KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps

by Nikolaus Wachsmann

  126. Kupfer-Koberwitz, Tagebücher, 411; NARA, M-1204, roll 6, examination of A. Ginschel, October 4 and 7, 1946, Bl. 4619–20; Frankl, Ja, 93.

  127. Quote in AdsD, KE, E. Büge, Bericht, n.d. (1945–46), 104.

  128. StAMü, StA Nr. 34588/8, LG Munich, Urteil, October 14, 1960, pp. 3–8; ibid., Nr. 34588/7, Bl. 160–72: LG Munich, Beschluss, May 27, 1960; ibid., Nr. 34588/2, Bl. 95–106: Vernehmung K. Kapp, November 14–16, 1956. Kapp’s time in Dachau was interrupted by a spell in Mauthausen, where he became a Kapo in the quarry. In 1943 he was transferred from Dachau to help establish the satellite camp Augsburg-Haunstetten and the main camp Warsaw.

  129. Testimonies in StAMü, StA Nr. 34588/1; ibid., Nr. 34588/2. See also Zámečník, “Aufzeichnungen,” 204–205.

  130. Buber, Dictators, 216. See also LG Cologne, Urteil, April 20, 1970, JNV, vol. 33, 673; Sofsky, Ordnung, 160–61.

  131. Buggeln, Arbeit, 348, 529; Rousset, Kingdom, 152; Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv, DW 4025830, “Das Lager,” Deutsche Welle, November 20, 1968, Kamiński testimony at 8 minutes and 35 seconds (my thanks to René Wolf for a copy of this program).

  132. Koker, Edge, 289.

  133. Zámečník, “Aufzeichnungen,” 204–205, 225–26; Kaienburg, “‘Freundschaft?,’” 34; Langbein, Menschen, 217–18.

  134. Zarusky, “‘Tötung,’” 81–82; Pingel, Häftlinge, 192–93.

  135. StAMü, StA Nr. 34588/1, Bl. 218–19: Zeugenvernehmung E. Zapf, July 24, 1956; ibid., Nr. 34588/2, Bl. 11–13: Zeugenvernehmung H. Schwarz, August 20, 1956.

  136. Wagner, Produktion, 439, 448; NARA, M-1079, roll 6, examination of C. Jay, August 7, 1947, Bl. 66–67. Thomas and Szymczak were shot in April 1945, shortly before the evacuation of the camp.

  137. Kirsten and Kirsten, Stimmen, 203–207; Naujoks, Sachsenhausen, 198.

  138. For example, see Ambach and Köhler, Lublin-Majdanek, 155.

  139. BArchB, NS 19/4014, Bl. 158–204: Rede vor Generälen, June 21, 1944, Bl. 165. For revenge fantasies, see Szalet, Baracke 38, 354.

  140. Wagner, IG Auschwitz, 120; Sofsky, Ordnung, 162–63.

  141. StAMü, StA Nr. 34588/1, Bl. 29: Zeugenvernehmung A. Daschner, March 2, 1956; ibid., Nr. 34588/7, Bl. 14–16: Vernehmung F. Olah, July 24, 1959.

  142. Sofsky, Ordnung, 164.

  143. StAMü, StA Nr. 34588/7, Bl. 40–43: Vernehmung E. Oswald, September 2, 1959; ibid., Nr. 34588/8, LG Munich, Urteil, October 14, 1960, 21–23; ibid., Nr. 34588/2, Bl. 59–60: Vernehmung P. Hussarek, October 22, 1956.

  144. Ibid., Nr. 34588/2, Bl. 95–106: Vernehmung K. Kapp, November 14–16, 1956; ibid., Nr. 34588/1, Bl. 130–32: Vernehmung K. Kapp, May 11–12, 1956.

