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Home | Preface | Cologne Judgment | Bielefeld Trial | Appendices AppendicesGLOSSARY OF GERMAN TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONSAmtskommissar, Subdistrict Commissioner, key official in civil administration of occupied Bialystok District, responsible to Kreiskommissar.Barbarossa, code name for the German invasion of the USSR, June 22, 1941. Grodno was occupied by German troops that same day. BdS, Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD, Supreme Commander over several KdS offices, responsible directly to RSHA in Berlin. Bezirk Bialystok, Bialystok District, special administrative district in occupied Poland, attached to but not incorporated into the Reich as an autonomous district of East Prussia in late July 1941. Einsatzqruppe, action group, 'mobile killing unit'; special SS/SD murder squads responsible for liquidation (by mass shooting) of Jews and others behind the German armies advancing into the Soviet Union, composed of up to six Einsatzkommandos. Formed in June 1941 and active in Eastern Europe until May 1943. Einsatzkommando, smaller component of an Einsatzgruppe. Ereignismeldungen UdSSR, "Field Reports USSR," a series of periodic reports on the genocidal and antipartisan activities of the Einsatzgruppen and their subformations. Gauleiter, District Chief, key official in Nazi Party regional hierarchy. There were a total of 42 Gaue in the Party structure in the Reich, plus the Auslandsqau (Foreign Gau). General-Gouvernment, Government-General, largest portion of German-occupied Poland, including Warsaw, Cracow and Lvov. Gestapo, Geheime Staatspolizei, Secret State Police, a branch of the Security Police (Sipo) and SS coordinated within the RSHA, headed by Heinrich Mueller. Grenzpolizei, Frontier Police, controlled by SD. Hefte von Auschwitz (Auschwitz Notes), official publication of the Auschwitz Museum. HSSPF, Hoeherer SS- und Polizeifuehrer, Higher SS and Police Leader, personal district-level representative of Heinrich Himmler, commanding officer of SS and police behind the front lines. IdS, Inspekteur der Sicherheitspolizei, Inspector of Security Police, regional head of Gestapo and Kripo. Judenrat, body elected by the Jewish community under German occupation and responsible to German authorities for implementation of all directives. Judenreferat, Dept. for Jewish Affairs, section in Gestapo dealing with all matters pertaining to Jews. Judenreferent, head of Judenreferat Juedische Ordnungspolizei, Jewish Regular Police, uniformed ghetto police force, controlled by the Gestapo. JRM (Judenratsmeldungen), "Judenrat Announcements," official publication of the Judenrat. KdO, Kommandeur der Ordnungspolizei, Commander of the Regular Police KdS, Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD, regional coordinator of Kripo, Gestapo and SD in the occupied territories Kreiskommissar, Regional Commissioner, high-ranking official in civil administration within occupied Bialystok District. Kripo, Kriminalpolizei, Criminal Police, likewise a branch of the Security Police (Sipo) and SS. Landrat, District Council Head, the head of the district administration in the Prussian Higher Civil Service. NSDAP, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, Nazi Party Ordnungspolizei (Orpo), Regular Police, consisting of Schutzpolizei (National Police, Municipal Police) and Gendarmerie (Rural Police), incorporated into the SS organization. Pj Abbreviation for Polnische Juden (Polish Jews), used to designate transport trains to camps such as Treblinka and Auschwitz. Regierungspraesident, Local Governor. Civil administration in Bialystok District was under Erich Koch, Regierungspraesident of the East Prussian provincial government in Koenigsberg. Regierungsrat, 'Government Councillor', lowest rank in Higher Civil Service Reichsfuehrer SS und Chef der Deutschen Polizei, Reich Leader of the SS and Chief of German Police, Heinrich Himmler's official title RGB1., Reichsgesetzblatt, Reich Legal Gazette RSHA, Reichssicherheitshauptamt, Reich Security Main Office, SS agency set up in October 1939, incorporating SD and Security Police, headed by Reinhard Heydrich, and later by Ernst Kaltenbrunner. The Gestapo was Office IV in the RSHA. The RSHA was officially entrusted with implementing the "Final Solution." RSHA Transports, Deportation trains ordered by RSHA and supplied by the Reichsbahn. SD, Sicherheitsdienst, security and intelligence service of the SS Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo), Security Police, component of the SS consisting of Gestapo and Kripo. SSPF, SS- und Polizeifuehrer, deputy of HSSPF at sub-district level Sonderkommando, similar to an Einsatzkommando, but operating in a civil government area. Standgericht, special court-martial, a summary tribunal organized by the Security Police and SD to deal with 'crimes' by non-Germans against Germans or the German occupational infrastructure. Instituted in Bialystok District in late April 1942, and presided over by the KdS. Waffen-SS, combat units of the SS. APPENDIX AIntroduction to Documents Concerning the Destructionof the Jews of Grodno 1941-1944 The least known and most important collection of archives to date concerning the Final solution of the Jewish question contains the pre-trial and actual trial records in Germany of every attempt to judge Nazi war criminals responsible for the persecution of Jews. These archives contain not only the indictments, the verdicts, the records of the trial and the notes taken by the Court during its sessions, but also minutely detailed preparatory pre-trial material. Because of its detail, the pre-trial investigation of cases which, for various reasons never went to trial, may be just as important as that of the cases that ended up in convictions. It is difficult to comprehend the scope of this material. The archives of some trials include tens of thousands of pages which have never been made public. They would have been put in the public domain had there not been a very important omission: the fact that no Jewish organization has been constituted since the war to find and to support civil plaintiffs for each trial concerning the Final solution. These civil plaintiffs would, in effect, have had the right to obtain all documents concerning their own trial. Thus all the documentary material could have been directed to the most competent documentation center for the Final solution, Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Because of the failure of Jews to assume responsibility in this matter, it is now necessary to depend on Germany to safeguard, organize and make public this precious body of material. The study of the archives of each of these trials will provide historians with vital information and allow them to describe in more accurate detail events concerning the Final solution, one of the most tragic and important occurrences in the history, not only of the Jewish