LA BATAILLE DU GHETTO DE VARSOVIE vue et racontée par les Allemands - THE BATTLE OF THE WARSAW GHETTO as seen and told by the Germans - first publication of the Stroop Report, and additional German documents documenting the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising from the German side. Published by Editions du Centre Paris 1946 - first edition. Preface by David Nott.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in German documents - the first publication of the full transcript of the Stroop Report and a collection of daily reports of the "Great Operation in the Ghetto" - the suppression of the uprising by the Germans. The beginning of the booklet provides background on the uprising, and also a quote from the Stroop report itself: "Although it was easy at first to capture large numbers of Jews, who are cowards by nature, the arrest of bandits and Jews during the second part of the operation became more and more difficult, Stroop's testimony will show readers what unexpected forms this cowardice took." The booklet also contains amazing data on the imbalance in the power relations between the Germans and the Jewish fighters in terms of the meager amount of weapons available to the Jewish rebels, compared to the huge arsenal used by the Germans, and more.
The beginning of the booklet presents the famous quote from the Stroop report in which he informs his commander that he has finally eliminated the ghetto: "There is no longer a residential quarter in Warsaw." The first part of the booklet presents the full text of the Stroop report documenting the uprising from the German side. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first publication ever of the Stroop report. The second part of the booklet contains internal SS documents documenting the uprising from the German side: a list of names of SS soldiers killed, under the headline: "Died in the struggle to destroy Jews and bandits in the former Warsaw ghetto", as well as detailed daily reports sent from "SS and Police Leader of the Warsaw District Stroop" to the police commander Krüger in Krakow - details of operations on 35 almost consecutive days, from 20.4.1943 to 15.5.1943 - including the encirclement of the ghetto: "...We understand that Jews are hiding in the sewers. We are completely flooding the sewers to force them out. Around 17:30 o'clock we encounter fierce resistance in the housing block. The enemy is using machine guns, a shock group enters these houses and manages to break the resistance without managing to capture the enemy...", as well as Stroop's decisions to intensify the SS soldiers' attack and sharpen the fighting as the Jewish resistance held firm. Among other things, the daily reports contain arbitrary orders from Stroop to kill captured Jews, arson of buildings housing Jews, with Stroop writing explicitly: "When the buildings were blazing, Jews appeared in large numbers... they tried to save themselves by crossing the buildings engulfed in flames. We saw many Jews on the roofs during the fire. They perished in the flames. Others appeared at the last minute on the top floors, and could only escape the fire by throwing themselves down... A very large number of Jews died in the flames, the total now stands at 44,089". In another daily report: "Our night patrols again reported Jewish movement in the streets and yards of the destroyed ghetto, in clashes between our patrols and Jews 30 Jews were killed...", and more.
Rare. Only five entries in the world library catalog WorldCat.
88 p, 22 cm. Good condition.
