Trawniki men
Trawnikimänner | |
---|---|
Totenkopfverbände | |
Type | Paramilitary police reserve |
Role | Logistical support for Order Police battalions and the SS during Operation Reinhard; shooting actions, deportations to death camps |
Size | Over 5,000 Hiwis |
During
Between September 1941 and September 1942, the German
Creation
In 1941 Himmler instructed SS officer Odilo Globocnik to start recruiting mainly Ukrainian auxiliaries among the Soviet POWs, due to ongoing close relations with the local Ukrainian Hilfsverwaltung.[7] Globocnik had selected Karl Streibel from Operation Reinhard as the key person for this new secret project.[8] Streibel, with the assistance of his officers, visited all POW camps for the Soviets behind the lines of the advancing Wehrmacht, and after individual screening recruited Ukrainian as well as Latvian and Lithuanian volunteers as ordered.[1][2]
Due to successful adaptation of Soviet army's strategy and tactics against German forces, as well as Nazi policy of Soviet war prisoners' extermination, the influx of POW was dramatically reduced, so Streibel's personnel from the summer of 1942 started to conscript civilians of Ukrainian nationality, generally young males, from Western Ukraine (Galicia, Volhynia, Podolia and Lublin).[9]
Also very interesting are the remarks of the French publicist Louis Saurel. In an analogous book about the death camps he writes: "Part of the SS soldiers were not Germans. There were many Romanians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Croats and so on… Interpreters were required to convey explanations between the Germans and the foreign SS troops". In Saurel's account Ukrainians are not mentioned at all, and probably fall under the category of "and so on".[11]
The Trawniki-men were assembled at a
Organization
Auxiliaries were not allowed to wear German uniforms or insignia, carry German weapons, or use German ranks. This was mostly for political reasons. The racial policies of Nazi Germany regarded Slavs as subhuman and not deserving to be treated as German soldiers. There was also a real fear of mutiny or desertion by foreigners in German uniform. To reinforce the social levels between them, guards were therefore referred to as Wachmannen[dubious ] ("watchmen") rather than Schützen ("riflemen") and given different uniforms and rank insignia. A practical reason for this policy was that there was a dearth of German equipment to be spared, yet piles of captured war materiel that would otherwise be unused.
The German officers and senior NCOs were issued the obsolete black M32 SS tunic or field-grey M37 tunic with blue facings. This was to mark them out from the men they commanded, but at the same time denoted them as auxiliaries rather than regular troops.
Units were initially organized in Gruppen (Gruppe ["Group"] > "squad") of about 50 men and Züge (Zug ["Procession"] > "platoon") of around 90 to 120 men. These were further assigned to companies and battalions, under German officers and higher-level NCOs. After they abandoned Trawniki in 1944 ahead of the Soviet advance, they were reorganized into combat units. This is when they introduced the Rotten (Rotte ["Chain"] > "File" or "Fire Team") level of organization at a time when the depleted German Army was consolidating into Halbzüge ("half-platoons" or "Sections"). This was perhaps adopted to deter desertion, a big problem towards the end of the war.
Wachmänner Ranks (1942-1945) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Dienstgrad | Translation | Equivalent SS / Heer Rank | Duties | Notes |
Oberzugwachmann | "Senior Platoon Guard" | SS-Oberscharführer / Feldwebel |
Senior Platoon Sergeant | Created in 1944[15] Highest NCO rank. |
Zugwachmann | "Platoon Guard" | SS-Scharführer / Unterfeldwebel |
Platoon Sergeant | Created October 19, 1942[16] |
Gruppenwachmann | "Squad Guard" | SS-Unterscharführer / Unteroffizier |
Squad Leader or Corporal | Created October 19, 1942. |
Rottwachmann | "File Guard" | SS-Rottenfuhrer / Gefreiter | File Leader or Lance Corporal | Created in 1944. Highest enlisted rank. |
Oberwachmann | "Senior Guard" | SS-Oberschütze / Oberschütze | Senior Private | Created October 19, 1942. |
Wachmann | "Watchman" or "Guard" | SS-Schütze / Schütze | Private | Created October 19, 1942. |
The guards initially wore their Soviet Army uniforms. In the autumn of 1941 they were given the dyed-black Polish Army uniforms worn by the former Selbstschutz forces. In the summer of 1942 they were issued brown Belgian Army uniforms for warm weather wear. The guardsmen tended to wear a mixture of the two.[17] They were usually issued captured enemy weapons but sometimes received German Mauser Kar-98 carbines. Automatic rifles and pistols were issued when on special assignment.
