As much as many in history would have us accept, The Holocaust did not start in January 1942 just after The Wannsee Conference had been convened. I could go through each and every Year since Hitler arrived upon the World stage and show clear evidence of not just his intention for the Jewish People, but the escalation of that murderous rampage, and ever sine 1932. Even before this. For every incitement to attack Jews, from 1919 onward, Jews within Germany, even Austria were assailed, assaulted, murdered and killed to satiate Hitler’s thirst for hatred toward the Jewish People. Of course Poland had its own agenda. On April 5th. 1919 the Polish Army, under command of General Antoni Listowski Murdered 35 Pinsk Jews. Then on April 19th. 1919, and in a 3 day orgy of violence against the Jews of Vilna, the Polish Army succeeded in Murdering 67 Jewish Men, Women and Their Children. This, while looting went on, and from Jewish owned businesses it continued for several weeks.

Also, and during June 1919, a Pogrom against the Jews of Cracow witnessed 2 Jews who were Murdered in the Market Place. This is not aimed at pinning The Holocaust upon Poland, or indeed upon the people of Poland, but upon preparing Hitler for what he would deem fit, as the place to secure The Final Solution of 3,500,000 Polish Jews, living in Poland. On Tuesday September 16th. 1919, Hitler penned a letter to Adolf Gemlich, which was in response to the requirement for an answer to the Jewish problem.

“..Herr Gemlich. ..antisemitism based on purely emotional grounds will find its ultimate expression in ..form of ..pogrom.  ..ultimate objective must ..be ..irrevocable removal of ..Jews.   Adolf Hitler.

Many years later, and on December 9th. 1931 Hitler reasserts his intention is a solution which will be final, die Endlosung, for all of the Jewish People, and this is revealed in The Munchener Post.

On Wednesday December 9th 1931 “..a secret plan ..of Hitler’s of successive stages and persecutions ..Nazi Party was to take against ..Jews in ..period between 1933 and 1939 ..removal of ..Jews from ..courts ..civil service ..professions ..police surveillance ..property ..detention and expulsion of unwanted Jews ..Nuremberg ..laws against intermarriage ..sexual ..social intercourse. ..a final solution (die Endlosung) ..of ..Jewish question it is proposed to use ..Jews in Germany for slave labor or for cultivation of ..German swamps administered by a special SS division.” The Munchener Post.

Within a 2 year period measures aginst the Jewish People were becoming that deplorable, World opinion was being focused upon this, and many Jews themselves were taking matters into their own hands.

On Tuesday January 31st. 1933 “..within ..German nation ..forces are active that would turn against a barbarian anti-Jewish policy.”  Judische Rundschau.

None of what was emanating in the World, with respect to the crisis for Jewish persistence would deter Hitler from his ultimate goal. This is regularly recognised and is identified clearly in state media, that the Jews would be continually sidelined until they were invisible to the German people. Months later this assault is being crystalised in the very attempt by Hitler to bring about a change in the World order, his own Weltanschauung, a Worldview not quite proclaiming the eradication of World Jewry, but heavily to influence that theme.

In April 1933   “..There is a danger of ..odious conditions now ruling in Germany ..being extended by conquest to Poland and another persecution and pogrom of Jews being begun in this new area.” Winston Churchill.

As World leaders sat below the parapet, the Church which ruled within Europe, gave voice to its own unnatural, unchristian concerns for a People who were descended from a christ born into their community.

Saturday April 1st. 1933 “..concerned with questions about Catholic schools ..organizations and sterilization which are more important for ..Church in Germany than ..Jews ..Jews can help themselves ..why should ..Jews expect help from ..Church.”  Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber.

Further afield, the unrest which settled into the middle east was grounded in a bid by Arabs to deny any further growth in the presence of the Jews within the territories of The Holy Land, the region always intended as The Promised Land. On October 27th. 1933 there were Arabs riots throughout the British mandated arena, in a bid to protest against further Jewish immigration.

“..Jewishness ..not synonymous with Zionism. Socialist ideology had always downplayed .. Jewish Question. Jewishness ..would be resolved once socialism had triumphed and class differences ..real cause of antisemitism ..disappeared.” Inge Deutschkron.

