OCTOBER 15 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

OCTOBER 15

1941

German authorities decreed that any Jews found outside of ghetto walls in Poland would be executed on sight. The document was posted everywhere in Polish and German.  The following is an English translation, " NOTICE   Concerning the sheltering of escaping Jews  There is a need for a reminder, that in accordance with Paragraph 3 of the decree of October 15, 1941, on the Limitation of Residence in General Government (page 595 of the GG Register) Jews leaving the Jewish Quarter without permission will incur the death penalty.    According to this decree, those knowingly helping these Jews by providing shelter, supplying food, or selling them foodstuffs are also subject to the death penalty. This is a categorical warning to the non-Jewish population against:  1) Providing shelter to Jews,  2) Supplying them with Food,  3) Selling them Foodstuffs.     Tschenstochau,  Częstochowa, 24.9.42   Der Stadthauptmann  Dr. Franke."   (Editors comment:  Despite this notice, and reminder, many Jews continued trying to escape from the ghetto, and many Polish people continued to try to help them, at great risk to themselves and their families.)

1942

The Brzesc Ghetto was liquidated from October 15–18, 1942.   20,000 Jewish inhabitants of Brześć were murdered; over 5,000 were executed locally at the Brest Fortress on the orders of Karl Eberhard Schöngarth; and the rest were transported by train under the guise of "resettlement"  to  the secluded forest of the Bronna Góra extermination site. The Reverend Władysław Grobelny from Kobryń near Brześć was executed on October 15, 1942 together with the Jews he was helping. Father Jan Urbanowicz, Dean of the Holy Cross Parish in Brześć, was executed by the Germans in June 1943 for issuing false Christian baptismal certificates for the Polish Jews. Father Mieczysław Akrejć, a Catholic priest from Brześć, contributed 4,000 gold rubles to help the Judenrat pay the huge ransom to the Germans. His efforts were in vain as the Germans liquidated the ghetto a few days later.

1944

On October 15, 1944 at 2:00 pm,  Admiral Miklos Horthy, Hungary's Regent, made a radio broadcast to the nation announcing that he had signed an armistice with the Soviet Union. Shortly after the announcement, the Arrow Cross Party, supported by the Nazi Germans,  seized control of the radio station. This was a Nazi German plan code named Operation Panzerfaust.  The Nazis arrested Horthy, and detained him at the Wafen SS offices. Horthy was ordered to sign a statement renouncing the armistice, on the threat of his son's life, and he signed it.  Later he said, "I neither resigned nor appointed Szálasi Premier, I merely exchanged my signature for my son’s life. A signature wrung from a man at machine-gun point can have little legality." But despite having signed the renunciation, Horthy's son remained in concentration camp until he end of the war, and Horthy was imprisoned at Schloss Hirschberg near Weilheim, Germany, where he was guarded by 100 Waffen SS men at all times.

1945

Pierre Laval Was Executed For Treason:   On October 15, 1945, Pierre Jean-Paul Laval was executed in front of a firing squad at Fresnes Prison, in France. After the trial and sentencing,  Laval attempted to commit suicide but failed. The poison he ingested was not potent enough. He was nursed back to health, and executed on the prescribed day. Laval was a politician in the Vichy regime during World War Two. When France fell, and the Nazi Germans were about to occupy France, Petain formed a new government, appointing Laval as Minister of Justice.  Laval reacted angrily and insisted that he be given the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs.  With his ambitious objectives sated,  Laval joined his Nazi French collaborators in the Vichy regime and met frequently with Hitler.  Laval openly sympathized with fascism and was convinced that the Germans would win the war.  In November of 1940, he unilaterally handed  RTB Bor copper mines and Belgian gold reserves over to the Nazi Germans.

1946

Hermann Goring Committed Suicide:   Goring was a member of the Nazi Party and rose through the ranks to become one of the most powerful officers in the regime.  He established the infamous Gestapo, and was C-C of the Luftwaffe. By 1941 he became leader of the Nazi German armed forces, and was designated by Hitler as his successor.  After the war, Goring was tried at Nuremberg.   He was indicted on four charges, including a charge of conspiracy; waging a war of aggression; war crimes, including the plundering and removal to Germany of works of art and other property; and crimes against humanity, including the disappearance of political and other opponents under the Nacht und Nebel (Night and Fog) decree; the torture and ill-treatment of prisoners of war; and the murder and enslavement of civilians, including what was at the time estimated to be 5,700,000 Jews.  The trial lasted 218 days and the sentence was proclaimed on September 30, 1946. During the proceedings Goring used gestures, shaking his head and even laughing out loud.  He constantly wrote notes and whispered with the other defendants attempting to influence their testimony.  He called the court "stupid" and claimed he did not know most of the other defendants before the trial.   He was sentenced to death by hanging on October 15, 1946.  But before the sentence could be carried out, he ingested a cyanide capsule the night before.