The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz
Page 37
24 Auschwitz I later acquired a purpose-built admissions building outside the camp entrance (van Pelt and Dwork, Auschwitz, pp. 222–5; Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle, p. 601). Prior to that there were only the regular facilities inside the camp.
25 The first gassings in Germany, using trucks and gas chambers, had occurred in 1939, as part of the T4 euthanasia programme (Cesarani, Final Solution, pp. 283–5). The first experimental gassings with Zyklon B at Auschwitz were done in August 1941 in Auschwitz I; large, specialized gas chambers/crematoria came into use in Auschwitz-Birkenau in early 1942 (Wachsmann, KL, pp. 267–8, 301–2; Franciszek Piper in Megargee, USHMM Encyclopedia, vol. 1A, pp. 206, 210). By late 1942, rumours about gassings had spread through the concentration camp system and among local populations.
26 ‘Eine Laus dein Tod’ – this message was painted on walls throughout the Auschwitz complex.
27 Delousing of uniforms was done by fumigation with Zyklon B. This was the original intended purpose of this poison gas, which the SS adapted for use in the killing gas chambers. For that purpose, they asked the manufacturer (a subsidiary of IG Farben) to remove the noxious warning smell which was normally added to it (Peter Hayes, Industry and Ideology: IG Farben in the Nazi Era (2001), p. 363).
28 The first recipients of tattooed numbers were Soviet POWs, beginning in autumn 1941. The SS experimented with a stamping device early on, but it hadn’t worked very well (Wachsmann, KL, p. 284). No other concentration camp used tattooing.
29 Arrivals list, 19 October 1942, ABM.
30 The numbering Auschwitz I, II and III was not introduced until November 1943 (Florian Schmaltz in Megargee, USHMM Encyclopedia, vol. 1A, p. 216), but is used here for clarity and consistency.
31 Franciszek Piper in Megargee, USHMM Encyclopedia, vol. 1A, p. 210. Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz II) began construction in October 1941 and was operational in early 1942.
32 Gustav uses the phrase ‘schwarze Mauer’ rather than the more commonly used ‘schwarze Wand’. Both mean the same. Its name came from the black-painted screen which protected the brick wall from bullet strikes.
33 Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle, p. 259.
34 Höss, quoted in Hermann Langbein, People in Auschwitz, transl. Harry Zohn (2004), pp. 391–2.
35 Quoted in Langbein, People, p. 392. At around this time, SS-Sergeant Gerhard Palitzsch became increasingly unbalanced, due to the death of his wife. They lived in a house near the camp, and Palitzsch, who was involved in corruption, obtained clothes stolen from the prisoners in Birkenau. In October 1942 his wife contracted typhus – probably from lice carried in these clothes – and died. Palitzsch took to drinking heavily and his behaviour became erratic (ibid., pp. 408–10).
36 Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle, pp. 255–60.
37 Ibid., p. 261. The 186 women from Ravensbrück were declared fit and assigned work separately from the men (ibid., pp. 261–2).
38 In Gärtner and Kleinmann, Doch der Hund, p. 90. Fritz says that they stayed only a week in Auschwitz I, and in their testimony to the Frankfurt trials both he and Gustav stated the time as eight days (Abt 461 Nr 37638/84/15904–6; Abt 461 Nr 37638/83/15661–3, FTD); in fact it was eleven days (Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle, pp. 255, 260–61).
39 The truth of this is uncertain. There was a heavy demand for workers for construction of the new Monowitz camp, and the records imply that the intention all along had been to send the transferred prisoners to work there (Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle, p. 255). However, the record is unclear, and Fritz and Gustav had the impression that they were all slated for execution. Certainly that was the purpose of their selection at Buchenwald – hence the retention of construction workers.
Chapter 12
1 At this time the camp was officially referred to as the Buna labour camp (or as ‘Camp IV’ by IG Farben management – see Bernd C. Wagner, IG Auschwitz: Zwangsarbeit und Vernichtung von Häftlingen des Lagers Monowitz 1941–1945 (2000), p. 96). Later it became known as Monowitz concentration camp or Auschwitz III. The later names are used here for clarity and consistency.
2 By early September 1942 the Monowitz camp had been completely laid out, but construction hadn’t progressed beyond a small number of barracks (between two and eight, according to sources). The rest of the camp buildings had been delayed in order to expedite construction of the Buna Werke factory. The camp officially opened for reception of prisoners on 28 October (ibid., pp. 95–7).
3 The Buna Werke was named after buna, the synthetic rubber intended to be produced there; among other applications, rubber was vital in aircraft and vehicle manufacture – e.g. tyres and various shock-absorbing components.
