Newsgroups: alt.revisionism
Subject: Holocaust Almanac: Theresienstadt - Executions
Summary: 
Reply-To: kmcvay@nospamnizkor.org      
Followup-To: alt.revisionism
Keywords: theresienstadt

Archive/File: camps/theresienstadt/theresien.06
Last-Modified: 1994/09/20

   "Curfew was imposed on all of Terezin, Czechs and Jews alike. In
   the freezing cold, nine prisoners were brought to the gallows,
   including the two who had freely confessed to Seidl. Gu"nther,
   whose office had issued the execution order, arrived from Prague; 
   Seidl was present, as was the entire Council of Elders, who had
   been ordered to attend. Seidl read out the sentences: by order of
   the security police headquarters of Bohemia and Moravia, the
   following were sentenced to death by hanging for offending German
   honor. The names included a medical student, a glazier, a traveling
   salesman, two electricians. Their crimes were: writing a letter
   requesting a grandmother to send food, removing the Jewish star in
   order to buy honeycake in a shop - an act interpreted as an attempt
   at escape - a careless wave of the hand which had inadvertantly
   touched the arm of an SS man. One of the sentenced men asked that
   his wedding ring be given to his wife; one said, 'This won't help
   you win the war"; one sang Voskovec and Werich's famous song 'When
   we will march by the millions, all against the wind.' To one,
   Bergel said, 'Come, coward,' and the man replied, 'I am innocent,
   not a coward,' after which he put the rope around his own neck. At
   one point the rope broke and the executioner asked that tradition
   be followed and the man set free. Seidl refused. The Czech
   gendarmes who attended the execution were as white as chalk (one
   secretly operated a camera with his foot so that there would be
   evidence). Dr. Munk was asked to certify the deaths, and when one
   of the victims still showed signs of life, he asked Seidl to have
   him shot so as to end his suffering." (Bondy, 261-2)

                             Work Cited

   Bondy, Ruth.  Elder of the Jews.  New York: Grove Press, 1989.
   (Translated from "Edelshtain neged had-zeman".  Zmora, Bitan,
   Modan, publishers, 1981

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