by Helen Burko
“‘Work makes life pleasant,’ the SS women used to joke sadistically, but the work we did was false. Sometimes, we would just move the planks from one place to a second place and then bring them back to the first place. They told us to dig the holes and fill them up again just to keep us busy, so we would suffer, so they would have an excuse to beat us, so we would become so exhausted that we would become candidates for the gas chambers so as to clear the huts for others they brought to take our place.
“All my life,” Hannah breathed deeply, “I was taught to honor my fellow man, not to harm him, and so I taught my students and my own children, who were torn from my hands by the SS men. I never imagined that man’s honor could be trampled and crushed—our honor and our spirits in the camps—under such terrible conditions that it is hard for me to describe them in a human language.
“While I was still a student in high school, I read about cannibals and how primitive man lived in the Stone Age. My grandmother told me stories about devils and ghosts and pirates, and I imagined these were people with big teeth and three eyes in their foreheads, six hands, twisted faces, and that they looked like monsters, but my imagination could never have prepared me for the fact that a normal-looking person, like you and me, could be a monster.
“Hunger and deprivation weren’t torturous enough. They practiced their beastly, sadistic atrocities on helpless women who couldn’t defend their honor. There were women who gave themselves to the SS men so they wouldn’t be beaten or put to death, but there were those who chose to die rather than lose their self-respect.”
She described in detail all the conditions in which they existed and the German inspections.
“Death is too light a punishment for their sadistic conduct,” Hannah stated. “They used to make us undress and beat us with rubber truncheons. That was done to me many times. In another camp, however, I experienced something much worse. It was in Auschwitz, where they carried out experiments on women, and before I tell you how I met the accused, Mathilda Krause, I want to tell you, in short, about the monstrous experiment they carried out on me. Who knows how many years will have to pass before we can examine all the terrifying atrocities the Nazis carried out.
“I and other woman were taken to the department of ‘examinations’ and from there to a special ‘clinic.’ We were told to undress, and immediately I realized why we were brought there. We were taking the place of test animals to serve the Nazi ‘science.’ We each received an injection in our womb. The pain was unbearable, but I gritted my teeth and restrained myself from shrieking so as not to give those sadistic doctors satisfaction. A short time after that, I learned the nature of those injections and I received more of them. After that, they examined us for pregnancy, and I knew we would never be able to give birth again. I was a cripple from that day on. I lost the hope of ever becoming a mother again…if I survived. I was miserable and bitter, but I wanted to stay alive so someday I might have my revenge—which I haven’t had yet. In the meantime, my tragedy had just begun, for after I survived by some miracle, and after the war, fate led me to meet a good man, a former partisan whose wife and children were killed in one of the Akzias (roundup of Jews for transport). We fell in love, but I knew we could never wed because, as a woman, I was disabled; I could never bear children again. I confessed all this to him, and I was sure he would leave me, but he didn’t leave me… He comforted me. When we reached America, we went to various doctors, but it was no use. And yet, in spite of all that, he wouldn’t leave me. This man is sitting among the witnesses, and you will have a chance to hear his story of how he helped me to bring the accused to justice.”
Angry looks were shot at Mathilda, who sat there like a doll in a store window, looking but not seeing anything.
“And now I’ll tell you how and under what special conditions I met the accused.”
Everyone leaned forward in expectation and listened intently. The former inmates of concentration camps moved impatiently in their seats.
“It was in Majdanek,” continued Hannah after the spectators calmed down, “where, for a time, the accused would come to the camp frequently, and to Field Five where the women worked, in the company of a Gestapo officer who instilled a deathly fear in all of us whenever he would appear.
“When that particular officer came, we knew there would be another Zapfenstriech, meaning an inspection. We knew he would choose women whom we never saw or heard of again. The accused would appear with him dressed in the uniform of the Gestapo, with highly polished boots and riding pants as though she had just returned from a hunt. The officer with her would immediately call for an inspection parade. She would pass and examine all of us and, after a short exchange with one or another of the prisoners, would choose one and take her away.”
“Of your own knowledge, do you know, Mrs. Rubin,” asked the assistant prosecutor as he glanced at Mathilda, “where these women were taken and what happened to them?”
“Oh, none of us knew that, but it was a daily occurrence, and we, the prisoners, became inured to it. As far as we knew, they were taken to the gas chamber, or to experiments, or to some other secret work from which they never returned.”
“Did you ever have any personal contact with the accused?” asked Devoe.
“Yes, once, at one of the inspections, when she passed by the rows of women and scrutinized each of us, she stopped in front of me and asked where I was from and what my profession was. ‘A teacher from Poland,’ I told her frankly, and she asked me what subjects I had taught. I said, ‘Zoology,’ and my answer had a double meaning. I don’t know if she understood my meaning, but when she left, one of my friends said, ‘A good answer… We are all studying animals now.’”
The newspapermen smiled and hurriedly wrote down her answer. The members of the jury, the judge, and the prosecutor also smiled wryly at her answer.
