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发表于 2008-10-19 11:33:53
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When it is the turn of my number, and it will be in several months certainly, and the political department sends a demand to the parish in locality Z for an excerpt of my data from the public register, while in fact those ones of Mr 84 - then the first and maiden names will not correspond with the data given by me. So I will be summoned again, asked who I am, and that will be the end.
By a happy coincidence, my colleagues of the round-up, about several hundreds (as I mentioned above), were quarantine and were to depart to Warsaw soon. Through my colleague 14 to be released I sent a message to my sister-in-law, Mrs E.O., with information what surname and maiden name of my mother I had given here.
At that time many colleagues departed, some of them workers of our organisation, apart from 14, 9 departed also. At the same time colonel 1 went to the freedom block, he was released due to efforts of his university colleague in Berlin, who today occupies a higher position in the German army. Through colonel 1 I sent a report to Warsaw, of the work of the organisation here. Through colleague 86 who was here for that his name was identical as the name of one of colonels, I sent out some information.
["Seidler's Week"]
To supplement the picture of the camp at that time (of course, of those things I saw personally, as I am not able to describe everything which I heard from my colleagues who worked in other commandos), the "Seidler's week" shall be added. In December (1941) we had, during one week each evening, the rules of Seidler on the roll-calls, a prominent sadist who was deputy of the Lagerführer. It was a week of exceptionally nasty weather. Wind and rain with frozen snow penetrated us with wet and cold, it seemed, not only our clothes but our bodies. They were freezing us through. In evenings, it was pretty big frost.
Seidler decided to use it also to do for as many human beings - prisoners, as possible. Each day, since the moment of the gong for an evening roll-call, 15 minutes before 6:00 p.m., we stood, fighting against frost, in wet clothes, until 9:00 p.m., released from standing at attention just before the sleep-time gong. Then we quickly swallowed a cold dinner, which in that time was given in the evening and, in a hurry to settle our necessaries, we went to bed.
Those standings continued for a week, as supposedly each day somebody was missing on the roll-call, which of course was fabricated by Seidler. It was so, because it was ended parallel to the end of his function of reception of reports from Palitsch.
But we paid the cost of many our strength (and, by those weaker - lives) in that week.
Notices of death were sent out to families by the main chancellery only upon a clear order of the political department, as for German police authorities it was not always convenient to send an information of a prisoner's death, which oozed out at freedom. It was so, because an inquiry of some other case might be under way, when they held in check some other persons somewhere in a prison, by that they had prisoner X in hand, who was telling "the whole truth".
[1942]
[“The most monstrous” year]
So the year 1941 was ended. The year 1942 began. In relation to the Oświęcim camp - the most monstrous one, in relation to our organisation in the camp - the most interesting, the one in which we reached our best achievements.
... and so happens that due to lack of time before a new decision I must write nearly in a telegraphic style.
["Change of attitude towards Jews"]
A substantial change of attitude towards Jews occurred suddenly. To the surprise of everywhere, the rest of Jews was withdrawn from SK and together with arriving Jews - the "zugangs", was located in good conditions at work under the roof in the hosiery, potato shop, vegetable shop. They even put on side towards us. They did not suspect there was a monstrous, insidious idea. The question was that in their letters to their families, in which they wrote for several months that they worked in shops and they did very well. What matter that those shops were placed in Oświęcim. What was the meaning of that unknown town name to Jews in France, Bohemia, the Netherlands, Greece, where those letters were going. After all, even Poles in Poland knew little about Oświęcim and at that time they showed a very naive attitude to one's stay in Oświęcim. Our, that is Polish Jews, were done away mainly in Treblinka and Majdanek. Here, to Oświęcim, Jews were collected from nearly the whole Europe.
After several months of writing letters about good conditions they lived in, the Jews were abruptly taken away from their positions and soon "done away". In the meantime, transports were arriving, thousands of people every day, of Jews from the whole Europe, directed at once to Birkenau where the erection of huts of the camp (such one as erected in its initial phase) had already been finished.
[Priests]
Also, for a long time the attitude towards priests had changed, but for another reason. By some influence of the Vatican, achieved by allied Italy on the authorities of the Reich, priests were transported to Dachau. For the first time in the beginning of 1941, the second transport of priests from Oświęcim to Dachau occurred in July 1942. In Dachau, it was told that priests had quite bearable existence if compared to the conditions here. Between those two transports I became acquainted with several brave priests, among others with priest 87 who was the chaplain of our organisation.
We had our divine services and confessions conspired against undesirable eyes. We received hosts from priests at freedom, through contacts with population outside the camp.