Role of Trawniki men in the Final Solution
At each of the
Murder operations
The Trawniki shooters were assigned to the worst of the "on-the-spot dirty work" by Hauptsturmführer Karl Streibel (wrote Browning),[13] so the Germans from the parallel Reserve Police Battalion 101 of the Order Police from Hamburg "would not go crazy" from the horror of hands-on killing for hours or days on end. The Trawnikis used to arrive in squads numbering around 50 at the killing site, and start by sitting down to a sandwich and bottles of vodka from their knapsacks behaving like guests,[13] while the Germans dealt with unruly crowds of thousands of ghetto inhabitants: as in Międzyrzec, Łuków, Radzyń, Parczew, Końskowola, Komarówka and all other locations.[13]
The Trawniki men shot so fast and so wildly that the German policemen "frequently had to take cover to avoid being hit."[19] Ukrainian Hiwis were perceived as indispensable. In Łomazy, the Germans were "overjoyed" to see them coming after the messy Józefów massacre which permanently traumatized the untrained executioners. The wave of mass killings of Jews from the Międzyrzec Podlaski Ghetto lasting non-stop for several days were conducted by the Trawniki battalion of about 350 to 400 men, same as in Parczew, or the Izbica Ghetto.[20] Some German police officers felt uneasy about killing non-Jewish Poles. Their unit shot 4,600 Jews by September 1942, but disproportionately only 78 ethnic Poles. In contrast, the Hiwis, saw the Christian Poles as equal opportunity offenders. When they got too drunk to show up in Aleksandrów, Major Wilhelm Trapp ordered the release of prisoners rounded up for mass execution.[21]
The
We used the word ' Grossaktion ' (especially in its initial stages) were Latvians. They did not understand Polish and therefore were unable to communicate with the people of Warsaw. This was exactly what we wanted. We also called them "Trawniki men".
|
Myśmy nazywali "askarisami" ochotników do służb pomocniczych w SS, którzy rekrutowali się z ludności autochtonicznej na terenach zdobytych w Europie Wschodniej. Byli to w zasadzie Łotysze, Litwini, Białorusini i Ukraińcy. Przeszkalano ich w SS-Ausbildungs-lager-Trawniki pod Lublinem. Nie najlepsi żołnierze, choć nacjonaliści i antysemici. Młodzi, bez podstawowego najczęściej wykształcenia, o kulturze dzikusów i skłonnościach do kantów. Ale posłuszni, wytrwali fizycznie i twardzi wobec wroga. Wielu "askarisów" użytych w Grossaktion (szczególnie we wstępnych działaniach) to Łotysze. Nie znali języka polskiego, więc trudno im się było porozumiewać z ludnością Warszawy. A o to nam szło. Nazywaliśmy ich również Trawniki-Männer.[22] |
Trawniki personnel was also used in the August 1943 suppression of the
End and post-war
The Trawniki training camp was dismantled in July 1944 because of the approaching frontline.
The number of Hiwis tried in the West was very small by comparison. Six defendants were acquitted on all charges and set free by a West German court in Hamburg in 1976 including commandant Streibel.[23][26] The main difference between them and the Trawnikis apprehended in the Soviet Union was that the former claimed lack of awareness and left no live witnesses who could testify against them,[27] while the latter were charged with treason and therefore were doomed from the start. In the U.S. some 16 former Hiwi guards were denaturalized.[1]
Known Trawnikis having served at death camps
The notoriety of crimes committed by Trawnikis at the
- death, but his conviction was overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court after new evidence cast doubt on the identity of Demjanjuk as "Ivan the Terrible". In 2009, Demjanjuk was deported to Germany where he was convicted in 2011 for having been a guard at Sobibor.[31]
- Fedor Federenko (Fedorenko) [Tr], the Soviet POW recruited from Stalag 319 at Chełm, guard at the Jewish ghetto in Lublin, sent to Warsaw and to Treblinka death camp in September 1942. After the war Federenko settled in the US; he was extradited to the Soviet Union in December 1984. He was found guilty of treason, sentenced to death, and executed in 1987.[29]
- Josias Kumpf, a Yugoslav Volksdeutsche who took part in the murderous Aktion Erntefest at Trawniki, stripped of his US citizenship in 2005 and deported to Austria in March 2009. Escaped responsibility due to statute of limitations in that country.[32]
- Samuel Kunz [Be], former Soviet POW trained at Trawniki, charged in Bonn, Germany in July 2010 with being a Belzec camp guard.[33] Kunz died in November 2010 before his trial.[34]
- Wasyl Lytwyn born 1921; ordered to be deported from the United States in December 1995; repatriated to Ukraine.
