le Glossaire de Francis a trouvé : - | Service de renseignement et de contre-espionnage allemand sous la direction de l'amiral Canaris.
De son nom complet : Amtsgruppe Auslandnachrichten und Abwehr.
En abrégé: A.Ausl./Abw.
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Gaulle (Charles de) - CDG - France libre |
- | A hissé le grade de Connétable bien au dessus de celui de Maréchal, fut il de France. Le site officiel
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Intelligence Service - IS - Grande-Bretagne |
- | Service de renseignements britannique.
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Levy (Jean-Pierre) - Résistance (France) |
- | Fondateur et dirigeant du mouvement de résistance FTP (Francs-Tireurs et partisans).
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- | Dans le cadre de l'organisation de la Résistance, la lettre R suivie de 1 à 6 indiquait une région de la zone Sud (zone non occupée jusqu'en 1942).
R1 : Région Rhône-Alpes (centre Lyon).
R2 : Région Provence-Côte d'Azur (centre Marseille).
R3 : Région Languedoc-Roussillon (centre Montpellier).
R4 : Région du Sud-Ouest (centre Toulouse).
R5 : Région de Limoges (centre Brives puis Limoges).
R6 : Région de l'Auvergne (centre Clermont-Ferrand).
En zone Nord occupée, les régions étaient définies par les simples lettres : P - A - B - C - D - M
(voir "zone")
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Sicherheitsdienst - SD - Allemagne nazie |
- | Service de sécurité responsable de la surveillance intérieure, du renseignement, de l'espionnage et du contre-espionnage du parti.
Dans l'organigramme du RSHA (Office Central de la Sécurité du Reich) le SD est désigné:
- Amt III Inland SD (service de renseignement intérieur)
- Amt VI Ausland SD (service de renseignement à l'étranger)
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Sir (Basil Lidell Hart) - Grande-Bretagne |
- | Comme pour le Général Patton, je m'étonne de ne pas trouver mot sur ce grand écrivain, spécialiste des guerres mondiales.
Note : Le glossaire est en chantier permanent ! N'hésitez pas à participer et à déposer vos définitions ou courtes biographies.
FD
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Special Operations Executive - SOE - Grande-Bretagne |
- | Service secret britannique chargé de l'action en Europe. Les "Réseaux Buckmaster" sont la branche française du SOE.
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BBC - British Broadcasting Corporation - Grande-Bretagne |
- | Quartier Général pour les Anglophiles.
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PM - Police municipale - France |
SS - Schutzstaffel - Allemagne nazie |
- | "Echelon de protection" ou "Section de protection".
Créée en 1923, la SS est d'abord la garde prétorienne de Hitler. Sous l'impulsion de Heinrich Himmler qui en prend la tête le 6 juin 1929, elle devient la police du Reich. A partir de 1937, la SS est chargée de la gestion du système concentrationnaire.
Himmler portera le titre de "Reichsfürher-SS".
A partir de 1935, la SS se subdivise en différentes branches notamment:
- SS Verfügungstruppe (troupes mises à disposition), organisées militairement et qui deviennent, au début de la guerre, les Waffen SS.
- SS Totenkopf (tête de mort) chargées de la garde des camps de concentration.
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Dans ce texte : Quelques précisions de Etienne Lorenceau le jeudi 16 mai 2013 à 17h34La vraie cause de l'assassinat de Kasztner trouve sa source dans son témoignage en faveur de kurt becher. Or kurt becher a pris dans les négociations initiées par Joel Brandt (et non par Reszo Kasztner voir mes notes chronologiques vérifiées, croisées par plusieurs sources alliées et ennemies) Avec mes excuses pour le fait que mes notes soient écrites en Anglais.