[Murder of Soviet prisoners of war continued]
The beginning of 1942 meant a quick doing away of the rest of Bolshevik prisoners. The murder was done in a hurry. Blocks were necessary for another purpose. A new massacre was to be started there. Dead bodies of the Bolsheviks killed at work of road construction, digging of trenches in the area of Birkenau, were carried by carts to roll-calls - several carts, loaded full upon each roll-call. Some of those prisoners just got frozen, as they had no strength to warm themselves at least a bit for their work.
One day at work a mutiny broke out, Bolsheviks attacked SS-men and capos. The mutiny was suppressed in blood, all the unit was shot down. The dead bodies, to make clearance with the authorities on the roll-call, were delivered by several runs of rollwagas.
Having done away all of them (February 1942), except for several hundreds whom I already mentioned, the fence put up between our camp and the camp of war prisoners was quickly pulled down. At the same time a fence was being built in another direction and for another purpose. Ten blocks were being separated from us by a wall made of concrete slabs, for women to be placed inside. This was unprecedented.
[Hours of work]
In the beginning of its existence, the camp worked also on Sundays. Later, Sundays were supposedly free, but for a half of the day prisoners were forbidden to leave their blocks (Blocksperre). Then, to decrease any opportunities of communication, we were deprived of two additional hours. After dinner, since 1:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. a prisoner was obliged to undress and to sleep. Block supervisors checked the rooms. Sleeping in blocks were checked by a senior of the camp or by lagerkapo, as a prisoner who did not sleep, spoilt his health (horrible irony) necessary for the Third Reich though, so he was a saboteur.
On 18 January 1942, due to lack of place in overcrowded bunkers, 45 prisoners were locked together for the night in the "dark-cell" bunker. After a while, still in the evening, in the basement of block 11 (new numbering) strong blows at the door and calls for the supervising SS-man resounded, to open the door. They were those prisoners who chocked due to lack of air, fought with their teeth, fists and legs for an access to the door where some air was flowing in through interstices. After that night there were 21 dead people among 45 locked in - either suffocated or killed in fight. From the rest, who could hardly keep on their legs, 9 were taken to the hospital in agony and 15 went to SK for that they had not been pleased to die in the dark cell. Among them, there was also Konrad, a former oberkapo of the woodwork shop. This horrible scene was witnessed all the night by kapo "Johnny" who in that time was serving a punishment in a standing cell, for some scheming with Poles as the authorities called it.
[Collective responsibility abolished]
In February 1942 a letter came to the political department from party authorities in Berlin, to forbid collective responsibility and executions of ten prisoners for one escaper - it was said that as a result of the same repressions applied somewhere in camps for Germans. In that time an order was read officially, to forbid beating of prisoners (it is interesting, was it due to our reports?). Since that time there were no great repressions against others for escapes of prisoners. So, opportunities to escape reappeared, and we as an organisation began to prepare an organised escape and to send a report to Warsaw by it.
[Siberian typhus]
The Bolsheviks left louses and terrible Siberian typhus, from which our colleagues began to suffer in mass. The typhus took the camp and was making a huge devastation. The authorities rubbed their hands, quietly contemplating that ally in doing prisoners away.
Then we began, in HKB laboratory, to rear typhus louses and to set them free upon overcoats of SS-men, during each report and inspections of our blocks.
[Denunciation mailboxes]
In block 15 a mail box was hanged outdoor and it was announced in all blocks that letters should be dropped into that box - signed or not - all denunciations of conversations eavesdropped in blocks. For a denunciation important for the camp authorities, the prisoner was to be awarded. They wanted to become protected against the activity of our organisation. Anonymous letters and denunciations showered. Then we, though captain 88 had opened the box in the evening and perused the dropped reports, before Palitch opened it at 10:00 p.m. We destroyed the dangerous, inconvenient reports and we dropped our reports against harmful individuals. A paper fight was started.
[Ordered to sing German songs]
In blocks and in the march to our work places we were ordered to sing German songs. Several times the whole camp had to sing during an assembly for the roll-call.
[Erection of gas chambers]
In Brzezinka, gas chambers were being erected in all haste. Some of them were already finished.
[Colonel 62]
That thing, which I had feared in the past - an introduction of officers into the organisation under their actual names, was justified, because in case of any suspicions that an organisation was present here, they would start from officers who present in place. One day, they took colonel 62 and locked him in the prison bunker. He was led each day for inquiry to the political department, from where he returned pale-faced and staggering. Then I was in fear of various complications. After more than two weeks, colonel 62 approached me when I was with my colleague 59 and said: "Well, congratulate me, I was released. They asked if there was any organisation in the camp." Bidding me good-bye, as a sleep-time gong was sounding, he said: "Don't fear, I didn't say a word. I will tell you tomorrow." But tomorrow colonel 62 was taken away and sent to Rajsko, apparently so that he could not tell us anything.