- Ivan Mandycz born 1920; came to US in 1955; ordered deported 2005; Not deported because of age; died 2017
- Ivan Ivanovych Marchenko [Tr] in the Red Army since 1941, brought to Trawniki from POW camp in Chełm, a guard at the Jewish ghetto in Lublin and in Treblinka together with Nikolay Shalayev who was tasked with forcing Jews into the gas chambers; the "motorists" cranking up the gas engine when asked to "turn on the water", called by the Jews "Ivan the Terrible" (Ivan Grozny), Marchenko exhibited special savagery during the killing process; photographed with Ivan Tkachuk at Treblinka. In 1943 he was transferred to Trieste, and in 1944 fled to Yugoslavia. Fate unknown, never tried.[4]
- Jakob Reimer a.k.a. Jack Reimer, a Hiwi guard at Trawniki in 1944. Denaturalized in 2002; died in 2005 before he could be deported from the United States to Germany.[39][40]
- Nikolay Shalayev, a Hilfswilliger guard serving at Treblinka extermination camp. He was one of two Ukrainian guards (along with Ivan Marchenko) in charge of the motor that produced the exhaust fumes which were fed through pipes into the gas chambers during the killing process. Tried by the Soviets after the war for treason and sentenced to death.[41]
- Vladas Zajančkauskas, a Hiwi shooter deployed to participate in the annihilation of the Warsaw Ghetto; had his U.S. citizenship revoked in 2005 at the age of 95.[42] Died 2013.
Notes
- ^ GFDL.
- ^ a b Browning 1998, p. 52.
- )
- ^ ISBN 978-0986837401..
- ^ ISBN 0253342937.
- ^ a b c d e f g Sergei Kudryashov, "Ordinary Collaborators: The Case of the Travniki Guards" (in) Russia War, Peace and Diplomacy Essays in Honour of John Erickson edited by Mark and Ljubica Erickson, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004; pages 226-227 & 234-235.
- ^ a b Markus Eikel (2013). "The local administration under German occupation in central and eastern Ukraine, 1941–1944" (PDF). The Holocaust in Ukraine: New Sources and Perspectives. Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 110–122 in PDF.
Ukraine differs from other parts of the Nazi-occupied Soviet Union, whereas the local administrators have formed the Hilfsverwaltung in support of extermination policies in 1941 and 1942, and in providing assistance for the deportations to camps in Germany, mainly in 1942 and 1943.
- ISBN 0786429135. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
- ^ "Trawniki".
- ^ Petro, Mirchuk (1976). In the German mills of death, 1941-1945 (U nimetsʹkykh mlynakh smerty). New York-London: Vantage Press.
- )
- ^ Mgr Stanisław Jabłoński (1927–2002). "Hitlerowski obóz w Trawnikach". The camp history (in Polish). Trawniki official website. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c d e Browning 1998, pp. 52, 77, 79, 80, 135
- ^ Aktion Reinhard Camps (2004). "Erntefest". Occupation of the East. ARC. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
- ^ Black, Peter. Odilo Globocnik, Nazi Eastern Policy, and the Implementation of the Final Solution, Forschungen zum Nationalsozialismus und dessen Nachwirkungen in Österreich Festschrift für Brigitte Bailer, p.117 (footnote 108). Vienna, Dokumentationsarchiv des Österreichischen Widerstandes (2012). The ranks of Rottwachmann and Oberzugwachmann were created in 1944.
- ^ Black, Peter. Odilo Globocnik, Nazi Eastern Policy, and the Implementation of the Final Solution, Forschungen zum Nationalsozialismus und dessen Nachwirkungen in Österreich Festschrift für Brigitte Bailer, p.117 (footnote 108). Vienna, Dokumentationsarchiv des Österreichischen Widerstandes (2012). The new auxiliary ranks were first detailed in circular CA 156/KdG Lublin. It was issued on October 19, 1942.
- ^ Black, Peter. Odilo Globocnik, Nazi Eastern Policy, and the Implementation of the Final Solution, p.117 (footnote 109).
- ISBN 978-1782000075.
- ^ Browning 1998, p. 95.
- ^ Browning 1998, p. 93.
- ^ Browning 1998, p. 77.