16-Jan-44 Morgenthau convinced FDR to make the WRB owing to the passivity of the Secretary of State
22-Jan-44 Creation of the WRB with the Secretaries of Treasury, State and War departments but Stettinius is discharged and John Pehle becomes board executive director
17-Dec-42 Allies solemnly condemn the extermination of the Jews and promised to punish the perpetrators
14-Mar-44 Josef Winninger, a member of the Budapest branch of the Abwehr, informs Kasztner of the impending German occupation of Hungary
19-Mar-44 Eichmann enters Hungary heading a column of 500 men
20-Mar-44 Krumey and Wisliceny issue instructions to the national leaders of Hungarian Jewry, ordering them to form a Jewish Council (Judenrat) that would exercise jurisdiction over all the Jews in the country
21-Mar-44 An eight-member Jewish Council is established under the leadership of Samu Stern, the President of the Jewish Community of Pest
24-Mar-44 BBC who has more than 300,000 listeners in Hungary broadcasts Roosevelt's message warning that “None who participates in acts of savagery shall go unpunished." but omitted from the broadcast Roosevelt’s appeal that Hungarians “hide the victims and help them escape, and they should also record evidence which one day will be used to convict the guilty.”
25-Mar-44 BBC Hungarian service asks Hungarians to “assist all those who are persecuted by the Germans. Deny all help to the Germans. Prove your national consciousness, your human feeling, by assisting all those who are persecuted for their political attitude or race . . . every Hungarian who helps the victims of persecution ... also serves his nation, because his deeds may be credited to his country by the United Nations at the final reckoning.”
29-Mar-44 Meeting between Wisliceny and Joel Brand
30-Mar-44 Hirshman and Steinhardt find the message very timely despite British disagreement
4-Apr-44 Baron Eugen Weiss is brought in front of Becher
25-Apr-44 Joel's birthday (1906)
25-Apr-44 First contact between Eichmann and Joel Brand
25-Apr-44 WRB encourages the Office of War Information in its broadcasting of encouragement to Hungarians for sheltering Hungarian Jews.
27-Apr-44 The British Commander-in-Chief for the Middle East disapproved on 27 April 1944 a Jewish Agency proposal from Moshe Shertok to infiltrate about 50 trained Jewish agents into Hungary to assist in the organization of resistance among Hungarian Jews. British officials claimed they were already stretched beyond their resources and could do no more in South East Europe. It was not until August 1944 that the Foreign and Colonial Offices agreed to allow the recruitment of no more than ten Jewish agents from among Palestinian Jews already serving in the British forces for employment as saboteurs and agents in Hungary by the Special Operations Executive. British officials insisted that the agents must not come under the authority of the Jewish Agency or become affiliated with it.
2-May-44 Vaada leaders send telegram to Istanbul urgently requesting Turkish visas for Brand and Winninger to enable them to meet with unspecified leaders of world Jewry to discuss Eichmann’s offer
10-May-44 An outline of the the Hungarian deportation plans appeared in the New York Times before the trains even started to Auschwitz
10-May-44 Kasztner is arrested by the SD Sicherheitsdienst), security service at the instigation of Brand and Grosz whom Kasztner oppososed for the Istanbul mission. He was released with a warning two days later.
15-May-44 Mass deportations of Hungarian Jews to concentration camps begin
15-May-44 Eichmann summoned Brand for the last time informing him that all travel arrangements for him have been completed; urges Brand to meet with world Jewish leaders as well as with Laurence A. Steinhardt, a Jew, who was American Ambassador in Ankara.
17-May-44 Kummey takes Joel to Vienna to catch a plane for Istambul
17-May-44 Joel takes off from Vienna
19-May-44 Joel Brand and Bandi Grosz (Andreas Gyorgy) arrive in Istanbul. Brand gets to the Hotel Pera and first meets Wenia Pomerantz in their hotel office then Benjamin Griffel (representative of Agudas Israel) is only able to communicate his mission to the local Zionist leaders. Chaim Barlas transmitted the details of the Eichmann offer to Laurence Steinhardt
19-May-44 Menachem Bader explains that they cannot send telegram because of the quality of the telecommunications; they ask Wiena Pomerantz if she can travel to get Moshe Sherok to meet with Joel. Furthermore Chaim Barlatz states that he will call Steinhardt the next day.
20-May-44 Meeting at the Sokhnouz where he explains his mission and relays plans of Auschwitz for bombing, Joel shows the false papers prepared in Hungary for the parachutists
21-May-44 Accompany Wenia Pomerantz to the station who will try and conince Shertok and Ben Gurion to come and see Joel.