Colonel 62 was brave.
[Czech prisoners]
Over one hundred Czechs were delivered. They were educated men only - the "Sokół" organisation. They were placed in our room (block 25, room 7). They were done away at high rate. I entered in organisational contact with their representative 89 (he is alive and he is in Prague).
Upon agreement with colonel 64, I show my friend, whom I trusted much, lieutenant 29, all our cells in the camp. I do it in case of some misfortune with me. Lieutenant 29 reports to colonel 64 that we visited 42 cells.
Some day, from the base camp Auschwitz I, a number of Silesians (70-80) is moved to Birkenau (a rumour was spread that to be done away), among them my friend 45. Since the preceding evening he was disturbed, as he apprehended something he trembled all over his body in the night. He asked me to deliver information of him to his wife and his small son, Dyzma. He did not return from Rajsko. All the Silesians from that group were done away there. Some of them had been here from the beginning of the camp and they thought that they would survive. Since that time, Silesians who remained in the camp began to be decidedly inclined to work against Germans.
[Bloody Alois again: "What? Are you still alive?"]
Some morning, while visiting colleagues of my work, I was in block 5 (new numbering) and running quickly to the rol-call along a then empty corridor, I faced the "Bloody Alois", who recognized me, although more than one year had passed. He stopped and cried with some surprise and at the same time with joy incomprehensible for me: “Was? Du lebst noch?” , he grasped my hand and shook it. What should I do? I did not tear myself free. Strange man he was. Out of the blood-thirsty fellows of the initial times, to which he belonged also, several were already dead.
[Potyomkin-style inspections of the camp]
The camp authorities, before some commissions visiting the camp (which included some men in civilian clothes) wanted to show the camp in as good light as possible. They were led to new blocks and only there, where beds were in place. The kitchen cooked a good dinner on such a day. The orchestra played beautifully. Only commandos strong and in good health, as well as shop men returned after work to the camp. The rest of commandos - the "zugangs" and others of lamentable appearance - were waiting in the field for the departure of a commission, which had a quite pleasant impression of the camp. The need to show the camp from a better side forced the authorities to move some butchers of the initial months, especially those unpopular, into another camp, among them Krankenmann and Sigrud. Upon loading them into railway vans, the SS-men who supervised the work of prisoners in that station, gave prisoners to understand they had nothing against a revenge of prisoners on them. The prisoners did not need more. They invaded the vans and hanged Krankenmann and Sigrud on their own belts. The SS-man in that time - turned away to another side - did not interfered. In this way the butchers died.
Each witness of murders sanctioned by the camp authorities was inconvenient, even if he was a German capo. So those two were witnesses no more.
[The conspiracy organisation]
The organisation was constantly expanding. Together with colleague 59 we achieved the joining of colonel 23, lieutenant-colonel 24 and new men 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95. Our wonderful man 44 took care of many colleagues, he also gave me his food, as he himself earned on portraying somebody of the authorities and for that he received food for himself.
A transport from Warsaw (March 1942) again delivered many my friends and news of what was on at our place. Major 85 came, most honourable fellow 96 who set up a record of beating in the Szucha Avenue and in Pawiak. They informed me that colonel 1 was arrested again and placed in Pawiak. It was colonel 1 who sent colleague 96 to me. I placed him through colleague 97, who had just joined our work, in his commando.
Parallel we were developing in two other directions, by recruiting 98 and 99 in the construction office and 100 and 101 in the hospital. In that time professor 69 died.
As upon two huge pillars, out organisation was supported upon two institutions: the HKB and Arbeitsdients. When it was necessary to save somebody of our men from a transportation and to put him under the roof, or to take somebody out of a commando where he began to go into bad books or where some scoundrel was keeping his eye upon him, or a new fragment of work was to be introduced to some commando, then we went to doctor 2 and said: "Dziunek, number ... will come to you tomorrow, you shall accept him to the hospital for some time." It was settled also through doctor 102. When it had already occurred and when in the understanding of a capo the prisoner was doomed after all, as very few returned from the hospital, then we went to 68 and said: "Give a note for no... to commando X", or sometimes, with positive result, to 103, and the matter was settled.
In this way we prepared the escape of 25 and 44. Both of them were first-class people and both of them were here for weapon. Their cases were proved and they would be executed for sure. The question was how quickly Grabner's eye would run upon their cases. By some wonder, both of them were still alive. 44 painted portraits of SS-men and - perhaps therefore - his case was laid aside. But it could not last for a long time.