4 Florian Schmaltz in Megargee, USHMM Encyclopedia, vol. 1A, pp. 216–17; Gärtner and Kleinmann, Doch der Hund, p. 92. Eventually camp inmates would make up about a third of the Buna Werke’s total workforce, the rest made up of paid workers from Germany or occupied countries (Hayes, Industry, p. 358), many of whom would be drafted labour from enforced schemes such as France’s Service du travail obligatoire.
Chapter 13
1 Wachsmann, KL, pp. 49–52; Joseph Robert White in Megargee, USHMM Encyclopedia, vol. 1A, pp. 64–6. Esterwegen and the other Emsland camps were shut down in 1936.
2 Lehmann directory name listings, 1891, WLO; Alice Teichova, ‘Banking in Austria’ in Manfred Pohl (ed.), Handbook on the History of European Banks (1994), p. 4.
3 Wagner, IG Auschwitz, p. 107.
4 The term was used in other camps as well. Its origin is not known. (See Yisrael Gutman in Yisrael Gutman and Michael Berenbaum (eds), Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp (1994), p. 20; Wachsmann, KL, pp. 209–10, 685 n. 117; Wladyslaw Fejkiel quoted in Langbein, People, p. 91.) By the time the concentration camps were liberated in 1944–5, most long-term prisoners had been turned into Muselmänner, and they became emblematic of the Holocaust’s victims. But they existed in the camps as early as 1939.
5 Hayes, Industry, p. 358.
6 Herzog was a clerk from mid-1943, and head of the office from January to October 1944 (Herzog, Frankfurt trials statement, Abt 461 Nr 37638/84/15891–2, FTD).
7 Detailed plan and layout of buildings by Irena Strzelecka and Piotr Setkiewicz, ‘Bau, Ausbau und Entwicklung des KL Auschwitz’ in Wacław Długoborski and Franciszek Piper (eds), Auschwitz 1940–1945: Studien der Geschichte des Konzentrations- und Vernichtungslagers Auschwitz (1999), vol. 1, pp. 128–30.
8 Wachsmann, KL, p. 210.
9 Primo Levi, who was a prisoner in Monowitz from February 1944, said of block 7 that ‘no ordinary Häftling [prisoner] has ever entered’ (Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz and The Reawakening: Two Memoirs (1986), p. 32).
10 Wagner, IG Auschwitz, pp. 117, 121–2; Langbein, People, pp. 150–51.
11 Quoted in Wachsmann, KL, p. 515.
12 Wagner, IG Auschwitz, pp. 121–2.
13 Ibid., p. 117.
14 Freddi Diamant, quoted in Langbein, People, p. 151.
15 Irena Strzelecka and Piotr Setkiewicz, ‘Bau, Ausbau und Entwicklung des KL Auschwitz’ in Długoborski and Piper, Auschwitz 1940–1945, vol. 1, p. 135.
16 By the end of 1943 Auschwitz had three satellite camps dedicated to coal-mining: Fürstengrube, Janinagrube, and Jawischowitz. They ranged from around 15 to 100 km distant from the main Auschwitz camp (entries in Megargee, USHMM Encyclopedia, vol. 1A, pp. 221, 239, 253, 255).
17 Wagner, IG Auschwitz, p. 118. Always a cunning operator and well liked by the SS, within a few weeks Windeck wangled himself a position as camp senior in the Birkenau men’s camp.
Chapter 14
1 Wachsmann, KL, pp. 206–7.
2 Fritz Kleinmann in Gärtner and Kleinmann, Doch der Hund, p. 108.
3 The following details are described at length by Fritz Kleinmann in ibid., pp. 108–12.
4 Langbein, People, p. 142; Irena Strzelecka and Piotr Setkiewicz, ‘Bau, Ausbau und Entwicklung des KL Auschwitz’ in Długoborski and Piper, Auschwitz 1940–1945, vol. 1, p. 128.
5 Hayes
, Industry, pp. 361–2.
6 Fritz Kleinmann in Gärtner and Kleinmann, Doch der Hund, p. 112; author’s translation.
7 Florian Schmaltz in Megargee, USHMM Encyclopedia, vol. 1A, p. 217.
8 Henryk Świebocki, ‘Die Entstehung und die Entwicklung der Konspiration im Lager’ in Długoborski and Piper, Auschwitz 1940–1945, vol. 4, pp. 150–53.
9 Pierre Goltman, Six mois en enfer (2011), pp. 89–90.
10 Fritz states that he worked as a ‘Transportarbeiter’, ‘transport worker’ (Gärtner and Kleinmann, Doch der Hund, p. 113), but doesn’t elucidate; this was quite a broad label, and probably denotes fetching and carrying for locksmith technicians within the factory.
