cars there were at least 60 Jews (in the case of the enlisted men's or prisoner transports these wagons would hold 40 men; however, the benches had been removed and one could see that those who were locked in here had to stand pressed together). Some of the doors were opened a crack, the windows criss-crossed with barbed wire. Among the locked-in people there were a few men and most of those were old; everything else was women, girls and children. Many children crowded at the windows and the narrow door openings. The youngest were surely not more than two years old.''
[[File:Zug der Erinnerung 20080407-DSCF0388.jpg|thumb|left|160px|World War II era [[Reichsbahn]] passenger car.]]
''As soon as the train halted, the Jews attempted to pass out bottles in order to get water. The train, however, was surrounded by SS guards, so that no one could come near. At that moment a train arrived from the direction of Jarosław; the travellers streamed toward the exit without bothering about the transport. A few Jews who were busy loading a car for the armed forces waved their caps to the locked-in people.''
[[File:Güterwagen Oppeln der DR (heute im Besitz der Freunde der historischen Hafenbahn e.V.).jpg|thumb|right|160px|A Reichsbahn "goods wagon", one of the types used for deportations.]]


{{quote|At ten minutes past noon I saw a transport train run into the station. On the roof and running boards sat guards with rifles. One could see from a distance that the cars were jammed full of people. I turned and walked along the whole train: it consisted of 35 cattle cars and one passenger car. In each of the cars there were at least 60 Jews – in the case of the enlisted men's or prisoner transports these wagons would hold 40 men; however, the benches had been removed and one could see that those who were locked in here had to stand pressed together. Some of the doors were opened a crack, the windows criss-crossed with barbed wire. Among the locked-in people there were a few men and most of those were old; everything else was women, girls and children. Many children crowded at the windows and the narrow door openings. The youngest were surely not more than two years old.<ref name="heart-cornides"/>}}
''I talked to a policeman on duty at the railway station. Upon my question as to where the Jews actually came from, he answered:
"Those are probably the last ones from [[Lemberg Ghetto|Lwów]]. That has been going on now for three weeks uninterruptedly. In Jarosław they only let eight remain, no one knows why."
I asked: "How far are they going?" Then he said: "To Belzec." "And then?" ''
''"Poison." I asked: "Gas?" He shrugged his shoulders. Then he said only:''
''"At the beginning they always shot them, I believe."''<ref>Final Journey The fate of the Jews in Nazi Europe by Martin Gilbert Publisher: New York, New York Mayflower Books (January 1, 1979)
ASIN: B0027U6TUQ</ref><ref>Peter Longerich,Die Ermordung der europäischen Juden. Eine umfassende Dokumentation des Holocaust,Piper, Munich, 1989 (contains reproduction of Cornides notes).</ref>


[[File:Güterwagen Oppeln der DR (heute im Besitz der Freunde der historischen Hafenbahn e.V.).jpg|thumb|upright|A Reichsbahn "goods wagon", one of the types used for deportations.]]
The things he learned on this journey were so extraordinary that he made three separate entries in his diary within an hour. The first entry made at 5.30 pm.

{{quote|I talked to a policeman on duty at the railway station. Upon my question as to where the Jews actually came from, he answered: "Those are probably the last ones from Lvow [i.e. the [[Lwów Ghetto]]]. That has been going on now for three weeks uninterruptedly. In Jarosław they only let eight remain, no one knows why." I asked: "How far are they going?" Then he said: "To Belzec." "And then?" "Poison." I asked: "Gas?" He shrugged his shoulders. Then he said only: "At the beginning they always shot them I believe."<ref name="heart-gilbert">[[Martin Gilbert]] (1979), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=yO-EAAAAIAAJ&q=Cornides Final Journey. The fate of the Jews in Nazi Europe]'' Publisher: New York, New York Mayflower Books, ASIN: B0027U6TUQ.</ref><ref>[[Peter Longerich]], ''Die Ermordung der europäischen Juden. Eine umfassende Dokumentation des Holocaust'', Piper, Munich, 1989 (contains reproduction of Cornides notes).</ref>}}

