Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
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The "Fabrik Aktion"...!
At the beginning of 1943, around 15,100 citizens of the Jewish faith were still living in the German capital of Berlin, which the city’s Gauleiter, Dr. "Siegesmund" Goebbels...
...has been a thorn in my side for a long time!
In mid-February, the Nazis decide to finally make the Reich capital "Judenfrei". Goebbels delegates responsibility for this to Department IV B 4 of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) at Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse...
...the so-called "Judenreferat", headed by the notorious SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Adolf Eichmann...:
With genuine German bureaucratic thoroughness, Eichmann also has it determined who should NOT be arrested "for the time being", as they say:
- Jewish partners from "mixed marriages", under certain circumstances also after the divorce of the "mixed marriage",
- married "valid Jews" who lived with "Aryan" relatives,
- Jews over the age of 65, provided they were not married to a Jew under the age of 65,
- holders of certain orders and specified awards,
- also persons who had been deferred by special decrees of the RSHA.
On February 27, 1943, the meticulous plans are then put into practice:
On the morning of February 27, 1943, the Gestapo and armed members of the SS immediately cordon off around 100 companies and transport the arrested persons to prepared collection points on open trucks...:
Other Jews, identified by the yellow fabric star they had to sew onto their clothing, are arrested by the police on the street...:
Later, the Gestapo searches apartments for "forgotten" Jews and takes away all Jewish residents who are found there...:
A total of around 11,000 Berlin Jews were imprisoned during this major raid.
Most of them are deported to Auschwitz in five transports between March 1st and March 6th, 1943...:
Two thirds of the deportees are murdered immediately after their arrival at Auschwitz...:
Around 4,000 of those planned for arrest, deportation and murder manage to evade arrest during this so-called "Fabrik Aktion" ("factory action") - partly with the help of Berliners.
"Siegesmund" Gobbels was very upset about this. On March 2, 1943 he wrote in his diary:
"Unfortunately, it turned out again here that the better circles, especially the intellectuals, do not understand our Jewish policy and in some cases are on the side of the Jews. As a result, our action was betrayed prematurely, so that a lot of Jews slipped through our hands. But we will still get hold of them."
However, the factory action became known through something else:
The Nazi captors also arrest many people who their boss Eichmann had actually exempted from the "factory action":
About 2,000 people, all Jews living in "mixed marriages" as well as many "valid Jews" and some "Jewish half-breeds" were taken to a provisional assembly camp for further inspection in the building of the Jewish community at Rosenstrasse in the Mitte district...:
Relatives of those arrested gathered for days in front of the building, protested loudly and publicly against the arrest - and even the security police did not let themselves be driven out of there.
This demonstration only ended when the last people imprisoned in Rosenstrasse had left the building (on March 12, 1943).
This memorial on Rosenstraße reminds us of...:
At the beginning of 1943, around 15,100 citizens of the Jewish faith were still living in the German capital of Berlin, which the city’s Gauleiter, Dr. "Siegesmund" Goebbels...
...has been a thorn in my side for a long time!
In mid-February, the Nazis decide to finally make the Reich capital "Judenfrei". Goebbels delegates responsibility for this to Department IV B 4 of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) at Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse...
...the so-called "Judenreferat", headed by the notorious SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Adolf Eichmann...:
With genuine German bureaucratic thoroughness, Eichmann also has it determined who should NOT be arrested "for the time being", as they say:
- Jewish partners from "mixed marriages", under certain circumstances also after the divorce of the "mixed marriage",
- married "valid Jews" who lived with "Aryan" relatives,
- Jews over the age of 65, provided they were not married to a Jew under the age of 65,
- holders of certain orders and specified awards,
- also persons who had been deferred by special decrees of the RSHA.
On February 27, 1943, the meticulous plans are then put into practice:
On the morning of February 27, 1943, the Gestapo and armed members of the SS immediately cordon off around 100 companies and transport the arrested persons to prepared collection points on open trucks...:
Other Jews, identified by the yellow fabric star they had to sew onto their clothing, are arrested by the police on the street...:
Later, the Gestapo searches apartments for "forgotten" Jews and takes away all Jewish residents who are found there...:
A total of around 11,000 Berlin Jews were imprisoned during this major raid.
Most of them are deported to Auschwitz in five transports between March 1st and March 6th, 1943...:
Two thirds of the deportees are murdered immediately after their arrival at Auschwitz...:
Around 4,000 of those planned for arrest, deportation and murder manage to evade arrest during this so-called "Fabrik Aktion" ("factory action") - partly with the help of Berliners.
"Siegesmund" Gobbels was very upset about this. On March 2, 1943 he wrote in his diary:
"Unfortunately, it turned out again here that the better circles, especially the intellectuals, do not understand our Jewish policy and in some cases are on the side of the Jews. As a result, our action was betrayed prematurely, so that a lot of Jews slipped through our hands. But we will still get hold of them."
However, the factory action became known through something else:
The Nazi captors also arrest many people who their boss Eichmann had actually exempted from the "factory action":
About 2,000 people, all Jews living in "mixed marriages" as well as many "valid Jews" and some "Jewish half-breeds" were taken to a provisional assembly camp for further inspection in the building of the Jewish community at Rosenstrasse in the Mitte district...:
Relatives of those arrested gathered for days in front of the building, protested loudly and publicly against the arrest - and even the security police did not let themselves be driven out of there.
This demonstration only ended when the last people imprisoned in Rosenstrasse had left the building (on March 12, 1943).
This memorial on Rosenstraße reminds us of...:
