The "Erntefest"

[Sailor]

On the old CODOH board I posted a condensed version of a chapter from Mattogno’s and Graf’s essay: “KL Majdanek, Eine historische und technische Studie, Kapitel IX, Das »Erntefest«”.(in German) http://vho.org/D/Majdanek/index.html,

Apparently this was lost when the CODOH forum was shut down. Here is a reposting. Since it is a little lengthy, I will post it in 3 or 4 sections.

Summary
The allegation, that on Nov. 3/4, 1943 in Majdanek at least 42,000 to 43,000 Jews were murdered (Enzyklopädie des Holocaust Band I, S. 418- 419), cannot be substantiated by any proof. On the contrary, historical as well as technical arguments speak against the reality of such massacres.

1) Not a single German war time document exists with reference to such a blood bath. The only circumstantial evidence are witness testimonies, the one which SS-Oberscharführers Erich Mussfeldt gave in great detail while in Polish imprisonment.

2) Mattogno dissects Mussfeldt’s testimony sentence by sentence and shows many contradictions and inconsistencies. He believes that Mussfeldt’s statements may have been forced through torture by the Polish while in prison.

3) The Generalgouvernement (Poland) was actually administered by Hans Frank, who was responsible directly to Hitler. He was independent from Himmler. However, the higher SS- and Police officers Krüger and Sporrenberg, who were allegedly instructed by Himmler to liquidate the Jews in the Lublin district, were also under Frank as far as police actions were concerned. Now Frank’s 10,000 page diary does not contain a single direct or hidden clue about such a momentous event.

4) Mussfeldt testified that he was present during the alleged mass shootings and that he supervised the cremation of the dead bodies. According to him the trenches, which served for both the shootings and cremations, were dug in zigzags. Mattogno believes, that this is nonsense. If there were any such trenches, they would have been straight.

5) As described by Mussfeldt, the butchery could never have been committed in the specified time. A willing cooperation by the doomed victims would have been necessary; they would have desperately fought back, and many would have tried to escape.

6) The massacre would have been in front of countless spectators, the execution area was easily observable from the village Dzesiata close by.

7) These witnesses would undoubtedly immediately have reported about these bloody events, and the Polish underground would have known within days about this slaughter, which they did only briefly and secondary much later.

8. The Germans would not have released on November 17 300 inmates from Majdanek They would have been witnesses for such mass crimes.

9) The cremations of 17,000 to 18,400 corpses could not have been completed, not even close, during the alleged time available.

10) There is no indication about the supply of the required quantity of wood necessary for the cremation of such number of bodies in Majdanek.

11) The horror spectacle of such a cremation would have been journalistically reported at that time, which was not the case.

13) A mass liquidation of workers, who were extremely important for the war industries at that time, is completely illogic, it makes no sense.
Furthermore at that time German Documents emphazised the necessity to keep forced laborers healthy with sufficient food and clothes.

13) After the alleged blood bath the number of the Jewish forced laborers was not suddenly reduced, but increased. This was even confirmed by Holo-Hagiographist Raul Hilberg.

14) An involuntary proof of the questionable horror reports was supplied by the Polish exile news paper “Dziennik Polski” of Nov. 20, 1943, in which they reported a ‘transfer of 25,000 Jews from Majdanek to Krakow’.


Mattogno made some detailed calculations about the execution times and fuel requirements for the alleged cremations.


Mattogno divided his article “Erntefest” into the following sections:

1. Herkunft des Namens (Origin of the Name)
2. Vorgeschichte und Gründe des angeblichen Massakers laut der offiziellen Geschichtsschreibung (History and Reasons for the Alleged Massacres according to the Orthodox Holocaust Story)
3. Der Befehlsweg (The Channel of Authority)
4. Die Durchführung des Befehls (The execution of the order)
a) Die Gräben (The Trenches)
b) Der Erschiessungsvorgang (The Shooting)
c) Die Leichenverbrennung (The Cremation)
5. Die Meldungen der polnischen Widerstandsbewegung (Announcements by the Polish Resistance)
6. Die wirtschaftliche Aberwitzigkeit der angeblichen Massenerschiessung (The Economicic Nonsense of the Alleged Mass Shootings)
7. Was ist am 3. November 1943 wirklich geschehen? (What Did really happen on Nov.3, 1943?)