Here we clearly recognise the presence of future hostilities from a people unwilling to share the land they had colonised from a Jewish presence which had been in existence for more than 5,000 years. We see the escalation of differences between People, at once polarised between the haves and the have nots, into a more perceptible and religious bias, and barbarity. This is clearly identified, exemplified and highlighted in words no one could dismiss as a cacophony of mere rhetoric being spouted by politically motivated profiteers. On June 6th. 1935 Anti-Jewish riots occur in Grodno, Poland and 50 Polish Jews are injured and 2 are Murdered, Gedalia Becher and Yisrael Shraga Feivel Berezovski. The Holocaust is being clearly managed in terms which Hitler would clearly recognise in his Jewish solution to become a final one.

On Friday August 16th. 1935  “..solution of ..Jewish question ..is ..business of ..Fuhrer ..not ..individuals.  Heinrich Himmler. 

On September 15th. 1935, the Racist Nuremberg Laws are passed and Jews are no longer to be defined by religion, but biologically and by race. This is defining is to be affirmed by their Grandparents religious persuasion, and this provides the Jews with the status of ‘the other’ within German Society and culture. National Citizens Law strips away Citizenship from its Jews as does the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor and Marriage and extra Marital relations between Jews and ‘aryans’ forbidden. Jewish Employers, Householders cannot employ German Women under the age of 45. There is the Reich Flag Law and the Swastika is the symbol of the State. For European Jewry, this ‘Lawlessness’ would become the Law to be promulgated against their very right to live within Hitler’s sphere of influence.

On March 9th. 1936 there are 2 Jews killed and more than 20 Jews are injured in Przytyk, a Town in Poland with more than 2,700 Jews, or 90% of the Population. Those attacked during these antisemitic riots, also saw more than 40 of their Jewish Homes and their Business’s ransacked, looted and destroyed.

On Wednesday June 16th. 1937 “..there is no place in Poland for ..Jews.” General Lucjan Zieligowski.

On July 1st. 1937 there was a sought after redemption for the Pastor Martin Niemoeller who, as an antisemitic minister regaling against the Jewish presence within Germany, is arrested over his opposition to Hitler.

“..First they came for the Communists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Communist

First they came for the Socialist

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Socialist

First they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist

First they came for the Jews

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me.” Pastor Martin Niemoller.

During August 1937 there are some 350 incidents of physical assault against Polish Jews, and these are the reported ones, which are subsequently recorded during this month within Poland. The necessary recording of such incidents is not in the least widespread, nor honest, and seeks to diminish the fuller scale of atrocity to be levelled against the Poles, Poland and against Polish Jewry.

October 1937 “..there exists only one difference in .. evaluation of ..people in Poland. Christian and non-Christian.” Colonel Jan Kowalewski.

Here, the reality for the Jews, who are to be written into the very annals and enactment of The Holocaust, is not just written in Hitler’s words, or even deeds, but in words echoing throughout Poland which clearly resonates with Hitler, his view, and he deadly prospect for Jews, both in Germany and within Poland.

On Wednesday November 23rd 1938 “..final unhesitating ..uncompromising solution of .. Jewish problem.” Volkischer Beobachter.

The voluminous plans to extract the Jews from life itself are clearly being discussed and though its comprehension is measured in subversive words and extracts to carry its weight, they are veiled in terms meant to confuse an on-looking World, and a Jewish presence diffused from its view. From Hitler’s accession of power, as we take this from 1932 onwards, the World looked on with a disdain for Hitler’s plans, but stopped short of focusing their attention upon impeding its progress. This growing realisation, which was clearly ameliorated by such indifference, that 6,000,000 Jews would be consigned toward oblivion.

“..One of .. cruellest incidents ..St. Louis ..sailed ..to Cuba ..May 13th 1939 with 930 passengers. ..All ..held what they believed to be valid documents ….bought for huge sums. ..Cuba’s president had invalidated ..visas.” Inge Deutschkron.

The St. Louis has sailed, and it is not for no reason that this journey is termed the Voyage of the Damned for all 937 Jews who boarded a safe escape from the growing and rampant hatred they wished to leave behind.

On Friday May 12th 1939 “.. Britain’s restrictive immigration policy did not seem very promising. ..mere fact of having applied for immigration gave my parents a feeling of security.” Inge Deutschkron.

On May 12th 1939 Britain set a restrictive quota on the Jewish People who might be seeking an entry into The Promised Land mandated by Britain. The cap on this embargo was to only allow for 15,000 Jews each year, and over the coming 5 years, and by which time 6,000,000 of Europe’s Jews had been Slaughtered, totally decimated as a consequence of such destructive terms.