In the way I described above, in February 1942 we transferred 25 to the "Harmensee” commando - that of fish ponds several kilometres from the camp, where prisoners worked with fish and lived there. Much later, 44 went there and on that day when he arrived with a message for 25 from me, not to wait for me but to flee, both of them "bolted" away. They escaped from a small house by a window, carrying my report to Warsaw.
In the kingdom of Erich Gr鰊ke, the tannery, the commando of sculptures and chosen carpenters was in crisis. Tadek Myszkowski who substituted a capo, was in a difficult situation. The mild sight of Konrad who delighted the beauty of art, was replaced by malicious and penetrating sight of a wildcat Erich. Soon, desiring to destroy what had been created by Konrad and calling the existence of the sculpture studio a luxury, Erich dissolved the sculpture studio and ordered us to make spoons. And he gave us the "scooter" capo, a malicious idiot. He ordered carpenters, who had been employed in production of artistic caskets, to make cupboards and trivial things. In the spoon shop we made 5 spoons a day, later 7 and at last 12.
The former member of parliament, 104, worked there in that time. Then I recruited to the organisation colleagues 105, 106 and 107 - a former soldier of my partisan unit (of 1939) - 108 and second lieutenant 109, 110, 111. Out of those who painted toys made by us, where (shortly before a bunker) colonel 62 worked, officer-cadett 62 joined our organisation, recommended by released captain 8.
We penetrated all commandos, but we were unable to get to one of them. At last, in February (1942), when I was “kommandiert” and I returned lately to the camp, upon my return to the block I was informed by 61 that 68 had come. The "Funkstelle" needed two cartographers - draughtsmen of maps. 61 gave his number and that of our former commodore 113. After several days it turned out that the commodor's hand is unsteady, so we moved him to SS-men's potato shop where he had good food secured and I contrived to get to his place in the "Funkstelle" (in agreement with 52 of the wood-carvers' shop).
We worked with 61 with maps for several weeks. In that time - having been informed of the situation thanks to 77 - I succeeded at last in getting from there, where in addition to work of SS-men at the station also some courses were held, some missing lamps and other parts for which we had hunted for long time without result.
[Conspiracy radio transmitter]
Out of replacement spare parts, to which our prisoners had access, after seven months we had our own transmitting radio station which was operated by second lieutenant 4 in a place where SS-men used to go in very reluctantly.
In autumn 1942 a bit too long tongue of one of our colleagues caused us to disassemble our radio station. We transmitted news repeated by other radio stations, about the number of "zugangs" and deaths in the camp, the state and conditions in which prisoners were kept. The authorities went mad, made searches, ripped off floors in shops of the "Industriehof I" and in storerooms. Because we transmitted rarely, at various hours, it was difficult to detect us. At last the authorities gave up their searches in the camp proper and moved them on areas outside the camp, in the region of Oświęcim. They explained the detailed information transmitted from the camp, by contacts with an outside organisation through civilian workers. Searches were done in the Gemeinschaftslager .
[Contacts through civilian population]
But the contact through civilian population really existed. The way to us led through contacts with civilian population (among which there were external members of the organisation) in Brzeszcze and through the Gemeinschaftslager by those who worked for us, being formally our authority. A way led also to Buna though contacts with civilian workers.
In this way I delivered "to freedom" also a file of German code abbreviations taken out from the “Funkstelle", so called. “Verkehrsabkürzungen” .
[My colleague 59. Heinrich Himmler's inspection. German commission poured with water.]
From freedom we received medicines and anti-typhus injections. From one side, doctor 2 worked upon that, from another side - my colleague 59. He was an interesting fellow. He used to do everything "in a cheerful spirit" and he succeeded in everything. He rescued, he fed several colleagues in his room and in the tannery, until he got them recovered so that they were able to take care of themselves. He always sheltered somebody in the tannery. He went to all lengths, bravely, with full impudence, where someone else would melt into thin air. Tall, broad shoulders, bright face and great heart.
Some day, Heinrich Himmler with some commission arrived, while 59 was room supervisor in block 6 (old numbering) and was instructed how to report to Himmler, before whom everybody was shaking. When that solemn moment occurred and Himmler came into the room, 59 stood before him and... said nothing. And then he laughed, and Himmler laughed also. Perhaps he was rescued by that, that Himmler was accompanied by two civilian gentlemen and such mild treatment of a prisoner made him a necessary publicity of his attitude to prisoners
Another time, in the tannery, 59 saw in the yard by the window a commission, which visited shops and was going towards the door through which it was to enter the main hall where tanners were working, he snatched a rubber hose and, while supposedly cleaning up, pouring water to walls and floor, he poured water purposefully and precisely on the commission composed of German officers. Pretending to be enormously terrified, he threw the hose on the floor, stood at attention... and, again, nothing wrong happened to him.
