บท 104: 104
February 26, 1941
Polish protectorate near Lublin
Although winter was almost over, the forest was still covered in snow that had fallen overnight.
I could clearly hear the sound of tree branches drooping due to the weight of the snow breaking because they could not bear the weight.
Sergeant Józef Gerinsky lit a German Juno cigarette. The hazy cigarette smoke met the cold wind and dispersed into the air.
Originally, Yuzef, like many other Jews, did not realize that he was particularly Jewish.
He thought of himself as Polish like everyone else, and was an ordinary person who loved the country where he was born.
But people around Jozef did not think so.
From a young age, Yuzef was ostracized by his classmates simply because he was Jewish.
At school, during recess, students in his class flocked to his seat, showered him with ridicule and contempt, and enjoyed throwing trash at him as he passed through the hallways.
After graduating from school and entering society, the outright contempt and bullying decreased, but the fundamentals did not change much.
Because he was Jewish, he was often rejected at job interviews, and even at the jobs he managed to get, he was often discriminated against because he was Jewish.
To make matters worse, his first girlfriend betrayed him and cheated on him with another man.
When Yuzef found out about this and questioned him, his girlfriend made up an excuse, saying that it was because her parents were against her dating him, who was Jewish.
Only then did Józef, who was abandoned by his lover, realize that he was not a Pole like everyone else, but a disgusting Jew.
After realizing that he was Jewish, Poland was no longer his homeland. He envied Germany, the country next to him.
Discrimination against Jews was widespread in Germany, but after Hitler came to power, the trend of discriminating against Jews gradually disappeared.
You should not be discriminated against just because you are Jewish! We are all Germans! This was what Hitler said in his speech to the nation.
After his speech was broadcast nationwide, anti-Semitism gradually disappeared from Germany.
This did not mean that discrimination had completely disappeared, but unlike Poland, Germany showed the government's will and effort to directly eliminate discrimination.
Jozef envied Germany, and studied German diligently with the intention of going and living in Germany someday.
With the fall of Poland, Józef's German studies finally paid off.
Józef, who could speak German as freely as any German, was classified as a high-class manpower and was able to get a job as an interpreter for the SS, and even enjoyed power that he could not normally enjoy.
His neighbors, who secretly despised him, began crawling around to impress him.
But Yuzef was not satisfied there. He joined the Sonderkommando to take revenge on Poland, which had despised him.
Józef did not want to miss the opportunity to kill Polish patriots with his own hands.
When I passed all the tests and training to select Sonderkommando members and officially became a Sonderkommando member, I was so emotional that I almost cried.
The moment he had dreamed of for so long had finally arrived.
"Please lend me some fire too."
As Józef's superior, Sergeant Jakov Shukov, approached him, Józef took out a matchbox.
Like Józef, Yakov suffered a lot of discrimination because he was Jewish, but ended up taking the side of Germany.
"Here it is."
"Thank you."
Huh.
"You know what?"
Yakov spoke to Yuzef, who was quietly smoking a cigarette, as if something had occurred to him.
"What do you mean?"
"The thing is that Fuhrer Hitler really hates cigarettes."
"I know. I heard that they don't even allow people to smoke around them... ."
It was already widely known that German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler was a staunch anti-smoker.
Hitler did not ban cigarettes themselves, but he argued that cigarettes harmed health and made the human body sick, and enacted various laws to ban smoking on streetcars, buses, trains, and subways, and strictly prohibited pregnant women from smoking.
If this was violated, a heavy fine of 60 Reichsmarks was imposed.
Tobacco-related laws were enforced only in the Imperial Territories, with the exceptions being Bohemia-Moravia and the Polish Protectorate, which were annexed to Germany, so the anti-smoking policy in the Imperial Territory was so strict that it was said that Germans living in the Imperial Territory envied Germans living in the Protectorate. was being applied.
"I heard from a sergeant in the German army that I know, that if a soldier who smokes quits smoking and signs a pledge, he will receive a reward and even vacation. Instead, if you are caught smoking after signing the pledge, you will have your reward confiscated, fined, and even sent to prison."
"Huh, why does he hate cigarettes so much?"
"They say they hate it because it's bad for their health. "What's wrong with cigarettes that disinfect your mouth?"
When I threw the butt into the snow, a thin line of smoke rose up.
Yuzef, who was staring at the slowly dying cigarette buried in his eyes, spit out phlegm and extinguished the cigarette completely.
***
The Jewish special unit, Sonderkommando, was a unit comprised only of Jews or mixed-race Poles with Jewish blood.
60% of the unit's members had previously served in the Polish army, and until a few months ago, many of them were imprisoned in prisoner-of-war camps.
The Second Polish Republic was a multi-ethnic country with a mix of ethnic minorities such as Ukrainians, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Jews, and Germans in addition to the Poles, and the Poles did not like the fact that their homeland was a multi-ethnic country.
Naturally, ethnic minorities suffered great and small discrimination and persecution under the Second Republic, and among them, the people who suffered the most discrimination were Ukrainians and Jews.
