Endlösung

SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop and SS Officer Look Up during the Fighting

SS Officer Looks Up during the Fighting

As with many photos in the work, almost every SS officer has been identified.  This study found that only a handful of Nazi personnel were ever tried after the war for their participation in the destruction of the Ghetto.  After the war, American forces apprehended Stroop and tried him for war crimes.  He was convicted, but before he could be executed at Landsberg Military Prison, Poland requested his extradition so he could be tried there.  That guilty conviction led to his execution in Warsaw.

SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop and SS Officer Look Up during the Fighting2016-02-28T18:26:59-06:00

SS and Ukrainian Soldier Guarding Jews at the Umschlagplatz

SS and Ukrainian Soldier Guarding Jews

Just past the wooden wall leads to the Umschlagplatz.  The sorting process has already begun, with many women and children on the right and older men on the left.  Some will be sent on trains to labor camps, while others will go to Treblinka.

SS and Ukrainian Soldier Guarding Jews at the Umschlagplatz2016-02-28T18:27:12-06:00

SS Officers with Half-Track at the Umschlagplatz

SS Officers with Half-Track at the Umschlagplatz (Trans-shipment Place)

SS troops escorted Jews to this location, where they were sent by train to labor camps or where they boarded a train for the Treblinka extermination camp.  Officer with many decorations and black gloves is Jürgen Stroop.

SS Officers with Half-Track at the Umschlagplatz2016-02-28T18:27:25-06:00

Daily Maps of the Warsaw Ghetto Fighting

Daily Maps of the Ghetto Fighting

There is a map for every day of the fighting, as the operation was very fluid with no set battle lines.  These maps are for April 27 and April 28, 1943.  In addition to the points of fighting, the areas of the Ghetto that the Nazis set afire are shown.

Daily Maps of the Warsaw Ghetto Fighting2016-02-28T18:27:41-06:00

Jürgen Stroop, the SS Commander at Warsaw

Jürgen Stroop, the SS commander at Warsaw

Jürgen Stroop is looking at a paper or a map.  Soldiers around him stand at the ready, indicating that he is in or close to the Jewish Ghetto.  Stroop was born at Detmold, North Rhine-Westphalia, on September 26, 1895.  He fought as an enlisted man in World War I, winning the Iron Cross 2nd Class.  Stroop joined the Nazi Party and SS in the 1930s.  In 1941, Stroop fought on the Russian Front with the 3rd SS Totenkopf Division in the Waffen-SS.  Jürgen Stroop then became the Inspector of the Security Police in South Russia and then the SS and Police Leader for Lemberg.  He then assumed duties as the SS and Police Leader for Warsaw in April 1943, received the Iron Cross First Class and was apprehended after the war.  Turned over to Poland, Jürgen Stroop was convicted by a Polish court of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death.  The Poles hanged Jürgen Stroop on the site of the former Jewish Warsaw Ghetto on March 6, 1952.

Jürgen Stroop, the SS Commander at Warsaw2016-02-28T18:27:54-06:00

German 20mm Cannon at the Warsaw Ghetto

German 20mm Cannon at the Ghetto

The round has just exploded against the building, near the roof, in front.  These are German Army – not SS – troops, likely from the Light Alarm Flak Battery 3/VIII.

German 20mm Cannon at the Warsaw Ghetto2016-02-28T18:28:10-06:00

German SS and Army officers in discussion in Warsaw

German SS and Army officers in discussion in Warsaw

Given the stance of the SS soldier at left, the group is probably in the small factory area of the Ghetto.  The SS wanted to liquidate the Ghetto; the German Army wanted the factories to continue production of small goods they needed.

German SS and Army officers in discussion in Warsaw2016-02-28T18:28:25-06:00

German Execution Squad

German Execution Squad

Photographs at execution sites were strictly forbidden, but a few surface in archives or from German military antique dealers’ stores every year.

German Execution Squad2016-02-28T18:35:07-06:00

SS-Brigadeführer Erich Naumann, Einsatzgruppe B

Erich Naumann during early career

Erich Naumann during early career

SS-Brigadeführer Erich Naumann

Naumann commanded Einsatzgruppe B from November 1941 to March 1943.  Einsatzgruppe B killed at least 134,000 victims during the war.  Born in Meissen, Saxony on April 29, 1905, Naumann was a high school graduate, a merchant, married and listed his religion as agnostic.  He entered the Nazi Party on November 1, 1929 and the SS on July 1, 1935.  He also served as the Inspector of the SD in Berlin.  During his service in Einsatzgruppe B, he won the Iron Cross First Class.  Naumann was convicted at trial after the war, sentenced to death and hanged at Landsberg, Bavaria on June 8, 1951.

SS-Brigadeführer Erich Naumann, Einsatzgruppe B2016-03-01T19:29:01-06:00
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