Cornides lounged at the ''Deutsches Haus'' in Rawa Ruska before he boarded the connecting train to Chełm the same evening.<!-- arrived at Rawa Ruska around noon, August 31, 1942 --> In the next hour, he made three separate entries in his diary. The first, written at 5.30 pm, stated that what he had learned was extraordinary.<ref name="heart-cornides"/>
''“When we boarded at 4.40pm an entry transport had just arrived. I walked along the train twice and counted 56 cars. On the doors had been written in chalk 60, 70, once 90, occasionally 40 – obviously the number of Jews inside the cattle cars. In my compartment I spoke with a railway policeman’s wife who was visiting her husband here. She says these transports are now passing through daily, sometimes also with German Jews. Yesterday six children’s bodies were found along the track.
{{quote|When we boarded at 4:40 pm an inbound transport had just arrived. I walked along the train twice and counted 56 cars. On the doors had been written in chalk: '60', '70', once '90', occasionally '40' – obviously the number of Jews inside the cattle cars. In my compartment I spoke with a railway policeman’s wife who was visiting her husband here. She says these transports are now passing through daily, sometimes also with the German Jews. Yesterday six children’s bodies were found along the track.<ref name="heart-cornides"/>}}

The woman thinks that the Jews themselves had killed these children – but they must have succumbed during the trip. The railway policeman who was escorting the train joined us in our compartment. He confirmed the woman’s statement about the children’s bodies which were found along the track yesterday. I asked.
==Belzec camp==
==Belzec camp==
[[File:WW2-Holocaust-Poland.PNG|222px|thumb|right|Location of Bełżec (lower centre) on the map of German extermination camps marked with black and white skulls]]
''“Do the Jews know what is happening to them? The woman answered
[[File:Belzec - SS staff (1942).jpg|thumb|Belzec extermination camp SS staff, 1942]]
“Those who come from far won’t know anything, but here in the vicinity they know already. They attempt to run away, if they notice that someone is coming for them. So for example, most recently in Chelm, three were shot on the way through the city.”
[[File:Railway siding Belzec death camp.JPG|thumb|[[Belzec extermination camp]] railway sidings]]
“In the railway documents these trains run under the name of resettlement transports,” remarked the railway policeman. He then said that after the murder of Reinhard Heydrich several transports containing Czechs had passed through.

Camp Belzec is supposed to be located right on the railway line and the woman promised to show it to me when we pass it. 5.40pm – a short halt.
In his train compartment, Cornides talked to a German woman who had witnessed the round-up of Jews at Chełm and the shooting of those who tried to escape. The railway policeman said: "In the railway documents these trains run under the name of resettlement transports," and added that after the murder of [[Reinhard Heydrich]] by Czech resistance members, several trains filled with Czech Jews had passed through. Camp Belzec was located on the railway line. The woman promised to point it out to Cornides when they passed it. The entry in his diary reads:<ref name="heart-cornides"/><ref name="gilbert211">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O1tQBqXORb8C&q=Cornides | title=Holocaust Journey: Travelling in Search of the Past | publisher=Columbia University Press | work=Day 8. [[Cracow]] – [[Zamosc]] | date=1997 | accessdate=7 May 2015 | author=Martin Gilbert | pages=211–212| isbn=9780231109642 }}</ref>
Opposite us a transport again stops. I speak with the policeman in front of the compartment we ride in. I ask.

“Are you going back home to the Reich?”
{{quote|6:20 p.m. We passed Camp Belzec. Before then, we traveled for some time through a tall pine forest. When the woman called: "Now it comes," one could see a high hedge of fir trees. A strong sweetish odour could be made out distinctly. "But they are stinking already," says the woman. "Oh nonsense, it is only the gas," the railway policeman said, laughing. Meanwhile – we had gone on about 200 meters – the sweetish odour was transformed into a strong smell of something burning. "That is from the crematory," said the policeman.
Grinning – he says.