22-May-44 Courtesy calls and goes with Bandi to visit Machmed Bey. In the afternoon meets rich Turkish Jew influential with the Turkish authorities and supportive of the Sokhnouz cause: Simon Brod.
22-May-44 Kasztner is introduced to Eichmann by Hansi Brand; Eichmann confirms to Kasztner an offer made earlier by Krumey, to permit the exit of 600 holders of Palestine immigration visas
23-May-44 Joel, Chaim Barlaz are leaving for Ankara through the Haider Pacha station on the Oriental river of the Bosphorus. He is accompanied by the delegates. They buy their tickets. Simon Brod arrives and informs the delegates that there is an arrest warrant against Joel. Joel goes back to his Istambul hotel and is arrested by two Turkish police officer as Bandi escapes.
23-May-44 Police room: the Turks know a lot about his entry in Turkey: his knife gets stolen. He is told that he is going to be expelled but as Bandi has not been found immediately the decision is postponed to the next day.
23-May-44 In the evening Bandi is caught, they have an argument and Bandi reveals that the true mission is his and concerns a separate peace. Bandi bribes the police officer and they go back to the hotel Pera
24-May-44 Chaim Barlasz goes to Ankara to meet with Steinhardt
24-May-44 Turkish Police fills up the formalities for expelling Joel Yougoslav and Bulgares visa for the controls on board the train). Around noon, Bader arrives telling that the extradition is postponed by several days and that he only needs to sign daily at the police. They return to their hotel.
25-May-44 He learns about the deportations. He refers to a provisional agreement being made. An American by the name of Levy
25-May-44 Steinhardt notified the U.S. State Department of the Eichmann offer by diplomatic telegram
27-May-44 Kasztner, his wife, Hansi Brand, Sholem Offenbach, treasurer of the Vaada, and his wife were arrested by the Hungarian police. Hansi Brand was beaten so savagely that she could not stand for a week. Six days after their arrest, the group was freed through the intervention of the SS
29-May-44 Moshe Shertok informs that it will take time for him to have a visa for Turkey
29-May-44 it will take 4 days
1-Jun-44 Grosz leaves Istambul for Aleppo without Joel and gets arrested by the British the same day
3-Jun-44 Eichmann offered Kasztner an additional "prize" of permitting prominent Jews from the provinces to come to Budapest with the eventual goal of having them emigrate to Palestine
4-Jun-44 Joel meets with Barlatz: Joel decides not to wait any longer since the 15 days greanted by Eichmann have elapsed and claims he wants to get back to Hungary. Barlatz informs him that they have arranged a meeting in Aleppo and that Joel will be able to be back soon into Budapest. He sends a message for Eichmann to advise him that he leaves for travel and sends the text of the provisional agreement.
4-Jul-44 Upon his arrival in Aleppo, he is arrested by the British who take him to the dormitory of a British base.
4-Jul-44 Rome falls to the Allies (first capital of the Axis to fall)
5-Jun-44 Joel with Ehoud Avriel are on their way to Aleppo in the Taurus Express stops into Ankara for an hour. Klarmann (revisionist sionist opposed to the Sokhnoust) and Griffel are waiting in Ankara and advise Joel not to get to Aleppo, underlining that the Allies are not the friends of the Sionist in this matter.
6-Jun-44 Joel enters in Syria and is controlled in the train first by the French and then by the British.
6-Jun-44 D-Day
7-Jun-44 Trained in Egypt Hannah Szens is the 33rd Palestinian parachuted in Mch 1944 behind ennemy line (in Yougoslavia). She arrives in Hungary in early June and is arrested on June 7th 1944.
7-Jun-44 Upon his arrival in Aleppo, Joel is arrested by the British who take him to the dormitory of a British base. The British try to interrogate him and Joel refuses to answer alleging that he cannot speak outsdide the presence of a sionist representative
7-Jun-44 Jeep drops him in front of an Arab villa. Joel meets with Moshe Shertok at Aleppo and debriefs him in presence of the British. Zvi Jecheli and Rouven Saslany.
