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EVA BRAUN (FEBRUARY 6, 1912 TO APRIL 30, 1945)

April 29, 2015, 5:25 am
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RAVENSBRUCK CONCENTRATION CAMP (LIBERATED ON APRIL 30, 1945)

April 29, 2015, 1:36 pm
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ADOLF HITLER’S QUOTES ON ISLAM

April 29, 2015, 1:36 pm
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ADOLF HITLER’S QUOTE ON CHRISTIANITY

April 29, 2015, 1:36 pm
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ANTISEMITIC QUOTES BY ADOLF HITLER & THE NAZIS

April 29, 2015, 1:36 pm
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HONORARY ARYAN

April 29, 2015, 1:36 pm
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HITLER & STALIN: TWIN TYRANTS

April 29, 2015, 1:37 pm
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TWIN TYRANTS: HITLER VS. STALIN – SATAN’S HENCHMEN

April 29, 2015, 1:37 pm
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THE DEATH OF ADOLF HITLER (APRIL 30, 1945)

April 30, 2015, 5:34 am
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70 years ago on this date, April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for one day. I will post information about this event from Wikipedia and other links.


A headline in the U.S. Army newspaper Stars and Stripes announcing Hitler's death.
Adolf Hitler killed himself by gunshot on 30 April 1945 in his Führerbunkerin Berlin.[a][b][c]His wife Eva (née Braun) committed suicide with him by taking cyanide.[d]That afternoon, in accordance with Hitler's prior instructions, their remains were carried up the stairs through the bunker's emergency exit, doused in petrol, and set alight in the Reich Chancellery garden outside the bunker. Records in the Soviet archives show that their burnt remains were recovered and interred in successive locations[e]until 1970, when they were again exhumed, cremated, and the ashes scattered.[f]

Accounts differ as to the cause of death; one states that he died by poison only[g]and another that he died by a self-inflicted gunshot while biting down on a cyanide capsule.[h]Contemporary historians have rejected these accounts as being either Soviet propaganda[i][j]or an attempted compromise in order to reconcile the different conclusions.[h][k]One eye-witness recorded that the body showed signs of having been shot through the mouth, but this has been proven unlikely.[l][m]There is also controversy regarding the authenticity of skull and jaw fragments which were recovered.[n][o]In 2009, American researchers performed DNA tests on a skull Soviet officials had long believed to be Hitler's. The tests revealed that the skull was actually that of a woman less than 40 years old. The jaw fragments which had been recovered were not tested.

Map of the Battle of Berlin, phase of 16-25 April 1945.
Preceding events

By early 1945, Germany's military situation was on the verge of total collapse. Poland had fallen to the advancing Sovietforces, who were preparing to cross the Oder between Küstrin and Frankfurt with the objective of capturing Berlin, 82 kilometres (51 mi) to the west. German forces had recently lost to the Allies in the Ardennes Offensive, with British and Canadian forces crossing the Rhineinto the German industrial heartland of the Ruhr. American forces in the south had captured Lorraine and were advancing towards Mainz, Mannheim, and the Rhine. In Italy, German forces were withdrawing north, as they were pressed by the American and Commonwealth forces as part of the Spring Offensive to advance across the Poand into the foothills of the Alps. In parallel to the military actions, the Allies had met at Yalta between 4–11 February to discuss the conclusion of the war in Europe.

Hitler, presiding over a rapidly disintegrating Third Reich, retreated to his Führerbunkerin Berlin on 16 January 1945. To the Nazi leadership, it was clear that the battle for Berlin would be the final battle of the war. Some 325,000 soldiers of Germany's Army Group B were surrounded and captured on 18 April, leaving the path open for American forces to reach Berlin. By 11 April the Americans crossed the Elbe, 100 kilometres (62 mi) to the west of the city. On 16 April, Soviet forces to the east crossed the Oder and commenced the battle for the Seelow Heights, the last major defensive line protecting Berlin on that side. By 19 April the Germans were in full retreat from Seelow Heights, leaving no front line. Berlin was bombarded by Soviet artillery for the first time on 20 April (Hitler's birthday). By the evening of 21 April, Red Army tanks reached the outskirts of the city.




At the afternoon situation conference on 22 April, Hitler suffered a total nervous collapse when he was informed that the orders he had issued the previous day for SS-General Felix Steiner's Army Detachment Steiner to move to the rescue of Berlin had not been obeyed. Hitler launched a tirade against the treachery and incompetence of his commanders, culminating in a declaration—for the first time—that the war was lost. Hitler announced that he would stay in Berlin until the end, and then shoot himself. Later that day he asked SS physician Dr. Werner Haase about the most reliable method of suicide. Haase suggested the "pistol-and-poison method" of combining a dose of cyanide with a gunshot to the head. When Field Marshal and head of the Luftwaffe Hermann Göring learned about this, he sent a telegram to Hitler asking for permission to take over the leadership of the Reich in accordance with Hitler's 1941 decree naming Göring his successor. Hitler's influential secretary, Martin Bormann, convinced Hitler that Göring was threatening a coup. In response, Hitler informed Göring that he would be executed unless he resigned all of his posts. Later that day, he sacked Göring from all of his offices and ordered his arrest.

By 27 April, Berlin was cut off from the rest of Germany. Secure radio communications with defending units had been lost; the command staff in the bunker had to depend on telephone lines for passing instructions and orders and on public radio for news and information. On 28 April, a BBC report originating from Reuterswas picked up; a copy of the message was given to Hitler. The report stated that Reichsführer-SSHeinrich Himmler had offered to surrender to the western Allies; the offer had been declined. Himmler had implied to the Allies that he had the authority to negotiate a surrender; Hitler considered this treason. During the afternoon his anger and bitterness escalated into a rage against Himmler. Hitler ordered Himmler's arrest and had Hermann Fegelein(Himmler's SS representative at Hitler's headquarters in Berlin) shot.

By this time, the Red Army had advanced to the Potsdamerplatz, and all indications were that they were preparing to storm the Chancellery. This report, combined with Himmler's treachery, prompted Hitler to make the last decisions of his life. After midnight on 29 April, Hitler married Eva Braunin a small civil ceremony in a map room within the Führerbunker.[q]Afterwards Hitler hosted a modest wedding breakfast with his new wife. Hitler then took secretary Traudl Junge to another room and dictated his last will and testament. He signed these documents at 04:00 and then retired to bed (some sources say Hitler dictated the last will and testament immediately before the wedding, but all sources agree on the timing of the signing).[r][s]

During the course of 29 April, Hitler learned of the death of his ally, Benito Mussolini, who had been executed by Italian partisans. Mussolini's body and that of his mistress, Clara Petacci, had been strung up by their heels. The bodies were later cut down and thrown in the gutter, where vengeful Italians reviled them. It is probable that these events strengthened Hitler's resolve not to allow himself or his wife to be made "a spectacle of", as he had earlier recorded in his Testament. That afternoon, Hitler expressed doubts about the cyanide capsules he had received through Himmler's SS. To verify the capsules' potency, Hitler ordered Dr. Werner Haase to test one on his dog, Blondi, and the animal died as a result.


