MAJDANEK - LUBLIN CONCENTRATION CAMP PART 7

EVACUATION AND RESOLUTION OF MAJDANEK
In May and June 1942 prisoners were first deported from the Lublin concentration camp to other camps: 1,400 Jews were placed by the SS in two transports to Auschwitz. Among them was Walter Rosenberg, who, along with other authors wrote a famous report on the crimes in Auschwitz after his escape under the pseudonym as Rudolf Vrba. However, the transport movements between Majdanek and other camps intensified only in the year 1943, when the demand for labour rose in the camps of the inner Reich, which were employed in the production of armament production (Rüstungsproduktion). The transfers from Majdanek had already taken place during the year 1943/44,  in the context of the gradual evacuation of the camp. By the end of March 1944 a total of approximately 20,000 registered prisoners and several thousand temporarily detained Polish farmers (Bauern) were deported from the concentration camp Lublin. [Himmler was convinced that after Stalingrad (23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943), Germany had lost the war, and took up clandestine negotiation via Sweden for an end of hostilities with Western Allies. This was one of the reason he was killed in captivity (he never took poison) by an British Agent, most likely Robert Bruce-Lockhart, as he, Himmler, would have embarrassed the Tribunal during the Nürnberg-Trials, HKS] In early November 1943, the Germans worked out a plan for the evacuation of Lublin. This foresaw the destruction of important buildings, especially military installations, using time bombs. In the proposal there were 22 objectives to achieve, in the last paragraph, the concentration camp Lublin was mentioned with the remark that the camp was to be  destroyed by arson which should be carried out in different places.

Remnants of the ovens at Majdanek'

From autumn of 1943 rumours were circulating of a liquidation of the camp among the prisoners . First, they feared that all would be shot. As of January 1944 they seemed to believe that deportation into the camps of the Reich a more realistic alternative . At that time, the Eastern Front was still far away. The evacuation of the German officials (Beamte) of the Lublin district was first intimated on the March 19, 1944 , when one of the bridge-heads at the city of Kovel in the Ukraine a distant of 250 kiilomtre from Lublin was reached by the Red Army. The commander of Majdanek then asked the Berlin authorities for instructions . After the WVHA had ordered the evacuation of the camp , they started with the first preparations : The prisoner card files were sorted , a portion of the barracks were removed and the magazines emptied . The camp office was preparing transport lists for the deportations . The able-bodied prisoners were sent to the camps in the Reich territory , a large proportion of patients went to the Auschwitz concentration camp .

'The ruins of one of the Majdanek camp building'

Mid- March 1944 there lived more than 9,000 prisoners at Majdanek , the prisoners of war in the military hospital camp are not included. Almost half of them was sick, many of them beyond help . From March to 6 April 1944 1,940 deaths were registered in the camp . Taking into account the date of the first and last evacuation transport from Majdanek, it can be assumed that the camp was four months in a state of evacuation. Most of the prisoners , however, were taken away in the first three weeks of April 1944. 1,150 detainees had been transferred to the concentration camp Natzweiler , half of them were immediately trams-shipped to Bergen-Belsen. About 800 people are deported to the concentration camp Gross-Rosen , 600 came to Plaszow , and 900 female prisoners were brought to the concentration camp Ravensbrück. For over 4,600 prisoners the concentration camp Auschwitz was their End-Station, how many survived out of this consignment is not recorded. Only 200 prisoners remained as a clearing up commando in Majdanek. Later, several hundred Jews came from the Lublin evacuated satellite camps  in Budzyn and Blizyn  to assist them.
The farmers from the Lublin region and Soviet prisoners of war who were not de facto prisoners, were still detained at the end of the camp period in Majdanek. The evacuation transports were resumed prior to  Soviet units just two to three weeks before taking over the camp in July . On 7 July, a part of the Soviet war-wounded were evacuated : 1,250 POW's were sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp. The final evacuation took place on 22 July 1944 but had to leave on foot instead . On this day,  about 800 people left the camp, which were complemented outside Lublin city , with more than 200 other prisoners from the sub-camp at Lopowa Sraße . This transport reached on July 28, 1944 Auschwitz, where 837 people were included in the camp registration. The other prisoners had either managed to flee from the transport, or they died on the march. [From what I observed by a Death March of women inmates , guarded by older Wehrmacht guards , they were of the opinion, the more escaped , the better for us . Their answer was: " What do you think will happen to me when the Russians catch up with us ?" There were indeed dead bodies on the roadside, when we proceeded with our mission HKS ]