7-Jun-44 Joel tells of the works and the problems in Eastern Europe and speaks for about 6 hours.
7-Jun-44 Shertok orders him to keep on south with the British. They take him to Beyruth for the night.
8-Jun-44 Moshe Shertok and Ben Gurion visited the High Commissioner for Palestine (Sir Harold MacMichael), and emphasized that many Jewish lives might be saved if Germans were impressed that important negotiations were impending. Moshe Shertok (Sharett) and David Ben Gurion had been briefed about the Eichmann offer by Wenia Pomerantz. Sir Harold dismissed the entire offer as a "Nazi intrigue based on far other motives than the apparent ones". Jews made an attempt on his life in 1944. He survived the incident, but his wife was wounded in it.
9-Jun-44 By train Joel and the British officer leave at noon by train to Haifa
10-Jun-44 They reach Haifa on the morning and take a walk there. Then they leave for Cairo
10-Jun-44 388 Jews (out of 18,000 in the Kolozsvar ghetto) were brought to Budapest on a special train and placed in a "privileged camp" built in the courtyard of the Wechselmann Institute for the Deaf on Columbus Street
11-Jun-44 Joel arrives to Cairo and he is placed in a room and is very well treated
11-Jun-44 Ira Hirschmann leaves NY for Ankara
12-Jun-44 Ira Hirschmann meets with Lawrence Steinhardt (US ambassador in Ankara)
12-Jun-44 The British explain that Joel will go back to Hungary and may be tortured and therefore should know nothing about the environment in Cairo
12-Jun-44 First V-1 rocket reaches London
13-Jun-44 Bennet and invitation in Londres
14-Jun-44 Meeting Ira Hirschmann and Moyne & then Ira Hirschmann and Joel Brand
15-Jun-44 Cable from Shertok to the Jewish Agency in London telling reporting about Joel Receipt acknowledged only on the 19th of June
Although it is not clear when the Auschwitz protocols were forwarded, Krasnansky later affirmed that the information was given immediately to Dr. Kastner, one of the prominent members of the Budapest Rescue Committee, who had been summoned to Bratislava and for whom Krasnansky personally translated the document into Hungarian. Moshe Krausz sends an abbreviated version of the Auschwitz Protocols together with a report on the fate of Hungarian Jewry to Switzerland.
16-Jun-44 deputation of the Hungarian Espionage Intelligence Service (General Staff) arrives in Berlin and is formally received by Hansen, Kuebart of Mil AmtB and Ohletz of MilC. According to WS the object is furthering mutual intelligence information against Russia.
21-Jun-44 Mantello sends out Auschwitz Protocols through the British Exchange Telegraph and, two weeks later, Swiss newspapers publish the story of 1,715,000 Jews being murdered.
25-Jun-44 The Pope Pius XII personally addresses an open telegram to Calvinist Hungarian Regent Nicholas Horthy urging him to spare Jewish lives, and save "so many unfortunate people" from "further afflictions and sorrows."
26-Jun-44 U.S. Secretary of State Hull issue warnings to Hungary's Admiral Horthy: the message from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Regent Horthy through the Swiss minister Maximilian Jaeger (Karl Lutz's boss) giving an Ultimatum for the 29 at the latest to end the deportation of Jewish people, failing which "Hungary would be treated in a way that a civilized nation had never been treated before".