Eva Braun and Hitler, with Blondi (June 1942)
Suicide

Hitler and Braun lived together as husband and wife in the bunker for fewer than 40 hours. By 01:00 on 30 April General Wilhelm Keitelreported that all forces which Hitler had been depending on to come to the rescue of Berlin had either been encircled or forced onto the defensive. Late in the morning of 30 April, with the Soviets less than 500 metres (1,600 ft) from the bunker, Hitler had a meeting with General Helmuth Weidling, commander of the Berlin Defence Area, who told him that the garrison would probably run out of ammunition that night and that the fighting in Berlin would inevitably come to an end within the next 24 hours. Weidling asked Hitler for permission for a breakout, a request he had made unsuccessfully before. Hitler did not answer, and Weidling went back to his headquarters in the Bendlerblock. At about 13:00 he received Hitler's permission to try a breakout that night. Hitler, two secretaries, and his personal cook then had lunch, after which Hitler and Braun said farewell to members of the Führerbunker staff and fellow occupants, including Bormann, Joseph Goebbelsand his family, the secretaries, and several military officers. At around 14:30 Adolf and Eva Hitler went into Hitler's personal study.

Several witnesses later reported hearing a loud gunshot at around 15:30. After waiting a few minutes, Hitler's valet, Heinz Linge, with Bormann at his side, opened the study door. Linge later stated he immediately noted a scent of burnt almonds, a common observation made in the presence of prussic acid, the aqueous form of hydrogen cyanide. Hitler's adjutant, SS-SturmbannführerOtto Günsche, entered the study and found the lifeless bodies on the sofa. Eva, with her legs drawn up, was to Hitler's left and slumped away from him. Günsche stated that Hitler "... sat ... sunken over, with blood dripping out of his right temple. He had shot himself with his own pistol, a Walther PPK 7.65". The gun lay at his feet and according to SS-OberscharführerRochus Misch, Hitler's head was lying on the table in front of him. Blood dripping from Hitler's right temple and chin had made a large stain on the right arm of the sofa and was pooling on the carpet. According to Linge, Eva's body had no visible physical wounds, and her face showed how she had died—cyanide poisoning.[t]Günsche and SS-BrigadeführerWilhelm Mohnke stated "unequivocally" that all outsiders and those performing duties and work in the bunker "did not have any access" to Hitler's private living quarters during the time of death (between 15:00 and 16:00).

Günsche left the study and announced that the Führer was dead. The two bodies were carried up the stairs to ground level and through the bunker's emergency exit to the garden behind the Reich Chancellery, where they were doused with petrol. An eye-witness, Rochus Misch, reported someone shouting 'Hurry upstairs, they're burning the boss!' After the first attempts to ignite the petrol did not work, Linge went back inside the bunker and returned with a thick roll of papers. Bormann lit the papers and threw the torch onto the bodies. As the two corpses caught fire, a small group, including Bormann, Günsche, Linge, Goebbels, Erich Kempka, Peter Högl, Ewald Lindloff, and Hans Reisser, raised their arms in salute as they stood just inside the bunker doorway.

At around 16:15, Linge ordered SS-Untersturmführer Heinz Krüger and SS-OberscharführerWerner Schwiedel to roll up the rug in Hitler's study to burn it. The two men removed the blood-stained rug, carried it up the stairs and outside to the Chancellery garden. There the rug was placed on the ground and burned.

On and off during the afternoon, the Soviets shelled the area in and around the Reich Chancellery. SS guards brought over additional cans of petrol to further burn the corpses. Linge later noted the fire did not completely destroy the remains, as the corpses were being burned in the open, where the distribution of heat varies. The burning of the corpses lasted from 16:00 to 18:30. The remains were covered up in a shallow bomb crater at around 18:30 by Lindloff and Reisser.


Situation of World War II in Europe at the time of Hitler’s death. The white areas were controlled by Nazi forces, the pink areas were controlled by the Allies, and the red areas indicate recent Allied advances.
 

July 1947 photo of the rear entrance to the Führerbunker in the garden of the Reich Chancellery. Hitler and Eva Braun were cremated in a shell hole in front of the emergency exit at left; the cone-shaped structure in the centre served as the exhaust, and as bomb shelter for the guards.

Ruins of the bunker after demolition in 1947
Aftermath

See also: Mass suicides in 1945 Nazi Germany

The first inkling to the outside world that Hitler was dead came from the Germans themselves. On 1 May the radio station Reichssender Hamburg interrupted their normal program to announce that an important broadcast would soon be made. After dramatic funereal music by Wagnerand Bruckner, Grand AdmiralKarl Dönitz (appointed as Hitler's successor in his will) announced that Hitler was dead. Dönitz called upon the German people to mourn their Führer, who died a hero defending the capital of the Reich. Hoping to save the army and the nation by negotiating a partial surrender to the British and Americans, Dönitz authorized a fighting withdrawal to the west. His tactic was somewhat successful: it enabled about 1.8 million German soldiers to avoid capture by the Soviets, but it came at a high cost in bloodshed, as troops continued to fight until 8 May.

On the morning of 1 May, thirteen hours after the event, Stalinwas informed of Hitler's suicide. General Hans Krebs had given this information to Soviet General Vasily Chuikov when they met at 04:00 on 1 May, when the Germans attempted to negotiate acceptable surrender terms. Stalin demanded unconditional surrender and asked for confirmation that Hitler was dead. He wanted Hitler's corpse found. In the early morning hours of 2 May, the Soviets captured the Reich Chancellery. Down in the Führerbunker, General Krebs and General Wilhelm Burgdorf committed suicide by gunshot to the head.

Later on 2 May, the remains of Hitler, Braun, and two dogs (thought to be Blondi and her offspring, Wulf) were discovered in a shell crater by a unit of the Red Army intelligence agency SMERSH tasked with finding Hitler's body. Stalin was still wary about believing his old nemesis was dead, and restricted what information could be publicly released. The remains of Hitler and Braun were repeatedly buried and exhumed by SMERSH during the unit's relocation from Berlin to a new facility in Magdeburg. The bodies, along with the charred remains of propaganda minister Goebbels, his wife Magda, and their six children, were buried in an unmarked grave beneath a paved section of the front courtyard. The location was kept secret.


