| Original German caption: Jüdische Rabiner. (“Jewish Rabbis.”) From left to right are Rabbi Lipa Kaplan, Eliyahu Levin, son of Rabbi Hersh Henoch of Bedzin, Mendel Alter, son of Rabbi Nechemya Alter; Yankel Levin (son of Rabbi Mottel Levin of Lodz and grandson of the rabbi of Bedzin), unknown and Rabbi Heschel Rappaport, a Gerer Chassid (the largest and most influential Hasidic group in Poland) and mentor to young Chassidim. Their fates are undetermined, but all are presumed to have perished in the Holocaust. Captured during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, they are lined up in front of the Schultz Zentral-Verteilungs (“Schultz Central Distribution”) or, in Polish, Skład (“Warehouse”) for Gemüse (“Vegetables”) at Nowolipie 32 in the Warsaw Ghetto. Shutzstaffel (SS) Oberscharführer Heinrich Klaustermeyer (February 22, 1914 – April 21, 1976) and Rottenführer Josef Blösche (February 12, 1912 – July 29, 1969) are just out of frame, speaking to the terrified Jews. The Stroop Report was an album prepared by SS Major General Jürgen Stroop (September 26, 1895 – March 6, 1952), commander of the German forces which liquidated the Warsaw ghetto, to document the suppression of the ghetto uprising in the spring of 1943. Commissioned by SS-Obergruppenführer Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger (May 8, 1894 – May 10, 1945), Höherer SS und Polizeiführer (“Higher SS and Police Leader”) in Krakow, and bound in leather, the report was intended as a souvenir album for Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler (October 7, 1900 – May 23, 1945) to celebrate the hard won victory, which took 20 days and 1,200 SS, Wehrmacht, and police troops to accomplish. The Stroop Report consists of 3 parts: an introduction and summary of SS operations, a collection of daily communiques, and a series of approximately 52 photographs. 3 albums were prepared for Himmler, Krüger and Stroop, all of which were recovered after the war. 1 of them was introduced as evidence at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg and later published under the title, “The Stroop Report.” The albums — which bear slight discrepancies in the number of photos they contain — are currently located at the National Archives (Washington), the Bundesarchiv (Koblenz), and the Institute of National Remembrance (Warsaw). The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (April 19 – May 16, 1943) was a 20-day battle initiated by the Jewish fighting forces in Warsaw when German troops entered the ghetto to begin the final round of deportations. Having received advanced warning of the timing of the action, the entire population of the ghetto disappeared into prepared hiding places before the Germans arrived. Non-compliance with orders to assemble for deportation was accompanied by hit and run attacks on German units, which forced their temporary withdrawal from the ghetto. After several days of clashes with resistance fighters, the Germans resolved to burn down the ghetto and smoke the Jews out of their concealed bunkers. The Jewish resistance, led by Mordecai Anielewicz (1919 – May 8, 1943), held out until May 8, when its headquarters at Mila 18 was discovered and many of its leaders (including Anielewicz) killed. It was another week, however, before the Germans snuffed out the last pockets of resistance. Not having planned for an organized retreat from the ghetto, only a few dozen fighters were able to escape to the Aryan side of Warsaw. This, they accomplished by winding their way through the city’s sewer system. Some 56,000 Jews, according to Stroop’s report, were killed or captured during the ghetto revolt. Of those who were taken alive, 7,000 were deported to their immediate death in Treblinka. Another 22,000 were sent to Majdanek. Between 14,000 and 16,000 Jews went to the Poniatowa labor camp, and between 5,000 and 6,000 were sent to the Trawniki camp. The Warsaw Jews who were deported to Poniatowa and Trawniki were shot during the Erntefest action of November 3-4, 1943, that was intended to eliminate the remaining Jews in the Lublin district. The majority of those sent to Majdanek were also murdered in this action, but several 1,000 others, who had been transferred to other camps — including Auschwitz, Budzyn and Krasnik — after their arrival in Majdanek, were spared. Some of these Jews, who were later evacuated toward the west, survived the war. The photographer was either SS-Obersturmführer Franz Konrad (March 1, 1906 – March 6, 1952), or a member of Propaganda Kompanie 689. Albert Cusian (1902 – before 1968), Erhard Josef Knoblach (???? – alive as of 1955) and Arthur Grimm (1908 – circa 1990) served as photographers in Propaganda Kompanie 689; Cusian may have claimed to have taken the photograph. On trial in Poland, Konrad claimed to have taken photographs during the uprising only so that he could complain about Stroop’s brutality to Führer und Reichskanzler (“Leader and Reich Chancellor”) Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945). The court did not accept this claim. Convicted of personally murdering 7 Jews and deporting a 1,000 others to death camps, Konrad was sentenced to death and executed in 1952. Grimm went on to a successful career as a photographer for film and television. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0558.jpg |
| Image Size | 691.92 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2932 x 1953 |
| Photographer | From Jürgen Stroop’s Report |
| Photographer Title | Propaganda Kompanie 689 |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | May 1, 1943 |
| Location | |
| City | Warsaw |
| State or Province | Warsaw |
| Country | Poland |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NR-2024-03-28 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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