27-Jun-44 Moshe Shertock arrives in London
30-Jun-44 Letter to Horthy by King Gustav V of Sweden containing an appeal to halt the deportation of Jews
Raoul Wallenberg is appointed by the WRB's Stockholm representative, at the suggestion of his former Hungarian Jewish partner (Koloman Lauer) after the Hungarian refusal to validate Count Folke Bernadotte. He wwill arrive in Budapest at the beginning of July
30-Jun-44 Reszo Kastner's train leaves from Budapest to Bergen Belsen with 1685 persons
2-Jul-44 Heavy Anglo-American bombing on Budapest (500 victims)
3-Jul-44 Horthy advises Maximilian Jaeger that after the 9th there will be no further deportations
5-Jul-44 Professor Karl Burckhardt, President of the International Red Cross, made a personal appeal to Horthy
6-Jul-44 Sir Anthony Eden with Weizman and Moshe Shertok meet in London to discuss Eichmann's offer
7-Jul-44 Mr. Anthony Eden, Britain's Foreign Secretary announced in the House of Commons
8-Jul-44 Horthy orders the stopping of the deportation
8-Jul-44 The Kasztner transport arrives in Bergen Belsen
9-Jul-44 Ferenczy's report (Hungarian Gendarmerie) gives a total for the Hungarian mass-murdering: Jews in the provinces were thrown into ghettos from 16 April 1944, and in mid-May deportations to Auschwitz began. They continued at a feverish pace until 9 July 1944. During this period of less than two months, 434,351 Jews were deported in 147 trains of sealed freight cars, about 3,000 men, women and children to each train, and the average was two to three trains daily.
11-Jul-44 Churchill reacted about the information about Auschwitz Birkenau with a striking written command to Eden explaining that the Jewish persecutions are "there is no doubt that this is probably the greatest and most horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world..."
14-Jul-44 Avriel Heoud gives Joel news about Hansi
18-Jul-44 Hungarian gendarmerie units arrest Kasztner and keep him incommunicado for nine days
20-Jul-44 Von Stauffenberg's attempt against Hitler's life
20-Jul-44 President Roosevelt was nominated for an unprecedented fourth term of office at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago
20-Jul-44 London Times article about the Brand's mission
21-Jul-44 BBC heard by Freudiger: I remember that day well, it was a Friday - I received an urgent telephone call from Wisliceny saying that he wanted to speak to me, and that I should come to him right away. I went to his private apartment on the Schwabenberg. He told me that a day or two before he had been in Bratislava, where he had spoken to Rabbi Weissmandel and with all our Jewish friends; they had heard the B.B.C. broadcast which reported on Brand's programme to exchange a million Jews for 10,000 trucks, and that the B.B.C. added that a guarantee had been required that these trucks would not be used except on the western front, but on the eastern front against the Russians, and His Majesty's Government could not do anything against its allies, the Russians
24-Jul-44 Russians liberate the Majdanek extermination camp
10-Aug-44 British officials greeted with suspicion and hostility Horthy’s tentative offer in August 1944 to permit an exodus of the remaining Hungarian Jews. Lord Henry Croft of the War Office wrote to Anthony Eden. “I feel that there may be pressure from the U.S. for electioneering reasons to persuade us to give pledges which we may not be able to implement and I foresee a grave menace of political repercussions if a very large number of Jews in Hungary are assembled at some port or ports and His Majesty’s Government are unable to transport or accommodate them. Anything we do, therefore, it seems to me, should be subject to shipping available and camps adequate to house."
16-Aug-44 U.S. War Department issues a statement that bombing Auschwitz would divert air power from "decisive operations elsewhere."
21-Aug-44 127 Flying Fortress Bombers drop high-explosives on the factory areas at Auschwitz, less than five miles east of the gas-chambers
21-Aug-44 First meeting between Saly Mayer, Swiss representative of the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) in Switzerland, Kasztner and Kurt Becher on the Sankt-Margareten bridge linking Switzerland and Austria
21-Aug-44 The first 318 Jews are released from Bergen Belsen and and transported to Switzerland.
24-Aug-44 To which Anthony Eden replied to Horthy's proposal: “We have now agreed to join with the United States Government in a declaration that we will give a refuge to those Jews who leave Hungary . . . . We have pointed out to the Americans the special difficulties which confront us in providing accommodation and they have guaranteed not to face us with the impossible. We have been careful to induce them to agree to a declaration referring only to Jews specified in the offer--a manageable number of immigrants."
