by Sarah Helm
The communist coup: See Sturm, Die Lebensgeschichte einer Arbeiterin and statement (DÖW 4676 1-6). Also Rentmeister testimony, 30 April 1947, at the trial by Landgericht Dresden against Knoll, BstU Ast 32/48. Also see Annette Neumann, ‘Funktionshäftlinge im Frauenkonzentrationslager Ravensbrück’, in Röhr and Bergkamp (eds), Tod oder Überleben?, and see Strebel, Ravensbrück.
At that time: von Luenink, WO 309/416. Susi’s daughter, Tanja, first learned of her mother’s death when a card she sent for her birthday was returned with a notification of her death. The cause of death was given as heart failure. Benesch correspondence, DÖW 02110 and 08815.
exhumed his corpse: Haag, How Long the Night.
her later Stasi file: After the war, Maria Wiedmaier and several others of those meeting on Käthe Rentmeister’s bunk were recruited by the Stasi to spy on the West. See p. 644.
Barbara Reimann: Author interview.
‘We were’t allowed…’: Rosa Jochmann, ‘Wenn der Elferblock voll gewesen ist, dann…’,
Don’t forget: Ibid.
Prisoners liked: Clara Rupp memoir, ARa.
‘She could have got out…’: Author interview.
Chapter 6: Else Krug
A number of them: Herbermann, The Blessed Abyss.
‘we set right what we could’: Teege statement, ‘Hinter Gitter und Stacheldraht’, ARa 647.
They said I was a traitor: In Schikorra, ‘…ist als Asoziale anzusehen’.
‘but we know…’: LAV NRW R BR 2034/83.
Ottile Gorres’s life story: This is told in a file at the Landesarchiv NRW, along with that of Elisabeth Fassbender and many other ‘asocials’. Also see Schikorra, Kontinuitäten.
The letter states: Correspondence in VVN files, BA.
‘There she is…’: Maase, WO 309/416, and echoed in many prisoner testimonies.
Chapter 7: Doctor Sonntag
Much of the Hamburg trial testimony on Sonntag is in WO 309/416, but is also scattered in other files at TNA.
‘Himmler left Berlin…’: Witte et al. (eds), Dienstkalender.
‘Häschen’: Himmler, The Himmler Brothers. Local historians believe that the house at Brückenthin was built by prisoner labour. Exactly when the land was bought and when Häschen moved in is unclear. Before Brückenthin was available Himmler may have stayed with her at a new experimental farm he had set up, which was also close to Ravensbrück and where he reared livestock. Today Brückenthin is a children’s holiday camp; details of Himmler and Häschen’s sojourns there were exposed in the Schweriner Volkszeitung, 30 June 2003.
‘For several weeks…’: Cited in Friedlander, The Origins of Nazi Genocide.
‘The power over…’: Ibid.
‘whether and how…’: Ibid.
instructed his chief surgeon: Himmler to Grawitz, 3 February 1940, cited in Witte et al. (eds), Dienstkalender.
‘Reproduction by…’: See Stoll, ‘Walter Sonntag’.
‘extreme pleasure’: Buchman deposition, 23 January 1948, WO 309/416.
‘I remember a woman…’: Apfelkammer, BAL B162/9818.
‘You old pig…’: Vera Mahnke, WO 309/416.
‘Sonntag, the greatest scoundrel…’: Wiedmaier statement, 6 July 1958, ARa.
what was left of his breakfast: Dictators.
try it out at Ravensbrück: As was revealed at Nuremberg, Rudolf Brandt, Himmler’s personal physician, wrote to Clauberg on 10 July 1942, requesting he go to Ravensbrück to perform mass sterilisation experiments on Jewesses ‘according to your method’. Brandt said that by 1941 ‘it was an open secret’ that Hitler planned to exterminate all Jews. The purpose of the sterilisation experiments was to come up with an alternative to total extermination. In view of the labour shortage the idea was to preserve about two to three million Jews who were fit to work, but to sterilise them. Cited in Mitscherlich and Mielke, Death Doctors.
I remember one day: Buchmann deposition, 23 January 1948, WO 309/416.
‘I have never been happier…’: Sonntag family papers.
‘We heard him enter…’: WO 309/416.
I was asked one day: Teege statement, ‘Hinter Gitter und Stacheldraht’, ARa 647.
Chapter 8: Doctor Mennecke
‘The women seemed…’: Teege statement, ‘Hinter Gitter und Stacheldraht’, ARa 647.
‘In the camp…’: Dictators.
