...In January 1943, the Reichsfuehrer SS,
on the occasion of his visit to Warsaw,
ordered the SS and Police Leader ( SS- und Polizeifuehrer ) in the Warsaw
District to transfer to Lublin the armament factories and other enterprises
of military value installed within the ghetto, including the labor force
and machinery. It proved to be rather difficult to carry out this order,
since both the managers of the enterprises and the Jews resisted this
transfer in every conceivable way. The SS and Police Leader therefore
decided to carry out the transfer of the enterprises forcibly in the
course of a Grossaktion (major Aktion ), which was to have been carried
out in the course of three days. The preparations and military orders
for this Grossaktion had been completed by my predecessor.* I myself
arrived in Warsaw on April 17, 1943, and took over command of the Grossaktion
at 8 o'clock, after the Aktion itself had [already] started at 6 o'clock
on the same day....
The number of Jews brought out from the houses and
held during the first few days was relatively small. It proved that
the Jews were hiding in the sewer canals and in specially constructed
bunkers. Where it had been assumed during the first days that there
were only isolated bunkers, it proved in the course of the Grossaktion
that the whole ghetto had been systematically provided with cellars,
bunkers and passageways. The passages and bunkers all had access to
the sewers. This enabled the Jews to move underground without interference.
The Jews also used this network of sewers to escape underground into
the Aryan part of the city of Warsaw. There were constant reports that
Jews were attempting to escape through the sewer holes... How far the
Jews' precautions had gone was demonstrated by many instances of bunkers
skillfully laid out with accommodation for entire families, facilities
for washing and bathing, toilets, storage bins for arms and ammunition,
and large food reserves sufficient for several months. There were different
bunkers for poor and for rich Jews. It was extremely difficult for the
task forces to discover the individual bunkers owing to camouflage,
and in many cases it was made possible only through betrayal on the
part of the Jews.
After a few days it was already clear that the Jews
would under no circumstances consider voluntary resettlement, but were
determined to fight back by every means and with the weapons in their
possession. Under Polish-Bolshevik leadership so-called fighting units
were formed which were armed and paid any price asked for available
arms....
...While at first it had been possible to capture
the Jews, who are ordinarily cowards, in considerable numbers, the apprehending
of the bandits** and Jews became increasingly difficult in the second
half of the Grossaktion . Again and again, fighting units of 20 to 30
or more Jewish youths, 18 to 25 years old, accompanied by corresponding
numbers of females, renewed the resistance. These fighting units were
under orders to continue armed resistance to the end and, if necessary,
to escape capture by suicide.
One such fighting unit succeeded in climbing out of
the sewer through a manhole in so-called Prosta [Street] and to get
on to a truck and escape with it (about 30 to 35 bandits)....***
During the armed resistance females belonging to the
fighting units were armed in the same way as the men; some were members
of the He-Halutz Movement. It was no rarity for these females to fire
pistols with both hands. It happened again and again that they kept
pistols and hand-grenades (Polish "egg" grenades) hidden in
their bloomers up to the last moment, in order to use them against the
men of the Waffen-SS [military unit of the SS], Police and Wehrmacht.
The resistance offered by the Jews and bandits could
be broken only by the energetic, tireless deployment of storm-patrols
night and day. On April 23, 1943, the Reichsfuehrer SS, through the
Higher SS and Police Fuehrer for the East, in Cracow, issued the order
that the Warsaw ghetto be combed out with maximum severity and ruthless
determination. I therefore decided to carry out the total destruction
of the Jewish quarter by burning down all residential blocks, including
the blocks attached to the armament factories. One by one the factories
were systematically cleared and then destroyed by fire. Almost always
the Jews then emerged from their hiding places and bunkers. Not rarely,
the Jews stayed in the burning houses until the heat and fear of being
burned to death caused them to jump from the upper floors after they
had thrown mattresses and other upholstered objects from the burning
houses to the street. With broken bones they would then try to crawl
across the street into buildings which were not yet, or only partially,
in flames. Often, too, Jews changed their hiding places during the night,
by shifting into the ruins of buildings already burned out and taking
refuge there until they were found by one of the shock troop units....
Only as a result of the unceasing and untiring efforts
of all forces did we succeed in capturing altogether 56,065 Jews, i.e.,
definitely destroying them. To this figure should be added Jews who
lost their lives in explosions, fires, etc., the number of which could
not be definitely established....
Warsaw, May 16, 1943
The SS and Police Leader
in the Warsaw District
Stroop
SS Brigadefuehrer
and Major General of Police
* SS and Police Leader in the Warsaw District, Oberfuehrer
von Sammern-Frankenegg.
** This was the word used by the Germans for partisans and armed underground
fighters.
*** The reference is to a group of the Jewish Fighting Organization
that escaped through a sewer in Prosta Street on the Aryan side of the
city on May 10, 1943.