omit the official reasons and describe only the actual course of individual
“liquidations”. We emphasise that the Germans are exterminating the
unproductive population, that is, children up to the age of 10 and the elderly
above the age of 60, almost without exception, as well as women and men
who do not possess J-cards, which confirm one’s employment on a German
work detail. A characteristic feature of the Hitlerite reality in Poland is that
the Germans always set a contingent of “the employed”, which usually constitutes
30–50 per cent of the local Jewish population. The most horrible
crime of all times is being committed under the pretence of exploiting the
Jewish workforce.
Kraków
20,000 Jews – craftsmen and labourers – remained in the Kraków ghetto after
the 1941 deportation. Nonetheless, Kraków has suffered the same fate as other
towns. On 27 May of this year the ghetto was surrounded with gendarmerie
and SD posts. Overnight Sunday to Monday 2,000 Jews were removed from
their homes. They were assembled in Prokocim (3 kilometres out of town) and
then deported in sealed boxcars. The elderly were executed in the Niepołomice
forests. On Tuesday, 2 June, another roundup was conducted. 4,000 Jews were
captured. The victims were ordered to walk to Prokocim. Many were killed
on the way. On 5 June the Germans deported 250 patients from the Jewish
hospital. Those people were probably murdered. On Sunday, 7 June, 500 men
aged 18–28 were sent to the labour camp in Kleszew,⁶⁵⁷ while the remaining
1,500 men were deported in an “unknown direction”. The result was that
8,000 Jews were killed. That Ausrottung⁶⁵⁸ campaign was accompanied by killings
and robberies committed by the local authorities.
Tarnów
The pogrom of Tarnów Jews has continued since Wednesday, 10 June this
year. The city is surrounded by gendarmerie and SD troops. So far the Hitlerite
beasts have murdered approximately 4,000 Jews, while more than 8,000 Jews
have been deported in an “unknown direction”, that is, to die. According to
eyewitnesses’ accounts, the Germans have not spared anybody, taking particular
pleasure in killing the women and children. The act of destruction and
murder has been completed with truly Teutonic passion and meticulousness.
657 Should be: Płaszów.
658 (Ger.) extermination, annihilation.