The Aftermath

In the last hours of its existence the Majdanek card files and records of the camp were burned by the personnel of the orderly room . Part of the documents , the SS had already destroyed earlier , including the official recognition index with photos and fingerprints of several thousand prisoners. According to the original plan  the bonfire in parts had begun. The German report on the defence of Lublin reported: "The accommodated  Polish civilians and the Polish labour service were released by order of the Senior Field Commander , as the KZ camp is already on fire".  In the rush, the camp crew did not manage to destroy a large number of buildings. It burned only the wooden superstructure of the crematorium. On 24 July 1944, Lublin was under the control of one Belarusian-Front and units of the Polish Home Army ( Armia Krajowa ) . The advancing Soviet soldiers found there in the camp about 1,000 of their former comrades in arms, who had not been evacuated from the military hospital for Soviet war invalids, but this was not the last stage of their demise. The fate of captured Russian POW's was [Stalin's last tragic act in his purging of the military were the accusations of betrayal and treachery he advanced in the summer of 1941 against the Western Front commanders, Pavlov and Klimovskikh, and several other generals among whom, as it became clear later, there were also people who behaved in an uncompromising way to the end when in captivity." This is the assessment by the famous chronicler of the war, Konstantin Simonov. It appeared in the 1960s, but during the wartime ordeals there was indomitable faith: the prisoners of war (both generals and soldiers) were guilty. Most were interned in Gulags for re-Education in Siberia. No other yardstick existed as Stalin's Order No. 270". Commenting on that order, Stalin declared: "There are no Soviet prisoners of war, only traitors. sic]
After the liberation of Majdanek, the Red Army rebuilt some of the camp barracks into a Garrison, and part of the Polish Army was stationed there as well. In August 1944, the Soviets established on one of the  fields an NKVD camp, and interned for some weeks Polish soldiers as well as the Farmers Working Battalions as they were basically in opposition as members of the Armia Krajowa,  to the communist authorities. They were later deported to Siberia. Short term, they brought former German prisoners of war into the barracks, this was parallel when the 'Documentation Work' began, named the "Polish-Soviet Extraordinary Commission for the study of German crimes in the extermination camp Majdanek in Lublin", interrogated numerous witnesses and conducted field visits, where they made detailed reports and sketches. They also submitted an application to build a museum on the camp grounds.

The Polish - Soviet commission investigating crimes at the Majdanek camp'

In autumn 1944 the State Museum at Majdanek started its activity. This institution was created under extremely difficult conditions, which were a result of the takeover by the Communists in Poland. By the fall of 1945, almost the entire camp remained under the control of the Russian military, and had no intentions to prevent not only numerous depredations and thefts, but also participated themselves to the destruction of the camp relics. The Soviet soldiers fell not only on features of the camp, but also destroyed or retained a  large portion of the documents from the offices of the camp.

'Building No. 41, that housed the gas chambers in the Majdanek camp'.

The work of the museum in the first two decades has focused on the development and preservation of the historic fabric as well as enlightening, and generic works. The research only began in the 1960s, it is to this day still going on.


APPENDIX-Heinrich Himmler:
On May 23, 1945 Britain's secret agents had secretly and criminally liquidated one of the most wanted men in history, for whose proper public trial and punishment the blood of millions of his victims cried out.
British secret service did murder SS chief Heinrich Himmler (to stop him talking to the Americans)
NOTE: About the authenticity of these new Himmler Documents, documents discovered in Britain's Public Records Office, Kew, London, confirm revisionist claims that Himmler was liquidated by the British secret service on Churchill's orders, and did not commit suicide shortly after his capture as conformist historians have long maintained.
David Irving writes: -
Winston Churchill had long agitated in his War Cabinet for a secret plan to be approved between the Allied leaders ordering the execution without trial of a number of the enemy leaders, including Himmler. See my book "Nuremberg, the Last Battle" and the forthcoming volume iii of the Churchill biography.
Meeting at Hyde Park in September 1944, Churchill had readily persuaded Franklin D Roosevelt to sign on to this plan for lynch justice, but after Churchill carried the document to Moscow in October 1944 Joseph Stalin surprisingly refused to agree, insisting instead on proper trials for all enemy war criminals.