‘Have you ever seen…’: Hayes (ed.), The Journalism of Milena Jesenska.
‘The woman stopped…’: Anička Kvapilová, cited in Buber-Neumann, Milena.
first execution: See Kiedrzyńska, Ravensbrück.
‘big and pleasant room’: Chroust (ed.), Friedrich Mennecke.
Several times a week: Friedlander, The Origins of Nazi Genocide.
‘accustomed to their own atrocities’: Longerich, Heinrich Himmler.
‘medical commissioners will shortly…’: Cited in Mitscherlich and Mielke, Death Doctors.
‘My dearest Mummy!…’: Chroust (ed.), Friedrich Mennecke.
‘We had to get out…’: Cited in Strebel, Ravensbrück.
‘an Appell for Blockovas’: My account of how prisoners viewed events in the camp that followed Mennecke’s arrival are compiled from interviews, as well as a series of testimonies in WO 235/416 and WO 235/318, and Rosa Jochmann, ‘Wenn der Elferblock voll gewesen ist, dann…’,
‘Take my hand…’: Dreams.
Chapter 9: Bernburg
‘very ordinary—nothing’: Author interview.
‘Tuesday 13 Jan…’: Witte et al. (eds), Dienstkalender.
‘dearest baby’: Chroust (ed.), Friedrich Mennecke.
‘The guard Zimmer…’: Falkowska, ‘Report to the History Commission’, Institute for National Memory, Poland.
‘…extermination transport’: In addition to the testimony and memoirs cited above, events immediately after are based on statements of Wiedmaier statements, ARa, witnesses and guards in further Hamburg trial evidence (e.g. Quernheim, Zimmer and Bernigau in BAL B162/9811) and Apfelkammer, BAL B162/9818.
‘Visit of RFSS…’: Witte et al. (eds), Dienstkalender.
‘so we knew…’: von Skene, WO 235/316.
My darling Karli: In his biography Olga, Fernando Morais quotes from a different last letter, in which Olga says ‘goodbye’ and talks of ‘preparing for death’. There is no trace of this letter in the archives and its authenticity seems doubtful.
All our hopes: Leichter family papers.
Herta ‘Sara’ Cohen: LAV NRW R RW-58/54910.
‘exemplary’: Lina Krug letters in VVN files, BA.
PART TWO
This section draws in particular on interviews with Polish survivors, most notably Maria Bielicka, Wanda Półtawska (née Wojtasik), Wojciecha Zeiske (née Buraczyńska) and Zofia Cisek (née Kawińska).
I have also used the statements of scores of Polish survivors at the Polish Institute at Lund and now held in the Lund University Library. These long, invaluable accounts were taken down within months of liberation, on the initiative of Zygmunt Lakocinski, a Polish art historian living in Lund. They were made public only in 1996.
Chapter 10: Lublin
‘They couldn’t get…’: Michalik, Lund 117.
‘He took off his clothes’: Jezierska, Lund 402. On the torture of Poles before reaching the camp, see also Wanda Kiedrzyńska, introduction to Beyond.
St Adalbert’s bookshop: Details of Krysia and Wanda’s meeting, resistance and imprisonment in Lublin from author interviews and
Dreams.
Michał Chrostowski: Chrostowska, Jakby Minęło Już Wszystko and documents at Museum of Martyrology ‘Pod Zegarem’ (Under the clock), a branch of the Lublin Museum (Muzeum Lubelskie w Lublinie).
‘Write if you know something…’: Chrostowska papers, Museum of Martyrology ‘Pod Zegarem’ (Under the clock), a branch of the Lublin Museum (Muzeum Lubelskie w Lublinie).
hidden in a palm: Author interview with Maria Wilgat.
a train left Lublin: Author interviews, also Dreams and Lund, various.
‘We were all pleased…’: Stefaniak, Beyond.
Schmuckstücke: See also Tillion, Ravensbrück: ‘the human debris that at Ravensbrück they threw outside’. In Auschwitz, the jargon for poorest of the poor was Muselmann (Muslim). The supposed fatalism of Muslims is a possible reason for the word, says Sofsky in The Order of Terror. In Majdanek they were called ‘donkeys’, in Dachau ‘cretins’, in Mauthausen ‘swimmers’. Sofsky says in Ravensbrück the term ‘Muselweiber’ (female Muslims) was used, but I did not find the term in the course of my research.
telling stories: Wińska, Zwyciężyły Wartości.
Helena Korewina: See Kiedrzyńska, Ravensbrück, and Dictators.
Verfügbare: Dreams. Also Młodkowska, Beyond.
brought new rules: Moldenhawer, Lund 420.