  145. For this paradox, see also Sofsky, Ordnung, 167.

  146. Wagner, IG Auschwitz, 119; Kaienburg, “‘Freundschaft?,’” 32; Kautsky, Teufel, 198–201.

  147. Quotes in StAMü, StA Nr. 34588/8, LG Munich, Urteil, October 14, 1960, p. 21; ibid., Nr. 34588/2, Bl. 59–60: Vernehmung P. Hussarek, October 22, 1956.

  148. StAMü, StA Nr. 34588/8, LG Munich, Urteil, October 14, 1960, p. 20–21; ibid., Nr. 34588/2, Bl. 41: Vernehmung W. Neff, October 8, 1956.

  149. StAMü, StA Nr. 34588/8, LG Munich, Urteil, October 14, 1960.

  150. See also Kaienburg, “‘Freundschaft?,’” 43.

  151. BoA, testimony (in German) Irena Rosenwasser, 22.8.1946. See also JVL, JAO, Review of Proceedings, United States v. Weiss, n.d. (1946), 108; LG Augsburg, Urteil, June 28, 1950, JNV, vol. 6, 654–55.

  152. For example, see Rousset, Kingdom, 151–52.

  153. Kielar, Anus Mundi, 304.

  154. Rousset, Kingdom, 135. During wartime, the SS appointed up to three camp elders in each camp; Kogon, Theory, 54.

  155. Kautsky, Teufel, 160.

  156. Maršálek, Mauthausen, 55; 127. See also Adler, “Selbstverwaltung,” 225; Wagner, Ellrich, 76.

  157. There are no exact figures for Germans in the KL system as a whole. Speaking to the Gauleiter on August 3, 1944, Heinrich Himmler, who was well informed about the composition of the KL prisoner population, indicated that some eighteen percent of all inmates were German. In a speech to army generals some six weeks earlier, Himmler put the figure at ten percent. See “Dokumentation. Die Rede Himmlers,” 393; BArchB, NS 19/4014, Bl. 158–204: Rede vor Generälen, June 21, 1944, Bl. 161. In Buchenwald, the proportion of German prisoners had fallen to less than ten percent by summer 1944; Stein, “Funktionswandel,” 180. For Germans as senior Kapos, see Buggeln, Arbeit, 131.

  158. For the perspective of foreign KL prisoners, see Rousset, Kingdom, 148–49.

  159. Quote in Rede bei der SS Gruppenführertagung in Posen, October 4, 1943, IMT, vol. 29, p. 122, ND: 1919–PS.

  160. In autumn 1943, almost three-quarters of the fifty Buchenwald block elders were veterans (with prisoner numbers under five thousand) and all, or almost all, of them were German; ITS, KL Buchenwald GCC 2/versch., Ordner 492, Bl. 109: Aufstellung der Blockältesten, October 21, 1943. On the official language of the KL, see Hansen and Nowak, “Über Leben,” 116, 124.

  161. Müller, “Homosexuelle,” 85–87; Röll, “Homosexuelle,” 99–100; Zinn, “Homophobie,” 83–84.

  162. OdT, vol. 7, 208; Michelsen, “Homosexuelle,” 128; Mußmann, “Häftlinge,” 136; Wagner, Produktion, 410–12; Heger, Männer, 124–25.

  163. Czech, “Prisoner Administration,” 365; OdT, vol. 6, 497; ibid., vol. 7, 46; Kielar, Anus Mundi, 276–77.

  164. Strebel, Ravensbrück, 139, 238–39; Schikorra, Kontinuitäten, 222–23; Erpel, Vernichtung, 49; Tillion, Ravensbrück, 215, 221–22.

  165. For example, see Wagner, IG Auschwitz, 123.

  166. “Bericht Vrba,” 269, 290; Kárný, “Familienlager,” 169; Marszałek, Majdanek, 82.

  167. On main camps, see Siegert, “Flossenbürg,” 36; Kolb, Bergen-Belsen, 75–77; Apel, Frauen, 231–32, 348. On satellite camps, see ibid., 349; Raim, Dachauer, 246–47; Ellger, Zwangsarbeit, 177–89; Glauning, Entgrenzung, 189–90. On camps and ghettos, see Raim, “KZ-Außenlagerkomplexe,” 78; OdT, vol. 8, 260–61; Rabinovici, Jews, 200–201. For the use of the term “gray zone” in the context of Nazi terror, see especially Levi, “Grey Zone.”

