THE REPORT OF JÜRGEN STROOP CONCERNING THE UPRISING IN THE GHETTO OF WARSAW AND THE LIQUIDATION OF THE JEWISH RESIDENTIAL AREA - introduction and notes by Prof. B. Mark Published by JEWISH HISTORICAL INSTITUTE, Warsaw 1958 - first English edition of the Stroop report documenting on a daily basis the battles of the uprising from the Jewish side and the Nazi crimes in an attempt to suppress it. (Accompanied by photographs and documents that appeared in the original report).
"This is a document of crime and heroism; on the crime of the German Nazis and on the heroism of their victims of the last Jews who remained in the Warsaw Ghetto. The leader of these Nazi murderers himself reports on his crimes and the crimes of his men" (from Prof. Mark's introduction). When in 1945 the 7th US Army entered the territory of Germany, a thick volume printed on a typewriter and beautifully bound in goatskin was found in Bavaria. This volume was laying in the bookcase of a villa belonging to SS General Jürgen Stroop. The book contained reports from General Stroop - SS fuehrer and police chief in the Warsaw district in 1943 to his superior, SS General Krüger, the top SS and police commander in the General Government (the territories occupied by Nazi Germany). General Stroop was the commander of the large-scale operation carried out by the Nazis with the aim of suppressing the uprising that broke out on April 19, 1943 in the Warsaw ghetto. Due to his pride in his actions, he kept in his home a detailed copy in which he boasted of his and his men's part in suppressing the remnants of the last Jews in the Warsaw ghetto. Stroop's report consisted of three parts: a general part (introduction), daily reports and a photographic documentation of crimes committed in the ghetto, serving as proof of the accuracy of the daily reports. The command of the US 7th Army handed over the report to the Second Unit of the US Army Headquarters in Europe. It was used to convict the Nazi criminals at the Nuremberg trials (where it received the number 1061-PS).
According to Stroop's own words, in the operation to liquidate the ghetto, the Nazis set fire to buildings with living Jews, murdered Jews with gas, drowned Jews in sewage and shot thousands of innocent people. Unintentionally Stroop's report became a song of praise for the heroic Jewish fighters, the starved and exhausted, who without sufficient ammunition rose to fight the battle of the Jewish nation against the cruel and strong force of the SS units and the Wehrmacht in the spring of 1943. This is how Stroop, full of hatred towards the Jews, whom he calls "subhuman", almost throughout the entire report is forced to confirm their heroism, courage and determination of their resistance struggle.
Stroop was tried in the Dachau trials. He was found guilty of war crimes, for the execution of a prisoner of war, and sentenced to death. After the end of his trial, he was extradited to Poland to stand trial for the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, without showing any signs of remorse for his criminal actions, and was sentenced to death in the District Court in Warsaw, on July 23, 1951. He was executed at the site of his crimes in Warsaw on March 6, 1952.
The source of Stroop's report is preserved by the Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Poland (Warsaw). The first detailed information about the report, called: "The Report of Jürgen Stroop" (in Polish), was published in the Polish magazine "Odrodzenie" (October 26 - November 2, 1947). Before us is the first English translation of the Stroop report revealing the crimes of the Nazis from their own sources. At the end are photographs and documents from the midst of the uprising that originally appeared in the report itself.
123 p. + 21 photo plates. Minor stain on cover. Good - very good condition.
