The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

Shofar FTP Archive File: camps//maidanek/commission-01


Newsgroups: alt.revisionism,soc.history
Subject: Maidanek: Polish-Soviet Extraordinary Commission Report (1 of 7)
Followup-To: alt.revisionism
Organization: The Nizkor Project http://www.nizkor.org
Keywords: Lublin,Maidanek

Archive/File: camps/maidanek maidanek.005
Last-Modified: 1994/10/31

   COMMUNIQUE
   
   OF THE
   POLISH-SOVIET EXTRAORDINARY
   COMMISSION FOR INVESTIGATING
   THE CRIMES COMMITTED BY THE
   GERMANS IN THE MAJDANEK
   EXTERMINATION CAMP IN LUBLIN
   
   
   
   FOREIGN LANGAUGES PUBLISHING HOUSE
   MOSCOW 1944
   ------------------------------------------------------------------
   CONTENTS
   page
   Preamble ...........................................1
   I. The Majdanek Extermination Camp in Lublin........2
   II. The Categories of Prisoners in the Camp.........3
   III. The Tortures and Bloody Reprisals Practised
           in the Extermination Camp...................5
   IV. The Wholesale Shooting of Prisoners of War
           and Civilians in the Camp...................9
   V. Asphyxiation by Gas.............................13
   VI. The German Butchers Tried to Cover up the
           Traces of their Heinous Crimes.............18
   VII. The Hitlerites Robbed the Prisoners in the
           Camp of their Valuables and Belongings.....22
   
   
   
   Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
   
   ------------------------------------------------------------pg 01--
   COMMUNIQUE
   
   OF THE POLISH-SOVIET EXTRAORDINARY COMMISSION
   FOR INVESTIGATING THE CRIMES COMMITTED BY THE
   GERMANS IN THE MAJDANEK EXTERMINATION CAMP
   IN LUBLIN
   
   
   
   
           The Polish-Soviet Extraordinary Commission for Investigating the
   Crimes Committed by the Germans in Lublin, consisting of Mr. A. Witos,
   Vice-Chairman of the Polish Committee of National Liberation (Chairman of
   the Commission); the Rev. Dr. Kruszynski, Dean of the Lublin Catholic
   Cathedral; Dr. Somerstein, member of the Polish Committee of National
   Liberation; Mr. Christians, Barrister, President of the Lublin Red Cross
   Society; Professor Bialkowski of the Lublin Catholic University; Professor
   Poplawski of the Lublin University; Mr. Balcerzak, Procurator of the Lublin
   Appeal Court and Mr. Szczepanski, Preeident of the Lublin Circuit Court
   (representing Poland); and D. I. Kudryavtsev (Vice-Chairman of the
   Commission), Professor V. I. Prozorovsky and Professor N. I. Graschenkov,
   (representing the U.S.S.R.), investigated the crimes committed in Lublin.
           In the territory of Poland the Hitlerites set up an extensive
   network of concentration camps: in Lublin, Demblin, Oswiencim, Cholm,
   Sobibor, Biala Podlaska, Treblinka and other places.
           To these camps they transported for extermination hundreds of
   thousands of people from the occupied countries of Europe-France, Belgium,
   the Netherlands, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Greece, Denmark, Norway
   and others.
           In these camps the criminal Hitler government organized the
   massacre of whole sections of the population whom they regarded as
   undesirable, primarily the intellectuals of the
   ------------------------------------------------------------pg 02--
   occupied countries of Europe, Soviet and Polish prisoners of war, and Jews.
           The facts discovered by the Commission in its investigation of the
   crimes committed by the Germans in Lublin far exceed in brutality and
   barbarity the monstrous crimes committed by the German fascist invaders of
   which international public opinion is already aware.
   
   I. THE MAJDANEK EXTERMINATION CAMP IN LUBLIN
   
           In Majdanek, Lublin, the Hitlerite butchers built a vast slaughter
   house, which they themselves called 'Vernichtungslager,' i.e.,
   'Extermination Camp.'
           The following two Germans, now prisoners of war, who served in this
   camp, testified:
           Rottenfuhrer SS Theodor Schollen:
           "This camp was called 'Vernichtungslager,' i.e 'Extermination
   Camp'-precisely because a colossal number of people were exterminated
   here."
           Kampfpolizist Heinz Stalbe:
           "The main purpose of this camp was to exterminate the largest
   possible number of people. That is why it was called 'Vernichtungslager'
   i.e., 'Extermination Camp.'"
           The-Majdanek Camp, situated two kilometres from Lublin, occupies an
   area of two hundred and seventy hectares. Its erection was commenced at the
   end of 1940.
           In the beginning of 1943 six fields of the camp were completed. In
   every field there were twenty-four barracks, making one hundred and
   forty-four barracks in all (not counting other buildings used as
   warehouses, workshops, etc.), each accommodating three hundred persons and
   over. The camp was surrounded by two rows of barbed wire. Furthermore,
   within the camp all the six fields were divided off by a whole network of
   barbed wire fences with a guard room at the entrance to each field. The
   barbed wire fences around these fields were charged with a high voltage
   electric current. All over the camp tall watch towers were erected in
   ------------------------------------------------------------pg 03--
   which sentries armed with machine guns were constantly posted. The camp was
   strongly guarded by SS troops. In addition there were two hundred German
   police dogs, which played an important part in guarding the camp, and an
   auxiliary force of police called Kampfpolizei, which consisted of criminal
   elements.



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