  168. Wagner, Produktion, 398, 435; Buggeln, Arbeit, 127, 130–31, 522.

  169. Strebel, Ravensbrück, 237; Oertel, Gefangener, 201.

  170. Kautsky, Teufel, 8–9, 141–45, 160–61, quotes on 142–43. Published in 1946, Kautsky’s book was completed in late 1945; ibid., 13.

  171. Though classified as a Jew for most of his imprisonment, Kautsky—a former union official and the son of the leading German Social Democrat Karl Kautsky—saw himself primarily as a political prisoner.

  172. Quote in “Arbeit unter Berufsverbrechern,” spring 1945, in Niethammer, Antifaschismus, 228. See also Eiden, “Buchenwald,” 221; Eberle, “‘Asoziale,’” 254–55.

  173. Quotes in Siegert, “Flossenbürg,” 459. In Ravensbrück, “green” prisoners were apparently underrepresented among female block elders; Strebel, Ravensbrück, 235.

  174. Levi, If, 97–98; idem, “Resistance,” 1965, in Belpoliti, Levi, 18.

  175. Even among the state prisoners handed over as “asocial” to the SS in 1942–43, violent criminals were far outnumbered by small-time thieves; Wachsmann, Prisons, 132–37, 284–96.

  176. Renouard, Hölle, 30, 160; Tillion, Ravensbrück, 180.

  177. LaB, B Rep 058, Nr. 3850, Bl. 153–60: Schwurgericht Berlin, Urteil, March 1, 1948; ibid., Bl. 53–55: Vernehmung B. Frohnecke, March 28, 1947. Quote in ibid., Bl. 10: Vernehmung Heinz J., November 22, 1946.

  178. For example, see Kwiet, “‘Leben,’” 237; BoA, interview with J. Bassfreund, September 20, 1946.

  179. Most recently, see OdT, vol. 5, 135–36.

  180. LG Frankfurt, Urteil, June 14, 1968, JNV, vol. 29, 447, 500–503; Wagner, IG Auschwitz, 114–15, 120–21. Other notorious Kapos include Arno Böhm (Nr. 8), the camp elder of the family camp, Bruno Brodniewicz (Nr. 1), the first Auschwitz camp elder, and his deputy
Leo Wietschorek (Nr. 30); Kárný, “Familienlager,” 168; Strzelecka and Setkiewicz, “Construction,” 65.

  181. HHStAW, Abt. 461, Nr. 37656, Bd. 32, Vernehmung J. Lechenich, April 25, 1968, quote on 10; LG Frankfurt, Urteil, June 14, 1968, JNV, vol. 29, 484; Strzelecka and Setkiewicz, “Construction,” 65; Czech, Kalendarium, 318; Świebocki, Resistance, 158.

  182. DAP, Vernehmung O. Küsel, August 3, 1964, 13909–18, 13953–54; Świebocki, Resistance, 36–37; Langbein, Menschen, 180–81. Other Kapos pictured in a positive light include Hans Bock (Nr. 5) and Kurt Pachala (Nr. 24); Strzelecka and Setkiewicz, “Construction,” 65; Czech, Kalendarium, 233, 383; DAP, Mitschrift beisitzender Richter, 7646 (May 14, 1964).

  183. Quote in Gutterman, Bridge, 154.

  184. OdT, vol. 3, 333; Hartewig, “Wolf,” 952–54; Langbein, Widerstand, 36; Neurath, Gesellschaft, 223–24. Even in Gross-Rosen, a camp often described as controlled by “greens,” important Kapo posts went to German political prisoners; Spenger, Groß-Rosen, 140, 290.

