Heldentod by Paul Garson

Author:Paul Garson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fonthill Media
Published: 2020-01-10T00:00:00+00:00

Death of a Motorcycle Company Commander—“A Hero is one who sacrifices his life for the Greater”

So reads the deathcard for Lt Ludwig Schlander, company commander of a motorcycle troop battalion who took part in the Western, Polish and Eastern campaigns during which he was awarded both the 2nd and 1st Class Iron Cross, the Infantry Combat badge, the Wound Badge and the East Medal. He was killed in action on February 26, 1943 in Russia, his hero’s grave in the vicinity of Kolejkowo near Bolekhov/Bolechow.

Battalions of the Axis allied Hungarian–Slovakian army first entered the Ukrainian town of Bolechow on July 6, 1941 after the retreat of Red Army forces. The Jewish residents, numbering over 5,000 were first stripped of their valuables then forced into hard labor. Ukrainian militia continued to rob and abuse them prior to their execution.

The first Aktion took place on October 28, 1941, when a number of Jewish men and women were driven into a building, its chimney blocked to produce fumes. The women were stripped and forced to dance while the men were beaten. Members of the German police and the Ukrainian militia took part in the action ending at a mass grave in the nearby Tenyava forest. Because of the shortage of bullets, the wounded were buried alive. A second Aktion followed on August 20, 1942 that involved 60 hours of torture upon a large group of Jews assembled by Germans and Ukrainians. Those that survived, approximately 4,000, were packed into cattle cars and sent to their deaths at the Belzec Death Camp. Bolechow was just one of thousands of such towns and villages destroyed, their residents murdered by German forces and their collaborators.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.