- ^ a b Andrzej Szczypiorski (1977), Moczarski Kazimierz, Rozmowy z katem text with Notes and Biography by Andrzej Krzysztof Kunert (PDF 1.86 MB, available from Scribd.com). Page 103. Retrieved August 28, 2014. (in Polish)
- ^ a b Ralph Hartmann (2010). "Der Alibiprozeß". Den Aufsatz kommentieren. Ossietzky 9/2010. Archived from the original on December 2, 2013. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
- ^ Леонид Терушкин (2013). "Conference in Warsaw on the 70th anniversary of the Sobibor uprising" [70 лет восстанию в Собиборе, международная научная конференция в Варшаве]. Кудряшов С. "Травники. История одного предательства." «Родина». 2007. № 12. p. 7/20 in DOC format. Archived from the original on 2016-09-09. Retrieved 2018-01-19.
- USHMM. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
- ^ USHMM (May 11, 2012). "Trawniki: Chronology". Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
- ^ Georg Bönisch, Jan Friedmann and Cordula Meyer (July 10, 2009). "A Very Ordinary Henchman". Germany > The Holocaust. Spiegel International. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
- ^ a b S.J. (2007). "Trawniki Staff Page. Alphabetical Listing". Aktion Reinhard. H.E.A.R.T. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
Source: Yitzhak Arad, Thomas (Toivi) Blatt, Alexander Donat, Rudolf Reder, Tom Teicholz, Samuel Willenberg, Richard Glazar; museums and private collections.
- ^ ISBN 978-83-7257-496-1. Retrieved July 12, 2014.]
Archiwum Państwowe w Siedlcach (APS), Akta Gminy Prostyń (AGP), t. 104, "Budowa i odbudowa, 1946–1947".
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help)[permanent dead link - ^ "Sobibor perpetrator collection - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum". collections.ushmm.org.
- ^ Matussek, Karin (12 May 2011). "Demjanjuk convicted of helping Nazis to murder Jews during the Holocaust". Bloomberg. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
- ^ US Department of Justice. Press release; case of Josias Kumpf[permanent dead link] (PDF), 16 June 2008.
- ^ BBC (July 29, 2010) German Nazi suspect Samuel Kunz.
- ^ BBC (November 22, 2010) German Nazi suspect Samuel Kunz dies ahead of trial.
- ^ a b Schwartz, Matthew (January 11, 2019). "Last Known WWII Nazi Living In U.S., Deported To Germany Last Year, Is Dead at 95". NPR.
- ^ Kilgannon, Corey (November 1, 2003). "Accused Nazi Guard Speaks Out, Denying He Had Role in Atrocities". New York Times. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
- ^ Report on Palij (in Ukrainian) "Яків Палій." Україна Молода, June 17, 2004. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
- ^ "Demjanjuk Trial Resumes With Testimony on KGB Forgeries". Los Angeles Times. 1987-10-26. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
- ^ Benjamin Weiser (September 6, 2002). "Judge Revokes Citizenship of Man Linked to Nazi War Crimes". The New York Times. Also in: Barry, Dan (September 17, 2005). "A Face Seen and Unseen on the Subway". The New York Times.
- ^ Axis history Forum
- ^ Aktion Reinhard Camps (May 6, 2005). "Volunteer Auxiliaries". ARC. (see: Nikolay Shalayev). Retrieved March 12, 2021.
- ^ Circuit Judge (July 13, 2010). "Vladas Zajanckauskas". Petitioner. United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
References
- Browning, Christopher R. (1998) [1992], "Arrival in Poland" (PDF), Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland, Penguin Books, pp. 1–298, archived from the original(PDF file, direct download 7.91 MB complete) on 19 October 2013, retrieved May 1, 2013
- ISBN 978-0307426239.
- Kudryashov, Sergei, "Ordinary Collaborators: The Case of the Travniki Guards," in Mark and Ljubica Erickson (eds), Russia War, Peace and Diplomacy Essays in Honour of John Erickson (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004), 226–239. ISBN 0297849131.
- Witold Mędykowski, "Obóz pracy dla Żydów w Trawnikach," in Wojciech Lenarczyk, Dariusz Libionka (eds.), Erntefest 3–4 listopada 1943. Zapomniany epizod Zagłady (Lublin: Państwowe Muzeum na Majdanku, 2009), 183–210. ISBN 9788392518754.
- Steinhart, Eric C. (2009). "The Chameleon of Trawniki: Jack Reimer, Soviet Volksdeutsche, and the Holocaust". doi:10.1093/hgs/dcp032. Retrieved 31 January 2021 – via Project MUSE 90. article Project MUSE 90 (abstract and for-pay access)