The picture depicts two versions of a photograph of Adolf Hitler that was retouched by an artist of the United States Secret Service in 1944 in order to show how Hitler may disguise himself to escape capture after Germany's defeat. Since Hitler's death was not a certainty in 1945 the pictures were posted up all over Germany in 1945 to ease finding the (potentially) "fugitive" dictator.
Different versions of Hitler's fate were presented by the Soviet Union according to its political desires. In the years immediately following 1945, the Soviets maintained Hitler was not dead, but had fled and was being shielded by the former western allies. This worked for a time to create doubt among western authorities. The chief of the U.S. trial counsel at Nuremberg, Thomas J. Dodd, said: "No one can say he is dead." When President Harry S. Truman asked Stalin at the Potsdam Conference in August 1945 whether or not Hitler was dead, Stalin replied bluntly, "No". But by 11 May 1945, the Soviets had already confirmed through Hitler's dentist, Hugo Blaschke, and his dental technician that the dental remains found were Hitler's and Braun's. In November 1945, Dick White, then head of counter-intelligence in the British sector of Berlin (and later head of MI5 and MI6 in succession), had their agent Hugh Trevor-Roper investigate the matter to counter the Soviet claims. His findings were written in a report and published in book form in 1947.

In May 1946, SMERSH agents recovered from the crater where Hitler was buried two burned skull fragments with gunshot damage. These remains were apparently forgotten in the Russian State Archives until 1993, when they were re-found. In 2009 DNAand forensic tests were performed on the skull fragment, which Soviet officials had long believed to be Hitler's. According to the American researchers, the tests revealed that the skull was actually that of a woman less than 40 years old. The jaw fragments which had been recovered in May 1945 were not tested.

In 1969, Soviet journalist Lev Bezymensky's book on the death of Hitler was published in the West. It included the SMERSH autopsy report, but because of the earlier disinformation attempts, western historians thought it untrustworthy.

In 1970, the SMERSH facility, by then controlled by the KGB, was scheduled to be handed over to the East German government. Fearing that a known Hitler burial site might become a Neo-Nazi shrine, KGB director Yuri Andropov authorised an operation to destroy the remains that had been buried in Magdeburg on 21 February 1946. A Soviet KGB team was given detailed burial charts. On 4 April 1970 they secretly exhumed five wooden boxes containing the remains of "10 or 11 bodies ... in an advanced state of decay". The remains were thoroughly burned and crushed, after which the ashes were thrown into the Biederitz river, a tributary of the nearby Elbe.[u]

According to Ian Kershaw the corpses of Braun and Hitler were thoroughly burned when the Red Army found them, and only a lower jaw with dental work could be identified as Hitler's remains.

Gallery




Goebbels Family portrait: in the centre are Magda Goebbels and Joseph Goebbels, with their six children Helga, Hildegard, Helmut, Hedwig, Holdine and Heidrun. Behind is Harald Quandt in the uniform of a Flight Sergeant of the Air Force [retouched postcard].

Joseph Goebbels, his wife Magda, and their six children. Standing in the back is Goebbels' stepson, Harald Quandt, the sole family member to survive the war.

Hitler (right) visiting Berlin defenders in early April 1945 with Hermann Göring (centre) and the Chief of the OKW Field Marshal Keitel (partially hidden)
Heinz Linge, Hitler's valet, was one of the first persons into the study after Hitler committed suicide.


Churchill sits on a damaged chair from the Führerbunker in July 1945.

See also

Notes

1.     
  "... Günsche stated he entered the study to inspect the bodies, and observed Hitler ... sat ... sunken over, with blood dripping out of his right temple. He had shot himself with his own pistol, a PPK 7.65." (Fischer 2008, p. 47).
    "... Blood dripped from a bullet hole in his right temple ..."(Kershaw 2008, p. 955).
   "...30 April ... During the afternoon Hitler shot himself..." (MI5 staff 2011).
    "... her lips puckered from the poison." (Beevor 2002, p. 359).
    "... [the bodies] were deposited initially in an unmarked grave in a forest far to the west of Berlin, reburied in 1946 in a plot of land in Magdeberg." (Kershaw 2008, p. 958).
    "In 1970 the Kremlin finally disposed of the body in absolute secrecy ... body ... was exhumed and burned." (Beevor 2002, p. 431).
    "... both committing suicide by biting their cyanide ampoules." (Erickson 1983, p. 606).
    "... we have a fair answer ... to the version of ... Russian author Lev Bezymenski ... Hitler did shoot himself and did bite into the cyanide capsule, just as Professor Haase had clearly and repeatedly instructed ... " (O'Donnell 2001, pp. 322–323)
    "... New versions of Hitler's fate were presented by the Soviet Union according to the political needs of the moment ..." (Eberle & Uhl 2005, p. 288).
    "The intentionally misleading account of Hitler's death by cyanide poisoning put about by Soviet historians ... can be dismissed."(Kershaw 2001, p. 1037).
    "... most Soviet accounts have held that Hitler also [Hitler and Eva Braun] ended his life by poison ... there are contradictions in the Soviet story ... these contradictions tend to indicate that the Soviet version of Hitler's suicide has a political colouration."(Fest 1974, p. 749).
    "Axmann elaborated on his testimony when questioned about his "assumption" that Hitler had shot himself through the mouth."(Joachimsthaler 1999, p. 157).
    "... the version involving a 'shot in the mouth' with secondary injuries to the temples must be rejected ... the majority of witnesses saw an entry wound in the temple.. according to all witnesses there was no injury to the back of the head." (Joachimsthaler 1999, p. 166).
    "... the only thing to remain of Hitler was a gold bridge with porcelain facets from his upper jaw and the lower jawbone with some teeth and two bridges." (Joachimsthaler 1999, p. 225).
    "Hitler's jaws ... had been retained by SMERSH, while the NKVD kept the cranium." (Beevor 2002, p. 431)
    "Deep in the Lubyanka, headquarters of Russia's secret police, a fragment of Hitler's jaw is preserved as a trophy of the Red Army's victory over Nazi Germany. A fragment of skull with a bullet hole lies in the State Archive". (Halpin & Boyes 2009).
    "In the small hours of 28–29 April ... " (MI5 staff 2011).
    Using sources available to Trevor Roper (a World War II MI5 agent and historian/author of The Last Days of Hitler), MI5 records the marriage as taking place after Hitler had dictated the last will and testament. (MI5 staff 2011).
    Beevor 2002, p. 343 records the marriage as taking place before Hitler had dictated the last will and testament.
    "Cyanide poisoning. Its 'bite' was marked in her features." (Linge 2009, p. 199).
  Beevor states that "... the ashes were flushed into the town [Magdeberg] sewage system." (Beevor 2002, p. 431).