1)Origin of the Name

The alleged ‘codename’ Erntefest appears in all orthodox Holocaust writings dealing with this matter, but without an explanation of the origin of this name, where this designation comes from. And not surprising: Mattogno checked through all documents accessible to him: German, English, Polish, French, the IMT and NMT trial protocols. There exist not a single document about this massacre or with the name “Erntefest”.

For the time period in question Hans Frank, the General Governeur of Poland, used a similar word, the expression ‘Erntedankfest ‘ (Thanksgiving) in his diary in connection with an invitation for this celebration on Oct. 23, 1943.

2) History and Reasons for the Alleged Massacres according to the Orthodox Holocaust Story
(The danger for sabotage activities from Jewish camps in the Majdanek area)

According to orthodox Holocaust historian Rutkowski:

The revolt in camp Sobibor on Oct. 14, 1943 came totally unexpected to the German occupational administration and caused a panic. They began to consider the camps for the Jews in the surroundings as ‘extremely dangerous resistance centers’, and as autonomous breeding nests for unrest and chaos. This uprising did not only cause the attention of the police, military and administrative offices of this district, but also of the Generalgouverneur in occupied Poland, Hans Frank. Only five days after this event, on Oct. 19, 1943, Frank called for a security meeting in Krakow. All leading experts and leading police and military forces of the General Gouvernement participated, including police general Bierkamp, Generals Haseldorff, Somme, Schindler, States Secretary Bühler etc. With reference to the recent escape in Sobibor all participants supposedly emphasized the great danger which the ‘Jew camps’ in the Lublin district presented to the Germans.

There is no doubt about the escape of 300 inmates from the camp Sobibor on Oct. 14, 1943. Three police squadrons stationed in Chelmno, among others, were commandeered for their recapture.
From their ‘Operational Reports’ between Sept. 26 and Oct. 25 1943 the First Squadron participated in the recapture and/or destruction of 100 escaped Jews.
The Second Squadron reported having participated in these actions on Oct. 14 1943 and between Oct. 16 and Oct. 18 1943.

It seems to Mattagno, that judging by these and similar scarce reports the German administration was not overly worried about the security in the Lublin area.

While it is correct that Hans Frank called in a meeting about security for Oct. 19, 1943, the main subject there were concerns about recent attacks and sabotage activities by the Polish resistance against German industrial installations in the Generalgouvernment.

Steps to counter these partisan activities were already discussed on Oct. 2, 1943 and were enforced on Oct. 10 1943, four days before the Sobibor escape. These regulations, which were directed against the Polish resistance movements and dealt with the increased powers for all security departments as well as public reprisals after the murder of Germans by partisans.

Mattogno reviewed all relevant Nuremberg documents. There was no indication of any security risk for the Lublin districts, arising from the Jewish camps. The authors of the Nuremberg Document PS-2233 thoroughly checked the diary of Hans Frank in order to convict him and the members of his administration. They did not find any indication of dangers as results from security risks from the Jewish camps in the Lublin area.

(will be continued )

[Sailor]

3) The Chain of Command

According to Rutkowski, a ‘Normative’ Holocaust historian:

“After Himmler was informed about the mass escape of inmates in Sobibor, he commanded the higher SS- and Police Officer of the Generalgouvernement Friederich W. Krüger, to liquidate all Jew camps in the Lublin area as quick as possible.

Krüger then in turn called Jakob Sporrenberg, SS- and Police leader of Lublin, informed him about Himmler’s instructions and ordered him to arrange the executions….
Sporrenberg, after returning to Lublin, was informed, that SS- and Police troops will arrive in order to proceed with the operation against the Jews….
And according to the announcements of General Krüger special SS-troops and -commandos arrived in Majdanek. They came from different places, among others from KL Auschwitz/Birkenau.