                                           
                                             Churchill and Assistant

David Irving recalls:
IN 1999 my publishing imprint Focal Point Publications invited Californian writer Joe Bellinger to speak at Cincinnati on The Strange Death of Heinrich Himmler. He came to the same conclusions. Impressed by his narrative there we paid him over $11,000 to enable him to travel to Washington and London to complete his research. He never made those trips, never finished his manuscript, and unfortunately did not learn of the files which have now been released.
The "silencing" of Himmler raises again the question of whether Churchill really had been negotiating with Himmler for nearly a year. In August 1944 the head of the secret service showed him at least one document "from Himmler," and Churchill assured the secret service chief that after reading it he had safely destroyed it: 'Himmler telegram was kept and destroyed by me. WSC.31.viii'.
Hitler was evidently aware of what Himmler was up to, because on September 12 the Reichsführer discussed with Hitler "peace feelers to Russia or Britain." A few days later, however, on September 18, 1944, the British intercepted a German intelligence signal that Himmler 'forbids by W/T (wireless traffic) all contact with English since their offers are bluff' -- as no doubt they were. See PRO file HW.1/3196.
Rumours emerged last year (2004) that Churchill had personally ordered the alleged silencing of Benito Mussolini, and that the order had been handed by an SOE officer to Italian partisans soon after. Mussolini and his entire Cabinet were liquidated by machine gun squads without trial in the closing days of the war.
In April 1945, Himmler moved to northern Germany and began negotiations through his own Intelligence chief Walter Schellenberg and Count Bernadotte, the Swedish emissary, to end the bloodshed in Europe. The negotiations went through Sir Victor Mallet, the British minister in Stockholm. Stalin was by this time pathologically suspicious of any separate negotiations between the Allied governments and the Nazi leadership. Himmler was thus the repository of some awkward secrets when he fell into British hands in May 1945. For a while Churchill was inclined to deal with him. Admiral Cunningham, Britain's First Sea Lord, visited Churchill on April 13, 1945 and wrote this startling passage in his diary afterwards:
"During our interview the PM mentioned that Himmler appeared to be trying to show that he wasn't so bad as painted & PM said if it would save further expenditure of life he would be prepared to spare even Himmler. I suggested there were plenty of islands he could be sent to. "Real historians have long doubted the conformist version of how Himmler died, namely that he obligingly swallowed poison when he realised the game was up. Patient research revealed that the official files on his death had oddities, discrepancies, and inconsistencies: the autopsy performed on the corpse did not give the cause of death; a vital page had been retyped; there was no message in the files of 21 Army Group, Field-Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery's headquarters, reporting the event to London. Whatever had been there, it had gone. Now come documents from the Public Record Office (record group FO 800, file 868), which provide more than just a smoking gun. What is truly extraordinary is not so much that the conformists have willingly overlooked the inconsistencies for over sixty years but that those involved in, or aware of, the murder -- who included Prime Minister Churchill himself -- had kept quiet about it.
The documents:
May 10, 1945: The first, dated May 10, 1945 is a Personal and Secret letter on Foreign Office stationery from Sir John Wheeler-Bennett, later a noted Establishment and Royal historian, to the famous British agent Sir Robert Bruce-Lockhart, of the Political Intelligence Department of the Foreign office -- which conducted Black propaganda against the enemy:
'Further to our meeting yesterday morning, I have been giving some serious thought to the little H situation'.
We cannot allow Himmler to take to the stand in any prospective prosecution, or indeed allow him to be interrogated by the Americans. Steps will therefore have to been taken to eliminate him as soon as he falls into our hands'.

Document on the alleged silencing of Heinrich Himmler'

Please give this matter some thought, as if we are to take action we will have to expedite such an act with some haste.
Lockhart minuted two days later in handwriting: "I agree, I have arranged for Mr Ingrams to go for a fortnight. R B-L, 12/May/1945."
It is significant to note from the diary of General Dempsey, commanding the British Second Army in Northern Germany (PRO file WO/285/12), that on Monday, May 21 he visited both the detention camp at Westertimke and the German concentration area between Bremervörde and Stade. We know that Himmler and his two adjutants Macher and Grothmann had been arrested at Bremervörde on May 21, 1945, but -- so the story goes -- Himmler was not identified until they arrived at Westertimke on May 23, 1945.
The former Reichsführer SS was carrying a letter to Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, the British field commander (which has vanished). His only cyanide capsule was found in his clothing after he had been ordered to strip naked, and it was handed to Michael Murphy, head of British Illustrated London NewsIntelligence at the Second Army. According to The Illustrated London News story a few days later, a "second" capsule was surrendered to the medical officer at Himmler's final destination, the ominous house at No. 31a Ülzener Strasse in Lüneburg -- which raises a number of obvious questions.
House of death after his identification, according to the official accounts, Himmler had answered questions, eaten a thick British Army sandwich, and been driven to the house in Lüneburg -- from which he emerged dead.
Although the British military files appear meticulous, even listing with suspicious detail every person present in the room at the moment of death, many facts did not fit into place.
The prisoner's nose had been broken, according to The Illustrated London News artist who sketched the body. How had he obtained the cyanide capsule he had allegedly been hiding in his mouth (let alone answer questions and bite into that sandwich)?