OTHER LINKS:
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/death_of_adolf_hitler1.htm

http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/adolf-hitler/videos/death-of-hitler

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/adolf-hitler-commits-suicide-in-his-underground-bunker

http://www.hitlerschildren.com/article/936-how-did-hitler-die

http://history1900s.about.com/od/1940s/a/Hitler-Suicide.htm

http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-death.htm

http://topinfopost.com/2014/02/12/historians-lied-hitler-did-not-die-in-germany

http://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/455810/The-INCREDIBLE-picture-that-proves-Adolf-Hitler-lived-to-95-with-his-Brazilian-lover

http://www.express.co.uk/news/history/570560/Propaganda-magazine-makes-Adolf-Hitler-laughing-stock

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MAGDA GOEBBELS (NOVEMBER 11, 1901 TO MAY 1, 1945)

May 1, 2015, 7:45 am
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JOSEPH GOEBBELS (OCTOBER 29, 1897 TO MAY 1, 1945)

May 1, 2015, 7:45 am
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STABSCHEF VIKTOR LUTZE (DECEMBER 28, 1890 TO MAY 2, 1943)

May 2, 2015, 4:50 am
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MARTIN BORMANN (JUNE 17, 1900 TO MAY 2, 1945)

May 2, 2015, 4:51 am
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FRANZ VON PAPEN (OCTOBER 29, 1879 TO MAY 2, 1969)

May 2, 2015, 4:51 am
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THE RELEASE OF VOLKERT VAN DER GRAAF (MAY 2, 2014)

May 2, 2015, 4:51 am
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DER STERBER GENERAL: FEDOR VON BOCK (DECEMBER 3, 1880 TO MAY 4, 1945)

May 4, 2015, 4:45 am
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THE AZOV BATTALION

May 4, 2015, 2:13 pm
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            On this date, May 5, 2014, the Far-right Paramilitary militia in Ukraine, Azov Battalion was formed. I will post information about this Battalion from Wikipedia and other links.


The emblem of the Azov Battalion; a paramilitary, volunteer unit of the Ukrainian National Guard.

Shield, showing sunwheel, waves, Social-National Assembly logo, and national trident

Agency overview
Formed
2014
Employees
800
Legal personality
Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
Governing body
Ministry of Internal Affairs (Ukraine)
General nature
  • Law enforcement
  • Civilian agency
Specialist jurisdiction
Paramilitary law enforcement, counter insurgency, armed response to civil unrest, counter terrorism, special weapons operations.
Operational structure
Headquarters
Mariupol
Agency executive
Andriy Biletsky, Commander
Parent agency
Social-National Assembly
Deputy Commanders
Oleh Odnorozhenko

The Azov Regiment (Ukrainian: Батальйон «Азов») is a far-right all-volunteer paramilitary militia affiliated with the National Guard of Ukraine. It reports to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The unit is based in Mariupol in the Azov Sea coastal region.

The unit was initially formed as the Azov Battalion on May 5, 2014 during the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine. Patrons of the battalion included Oleh Lyashko, a member of the Verkhovna Rada, and billionaire Ihor Kolomoyskyi. The battalion was formed in Mariupol, where it was involved in combat against separatists, and was briefly relocated to Berdyansk. The battalion is also referred to as the "Men in Black".

The regiment's commander is Andriy Biletsky. In its early days, Azov was the Ministry of Internal Affairs special police company, led by Volodymyr Shpara, the leader of the Vasylkiv, Kiev, branch of Patriot of Ukraineand Right Sector. Biletsky stayed out of the public spotlight working on expanding Azov to battalion size. In summer 2014 he took the command of the unit in his own hands; Shpara remained in the battalion as the commander of the 1st Company. Biletsky is also the head of two national-socialist political groups, Patriot of Ukraineand Social-National Assembly. In August 2014, he was awarded a military decoration, "Order For Courage", by Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, and promoted to lieutenant colonelof in the Interior Ministry's police forces.

Initially a volunteer militia, Azov has since been incorporated into and is armed by Ukraine’s interior ministry. A ministerial adviser, Anton Gerashchenko, was asked if the battalion had any neo-Nazi links through the Social National Assembly. "The Social-National Assembly is not a neo-Nazi organization," he said. "It is a party of Ukrainian patriots..." More than half are Russian-speaking eastern Ukrainians, and many of its recruits come from the eastern cities of Donetsk and Luhansk. Its polished English-language social media pages and far-right ideology have attracted fighters from other locations in Europe.

The BBC's Fergal Keane has called the unit "a far-right Ukrainian militia".


Oleh Odnoroshenko (at left), PR officer of the special police regiment «Azov», walking with «Azov» volunteers on the street in Kiev.
 

Flag of the Azov Battalion
History

Arsen Avakov, the new Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine after the overthrow of the Yanukovich government, issued on April 13, 2014 a decree authorizing creating the new paramilitary force from civilians up to 12,000. Anton Heraschenko, Ministry of the Interiors, (Ukrainian: Антон Геращенко), Avakov's deputy, was tasked with overseeing the process of establishing of the new security force created from civilian volunteers.

The Azov Battalion was formed on May 5, 2014 during the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine. Among the patrons of the battalion are a member of the Verkhovna RadaOleh Lyashko, and an ultra-nationalist Dmytro Korchynsky. The battalion started in Mariupol where it was involved in combat, and was briefly relocated to Berdyansk.

On June 10, the battalion dismissed deputy commander Yaroslav Honchar and distanced themselves from him after Honchar made criticizing statements about looting and debauchery in Azov battalion.

On 11 August, Azov battalion, backed by the Ukrainian paratroopers, captured Marinka from pro-Russian rebels and entered the suburbs of Donetsk clashing with Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) fighters.

In early September 2014, the Azov battalion was engaged in the defence of Mariupol. Regarding the ceasefire agreed on 5 September, Biletskiy stated "If it was a tactical move there is nothing wrong with it... if it's an attempt to reach an agreement concerning Ukrainian soil with separatists then obviously it's a betrayal."

On 14 October, Azov Battalion servicemen took part in a march to commemorate the 72nd anniversary of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in Kyiv organised by Right Sector.

In the 26 October 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election Biletsky, the battalion's commander, won a constituency seat (as an independent candidate) in Kiev's Obolon Raion (Biletsky hails from Kharkiv) in the Ukrainian parliament. In his constituency Biletsky won with 33.75% of the votes; runner up Vadym Stoylar followed with 17.17%. In parliament Biletsky did not join any faction. Member of the battalion Oleh Petrenko is also a MP for Petro Poroshenko Bloc after wining a constituency seat in Cherkasy in the same election. In his constituency Petrenko won with 41.15% of the votes; runner up Valentyna Zhukovska followed with 23.65%.

On 31 October 2014 deputy commander of the Azov Battalion Vadym Troyan was appointed head of Kiev Oblast (province) police (this police force has no jurisdiction over the city of Kiev).

On late January 2015, the Azov Battalion has been promised a tank company and artillery units to reinforce its ranks.

As of late March 2015, despite a second ceasefire agreement, The Azov Battalion has continued to prepare for war, with the group's leader seeing the ceasefire as "appeasement".

 
Azov Battalion

Emblem of the Azov Battalion, a paramilitary group of Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/26xtwi/emblem_of_the_azov_battalion_a_paramilitary_group/]
Organisation

Key figures in the battalion include its commander Andriy Biletsky and his deputie Oleh Odnoroshenko.

A 16 July 2014 report placed the Azov Battalian's strength at 300. An earlier report stated that on June 23 almost 600 volunteers, including women, took oaths to joined the "Donbass" and "Azov" battalions. Recruits receive a salary of $360.

