Commandant of Auschwitz

by Rudolf Hoess

  Nevertheless, I found little sympathy for my views.

  They only obeyed because they knew that I was watching them, and they cursed “the old man’s bad temper.” If I wanted to carry out my task properly, I had to be the engine, tirelessly and ceaselessly pushing on the work of construction and constantly dragging everyone else along with me. Whether SS man or prisoner, it made no difference. ”

  Not only had I to struggle with all the tedious wartime difficulties in connection with construction work, but also, daily and even hourly, with the indifference and sloppiness and lack of co-operation of my subordinates.

  Active opposition is something that can be met head-on and dealt with, but against resistance a man is powerless; it eludes his grasp, even though its presence can be felt everywhere. I had to urge on the reluctant shirkers when there was no alternative by force.

  Before the war, the concentration camps had served the purpose of self-protection, but during the war, according to the will of the Reichsführer SS, they became a means to an end. They were now primarily to serve the war effort, the munitions production. As many prisoners as possible were to become armaments workers. Every commandant had to run his camp ruthlessly with this end in view.

  The intention of the Reichsführer SS was that Auschwitz should become one immense prison-cum-munitions-center.

  What he said during his visit in March of 1941 made this perfectly plain. The camp for 100,000 prisoners of war, the enlargement of the old camp to hold 30,000 prisoners, the earmarking of 10,000 prisoners for the synthetic rubber factory, all this emphasized his point. But the numbers envisaged were at this time something entirely new in the history of concentration camps.

  At that time a camp containing 10,000 prisoners was considered exceptionally large.

  The insistence of the Reichsführer SS that the construction work must be pushed on regardless of all present or future difficulties, many of which were and would be well-nigh insuperable, gave me much food for thought even then.

  The way in which he dismissed the very considerable objections raised by the Gauleiters and by the local authorities was itself enough to indicate that something unusual was afoot.

  I was accustomed to the ways of the SS and of the Reichsführer SS. But his stern and implacable insistence on these orders being carried out as speedily as possible was new even in him. Glücks himself noticed this. And it was I and I alone who was to be responsible for it all. Out of nothing, and with nothing, something vaster than ever before had to be built in the shortest possible time; with these people to work with and, to judge by previous experience, without any help worth mentioning from higher authorities.

  And what was the situation as regards my labor force? What had been happening to the protective custody camp in the meantime?

  The officers of the camp had taken great care to observe the Eicke tradition in their treatment of the prisoners. Fritzsch from Dachau, Palitzsch from Sachsenhausen, and Meier from Buchenwald had competed among themselves in the employment of ever-better “methods” of dealing with the prisoners along the lines laid down by Eicke.

  My repeated instructions that Eicke’s views could be abandoned as hopelessly out of date in view of the new functions of the concentration camps fell on deaf ears.

  It was impossible for their limited minds to forget the principles that Eicke had taught them, for these were admirably suited to their mentality. All my orders and instructions were “turned about” if they ran contrary to these principles.

  For it was not I, but they, who ran the camp. It was they who taught the Capos, from the chief block senior down to the last block clerk, how to behave.

  They trained the block leaders and told them how to treat the prisoners.

  But I have said and written enough on this subject. Against this passive resistance I was powerless.

  This will only be comprehensible and credible to men who have themselves served for years in a protective custody camp.

  I have already described the influence which the Capos generally exercised over the lives of their fellow inmates. This influence was especially noticeable in this concentration camp. It was a factor of decisive importance in Auschwitz-Birkenau where the masses of prisoners could not be supervised. One would have thought a common fate and the miseries shared would have led to a steadfast and unshakable feeling of comradeship and co-operation, but this was far from being the case.

  Nowhere is crass egotism so nakedly self-evident as in prison. And for reasons of self-preservation the harder the life, the crasser that egotism.

  Even people, who in ordinary life outside the camp were at all times considerate and good-natured, became capable, in the hard conditions of imprisonment, of bullying their fellow prisoners mercilessly, if by so doing they could make their own lives a little bit easier.

  More merciless yet was the behavior of those who were naturally egotistical, cold, and even criminally inclined, and who rode roughshod and without pity over the misery of their fellow prisoners when they could thereby gain even the pettiest advantage for themselves. Quite apart from the physical effects of such mean and vile treatment, its psychological results were unspeakably worse for those of their fellow prisoners whose sensibilities had not yet been blunted by the harshness of camp life. The treatment they received from the guards, however brutal, arbitrary, and cruel, never affected them psychologically to the same extent as did this attitude on the part of their fellow inmates.

