Sonderaktion 1005

Sonderaktion 1005
A Sonderkommando 1005 unit stand next to a bone crushing machine at Janowska concentration camp in 1943.
Also known as	Aktion 1005 or Enterdungsaktion (English: Exhumation action)
Location	Nazi-occupied Europe
Participants	Nazi Germany
Organizations	SS Police Battalions Sicherheitsdienst Trawnikis
Camp	Extermination camps Concentration camps Mass-killing sites in Eastern Europe.
Documentation	Nuremberg Trials
v · World War II to hide any evidence that millions of people had been murdered by Nazi Germany in Aktion Reinhard in occupied Poland. As the war progressed, it was later used to conceal the evidence of massacres committed by SS-Einsatzgruppen Nazi death squads that murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews, Roma and Russian civilians in Eastern Europe. Overview The operation, which was conducted in strict secrecy from 1942-1944, used concentration camps’ prisoners to exhume mass graves and burn the bodies. These work groups were officially called Leichenkommandos ("corpse units") and were all part of Sonderkommando 1005; inmates were often put in chains in order to prevent escape. The Aktion was overseen by selected squads from the Sicherheitsdienst and Ordnungspolizei. History In March 1942, SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich placed SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel in charge of Aktion 1005. However its start was delayed after Heydrich was assassinated in June 1942 by Czech SOE agents in Operation Anthropoid. It was after the end of June that SS-Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller, head of the Gestapo finally gave Blobel his orders. While the principal effort was to erase evidence of Jewish exterminations, the Aktion would also include non-Jewish victims of Nazi Einsatzgruppen.[1] Blobel began his work experimenting at Chełmno. Attempts to use incendiary bombs to destroy exhumed bodies was unsuccessful as the weapons set fire to nearby forests. The most effective way was eventually found to be giant pyres on iron grills. The method involved building alternating layers of corpses and firewood on railway tracks. Afterwards remaining bone fragments could be crushed in a grinding machine and then re-buried in pits.[1] The operation officially began at Sobibor extermination camp. The Leichenkommando exhumed the bodies from mass graves around the camp and then burned them, after which task the workers were executed. The process then moved to Belzec in December 1942. As Auschwitz and Belsen had crematoria facilities on site to dispose of bodies, the Aktion 1005 groups were not needed. Work continued at Belzec and Treblinka.[1] The operation also returned to the scenes of earlier mass killings such as Babi Yar, Ponary and the Ninth Fort. By 1944, with Soviet armies advancing, SS-Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Koppe, head of the Reichsgau Wartheland ordered that each of the General Government's five districts set up its own Aktion 1005 group to begin "cleaning" mass graves. The operations were not entirely successful as advancing Soviet troops reached sites before they could be cleared.[1] Aftermath Paul Blobel At the Nuremberg Trials after World War II, a deputy of Adolf Eichmann named, SS-Hauptsturmführer Dieter Wisliceny, gave the following testimony regarding Aktion 1005: “ In November 1942, in Eichmann's office in Berlin, I met Standartenfuehrer Plobel [sic], who was leader of Kommando 1005, which was specially assigned to remove all traces of the final solution (extermination) of the Jewish problem by Einsatz Groups and all other executions. Kommando 1005 operated from at least autumn 1942 to September 1944 and was all this period subordinated to Eichmann. The mission was constituted after it first became apparent that Germany would not be able to hold all the territory occupied in the East and it was considered necessary to remove all traces of the criminal executions that had been committed. While in Berlin in November 1942, Plobel [sic] gave a lecture before Eichmann's staff of specialists on the Jewish question from the occupied territories. He spoke of the special incinerators he had personally constructed for use in the work of Kommando 1005. It was their particular assignment to open the graves and remove and cremate the bodies of persons who had been previously executed. Kommando 1005 operated in Russia, Poland and through the Baltic area. I again saw Plobel [sic] in Hungary in 1944 and he stated to Eichmann in my presence that the mission of Kommando 1005 had been completed.