Erich Muhsfeldt, who was in charge of the Majdanek Crematorium, testified that 10 SS-Men arrived from Auschwitz where they were under the command of Otto Moll and Franz Hössler. The other commandos came from Krakow, Warsaw, Radom, Lwow, Lublin and Debica.”

In the judgment of the Düsseldorf Majdanek trial the final phase of the chain of command is described as follows:

“In the late evening of Febr. 11 1943 Sporrenberg called the leaders of the units which were earmarked for the action of the Kommandeur, of the Security police (KdS) in Lublin, of the Waffen-SS and the police regiments 22 and 25, as well as the commanders of the camps Majdanek, Poniatowa and Trawniki for a meeting. For the Majdanek camp participated either the second in command of the arrested camp commander Florstedt or the newly appointed camp commander Weiss. During the meeting Sporrenberg informed the officers who were present of the planned action, that the Jews of the district of Lublin shall be liquidated “on highest order”and that this was justified, because of the alleged unrests.”

So far the orthodox Holocaust history.

Mattogno:
The police organization in the Generalgouvernement (Poland) and specifically in the district of Lublin in the beginning of Nov. 1943 was organized as follows:
The Higher SS- and Police Leader (HSSPF), SS Obergruppenführer Krüger, was directly under Himmler. Under him were the commanders of the Ordnungspolizei (BdO), Generalmajor of the Police Grünwald, as well as the commander of the Security police and the Sicherheitsdienst ( BdS) SS-Oberführer Bierkamp and the SS- and Police leader (SSPFC) of the Lublin district, SS-Gruppenführer Sporrnberg.

The highest chief in the police organization was Himmler, but Generalgouverneur Frank, who was directly under Hitler, placed great importance on his independence from Himmler. And also that he, Frank, was in command of the police formations of the Generalgouvernement. He apparently was quite sincere on this point. He mentioned this independence on many occasions.

The HSSPF of the Generalgouvernement General Krüger was also State Secretary for security matters und was in that position subordinated to Frank.
In actual practice a possible order by Himmler to execute more than 40,000 Jews in the camps of the Lublin district would not have been possible under any circumstances without the approval of Frank. Had Himmler really planned such a massacre there would have been a comment about this in Frank’s diary, whether the Generalgouverneur would have approved such a plan or not. But the diary does not include the slightest hint about such a gigantic mass murder, neither about its planning nor its preparation nor its execution, beginning with above mentioned meeting on Oct. 19, 1943.

And another odd circumstance is the following:
Two weeks after the alleged butchery, on Nov. 18, Himmler came to Krakow to visit. Frank gave a speech in front of Himmler, and the leading members of the government of the Generalgouvernement and many SS- and Police leaders, people he could talk to freely. He mentioned gratefully the successful fight against Polish partisans.
But nothing was mentioned about an action “Erntefest”, not even in a camouflaged form, no hidden hint about the Jews in the Generalgouvernement. Nothing.

And even stranger is the way Odilo Globocnik described the events for that day Nov. 3:

On Nov.3 1943 the workers were removed from the work camps and the works had to be shut down. The camp leaders were not informed about this action before, although they were responsible; I was therefore prevented from doing my supervisory duty. I ordered the camp leaders to complete the works and to continue with the orders.

On the day the camps were cleared, General Schindler, inspector for armament in Krakow, agreed, based on the promise of SS-Obergruppenführer Krüger and discussions with the camp leaders that

a) in future only armament orders will be handled in the work camps.
b) the promise on Nov. 2. to receive 10,000 additional Jews for armament works. (The latter however could never be completed.)

With other words: on the day before the alleged mass murder Schindler and Krüger were still thinking about reinforcing the camps in the Lublin district by an addition of 10,000 Jews.

So the question is: If Krüger received a few weeks earlier Himmler’s order to shoot all the Jews in the SS-work camps, how then could he promise the commanders of these camps these additional Jews, and this on the evening before the mass shooting?

The fact that the commanders were not informed about the clearing of the camps on Nov.3 indeed is quite strange, whether this was in connection of killing or a transfer of the Jewish workers is unclear. This is in fact an unsolved puzzle.