The political organization Social-National Assembly led by the battalion's leader Biletsky calls for the expansion of Ukraine, the "struggle for the liberation of the entire White Race," and seeks to "punish severely sexual perversions and any interracial contacts." Swedish volunteer Mikael Skillt told the BBC that while the Battalion did include others sharing his views - those calling themselves national socialists or adorned with swastikas - not all agreed, and one member was even "a liberal."

Interviewed while engaged in military operations in eastern Ukraine, one member of the battalion stated that the unit was on edge because they were "behind enemy lines" and opposed by "the police, the army and the people," whom he said they did not trust. According to London's Sunday Times, the Azov Battalion was deployed against militants by the Ukrainian government because it feared its regular forces were infiltrated by Russian sympathizers. The monthly salary of its members has been reported to be US$70.


The Emblem of the Azov Battalion
[PHOTO SOURCE: https://digitalempire.wordpress.com/2014/09/07/azov-battalion-sponsored-by-kolomoyskyi/]
ATO in Ukraine battalion Azov \ Батальйон Азов

VIDEO SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcpovOkltkU
 

National Socialist ideology

Troops of the Azov Battalion use the Social-National Assembly (SNA) logo, an inverted Wolfsangel, a widely used symbol in Nazi Germany, on their banner, and some members are open white supremacists or anti-Semites. A BBC report summarizes the evidence that the battalion is neo-Nazi:


Run by the extremist Patriot of Ukraineorganisation,which considers Jews and other minorities "sub-human" and calls for a white, Christian crusade, [the battalion] sports three Nazi symbols om its insignia: a modified Wolf's Hook, a black sun (or "Hakensonne") and the title Black Corps, which was used by the Waffen SS.


Members of the organization have stated that the inverted Wolfsangel has a different history in Ukraine and represents the Ukrainian words for "idea of a nation." The Azov Battalion has also dismissed accusations that their unit promotes fascist symbolism, stating that any resemblance to Nazi symbols is a result of Russian propaganda. It also states that the battalion's logo is based on the Coat of arms of Ukraine, which has been used to symbolize Ukraine since 1918.

In a 2010 essay, Biletsky set forth the ideology of the Social-National Assembly. "From the mass of individuals must arise the Nation; and from weak modern man, Superman... The historic mission of our Nation in this watershed century is to lead the White Races of the world in the final crusade for their survival: a crusade against semite-led subhumanity... The task of the present generation is to create a Third Empire -- Great Ukraine... If we are strong, we take what is ours by right and even more; we will build a Superpower-Empire..."

The unit has denied being a far-right group, and states that a majority of its members are Russian-speaking Ukrainians and that multiple Russian citizens have joined the unit.

Foreign membership

According to the UK publication The Telegraph, the Azov Battalion's extremist politics and professional English social media pages have attracted foreign fighters. The Russian and Ukrainian security expert at New York University, Mark Galeotti, has described groups like the Azov Battalion as magnets attracting violent, fringe elements from around and outside Ukraine, warning that they will continue to play an outsized role in Ukrainian affairs after the war.

Azov's leader, Biletsky, states that he has received recruits from Ireland, Italy, Greece and Scandinavia. In mid-July 2014, the BBC reported that the battalion had recruited the former Swedish Army and Swedish Home Guardsniper Mikael Skillt. Skillt, a Swedish white supremacist, joined the Azov Battalion for ideological reasons. Anton Gerashenko denied this but did claim "foreign journalists, from Sweden, Spainand Italy, who have come to report on the heroic achievements of the fighters in their struggle against terrorism" were accompanying the unit. Gerashenko insisted he had never heard of Mikael Skillt. Asked about Skillt in a late-July interview with Swedish Radio, Gerashenko pointed out that it's forbidden by law for foreign citizens to fight and asked for understanding that he'd "stay tight-lipped" about the topic. Ukrainian political scientist Anton Shekhovtsov told the Swedes that at this time four Swedish neo-Nazis were fighting with Azov, while the Swedish national police confirmed "several".

In December 2014, the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KhPG) condemned Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko for granting Ukrainian citizenship and awarding a medal to Belarusian neo-Nazi and Azov Battalion commander of reconnaissance Sergei Korotkykh. Experts allege that Korotkykh founded a Russian neo-Nazi group, and he also was charged in Belarusia for alleged involvement in a Moscow bombing and detained there for allegedly stabbing an anti-fascist organizer.

Azov was also active in recruiting Russian FSB lieutenant Ilya Bogdanov who defected to Ukraine during the War in Donbass, however the former Russian officer decided to join the Right Sector as he stated the organization is more active in the war than the Azov battalion. About 50 Russian nationals are members of the Azov regiment.

Around 20 Croatians joined the Azov Battalion in January 2015, ranging in age from 20 to 45. After Croatia's foreign minister Vesna Pusić confirmed that there are Croatian volunteers in Ukraine, the Russian Foreign Ministry called Croatia to withdraw its citizens from armed conflict. Pusić replied that Croatia opposes any involvement of Croatian citizens in the war, and stated that they went on their private initiative and that Croatia is working on bringing them home. Interior minister Ranko Ostojićsaid that Croatian volunteers are fighting on the side of the legitimate Ukrainian government and are not committing any kind of crime according to Croatian law.

According to French volunteers fighting for the insurgent side, the Azov Battalion has a French instructor named Gaston Besson who tried to recruit them over the internet. Journalists interviewed him in his home in Pula, Croatia; he is a retired captainof Croatian Army and veteran of Croatian War of Independence. He confirmed that he is a coordinator for the unit, while claiming that 25 Croatian citizens serve in the battalion.

See also

·         Right Sector

INTERNET SOURCE: http://rt.com/news/185708-nazi-symbols-ukrainian-troops/

Wolfsangel in E. Ukraine: Foreign Policy talks to deputy leader of ‘pro-govt’ Azov Battalion
Published time: September 07, 2014 18:58
Get short URL


Azov battalion soldiers take an oath of allegiance to Ukraine in Kiev's Sophia Square before being sent to the Donbass region.(RIA Novosti / Alexandr Maksimenko)
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://rt.com/news/185708-nazi-symbols-ukrainian-troops/]


Foreign Policy magazine – Russia’s fierce critic – met with the leader of Azov Battalion, an irregular force assisting Kiev to cleanse eastern Ukraine of “terrorists.” The group boasts fierce tactics, “values far from European,” and Nazi-like attributes.

Azov, which has an estimated personnel of 500 people, is one of about 50 volunteer battalions formed by Maidan activists and ultranationalists of the Right Sector group. These newly formed units have been brought to eastern Ukraine to form the backbone of the forces fighting against the local self-defense militia advocating independence from Ukraine.

The Azov Battalion actively participated in Kiev’s so-called “anti-terrorist operation” and, like most of the volunteer and National Guards units, has been accused of committing war crimes against civilians.

As Foreign Policy's Alec Luhn noticed, the ideology praised by fighters of the Azov Battalion “is one estranged from mainstream European and American liberalism.”