25-Aug-44 Paris is liberated
30-Aug-44 Rumanian switches to the Allies side
1-Sep-44 Kastner, Sally Meyer and Dr Willer (assistant to Sally) meet with Billitz and Grueson (Becher's assistant)
3-Sep-44 Second series of meetings held between Saly Mayer, Kasztner and representatives of Kurt Becher
6-Sep-44 Two Lehi members assassinate Moyne
8-Sep-44 Bulgary declares war to Germany
11-Sep-44 Holland is liberated by the Allies
13-Sep-44 Soviet troops arrive at the Slovakian border
13-Sep-44 3rd meeting between Becher and Sally Meyer at the Swiss border
13-Sep-44 U.S. heavy bombers rain destruction on factory areas a few miles from Auschwitz, but Allies refuse to bomb railroad tracks or gas chambers at Auschwitz.
14-Sep-44 United States troops arrive at the German border and proceed, with the British and Canadians, to launch an offensive to reach the Rhine
5-Oct-44 Joel leaves Cairo for Jerusalem
6-Oct-44 A poster announced to the Hungarian army: "Miklos Horthy hireling of the Jews, traitor and former Regent of Hungary, has broken the oath he has taken to the nation and you. From the moment of his treachery he is no longer your Commander-in-Chief. As he broke his oath, he must be arrested. . . . As from today Ferenc Szalasi is the responsible leader of Hungary. From this moment on your oath is binding to him as the saviour of the nation
7-Oct-44 Inmates in Auschwitz rebel, one crematorium is blown up
7-Oct-44 Eichmann returns to Budapest
1-Nov-44 Final mass gassing at Auschwitz, 73 women are murdered. The remainder of the prisoners, approximately 2,300, are deported to Ravensbruck and Bergen-Belsen to meet the growing slave labor demand
4-Nov-44 Fourth series of meetings between Kasztner, Saly Mayer, Kurt Becher and Roswell McClelland (a representative of the WRB) in St. Gallen and Zurich, Switzerland
8-Nov-44 Roosevelt wins the U.S. Presidency for a fourth term. Democrats gain in the House
18-Nov-44 Kettlitz (Becher assistant): money still not tereceived, new subterfuge every time, convinced that they doesn't want or cannot deliver and doesn't reply the phone
25-Nov-44 Himmler signs the order to stop the extermination of Jews and the blowing up of the gas chambers
26-Nov-44 Becher returns to Budapest from a meeting with Heinrich Himmler
27-Nov-44 According to Kettlitz (Becher assistant): Sally Meyer doesn't want or cannot deliver and doesn't reply the phone.
28-Nov-44 Krell (assistant to Becher) accompanied by Katsner goes to Switzerland
12/2/1944 about The Bergen Belsen convoy led by Krumey arrives in Bergenz
5-Dec-44 Kasztner and Krell meet with Saly Mayer at the Swiss border.
7-Dec-44 The Kastner train with 1368 or 1685? person arrives in Switzerland (Joel mother and sisters have been kept in Bergen Belsen on Eichmann's direct order)
23-Dec-44 The Russian troops surround Budapest and Becher leaves Hungary
31-Dec-44 Hungaria declares war on Germany
9-Jan-45 Kasztner meets with Dieter Wisliceny in Vienna
12-Jan-1945: Driven by his son Benoit, Musy accompanied by WS returns by car to Wilbad in the German Black Forest for finalizing his conversations with Himmler at this second meeting:
“Musy would be the sole Swiss delegate in matters concerning the release of Jews from Germany. The Jews would be transferred to Switzerland in exchange for a fixed sum for each trainload.
The money proceeds of this traffic, instead of being used for the purchase of war material for Germany, would be held in a trust account by Musy for the use of the International Red Cross.” (la référence à la négociation de Joel Brand et le "train de Kasztner" qui en fut l'aboutissement est ici directement ouverte lors des interrogations de Schellenberg)
With the help of WS, Himmler’s consent is obtained for a list of miscellaneous request relating to the release and care of prisoners of war.
At the close of the meeting the Musys and WS drove to Constance where WS remained as they kept driving to Switzerland in order to put the necessary arrangements into effect in Zurich for the transit-internment in Switzerland of the Jewish refugees.
18-Jan-1945 Himmler writes another note in his diary asking himself who has the links to Washington that he so craves to negotiate a separate peace with the western allies : “Who is the one with whom the American government actually maintains contact? Is it a rabbinical Jew [Isaac and Recha Sternbuch] or is it the Joint [sic – Sally Mayer]?”
