Opinion ID: 202113
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Trawniki men in Warsaw

Text: 7 Shortly after conquering Poland in 1939, the Germans began to segregate the large Jewish population of Warsaw in a restricted residential, or ghetto, district, which they physically sealed off from the rest of the city in November 1940. The Germans also forced Jews from the surrounding areas to move into the Warsaw Ghetto. At its peak in March 1941, the Ghetto contained approximately 445,000 Jews. 8 The year 1941, however, saw the initiation of Operation Reinhard, the purpose of which was to implement the Nazis' so-called final solution in Poland and murder all the Jews in the country. Trawniki men participated in virtually every aspect of the implementation of Operation Reinhard. The activities of Trawniki men included extracting Jews from ghettos in German-occupied territories and deporting them to killing centers and labor camps; guarding the killing facilities at Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka, where Jews were killed by gassing; and guarding forced labor camps, including the Trawniki Labor Camp, located adjacent to the Trawniki Training Camp. 9 Between March 1941 and April 1943, as part of Operation Reinhard, German authorities reduced the population of the Warsaw Ghetto by approximately eighty-five percent. Many Jews confined in the Ghetto died of starvation and disease; many were transported to slave labor camps; and the rest were murdered at Treblinka. In April 1943, the Germans decided to liquidate the Ghetto entirely by deporting the remaining Jews to either concentration camps, labor camps, or Treblinka. To help accomplish this goal, on April 17, 1943, they ordered a battalion of 351 Trawniki men to Warsaw to participate in the Ghetto liquidation. According to a contemporaneous document — the Roster of guards detailed to the Warsaw Detachment (Roster), dated April 17, 1943 — Zajanckauskas was assigned to Warsaw as part of this battalion. 2 10 Two days later, on April 19, 1943, the Germans commenced their assault on the Warsaw Ghetto. In addition to the Trawniki men, the Germans used men from the armed forces, the SS, and the police. The men were supported by a tank, two armored cars, and artillery. In command was SS Brigadeführer (Brigadier General) Jürgen Stroop, who later issued a report (the Stroop Report) describing the liquidation in detail. 11 The duties of the Trawniki men assigned to Warsaw included standing in the cordon around the Ghetto to prevent Jews from escaping; guarding the transit square where captured Jews awaited rail transport to concentration camps, labor camps, and Treblinka; and escorting the train transports of captured Jews to their final destinations. Trawniki men also conducted house-to-house searches in the Ghetto for hidden Jews; skirmished with resistance fighters; rousted Jews hiding in bunkers; and took part in the shooting of some captured Jews, either as the actual trigger-men or as cordon guards. 12 The Warsaw operation was expected to take only a few days. However, the Ghetto inhabitants resisted with unanticipated force and began an armed uprising, which lasted for several weeks. The operation continued until mid-May 1943, by which time the resistance was crushed and the Ghetto was cleared and destroyed. Tens of thousands of Jews were killed during this operation, thousands more were sent to be gassed at Treblinka, and thousands were shipped to concentration and labor camps.