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Spare machine gun barrel case recovered postwar at a mass execution site

Object | Accession Number: 2010.443.31

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    Spare machine gun barrel case recovered postwar at a mass execution site
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    Overview

    Brief Narrative
    Spare barrel carrier for the MG 34 (Maschinengewehr 34) and the MG 42 excavated by Yahad-In Unum from a mass execution and grave site in Ukraine uncovered by their research into atrocities committed by Nazi Germany against the Jewish population during WWII. It held and protected barrels that were replaced often to avoid overheating. The German Army issued the MG 34 in 1934. It was the primary infantry machine gun used in the war until it was replaced by the MG 42, which had similar features, but a higher rate of fire. In early September 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland and a few weeks later, the Soviet Union occupied eastern Poland, now Ukraine, under the terms of the German-Soviet Pact. In late June 1941, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, a surprise attack on Russia. The military assault was coordinated with killing squads whose goal was the Final Solution, the elimination of all Jews from the conquered territories. With the assistance of trained collaborators and local populace, the goal was achieved through deportations to killing centers and mass executions throughout the region. The lack of adequate rail transport meant that many villages had killing fields where the Jews were shot and buried in huge ditches, along with the bullets and other evidence. Through interviews with the remaining eyewitnesses, Yahad-In Unum locates and documents these remains of a Holocaust by bullets and offers respectful remembrance for the fallen.
    Date
    found:  2005
    use:  1941-1942
    Geography
    found: mass execution and grave site; Ukraine
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Yahad-in Unum
    Contributor
    Subject: Patrick Desbois
    Subject: Yahad-In Unum
    Biography
    Father Patrick Desbois is the president of Yahad- In Unum (Together as One), an organization he co-founded in 2004 to develop and promote Christian-Jewish understanding. He is also a Roman Catholic priest and director of the Episcopal Committee for Relations with Judaism, which is connected with the French Conference of Bishops.
    Father Desbois was born in Chalon-sur-Saone, France, in 1955 and grew up on a farm in the Bresse region of eastern France. As a young man, he joined the French civil service and taught mathematics in West Africa. He went to Calcutta to work with Mother Teresa for three months. After this, he decided to join the priesthood, a decision that shocked his secular family. He became a parish priest and studied Judaism and learned Hebrew. He asked to do outreach work with groups such as Roma, ex-prisoners, and Jews, and was appointed a liaison with the Jewish community in France.
    His family had lived on the farm throughout the German occupation of France during World War II, 6/25/1940-8/25/1944. His paternal grandfather, as a soldier in the French Army, had been deported by the Germans following the occupation. He was sent to Rava-Ruska prison camp, then on the Ukrainian side of the Polish border, now in Ukraine. His grandfather never talked about his experiences, but he did once comment to his grandson that, as bad as it was for French prisoners-of-war, it was much worse for other types of inmates. A maternal cousin who had been a member of the resistance was deported and killed in a German concentration camp. As an adult, he learned from his mother that the family had often hidden members of the French Resistance on the farm.
    Desbois was haunted by his grandfather's silence. He made repeated trips to Rava-Ruska where his grandfather had been imprisoned. On one visit, the mayor took him to the edge of the forest where a group of elderly villagers were gathered to tell him what they had witnessed. Desbois finally learned what his grandfather would not say - that, unlike what Desbois had supposed, the killings were not done in secret. They were public spectacles, performed in broad daylight, and people wanted to be there and watch. Since 2001, Desbois has led research teams to discover the fate of Jewish victims of Nazi Germany, specifically of the Einsatzgruppen [killing squads] that operated in Eastern Europe during World War II. Based in Paris, Yahad-in Unum’s mission is to discover every mass grave and site where Jews were killed in the Ukraine. They research and compare documents from German and Soviet archives, searching for clues to locations where the killings occurred. They then travel to the villages to find witnesses who will tell them the location of the mass graves. Yahad has identified over 800 of an estimated 2000 sites. Father Desbois also seeks out and has recorded personal testimonies of hundreds of the remaining witnesses to the atrocities. As of 2015, they had recorded 4000 witness testimonies. “At first, sometimes, people don’t believe I’m a priest. I have to use simple words and listen to these horrors - without any judgment. I cannot react to the horrors that pour out. If I react, the stories will stop.”
    Yahad–In Unum was created in 2004 to facilitate understanding and collaboration between Catholics and Jews. The name of the organization is based upon the Hebrew and Latin words for together. The central reseach mission is to document the mass executions of more than 2 million Jews and thousands of Roma people in Eastern Europe between 1941 and 1944 by Nazi Germany and those who collaborated with them. Through the investigation of this Holocaust by bullets, Yahad-In Unum has discovered hundreds of mass graves of murdered victims and recorded the testimony of more than 3000 witnesses. The organization works to collect the evidence, village by village, region by region, searching for the last witnesses to these crimes. Yahad-In Unum seeks to identify each grave site in order to refute those who deny the Holocaust and to allow for the respectful remembrance of the fallen.

    Physical Details

    Classification
    Containers
    Category
    Metal containers
    Physical Description
    Cylindrical steel gun barrel carrier with flat sides and a full length hinge. The 2 curved sides have scalloped extensions that interlock at the top. On the front center base is a swivel, hinged locking clip that attaches to an extruding rectangular tab on the lid. The lid and base have a vertical indent on the center and a raised rectangular section at each end. There is a rectangular bar handle rusted to each side of the lid. The interior lid and base have metal inserts at one end to secure the barrel; on the other end of the lid is an extruding L-shaped tab. It has several holes, is flaking and coated with orange rust, and does not close completely.
    Dimensions
    overall: Height: 22.500 inches (57.15 cm) | Width: 3.000 inches (7.62 cm) | Depth: 2.500 inches (6.35 cm)
    Materials
    overall : steel

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    No restrictions on access
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Desbois, Patrick.

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The machine gun was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2010 by Father Patrick Desbois on behalf of Yahad-in Unum.
    Funding Note
    The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
    Record last modified:
    2024-10-03 11:34:01
    This page:
    http:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn43046

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