Black, Peter

Les fantassins de la « Solution finale » : le camp de formation de Trawniki et l’Aktion Reinhardt - 2012.


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The Soldiers of the Final Solution: Trawniki Training Camp and Operation ReinhardtThe “Trawniki men” were local collaborators whose valuable cooperation was essential to the Operation Reinhardt – the planned extermination of the entire Jewish population in the Poland. Being the architects of mass looting, enslavement and mass killings, the SS managed to transform the “Trawniki men” into a powerful ruthless force lacking any territorial or nationalist ambitions, loyal only to their officers and missions. The distribution of military advancement, prizes and status as well as the respect shown by the Germans to their collaborators only reinforced the strong ties between them. Nicknamed “Askaris” after the first units created by German advanced units in North Africa, the Trawniki men did not look back but rather carried the promise of a Nazi future.