Posted on 12/09/2013 4:05:44 PM PST by Former Fetus
I wanted to go to Belzec (pronounced Biwzhets) because no one really does. One million Jews died there in the span of nine months - and hardly anyone knows about it. I felt it was a pilgrimage to a holy site: the second largest (after Treblinka) Jewish graveyard in history.
Mike Tregenza was my guide. He is a non-Jewish, English historian who lectures at Lublin university. According to Sir Martin Gilbert, he is the world expert on Belzec.
Belzec is a sleepy little hamlet in southeast Poland. A few thousand people live there. All seem to be related in some way. We stopped for a drink in a bar and the natives seemed unfriendly enough. All in all, it's a pretty innocuous place. One would never guess that of the million Jews who arrived there in 1942, only two survived.
Mike told me that he interviewed the station-master who worked at Belzec during the war. On every cattle car that arrived, there was written a number; the number of "pieces" (as the Germans would say) contained therein. He kept a tally. When he reached seven figures, he could no longer continue.
Belzec was a part of "Operation Reinhardt." Its purpose, which was accomplished, was to destroy the Jewish communities of Eastern Poland - specifically the main centers of Warsaw, Lublin, Cracow and Lvov.
Operation Reinhardt began in March 1942 with the construction of Belzec and ended in August 1943 with the destruction of Treblinka. It utilised three camps: Treblinka in the north, Sobibor and Belzec in the south. It was masterminded by Sturmbahnfuhrer Christian Wirth and Belzec was his prototype " his baby.
(Excerpt) Read more at virtualjerusalem.com ...
I only saw Life Is Beautiful in the last couple of years. I can forgive Benigni’s over the top Oscar performance because of it.
Life Is Beautiful has to be the the sadest movie I have ever seen. Only saving grace was those were American tanks at the end. Remember that their own mostly worthless government did all of it.
Saw Dachau on a trip years ago. It was profound. Three days later saw Auschwitz. Almost forgot Dachau after that. Auschwitz is horribly overwhelming.
Our neighbors are from Chicago (Roman Catholic) and of Polish descent. About 5 years ago he was doing contract work for USSteel in eastern Europe. He made the journey to Auschwitz during a break. It shook him up. There are lists displayed of the names of the exterminated inmates. He said he saw many names listed with his surname. He made a point of sharing his pictures with friends and acquaintances far and wide. He, too, embraced the Jewish maxim, "Never Again."
As bad as matters appear to be shaping up here in ObamaLand, the FR threads regarding South Africa post-Mandela are very sobering. I pray the Afrikaners will be spared. And of course, Israel is attempting to keep the same devil at bay.
I was never 1 to pursue Biblical apocalyptic writings about the end times - made my head swim with the incredible number of interpretations/theories. I resigned myself to taking Jesus words' to heart, "that no man can know the hour." A retired Southern Baptist pastor across the street put it to me most succinctly regarding the Book of Revelation - "God wins in the end."
Yet, I too was exposed to Hal Lindsay's 1970 book, The Late Great Planet Earth. He wrote in it that he found little in the Bible that could represent the United States of America as the time for Armageddon approached. That always stuck with me. And now we have post-modern America under Obama ...
I’ve certainly heard of it.
After World War 2, my father and my mother’s surviving cousins were neighbors and friends, having resettled in Stettin from Drohobycz (Galicia near Lvov) and Lublin. But for some initiative and a lot of luck, they would have been buried near each other in Belzec.
I’ve certainly heard of it.
After World War 2, my father and my mother’s surviving cousins were neighbors and friends, having resettled in Stettin from Drohobycz (Galicia near Lvov) and Lublin. But for some initiative and a lot of luck, they would have been buried near each other in Belzec.
“All seem to be related in some way.”
“There is a small, dilapidated memorial containing some bones and ashes (which is regularly vandalised by Poles searching for “Jewish gold”). It is overgrown and unkempt.”
LOL !!!1 What a Holocaust story would be without usual dose of racism and Polonophobia ?
Thanks for posting this. The only issue I have with the focus on Nazi’s is that the communists did the same, on a grander scale and with greater ruthlessness. Fewer people know that than know about Belzec.
Starvation works well too.
Don't forget the Holodomor.
“Wholesale killing requires explosives, incendiaries, gas, etc.
Starvation works well too.
Don’t forget the Holodomor.”
Quite correct. However, when the Armed & Armored are on your doorstep, the “Donut Deprivation Defense” may have a slower response time than desired.
I had misinterpreted your original post.
What I was getting at is that the difference between Belzec and Auschwitz was that Belzec was officially closed, and when the Nazis closed a camp, it was in a “final solution” sense.
The Nazis knew perfectly well that what they were doing was wrong and if they lost the war they would be held to account. Another reason so many at the top committed suicide - they knew what fate awaited them for their evil crimes.
Hell, it was his idea, just read Mein Kampf.....Hell, just read William Ayres and some of his highly educated cronies from the Ivy League schools. “125,000,000 Americans must be killed before we can be succesful in our endeavors.” They’ve started on that, big time.
“One of my most troubling,other-worldly experiences I’ve ever had was my visit to the Dachau museum on a cold,rainy day.The images are etched in my mind almost 40 years later.”
my exact experience as well....
Auschwitz was actually two separate camps.....One camp contained factories, where they used Jews as slave labor, those are the ones that survived for the most part....Then there was the Death Camp part of Auschwitz.
That is true. Auschwitz was a large-scale camp system spread throughout the region.
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