11 Hermann Langbein in Gutman and Berenbaum, Anatomy, pp. 490–91; Henryk Świebocki, ‘Die Entstehung und die Entwicklung der Konspiration im Lager’ in Długoborski and Piper, Auschwitz 1940–1945, vol. 4, pp. 153–4.
12 Florian Schmaltz in Megargee, USHMM Encyclopedia, vol. 1A, p. 217.
13 Langbein, People, p. 329.
14 Ibid., pp. 31, 185, 322, 329–35.
15 In his memoir and interview, Fritz says only that he was taken to the Political Department, without specifying whether it was the main department at Auschwitz I or the sub-department in Monowitz. The involvement of Grabner and the seriousness of the charge suggest that it was probably the main department. On the other hand, at the end of the interrogation he says that Grabner ‘went back to Auschwitz with the civilian’ (Gärtner and Kleinmann, Doch der Hund, p. 114); but he also writes that Taute and Hofer took him ‘back to the camp’ (ibid.) which again suggests Auschwitz I as the scene of the torture. Overall, the balance of evidence favours the latter. In his 1963 statement for the Frankfurt trials (Abt 461 Nr 37638/83/15663, FTD), Fritz stated that this incident occurred in June 1944; as Grabner left Auschwitz in late 1943, this is probably a transcription error for June 1943.
16 Wagner, IG Auschwitz, pp. 163–92; Irena Strzelecka and Piotr Setkiewicz, ‘Bau, Ausbau und Entwicklung des KL Auschwitz’ in Długoborski and Piper, Auschwitz 1940–1945, vol. 1, p. 128.
17 The entry recording Fritz Kleinmann’s death has not come to light; presumably it was among the majority of Auschwitz records destroyed before the liberation of the camp. Some hospital registers have survived (and have the format described), but this one is apparently lost.
18 In his published recollections Fritz makes no mention of his suicidal thoughts at this time, but in his 1997 interview he describes them at some length and with strong emotion.
19 Fritz is unclear about exactly how long it was before his father was told about his survival. In his written memoir, he implies that it was shortly after his transfer from the hospital to block 48, whereas in his 1997 interview he is vague, implying that through necessity the secret was kept for a long time.
20 Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle, pp. 537, 542.
21 Langbein, People, p. 40; Wachsmann, KL, pp. 388–9; Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle, pp. 537, 812.
22 Prisoner resistance report, 9 December 1943, quoted in Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle, p. 542.
Chapter 15
1 The version of this incident given by Fritz Kleinmann differs in some details from the version in Gustav’s diary, and both differ from the Gestapo records (as quoted in Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle, pp. 481–2). The account given here is a synthesis of the three.
2 Gustav recorded in his diary that both Eisler and Windmüller were shot (cf. Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle, p. 482); presumably this was the story that came back to Monowitz at the time.
3 Not to be confused with the Rote Hilfe eV, a socialist aid organization founded in 1975. The original Rote Hilfe was founded in 1921 as an affiliate of the International Red Aid. It was banned under the Nazis, and later disbanded. Many of its activists ended up in concentration camps.
4 It is not known exactly what Alfred Wocher’s duties were on the Eastern Front, or what unit he was in, but it is hard to believe that he was unaware of the mass murders of Jews carried out there. By no means were the Waffen-SS and Einsatzgruppen the only organizations involved; Wehrmacht units took part too, and even if Wocher was nowhere near any such events, he must have heard stories.
5 Langbein, People, pp. 321–2.
6 There was never a ramp at Monowitz, and the railway did not enter the camp; from 1942 on, standard procedure was that transports went to the ‘old Jew-ramp’ at Oświęcim train station, or to a spur near Auschwitz I, and from 1944 to the ramp inside Birkenau; however, Fritz Kleinmann (Gärtner and Kleinmann, Doch der Hund, pp. 129–30) suggests that some transports were unloaded at or near Monowitz, presumably in open ground near the camp, and that men selected for Monowitz arrived with their luggage.
7 In Birkenau, two whole sections of the camp, known in camp slang as Kanada I and II, comprising thirty-six barrack blocks, were used for storage. Officially the sorting details were called ‘Aufräumungskommando’ (‘cleaning-up commando’) but the unofficial name ‘Kanada Kommando’ became so entrenched that the SS used it as well (Andrzej Strezelecki in Gutman and Berenbaum, Anatomy, pp. 250–52).
8 Although he makes no mention of it in his written memoir, Fritz says in his 1997 interview that he hoped Wocher would be able to find his mother, and gave him a letter for her.
9 There were twenty-three apartments in Im Werd 11; by 1941 and 1942 only twelve were still occupied (Lehmann directory house listings, Im Werd, 1938, 1941–2, WLO).
10 Ibid., 1942 WLO. It is not known whether Karl Novacek was related to Friedrich Novacek, who lived in the same building and was one of the friends who betrayed Gustav and Fritz in 1938 and 1939.
