Operation Harvest Festival

Operation Harvest Festival (Aktion Erntefest), AKA Bloody Wednesday, was an operation carried out in Occupied Poland in 1943 by Nazi Germany. In response to a series of uprisings at ghettoes and concentration camps, the liquidation of all Jews in the Lublin District was ordered. Schutzstaffel and Ordnungspolizei units were mobilized on November 3 and deployed to the three camps in the region - Majdanek, Poniatowa and Trawniki - to kill all Jewish prisoners in the camps. It was the largest single massacre of Jews carried out by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust, with around 43, 000 victims killed.

History

In 1939, Germany occupied Poland during World War II and initiated the systematic mass murder of all Jews in the nation. By 1943 numerous ghettoes and concentration camps had been set up all over Poland and only 40, 000 Jews remained in Poland.

In 1943, several uprisings by Jews occurred all over Poland, starting with the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in January. These culminated in an uprising and mass escape from Sobibor extermination camp in October, after which thousands of prisoners in the Sobibor camp were transferred to camps in the Lublin district. Rather than risk another uprising, Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler ordered Higher SS and Police Leader Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger to kill all Jews in the Lublin District. Krüger delegated it to SS and Police Leader Jakob Sporrenberg.

At the Majdanek, Poniatowa and Trawniki camps, inmates were forced to dig zigzag trenches along the perimeter of the camps and loudspeakers were erected nearby. Meanwhile, on November 2 Sporrenberg held a conference with the commandants of the camps in which he informed them of what role they were to take in the upcoming massacre. Once the orders were issued, the leadership of the Lipowa 7 prison camp in Lublin asked Himmler if they were to violate the Geneva Convention by executing Jewish prisoners. They received the response from Himmler's adjutant Werner Grothmann that "All Jews without exception are subject to liquidation".

At 5:00 am on November 3, 500 troops under the direction of Major Hermann Höfle and Police Commander Karl Pütz arrived at the Majdanek camp and, with the camp guards, awoke the 4000 Jewish inmates of the camp. The Jews were forced to undress and separated into groups of 10 before being forced to march to the trenches they had dug the previous day. Execution squads waiting at the trenches forced them to lie down in the trenches before shooting them in the back of the neck. As soon as the shooting began the loudspeakers began playing loud music in order to conceal the sound of gunfire. Meanwhile, some 8500 Jewish prisoners from the Lipowa 7 and Lublin airfield prison camps were marched to Majdanek. Knowing they would be killed, many attempted to flee and were shot. After the prisoners reached the camp, 23 Jews from Majdanek were found hiding in the barracks and taken to the crematorium and executed, along with most of the Jews from the prison camps.

At the same time as this was going on, more troops moved on the Trawniki camp. The 6000 Jews at the camp were forced to march to the trenches, where the loudspeakers were already playing. The prisoners were forced to strip and lie on top of each other in the trenches before being shot through the neck. More Jews from nearby villages were brought in and shot in the trenches until the trenches were full, at which point the remaining Jews were marched to a nearby sand pit and forced to line up before being shot, causing their bodies to fall in. The executions at Trawniki continued until the afternoon.

Meanwhile, the units at Majdanek finished killing the Jews there and continued on to the Poniatowa camp 50 kilometres away. Upon arriving they established a security cordon around the camp. The next morning, the camp's 14, 800 Jews were awoken for roll call and taken to Hall 3, with the exception of 200 who commandant Gottlieb Hering insisted be kept alive to clean up after the massacre, who survived the events of November 4. The Jews were stripped and ordered to hand over their valuables, then herded into the trenches where the speakers were playing and shot in the necks. Prisoners were whipped in order to force them to lie down on the previous victims before they too were shot. Many were only wounded due to the executioners being drunk and were left to bleed to death while more victims were piled on top. During the executioner's lunch break, 100 Jews who had not yet been killed set fire to one of the barracks and then barricaded themselves up. The barracks in which they were hiding were set on fire, and wounded Jews who were still alive were thrown in the fire. In the end, 203 Jews at Poniatowa survived; the 200 who were kept alive to clean up, and three women who survived being shot in the trenches and made their escape during lunch break.

Once the massacre was over, the cleanup began. Erich Muhsfeldt, an executioner from Auschwitz Birkenau, oversaw the cleanup at Majdanek. 600 Jews from the prison camps were spared in order to perform the cleanup. The women were forced to gather up the clothes from the dead Jews and burn them; upon completion they were deported to Auschwitz under Muhsfeldt's supervision and killed in the gas chambers. The men were forced to cremate the bodies. Once this was finished they were forced to join the Sonderkommando, the working group in charge of destroying all evidence of the Holocaust. The same was done at Trawniki, whilst at Poniatowa the surviving Jews were forced to sort through the belongings and burn the bodies. Most refused and were shot, and prisoners were transferred from Majdanek to do the job.

Post-war, several of the main perpetrators were apprehended. Sporrenberg was executed for his role in the massacre, whereas Muhsfeldt was convicted of crimes against humanity at the Auschwitz Trial and hanged. Pütz and Krüger committed suicide rather than face trial. Hermann Höfle remained at large until 1961, when he was arrested and hanged himself rather than be prosecuted.

Measured by death count, Operation Harvest Festival was the biggest massacre by Nazi Germany, and the second-biggest massacre by any of the Axis Powers, surpassed only by the Odessa Massacre in Romania.