When World War II broke out, many Ukrainians were transferred to Soviet jurisdiction, but Jews remained in Poland, which had become a protectorate.
This was due to the calculation that it would be easier to live under Hitler, who rejected anti-Semitism and called for equality for all races, but this soon turned out to be true.
The German authorities who occupied Poland treated Jews equally without discriminating against pure-blood Poles.
In addition, the Jewish German military and Jewish German officials also subtly gave more convenience to their fellow Jews and allowed them to freely use public facilities that were otherwise unavailable or frowned upon solely because they were Jewish.
For this reason, some Jewish organizations are saying that it is easier for Jews to live under the protectorate now than during the Second Republic.
The Poles, who initially did not like Jews very much, complained that the Jews were enjoying the convenience of the invading German army, and the rift between the two peoples deepened day by day.
Germany cleverly exploited the conflict between the two peoples with the intention of making Polish rule more smooth. A Jewish special unit was created and entrusted with the eradication of Polish partisans.
The Jews, who had bad feelings toward pure-blooded Poles due to discrimination and persecution, did not shy away from any good opportunity to kill Poles with their own hands.
Anger toward the Poles led Jews to head to the recruiting station, and in an instant, the number of recruits exceeded the quota by several times, and the recruitment ended early.
The German military provided the Sonderkommando with uniforms made by modifying Polish military uniforms and made them wear specially designed armbands to identify enemies.
Partisans called the Sonderkommando members, who wore a white armband with a blue six-pointed star on their right arm, a derogatory term for Jews, as 'a bunch of pigs.'
Jozef had heard why the partisans called themselves rags.
The six-pointed star on the white armband looks like a stamp on pork or something.
Well, then, try getting hunted by those bastards.
"There will be soldiers who have experienced combat, and there will also be friends for whom this is their first time. "The enemies we'll be dealing with today are small-scale, so don't worry too much."
Prior to deployment, the company commander gathered the company members and gave them a short instruction.
Unlike the Sonderkommando soldiers, who wore military uniforms modified from Polish military uniforms, all officers wore German Wehrmacht uniforms. They were all Jewish, and this decision was made with the calculation that it would be easier to obtain the obedience of the company members if they were also Jews.
There were many officers who were not happy about being transferred to the Sonderkommando, which was made up of 'inferior Poles' just because they were Jews, but Josef's company commander did not seem to mind being transferred to the Sonderkommando.
He treated his unit members equally as fellow soldiers, and the company members were also loyal to their company commander.
"Come on, it's hunting time, guys! "Let's run wild!"
When the operation began, Sonderkommando troops were divided into squads and headed toward the forest, which was believed to be the partisan stronghold.
Józef, holding a Wz.98 rifle, which can be said to be the Polish version of the German-made Gew98 rifle, took a cautious step forward.
I had no idea where the booby traps the partisans had set up might be.
I didn't want to end up in the hospital after getting caught in a booby trap and having my leg blown off before shooting the partisan.
Even if it meant dying, I wanted to kill at least one partisan.
"Everyone stop."
When the squad leader, Sergeant Yakov, raised his clenched hand, all members of the squad stopped. Will we discover something?
"Valentin, Mayotts. You two turn right and move forward. "The rest will wait at their current location."
The two soldiers appointed by Yakov walked quietly but cautiously.
Valentin, who was moving forward about 50 meters, suddenly rose into the air with an explosion of alcohol. She had stepped on a land mine laid by the partisans.
Almost as soon as Valentin rose into the air, a bullet flew out and pierced Mayotts between the eyes. The two men, who were designated as advance guard because they were at the head of the squad, died instantly without even being able to scream.
"The enemy! "Get down!"
Jozef immediately threw himself to the floor. His thick snow absorbed the impact and he barely felt the pain.
The snow made my uniform wet, but it was much better than getting hit by a bullet.
"Start shooting!"
Black objects were clearly visible between the birch trees. Convinced that the black objects were partisans, Yuzef took a deep breath and aimed at the enemy.
aiming.
And fire.
-bang!
When I pulled the trigger, a heavy vibration was felt and sparks flew out of the muzzle.
Jozef saw the object he was aiming at fall backwards. He killed the Partisan. at las! He felt his heart pounding.
He was so happy that he forgot to pull the bolt and stayed still, but came to his senses when he heard Jacob's order to advance.
"Advance! Everyone wake up! run!"
Unlike the Partisans, who only had rifles, Yakov's squad had submachine guns and even machine guns.
The Sonderkommando members, who overwhelmed the Partisans in firepower, stood up following Jacob's instructions.
Under supporting fire from Lewis light machine guns, Sonderkommando members charged toward the Partisan trenches.
Yuzef also ran with his comrades without even having time to shake the snow off his uniform.
Because of the snow, it was difficult to speed up. Every time he walked 10 meters, he took a short break by hiding behind a tree or lying down on the ground.
Before I knew it, Yuzef had settled down near the enemy's trench.
