Holocaust Testimonies

...

testimony combined with Document 24 ‘Self-help and alternative leadership in Warsaw,’ provides a clearer understanding of the harsh living conditions within the Ghetto. German authorities forced those who had accommodation to take in those who did not have a place to live, which lead to overcrowded areas with the Holocaust encyclopedia stating that there was an average of 7.2 people living in one room with one toilet per house. The outburst of diarrhoea alongside poor diets and sanitary conditions increased the death toll within this Ghetto. Meed discusses death by starvation and gives us an understanding as to how the building of the mass graves and bodies surrounding the streets changed people’s perspectives about the coming events. While the bodies were originally left in peace, the conditions in the Warsaw ghetto were becoming so terrible that the dead were being robbed of their possessions which were later worn, traded or sold.

Document 23 ‘A Warsaw ghetto resident comments on Czerniakow’s suicide’ alongside the Holocaust encyclopedia provides us with a background into the role of Adam Czerniakow within the Warsaw Ghetto. German officials ordered the establishment of a Jewish council

4 Remembering Survival, Christopher Browning, (W.W. Norton and Company, New York and London) pg 7

5 Meed Testimony



under the leadership of engineer Czerniakow who was then forced to administer the ghetto and implement German orders. Document 23 states how Czerniakow had committed suicide on the 23rd of July after not wanting to witness or have any association with the deportation of Jews. Those left behind believed that he should have foreseen and taken responsibility for his actions and shown greater courage by staying alive and any thought of extermination being unreal and impossible was dismissed. Meed conceded with this argument as 400, 000 people were left without leadership when Czerniakow took his own life. He was angry at the Jewish leadership during this as the Ghetto felt they were being deprived of information. When they wanted to get information they had to go underground and were able to listen to the illegal radio or were told by others what was said. Meed stated that those who went to go get information about what was happening were arrested and killed the next day.

To conclude, Browning’s ‘Remembering Survival’ can be used alongside Document 23 and 24 in order to provide an insight into the history of the holocaust. This information allows us to look at the living conditions of the Ghetto and the abandonment of leadership as well as the value of testimonies, both judicial and survival, into determining the history of what took place and providing historical evidence. If it were not for video testimonies there would be little information known about the events that took place due to minimal documents and there would be no convictions of those being trialled for Nazi war crimes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Remembering Survival: Inside a Nazi Slave-Labour Camp, Christopher R. Browning, WW Norton & Company, New York, London, pp. 1-12

A Warsow Ghetto Resident Comments on Czerniakow’s Suicide Self-Help and Alternative Leadership in Warsaw

Youtube: Jewish Survivor Benjamin Meed Testimony

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VREiW8cJvls

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Holocaust Encyclopaedia, Warsaw http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005069