“You probably know where we are coming from. Well for us the work is never finished.”
A short distance further on, the fence stopped. In front of it, one could see a guard house with an SS post. A double track led into the camp. One track branched off from the main line, the other ran over a turntable from the camp to a row of sheds some 250 meters away. A freight car happened to stand on the turntable. Several Jews were busy turning the disk. SS guards, rifles under their arms, stood by. One of the sheds was open; one could distinctly see that it was filled to the ceiling with bundles of clothes. As we went on, I looked back one more time. The fence was too high to see anything at all.<ref name="heart-cornides"/>}}
Then the transport opposite us moves away, 35 empty and cleaned wagons. In all probability this was the train that I had seen at 1pm at Rawa Ruska station.
6.20pm – we passed Camp Belzec. Before then, we travelled for some time through a tall pine forest. When the woman called “Now it comes.”
In his typewritten pages, Cornides also summarized conversations with other Germans he met during his stopover in the ''Deutsches Haus'' at Rawa Ruska, as well as statements he remembered from Chełm upon his arrival there.
One could see a high hedge of fir trees. A strong sweetish odour could be made out distinctly. “But they are stinking already.” – says the woman.''''

{{quote|A policeman in the townhall restaurant at Cholm (Chełm) on 1 September 1942 said: "The policemen who guard the Jewish transports are not allowed inside the camp, only the SS and the Ukrainian ''[[Sonderdienst]]'' – a police formation consisting of Ukrainian auxiliaries – do so [''see [[Trawniki men]] for more historical background'']. Thereby, they have created a good business. Recently a Ukrainian was here who had a great wad of notes, clocks and gold – everything imaginable. They find all of this when they gather and ship the clothing." In answer to the question: "In which way were the Jews killed?" the policeman answered: "Someone tells them that they must be deloused. Then they undress and enter a room into which at first a heatwave is let in, and thereby they already have received one small dose of gas. It is enough to act as a local anaesthetic. The rest then follows and then they are immediately burned."<ref name="heart-cornides"/>}}


==See also==
==See also==
{{Div col}}
[[Gerstein Report]]
* [[Special Prosecution Book-Poland]], 1937–1939
* [[Jäger Report]], 1941
* [[Einsatzgruppen reports]], 1941–1942
* [[Riegner Telegram]], 1942
* [[Höfle Telegram]], 1943
* [[Katzmann Report]], 1943
* [[Korherr Report]], 1943
* [[Gerstein Report]], 1945
* [[Bibliography of the Holocaust#Primary sources|Bibliography of the Holocaust § Primary Sources]]
{{div col end}}


==References==
==References==
{{Reflist}}
<references/>


==External links==
==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100924121416/http://holocaust-info.dk/belzec/belzec_deportations.htm Deportations to Belzec Arad, pp. 383-389] Table with exact dates and numbers (Internet Archive). Retrieved 5 May 2015.
*[http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ar/belzec/Belzec%20Eyewitness/Belzeceywitness.html Cornides report]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100717033454/http://en.dgap.org/dgap/about_us/history/ The German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) from its beginnings] Wayback Machine
*[http://www.phdn.org/histgen/cornides/facsimcornides.html Cornides Notes]
*[http://www.ip-global.org/ International Politik, English version] homepage.
*[http://holocaust-info.dk/belzec/belzec_deportations.htm Deportations to Belzec Arad, pp. 383-389]
*[http://en.dgap.org/dgap/about_us/history/ DGAP]
*[http://www.ip-global.org/ International Politik English version]


{{The Holocaust}}
{{The Holocaust}}
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{{Authority control}}
{{Authority control}}


{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
| NAME = Cornides, Wilhelm
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION = German writer
| DATE OF BIRTH = July 20, 1920
| PLACE OF BIRTH =
| DATE OF DEATH = July 15, 1966
| PLACE OF DEATH =
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cornides, Wilhelm}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cornides, Wilhelm}}
[[Category:1920 births]]
[[Category:1920 births]]
[[Category:1966 deaths]]
[[Category:1966 deaths]]
[[Category:German military personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:German Army soldiers of World War II]]
[[Category:Bełżec extermination camp]]
[[Category:Belzec extermination camp]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Munich]]
[[Category:Place of death missing]]
[[Category:Witnesses to The Holocaust]]