One member who was charging ahead was hit by a bullet fired from close range by a partisan and fell to the ground. Sergeant Yakov quickly pulled out the pin of the grenade and threw it.
"Aaaah!"
When the grenade exploded, a couple of partisans fell backwards. The other had his arm blown off and screamed. Sergeant Yakov shouted, not wasting the opportunity.
"charge! "Kill them all!"
The members who jumped into the trench fought with the partisans. Yakov also quickly jumped into the trench. At that moment, he saw partisans fighting on the floor in front of him.
He was about to stab a Sonderkommando member in the neck with his bayonet. Without hesitation, Yuzef swung his field shovel and hit the partisan on the head.
Then, they beat the Partisan mercilessly with a field shovel until his body became stiff.
"Whoosh, whoosh…" ."
By the time I finally came to my senses, the Partisan's face had been crushed to the point of being unrecognizable. Other members had also eliminated a large number of partisans.
One member seemed to have lost his temper and was repeatedly stabbing the already dead partisan with a bayonet.
"We move forward again. "Get your equipment."
Following Yakov's instructions, the crew gathered their weapons and came out of the trench. Gunshots and screams could be heard from all directions, as if other squads had also started fighting.
Yuzef also joined the ranks after wiping away the blood and brain fluid that had spattered on his face with his eyes.
Once the crew saw blood, there were no longer any feelings of tension or fear.
I can only feel the primal pleasure and excitement that murder brings.
***
March 1, 1941
Berlin, Germany
The Sonderkommando, created at Himmler's suggestion, proved to be extremely useful in actual combat.
The combat power of the Sonderkommando was not at all inferior to that of the Wehrmacht units, as if the discrimination they had always suffered from Poles had created a synergistic effect.
Considering that the weapons provided to the Sonderkommando were issued only to second- and third-tier units in Germany, their combat power was considerable.
Auxiliary units made up of former Polish soldiers were also deployed in the fight to suppress the Partisans, but they fell short of the Sonderkommando's performance.
The Wehrmacht commanders, impressed by the Sonderkommando's performance, requested permission to establish a new Sonderkommando unit, and the size of the Sonderkommando increased from 6,000 to 20,000.
As the number of people increased, many people who did not meet the existing cutoff line were enlisted, but it was good because the sacrifices of German soldiers would be reduced accordingly.
In honor of Himmler, who had achieved his first feat in a long time, I authorized the creation of new divisions of the Waffen-SS.
I wondered if it was necessary to form a new division while the soldiers who had been called up during the war were returning to society one after another, but Himmler was so unreasonable that there was nothing we could do.
Anyway, that guy's greed for power.
"Himmler, instead, the newly created divisions should be made into elite units like the previous three divisions. Because permission was given to do so. "Do you understand?"
"Of course, Mr. President. Isn't the original purpose of creating the Waffen-SS to train Germany's most elite units? "There cannot be, and should not be, any ragtag group of people in the proud SS."
Thus, the 4th SS Police Grenadier Division, 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking, and 6th SS Mountain Division Nord were created.
I expected that there would be some uncomfortable opinions about the fact that the size of the Waffen SS had doubled in an instant, but surprisingly there were none, perhaps because I personally gave permission for its establishment.
While Jews who had sworn allegiance to Germany fought Polish partisans and Asseys who had joined the Waffen-SS rolled around the parade ground, Type 4 tanks and Hatchers converted to H were loaded onto trains bound for China.
Originally, new vehicles fresh from the factory were scheduled to be delivered to China, but at Brauhitch's request whether it was necessary to provide new vehicles to Chinese people who had not yet paid in full, the existing vehicles were sent to China. It has become a thing.
There were voices of dissatisfaction from the front-line units who had their equipment suddenly taken away, but they quickly quieted down when they announced that they would be providing new equipment from the factory.
The day before the first train to China departed, I invited members of the Military Advisory Group in China to the Presidential Residence and held a grand banquet.
This was to boost the morale of the military advisory group in China, but it was also because it was not possible to hold a public farewell ceremony.
If you hold a farewell ceremony and spread the word around the neighborhood, there is a possibility that Japan will take it as a de facto declaration of war.
I don't know what those crazy guys might do, so I'll have to be careful for now. It would be difficult if war broke out while the withdrawal of Germans from Japan has not yet been completed.
"A toast to the Germanic warriors leaving for China for world peace!"
"Cheers!"
"Pour it! Drink!"
Since it was their last day in Germany, members of the military advisory group ate and drank to their heart's content during the week.
Waiters served food and drinks non-stop for them, and the band played songs until the banquet ended.
I walked around the banquet hall, chatting with hundreds of soldiers one by one, and clinking glasses with them. As I continued to walk around the banquet hall without stopping, by the end of the banquet, my legs were shaking as if I had marched a thousand miles.
"As President of the Third Reich, I will give orders to your soldiers. Be sure to come back alive! I will hold a banquet even grander than today. Everyone understands!"
"Yes, Mr. President!!!"
"finally… .. Sieg Heil."
"Heil Hitler!!!"
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