4) The Execution of the Order
All descriptions of the alleged massacres are based in principal on the accounts of SS-Oberscharffführer Erich Mussfeldt, who testified in a trial in Lublin, that he had to be present at the mass shootings at the new crematorium and then had to supervise the cremation of the corpses.
Mattogno then quotes on several pages the testimony of Mussfeldt, which were retranslated from Polish to German. The originals in German were not available to Mattogno.

These were Mattogno’s observations:

a) The Trenches
(Mattogno researched quite thoroughly: He inspected the camp site, surveyed it and took measurements. He searched in Lublin through historic archives, he went through copies of old newspapers from that time and studied the trial protocols of the Lublin trial and the German Majdanek trial in Düsseldorf.)

An air-photo taken on Sept.18, 1944 shows three trenches, about 50 m away from the crematorium. However on a quite accurate official map prepared by the Polish-Soviet investigating commission in August 1944 these trenches do not appear. Why not?

The Soviet reporter C. Simonov also visited the camp shortly after liberation and he also did not mention these trenches at all in his report.

Mattogno therefore comes to the conclusion, that these execution trenches did not exist at the time of the liberation and were dug later.

Several photography’s taken probably between August and October 1944 which were submitted as proof during the Lublin trial, show details of the trenches of above air photos, and also neatly arranged in five rows a couple of 50 sculls and next to them a pile of long human bones.

Next follows Mattognos descriptions of the trench arrangements at the camp location when he was at the site, with a lot of details, dimensions, distances, a little hard to follow. (A map and a labeling system would have been helpful.)

Another version for the trenches were elaborated by the German courts during the Düsseldorfer Majdanek trial and was based on witness testimonies only. They were talking about a huge pit from which three trenches in zigzag form dug, which supposedly served for the executions and burials.

This pit does not show on above air photos nor on the accurate maps produced by the Polish at that time. And why the zigzag trenches? It would have been much more practical to dig these trenches straight, it is easier and faster. Also considering that Mussfeldt maintained that the three trenches were dug in three days and nights, the matter seemed to have been quite urgent. So why the zigzags?

And these execution and burial trenches were so located that they could easily be seen from the nearby village Dziesiata, in full view of its inhabitants. Does this make sense?

b)The Executions
According to Mussfeldt the murdering started in the morning at 6 or 7 and ended at 5 in the afternoon, it lasted about 11 hours. The Jews were liquidated in groups of ten. Assuming simultaneous shootings at all three trenches, there would be 17,000 / 3 / 10 = 567 individual shooting actions. Each one would last (11 * 3,600) / 567 = 70 sec. During this time the ten people had to climb down the trench, walk 50 m or so, lie down on the people already killed before them, in order to be killed themselves.

This was a very short time. What if there were any resistance or attempts to escape? At least some of the doomed would have been desperate and fought back!

The shooting commando allegedly consisted of 100 SS-men, 33 for each trench. If they would have alternated regularly each would have participated in 17 actions.

Mattogno assumes that with so many killings in such a short time the SS would have used automatic weapons. The ammunition consumption would have been gigantic. Mussfeldt did not say anything about this, the countless ammunition boxes next to the trenches, the spent cartridges. Hundreds of thousands of bullets must have been used.

Where were the executioners posted? Mussfeldt: At the edge of the trenches.

The excavated earth from the trenches, about 800 m3 , must have been placed next to the trenches. A huge mountain! This must have interfered with the accessibility, movement of the victims, the shooters and Mussfeldt’s job, to cremate the dead afterwards. But Mussfeldt does not say a word about this either.

Mussfeldt received orders to start with the cremations on the same day of the massacre.

The trenches were covered after the massacre was completed, backfilled and leveled in order to remove any traces.

No documentation exists about the transfer of Otto Moll and Franz Hössler with 10 other SS-Men from Auschwitz to Majdanek for the massacre. Not even a word in Danuta Czech’s Auschwitz Kalendarium.