6-Feb-45 In Kasztner's defense, McClelland states that the negotiations were conducted with full knowledge of the WRB and US State dept and the British as well as the Russians
11-Feb-45 Kasztner, Becher and Krell meet with Sally Mayer at the Swiss border
13-Feb-45 Buda is liberated from German occupation by Soviet troops
17-Feb-1945: WS drives Bernadotte to Himmler’s Hohenlychen H.Q. the place agreed upon for the meeting. During the drive WS after explaining his own support to Swedish peace processes, prepares Bernadotte for the meeting and suggests him to renounce to his request for Danish and Norwegian prisoners to be interned in Sweden and to only suggest, at this stage, to have them regrouped in Germany. Himmler is very satisfied with the meeting and requests WS to keep him informed to avoid resistance by Kaltenbrunner and Müller. He also instructs WS to report Ribbentrop so as to secure Hitler’s approval through Ribbentrop.
WS informs Kaltenbrunner and Müller of Himmler’s decision to regroup the Danish and Norwegian prisoners in Neuengamme under the surveillance of the Swedish Red Cross.
Kalten brunner objects the impossibility at this stage of the war to get the the trucks and gasoline as well as the overcrowded situation of Neuengamme. He reproaches WS to have influenced Himmler in favour of the deal. WS suggested that the lorries and gasoline could be supplied by the Swedish Red Cross when Müller objected that it would not be acceptable for German refugees on foot to watch war prisoners in lorries. WS agreed that the transport should be done at night by his own personel.
7-Apl-45: WS communicates with Musy stating that it was Himmler's request that he communicates with General Eisenhower and states that an order for non-evacuation was agreed to by Himmler. In the meantime he secures his friend Berger’s agreement for a four day truce during which the Red Cross could evacuate the concentration camps and the prisoner of wars. Himmler doesn’t dare presenting the project to Hitler.
8-Apl-45: A W/T message from a De Gaulle station in Spain to Paris, decyphered by the Germans, stated that Musy on behalf of Himmler had had dealings with Jewish organizations, whereby in exchange for the assurances of asylum being afforded to 200 nazis leaders the Jews in Germany would be allowed to emigrate to America via Switzerland. Kaltenbrunner brings the transcript to Hitler.
Harrison, G. W. Final Report on WS. p.80 foot note
Hitler learns, from Kaltenbrunner and Otto Hermann Fegelein, of the project of a four days truce to allow Musy to have the Jewish people evacuated and ban this evacuation.
“Hitler threatened the death penalty for anyone attempting to further assist such transfers, and ordered, that not another Jew nor any American or British PW's should pass the border with the aid of any German.” Thereafter Kaltenbrunner, following Hitler’s orders, prevented further transports of Jews into Switzerland.
13-Apl-1945: Several days after the discussion with De Crinis WS is called to Wustrow, near Magdebburg, where Himmler had set his H.Q. During the visit WS accompanied Himmler on a walk into the surrounding woods where they had a significant discussion on the Jewish question. WS asks Himmler to follow Felix Kersten suggestion and receive Mr. Storsch, the representative of the Jewish World Congress, who could come from Stockholm.
WS. The Labyrinth.
Nara. Harrison, G. W. Final Report on WS. p.94
“Himmler told me on the 13th of April 1945 when I asked him' to receive the representative of the Jewish world congress, Mr. Storsch, from 'Stockholm, ‘But how am I going to do that with Kaltenbrunner around, I shall then be completely at his mercy !’.”
WS UK Affidavit part III and this is confirmed by an affidavit from Kaltenbrunner
WS explains that owing to the situation and by consideration for Felix Kersten, Himmler had to set a date for a meeting in the coming days.
Still hesitant he agreed to receive Storch and Masur, the Jewish World Congress representative in Sweden if it was kept secret from Kaltenbrunner.
