Commandant of Auschwitz Read online

  I wanted to sack him more than once, but it was impossible. Eicke himself insisted on his retention.

  Eicke invented a special form of collective punishment for the Jews. Each time an atrocity propaganda campaign about the concentration camps was inaugurated abroad, the Jews would be forced to lie in bed for anything from one to three months, and would be permitted to get up and leave their block only at mealtimes and for roll call.

  They were forbidden to ventilate their quarters and the windows were screwed down. This was a cruel punishment, with particularly severe psychological effects. As a result of this compulsory staying in bed for long periods, they became so nervous and overwrought that they could no longer bear the sight of each other, and could not stand one another’s company. Many violent brawls broke out in consequence.

  It was Eicke’s opinion that responsibility for the atrocity propaganda campaigns must lie with those Jews who had emigrated after being in Dachau, and that it was therefore only right that the remaining Jews should suffer this distressing collective punishment.

  In this connection, I must make the following statement. I was opposed to Der Stürmer, Streicher’s anti-Semitic weekly, because of the disgusting sensationalism with which it played on people’s basest instincts. Then, too, there was its perpetual and often savagely pornographic emphasis on sex. This paper caused a lot of mischief and, far from serving serious anti-Semitism, it did it a great deal of harm. It is small wonder that after the collapse it was learned that a Jew edited the paper and that he also wrote the worst of the inflammatory articles it contained.[60]

  As a fanatical National Socialist I was firmly convinced that our ideals would gradually be accepted and would prevail throughout the world, after having been suitably modified in conformity to the: national characteristics of the other peoples concerned. Jewish supremacy would thus be abolished. There was nothing new in anti-Semitism. It has always existed all over the world, but has only come into the limelight when the Jews have pushed themselves forward too much in their quest for power, and when their evil machinations have become too obvious for the general public to stomach.

  But in my opinion the cause of anti-Semitism is ill-served by such frenzied persecution as was provided by Der Stürmer.

  If one wished to combat Jewry spiritually, then better weapons would have to be used. I believed that our ideas would prevail because they were both better and stronger.

  I had no hope that Eicke’s collective punishments would have the slightest effect on the foreign newspaper atrocity campaigns. These would go on, though hundreds or even thousands were shot on that account. Nevertheless, I thought it right that the Jews we had in our power should be punished for the dissemination of these atrocity stories by their racial fellows.

  Then came the “Crystal Night,” staged by Goebbels in November 1938, when, as a reprisal for the shooting of von Rath in Paris by a Jew, Jewish shops throughout the country were destroyed or at least had their windows smashed, and when fires broke out in all the synagogues and the fire-fighting services were deliberately prevented from putting them out. “For their own protection, and to save them from the wrath of the people,” all Jews who played any part in the trade or industry or business life of the country were arrested and brought into the concentration camps as “protective custody Jews.”

  Thus did I first learn to know them in the mass.

  Up to then Sachsenhausen had been almost free of Jews,[61] but now came the Jewish invasion. Hitherto bribery had been almost unknown in Sachsenhausen. Now it was widespread and took every form.

  The “green” prisoners welcomed the Jews with delight as objects to be plundered. Their money had to be taken away from them, since otherwise it would have been impossible to prevent the camp from falling into a state of chaos.

  They did their best to do each other in the eye whenever they could. Each tried to wangle a little position for himself and, with the tacit consent of the Capos they had won over, even invented new posts for themselves so as to avoid having to work. They did not hesitate to get rid of their fellow prisoners by making false accusations against them, if this would enable them to obtain a nice, easy job. Once they had “got somewhere,” they proceeded to harry and persecute their own people quite mercilessly. They far surpassed the “green” prisoners in every way.

  Many Jews were driven to despair by this behavior and in order to escape further persecution they “ran into the wire,” or attempted flight, hoping to be shot, or hanged themselves.

  The numerous incidents of this nature were duly reported to Eicke by the commandant. Eicke merely remarked: “Let them carry on. The Jews can quietly devour each other.”

  I must emphasize here that I have never personally hated the Jews. It is true that I looked upon them as the enemies of our people. But just because of this I saw no difference between them and the other prisoners, and I treated them all in the same way. I never drew any distinctions. In any event the emotion of hatred is foreign to my nature. But I know what hate is, and what it looks like. I have seen it and I have suffered it myself.

  When the Reichsführer SS modified his original Extermination Order of 1941, by which all Jews without exception were to be destroyed, and ordered instead that those capable of work were to be separated from the rest and employed in the armaments industry, Auschwitz became a Jewish camp.

  It was a collecting place for Jews, exceeding in scale anything previously known.

  Whereas the Jews who had been imprisoned in former years were able to count on being released one day and were thus far less affected psychologically by the hardships of captivity, the Jews in Auschwitz no longer had any such hope. They knew, without exception, that they were condemned to death, that they would live only so long as they could work.