(to be continued )

[Sailor]

c)The Cremations
It is a little difficult to understand, why the dead bodies had to be covered with earth first, before being cremated.

On Nov. 4 Mussfeldt got the wood required for the cremation, according to his own statements made while in Polish imprisonment. The next day he started with the cremation operation in open pits. He does not detail the procurement of the wood any further.

Mattogno estimated, that the requirement for wood must have been enormous, based on an experimental cremation of animal cadavers. With the cadavers on a grating and ample air circulation it required 3.1 kg wood to cremate 1 kg meat. Cremation in a pit would require 3.5 kg, and for mass cremation in a trench Mattogno assumes 3 kg wood minimum per kg meat.

This would result in 200 kg wood per body, or for 17,000 dead about 3,400 tons of wood, or 120 full freight cars. Where did they get these quantities, where and how were they stored to protect the wood from the coming fall rains and the winter frost? Mussfeldt does not mention a word about this!

According to Mussfeldt the operation was completed before Christmas, within not more than 50 days (from Nov. 5 to Dec. 24).

Commandant Florstedt sent him to Auschwitz in Feb. 1943 to get training and experience with the cremation process. He found out that cremation in pits was quite inefficient and took a long time. With this method he needed eight months to cremate 9,000 bodies. Now in Majdanek after the alleged massacre he used the same inefficient pit burning method, and this time he succeeded in doing the job of 17,000 bodies in only 50 days! (Blow me down!)

Mattogno comes to the conclusion, that Mussfeldt’s testimony is not believable and that it was forced.


5) Announcements by the Polish Resistance

The first written information about the alleged massacre are in a written undercover communication by the Majdanek inmate Henryk Jerzy Szcczesniewski, which he prepared on the same day of the crime, Nov. 3 1943. This paper was discovered only in 1966. According to Mattogno, several contradictions in this document may indicate that this report was prepared at a much later date:

- Describing on Nov. 3. an event that occurred on Nov. 2. instead of saying ‘yesterday’ it says ‘on the day before’.

- Even more telling is that that the author described an event on Nov. 3 that happened three days later, on Nov. 6.

- The style of this letter is written erratic, incoherent, nearly staccato

- The massacre itself is mentioned only briefly with a few lines (and includes a sketch). (Mattogno includes the relevant text)

- The author mentions the numbers 17,000 and 22,000 dead, “based on talks he had with the SS-Men”??

- The letter is quite sober in tone and does not reflect the horror that such a blood bath would have caused with the writer.

- According to this letter the Jews were shot outside the trenches, and then carried into the trenches for burial.

- The letter, addressed to a Kazimiera Jarosinska, a ‘trusted person’, included no request to inform the Polish resistance or exile government in London. They learned about this alleged crime much later, and the story is also quite different from today’s official version.

Mattogno is convinced that the letter was post-dated.

While in Lublin, Poland, for this research Mattogno also had access and studied the reports from the Polish underground ‘Delegatura’ at that time.

The Polish Delgatura reported on Nov. 15:
A massacre was committed in Lublin on Friday, Nov.5. The Jews of all Lublin camps were gathered in Majdanek and shot there.

That’s it! Just those two lines about a huge blood bath!

Further announcements about the alleged massacre were reported on Nov. 18, Nov.24 and Nov.30 with a little more details. The information differed then from today’s: 10,000 to 13,000 victims, and the massacre date was on Nov. 5 1943.

The surprising fact is, that the Delegatura had excellent information sources about events in Majdanek. They new details about the SS-Men in Majdanek, including last name, first name, rank, previous assignment, address and birth date! Why the lack of information about the alleged massacre?

While the scene of the alleged crime could easily be observed from the houses of the village Dziesiata nearby, its inhabitants could have passed reliable information about the crime to the Delegatura. Why was the Delegatura so poorly informed about such a super massacre? They also did not have the slightest knowledge about the cremation of the bodies. After the shooting of between 17,000 and 18,400 Jews Mussfeldt started with the cremations on Nov.5. With all the flames, smoke and stench of burning human flesh, no informant found this worth reporting, there is not even one line mentioned in the Delegatura!