  185. Niethammer, Antifaschismus, 38–41.

  186. DaA, 14.444, Die Vergessenen, Nr. 3, July 1946, pp. 2, 6, 17–18, quote on 7; ibid., 9438, A. Hübsch, “Insel des Standrechts” (1961), 186–87, 200, 223, 236; Gross, Zweitausend, 237–38.

  187. Langbein, Widerstand, 139–41; Niethammer, Antifaschismus, 299.

  188. On “green” blocks, see StAMü, StA Nr. 34588/1, Bl. 29: Aussage A. Daschner, March 2, 1956; ITS, KL Buchenwald GCC 2/versch., Ordner 492, Bl. 109: Aufstellung der Blockältesten, October 21, 1943. The spatial separation of “green” and “red” prisoners reflected SS orders; IfZ, WVHA-D to LK, September 22, 1943, ND: PS-3685.

  189. Wagner, Produktion, 436; Buggeln, Arbeit, 527; Fings, Krieg, 174.

  190. Siedlecki et al., Auschwitz, 9. See also Levi, If, 98.

  191. Buggeln, Arbeit, 557–58.

  192. Quote in BArchB, NS 19/4014, Bl. 158–204: Rede vor Generälen, June 21, 1944, Bl. 168. See also Sofsky, Ordnung, 158–59; Broszat, Kommandant, 126; Buggeln, Arbeit, 237.

  193. Quote in NAL, HW 16/11, WVHA-D to Flossenbürg, November 4, 1942. See also Naujoks, Leben, 333–40; Selbmann, Alternative, 358–71.

  194. BArchL, B 162/7996, Bl. 360–64: Vernehmung R. Gottschalk, November 14, 1960.

  195. Quote in Gross, Zweitausend, 238. Gross, a former priest who supported the dissident Confessing Church, had arrived in Dachau in 1940; Laqueur, Schreiben, 104–107.

  196. Quote in Tauke, “Häftlingskrankenbauten,” 36. See also Ley, “Kollaboration.”

  197. Lifton, Doctors, 218–21; Dirks, “Verbrechen,” 312–13.

  198. Cohen, Abyss, 90–91, 100.

  199. For injections, see Ambach and Köhler, Lublin-Majdanek, 179, 190.

  200. BArchL, B 162/21846, Bl. 167–254: W. Neff, “Recht oder Unrecht,” n.d.; Klee, Auschwitz, 220–22.

  201. Lifton, Doctors, 215–16, quote on 221; Cohen, Abyss, quote on 97. See also Fabréguet, Mauthausen, 197–98.

  202. DAP, Aussage J. Weis, November 6, 1964, quote on 24264; ibid., Mitschrift beisitzender Richter, November 6 and 12, 1964, 24269–75.

  203. Quote in Langbein, Menschen, 245.

  204. Adler et al., Auschwitz, 105.

  205. Hartewig, “‘Wolf,’” quote on 946; Niethammer, Antifaschismus, 517. Thiemann’s confession did not harm his career in the GDR, where he reached senior positions in the Stasi.

  206. BArchL, B 162/21846, Bl. 167–254: W. Neff, “Recht oder Unrecht,” n.d., 221, 227–28, 231, quote on 245; StAMü, StA Nr. 34433, Bl. 206–12: LG München, Protokoll der Sitzung, December 30, 1948. More generally, see Lifton, Doctors, 223; Niethammer, Antifaschismus, 309.

  207. Lifton, Doctors, 242–53; WL, P.III.h. No. 562, Protokoll Dr. Wolken, April 1945, pp. 2–3; JVL, JAO, Review of Proceedings, United States v. Weiss, n.d. (1946), 101.

  208. Adler et al., Auschwitz, 105–106; Strebel, Ravensbrück, 240–41.

  209. Zámečník, Dachau, 327–31; APMO, Proces Höss, Hd 6, Bl. 129–312: Vernehmung O. Wolken, April 17–20, 1945, Bl. 260–61.