  Nor did the majority have any hope of a change in their sad lot. They were fatalists. Patiently and apathetically, they submitted to all the misery and distress and terror. The hopelessness with which they accepted their impending fate made them psychologically quite indifferent to their surroundings. This mental collapse accelerated its physical equivalent. They no longer had the will to live, everything had become a matter of indifference to them, and they would succumb to the slightest physical shock. Sooner or later, death was inevitable. I firmly maintain from what I have seen that the high mortality among the Jews was due not only to the hard work, to which most of them were unaccustomed, and to the insufficient food, the overcrowded quarters, and all the severities and abuses of camp life, but principally and decisively to their psychological state.

  For the mortality rate among the Jews was not much lower in other work places and other camps, where general conditions were far more favorable. It was always considerably higher with them than with other types of prisoner. I observed this again and again during my journeys of inspection as DI.[62]

  This was even more noticeable in the case of the Jewish women. They deteriorated far more rapidly than the men, although from my observations they had in general far greater toughness and powers of endurance than the men, both physically and mentally. What I have just written applies to the bulk, the mass of the Jewish prisoners.

  The more intelligent: ones, psychologically stronger and with a keener desire for life, that is to say, in most cases those from the Western countries, reacted differently.

  These people, especially if they were doctors, had no illusions concerning their fate. But they continued to hope, reckoning on a change of fortune that somehow or other would save their lives. They also reckoned on the collapse of Germany, for it was not difficult for them to listen to enemy propaganda.

  For them the most important thing was to obtain a position which would lift them out of the mass and give them special privileges, a job that would protect them to a certain extent from accidental and mortal hazards, and improve the physical conditions in which they lived.

  They employed all their ability and all their will to obtain what can truly be described as a “living” of th
is sort. The safer the position the more eagerly and fiercely it was fought for. No quarter was shown, for this was a struggle in which everything was at stake. They flinched from nothing, no matter how desperate, in their efforts to make such safe jobs fall vacant and then to acquire them for themselves. Victory usually went to the most unscrupulous man or woman. Time and again I heard of these struggles to oust a rival and win his job.

  In the various camps I had become well acquainted with the struggles for supremacy waged between the different categories of prisoners and political groups, and with the intrigues that went on to secure the higher posts. But I found that the Jews in Auschwitz could still teach me a lot. “Necessity is the mother of invention,” and here it was an actual question of sheer survival.

  Nevertheless, it frequently happened that persons who had acquired these safe positions would suddenly lose their grip, or would gradually fade away, when they learned of the death of their closest relations. This would happen without any physical cause such as illness or bad living conditions. The Jews have always had very strong family feelings. The death of a near relative makes them feel that their own lives are no longer worth living and are therefore not worth fighting for.

  I have also seen quite the contrary, during the mass exterminations, but I shall refer to this later.

  What I have written above applies particularly to the female inmates of all sorts.

  But then everything was much more difficult, harsher, and more depressing for the women, since general living conditions in the women’s camp were incomparably worse. They were far more tightly packed in, and the sanitary and hygienic conditions were notably inferior. Furthermore the disastrous overcrowding and its consequences, which existed from the very beginning, prevented any proper order being established in the women’s camp.[63]

  The general congestion was far greater than in the men’s camp. When the women had reached the bottom, they would let themselves go completely. They would then stumble about like ghosts, without any will of their own, and had to be pushed everywhere by the others, until the day came when they quietly passed away. These stumbling corpses were a terrible sight.

  The “green” female prisoners were of a special sort. I believe that Ravensbruck was combed through to find the “best” for Auschwitz. They far surpassed their male equivalents in toughness, squalor, vindictiveness, and depravity. Most were prostitutes with many convictions, and some were truly repulsive creatures. Needless to say, these dreadful women gave full vent to their evil desires on the prisoners under them, which was unavoidable. The Reichsführer SS regarded them as particularly well-suited to act as Capos over the Jewish women, when he visited Auschwitz in 1942. Not many of these women died, except from disease.

  They were soulless and had no feelings whatsoever.

  The Budy blood bath is still before my eyes.[64]

  I find it incredible that human beings could ever turn into such beasts. The way the “greens” knocked the French Jewesses about, tearing them to pieces, killing them with axes, and throttling them—it was simply gruesome.

  Luckily not all the “greens” and “blacks” were such utter brutes. There were capable ones among them, who preserved a measure of sympathy for their fellow prisoners. But such women were of course continually and cruelly persecuted by other members of their color. Nor could the majority of female supervisors understand this.[65]

  A welcome contrast were the female Jehovah’s Witnesses, who were nicknamed “Bible bees” or “Bible worms.”

  Unfortunately there were too few of them. Despite their more or less fanatical attitude they were much in demand. They were employed as servants in the homes of SS men with large families, the Waffen SS clubhouse, and even in the SS officers’ mess. But they worked above all on the land.