‘But don’t sing out loud’: Author interview with Maria Bielicka; also Kiedrzyńska, Ravensbrück.
Polish farm girl: Michalik, Lund 117.
Gerda Quernheim: Testimony and memories of Quernheim and Rosenthal is plentiful. See, for example, WO 309/416.
‘She asked me…’: Tanke, BAL B162/472.
We often caught sight: Housková, BAL B162/455.
‘I didn’t return the smile’: LAV NRW 3997. The interrogation of Leni Bitterhoff (née Reinders), who was categorised as an asocial, is in her criminal police file. The fifth of eleven children, she was the daughter of a farmer and worked as a maid near Kleve. Her husband died at the front on 25 October 1941. She had no previous convictions and no interest in politics.
‘Can’t you see…’: Dreams.
tiny little gifts: Author interview.
Grażyna composed: Author interview.
ugly and inhuman acts: Dreams. On the spread of lesbianism see also: Moldenhawer, Lund 420; Młodkowska, Beyond; Morrison, Ravensbrück.
beginning to starve: Dreams; Dragan, Lund 239; Michalik, Lund 117.
‘Langefeld was full of affection…’: Kiedrzyńska, Ravensbrück.
Chapter 11: Auschwitz
‘…disastrous confusion’: Buber-Neumann, Die erloschene Flamme.
At first I didn’t: Author interview.
3 March 1942: Himmler’s desk diary for 3 March 1942 states that he visited FKL Ravensbrück between 1100 and 1400 hours. Witte et al. (eds), Dienstkalender.
entire corps of guards: See Langefeld interrogation, 26 December 1945, NARA, NAW RG 338-000-50-11; also Dictators and Strebel, Ravensbrück.
26 March: According to Danuta Czech, the chronicler of Auschwitz, they arrived on a Thursday. See Czech, Kalendarium.
We have little information: The political prisoner Klara Pförtsch went as a Kapo and amongst the guards sent to Auschwitz remembers Hasse and Drechsel, terming the latter a ‘bloody bitch’ (BAL B162/9809).
Philomena Müssgueller: WO 309/412. See report in this file dated 19 April 1947 from US investigators, saying that a Philomena Muesgueller [sic], alias Mimi Heller, had been caught and—according to her statement—was an ‘oberkapo’ in several camps since 1939. At Ravensbrück she confessed to having been in charge of the punishment company and at Auschwitz she ran the ‘infamous Kommando Sauna’ (the clothing stores at the gas chambers). The notes say Jewish prisoners who had been at Auschwitz accused Müssgueller of torture and ‘causing death’. There are also notes about a possible extradition to the British sector to stand trial, but she was not apparently charged or tried. Inteviewed by German investigators in April 1965, she described herself as ‘a housewife’ living in Oberpfalz. She admitted to having been in Ravensbrück as a Stubova, saying she was ‘released’ in 1942, which was in fact when she was posted to Auschwitz. She says nothing about Auschwitz in this later interview and, not apparently pressed on the issue, was allowed to go home (BAL B162/9818).
vivid accounts: Luise Mauer report in Elling, Frauen im deutschen Widerstand. Teege statement, ‘Hinter Gitter und Stacheldraht’, ARa 647.
arrived from Poprad: Czech, Kalendarium.
‘piled high to the ceiling’: Höss, Commandant.
‘I took the first…’: Langefeld interrogation, December 1945, NARA, NAW RG 338-000-50-11. Also see Buber-Neumann, Die erloschene Flamme.
Nora Hodys: See Langbein, People in Auschwitz.
18 July 1942: See Hoss, Commandant, and Rees, Auschwitz.
Gorlitz: See Buber-Neumann, Die erloschene Flamme, Langefeld interrogation, December 1945, NARA, NAW RG 338-000-50-11, and Höss, Commandant.
Chapter 12: Sewing
The story of the sewing shop has been pieced together from scores of prisoner accounts, including: Wiedmaier, untitled statement on the sewing shop, 29 December 1946, ARa; Alfredine Nenninger, ‘Erlebnisse in Frauenkonzentrationslager Ravensbrück und bei den Wirtschaftsbetrieben der Waffen-SS’, DÖW; Müller, Klempnerkolonne; Dictators; Wińska, Zwyciężyły Wartości; and testimonies at Lund as well as French and Russian statements.
sold toys: Dąbrówska, BAL B162/9813.
local links: Strebel, Ravensbrück.
Herr Wendland’s work: Dictators.