When columns of prisoners were returning to the camp, perturbed by dark thoughts, then suddenly 59 in a loud voice gave Polish words of command and counted aloud: raz, dwa, trzy...
Surely, he had also some faults, but who has not any of them? Anyway, he always had many friends and supporters around him. He impressed them and he would be able to lead many of them.
[Releases stopped in March 1942. The camp orchestra.]
The last releases in 1942 were in March, in which several colleagues from the orchestra were released, as the commander who - as I mentioned - liked music, obtained a consent of authorities in Berlin that he would be allowed to release several musicians of the orchestra each year. The orchestra was instructed: whoever would try to play well, he would be released, so the orchestra played beautifully. The commander delighted in the music. But those, who were less necessary in the orchestra, were released each year.
After March, all over the year 1942, there were no releases due to very undesirable presence at freedom of any witnesses of Oświęcim, especially of those of what began to occur in Oświęcim in that year.
[Creation of women's camp. Gas chambers in operation. Massacre of Polish women.]
First women: prostitutes and criminals from German prisons were delivered to Oświęcim. to a part of the camp separated from us by a high wall and they were appointed an educational staff for women who were to be transported here soon, for honest women - "ordinary offenders".
In Brzezinka, in already finished gas chambers, first mass gassings of people were started.
On 19 March 1942, 120 women, Poles, were delivered. They smiled to prisoners who entered the camp in columns. After an inquiry, or perhaps after some special treatment which nobody was able to specify, in the evening of that day, some corpses cut into pieces, heads, hands, breasts cut off, mutilated dead bodies, were carried by carts to the crematorium.
[The new crematorium: "Three-minute electric combustion"]
The old crematorium was not able to burn dead bodies from our central camp in addition to dead bodies from Rajsko (the chimney erected in 1940 had split and got shattered by continuous vapours out of the dead bodies. A new one was erected). So the dead bodies were buried in wide trenches, with the help of commandos composed of Jews. Two new crematoriums of electric combustion were being erected in a hurry in Birkenau.
Technical specifications were done in the construction office. By words of a colleague from that office, each crematorium had eight stands, two corpses to be put into each stand. Three-minute electric combustion. Plans were sent to Berlin. Upon confirmation, they returned with an order to complete, initially until February the first, then the time limit was prolonged up to March the first - and in March they were ready. Then the factory began to operate at full capacity. An order came to erase all traces of previous murders. So, they began to unearth the dead bodies buried in the trenches, there were tens of thousands of them.
The dead bodies were in decay. Near those great common graves being opened, there was terrible fustiness. Some bodies, buried previously, were then being unearthed while working in gas masks. An amount of work in the whole hell on Earth was huge. New transports were gassed in the rate of over one thousand victims a day. The dead bodies were burnt in the new crematoriums.
Cranes were engaged to unearth dead bodies, they drove huge iron claws into the decaying corpses. Here and there, some stinky pus was ejected in small fountains. Clusters of corpses torn out of entanglements of dead bodies and extracted manually were carried to huge stacks, which were composed of wood and of remnants of people by turns. Those stacks were set on fire. Sometimes, even gasoline was not stinted to start burning. The stacks were burning day and night for two and half months, disseminating the stench of burnt meet and human bones around Oświęcim.
Commandos engaged for that work were composed exclusively of Jews, who lived for two weeks only. Upon that time limit they were gassed and their bodies were burnt by other Jews, newly arrived and included into work commandos. They did not know then, that they had only two weeks of life left, they hoped to live further.
[Beautiful chestnut and apple trees were blooming...]
Beautiful chestnut and apple trees were blooming... Especially in that time, in spring, our slavery was resented most hardly. When during our march in a column, which kicked up dust over an old road to the tannery, we saw a beautiful sunrise, beautifully rosy flowers in orchards in on trees by the road or when on our return we met young couples walking about and imbibing the charm of the spring, or we met women who quietly perambulated their babies, then a thought was born, rattled somewhere in your head, vanished somewhere and again sought some solution or an answer to the question: "Are we all people?" Both these ones walking among flowers and those ones walking to gas chambers? And also those who marched next to us with bayonets, and also we, the doomed ones for several years?
[Transports of women]
First bigger transports of women were delivered and located in fenced blocks (numbers 1 to 10, new numbering). Soon, transports of women began to come in one by one. German, Jew and Polish women were arriving. All of them were put in charge of the staff composed of criminal element - of prostitutes and criminal women. Except for German women, hairs on heads and bodies of all of them were cut. This operation was done by our hairdressers - men. Curiosity of hairdressers who were thirsting for women and a sensation, quickly changed into tiredness due to constantly unsatisfied lust and disgust out of surfeit.