And the same goes for the inmate Henryk Jerzy Szczesniewski, who in his later undercover memos dated Nov.25 and Dec. 14 1943, when the pit cremations were in full swing, supplied a lot of information about the camp, but not a word about the cremations.

And the camp administration released 300 inmates on Nov. 17, would they not have been concerned that information about the massacre may have leaked out to the world and to the Delegatura through these peoples?

6) The Economic Nonsense of the Alleged Mass Shootings

Holocaust historian A. Rutkowski explained the economical ridiculous character of the alleged mass shooting as follows:

Why did the central administration of Germany decide to exterminate about 40,000 qualified workers at the end of 1943 despite the great scarcity of workers?
The reasons for the massacre were of political nature, economic considerations were of no concern to Himmler when it was about Jews

Mattogno:

Even though this view in general is to some extent true, it does not apply here.

According to the official Holocaust story, the alleged massacre in Majdanek was only a part of a larger action, which affected all camps of the Ostindustrie Gmbh (Osti) (Eastern Industry Ltd) in the General Government.

The Osti was founded by the SS in March 1943. Executive committee included Pohl, and Lörner, the board of directors consisted of Pohl, Krüger, Lörner and Sammern-Frankenegg. The directors of the company were Globocnik and Max Horn. Globocnik also headed the Deutsche Armament Works, which employed in Lublin and Lemberg about 8,000 Jews.

The goal was the establishment of a group of SS-work camps in order to exploit the forced labor of the Jews. In June 1943 the Osti included five camps with a total of 45,000 working Jews (Poniatowa, Trawniki, Budzyn, Lublin, Majdanek).

On Oct. 22 1943 the following work camps were under Pohl: Airport Lublin, Trawniki, Poniatowa, Radom, Budzyn, Plaszow, Lublin and Lemberg.
On the same day Globocnik was relieved of his duty as Osti-director.

On Oct. 26 Pohl issued a directive to the commanders of 19 concentration camps, among them Majdanek, in order to improve the productivity of the camp inmates:
He described the good progress so far and emphasized the importance of the armament works. He requested to do everything possible to maintain and improve the work efficiency of the Jewish inmates through proper nutrition, clothing, health care, avoidance of excessive none work related stresses and work bonuses.

Himmler had already encountered resistance by Frank before, when he tried to evacuate the Jews, who were employed in the armament industry into camps.

Krüger gave a speech on March 31. 1943 in Krakow about the security situation in the General Government as secretary of state: He talked about the evacuation of Jews into large camps and how this improved the general pacification. Included were Jews working for the armament industry. They would commute from the camps to their workplace during the day. This however could not be done in case of some special Jewish workers, mechanics, tool makers etc. who could not be replaced easily with unskilled Polish workers.

Also thee SS-camps in the Lublin area in the beginning of November were under the administration of the WVHA and were considered as sub camps of Majdanek, whose commander received above directive from Pohl about the required improvement of the efficiency, food, clothing, health etc.

In view of these facts the destruction of 40,000 skilled workers for the war economy would have been utterly insane .

7) What Did really happen on Nov.3, 1943?

With practically no documentation existing, it is not possible to answer this question with accuracy. Certain is only that on Nov. 2., 3. and 4. several police units participated in a major action which is briefly mentioned in reports of the three squadrons of the Mounted Police Dept.III.

Mattogno assumes that this action consisted of a major transfer of inmates to other camps. The Polish exile newspaper in London “Dziennik Polski" of Nov. 20. 1943 announced the murder of “15,000 Jews” and added:
“25,000 Jews were transferred from Majdanek to Krakow, where they probably will have to work in German factories which were recently installed there.”

The following fact confirms the hypothesis of mass transfers of Jewish inmates:
Of the 45,000 allegedly murdered Jews of the SS-work camps, 28,500 were employed by the armament industry in April 1943. In October 1943 about 22,400 Jews were still working for armament in the Generalgouvernement, but two months after the mass shooting they did not only not disappear, but their number grew to 26,296.

(The End )