JULY 23
1942
Jews gassed at Treblinka: The Treblinka extermination camp opened in occupied Poland, east of Warsaw. The SS kept secret the fate that would befall them, and they were sent to their deaths unaware until the very last moment what was happening. The Jews were told that they were being sent to the camp, but that they first had to undergo disinfection and bathe. After the victims undressed, they were taken into the gas chamber (which were made to look like showers, and they were locked into the tightly-sealed chambers which were then filled with Zyklon B gas. After they were killed, Sonderkommando prisoners dragged the corpses out of the gas chambers. They cut off the women’s hair and removed all metal dental work and jewelry. Then they burned the corpses in pits, on pyres, or in the crematorium furnaces. Bones that did not burn completely were ground to powder and then dumped, along with the ashes, in the rivers Soła and Vistula and in nearby ponds, or strewn in the fields, or used as landfill on uneven ground and in marshes.
Czerniakow Committed Suicide: Adam Czerniaków was the head of the Warsaw Ghetto Judenrat. He committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide pill one day after the Nazi Germans began the mass deportation and extermination of Jews in the Grossaktion Warsaw. The Judenrat, or Council of Jews was comprised of the elite of the Jewish community, and they served as a self-enforcing intermediary council. Essentially the Judenrat enforced rules that were imposed upon them by the Nazi Germans. This applied to all Jewish Ghettos in German-occupied Poland. The Nazis established the Judenrat to facilitate their administrative control over Jewish communities throughout the occupied areas. Later the Nazis assigned the Judenrat to take control of the administration of "resettlement" of the Jews, in other words, the Judenrat was compelled to choose which Jews would be deported to the death camps. According to Holocaust scholar Michael Berenbaum has written: "...the Judenrat had no influence on the frightful outcome of the Holocaust; the Nazi extermination machine was alone responsible for the tragedy, and the Jews in the occupied territories, most especially Poland, were far too powerless to prevent it." (Editors note: The members of the Judenrat eventually succumbed to the same fate in the death camps.)
1944
The Lwów Uprising was an armed insurrection launched by Armia Krajowa, the Polish Home Army resistance, against the Nazi Germans who invaded the city of Lwow, Poland. (now Lviv, Ukraine). The Polish Underground had a secret plan, code-named Operation Tempest, that would involve an all-out countrywide Uprising against the Nazi Germans. It was to have occurred just ahead of the expected Soviet advance on the Eastern Front. The Lwów Uprising lasted until July 27 and resulted in the so-called "liberation" of Lwow when the Soviet troops marched in and occupied the city. Shortly afterwards, Polish soldiers were rounded up and arrested by the Soviets; some Polish soldiers were forced to join the Red Army while others were deported to the north-most reaches of the Soviet wasteland.
SECRET AND PERSONAL FROM PREMIER J. V. STALIN TO THE PRIME MINISTER, Mr W. CHURCHILL (no.301) " Your message of July 20 received. I am now writing to you on the Polish question only. Events on our front are going forward at a very rapid pace. Lublin, one of Poland's major towns, was taken today by our troops, who continue their advance. In this situation we find ourselves confronted with the practical problem of administration on Polish territory. We do not want to, nor shall we, set up our own administration on Polish soil, for we do not wish to interfere in Poland's internal affairs. That is for the Poles themselves to do. We have, therefore, seen fit to get in touch with the Polish Committee of National Liberation, recently set up by the National Council of Poland, which was formed in Warsaw at the end of last year, and consisting of representatives of democratic parties and groups, as you must have been informed by your Ambassador in Moscow. The Polish Committee of National Liberation intends to set up an administration on Polish territory, and I hope this will be done. We have not found in Poland other forces capable of establishing a Polish administration. The so-called underground organisations, led by the Polish Government in London, have turned out to be ephemeral and lacking influence. As to the Polish Committee, I cannot consider it a Polish Government, but it may be that later on it will constitute the core of a Provisional Polish Government made up of democratic forces. As for Mikolajczyk, I shall certainly not refuse to see him. It would be better, however, if he were to approach the Polish National Committee, who are favourably disposed towards him." (July 23, 1944 )
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