“..reader must bear in mind ..nowhere does there exist a complete picture of ..hermetically sealed Jewish prison ..within ..walls of Nazi dominated Europe.” Jacob Apenszlak.

Then, when Hitler struck Poland September 1st. 1939, and World War II was declared 2 days later, the position for the Jews of Poland worsened more deeply as formative Einsatz killers ranged around them. It is clear, that while the scale of the mass murders of Polish Jewry was in its infancy, there is enough to justify in History the steady steps emerging which would bring Auschwitz, Belzec, Birkenau, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka into the light of day, a specter so as to haunt us without bringing them to World attention.

“.. You’re Jewish ..my Mother said to me. You must let ..World know that that doesn’t mean you’re not every bit as good as they.” Inge Deutschkron.

No one can inform a People they are lesser than any others, and in History, it is imperative always to be that factually correct, and that we clearly recognise the very attempt by Hitler and other’s, to inform the Jews of that untruth. We must never allow anyone to distort that very fact, nor obscure the aim of The Final Solution was devised for answering The Jewish Question. The clear implications of such evidences being incorrectly altered, will disjoint all of our History, corrupting it permanently. This is particularly true for the Jews, emerging from the crushing catastrophe that is The Holocaust, realising they were the sole target, even though others were destroyed who came into Hitler’s view.

“..Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget ..nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of ..desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.” Elie Wiesel.

For all too many in the World, who are far too quick to assuage a guilt they are unwilling to accept, truth is to be maintained way above such revision. But, and the Slaughter of 6,000,000 Jews requires a unique Mea-Culpa from a World whose complicity is not so readily recognised. Where there is an acceptance of the gravest wrong ever done, which was detailed by all too many perpetrators, history becomes pertinent, relevant, must remain true in scale and range, and must retain its veracity in recording every testimony in order to even suggest the enormous atrocity we can never come to terms with. This truth, and for us all, must be The Holocaust in its entirety, an unblemished retelling of mankind’s darkest day in the history of humanity and its civilising branches.

“..for many ..Survivors ..act of recollection ..is ..painful. They feel strongly ..unless ..full scale and range of ..slaughter is set down ..many of its episodes will never be recorded ..blurring ..full enormity of The Holocaust.” Martin Gilbert.

This must be a narrative that is rich in what has been taken away, and it will be an ostensibly Jewish focus, given the depth of depravity which reached out to swallow them up. To my mind, we are on the cusp of allowing for distortion to enable history to rewrite the Jews out of The Holocaust, which was designed solely for the Slaughter of Jewish People. Caught up in the malaise surrounding this act, other People were killed or destroyed to placate the vacancies in hatred which so many perpetrators were willing and ready to conduct. For me, there is no effort to blur the lines more brutally than the cynical accusations that are too readily visited upon the Jewish Survivor. There should be nothing that the Jews have endured in over 5,000 years, that could ever compel them to feel other than fortunate for surviving.

“..Millions of Eastern European Jews were murdered in The Holocaust. Of these who escaped that fate ..surviving remnant ..She’erit Hapletah ..most remained alive because ..Soviet Union ..provided an often involuntary ..by and large extremely harsh ..refuge from genocide.” Mark Edele.

Their surviving position, continually adding to a Jewish future, holds with it their persistence in Memory forever to be Always to Remember, Never to Forget. There was meant to be no chance for Jews to Survive, though many did. Though chance was clearly denied to the 6,000,000 Jews who perished as we have learned, the chink in the Nazi hatred allowed for elements of our own humanity to find its way. I could never come to terms with, and in over 30 years of study, researching and knowing a little more of The Holocaust than I previously did, such an assumption that marks all as guilty. But my assertion stands, and I appreciate I have much still to learn to ever comprehend such an endurance, that while not all non-Jews were guilty, Not All Non-Jews Were Innocent.

“..I was unknowingly prepared for writing ..kernel of my writing does not come from what I have read.” Primo Levi.

Something deeply embedded within me sought to bring my words to relieve some of the concerns that the Jews of Europe must surely have felt. Abandoned and alone, the non-Jewish voice was so absent from the horror, it must have echoed like an entire symphony from humanity, playing to the Jewish People tuned to their death knell. Primo Levi is one of The Holocaust’s go to writers, and a primary and relevant word smith who delivers to us an evocative resonance ensured to strike at us. Primo Levi’s survival has so gifted the medium of literary criteria, the impalatable depth of research into this Jewish Catastrophe, where we find Primo’s essential Jewishness is our record, an appreciation of his important work. The infusion of thoughts and ideas, the core of one’s belief, this all presents itself in written form, if we choose to write it down. Consistently I state, The Holocaust has 6,000,000 Jews who inspire me to be right, to be correct, and to be truthful, and this is how I write.