“Himmler was in great mental distress. Even openly he had been almost completely thrown over by the Fuehrer. Hitler had ordered at Otto Hermann Fegelein’s suggestion, the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler to take off their armbands as a dishonoring punishment discrediting Himmler in the same time. He said that I was the only one beside, perhaps Standartenfuehrer Brandt, that he could completely trust. What should he do? He could not kill Hitler, could not poison or arrest him in the Chancellery as the whole military machine would then come to a stand still. I explained that all this was of no importance. He had only two possibilities: either to go to Hitler and openly inform him of all that had happened in the last years and to persuade him to resign. Himmler retorted that this would be totally impossible, [as] Hitler would get into one of his rages and shout him out of hand. I replied ‘Therefore one must protect oneself from this. You have enough high SS leaders, who are in a position to prepare and carry out such surprise arrest, and if there is no other way, the doctors must intervene.”
The discussion lasted an hour and a half and at the end Himmler was still unable to bring himself to come to any decision regarding his future actions. He did however called a conference, with a view to going into the question regarding Hitler’s health which was attended by Pfr De Crinis, Prfr Morell (Hitler’s physician), Dr Stumpfegger, a second doctor, an SS Fuehrer and Bormann. Later WS was informed by De Crinis that Stumpfegger had shown himself to be of a different opinion than De Crinis although he had to admit the truth of certain of his arguments. It was agreed that De Crinis wouldprepare some medication for Hitler.
13-Apl-45: Several days after the discussion with De Crinis WS is called to Wustrow, near Magdebburg, where Himmler had set his H.Q. During the visit WS accompanied Himmler on a walk into the surrounding woods where they had a significant discussion on the Jewish question. WS asks Himmler to follow Felix Kersten suggestion and receive Mr. Storsch, the representative of the Jewish World Congress, who could come from Stockholm.
19-Apl-45: Himmler attempts to establish a new German government and negotiate an "honorable" peace with the Western Allies. Negotiation with count Bernadotte when, at the same time, Himmler keeps ordering the killing of Denmark Jews (see Kaltenbrunner’s defense at Nuremberg). Blank order in WS hands for the concentration camps and fight against Kaltenbrunner in Mathausen (Ziereiss was admittedly a friend of Kaltenbrunner).
15-Apl-45: As the Allied armies draw together, 17,000 female inmates and 40,000 men are marched westward by the Germans from Ravenbrück and Sachsenhausen. Many hundreds die of exhaustion and hundreds more are shot by the wayside.
19-Apl-45: Two hours before take off, Storch having had no visa asks Masur, who had volunteered for the mission, to replace him on board the plane arranged by WS.
Masur and Felix Kersten arrive at the Tempelhof air field and leave for Kersten Hartzwalde estate. As Bernadotte is to arrive at the same time to meet with Himmler, WS is sent to Hartzwalde in order to prevent the meetings of colliding and start preliminary discussions with Masur before a meeting with Himmler.
Delayed by an air raid, Himmler arrived at 11:30 for the 56th Hitler’s birthday and his last meeting with the Fuehrer.
20-Apl-45: Masur threatens to regretfully have to get back to Berlin by the next morning at 6.00 o’clock latest, but WS claims that he explained at length why the measures in favour of the Jews as per his agreement with Musy could not be repeated. In the afternoon WS is called from the Swedish Embassy and arranges for Bernadotte to get to Hohenlychen. At 5 PM he drove to Schloss Ziethen at Wustrow to wait for Himmler but despite Brandt’s reminders Himmler had left late and arrives at 22H30. WS convince Himmler to use Bernadotte’s channel for the negotiations but then meets difficulty in convincing him to meet with Masur. Finally Himmler decides to go with WS in Hartzwalde for the meeting with Masur and accepts to leave early from there for a breakfast with Count Bernadotte at 6.00 o’clock.
Donc les négociations initiées par Joel Brand poursuivies par Kasztner puis Musy et téléguidées depuis l'origine par WS d'abord au travers de Eichman, un autre officier SS qui ferq libérer Hansi des mains de Nazis hongrois puis de Becher avaient pour but une paix séparées mais il aura fallu l'habileté et l'intelligence de Brand et Kasztner pour obtenir des gages immédiats sous formes de trains et malgré l'opposition de kaltenbrunner pour plaire à hitler *** / *** |