Holocaust Exceptional Only Jews Die Last Minute a Myth Tomaszewski

Inside a Gestapo Prison: The Letters of Krystyna Wituska, 1942-1944, by Irene Tomaszewski. 2006

Pre-Lemkin Realization of German Policies Against Poles as Genocide. Holocaust-Uniqueness Myth: Last-Minute Nazi Killings Only of Jews

This book contains a variety of relevant information, and I discuss some of it:

EARLY NATION-DESTROYING ACTS IN GERMAN-CONQUERED POLAND

This work begins with a solid introduction to Nazi German policies in conquered Poland. For instance, the Germans closed seminaries with the goal that there would eventually be no more Polish priests. (p. xvii). Over 2.7 million Poles were deported to Germany as forced laborers. Polish POWs were also turned into slave laborers, in violation of the Geneva Convention. (p. xxviii).

THE AUTHOR CONFRONTS HER IMPENDING DEATH

The Gestapo catches Krystyna Wituska for relatively minor Polish Underground activity. She is imprisoned in Berlin. The letters of Krystyna Wituska mention simple joys such as the arrival of spring, and opportunities to attend Mass. One by one, her cellmates are removed and put to death. She realizes that she, too, is doomed, but does not fear death, reasoning that death comes to everyone in time, and that, unlike her, most people do not know when their time will come. She expresses reluctance in asking God to spare her life, considering the millions who have already perished in the war. Some of her fellow inmates, unable to stand the tortures, consider suicide, but she does not, wanting the Germans to bear the moral responsibility of ending her life.

THE UNFOLDING POLOKAUST: POLES DEFINITELY SUBJECT TO GENOCIDE

Interestingly, Krysyna Wituska, in her October 6, 1943 letter (p. 91), used the term genocide (WOLKSMORD, LUDOBOJSTWO), in reference to what the Germans were doing to the Jews and Poles, before Raphael Lemkin formally coined the term the following year. Lemkin understood the term both in the sense of rapid biological extermination (the Jews) and long-term series of acts with the same eventual goal (the Poles). (p. xiii).

THE COMING SOVIET “LIBERATORS” OF POLAND

At times, Krystyna knows what is going on at the fronts. She expresses delight in the fact that the Allies have taken Italy, but is disquieted by the realization that the German occupation of Poland can only be ended by a Soviet occupation of Poland.

ONE GOOD GERMAN

The cell to which Krystyna is confined is very small, unheated, insanitary, and infested with multitudes of insects. (p. 59). Her sufferings are alleviated by the actions of Hedwig Grimpe, a woman who is sympathetic to the inmates, and the one who smuggled the letters out of prison. Krystyna calls Grimpe Sonnenschein (Sunshine) in her letters. Krystyna expresses anger upon learning that Grimpe had been robbed during an air raid. (p. 52). After a long spell in prison, Krystyna is guillotined.

Krystyna’s mother writes a letter of thanks to Sonnenschein for her help. In response, Helga Grimpe, Hedwig’s daughter, writes back after the war on behalf of her mother, stating the following: “I am German and so I can’t help but feel responsible for all the deeds and atrocities committed by my nation. Therefore Krysia’s death, as all the others, will always be for me a terrible guilt…Her courage and that of her friends proved to me that I must honor the Polish nation, all Polish people…I will try to do everything possible so that you will be able to believe that there are better Germans.” (p. 124).

HOLOCAUST UNIQUENESS ADVOCATES WRONG IN STATING THAT NAZIS WERE OBSESSIVELY INTERESTED IN KILLING ALL JEWS (AND NOT OTHER DESPISED GROUPS)

Holocaust-uniqueness advocates mention the fact that the Nazis sometimes (though certainly not always) killed Jewish forced laborers and inmates of concentration camps in the last weeks and days of the war. However, these last-minute victims were not limited to Jews. For instance, Zbyszek Walc, an acquaintance of the Wituska family, was incarcerated at Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald. In the last weeks of the war, during a forced march, the Germans herded him and other inmates into a barn and burned them alive. (pp. 126-127).

Obviously, Nazi policies towards killings Jews and non-Jews were internally inconsistent. There was no fixed, across-the-board Nazi German policy for treating Jews differently from non-Jews.