  210. Ibid., Bl. 279–83; Świebocki, Resistance, 56–57; Czech, Kalendarium, 792; Adler et al., Auschwitz, 295. Luigi had been brought up a Catholic, the son of an Italian mother and an Italian-Jewish father.

  211. J. Pogonowski to his family, July 14, 1942, in Piper, Briefe, quote on 16; Langbein, Widerstand, 59–60; Todorov, Facing, 54; Świebocki, Resistance, 17–26.

  212. Quote in Ryn and Kłodziński, “Tod,” 290.

  213. See also Buggeln, Arbeit, 501–505.

  214. OdT, vol. 1, 250–51; Zarusky, “‘Tötung,’” 81; Zámečník, Dachau, 334–42; Semprun and Wiesel, Schweigen, 40.

  215. Niethammer, Antifaschismus, 212; Strebel, Ravensbrück, 555; Zámečník, Dachau, 328–29.

  216. Niven, Buchenwald, 18–39, 206–208; Heberer, Children, 189. Zweig was one of twelve prisoners struck from the original transport list and replaced by others. For a fictionalized account, see Apitz, Nackt (first published 1959). In 2012, Zweig sued the director of the Buchenwald memorial to stop him from referring to his case as a “victim swap”; “KZ-Überlebender wehrt sich gegen Begriff des ‘Opfertauschs,’” Süddeutsche Zeitung, February 25, 2012. On adult prisoners protecting children more generally, see Buser, Überleben, 105, 183–91, 275–77.

  217. For this and the previous paragraph, see Kogon, Theory, 206–15 (referring to forty-three, not thirty-seven, Allied agents), quotes on 214, 215; Hessel testimony in Kirsten and Kirsten, Stimmen, 183–87; Sellier, Dora, 324; ODNB, articles 37063 and 35501; Hackett, Buchenwald, 241–42. For Yeo-Thomas, see also Seaman, Bravest.

  218. Świebocki, Resistance, 257, 267–92, quote on 278; Pilecki, Auschwitz, 11, 17, 23.

  219. Lewental, “Gedenkbuch,” quotes on 222, 248; Friedler et al., Zeugen, 243–44.

  220. Didi-Huberman, Bilder, 20–34; Friedler et al., Zeugen, 214–18; Stone, “Sonderkommando”; Deposition of H. Tauber, May 24, 1945, in Piper, Mass Murder, 268. Other photographs taken by Special Squad prisoners have never been found.

  221. Broad, “Erinnerungen,” 192.

  222. APMO, Proces Maurer, 5a, Bl. 113: WVHA-D to LK, March 31, 1944, ND: NO-1554; Naujoks, Leben, 131.

  223. Wagner, Produktion, 446–49. For one case, which resulted in the execution of twenty-seven Sachsenhausen prisoners, see LG Münster, Urteil, February 19, 1962, JNV, vol. 18, 293–94.

  224. NARA, M-1079, roll 6, examination of H. Iwes, August 12, 1947, Bl. 299; Langbein, Widerstand, 68.

  225. Bárta, “Tagebuch,” 94; JVL, JAO, Review of Proceedings, United States v. Weiss, n.d. (1946), 70–71.

  226. Quote in Buggeln, Arbeit, 325. See also Schalm, Überleben, 308; Wagner, Produktion, 450; Świebocki, Resistance, 17.

  227. DaA, 9438, A. Hübsch, “Insel des Standrechts” (1961), 209.

  228. Warmbold, Lagersprache, 286; Langbein, Widerstand, 59.

  229. Quotes in AdsD, KE, E. Büge, Bericht, n.d. (1945–46), 97; ITS, doc. 4105401#1.

  230. For example, see APMO, Proces Höss, Hd 5, Bl. 24–38: testimony of Dr. B. Epstein, April 7, 1945, Bl. 32–33.

  231. Hesse and Harder, Zeuginnen, 146–205; Strebel, Ravensbrück, 535–36; OdT, vol. 1, 247–48; Witte et al., Dienstkalender, 316. Other Jehovah’s Witnesses took a less extreme stance and worked to the satisfaction of the SS.