  The very fact of having to watch helplessly and without any power to intervene, while Capos of this sort tormented their fellows, had a thoroughly crushing effect on the prisoners’ psyche. Woe betide the prisoner who tried to interfere, to stand up for the oppressed! The system of terrorization that prevailed within the prison camp was far too great for any man to take such a risk.

  Why do privileged prisoners and Capos treat their fellow prisoners and fellow sufferers in this fashion? Because they want to make a favorable impression on the guards and supervisors whose attitude is known to them, and to show how well-suited they are to the privileged positions that they hold. And also because of the advantages to be obtained in this way, and which will make their prison existence more pleasant. But such advantages are always obtainable only at the cost of their fellow prisoners.

  However, it is the guards and the supervisors who create the opportunity for such behavior. They do so either out of indifference, since they are too lazy to stop such activities, or else, being themselves base and cruel by nature, they permit it because they enjoy the spectacle provided, and indeed even encourage the bullying, since they derive a satanic pleasure from watching the prisoners torment one another.

  There were many Capos who needed no encouragement. Their mean, brutal, and cowardly natures and their criminal tendencies led them to torment their fellow prisoners both physically and mentally, and even to harass them to death out of pure sadism.

  During my present imprisonment, I have had, and have now, ample opportunity of confirming, from a necessarily personal viewpoint, the truth of what I have just written.

  In no place is the real “Adam” so apparent as in prison. All the characteristics that a prisoner has acquired or affected are stripped from him, everything that is not an essential part of his real being. Prison in the long run compels him to discard all simulation and pretense. He stands naked, as he really is, for better or for worse.

  How did the communal camp life of Auschwitz affect the various categories of prisoner?

  For Germans from the Reich it was no problem, no matter what their category. Almost without exception they held “high” positions, and were thus provided with all the physical necessities of life. Anything they could not obtain officially they would “organize.” This skill in “organization” was indeed shown by all the “high” Capos in Auschwitz, regardless of category or nationality. Their relative success varied only in accordance with their intelligence, daring, and unscrupulousness. Opportunity was never lacking.

 
Once the Jewish Action was under way, there was practically no limit to what a man might obtain for himself. And the senior Capos also had the necessary freedom of movement for this.

  Until early 1942 the largest single group of prisoners were Poles.

  They all knew that they would remain in the concentration camp at least for the duration of the war. Most of them believed that Germany would lose the war and, after Stalingrad, virtually all of them were convinced of this. They were kept fully informed about Germany’s “true position” by the enemy news broadcasts. It was not difficult to listen to these enemy broadcasts, since there were plenty of wireless sets in Auschwitz. They were listened to even in my own house. Furthermore there was ample opportunity with the help of the civilian workers and even of the SS men for the extensive smuggling of letters. There were thus many sources of news. New arrivals also always brought in the latest information with them. Since, according to enemy propaganda, the collapse of the Axis powers was only a matter of time, the Polish prisoners felt in consequence that they had no cause for despair. The only question was: which prisoners would have the luck to survive their imprisonment? It was this uncertainty and fear which, psychologically speaking, made imprisonment so hard for the Pole. He lived in a perpetual state of anxiety as to what might befall him each day. He might at any time be swept away by an epidemic against which his weakened physical condition could offer no resistance. He might suddenly be shot or hanged as a hostage. He might also be unexpectedly brought before a drumhead court-martial in connection with a resistance movement, and condemned to death. He might be shot as a reprisal. He could meet with a fatal accident at work, brought about by someone who bore him a grudge. Hé could die as the result of ill-treatment. And there were many other similar fates perpetually hanging over his head.

  The crucial question was whether he could physically survive in view of the steadily deteriorating diet, the increasingly crowded living quarters, the worsening of the already highly defective sanitary arrangements, and the hard work, which often had to be done in all weathers.

  To this must be added perpetual worry about his family and dependents. Were they still living where he had left them? Had they also been arrested and sent to forced labor somewhere or other? Were they indeed still alive?

  Many were tempted into flight in order to escape from such worries. Flight was not very difficult from Auschwitz, where opportunities for escape were innumerable. The necessary preparations were easily made, and it was a simple matter to avoid or outwit the guards.

  A little courage and a bit of luck were all that was needed.

  When a man stakes everything on one throw, he must also of course reckon that if it goes wrong the result may be his death.

  But these projects of escape always involved the prospect of reprisals, the arrest of family and relations, and the liquidation of ten or more fellow sufferers.[48]

  Many of those who tried to escape cared little about reprisals, and were prepared to try their luck. Once beyond the ring of sentry posts, the local civilian population would help them on their way. The rest was no problem. If they had bad luck, then it was all up with them. One way or another, it was the solution of their problems.

  The other prisoners had to parade past the corpses of those who had been shot while trying to escape, so that they would all see how such an attempt might end. Many were frightened by this spectacle, and abandoned their plans as a result.

