disadvantages. And finally Terezin was chosen.
He announced the selection to Frank, who later informed him that the Acting Reich Protector himself was satisfied with the choice. Such a town could be easily guarded. It had walls and gateways. It was not an industrial centre but an old fortress town with little shopkeepers’ and tradesmen’s houses stuck on. The inhabitants wouldn’t put up a fight when they were moved out. The Jews could be stuffed into the barracks as well as the little houses. It didn’t matter how many of them there were – it would even be good to have the town overfilled. An excess number was always easy to eliminate. Right next door was the Small Fortress, an annex of the Gestapo prison. That meant more security, even though the Gestapo was a different division.
Other documents gave evidence that the project was in full swing. There were reports of the first transports, made up of workers who had to put the emptied barracks in order and prepare the lodgings. The first family transports gathered at the Radio Mart. The schedule was strictly adhered to. Reception camps were set up in the countryside . Simultaneously, the machinery was set into motion for the confiscation of property. Warehouses began to fill up with carefully sorted objects. Moving vans and handcarts travelled all over the city. Seized apartments were refurnished and scrubbed to provide a clean welcome for their new tenants. Architects provided them with new furniture. Bed linens, paintings, refrigerators, rugs and curtains made their way to them from the warehouses.
Then the graphs began to appear, careful and reliable curves neatly drawn and issued in quarterly reports. Themachine gained momentum, reaching ever farther, ever deeper. The first transports were already leaving for the East with a brief stop in the fortress town. The death camps in the East, with their gas chambers and crematoria, were already in full operation. It was a well-run organisation, the very sort of organisation that the Reich could thank for all its triumphs. Nobody could escape it, and everything was planned in advance. The documents and graphs gave a reliable picture, and the head of the Central Bureau could use them to follow everything that was happening. The numbers enter the Radio Mart, the trains leave for the fortress town, and from there still other trains leave for the East. In the camps the crematorium flames blaze from morning to night, and the ashes are carted away in bags to the Reich to serve as fertiliser for future crops. And the gold is caught in collection sieves with jewels and dental fillings among the rest, while other things pile up in warehouses , sorted according to categories. Property is going up and the numbers are going down. The unnecessary is decreasing, and the useful is increasing – the charts show all this to be true. He is satisfied with his work. He will receive the same decoration for it that German men in the field who are conquering the world for the Reich and its Leader receive. And the Acting Reich Protector is satisfied, too, because the task assigned to him by the Leader is being carried out according to plan.
The head of the Central Bureau closed the folder and put it back in the cabinet. He looked at the next entry, yes, an amusing little business. The Elite Guard of the SS seemed to be encroaching on his territory a bit. On his desk lay a telephone message received by an assistant. The message came from the Chief Elder of the community. It seems thata Rottenführer from the Elite Guard had burst into the Jewish Community, beat up the guard and made him lead the way to the Chief Elder’s office, where he demanded that they bring him a learned Jew whom some officials at Municipal apparently needed to identify a statue on the German House of Art. The Chief Elder of the Community put Dr Rabinovich at their disposal. The Rottenführer promised that nothing would happen to him. The Chief Elder didn’t quite
He announced the selection to Frank, who later informed him that the Acting Reich Protector himself was satisfied with the choice. Such a town could be easily guarded. It had walls and gateways. It was not an industrial centre but an old fortress town with little shopkeepers’ and tradesmen’s houses stuck on. The inhabitants wouldn’t put up a fight when they were moved out. The Jews could be stuffed into the barracks as well as the little houses. It didn’t matter how many of them there were – it would even be good to have the town overfilled. An excess number was always easy to eliminate. Right next door was the Small Fortress, an annex of the Gestapo prison. That meant more security, even though the Gestapo was a different division.
Other documents gave evidence that the project was in full swing. There were reports of the first transports, made up of workers who had to put the emptied barracks in order and prepare the lodgings. The first family transports gathered at the Radio Mart. The schedule was strictly adhered to. Reception camps were set up in the countryside . Simultaneously, the machinery was set into motion for the confiscation of property. Warehouses began to fill up with carefully sorted objects. Moving vans and handcarts travelled all over the city. Seized apartments were refurnished and scrubbed to provide a clean welcome for their new tenants. Architects provided them with new furniture. Bed linens, paintings, refrigerators, rugs and curtains made their way to them from the warehouses.
Then the graphs began to appear, careful and reliable curves neatly drawn and issued in quarterly reports. Themachine gained momentum, reaching ever farther, ever deeper. The first transports were already leaving for the East with a brief stop in the fortress town. The death camps in the East, with their gas chambers and crematoria, were already in full operation. It was a well-run organisation, the very sort of organisation that the Reich could thank for all its triumphs. Nobody could escape it, and everything was planned in advance. The documents and graphs gave a reliable picture, and the head of the Central Bureau could use them to follow everything that was happening. The numbers enter the Radio Mart, the trains leave for the fortress town, and from there still other trains leave for the East. In the camps the crematorium flames blaze from morning to night, and the ashes are carted away in bags to the Reich to serve as fertiliser for future crops. And the gold is caught in collection sieves with jewels and dental fillings among the rest, while other things pile up in warehouses , sorted according to categories. Property is going up and the numbers are going down. The unnecessary is decreasing, and the useful is increasing – the charts show all this to be true. He is satisfied with his work. He will receive the same decoration for it that German men in the field who are conquering the world for the Reich and its Leader receive. And the Acting Reich Protector is satisfied, too, because the task assigned to him by the Leader is being carried out according to plan.
The head of the Central Bureau closed the folder and put it back in the cabinet. He looked at the next entry, yes, an amusing little business. The Elite Guard of the SS seemed to be encroaching on his territory a bit. On his desk lay a telephone message received by an assistant. The message came from the Chief Elder of the community. It seems thata Rottenführer from the Elite Guard had burst into the Jewish Community, beat up the guard and made him lead the way to the Chief Elder’s office, where he demanded that they bring him a learned Jew whom some officials at Municipal apparently needed to identify a statue on the German House of Art. The Chief Elder of the Community put Dr Rabinovich at their disposal. The Rottenführer promised that nothing would happen to him. The Chief Elder didn’t quite
Similar Books