“Tell us, please, if the accused ever appeared in the camp without calling for an inspection?”
“Yes, frequently, but always with the Gestapo officer and his dog, but what she did there, I don’t know.”
“Are you sure the accused knew what was occurring at Majdanek…about the gas chambers and the thousands of men and women who were cremated?”
“I’m sure of it, because it had to be impossible to tour the camp and not see what was happening to the miserable people.”
“Have you ever heard of or met any one of the women that the accused chose to go away with her?”
“At the time, no, but after the war, here in America, I met one of those women who had been with me in Majdanek and had been chosen by Mathilda Krause. She became one of my best friends.”
Devoe turned to the jury and announced that this woman would appear as a witness for the prosecution, and after a few more questions, he turned the witness over to Jacob.
Now all eyes turned to Jacob, who rose, approached the witness, and asked her several questions, some of which aroused laughter and others that were simply absurd. For example, “Tell me, Mrs. Rubin, while you were in Majdanek, were you only tortured by the SS people or also by some of your fellow prisoners?”
Laughter broke out, and the judge called the spectators to order.
“I don’t understand the question.” Hannah looked at Jacob.
“I meant were there also those among the prisoners in the camp who, in their line of duty, made other prisoners suffer?”
“Now I understand. Of course there were those, and they were called Capo, and they were no better than the SS men and women and would beat us for every little thing!”
“Why would they beat you?”
“Because those were the orders they received from the SS!”
“Did they just follow orders or did they beat you willingly?”
“Objection!” cried Claude. “The question is irrelevant to the actions of the accused!”
“The question is important for the defense and the accusation against the accused, Mathilda Krause!” declared Jacob.
The judge overruled the objection, and Jacob repeated the question. “Did the Capo beat you only when ordered by the SS, or for their own enjoyment?”
“You mean because of their sadistic natures? Of course there were some like that who beat us even when the SS didn’t explicitly order them to.”
“Any why did they do that, Mrs. Rubin?”
“To find favor in the eyes of the SS.”
“And if they hadn’t followed orders?”
“They would have been shot! Everyone tried to survive, but not everybody was capable of being a Capo. Only the corrupt took that duty upon themselves. If they had tried to give me that task, I would have preferred to have been shot rather than torture others!”
“And do you think, Mrs. Rubin, that under different conditions and not under a life-and-death threat, these people would have been capable of such actions?”
“Objection! Objection!” This time both Claude and George called out.
The judge decided this kind of question was more suitable to a lecture in psychology and the witness was not obliged to answer it.
Jacob put the question to her in another way. Now Jacob’s questioning was sharper. The prosecution understood what Jacob was trying to do…to prove that his wife, the Nazi spy, was not directly responsible for the atrocities and crimes that were committed. George wrote in his notebook, “There is no comparison between a prisoner who was forced by threat of death to become a Capo and the members of the SS who were free to choose.”
“Tell me, Mrs. Rubin, you’re a teacher by profession, and you educated your pupils. Why do you think the SS men and women tortured their prisoners when they were not forced to do so?”
“Psychology! Psychology!” George and Claude were angry. “Objection! Objection!” they called out. “The defense is trying to blur the facts and shift the attention of the jury from the true causes of the atrocities carried out by the SS, of which Mathilda Krause was a member.”
“This is important to the defense,” stated Jacob quietly. “Is it possible that the Capo, who beat and tortured their fellow prisoners, did it because the prisoners misbehaved?” he added provocatively.
This comment angered and agitated the former concentration camp inmates in the audience. Fists were raised, and one of them shouted, “A shame you weren’t there! Shame on you! Because of a woman, you’re a defender of the Nazi murderers!”
The police removed the man who had shouted, and the noise died down. The judge addressed the court and especially the former inmates.
“Ladies and gentlemen! As much as it may pain us to hear these questions, the defense has the right to ask questions that he thinks will help him. I understand the feelings and suffering of the victims of the Nazi persecution, but this trial is not to be conducted according to our emotions, but according to the facts. We are not the SS and not a Nazi court of law. Our duty is to examine the evidence against the accused and, if the proof of her guilt is not established, to free her. This trial has just begun, and I’m sure that additional witnesses will appear and every testimony will be heard and judged.”
The judge’s words quieted the spectators, and then the judge asked Jacob to continue.
“So, Mrs. Rubin, why do you think the SS forced other prisoners to torture their fellow prisoners?”
“That’s like asking me why a wolf attacks a helpless lamb!” Hannah replied with retrained anger and glanced at Mathilda.
The spectators smiled, enjoying her witty answer, but Jacob paid no attention to her evasive reply and asked again. “Allow me, Mrs. Rubin, to ask you why the wolf does attack the helpless lamb?”
“This has no relevance, and it’s a foolish question!” Claude called out.
Jacob turned to him angrily. “If you don’t allow me to ask this foolish question, I will conclude you want to hide the truth about the real reasons for all the evil and who should take the responsibility for it!”
