I was the 183rd person.

posted by LockeProposal on TheGrittyPast

[For clarification, Sonderkommando was a term used for work units made up of German Nazi death camp prisoners.]

One of these Death Commandos [Sonderkommandos] who was put to work destroying the evidence of previous atrocities ended up being assigned to dig up what was supposed to be his own grave. Leon Wells explained:

In the middle of June 1943, I was the last one of my family of seven brothers and sisters and parents and grandparents. I was taken into the Death Brigade which the Germans named Sonderkommando 1005. The purpose of this Death Brigade was to erase all traces of Nazi atrocities so that no witnessing of the atrocities could take place after the war. I think it may have started in 1943 when the Nazis saw that their armies were retreating.

We dug up the graves of people that had been killed, burned their bodies, ground their bones, and cut out the gold teeth or any gold we found in the ashes. We normally went through about two thousand bodies a day.

It seems that the Germans had been keeping an exact list of how many people had been shot and where they were buried since they had come into east Poland in 1941. In 1942, while at the Janowska camp, I got sick with typhus, and after three days I was taken to the “sands” in the back of the Janowska camp in Lvov to be shot. I dug my own grave, but at the last minute, after my name was called and crossed off the list, I was able to escape. However, I was presumed by the SS to be dead.

A year later in 1943, as a member of the Death Brigade, I was digging up these same graves to burn the bodies, and we could only find 182 of the 183 bodies on the list. I was the 183rd person. For three days we looked for the missing body so as not to leave any traces of these Nazi murders, but after three days we gave up.

Source:

Stephens, John Richard. “Victims of History.” Weird History 101: Tales of Intrigue, Mayhem, and Outrageous Behavior. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2006. 188-89. Print.

Further Reading:

Sonderkommando (Special Unit)

Janowska Concentration Camp

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[**For clarification, Sonderkommando was a term used for work units made up of German Nazi death camp prisoners.**] >One of these Death Commandos [**Sonderkommandos**] who was put to work destroying the evidence of previous atrocities ended up being assigned to dig up what was supposed to be his own grave. Leon Wells explained: >*In the middle of June 1943, I was the last one of my family of seven brothers and sisters and parents and grandparents. I was taken into the Death Brigade which the Germans named Sonderkommando 1005. The purpose of this Death Brigade was to erase all traces of Nazi atrocities so that no witnessing of the atrocities could take place after the war. I think it may have started in 1943 when the Nazis saw that their armies were retreating.* >*We dug up the graves of people that had been killed, burned their bodies, ground their bones, and cut out the gold teeth or any gold we found in the ashes. We normally went through about two thousand bodies a day.* >*It seems that the Germans had been keeping an exact list of how many people had been shot and where they were buried since they had come into east Poland in 1941. In 1942, while at the Janowska camp, I got sick with typhus, and after three days I was taken to the “sands” in the back of the Janowska camp in Lvov to be shot. I dug my own grave, but at the last minute, after my name was called and crossed off the list, I was able to escape. However, I was presumed by the SS to be dead.* >*A year later in 1943, as a member of the Death Brigade, I was digging up these same graves to burn the bodies, and we could only find 182 of the 183 bodies on the list. I was the 183rd person. For three days we looked for the missing body so as not to leave any traces of these Nazi murders, but after three days we gave up.* ___________________________ **Source:** Stephens, John Richard. “Victims of History.” *Weird History 101: Tales of Intrigue, Mayhem, and Outrageous Behavior*. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2006. 188-89. Print. _____________________________ **Further Reading:** [Sonderkommando (Special Unit)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderkommando) [Janowska Concentration Camp](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janowska_concentration_camp) ___________________________ **If you enjoy this type of content, please consider donating to my [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/HistoryLockeBox)!**

1 comments

[–] Ph--Cunts 3 points (+3|-0)

Haunting

I was the 183rd person.

1 comments

/s/TheGrittyPast