[2] ” Blobel was sentenced to death by the U.S. Nuremberg Military Tribunal in the Einsatzgruppen Trial. He was hanged at Landsberg Prison on June 8, 1951. Nearly 60,000 deaths are attributable to Blobel though during testimony at Nuremberg he alleged he only killed between 10,000-15,000 people.[3] Dramatizations Aktion 1005 was depicted in the 1988 TV miniseries War and Remembrance. It also plays a central role in Daniel Silva's 2005 novel A Death in Vienna. Schindler's List also depicts Aktion 1005 when Jewish prisoners were forced to exhume corpses for burning on open pyres. See also Genocide The Holocaust Operation Reinhard Notes ^ a b c d Arad, Yitzhak (1984), "Operation Reinhard: Extermination Camps of Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka", Yad Vashem Studies XVI, pp. 205=239, http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%203576.pdf  ^ Website of Prof. Stuart Stein: Affidavit of Dieter Wisliceny, from Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Volume VIII. USGPO, Washington, 1946, pages 606-619. ^ Case Closed, Time Magazine, Jun. 18, 1951 References Arad, Yitzhak, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Indiana University Press, 1992 ISBN 0-253-21305-3 Edelheit, Abraham J., and Edelheit, Herschel, History of the Holocaust, Westview Press, 1995 ISBN 0-8133-2240-5 External links Operation Reinhard: "The attempt to remove traces" Aktion 1005 — effacing the murder of millions Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую Matt Katula County Route 559 Alternate (New Jersey) Look at other dictionaries: Sonderaktion 1005 — Sonderaktion 1005, ou encore Aktion 1005, ou Enterdungsaktion ( action d exhumation ) a été une opération menée par les nazis pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale afin d effacer les traces des exécutions de masse effectuées pendant l Aktion… …   Wikipédia en Français Sonderaktion 1005 — Als Sonderaktion 1005, auch nur Aktion 1005 oder Enterdungsaktion wurde das Exhumieren der Massengräber der zuvor exekutierten jüdischen Bevölkerung und von Kriegsgefangenen sowie die Verbrennung der exhumierten Leichen bezeichnet, die während… …   Deutsch Wikipedia Sonderaktion 1005 — Особая операция 1005, (нем. Sonderaktion 1005), также называемая «операция 1005» (нем. Aktion 1005), или «операция эксгумации» (нем. Enterdungsaktion) была проведена во время Второй мировой войны нацистской Германией с целью… …   Википедия Aktion 1005 — Als Sonderaktion 1005, Aktion 1005 oder Enterdungsaktion wurde das Exhumieren der Massengräber der zuvor exekutierten jüdischen Bevölkerung und von Kriegsgefangenen sowie die Verbrennung der exhumierten Leichen bezeichnet, die während der Aktion… …   Deutsch Wikipedia Sonderkommando 1005 — Als Sonderaktion 1005, Aktion 1005 oder Enterdungsaktion wurde das Exhumieren der Massengräber der zuvor exekutierten jüdischen Bevölkerung und von Kriegsgefangenen sowie die Verbrennung der exhumierten Leichen bezeichnet, die während der Aktion… …   Deutsch Wikipedia Особая операция 1005 — Особая операция 1005, (нем. Sonderaktion 1005), также называемая «операция 1005» (нем. Aktion 1005), или «операция эксгумации» (нем. Enterdungsaktion) была проведена во время Второй мировой войны нацистской Германией с целью сокрытия следов… …   Википедия The Holocaust — Holocaust and Shoah redirect here. For other uses, see Holocaust (disambiguation) and Shoah (disambiguation). Selection on …   Wikipedia Schutzmannschaft — Ordnungspolizei officers visiting the Schutzmannschaft unit in Zarig, near Kiev.December 1942 Schutzmannschaft (abbr. Schuma) or Hilfspolizei (abbr. Hipo) were the collaborationist auxiliary po …   Wikipedia Glossary of Nazi Germany — Part of a series on Nazism …   Wikipedia Operation Reinhard — Sign from Treblinka railway station on display at Yad Vashem Also know …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. 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