In memoriam.

Eighty years ago this weekend, Operation Harvest Festival was carried out in the Lublin District of Poland on the orders of Heinrich Himmler. It was a coordinated effort to murder any remaining Jews in the Majdanek, Trawniki and Poniatowa concentration camps. The murders were carried out by SS and police units while blaring music rolled across the surrounding town to hide the screams and gunfire. So great was the smoke and noise, however, that the townspeople came out to stand on their rooftops to watch as 42,000 Jews were murdered. They watched.

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