User:Icecreaman32/Aktion

Aktion (From German: Operation) is a nickname for a series of violent actions by the Nazi forces in residential areas or concentration of Jews, such as the ghettos. The aktion was intended for transport - forced collection and transport from their locations (their permanent residences) to concentration and extermination camps, which were run by the forces of Nazi Germany: the Gestapo, the SS and others with the assistance of local police forces, during World War II.

A typical action included a call to the Jews, accompanied by an order from the regional authorities, to gather at a central location (the town square or a central crossroads) at a certain time. Sometimes the Jews or their representatives, who asked to know what will be the destination, were told that they would be taken to "labor camps" in "Eastern Europe", and they were even asked to send a letter about it to other relatives. The Jews were told that they could take money and valuables with them in their chattels.

The Germans were careful about the detailed and complete management of the aktion. Jews who did not obey the order instructing them to be collected and sent away, were persecuted by the local authorities and the Nazi occupation authorities, who supervised them. Individuals and those with money or connections managed to escape the aktion and hide until the end of Nazi rule in their area.

When the Jews were gathered at the tranport site, they were rounded up by armed forces, led and put on a means of transportation to the intended concentration and extermination camp. In the aktions, the police and local residents usually behaved very violently towards the Jews, and many Jews were brutally murdered even before the transportation itself took place.

The aktions were conducted in order and with great organization, until the last stages of the war (even though they took resources in manpower, fuel, means of transport, etc. from Nazi Germany). Indeed, their organization required branched logistics to carry out their transportation to the camps of many communities, some of them small and remote, in various means of transportation: trains, trucks, rigs and ships.