  They worked on the poultry farm at Harmense,[66] and on various other farms. They needed no supervision or guards. They were diligent and willing workers, for such was the will of Jehovah. Most of them were middle-aged German women but there were also a number of younger Dutch girls. I had two of the older women working for more than three years in my own household. My wife often said that she herself could not have seen to everything better than did these two women. The care that they bestowed on the children, both big and small, was particularly touching. The children loved them as though they were members of the family. At first we were afraid that they might try to save the children for Jehovah. But we were wrong. They never talked to the children about religion. This was really remarkable, considering their fanatical attitude. There were other wonderful beings among them. One of them worked for an SS officer, doing everything that had to be done without needing to be told, but she absolutely refused to clean his uniform, cap, or boots, or indeed even to touch anything that had any connection with the military life. On the whole they were contented with their lot. They hoped that, by suffering in captivity for Jehovah’s sake, they would be given good positions in His kingdom, which they expected to enter very soon.

  Strangely enough they were all convinced it was right that the Jews should now suffer and die, since their forefathers had betrayed Jehovah.

  I have always regarded Jehovah’s Witnesses as poor, misguided creatures, who were nevertheless happy in their own way.

  The rest of the female prisoners, Poles, Czechs, Ukranians, and Russians, were employed so far as possible in agricultural work. They thus escaped the congestion and the evil effects of camp life. They were far better off in their billets on the farms or in Raisko.[67]

  I have always found that the prisoners engaged in agricultural work and living away from the camp make a very different impression from the others. They were certainly not subjected to the same psychological strains as their fellows in the massive camps. They would not otherwise have been so willing to do the work demanded of them.

  The women’s camp, tightly crammed from the very beginning, meant psychological destruction for the mass of the female prisoners, and this led sooner or later to their physical collapse.

  From every point of view, and at all times, the worst conditions prevailed in the women’s camp. This was so even at the very beginning, when it still formed part of the base camp. Once the Jewish transports from Slovakia began to arrive, it was crammed to the roof within a matter of days. Washhouses and latrines were sufficient, at the most, for a third of the number of inmates that the camp contained.

  To have put these swarming ant hills into proper order would have required more than the few female supervisors allotted me from Ravensbrück. And I must emphasize once again that the women I was sent were not the best.

  These supervisors had been thoroughly spoiled at Ravensbrück. Everything had been done for them to persuade them to remain in the women’s concentration camp, and by offering them extremely good living conditions it was hoped to attract new recruits. They were given the best of accommodation, and were paid a salary they could never have earned elsewhere. Their work was not particularly onerous. In short, the Reichsführer SS, and Pohl[68] in particular, wished to see the female supervisors treated with the utmost consideration.

  Up to that time conditions in Ravensbrück had been normal, and there was no question of overcrowding.

  These supervisors were now posted to Auschwitz—none came voluntarily—and had the job of getting the women’s camp started in the most difficult conditions.

  From the very beginning most of them wanted to run away and return to the quiet comforts and the easy life at Ravensbrück.

  The chief female supervisor of the period, Frau Langefeldt, was in no way capable of coping with the situation, yet she refused to accept any instructions given her by the commander of the protective custody camp. Acting on my own initiative, I simply put the women’s camp under his jurisdiction, since this seemed the only method of ending the disorderly way in which it was being run. Hardly a day passed without discrepancies appearing in the numbers of inmates shown on the strength returns. The supervisors ran hither and thither in all
this confusion like a lot of flustered hens, and had no idea what to do. The three or four good ones among them were driven crazy by the rest. The chief supervisor regarded herself as an independent camp commander, and consequently objected to being placed under a man of the same rank as herself. In the end I actually had to cancel her subordination to him. When the Reichsführer SS visited the camp in July 1942 I reported all this to him, in the presence of the chief female supervisor, and I told him that Frau Langefeldt was and always would be completely incapable of commanding and organizing the women’s camp at Auschwitz as this should be done. I requested that she be once again subordinated to the first commander of the protective custody camp.

  The Reichsführer SS absolutely refused to allow this, despite the striking proofs he was given of the inadequacy of the chief supervisor and of the female supervisors in general. He wished a women’s camp to be commanded by a woman, and I was to detail an SS officer to act as her assistant.

  But which of my officers would be willing to take his orders from a woman? Every officer whom I had to appoint to this post begged to be released as soon as possible. When the really large numbers of prisoners began to arrive, I myself devoted as much time as I could to helping in the running of this camp.

  Thus from the very beginning the women’s camp was run by the prisoners themselves. The larger the camp became, the more difficult it was for the supervisors to exercise control, and self-rule by the prisoners became more and more apparent. Since it was the “greens” who had the supremacy, and who therefore ran the camp by reason of their greater slyness and unscrupulousness, it was they who were the real masters in the women’s camp, despite the fact that the camp senior and other key officials were “red.” The women controllers, as the female Capos were called, were mostly “green” or “black.” It was thus inevitable that the most wretched conditions prevailed in the women’s camp.