The unit adopted as its logo a mirrored Wolfsangel (wolf trap) symbol that was widely used in the Third Reich and has been associated with neo-Nazi groups worldwide – Ukraine included. It is most widely known as an emblem of the SS Division Das Reich.

Luhn actually reported that he saw two jeeps “full of tanned fighters in sunglasses and bandanas” rolling into the Azov base, with “a Wolfsangel painted on each side.”

Azov’s emblem also includes the “Black Sun” occult symbol beloved by the Nazi SS, Foreign Policy reports.

The battalion is sponsored by Ukraine’s third-richest oligarch, Igor Kolomoysky. He is governor of Dnepropetrovsk region and sponsors a number of other paramilitary units.

Kolomoysky has not only used his men in direct deployments against eastern Ukraine militia; he also appears to have been behind the attack on the Russian embassy in Kiev on June 14, when several hundred Ukrainian protesters rallied outside the Russian diplomatic mission. The demonstrators threw stones and Molotov cocktails, and overturned several diplomatic cars.

The leading players in the attack on Russia’s embassy were “fighters from Azov Battalion, created and financed by Igor Kolomoysky,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared two days after the attack.

After the self-defense militia of eastern Ukraine launched a counter-offensive against Kiev troops and sent them fleeing, finally encircling the port city of Mariupol, the Azov Battalion found itself defending Mariupol against what Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called “a Russian invasion.”

Oleg Odnorozhenko, deputy commander of the Azov Battalion and historian by trade, told Foreign Policy that the Ukrainian forces are facing “thousands of regular Russian Army troops,” and told a story about dozens of captured Russian soldiers and a destroyed Russian fighting infantry vehicle. However, he failed to provide any evidence or show any prisoners to the Foreign Policy correspondent. 


Oleh Odnorozhenko, deputy commander of the Azov Battalion.(Photo from Maydan-2014.livejournal.com)
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://rt.com/news/185708-nazi-symbols-ukrainian-troops/]
“Mariupol won't be taken without blood,” Odnorozhenko promised, adding that the Ukrainian forces are building fortifications and “activating different military groups” in the area.

While “pro-Russians” call the Ukrainians “fascists,” their opponents in turn have dubbed them “imperialists.” As Odnorozhenko put it, the conflict involves “people with a European identity fighting with Sovietness.”

According to Odnorozhenko, the battalion's ideology is based on “natsiokratiya” – a protofascism platform popular among Ukrainian nationalists before and during WWII. Those were the nationalists who fought the Soviet troops, Foreign Policy writes, yet they were also responsible for the “murder of thousands of Jews and Poles.” 


Ukrainian ultra-nationalists salute as they march in the center of the western city of Lviv.(AFP Photo / Yuriy Dyachyshyn)
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://rt.com/news/185708-nazi-symbols-ukrainian-troops/]
In reality, Ukrainian nationalists of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) killed hundreds of thousands of Jews, Poles, Belarusians, Russians, and fellow Ukrainians during WWII.

German occupation forces tended to form Einsatz groups that eliminated the civilian population with the help of Ukrainian nationalists. In Kiev alone, the number of those executed – mostly Jews – reached up to 150,000 victims, and the same policies were implemented in all occupied Ukrainian cities. 


Ukrainian ultra-nationalists salute as they march in the center of the western city of Lviv.(AFP Photo / Yuriy Dyachyshyn)
[PHOTO SOURCE: http://rt.com/news/185708-nazi-symbols-ukrainian-troops/]
Odnorozhenko, however, tailors history to his needs. When calling on Europe to provide assistance to Ukraine, he actually compares his unit to predecessors from OUN-UPA who fought Soviet troops during WWII to justify such assistance.

Russian forces could soon be everywhere, he said, because of the “blindness and stupidity of the European political elite” who are unwilling to combat “Russian aggression.”

“We have the kind of normal war that was last seen in Europe in 1945,” Odnorozhenko said, also omitting the chain of wars like in the Balkans that first led to the disintegration of Yugoslavia, and then blew Serbia into a number of states. 

Ukraine: Azov Battalion joins mass military mobilisation to E. Ukraine
Published on Jan 17, 2015
Members of the all-volunteer Azov Battalion formed up in central Kiev, Saturday before being dispatched to eastern Ukraine to reinforce embattled Ukrainian troops there. Their call-up is part of Kiev’s mass military mobilisation this month, and follows a Friday statement by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR/DPR) that DNR forces had seized Donetsk International Airport.
VIDEO SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gaOgB5xEEc

AZOV BATTALION VS. VOSTOK BATALLION
Published on Dec 12, 2014
The Azov Battalion (Ukrainian: Батальйон «Азов») is an all-volunteer far-right paramilitary detachment of Ukraine which reports to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and of which each man is paid a salary of $70 each month.The battalion is based in Mariupol in the Azov Sea coastal region. The BBC's Fergal Keane has called the unit "a far-right Ukrainian militia

The Vostok Battalion (Russian: Батальон Восток, Ukrainian: Батальйон Схід; lit. "East Battalion") was formed in early May 2014. It is commanded by Alexander Khodakovsky, a defector from the Security Service of Ukraine.[ Khodakovsky is the chief of the DPR's security service, and of the Patriotic Forces of Donbass, an insurgent battalion
VIDEO SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYAUAbNGtls



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↧

PRISON KILLER, RECIDIVIST MURDERER & A SUICIDE ASSIST NEEDED: JEFFREY MOTTS [EXECUTED IN SOUTH CAROLINA ON MAY 6, 2011]

May 5, 2015, 2:56 pm
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On this date, May 6, 2011, Jeffrey Motts was executed by lethal injection in South Carolina for the prison homicide of his cellmate, Charles Martin on May 12, 2005. Ten years before the prison murder, he had killed two people in a robbery. Please go to this previous blog post to learn more.


Jeffrey Motts

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RESERVE POLICE BATTALION 101 (FORMED ON MAY 6, 1940)

May 5, 2015, 6:18 pm
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            On this date, May 6, 1940, Nazi Paramilitary Police Reserve, AKA Reserve Police Battalion was formed. I will post information about this SS group from Wikipedia and other links.


Inspection of Reserve Police Battalion 101 of the Nazi German Ordnungspolizei (Order Police) at Łódź (Litzmannstadt) in occupied Poland; late November of 1940 or spring 1941.

Active
Founded 6 May 1940
Country
occupied Poland
Allegiance
Nazi Germany, the SS
Type
Paramilitary police reserve

Reserve Police Battalion 101 was a Nazi German paramilitary formation of Ordnungspolizei(Order Police), serving under the control of the SS by law. Formed in Hamburg, it was deployed in September 1939 along with the Wehrmachtarmy in the invasion of Poland. Initially, the Police Battalion 101 (German: Polizeibataillon 101) guarded Polish prisoners of war behind German lines, and carried out expulsion of Poles, called "resettlement actions", in the new Warthegauterritory around Poznań and Łódź. Following the personnel change and retraining from May 1941 until June 1942, it became a major perpetrator of the Holocaust in occupied Poland.