Latest revision as of 17:00, 25 March 2024

Wilhelm Cornides
Wilhelm Cornides, magazine print
Born20 July 1920
München, Germany
Died15 July 1966(1966-07-15) (aged 45)
OccupationPublisher

Wilhelm Cornides (20 July 1920 – 15 July 1966) was a Wehrmacht sergeant in World War II, serving in the General Government territory. He was the author of the Cornides Report, which contains his account of the extermination of Jews at Belzec during the Holocaust. In December 1946 Cornides became the founder of Europa-Archiv (renamed Internationale Politik in 1995), the first post-war magazine in Allied-occupied Germany. In 1955 he was instrumental along with Theodor Steltzer, Minister-President of Schleswig Holstein and former member of the dissident Kreisau Circle, in founding the German Council on Foreign Relations (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik, DGAP). Through his mother Cäcilie (Cilla) von Oldenbourg, Cornides was a member of the Oldenbourg family, owners of Oldenbourg Verlag publishers; a German publishing house founded in 1858 by Rudolf Oldenbourg.[1]

Holocaust witness

[edit]
German wartime map showing Cornides' route.

On 30 August 1942, during the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany, Cornides was in Rzeszów (renamed Reichshof), on his way to the city of Chełm (Cholm) by train. He wrote a private journal to pass the time, recording things he would not want to talk about with anyone else. He wrote what a German railway policeman told him, that the area would soon be free of Jews (Judenfrei), since every day freight trains packed with Jews from the Generalgouvernement passed through the railway yard, and come back in the evening empty and swept clean. The policeman said he had seen 6,000 Jews from Jarosław (Jaroslau) recently killed in one day.[2] Cornides made also several entries about what he had seen himself. His observations surfaced in 1959, typewritten on three letter size sheets.[3] They were published in July 1959 by historian Hans Rothfels in the German quarterly Journal of Contemporary History (Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte).[1] By that time, the much more revealing Gerstein Report which featured shocking details about the extermination process at Belzec was already well known in Germany.[4][5]

Diary entries

[edit]

Cornides took a regular German passenger train from Rzeszów to Chełm and spoke with the other passengers. He arrived at Rawa Ruska junction around noon on 31 August 1942 and made further entries in his journal later that day.[2]

At ten minutes past noon I saw a transport train run into the station. On the roof and running boards sat guards with rifles. One could see from a distance that the cars were jammed full of people. I turned and walked along the whole train: it consisted of 35 cattle cars and one passenger car. In each of the cars there were at least 60 Jews – in the case of the enlisted men's or prisoner transports these wagons would hold 40 men; however, the benches had been removed and one could see that those who were locked in here had to stand pressed together. Some of the doors were opened a crack, the windows criss-crossed with barbed wire. Among the locked-in people there were a few men and most of those were old; everything else was women, girls and children. Many children crowded at the windows and the narrow door openings. The youngest were surely not more than two years old.[2]

A Reichsbahn "goods wagon", one of the types used for deportations.

I talked to a policeman on duty at the railway station. Upon my question as to where the Jews actually came from, he answered: "Those are probably the last ones from Lvow [i.e. the Lwów Ghetto]. That has been going on now for three weeks uninterruptedly. In Jarosław they only let eight remain, no one knows why." I asked: "How far are they going?" Then he said: "To Belzec." "And then?" "Poison." I asked: "Gas?" He shrugged his shoulders. Then he said only: "At the beginning they always shot them I believe."[6][7]

Cornides lounged at the Deutsches Haus in Rawa Ruska before he boarded the connecting train to Chełm the same evening. In the next hour, he made three separate entries in his diary. The first, written at 5.30 pm, stated that what he had learned was extraordinary.[2]

When we boarded at 4:40 pm an inbound transport had just arrived. I walked along the train twice and counted 56 cars. On the doors had been written in chalk: '60', '70', once '90', occasionally '40' – obviously the number of Jews inside the cattle cars. In my compartment I spoke with a railway policeman’s wife who was visiting her husband here. She says these transports are now passing through daily, sometimes also with the German Jews. Yesterday six children’s bodies were found along the track.[2]