people, but of the German people as well. These judicial archives deal with numerous geographic sectors, with depositions of survivors, gathered from all over the world, as well as depositions taken from Germans, both witnesses to and agents of the Final solution. These archives which are, at present, almost impossible to consult and which until now were only used for judicial purposes, would now be available for more transcendent historical purposes. It is in the interest of Germany to take necessary measures as quickly as possible to insure the future security of these judicial archives containing material that is of inestimable historical interest and whose collection has been costly for the German tax payer. It must be remembered at the same time that the German state will be held responsible if any harm comes to these valuable documents because of the manner in which they are, at present, being stored. Currently these dossiers are dispersed throughout the archives of the various states (Laender) where the trials took place, usually in the archives controlled by the Public Prosecution, or less often, in the various Laender archives. The future of this extraordinary documentary material and its exploitation for historical research can be effectively assured only if it is collected in one single center, where it can be entrusted, at least temporarily, to a judicial power that can assure its preservation while providing access to qualified researchers from all over the world. By its aims, its experience and its competence, the Central Office of the Land Judicial Authorities for the Investigation of National-Socialist Crimes ("Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen zur Aufklarung nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen") in Ludwigsburg is the obvious choice to be this center. It already has at its disposal vast amounts of historical documentation concerning the Final solution documentation which made it possible to open most of the Nazi war criminal trials that took place in Germany. The new material would complement its present archives and would enable Ludwigsburg, in the 21st century, to function, probably under the auspices of a university, as the most complete center of research, study and documentation on the Final solution in the world. The world expects no less of Germany. The collection of the totality of the German judicial archives concerning the Final solution at Ludwigsburg would fill a deep gap in Germany where, forty years after the end of World War II, there is still no real center of studies in this particular realm. If the German legislature decides to accept this measure, whose cost is limited, the German state will have fulfilled one of its fundamental duties to the victims of Nazi racism and totalitarianism in the struggle to keep memory alive; not to mention having shown the way and prepared the work for future historical studies. The five volumes of documents dedicated to the destruction of the Jews of Grodno that we have amassed from German judicial archives are an example of the irreplaceable role of these archives, most of which are as yet unexploited, for the historian. Our friend, Dr. Felix Zandman, who at fifteen escaped from the hell of Grodno, asked us how it would be possible to leave an authentic historical record of the terrible events that so marked his childhood, destroyed his family, friends and community. He felt that it was his duty to record those facts to which only he and a few other survivors from Grodno can bear testimony, in the limited time before these witnesses are lost to death. We didn't conceal from our friend the fact that the most important historical materials which could be recouped were those found in the archives of the trials at which he himself presented testimony concerning Grodno. It is also noteworthy that the trial at Bielefeld (for the Bialystok district which includes Groclno) and at Cologne (for Grodno) resulted in significant convictions and provoked the suicides of several members of the upper echelon responsible for the Final solution in that sector: Schott, on July 15,1959; Zimmermann, on December 31,1965; and Sandhop on the very day that he was to appear as a witness at Cologne, March 25,1968. The research and efforts of public prosecutors and judges, the testimonies of Jewish survivors before both the public prosecutors and the Court, the interrogations of German witnesses and agents of the Final solution, important judicial documents; all describe and authenticate the events that took place in Grodno. It became our goal to make these events known and to have them inscribed in the historical record. Gaining access to the archives was our first priority. Having succeeded in doing this, we decided to publish the results of these efforts in a very limited edition, destined only for centers of historical research on the holocaust and to the largest public libraries and universities of the world. We have undertaken this action in the hope that our initiative will be understood by the German judicial system. If German political circles could decide in 1979 that there would be no statute of limitations for murders, so that Nazi criminals might be judged until the last one has died, it shows that they are now certainly ready to assume their other responsibilities in this domain. We are convinced that in the near future all the judicial archives concerning the Final solution will be collected by Germany, who always always showed a special talent of organization. Our work on Grodno include five volumes: Volume 1: The eyewitness accounts of the Jewish survivors living in the West as will as accounts recorded in Poland and in the Soviet Union; Volume 2: The depositions of German witnesses and the statements of the German agents of the "Final Solution"; Volume 3: The search for truth by German justice; and the rare historical documents of the years 1941-1944 concerning Grodno; Volume 4: Trial records concerning Grodno from the trial at Bielefeld in 1966-1967, dealing with the Bialystok district, where Grodno was to be found; Volume 5: The trial which took place in Cologne in 1967-1968, of the two men responsible for the 'Final Solution' in Grodno Wiese and Errelis. A sixth volume will be dedicated to the depositions of important witnesses who, at the time of the two trials, were not yet found, as well as to documentary material which we hope to obtain from the Soviet Union. This basic research documentation will permit an historian to write a precise work on the Final solution in Grodno. This is the maximum which can be done and serves as a patient and modest homage to the thousands of victims of Grodno and the surrounding area. We are indebted German justice for its efficient contribution to this tribute. APPENDIX BTables of Contents, Vols I-V, DocumentsA: Accounts by Jewish survivors residing in the West
Volume II
VOLUME III
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