‘reduced the impetus…’: Moldenhawer, Lund 420.
circle of friends: See Feldenkirchen, Siemens, the company’s official history.
To make up the shortfall: By the end of 1940, Siemens was heavily reliant on Jewish labour in Berlin. The Jewish workers were kept separate and had less favourable working conditions from others. Ibid.
adapted for precision work: Ibid.
shipment of Germany’s Jews: When the deportations began Carl Friedrich von Siemens told a Jewish Siemens manager he found it ‘upsetting’ to have to dismiss him. However, von Siemens added that if he had objected to Hitler’s policies he ‘would be risking the existence of the entire house of Siemens’. Cited in ibid.
‘encourage the men…’: Himmler to Pohl, 23 March 1942, BA NS 19/2065. See also Sommer, ‘Warum das Schweigen?’.
‘The women chosen…’: Schiedlausky, WO 235/309.
Texled was professionally run: See Strebel, Ravensbrück. Trial testimony is divided between the first, main case in which Binder was a defendant (WO 235/305–319), and the trial of Opitz and Graf a year later (WO 309/1150).
‘women’s work’: Cited in Iris Nachum and Dina Porat, ‘The History of Ravensbrück Concentration Camp as Reflected in its Changing and Expanding Functions’, in Dublon-Knebel (ed.), A Holocaust Crossroads.
word comes that she has died: Accounts of such deaths are plentiful. See, for example, Ilse Gohrig and Neeltje Epker, in WO 235/433 and WO 309/1150.
Suddenly Schinderhannes: See Alfredine Nenninger, ‘Frauenkonzentrationslager Ravensbrück Abteilung Industriehof’, DÖW, Ravensbrück f. 143.
Kawurek, Ryczko and Zaremba: Wińska, Zwyciężyły Wartości
‘It was a kind of history lesson…’: Dragan, Lund 239.
‘took the money and gold…’: Wiedmaier, WO 309/42. She also talks of army uniforms coming for repairs ‘covered in blood and muck’.
‘laden with Jewish furs’: Biega, BAL B162/9818.
‘lifting our chins…’: Dragan, Lund 239.
‘Even today when…’: Michalik, Lund 117.
‘beautiful sunny day’: Dreams.
‘Fanatical patriot…’: Bielicka. Kiedrzyńska, in her introduction to Beyond, said evidence emerged that the death sentences on these women had not been formally agreed by Odilo Globocnik, the Lublin police chief.
sewing on buttons: Młodkowska, Beyond.
‘scream of unbearable longing…’: Dreams.
‘I knew they were…’: Falkowska, ‘Report to the History Commission’, Institute for National Memory, Poland.
‘like medieval penitents’: Dictators.
‘Pola pointed a finger…’: Dreams.
‘a truck carrying prisoners…’: Pietsch, BAL B162/981.
‘At 6 p.m. roll call…’: Adamska, WO 235/318.
‘We stood there…’: Dictators.
Chapter 13: Rabbits
‘caused by bacteria…’: Quoted in MacDonald, The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.
They were holding: Hozáková, Und es war doch. Also see Russell, The Scourge of the Swastika, and Uwe Naumann (ed.), Lidice: Ein böhmisches Dorf (Frankfurt: Röderberg, 1983).
Karl Gebhardt had no interest: Interrogated by the Americans in October 1945, Gebhardt poured scorn on other high-up Nazi doctors, saying, unlike him, they had joined the SS for personal advancement. Had he (Gebhardt) not carried out the sulphonamide tests they would have had no scientific basis at all and been assigned to some incompetent like Dr Rascher, whose experiments were ‘ridiculous’. For Himmler, the experiments were simply a way of finding ‘a new device’ to impress the Führer. NARA M 1270.
‘visiting some relations…’: Cited in Mitscherlich and Mielke, Death Doctors.
born at Hohenlychen: Himmler, The Himmler Brothers. It was a difficult forceps delivery.
‘you horse…’: Ostermann, Buchmann coll.
Wanda was picked out last: The doctors said at Nuremberg that during what they called this ‘second’ phase of experiments from September to early October, thirty-six women were chosen, divided into three groups of twelve. In total seventy-four Polish women were operated on. See Mitscherlich and Mielke, Death Doctors.
‘How many deaths…’: Ibid.
Chapter 14: Special Experiments
Kazia Kurowska: Kurowska had tried to escape the camp a few weeks before the experiments, as if instinct had pre-warned her. She illegally joined an outside work group then ran from one work team to another ‘like a frightened deer’ before being caught. See Grabowska, Beyond.