Overview

The Nazi German Order Police had grown to 244,500 men by mid-1940, tasked with controlling civilian populations of the conquered or colonized countries. After the German attack on the Soviet positions in Operation Barbarossa of 1941, the Order Police joined the SSEinsatzgruppen in the massacres of Jews behind the Wehrmacht lines. The first mass killing of 3,000 Jews by the German police occurred in Białystokon July 12, 1941 in the formerly Russian zone of occupied Poland, followed by the Bloody Sunday massacre of 10,000-12,000 Jews by the Reserve Police Battalion 133, perpetrated in Stanisławówon October 12, 1941 with the aid of SiPo and the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police. The shootings in Russia proper culminated in the Battalion 45 massacre of 33,000 Jews at Babi Yar. The Order Police battalions became indispensable in the implementation of the Final Solution after the Wannsee Conference of 1942. They rounded up tens of thousands of Nazi ghetto inmates for deportations to extermination camps during the liquidation of the Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland, but also participated themselves in the killing of Polish Jews along with the Holocaust executioners known as Trawnikis. During Operation Reinhard mass murders were committed by Battalion 101 against women, children and the elderly in various locations including forced-labour camps and subcamps, most notably during the Aktion Erntefest of 1943, the single largest German massacre of Jews in the entire war, with 43,000 victims shot in the execution pits over the bodies of others.

For more details on this topic, see Nazi crimes against the Polish nation.


Expulsion from Warthegau. Poles led to cattle trains as part of the ethnic cleansing of western Poland, utilizing Battalion 101
Battalion 101 operations

A total number of 17 police battalions were deployed by Orpo during the invasion of Poland in 1939. Battalion 101 was one of three from the city of Hamburg. After a few months of active duty the battalion was transported from Kielce, Poland, back to Germany on December 17, 1939 to undergo a major expansion after Christmas. Servicemen were tasked with organizing additional ground units. The already enlarged battalion was deployed to Poland again in May 1940, and for the next five months, has conducted mass expulsions of Poles, to make room for the German colonists brought in Heim ins Reich from the areas invaded by their Moscow ally as well as from the Third Reich.

The expulsions of Poles along with kidnappings of Polish children for the purpose of Germanization, were managed by two German institutions, VoMi, and RKFDV under Heinrich Himmler. In settlements already cleared of their native Polish inhabitants, the new Volksdeutschefrom Bessarabia, Romania and the Baltics were put, under the banner of Lebensraum. Battalion 101 "evacuated" 36,972 Poles in one action, over half of the targeted number of 58,628 in the new German district of Warthegau (the total was 630,000 before the war's end, with two-thirds killed), but also committed murders among civilians according to postwar testimonies of at least one of its former members.


During the early period we endeavored to fetch all people out of the houses, without regard for whether they were old, sick, or small children. The commission quickly found fault with our procedures. They objected that we struggled under the burden of the old and sick. To be precise, they did not initially give us the order to shoot them on the spot, rather they contented themselves with making it clear to us that nothing could be done with such people.
— Bruno Probst 


For the next half-a-year beginning November 28, 1940 the Police Battalion 101 guarded the new ghetto in Łódźcrammed with 160,000 Jews eventually. The Łódź Ghetto was the second-largest Jewish ghetto of World War II after the Warsaw Ghetto where the policemen from Battalion 61 held victory parties on the days when a large number of desperate prisoners were shot at the ghetto fence. Battalion 101 commanded by career policeman Major Wilhelm Trapp, returned to Hamburg in May 1941 and again, the more experienced servicemen were dispatched to organize more units. Brand new battalions numbered 102, 103 and 104 were formed by them and prepared for duty. Training of new reservists included deportation of 3,740 Hamburg and Bremen Jews to the East for execution. Meanwhile, the killing of Jews from the Łódź Ghetto using gas vans began at Chelmno in December 1941.


Germans serving in Reserve Police Battalion 101 publicly humiliate a Jewish man by forcing him to pose in a prayer shawl in a crouching position with his hands up Lukow, Poland, 1942 USHMM, courtesy of Zydowski Instytut Historyczny Instytut Naukowo-Badawczy
[PHOTO SOURCE: https://my.vanderbilt.edu/michaelbess/books/choices-under-fire/gallery/chapter-6-deep-evil-and-deep-good-the-concept-of-%E2%80%9Chuman-nature%E2%80%9D-confronts-the-holocaust/]
Return to Poland, June 1942 – November 1943

The Reserve Battalion 101 with three detachments of heavy machine-guns returned to occupied Poland in June 1942, composed of 500 men in their thirties who were too old for the regular army. By that time, the first two extermination camps of Operation Reinhard in General Government– Bełżecand Sobibór– were already gassing trainloads of Jews from all over Europe. The most deadly of them, Treblinka, was about to start operations. Globocnik gave Battalion 101 the task of deporting Jews from across Lublin reservation. Between mid-March and mid-April 1942, about 90% of the 40,000 prisoners of the Lublin Ghetto were loaded by Order Police and Schupo onto Holocaust trains destined for Bełżec extermination camp. Additional 11,000–12,000 Jews were deported from ghettos in Izbica, Piaski, in Lubartów, Zamość and Kraśnik with the aid of Trawnikisfrom the Sonderdienst battalions of Karl Streibel.

The first mass murder known to have been committed entirely by Battalion 101 was the most "messy" for lack of training; uniforms dripping wet with brain matter and blood. The killing of 1,500 Jews from Józefów ghetto southeast of Warsaw on July 13, 1942 was performed mostly by the three platoons of the Second Company. Prior to departure from Biłgoraj they were given large amounts of extra ammunition and therefore claiming to have had no idea what the purpose of the mission was would have been a lie. A generous supply of alcohol was procured. Twelve out of 500 soldiers opted out when allowed to leave freely. Those of them who felt unable to continue shooting at point-blank range of prisoners begging for mercy, were asked to wait at the marketplace where the trucks were loaded. The action was finished in seventeen hours. The bodies of the dead carpeting the forest floor at the Winiarczykowa Góra hill (about 2 km from the village, pictured) were left unburied. Watches, jewelry and money were taken. The battalion left for Biłgoraj at 9pm. Only a dozen Jews are known to have survived the slaughter. Two members of the Mart family from the German minority residing in Józefów were shot by Polish underground thereafter for cooperation with the enemy.

The next ghetto liquidation action took place less than a month later in Łomazy lacking a rail line. The infants, the old and sick unable to move, where shot by Battalion 101 already during the early morning roundups on August 17, 1942. Later that day, the Hiwi shooters arrived at the main square, and some 1,700 ghetto prisoners were marched on foot to the Hały forest outside the town, where the stronger Jewish men prepared a trench with entrance on one side. The killings of stripped naked Jews lasted till 7pm. The Ukrainian Trawnikis got so drunk that the policemen from the First, Second and Third Platoon under Lieutenant Hartwig Gnade had to continue shooting by themselves in half-a-metre of blood.

