Mila 18 - Leon Uris [265]
SS Obergruppenführer, Police General, Krakow
Gruppenführer General Government SS, SD, Lublin
I beg to advise the following information:
1. A total to date of 34,795 Jews and other sub-humans caught for deportation, 7,654 known destroyed in former residential area. Estimate another 11,000 destroyed in bunkers by asphyxiation, flames, etc.
Conclusion:
Except for sporadic resistance from the few remaining Jews and sub-humans, we have succeeded in our mission.
2. Account of reduction of Jewish residential compound,
(a.) 612 bunkers destroyed.
(b.) So-called Jewish residential area is nonexistent. Three buildings remain standing; that is, the Convert’s Church, parts of the Pawiak Prison, the Jewish Civil Authority building (former post office convenient for us to make immediate on-the-site executions of those we do not desire to transport).
3. Booty captured to date:
(a.) 7 Polish rifles, 1 Russian rifle, 7 German rifles.
(b.) 59 pistols of various calibers.
(c.) Several hundred hand grenades, including Polish and home-made.
(d.) Several hundred incendiary bottles.
(e.) Homemade explosives and infernal machines with fuses.
(f.) A variety of explosives, ammunition of all calibers. (In destroyed bunkers we were not able to capture further booty, which was destroyed. The captured hand grenades were used by us against the bandits.)
Furthermore, I beg to report
1. 1200 used German uniforms (tunics) and 600 pair of used trousers. (Some uniforms were equipped with medals.)
2. Several hundred assorted German helmets.
3. Four million zlotys (from deportees). Fourteen thousand dollars, nine thousand dollars in gold; an undetermined value in gold, rings, watches, jewelry.
I beg to report that today the principal Jew-bandit bunker was located at a place known as Mila 18 and it was summarily destroyed by gas, flame throwers, dynamite, and small-arms fire.
The ruins of the Jewish residential reservation will give us vast amounts of scrap material and used brick which can be salvaged for future building projects.
May I make mention of the valiant SS Waffen and Wehrmacht troops attached to this command whose uncommon devotion in the face of the “invisible” enemy has brought about this success. They went into the sewers, crawled into bunkers, and otherwise exposed themselves to the gunfire of the enemy. These comrades will not be forgotten.
Under separate cover I recommend the following decorations:
Iron Cross, Second Class—SS Haupsturmführer Zisenis.
Cross of War Merit, Second Class with Swords—SS Untersturmführer Manfred Plank, SS Rottenführer Joseph Blesche.
IT IS MY FIRM OPINION THAT I WILL BE ABLE TO ADVISE YOU OFFICIALLY OF THE FINAL EXTERMINATION OF THE JEWS IN WARSAW WITHIN SEVENTY-TWO HOURS.
Heil Hitler!
Signed:
SS Oberführer Alfred Funk
Certified copy:
(Jesuiter)
SS Sturmbannführer
Horst von Epp entered the room but did not speak. The two of them listened and listened and listened for nearly an hour until the gunfire in the ghetto stopped.
Five o’clock.
The moments before dawn of the second month of the uprising came. Neither Alfred Funk nor Horst von Epp dared lift the telephone. A knock.
“Enter!”
Untersturmführer Manfred Plank, showing the effects of battle, stood wild-eyed before his general. “Heil Hitler,” he said with somewhat less than his usual vigor.
“Heil Hitler,” Alfred Funk answered.
“What happened out there?” Horst von Epp asked.
It seemed as though Plank’s fine young Aryan body would collapse.
“Speak!” ordered Funk.
Plank’s lips quivered. “We were moving into our fixed position at the western end of Niska Street ...”
“Speak!”
“Like ... like ghosts, they leaped out of the ruins on us! They did not fight like human beings ...”
“Speak!” Funk screamed again at the faltering man.
“We were compelled to abandon our positions.”
“Swine!”
“Herr Oberführer!” cried Manfred Plank. “I have been decorated twice for valor on the eastern front. As a result of my fearless attitude in combat I was sent to SS Waffen training. I tell you, sir ... I tell you ... there are supernatural