At Majdanek. Zamosc Operation Prisoners. Jewish Gold at Camps. Jewish Collaboration Expansive With Many Perks: Jewish Kapos Rule. Armia Krajowa: Why Few Jews. Home Army Action. Kwiatkowski

485 Days at Majdanek, by Jerzy Kwiatkowski, 2018, 2021. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California

Poles and Jews Suffer Together at Majdanek. Other Jews Usurp High Positions

Jerzy Kwiatkowski (1894-1980) was an inmate of Maidanek, and wrote this detailed memoir soon after the war. It has finally been translated into English.

It is common knowledge that arriving Jews were generally gassed upon arrival, and without being registered at the camp. However, non-Jews were not exactly accounted for either. The Germans reused the same serial numbers (1 to 20,000) for non-Jewish inmates at Majdanek. A previously-used number were given to a new person once the original person with the number died, was transferred to another camp, or was released. (p. 268).

NOT ONLY JEWS FACED HIGH MORTALITY

Russians, and not only Jews, were almost wiped out. In describing the situation that had unfolded in only a few months, Kwiatkowski comments, “By mid-January 1942, hardly any of the two thousand Soviet POWs initially brought to Majdanek were still alive.” (p. 7).

THE GENOCIDAL DESTRUCTION OF POLAND’S INTELLIGENTSIA

An educated Pole’s life was in danger, even if he had been incarcerated for an unrelated reason–and as subject to the utilitarian whims of the Germans. Kwiatkowski comments, “After all, the while point here is to exterminate the Polish intellectual elite. So it’s life-threatening to admit to being: a lawyer, journalist, officer, priest. At the same time, doctors are in demand and engineers are valued.” (p. 124).

FORCED LABOR: EXTERMINATING POLES LIKE JEWS

Kwiatkowski writes, “The idea of forced labor as applied to the allegedly inferior nations (Jews, Poles, and others), but in practice to all prisoners, was to work the inmates to death VERNICHTUNG DURCH ARBEIT.” (p. 9). If a Pole got sick, he was sent to the gas chambers. (p. 80, 145, 324).

OPERATION ZAMOSC AND THE FATE OF THE POLES

The Germans expelled a large number of Poles from Bilgoraj, Zamosc, and Hrubieszow, and large numbers of these Poles ended up at Majdanek. (p. 214). Kwiatkowski recounts their situation, “Unfortunately, no one will resurrect those infants and seniors who wasted to death from thirst and the most primitive hygienic conditions.” (p. 228). So they did not die in gas chambers, like the Jews, but they were just as dead.

JEWS BRING GOLD AND JEWELRY INTO THE CAMP

At times, Poles are ridiculed for believing that the former sites of death camps had buried Jewish gold. It was not as farfetched as it sounds. Kwiatkowski comments, “A golden era begins for kapos and block overseers. It turned out that despite such strict searches, the Jews were nonetheless able to smuggle in a lot of gold and jewelry…The SS men are looking out for themselves as well…They find fistfuls of rings, precious stones, gold dollars, and rubles.” (pp. 159-160).

JEWISH-NAZI COLLABORATION: JEWISH INMATES RULE OVER OTHERS AT MAJDANEK

Kwiatkowski remarks, “The block overseers, clerks, and office workers are almost 99% Jewish. Slovak Jews occupy all the positions in the offices, the political department, and ARBEITSEINSATZ, kitchens, washroom, laundry, and post office, and serve as doctors, nurses, and orderlies in the hospital…Here in the concentration camp, Jews rule over Aryans, Jews carry whips, and Aryans must stand at attention and take their hats off before them. Here, Jews address Aryans as ‘you’ while the Aryans say ‘sir’ to the Jew! Jews and SS men work hand in glove, Jews beat Christians bloody. Everything is the opposite of MEIN KAMPF. Where do these Jewish privileges come from? …[they] form a clique of ‘the superior ten thousand,’ which acts with arrogance, exclusion, and condescension toward all foreigners, while groveling before the SS men.” (pp. 134-135).

The author continues, “As much as the medical staff rises to the occasion with great effort, the auxiliary staff, especially the Jewish orderlies, exploit and steal from the sick at every step.” (p. 120). Also, “Due to the commonplace hatred with which the (mostly Slovak) Jewish functionaries treat Poles, only on rare occasions are the Poles listened to or get a chance to speak.” (p. 120).

Jews also engaged in theft on an organized basis. He writes, “There are still complaints about the mail. Packages don’t arrive, especially the most valuable ones. The Slovak Jews came up with a new method. Packages that they can see are wrapped well, are unpacked at the post office, repackaged into different paper, and addressed to their trusted friends. The Jews are still forbidden from receiving any letter or packages.” (p. 231).

CONCERNS ABOUT JEWISH COMMERCIAL HABITS

In the Introduction, Norman M. Naimark writes, “About a Jewish journalist who tries to buy his way into working in his garden crew, Kwiatkowski writes that he was worried about further extortion, ‘knowing the speculative sense of the Jews’” (p. 27).

Kwiatkowski writes about this, “Knowing the speculative sense of the Jews, which they can’t get rid of in the camp, I have no guarantee that the middleman, despite my refusal, won’t pocket a weekly fee from his proteges who are already working for me.” (p. 167).

FUGITIVE JEWS DO NOT GENERALLY MAKE GOOD MILITARY MATERIAL

For a time, Kwiatkowski toyed with the idea of starting a revolt in the camp which would be supported by external guerrilla forces. He alluded to the lack of military experience of most incarcerated Jews, which also explains why they rarely were admitted to the A. K. (Home Army). He comments, “We take note of the large number of Jews in the camp, which we can’t let in on the secret; an element that was not combat-ready would create an unbelievable panic once things set off.” (p. 247). Finally, the sheer scale of the proposed operation made it untenable, as he explains, “Freeing two or three thousand people might work, but not fifteen or eighteen thousand.” (p. 247).

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POLISH GUERRILLA ACTION: THE ARMIA KRAJOWA (A. K.) FREES SOME CAPTIVE POLES

Kwiatkowski informs us that, “…a new transport from Pawiak…was derailed near Celestynow by the Polish Underground, seven SS men were killed… (p. 132). The editor elaborates, “On May 19-20, 1943, at the railway station in Celestynow, a Home Army unit liberated a group of prisoners being transported from Warsaw to KL Auschwitz.” (p. 132).

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Originally published @ https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2021/05/08/at-majdanek-zamosc-operation-prisoners-jewish-gold-at-camps-jewish-collaboration-expansive-with-many-perks-jewish-kapos-rule-armia-krajowa-why-few-jews-home-army-action-kwiatkowski/

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