Belzec camp

[edit]
Location of Bełżec (lower centre) on the map of German extermination camps marked with black and white skulls
Belzec extermination camp SS staff, 1942
Belzec extermination camp railway sidings

In his train compartment, Cornides talked to a German woman who had witnessed the round-up of Jews at Chełm and the shooting of those who tried to escape. The railway policeman said: "In the railway documents these trains run under the name of resettlement transports," and added that after the murder of Reinhard Heydrich by Czech resistance members, several trains filled with Czech Jews had passed through. Camp Belzec was located on the railway line. The woman promised to point it out to Cornides when they passed it. The entry in his diary reads:[2][8]

6:20 p.m. We passed Camp Belzec. Before then, we traveled for some time through a tall pine forest. When the woman called: "Now it comes," one could see a high hedge of fir trees. A strong sweetish odour could be made out distinctly. "But they are stinking already," says the woman. "Oh nonsense, it is only the gas," the railway policeman said, laughing. Meanwhile – we had gone on about 200 meters – the sweetish odour was transformed into a strong smell of something burning. "That is from the crematory," said the policeman. A short distance further on, the fence stopped. In front of it, one could see a guard house with an SS post. A double track led into the camp. One track branched off from the main line, the other ran over a turntable from the camp to a row of sheds some 250 meters away. A freight car happened to stand on the turntable. Several Jews were busy turning the disk. SS guards, rifles under their arms, stood by. One of the sheds was open; one could distinctly see that it was filled to the ceiling with bundles of clothes. As we went on, I looked back one more time. The fence was too high to see anything at all.[2]

In his typewritten pages, Cornides also summarized conversations with other Germans he met during his stopover in the Deutsches Haus at Rawa Ruska, as well as statements he remembered from Chełm upon his arrival there.

A policeman in the townhall restaurant at Cholm (Chełm) on 1 September 1942 said: "The policemen who guard the Jewish transports are not allowed inside the camp, only the SS and the Ukrainian Sonderdienst – a police formation consisting of Ukrainian auxiliaries – do so [see Trawniki men for more historical background]. Thereby, they have created a good business. Recently a Ukrainian was here who had a great wad of notes, clocks and gold – everything imaginable. They find all of this when they gather and ship the clothing." In answer to the question: "In which way were the Jews killed?" the policeman answered: "Someone tells them that they must be deloused. Then they undress and enter a room into which at first a heatwave is let in, and thereby they already have received one small dose of gas. It is enough to act as a local anaesthetic. The rest then follows and then they are immediately burned."[2]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Gilles Karmasyn (2014). "Lire l'introduction sur Wilhelm Cornides". Wilhelm Cornides notes sur Belzec - août-septembre 1942. Pratique de l'histoire et dévoiements négationnistes PHDN: depuis 1996. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h S.J.; H.E.A.R.T (2007). "Cornides report". Belzec Death Camp. Holocaust Research Project.org. Retrieved 6 May 2015. Sources: Martin Gilbert, Peter Longerich, Max Freiherr Du Prel.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Gilles Karmasyn & PHDN (2009), Facsimiles of Cornides notes with the French introduction. Featuring photocopy of 3 typewritten pages (not the original diary), stamped by Institut fur Zeitgeschichte (ED-81).
  4. ^ Florent Brayard (2000), An Early Report by Kurt Gerstein (with introduction), Bulletin du Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem, 6 / 2000.
  5. ^ Gerstein Report (in English translation) ARC 2006. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  6. ^ Martin Gilbert (1979), Final Journey. The fate of the Jews in Nazi Europe Publisher: New York, New York Mayflower Books, ASIN: B0027U6TUQ.
  7. ^ Peter Longerich, Die Ermordung der europäischen Juden. Eine umfassende Dokumentation des Holocaust, Piper, Munich, 1989 (contains reproduction of Cornides notes).
  8. ^ Martin Gilbert (1997). Holocaust Journey: Travelling in Search of the Past. Columbia University Press. pp. 211–212. ISBN 9780231109642. Retrieved 7 May 2015. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
[edit]
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