Testimonies of Auschwitz SS-Men
From the statement of
Hans Stark, registrar of new arrivals, Auschwitz.
At another, later gassing--also
in autumn 1941--Grabner* ordered me to pour Zyklon B into the opening because only one medical orderly had shown up. During
a gassing Zyklon B had to be poured through both openings of the gas-chamber room at the same time. This gassing was also
a transport of 200-250 Jews, once again men, women and children. As the Zyklon B--as already mentioned--was in granular form,
it trickled down over the people as it was being poured in. They then started to cry out terribly for they now knew what was
happening to them. I did not look through the opening because it had to be closed as soon as the Zyklon B had been poured
in. After a few minutes there was silence. After some time had passed, it may have been ten to fifteen minutes, the gas chamber
was opened. The dead lay higgledy-piggedly all over the place. It was a dreadful sight.
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Testimony of SS private
Hoeblinger.
I was detailed to the
transport service and I drove the Sanka (Sanitatskraftwagon/medical truck) which
was to carry the prisoners....
Then we drove to the
gas chambers. The medical orderlies climbed a ladder, they had gas masks up there, and emptied the cans. I was able to observe
the prisoners while they were undressing. It always proceeded quitely and without them suspecting anything. It happened very
quickly.
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Testimony of SS private
Boeck.
Q: were you present at
a gassing operation one day?
A: Yes, it was one evening.
I accompanied the driver Hoeblinger. A transport had arrived from Holland
and the prisoners had to jump from the wagons. They were well-off Jews. There were women with Persian furs. They arrived by
express train. The trucks were already there, with wooden steps before them, and the people climbed aboard. Then they all
started off. In the place Birkenau once stood, there was only a long farmhouse (Bunker 2) and beside it four or five big huts.
Inside, the people were standing on clothes which were building up on the floor. The block leader and the sergeant, carrying
a cane, were there. Hoeblinger said to me 'lets go over there now'. There was a sign 'to disinfection'. He said 'you see,
they are bringing children now'. They opened the door, threw the children in and closed the door. There was a terrible cry.
A member of the SS climbed on the roof. The people went on crying for about ten minutes. Then the prisoners opened the doors.
Everything was in disorder and contorted. Heat was given off. The bodies were loaded on a rough wagon and taken to a ditch.
The next batch were already undressing in the huts. After that I didn't look at my wife for four weeks.
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Testimony of SS-Unterscharfuehrer
Pery Broad, describing gassing in Krema I in Auschwitz.
... The "disinfectors"
were at work. One of them was SS-Unterscharführer Teuer, decorated with the Cross of War Merit. With a chisel and a hammer
they opened a few innocuously looking tins which bore the inscription "Cyclon, to be used against vermin. Attention, poison!
to be opened by trained personnel only!". The tins were filled to the brim with blue granules the size of peas. Immediately
after opening the tins, their contents was thrown into the holes which were then quickly covered. Meanwhile Grabner gave a
sign to the driver of a lorry, which had stopped close to the crematorium. The driver started the motor and its deafening
noise was louder than the death cries of the hundreds of people inside, being gassed to death.
Testimonies of SS-Men
from Various Camps
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Testimony of SS Scharführer
Erich Fuchs, in the Sobibor-Bolender trial, Dusseldorf.
....We unloaded the motor.
It was a heavy Russian benzine engine, at least 200 horsepower. we installed the engine on a concrete foundation and set up
the connection between the exhaust and the tube.
I then tested the motor.
It did not work. I was able to repair the ignition and the valves, and the motor finally started running. The chemist, who
I knew from Belzec, entered the gas chamber with measuring instruments to test the concentration of the gas.
Following this, a gassing
experiment was carried out. If my memory serves me right, about thirty to forty women were gassed in one gas chamber. The
Jewish women were forced to undress in an open place close to the gas chamber, and were driven into the gas chamber by the
above mentioned SS members and the Ukrainian auxiliaries. when the women were shut up in the gas chamber I and Bolender set
the motor in motion. The motor functioned first in neutral. Both of us stood by the motor and switched from "Neutral" (Freiauspuff)
to "Cell" (Zelle), so that the gas was conveyed to the chamber. At the suggestion of the chemist, I fixed the motor on a definite
speed so that it was unnecessary henceforth to press on the gas. About ten minutes later the thirty to forty women were dead.
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From the testimony of
SS-Unterscharfuehrer Wilhelm Bahr in his trial at Hamburg.
Q: Is it correct that
you have gassed 200 Russian POW's with Zyklon-B?
A: Yes, on orders.
Q: Where did you do that?
A: In Neuengamme.
Q: On whose order?
A: The local doctor,
Dr. Von Bergmann.
Q: With what gas?
A: With Prussic acid
or Zyklon-B.
Q: How long did the Russians
take to die?
A: I do not know. I only
obeyed orders.
Q: How long did it take
to gas the Russians?
A: I returned after two
hours and they were all dead.
Q: For what purpose did
you go away?
A: That was during lunch
hour.
Q: You left for your
lunch and came back afterwards?
A: Yes.
Q: Were they dead when
you came back?
A: Yes.
Q: Did you look at their
bodies?
A: Yes, because I had
to load them.
Q: Why did you apply
the gas to the Russians?
