Germany and Anti-Semitism - Part 7

The photograph is a half-left profile showing the head and shoulders. He is wearing a dark jacket, not Army uniform, and a dark shirt, buttoned at the neck; the colour could be the dark khaki brown favoured by the Nazis. The hair is parted but cut very high at the sides so that, wearing an officer's hat, no hair will show. The brow is high over deep-set eyes and the nose is straight with pinched nostrils. The mouth is wide, and thin-lipped, set in a straight line, with a solid square chin adding to a face which appears never to have smiled. The whole is a picture of severity, possibly cruelty, and a model of what the Aryan should be.

Her photograph, on the other hand, shows a smiling, quite ordinary face, as she comes towards the camera, on the beach. She is wearing a halter top which, for the time, is rather daring in exposing about two inches of skin above the waist. The loose baggy slacks are the latest fashion. Trousers for women had been felt to be obligatory in all the men's work that the war had brought them, in both Germany and the Allied countries, and the fashion industry had instantly created styles quite unsuitable for any kind of work. Her hair is braided in a madchen-style, long plaits brought up and pinned round the head. She has square shoulders and, although smiling and obviously on holiday, perhaps her honeymoon, she is actually marching over the sand with arms fully extended, thumbs to the front. This is almost certainly an unconscious action, the result of her training in the Hitler Youth, but it does reveal the extent of her indoctrination.

The two are man and wife, Captain Julius Wohlauf, commander of the First Company, Police Battalion 101, and his wife Vera. They had married in Hamburg on 29th June 1942, just after the orders had been received for the Battalion to move to Poland. He had caught up with it in time to take part in the killing at Jozefow, and she had arrived shortly after. Unbelievable as it sounds, she was to take part in more than one killing operation, and was an observer at others, along with some of the wives who had come to be with their husbands.

The Captain was an enthusiastic killer and carried out his orders with enjoyment. He also, on at least one occasion, threatened to shoot men under his command who requested permission not to take part in the killings. This was absolutely contrary to the orders of his own superior, Major Trapp, but it did not lead to any direct disciplinary action against the Captain. This is one of several instances of indiscipline covering matters concerning the killings. Any military unit runs on absolute obedience and deviations are normally punished but it seems that the fact that each participant was his own judge, jury and executioner excused such discipline lapses. Certainly, in all other respects, the Battalion was a disciplined unit.

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