Monday, February 06, 2012

The End of the Kues Transnistria Gambit

This excellent thesis by Eric Conrad Steinhart details how Sonderkommando R (commanded by Hoffmeyer and consisting of local ethnic Germans) killed tens of thousands of Jews in Transnistria in 1942. There were 134,000 ethnic Germans living in Transnistria and it was believed that Jews deported from Odessa were a typhus threat to these Volksdeutsche. Documents uncovered by Steinhart include a complaint from Gk Nikolayev to Erich Koch stating that unburied Jewish bodies were a health risk. Thus we have proof that Transnistria would not be a resettlement zone for Jews.

1 comment:

  1. Well there were ghettos and camps in Transnistria right up to liberation - so your blanket statement is not completely correct.

    Further, there was a plan. at least partly implemented, to resettle ethnic Germans in the Zamosc area.

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