“You are trying to hide the truth about the Nazi crimes by absurd comparisons and shifting the attention of the jury from the guilt of Mathilda Krause!” shouted George.
Claude called out after him, “Ask questions that pertain to the trial!”
“Your Honor and the jury,” Jacob turned to the judge and then to the jury. “If I am not allowed to ask these questions, and most of my questions will be like these, then this trial will be conducted in a one-sided manner and any sentence passed will not be just. I have the right to ask the questions that may appear foolish in the eyes of the prosecution and the spectators.”
The judge overruled the objection of the prosecution, and Jacob again turned to the witness.
“You are a teacher of zoology,” he stated, and now Hannah awaited the question with flashing eyes.
“Yes,” she answered in her deep voice. “As a teacher of zoology, I understand a little about animals, and after much reflection and research, I can tell you that the wolf attacks the lamb because he sees himself as a member of a superior race!”
Hannah’s answer again aroused loud laughter, and even the judge and the jury laughed. The members of the press scribbled furiously, and only Mathilda continued to sit motionless like the Sphinx as if the proceedings had nothing to do with her.
“Fine,” Jacob said to the witness. “Let’s suppose your answer is clever and successful, but you haven’t answered my question. So give me an answer to another question no less absurd than the first question.”
“Please! In the framework of my knowledge of zoology, I’ll try to answer.”
“So, tell me, please, what is man in your opinion?”
“That has more to do with anatomy and in some ways with anthropology, but I will try to give you an answer. In my opinion, man is a creature different from the animals, although he belongs to the same group of animals.”
“Good! Then in what way is he different than the animals?”
“In his culture, his intelligence, his knowledge…”
“Don’t you think the members of the SS were cultured?”
“The majority of the SS people were intelligent, cultured, even polite.”
“So the SS were men and not animals?”
“Yes, men in an anatomical sense, not in action or spirit.”
“So we can conclude that culture, intelligence, and knowledge didn’t influence their actions?”
“I think so, yes.”
“You see their actions as evil because they related inhumanly like animals to the prisoners, right?”
“Of course.”
“Which means that if the wolf would not attack the innocent lamb, he would be human?”
“More human than the SS!”
Restrained laughter was heard.
“And do you think, Mrs. Rubin, that all humans behave in a humane way toward their fellow man?”
“Whoever doesn’t behave in a humane way, in our unders¬tanding, to his fellow man, cannot be called a man.”
“And now tell me please, Mrs. Rubin, is it true what they say that there were times when a prisoner in the camp would snatch a piece of bread from his fellow prisoner’s mouth, and even a father from his son’s mouth and the son from his father’s mouth?”
“Things like that happened.”
“Do you call that human behavior?”
“The circumstances created a situation that the SS is res¬ponsible for.”
“Do you think that if the men and the women were not members of the SS, they would have behaved the way they did?”
“I don’t know. Caged animals are not dangerous, but when freed, their animal instincts take over and they can harm you.”
“That’s very true, Mrs. Rubin, and I thank you for your wise answers,” Jacob said with a tone of victory. He returned the witness to the prosecution and sat down.
Now George began to ask how she had recognized the accused in the theater lobby and what ensued. Even though she had already given her testimony to the police and the newspapers, her story, here in court, was listened to intently. Conci
sely, Hannah retold the story of how she had recognized Mathilda Krause in the theater lobby and how she was able to hold her with the help of her escort, the man she had talked about.
Hannah talked quietly, deliberately, without anger, as if she were telling about a serious accident, even though it was obvious she was restraining the emotion that threatened to burst out any minute. Everyone was astounded at her quiet manner, and as they listened, she took on the stature of a heroine.
“She’s wonderful!” Eva whispered to her husband, Professor Gottheim.
“They didn’t break her spirit in spite of all their efforts to do so!” whispered an elderly lady to the gray-haired man beside her. Despite their advanced age, they had fought their way in.
Jacob didn’t interrogate the witness anymore, and a recess was declared, but none of the spectators seemed to be tired, and they remained in their places to hear the other witnesses.
After the recess, George called more witnesses.
Now Hannah’s friend, Grisha Magnus, a sturdy man of about forty, his hair gray at the temples and with a high forehead, came in. When he entered, was sworn in, and approached the witness box, he exuded confidence, energy, and pent-up anger. His wide, manly face also expressed good nature.
“I spent the war years in the forests of Poland,” Grisha related in answer to George’s question. “I knew what the Nazi beast was doing to people, and I did all I could to take revenge on them. Any Nazi who fell into the hands of the partisans was immediately shot, but that didn’t satisfy our wish for revenge. It was one against a million. One Nazi shot while millions of innocent people were in their murdering hands. In the forests, we were hungry and cold. We existed on weeds and animals, and in time, we became indifferent to death and cruelty. We lived in hope of a better tomorrow. The better tomorrow we hoped for was a decent meal, a warm garment, to kill as many Nazis as we could, and to be free again. Freedom didn’t come quickly, and it did finally arrive, but the revenge was not what we had hoped for.”