                              

        Heinrich Himmler after his alleged suicide on May 23, 1945 while in British custody
The photo above was sent to me (Further Glory) by Gasan, a reader of my blog, who believes that Himmler was murdered and that the photo above shows that Himmler’s nose had been broken.  Heinrich Himmler was captured by British troops on May 21, 1945 and was “silenced permanently” .
Source: Scrapbook Pages, dated: January 11,2011,http://furtherglory.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/himmlers-death-suicide-or-murder/

The capsule descriptions varied, and bore no resemblance to what the standard issue capsule actually looked like. And more (but wait for my upcoming Himmler biography).

May 24, 1945At 2:50 a.m. that night (it was now May 24, 1945) "Mr Thomas" wired from Bremen to the Foreign Office for Bruce Lockhart in a top secret code (jj jj jj jj is the clue: it was a one-time pad).
"Further to my orders we successfully intercepted H.H. last night at Lüneburg before he could be interrogated. As instructed action was taken to silence him permanently. I issued orders that my presence at Lüneburg is not to be recorded in any fashion, and we may conclude that the H.H. problem is ended."
Bruce Lockhart significantly noted on this telegram, "copy to PM" -- i.e., to Churchill -- "May 25".
Brendan Bracken, Churchill's obnoxious red-headed confidant (left, with friend: Clementine loathed him), was also in on the action -- a war crime, despite Heinrich Himmler's dark record, as he was a prisoner of war who had surrendered to British custody.
May 27, 1945"Mr Dear Top," he wrote on May 27 to Lord Selborne at the Ministry of Economic warfare, head of the SOE (PRO file HS series HS8/944),
"Further to the good news of the death of Little H, I feel it is imperative that we maintain a complete news blackout on the exact circumstances of this most evil man's demise. I am sure that if it were to become public knowledge that we had had a hand in this man's demise, it would have devastating repercussions for this country's standing. "Quite so: Britain's secret agents had secretly and criminally liquidated one of the most wanted men in history, for whose proper public trial and punishment the blood of millions of his victims cried out: and for no other visible reason than to conceal that for a few days toward the end of the war, Churchill had negotiated with him on peace terms.

"I am also sure [continued Bracken] that this incident would complicate our relationship with our American brethren; under no circumstances must they discover that we eradicated 'Little H', particularly so since we know they were keen to interrogate him themselves.
I am of the opinion that the special SOE/PWE Committee and team can now be dissolved, even though Mallet is still negotiating with W.S. [Walter Schellenberg] in Sweden. Perhaps you could let me know your opinion on this matter."
Real historians will now need to do further work to identify the murderer, "Mr Thomas," and the part played by Robert Bruce-Lockhart, who was a principal figure in Britain's Black propaganda war together with Sefton Delmer. Bracken ordered that all his papers be destroyed before his death. Bruce-Lockhart's diaries and papers are in the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, California; a sanitized edition of his diaries was published many years ago, and his papers have probably been weeded too.
It is known that when Himmler first established contact with the British, Churchill's initial response was to deal with him regardless of his reputation. But then the secret services stepped in. A fake communiqué was issued claiming that Himmler had offered to betray Hitler, and this caused much confusion and fury in Hitler's bunker in the last few days -- not to mention anguish to Himmler himself.
Until the last moment, he believed that he was to meet Montgomery, and when he took off his eye patch and identified himself as Himmler to the British camp commandant, he believed that he would be in the presence of the British commander soon after. Instead, as Colonel Michael Murphy wrote in a handwritten report in an odd turn of phrase to which we drew comment two months later, "I therefore told him to dress, and wishing to have a medical search conducted, telephoned my G-II at my H.Q. and told him to get a Doctor to stand by at a house I had had prepared for such men as Himmler." This was the house from which Himmler emerged lifeless, wrapped in a blanket.

House of Himmlers murder'

Many months ago we had already detected that page 2 of the three-page report in the British Second Army intelligence unit's war diary, recording Himmler's death, had been retyped at roughly headlined the same time -- on the same report pad and using the same typewriter, but by a different hand: clearly indicating that it had been sanitized for some purpose which could only be surmised.
Now we know why.
Radical's Diary No.26: " I noticed that page 2 of the 1945 Second Army diary, which relates this episode at length, has been retyped on the same typewriter as used for pages 1 and 3, but by a different typist."
Illustrated London News runs early story on the "suicide" of Himmler. "Sergeant Carl Sutton," or "Norman Redford" took illicit photos of the body. Description in Feb 1964 by former colonel (British Army) Michael Murphy on the death of Heinrich Himmler, May 1945, written to biographer Heinrich Fraenkel.Selkirk Panton writes (May 1954) on Himmler's end. Sunday Times publishes new Hitler, Himmler photos. War diary on death of Himmler, and Substance of Message from GS9 2.
[Above is a partial translation from French]

 CONTINUED UNDER PART 8