More deportations

In the following weeks, the Police Battalion 101 pacified towns with direct lines to Treblinka therefore the mass shooting operations were not scheduled. On August 19, 1942 – only two days after Łomazy – 3,000 Jews were deported from Parczew (2,000 more, several days later); from Międzyrzec11,000 Jews were sent to Treblinka on August 25–26 amid gunfire and screams. From Radzyń 6,000 prisoners, then from Łuków (7,000), Końskowola (2,000 coupled with massacre at the hospital), Komarówka, Tomaszów; all those unable to move or attempting to flee were shot on the spot.[1] At the end of August death transports were temporarily halted. After a brief respite, shootings of Jews resumed on September 22 in Serokomla, than in Talczyn and in the Kockghetto four days later, by the Second Company. The treatment of condemned prisoners was getting increasingly more terrifying as the time went on. In Izbica, the makeshift ghetto reached a breaking point packed by Gnade with Jewish inhabitants of Biała Podlaska, Komarówka, Wohyń, Czemierniki. The October and November deportations to Bełżec and Sobibór led to a week of mass killings at the cemetery beginning November 2, 1942. Several thousand Jews (estimated at 4,500) from the transit ghetto were massacred by the Sonderdienst battalion of Ukrainian Trawnikis in an assembly-line-style and dumped in hastily-constructed mass graves under total police control. All men drank heavily.

In Międzyrzec"strip-search" of young Jewish women was introduced by Gnade before executions dubbed "mopping up" actions by the Germans. Gnade's first sergeant later said: "I must say that First Lieutenant Gnade gave me the impression that the entire business afforded him a great deal of pleasure." By the spring of 1943 most towns of the Lublin reservation were Judenfrei therefore the battalion was tasked with "Jew hunts" in the deep local forests, or in the potato fields and around distant farmlands. Thousands of Jews were shot face to face. The participation of Reserve Police Battalion 101 in the Final Solution culminated in the Aktion Erntefest massacres of Jews imprisoned at the Trawniki, Poniatowaand Majdanekconcentration camps with subcamps in Budzyn, Kraśnik, Puławy, Lipowa and other slave-labor projects of the Ostindustrie (Osti). Approximately 43,000 Jews were killed. It was the largest single-day massacre of the Holocaust under direct German occupation, committed on November 3, 1943 on the orders of Christian Wirth. Trawniki men provided the necessary manpower.


At the conclusion of the Erntefest massacres, the district of Lublin was for all practical purposes judenfrei. The murderous participation of Reserve Police Battalion 101 in the Final Solution came to an end... For a battalion of less than 500 men, the ultimate body count was at least 83,000 Jews.

— Christopher R. Browning, Ordinary Men


Postwar history

Soon after the war ended, Major Wilhelm Trapp was captured by the British authorities and placed at the Neuengamme Internment Camp. After questioning by the Polish Military Mission for the Investigations of War Crimes in October 1946, he was extradited to Poland along with Drewes, Bumann and Kadler. Subsequently, Trapp was charged with war crimes by the Siedlce District Court, sentenced to death on July 6, 1948 and executed on December 18, 1948 along with Gustav Drewes. However, with the onset of the Cold War, West Germany did not pursue any war criminals at all for the next twenty years. In 1964 several men were arrested. For the first time the involvement of German police from Hamburg in wartime massacres was investigated by the West Germanprosecutors. In 1968 after a two-year trial 3 men were sentenced to 8 years imprisonment, one to 6 years, and one to 5 years. Six other policemen – all lower ranks – were found guilty but not sentenced. The rest went on to live their normal lives.

Summary of genocidal missions

In most part the following table is based on the 1968 verdict of the Hamburg District Court, and compared with relevant data from the Museum of the History of the Polish Jews and other searchable databases.

Murder operations of the Reserve Police Battalion 101 in occupied Poland
Location
Date
Operation type and participants
Victims
  Józefów
July 1942
Mass shooting / entire battalion
1,500 Jews  
  Łomazy
August 1942
Mass shooting / 2nd Company, Hiwis
1,700 Jews  
  Parczew
August 1942
Extermination, death trains / 1st & 2nd Company, Hiwis
5,000 Jews  
 Międzyrzec Podlaski Ghetto[51] 
August 1942
Extermination / 1st Co., 3rd Pl. 2nd Co., 1st Pl. 3rd Co., Hiwis
12,000 Jews  
  Radzyń
October 1942
Extermination, death trains /1st Company, Hiwis
2,000 Jews  
  Parczew
October 1942
Mass shooting / 1st & 2nd Company, Hiwis
5,000 Jews  
  Biała Podlaska& its county
October & November 1942 
Międzyrzec Ghetto extermination, death trains
10,800 Jews  
  Komarówka
October & November 1942
Międzyrzec Ghetto
600 Jews  
  Wohyń
October & November 1942
Międzyrzec Ghetto
800 Jews  
  Czemierniki
October & November 1942
Międzyrzec Ghetto
1,000 Jews  
  Radzyń
October & November 1942
Extermination, death trains
2,000 Jews  
  Międzyrzec Ghetto
October & November 1942
Death camps
15,200 Jews  
  Międzyrzec Ghetto
May 1943
Death camps; Majdanek, Treblinka
3,000 Jews  
  Aktion Erntefest
November 3, 1942
Two days of mass shooting / entire battalion
43,000 Jews  
  Total
July 1942 – May 1943
Battalion 101 in occupied Poland
(83,000) Jews  

Command
Upon its return to occupied Poland, on June 21, 1942 the Reserve Police Battalion 101 had the following command structure:
  • 1st Company: Captain, Hauptsturmführer Julius Wohlauf (until October 1942, then Captain Steidtmann)
·         1st Platoon: Second Lieutenant Boysen
·         2nd Platoon: Reserve Second Lieutenant Bumann
·         3rd Platoon: Zugwachmeister Junge
  • 2nd Company: Oberleutnant Hartwig Gnade (until May 1943, then Lieutenant Dreyer)
·         1st Platoon: Second Lieutenant Schürer
·         2nd Platoon: Reserve Second Lieutenant Kurt Dreyer
·         3rd Platoon: Hauptwachmeister Starke
  • 3rd Company: Captain Wolfgang Hoffmann (until November 1942)
·         1st Platoon: Second Lieutenant Pauly
·         2nd Platoon: Second Lieutenant Hachmeister
·         3rd Platoon: Hauptwachmeister Jückmann

OTHER LINKS:
https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/readings/reserve-police-battalion-101

http://hampshirehigh.com/exchange2012/docs/BROWNING-Ordinary%20Men.%20Reserve%20Police%20Battalion%20101%20and%20the%20Final%20Solution%20in%20Poland%20%281992%29.pdf

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/battalion101.html

http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/einsatz/polbat101.html

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THE GERMAN INSTRUMENT OF SURRENDER (MAY 7, 1945)

May 6, 2015, 2:16 pm
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