“..thoughts in my head are sometimes so clear ..so sharp ..my feelings so deep ..but writing about them comes hard.” Etty Hillesum.

For me, Etty Hillesum captures every conceivable moment of those thought, processes which bring Her and her Jewish People toward  you, to remind you of their being. I cannot lay ownership to what was enforced upon the Jews of Europe, but I can lay siege to the wilful monstrosity that is human behaviour and it’s indifferent forbearance. Those millions who aided and abetted the Slaughter of 6,000,000 Jews, were administered by the clarion call of silence which reverberated around the extermination of so many People. In The Holocaust, and all because they were Jews, we must remember the selection of the Jewish People was to be in accordance with The Final Solution of The Jewish Question.

“..this work ..which relates ..darkest days in history of mankind ..was drawn up by me in strict accordance with reality ..without ..slightest exaggeration ..as an eyewitness ..in ..work of ..Auschwitz crematoriums ..into whose fires millions of Father’s ..Mothers and Children disappeared.” Dr. Miklos Nyiszli.

The science of History must draw upon the facts, to ensure the integrity of what we pass down is the truthful telling of a past that bears no exaggeration. In this we must always remember that when it suited Hitler, his so called racial theory meant nothing and not only was Jewish Blood good enough to be infused into the Waffen SS, he stole Jewish Children to make them German. Thus Lebensborn has ensured further, the Survival of even more Jews, even despite these Children being completely ignorant of that fact. The infusion of thoughts and ideas, which become the core of one’s belief, adds depth to our meaning. This then all presents itself in the written form we feel is then emerging. From what we choose historically to engage in, it is all bolted together to add passages that prepare our writing as a wrap around for our depth of feeling. No one can ever enter The Holocaust arena without knowing the wrongs this inhumanity evidences, and we should all then add more to our appreciation of this Jewish loss, for it is a loss compelled by an inhumanity we are a party to.

“..Blood runs through this story. ..young men ..on .. battlefields ..civilians ..old ..young ..women ..men ..that ran in ..gutters of cities ..towns ..villages across Europe ..millions destroyed in ..pogroms and Death Camps of The Holocaust.” Ingrid von Oelhafen.

Much that I wish to learn from The Holocaust has still to learned and Survivors here, like Dr. Perl, provide the instinct necessary for me to delve deeper, and dig more relentlessly to uncover more of the truth which remains hidden. The story of the Jewish Doctor within the Death Camp system is replete with the details of bestiality by so called clinicians who trained to save lives, who did not then devote time and attention to saving People, dissecting them brutally for being Jews. But such is the Jewish nature of nurture, Jewish Doctors are to be found battling the unspeakable crimes imposed upon even the healthy Jews that the Germans wished to experiment upon. While it is true, All Jews Were To Be Exterminated, that too could be achieved, and at leisure for so many Jews attended to by inhuman practitioners.

“.. Heinrich Heine ..great German poet ..predicted a hundred years ago ..inevitable renaissance of ..spirit of destruction ..inherent in ..German soul.” Dr. Gisella Perl.

If we seek to form any scientific evidence of history, and if we choose to write it down, it must add up to an appraisal of the research we undertake. Consistently I state, The Holocaust has 6,000,000 Jews who inspire me to be right, to be correct, and above All to be truthful. It would be a grave injustice to so disrespect their passing, by ignoring the lack of truth and honesty which so cost so many Jews their lives. We all know the imagery of the pain and suffering inflicted upon the Jewish People, who are The Holocaust, without ever coming close to appreciating the sheer pain, and the strain of the terror this impacted upon 6,000,000 Jews of Europe, and their Survivors. What epitomizes the strength of a People here, is the sight of this sheer might of an invading army, used to assist in the destruction of a People, and we see it too in a photograph so as to disarm a Jewish Boy after The Jewish Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

“..in ..Yad Vashem ..looking at a picture worth one thousand words and six million names ..a little Jewish Boy ..cap on ..head ..arms raised in ..air ..a look of deep horror on his face.” Dan Porat.