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Escape of Dionys Lenard from Majdanek

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1942
1943
  • 27 April
  • Witold Pilecki escapes. Witold's report is filed away by the OSS.
  • May
  • Stanislaw Chybinski, a member of the Polish Home Army, escapes and compiles the report "Snapshots of Auschwitz".
  • 19 November
  • Jerzy Tabeau and Roman Cieliczko escape. Their January 1944 report becomes known as the "Polish Major's report".
    • March 1944
    • 19 March
    • Germany invades Hungary.
    • 22 March
    • The Washington Post and the New York Herald Tribune report the existence of gas chambers and crematoria at Auschwitz.
    April 1944
    • 5 April
    • Siegfried Lederer escapes to warn Jews in Theresienstadt and the Red Cross about the mass murder inside Auschwitz.
    • 7–11 April
    • Vrba and Wetzler escape.
    • 22 / 23 April
    • Vrba and Wetzler arrive in Žilina, Slovakia.
    • 24 April
    • Vrba and Wetzler meet Dr Oscar Neumann of the Bratislava Working Group.
    • 27 April
    • German translation of the Vrba–Wetzler report completed.
    • 28 April
    • The first trainload of Hungarian Jews leaves for Auschwitz.
    • c. 28 April
    • Rezső Kasztner of the Aid and Rescue Committee obtains the report and gives a copy of the report to Geza Soos, Hungarian Foreign Ministry official; Soos gives it to Joszef Elias; Elias's secretary translates it into Hungarian and prepares six copies for Hungarian officials.
    May 1944
    • 15 May
    • Mass transports begin of Hungary's Jews to Auschwitz, at a rate of 12,000 a day.
    • 27 May
    • Arnost Rosin and Czesław Mordowicz escape Auschwitz.
    June 1944
    • 4 June
    • The New York Times describes the gas chambers and said that Jews were being executed.
    • 6 June
    • Allied invasion of Normandy, France.
    • mid June
    • The Vrba–Wetzler report reaches the British and US governments.
    • 15 June
    • The BBC World Service reports that 4,000 Jews from Theresienstadt were killed in gas chambers at Auschwitz during March 1944. Rosin and Mordowicz tell Krasniansky 100,000 Hungarian Jews were killed on arrival between 15 and 27 May, unaware of what was about to happen to them.
    • 16 June
    • The New York World Telegram repeats the BBC's information. Allen Dulles, Swiss director of the US Office of Strategic Services, sends the Vrba–Wetzler report to the US State Department.
    • 17 June
    • The Los Angeles Times repeats the BBC's information.
    • 20 June
    • 'The Washington Times Herald reports the same, courtesy of Reuters, while The New York Times offers further details. In Bratislava, Vrba discusses his report with Vatican legate Monsignor Mario Martilotti, who then sends a copy to the Vatican via Switzerland.
    • 25 June
    • The New York Times reports that "new mass executions" recently took place in Auschwitz.
    • 30 June
    • The Kastner train, carrying 1,684 Jews, leaves Hungary for Switzerland via Bergen-Belsen.
    July 1944
    • 1–10 July
    • Several newspapers report that, between April 1942 and April 1944, 1.5 to 1.7 million Jews were killed at Auschwitz (from the Vrba-Wetzler report).
    • 7 July
    • Hungarian regent Miklós Horthy orders a halt to the deportations.
    • 9 July
    • Mass deportations end.
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    In July 1942, Daniel Dionys Lenard escaped from Majdanek concentration camp. He was interviewed by the Bratislava Working Group and brought the first confirmed report of the killings back to the Jewish community in Slovakia.

    Lenard was born in Žilina and was a Slovak Jew. His sister and his parents illegally entered Palestine before the Holocaust but were caught by the British and returned to Slovakia. Rachel Lenard, Lenard's sister, joined an agricultural Hachshara in Denmark in 1939 from where she went to Sweden and survived. Lenard and his parents remained and were deported to separate camps in the spring of 1942. His parents were murdered. Lenard managed to escape back to Slovakia in July 1942, where he gave an extensive account of the high mortality at the Majdanek concentration camp.

    References

    1. Braham, Randolph L. (1986), The Tragedy of Hungarian Jewry: essays, documents, depositions, p. 18, ISBN 9780880331050, Already in the Summer of 1942, however, only a few months after the deportation trains left, at least one of these deportees, Dionys Lenard, succeeded in escaping and returned to Slovakia, bringing alarming news about the fate of the Jews in ...
    2. Gutman, Israel; Graif, Gid'on (1988). The historiography of the Holocaust period. Yad Vashem. p. 455. ISBN 9789653080065. One of the deportees, Dionys Lenard, managed to return to Slovakia within a month and allegedly informed the Jewish leaders about what was going on in Majdanek. The Jewish leaders, Conway continues, already had considerable ...
    3. Büchler, Yehoshua. "ההסטוריון יהושוע ביכלר על סרטיפיקטים שנשלחו לאושוויץ" [Certificates for Auschwitz] (PDF). Yad Vashem (in Hebrew).
    4. Gordon, Haim (2003). The Rise and Decline of the Jewish Community of Žilina (Slovakia). p. 16. A testimony about the escape of an anonymous person from Majdanek is mentioned in Rabbi Armin Frieder's diary (deposited at Yad Vashem)*. From later evidence, it became obvious that Daniel Dionys Lenard of Zilina gave this testimony. Dani Lenard, his sister, and his parents managed to enter Palestine illegally before the Holocaust. Unfortunately, the British caught them. After being jailed they were expelled and forced to return to Zilina. Dani's Sister Rachel had an opportunity in 1939 to join an agricultural Hachshara in Denmark, went from there to Sweden, and survived. In the spring of 1942, the parents were deported to a concentration camp and perished. Dani was deported at about the same time to Majdanek, from where he managed to escape to Slovakia in July 1942.
    5. Friedrich, Klaus-Peter (1996). "Unser Schicksal - eine Mahnung für Euch. Berichte und Erinnerungen der Häftlinge von Majdanek" [Our Fate - A Reminder for You. Reports and Memories of the Majdanek Prisoners]. Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung (in German). 45 (3). Johann Gottfried Herder-Institut: 458. doi:10.25627/19964536167. „Für uns Juden", schreibt Dionys Lenard über die in Majdanek zurückbleibenden, „gab es im Lager nur demütigende und gefährliche Posten". Ungewißheit über das Schicksal der nächsten Verwandten, unzulängliche Essensrationen, ...
    6. The Jews of Czechoslovakia: historical studies and surveys. Vol. 3. Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews. 1968. p. 248. ISBN 9780827602304. Personal record of Dionys Lenard about his flight and conditions at the death camp at Maidanek (45 typewritten pages) submitted to F. Hoffmann-Dvorin, official of the Jewish Office.
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