Operation Reinhard

Henoch's religious Jewish parents married in 1937. His father, Moishe Kornfeld, and his mother, Liba Saleschutz, had settled in Kolbuszowa, where Henoch's mother was raised. There, Liba's father bought the newlyweds a home and started his new son-in-law in the wholesale textile business. 1938-39: Henoch was born in late 1938, and was raised among many aunts, uncles and cousins. Around Henoch's first birthday, Germany invaded Poland and soon reached Kolbuszowa. Polish soldiers on horses tried to fight against the German army, but they were no match for tanks. After a short battle, there were many dead horses in the streets. Henoch's town came under German rule. 1940-42: Everyone in town, including the children, knew of Hafenbier, the vicious German police commander with the face of a bulldog who was posted in Kolbuszowa. Hafenbier terrorized and killed many of the town's Jews. Henoch often played a game with the other children in town in which he would portray Hafenbier, saying to his friends, "If you are a Jew, you are dead." Then, with a rifle made from a piece of wood, Henoch would "shoot" his playmates. They, in turn, would fall over, pretending they had been killed. Henoch and his family were deported to the Rzeszow ghetto on June 25, 1942, and then to the Belzec killing center on July 7 where they were gassed. Henoch was 3 and a half years old. Operation Reinhard ( Aktion Reinhard or Einsatz Reinhard ) was the code name for the German plan to murder the Jews residing in the so-called General Government. Approximately two million Jews lived there. To achieve the goals of Operation Reinhard, the Germans constructed three killing centers: Bełżec, Sobibór, and Treblinka. In addition to murdering approximately 1.5 million Jews in these killing centers, SS and police officials also conducted a number of related killing operations. These included Operation Harvest Festival on November 3–4, 1943. In all, Operation Reinhard personnel murdered approximately 1.7 million Jews in the Operation Reinhard killing centers and related mass shootings. Operation Reinhard was initiated in the autumn of 1941. The operation was later named after SS General Reinhard Heydrich . Heydrich died in June 1942 from injuries sustained during an assassination attempt by Czech partisans. From September 1939 until his death, he served as chief of the Reich Security Main Office ( Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA). The RSHA was the Nazi agency responsible for coordinating the deportation of European Jews to killing centers in German-occupied Poland . Heydrich was a key architect of the “Final Solution.” In January 1939, December 1940, and July 1941, Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering personally tasked him with drafting plans for a solution of the "Jewish question." SS General Odilo Globocnik directed Operation Reinhard between the autumn of 1941 and the late summer of 1943. Globocnik was SS and Police leader in the Lublin District of the General Government. He established two departments on his staff for Operation Reinhard. The first was a deportation coordination team under SS Major Hermann Höfle. Höfle was responsible for arranging personnel and transport for the planned deportations. He also coordinated deportation operations, which was usually under the command of the regional SS and police commander, with the support of regional SS and police and civilian occupation authorities. The second department was the Inspectorate of SS Special Detachments. It was led by Criminal Police captain Christian Wirth. Wirth was responsible for the construction and management of the Operation Reinhard killing centers. There were three: Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. These killing centers were managed by small detachments of German personnel. Detachments of police auxiliaries guarded the sites. Auxiliaries were trained at the Trawniki training camp. Psychiatric patients are evacuated to clinics where they will be murdered as part of the Nazi Euthanasia Program . P