11 Transport list, Da 227, 14 September 1942, DOW. Transport Da 227 arrived at Minsk two days later, and as was usual the deportees were taken straight to Maly Trostinets and murdered (Alfred Gottwaldt, ‘Logik und Logistik von 1300 Eisenbahnkilometern’ in Barton, Ermordet, p. 54). Bertha’s daughter, Hilda, was married to Viktor Wilczek; Kurt Kleinmann’s half-Jewish cousin and close friend Richard was their son.
Chapter 16
1 Gustav Kleinmann, letter to Olga Steyskal, 3 January 1944, DFK.
2 This restriction only applied in Monowitz; in the rest of Auschwitz, all categories of prisoner were eligible.
3 Langbein, People, p. 25; Fritz Kleinmann in Gärtner and Kleinmann, Doch der Hund, pp. 129–30.
4 Fritz Kleinmann in Gärtner and Kleinmann, Doch der Hund, pp. 129–30; Wagner, IG Auschwitz, pp. 101, 103; Levi, Survival, p. 32.
5 Fritz Kleinmann in Gärtner and Kleinmann, Doch der Hund, p. 132; Wagner, IG Auschwitz, p. 101.
6 Cesarani, Final Solution, p. 702. About 320,000 of Hungary’s Jews had formerly been citizens of neighbouring countries until Germany had carved off parts of them and given them to its Hungarian ally.
7 Ibid., p. 707.
8 Danuta Czech, ‘Kalendarium der wichtigsten Ereignisse aus der Geschichte des KL Auschwitz’ in Długoborski and Piper, Auschwitz, vol. 5, p. 201; Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle, p. 618.
9 Rees, Holocaust, pp. 381–2.
10 Danuta Czech, ‘Kalendarium der wichtigsten Ereignisse aus der Geschichte des KL Auschwitz’ in Długoborski and Piper, Auschwitz, vol. 5, p. 203; Wachsmann, KL, pp. 457–61; Cesarani, Final Solution, pp. 707–11; Rees, Holocaust, pp. 381–5; Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle, p. 627.
11 Danuta Czech, ‘Kalendarium der wichtigsten Ereignisse aus der Geschichte des KL Auschwitz’ in Długoborski and Piper, Auschwitz, vol. 5, p. 203.
12 Cesarani, Final Solution, p. 710.
13 Wachsmann, KL, pp. 460–61.
14 This appears to have happened around May 1944, as Gustav refers to it immediately after his description of the Hungarian Jews. In Fritz’s memoir, he implies that it occurred before Christmas 1943, but the diary seems to rule this out.
15 Hospital admissions list, February–March 1944, pp. 288, 346, ABM. Gustav’s illness isn’t named in the record (which registers only name, number, dates, and either discharge, death, or ‘nach Birkenau’), an
d he doesn’t refer to this episode in his diary, which jumps directly from October 1943 to May 1944.
16 Konstantin Simonov, quoted in Rees, Holocaust, p. 405. Other death camps in the region, such as Sobibór and Treblinka, had been decommissioned in October 1943, at the same time time as Maly Trostinets.
17 The other practical arguments were that aerial bombing was not precise enough to be effective. Hitting the gas chambers at Auschwitz, for instance, would have required such a magnitude of ordnance dropped over such a wide area that thousands of prisoners in Birkenau would probably have been killed, without any certainty that the gas chambers would be hit. Bombing the rail network leading to the camps was similarly problematic. Railways were difficult to hit from high altitude, and wherever they were destroyed as part of the strategic campaign the Germans simply diverted traffic and usually had the tracks repaired and in service again within twenty-four hours. For overviews of the arguments on both sides, see Martin Gilbert, Auschwitz and the Allies (1981); David S. Wyman, ‘Why Auschwitz Wasn’t Bombed’ in Gutman and Berenbaum, Anatomy, pp. 569–87; Wachsmann, KL, pp. 494–6.
As for the question ‘Why didn’t the Allies do something to halt the Holocaust?’ this author’s answer is that they did: they waged – and eventually won, at the cost of millions of Allied lives – an all-out war to destroy the state that was perpetrating it.
18 Air-raid precautions in Auschwitz had been discussed at a meeting of the camp command on 9 November 1943, including imposition of blackout, but nothing was apparently done until well into 1944 (Robert Jan van Pelt, The Case for Auschwitz: Evidence from the Irving Trial (2016), p. 328).
19 Some stricter Jews traded non-kosher foods for bread if they could, and there were Hasidic rabbis in Monowitz who refused all non-kosher food; they quickly starved to death (Wollheim Memorial oral histories: online at wollheim-memorial.de/en/juedische_religion_und_zionistische_aktivitaet_en; retrieved 4 July 2017).