  But there were others who did not hesitate to make the attempt despite everything, hoping that they would be among the lucky 90 per cent who succeeded.

  What can have passed through the minds of the prisoners as they marched past the corpse of a dead comrade? If I read their expression rightly, I saw horror at his fate, sympathy for the unlucky man, and a determination to exact revenge when the time came.

  I saw the same expression on the faces of the prisoners when they were paraded to watch the hangings. Only terror and a fear lest a similar fate overtake themselves were here more in evidence.

  I must refer here to the court-martial tribunal, and to the liquidation of hostages, since these solely affected the Polish prisoners.

  Most of the hostages had been in the camp for a considerable time, and the fact that they were hostages was unknown both to them and to the camp authorities. Then one day a teletype message would arrive from the Security Police or from the Reich Security Head Office, stating that the prisoners named therein were to be shot or hanged as hostages.

  A report that the executions had been carried out had to be forwarded within a few hours. The prisoners concerned would be taken away from their work or called out during the roll call and placed in custody. Those who had been in the camp for some time usually knew what this meant, or had at least a very shrewd idea.

  The order for their execution was made known to them after they had been arrested. At first, in 1940 and 1941, they were shot by a firing squad. Later they were either hanged or shot in the back of the neck with a small-caliber revolver. The bedridden were liquidated in the hospital building by means of an injection.

  The Kattowitz military court visited Auschwitz every four or six weeks and sat in the punishment cell building.

  The accused prisoners, most of whom were already camp inmates, although some had only recently been sent there for trial, were brought before the tribunal and interrogated through an interpreter concerning their statements and the admissions they had made. All the prisoners whom I saw tried admitted to their actions quite freely, openly, and firmly.

  In particular, some of the women answered bravely for what they had done. In most cases the death sentence was pronounced and carried out forthwith. Like the hostages, they all met their death with calm and resignation, convinced that they were sacrificing themselves for their country. I often saw in their eyes a fanaticism that reminded me of Jehovah’s Witnesses when they went to their death.

  But criminals condemned by the tribunal, men who had taken part in robberies with violence, gang crimes, and so on, died in a very different way. They were either callous and sullen to the last, or else they whined and cried out for mercy.

  The picture here was the same as it had been during the executions in Sachsenhausen: those who died for their ideals were brave, upstanding, and calm, the asocials stupefied or struggling against their fate.

  Although the general conditions in Auschwitz were far from good, none of the Polish prisoners was willingly transferred to another camp. As soon as they heard that they were to be moved, they did everything in their power to be left out of the transport and kept in the camp. When, in 1943, a general order was issued that all Poles were to be taken to camps in Germany, I was overwhelmed by every works department with requests for the retention of prisoners described as indispensable. No one could spare his Poles. Finally the transfer had to be carried out compulsorily, a fixed percentage being moved.

  I never heard of a Polish prisoner voluntarily requesting transfer to another camp. I have never understood the reason for this desire to hang on in Auschwitz.

  There were three main political groups among the Polish prisoners, and the adherents of each fought violently against the others. The strongest was the chauvinistic nationalist group. Each group competed with the others for the most influential posts. When one man managed to obtain an important position in the camp, he would quickly bring in other members of his own group and would remove his opponents from his domain. This was often accomplished by base intrigue. Indeed I dare say that many cases of spotted fever or typhus resulting in death, and other such incidents, could be accounted for by this struggle for power. I often heard from the doctors that this battle for supremacy was always waged most fiercely in the hospital building itself. It was the same story in regard to the control of work. That and the hospital building offered the most important positions of power in the entire life of the camp. Whoever controlled these, ruled the rest. And they did rule too, in no halfhearted fashion. A man who held one of these important posi
tions could see to it that his friends were put wherever he wished them to be. He could also get rid of those he disliked, or even finish them off entirely. In Auschwitz everything was possible. These political struggles for power took place not only in Auschwitz and among the Poles, but in every camp and among all nationalities. Even among the Spanish Communists in Mauthausen there were two violently opposed groups. In prison and in the penitentiary I myself had experienced how right and left wing would fight each other.

  In the concentration camps these enmities were keenly encouraged and kept going by the authorities, in order to hinder any strong combination on the part of all the prisoners. Not only the political differences, but also the antagonisms between the various categories of prisoners, played a large part in this.

  However strong the camp authorities might be, it would not have been possible to control or direct these thousands of prisoners without making use of their mutual antagonisms. The greater the number of antagonisms and the more ferocious the struggle for power, the easier it was to control the camp. Divide et impera! This maxim has the same importance, which must never be underestimated in the conduct of a concentration camp as in high politics.