Women were placed in the same conditions as men prisoners. But they did not experience the methods of so quick doing away of people as we did in the first year of the existence of the camp, as also in our place, in the camp for men, methods had changed. But they were done away in the field by rain, cold, work, to which they were not accustomed, by lack of any opportunity to rest and by standing at attention on roll-calls.
Every day we met the same columns of women, we crossed each other on our way in various directions to work. Some figures, heads ad nice faces were known by sight. The women initially kept courageous, soon they lost the lustre of their eyes, smile of their lips and vigour of movements. Some of them still kept smiling, but more and more sadly. Their faces turned grey, animal hunger appeared in their eyes - they became to be "muslims". We began to notice the absence of known figures in their fives.
Columns of women walking to be done away at work were escorted by pseudo-people dressed in heroic uniforms of German soldiers and a heard of dogs. At work, in the field, a hundred of women were guarded by one "hero" with several dogs. The women were weak and they could only dream of a escape.
[A change of policy: phenol injection instead of killing with a spade or stick]
Since the spring of 1942 we were surprised by the view of all "muslims" willingly accepted to HKB, who, by the old custom, used to stand in a group by the kitchen for an inspection. Later nobody stood in a group, all of them went at once to HKB to block 28 (new numbering), where they were willingly accepted without any further ado.
-It grew better in the camp - prisoners talked to one another - no beating, you can be accepted to the hospital.
And, indeed, in the hospital, each bed contained several ill persons laid in it, but new ill persons were still willingly accepted. And only SS-man Josef Klehr used to go around and put down the numbers of weaker prisoners. It was thought they would be given an additional portion of food for recovery. Later, the numbers put down were read and those prisoners went to block 20 (new numbering). Soon the same numbers could be seen in the daily stacks of dead bodies laid in front of the hospital (each prisoner accepted to the hospital had his large-size number on his chest, written with indelible pencil, to avoid troubles with post-mortem identification upon the preparation of a long list of those dead and murdered).
They were done away with phenol - it was a new way.
Yes, the picture of Oświęcim was changed radically. Then you could see (at least on the area of the base camp itself) neither breaking of heads to pieces by a spade, nor killing by knocking down a plank into one's intestines, nor crushing of crushing of the chest of a lying strengthless prisoner; there were no ribs broken by the pressure of the body of degenerated butchers who jumped with their heavy boots upon the chest of a prisoner. At that time, quietly and in silence, prisoners undressed stark naked, numbers, noted down in HKB by a German doctor of SS, stood in the corridor of block 20 (new numbering) and patiently awaited their turn. They came in individually behind a curtain into bath, where they were beaten on a chair. Two butchers wrenched their arms backward, throwing out their chests forward, and Klehr made a phenol injection with a long needle just in their hearts.
In the beginning, an intravenous injection was applied but the delinquent lived on after it too long - for several minutes - so, in order to save time, the system was changed and injection was done straight into the heart, then the prisoner lived for several seconds only. The fluttering half-dead corpse was thrown into a neighbouring room by the wall, and a next number came in. Indeed, this way of murder was much more intelligent but horrible in its coulisse. All those standing in the corridor knew what was in store for them. When going along the row, you could see your acquaintances and you told them "Hello Johnny" or "hello Stan, you today, me perhaps tomorrow".
They were not exclusively those seriously ill or exhausted. Some were here only because Klehr did not like them and put them down in the "needle list", there was no way out.
The butchers were also different than in the beginning of the camp; nevertheless I do not know if they may be called degenerates. Klehr used to murder with his needle with great zeal, mad eyes and sadistic smile, he put a stroke on the wall after the killing of each victim. In my times, he brought the list of those killed by him up to the number fourteen thousand and he boasted every day with great delight, like a hunter who told of the trophies of the chase.
A bit less number, that is about four thousand, were done away by prisoner Pańszczyk who volunteered to drive injections in the hearts of his colleagues.
Klehr had an accident. One time, having served all from the injection queue, he as usually came into the room where bodies of the dying prisoners were thrown in, in order to delight in the picture of his daily job, one of the "dead bodies" revived (apparently there was some inaccuracy in the job and he got too little phenol), got up and staggering, walking upon dead bodies of colleagues, swaying like a drunk man, he began to approach Klehr, saying: “Du hast mir zu wenig gegeben - gib mir noch etwas!”
Klehr turned pale but not loosing his self-control, he assailed him. Here a mask of the sham culture of the butcher fell off - he put out his revolver and without any shot, as he did not wish to make noise, he did away his victim, beating his heat with the butt of his revolver.