  232. For another example, see Wagner, Dora, 423–25.

  233. Sobolewicz, Jenseits, 213–21, quote on 219; OdT, vol. 4, 203–206.

  234. Quotes in LULVR, interview No. 117, January 13, 1946; report by N. Iwanska, in Tillion, Ravensbrück, 185. See also Strebel, Ravensbrück, 534.

  235. Jagoda et al., “‘Nächte,’” 200.

  236. Buggeln, Arbeit, 280–81; Świebocki, Resistance, 232.

  237. Maršálek, Mauthausen, 261; BArchB, NS 4/Bu 143, Schutzhaftlager-Rapport, September 15, 1944.

  238. Kaienburg, “KZ Neuengamme,” 39.

  239. Quote in NAL, WO 208/3596, CSDIC, SIR 716, August 9, 1944.

  240. Piper, B
riefe, 13, 46, 52; Świebocki, Resistance, 197, 243–44.

  241. Świebocki, Resistance, 199–202, quote on 199; Pilecki, Auschwitz, quote on 205. Three of the four men survived.

  242. Davis, “Introduction”; Kwiet, “‘Leben,’” 239–41; Kaplan, Dignity, 228.

  243. Świebocki, Resistance, 245.

  244. NAL, WO 208/3596, CSDIC, SIR 716, August 9, 1944; ibid., CSDIC, SIR 741, August 10, 1944. For a similar case, see Langbein, Menschen, 494–500.

  245. The fate of another 331 known escapees from the Auschwitz complex remains unknown; Świebocki, Resistance, 232–33. Prisoners killed during mutinies are not normally included in these figures.

  246. Himmler to Pohl and Glücks, February 8, 1943, in Heiber, Reichsführer!, quote on 236; BArchB, NS 3/426, Bl. 87: WVHA-D to LK, June 20, 1943.

  247. IfZ, F 13/7, Bl. 383–88: R. Höss, “Richard Glücks,” November 1946, Bl. 385–86.

  248. WVHA-D to LK, January 6, 1944, in Tuchel, Inspektion, 193.

  249. BArchB, NS 3/426, Bl. 122–28: Aufgaben und Pflichten der Wachposten, n.d. (1943); APMO, Proces Maurer, 5a, Bl. 126–41: Bilderbuch “Falsch-Richtig” für die Posten im KL-Dienst, n.d., Bl. 140.

  250. JVL, DJAO, United States v. Becker, RaR, n.d. (1947), 29; Fröbe, “Arbeit,” 174 (n. 28); BArchB, NS 3/426, Bl. 135: WVHA-D to LK, August 12, 1943.

  251. NAL, WO 235/301, Bl. 185–87: deposition of A. Lütkemeyer, November 4, 1946.

  252. For interrogations, see BArchL, B 162/7999, Bl. 918–19: WVHA-D to LK, January 26, 1944; ibid., Nr. 7994, Bl. 139–42: WVHA-D, Richtlinien zur Bekanntgabe an die Leiter der politischen Abteilungen, 1944, ND: NO-1553.

  253. AdsD, KE, E. Büge, Bericht, n.d. (1945–46), 90; WL, P.III.h. No. 1174a, Vernehmung R. Kagan, December 8–10, 1959.

  254. For one example, see Angrick and Klein, “Endlösung,” 429.

  255. BArchL, B 162/7999, Bl. 768–937: StA Koblenz, EV, July 25, 1974, Bl. 919–20.

  256. Fackler, “Panoramen,” 251–59, quotes on 252, 254; Maršálek, Mauthausen, 257; NAL, HW 16/19, GPD Nr. 3, KL Mauthausen to WVHA-D, June 23, 1942.

  257. Quote in NAL, WO 208/3596, CSDIC, SIR Nr. 727, August 11, 1944.

  258. For example, see Nansen, Day, 487.