Room supervisors in HKB reported every day of those who had died in their rooms. One time an incident occurred (I know at least one, maybe there were more of them) that the room supervisor made a mistake and reported a still living number in place of a really dead one. The report went to the main chancellery. In fear of removal from his position and for the sake of peace, that criminal ordered an ill person, who was a "zugang" unaware what was going on, to get up and to stand in the queue for Klehr's injection. One man more made no difference to Klehr. In this way, the room supervisor compensated his error as both people, he who died in his room and he who got the needle from Klehr, were dead bodies already. The report was consistent as the number of this one who died in room was added later.
But we had in the hospital many room supervisors who were very good Poles.
[Re-numberings]
Two times there was a change of numbers necessary for us, which was done smoothly and with no harm to anybody. In the time of high mortality out of typhus, when dead bodies were thrown out from several blocks in mass, we rescued two our men introduced to the hospital block, who were charged serious cases, by writing their numbers on dead bodies and giving the numbers of those dead bodies to them, while taking care if cases of those dead ones in the political department were not too serious. We succeeded to place them, equipped with suddenly changed public register data, surnames, names (given by colleagues from the main chancellery) in Birkenau just from the hospital. They were still unknown there, new numbers, zugangs, the case got slurred and it was fully successful.
[Plan of a military action]
The organisation continued to develop. I suggested to colonel 64 to appoint my friend lieutenant 85 the supreme military commander in case of an action, for whom I had planned such position in the past in the conspiracy of 1940 in Warsaw. Colonel 64 willingly agreed. "Bohdan" knew the site around, sometimes, years before, he had commanded a battery of 5 DAK.
I decided then, what colonel 64 approved, to develop a plan of a possible action depended on tasks to be fulfilled, of which we found four basic ones. It was due to that we had to solve in two ways our plan of getting the camp under control, to which, according to the final task of our work here, we wanted to prepare our organised units. Otherwise if it was a workday, otherwise if in the night or on a holiday when we were in blocks. Also, because then we had not yet lived all by whole commandos in blocks. So, there were other contacts, connections and commanders present at work, while other ones in the blocks. Therefore the plan should be based on an outline of basic actions while in order to execute them, each action should be elaborated separately.
There emerged the need to make appointments for the four positions of commanders. So I proposed colonel 60 to one of them, captain 11 to the second post, second lieutenant 61 to the third post and captain 115 to the fourth post. Lieutenant-colonel 64 and major 85 agreed with us.
At last, with the help of colleague 59 and after some longer talks with strong stress put on the need of unity and the need to persist in silence even if some of us would be placed in the bunker and examined by butchers of the political department, colonel 23 and lieutenant-colonel 24 joined us and became subordinated.
A first-class Pole - Silesian and my colleague 76, worked very efficiently in his section and supplied our ranks with underwear, uniforms, sheets and blankets from his store. He gave employment to many out colleagues, among them a colleague from Warsaw, lieutenant 117 and 39.
Colleague 118 and cavalry sergeant major 119 join our organisation. My old colleague from my Work in Warsaw, doctor 120 comes in a transport from Kraków.
A bomb factory was detected near Kraków. Those people were carried here and done away quickly. Doctor 120 succeeded somehow to wriggle out; he was further transported to another camp.
[To get rid of informers. The 'Volksdeutche']
Sometimes the camp authorities sent their informers to us. Some volksdeutch pretending to be a Pole, who agreed to work for Grabner, wanted to detect something at our place; before or just after his arrival to us he was announced by our colleagues who had some contacts with SS-men. Such a gentleman received croton oil procured by us from the hospital, which was smartly added to his food and soon afterwards his stomach got such disordered that he ran quickly to HKB to get some medicine. There, people forewarned of that scoundrel (and having his number put down), upon his arrival gave him some drops of croton oil in a harmless medicine. After several days he was so weak that he went to HKB again, where he, recumbent, received a supposedly indispensable injection, harmless in itself if not done with a rusty needle.
Two other cases had more flavour of a sensation. In the former one, when such gentleman had already been placed in HKB, his lungs were X-rayed and the picture shown open tuberculosis (it was not a picture of his lungs). On the next day, when Klehr inspected the rooms, it was presented to him as a TBS case. It sufficed; he put down his number. That gentleman was unaware, but when he was led to the needle he began to fling about and to make threats of Grabner. The latter case was nearly identical, but he was a newcomer to the camp and while going to the needle he knew nothing and made no threats of Grabner to anybody. He was unexpectedly done away with a needle.
Nevertheless, soon afterwards a great rumble arose as Grabner had no reports from them for a long time and, searching where they were, he discovered they had long before gone off in a cloud of smoke and, what was more, that his man, Klehr, had done them away. There was an inquiry in the whole hospital, how it could be that those two gentlemen had been made away so quickly. From that time Klehr, prior to needling away, was obliged to send the list of victims to Grabner, who searched carefully if it contained any of his collaborators.
Thus the Easter came.
[Done away by typhus]
I still lived in block 25, room 7. To compare the state of the room with that of Christmas Eve, it had to be stated that many friends were alive no more. We were terribly done for by typhus. All around were ill. As little as several of us, old friends, held ourselves. Who went for typhus, he returned rarely. But also our little, bred louses were doing their job and typhus broke up also in the barracks of SS-men and an epidemic grew up. Doctors could hardly cope with Siberian typhus, but organisms of SS-men also. The ranks of SS-men suffered more and more losses. They were sent to the hospital in Katowice, where SS-men died in most cases.
[Transports to Mauthausen]
In June, a transport from Oświęcim to Mauthausen wet off. Colonel 64 went in that transport (although he could be exempted), as he said, to try an escape on the way (what was not effected). Also, officer-cadett 15, cavalry sergeant-major 119 and second lieutenant 67. Before his departure, colonel 64 advised me to propose colonel 121 to replace him, what I did. Colonel 121 agreed, joined us and we continued our work in concert. Additionally, colonel 122 joined us. In that time colonel 23 and former member of parliament 70 were executed.
After the erection of two initial electric-burning crematoriums, the erection of next two similar ones were started. In that time the former ones were operating at full capacity. While transports were coming in all the time...
Part of prisoners were delivered to us, to the camp, and here they were recorded and numbers were assigned to them, as high as above 40 thousand, but the vast majority went directly to Brzezinka where people were being processed quickly into ash and smoke unrecorded. In the average, about one thousand corpses were burnt per day in that time.
[Transports of Jews from all over Europe]
Who was going just into the jaws of death, and why?
Jews were going from Bohemia, France, the Netherlands and other countries of Europe. They went alone, unescorted, and only about ten to twenty kilometres from Oświęcim the vans were guarded, and they were delivered to a side-track, to Brzezinka.
Why did they go? I had an opportunity to talk to Jews of France several times and one time with a transport from Poland, which was rare to be met here. It was a transport of Jews from Białystok and Grodno. From what they told me unanimously it might be concluded, that they were arriving due to official announcements in various cities and states under German rule, from which it appeared that only those Jews would live on, who would go to work in the Third Reich. So they went to work in the Third Reich. All the more, they were encouraged by letters written by Jews from Oświęcim and perhaps from other camps, that they worked in good conditions and did well.
They had the right to take a hand luggage - what they were able to carry by themselves. So some of them took two suitcases, in which they tried to carry all their property, having sold their immovables and movables and having purchased some small and valuable things, for instance gold, gold dollars...
Railway transports, which were carrying about one thousand people a day, ended their route in the side-track. Trains were brought to platforms and their content was unloaded. Interesting, what thoughts were in the heads of SS-men?
There were many women and children in the vans. Sometimes, there were children in cradles. Here all of them were to end their lives collectively.
They were carried like a herd of animals to be slaughtered.
Meanwhile, not apprehending anything and upon an order, the passengers got out to the platform. To avoid troublesome scenes, some relative politeness was kept in relation to them. They were ordered to put their food in one stack, while all their things - in another. It was told the things would be returned. First apprehensions arose by the passengers, whether they would not loose their things, whether they would find their ones, whether their suitcases would not be interchanged....
Then they were divided into groups. Men and boys above 13 went into one group, women with children - into another. Under the pretext of a necessary bathing, they were all ordered to undress in two separate groups, to preserve some appearances of the feeling of shame. Both groups put their clothes into big stacks, supposedly to deliver them to disinfection. Then an anxiety was more visible, whether their clothes would not be lost, whether their underwear would not be interchanged.
Then, in hundreds, women with children separately, men separately, they went into huts which supposedly were baths (while they were gas chambers!). There were windows from the outside only - fictitious, inside there was a wall only. Upon the closure of sealed door, a mass murder was conducted inside.
From a balcony - a gallery, an SS-man in a gas mask dropped gas upon the heads of a crowd gathered under him. Two kinds of gas were used: in cylinders, which broke, or in disc which, having opened an air-tight can and dropped it by an SS-man in rubber gloves, turned into volatile state and filled the gas chamber, killing the gathered people quickly. It lasted several minutes. They waited for ten minutes. Then it was aired, chamber doors opposite to the platform were opened and commandos composed of Jews carried still warm corpses in wheel-barrows and carts to nearby crematorium where the corpses were burnt quickly.
In that time next hundreds went to the gas chambers. In future, technological improvements were implemented in that slaughter-house for people, upon the implementation of which the process ran more quickly and efficiently.
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发表于 2008-10-19 11:28:31
RZYPOMNIJMY O ROTMISTRZU\") initiative, by Jacek Kucharski