A: I only had orders
to pour in the gas and I do not know anything about it.
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SS-Doctor Kremer at a
hearing on 18 July 1947.
I remember I once took
part in the gassing of one of these groups of women in Auschwitz. I cannot say how big the
group was. when I got close to the bunker I saw them sitting on the ground. They were still clothed. As they were wearing
worn-out camp clothing they were not left in the undressing hut but made to undress in the open air. I concluded from the
behavior of these women that they had no doubt what fate awaited them, as they begged and sobbed to the SS men to spare them
their lives. However, they were herded into the gas chambers and gassed. As an anatomist I have seen a lot of terrible things:
I had had a lot of experience with dead bodies, and yet what I saw that day was like nothing I had ever seen before. Still
completely shocked by what I had seen I wrote on my diary on 5 September
1942: "The most dreadful of horrors. Hauptscharf¨hrer Thilo was right when he said to me today that this is the
'anus mundi', the anal orifice of the world". I used this image because I could not imagine anything more disgusting and horrific.
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Testimony of Magnus Wochner,
SS guard at the Natzweiler Concentration Camp.
... I recall particularly
one mass execution when about 90 prisoners (60 men and 30 women), all Jews, were killed by gassing. This took place, as far
as I can remember, in spring 1944. In this case the corpses were sent to Professor Hirt of the department of Anatomy in Strasbourg.
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Testimony of SS Oberscharführer
Erich Bauer
Usually the undressing
went smoothly. Subsequently, the Jews were taken through the "tube" to Camp
III - the real extermination camp. The transfer through the "tube" proceeded
as follows: one SS man was in the lead and five or six Ukrainian auxiliaries were at the back hastening the Jews along. The
women were taken through a barracks where their hair was cut off. In Camp
III the Jews were received by an SS man... As I already mentioned, the
motor was then switched on by Gotringer and one of the auxiliaries whose name I don't remember. Then the gassed Jews were
taken out.
Testimony of Crematorium
Engineers
by Daniel Keren for the
Shamash archives.
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Testimony of SS-Unterscharführer
Herman Lambert about Sobibor.
As I mentioned at the
beginning, I was in the extermination camp of the Jews for about two to three weeks. It was sometime in autumn 1942, but I
don't remember exactly when. At that time I was assigned by Wirth to enlarge the gassing structure according to the model
of Treblinka. I went to Sobibor together with Lorenz Hackenholt, who was at that time in Treblinka...
We reported to the camp
commander, Reichsleitner. He gave us exact directive for the construction of the gassing installations. The camp was already
in operation, and there was a gassing installation. Probably the old installation was not big enough, and reconstruction was
necessary.
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Kurt Prufer, senior engineer
of Topf and Sohne, testifying in Erfurt, Germany,
March 5, 1946.
Q. Who apart from you
participated in the construction of the furnaces?
A. From 1941-2, I constructed
the furnaces. The technical drawings were done by Mr. Keller. The ventilation systems of the "Kremas" were constructed by senior engineer Karl Schultze.
Q. How often and with
what aim did you visit Auschwitz?
A. Five times. The first
time at the beginning of 1943, to receive orders of the SS Command where the Kremas were to be built. The second time in spring
1943 to inspect the building site. The third time was in autumn 1943 to inspect a fault in the construction of a Krema chimney.
The forth time at the beginning of 1944, to inspect the repaired chimney. the fifth time in September-October 1944, when I
visited Auschwitz with the intended relocation of the crematoriums, since the front was getting
nearer. The crematoriums were not relocated, because there were not enough workers.
Q. Were you the sole
Topf engineer in Auschwitz in spring 1943?
A. No, Schultze was with me in Auschwitz at the time. I saw personally about
60 corpses of women and men of different ages, which were being prepared for incineration. That was at 10 in the morning.
I witnessed the incineration of six corpses and came to the conclusion that the furnaces were working well.
Q. Did you see a gas
chamber next to the crematoriums?
A. Yes, I did see one
next to the crematorium. Between the gas chamber and the crematorium there was a connecting structure.
Q. Did you know that
in the gas chamber and in the crematoriums there took place the liquidation of innocent human beings?
A. I have known since
spring 1943 that innocent human beings were being liquidated in Auschwitz gas chambers and
that their corpses were subsequently incinerated in the crematoriums.
Q. Who is the designer
of the ventilation systems for the gas chambers?
A. Schultze was the designer
of the ventilation systems in the gas chambers; and he installed them.
Q. Why was the brick
lining of the muffles so quickly damaged?
A. The bricks were damaged
after six months because the strain on the furnaces was colossal.
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Engineer Fritz Sander
testifying on March 7 1946.
I decided to design and
build a crematorium with a higher capacity. I completed this project of a new crematorium in November 1942--a crematorium
for mass incineration, and I submitted this project to a State Patent Commission in Berlin.
This "Krema" was to be
built on the conveyor belt principle. That is to say, the corpses must be brought to the incineration furnaces without interruption.
When the corpses are pushed into the furnaces, they fall onto a grate, and then slide into the furnace and are incinerated.
The corpses serve at the same time as fuel for heating of the furnaces. This patent could not yet be approved by the Main
Patent Office in Berlin, because of its classification (as
a state secret).
Q. Although you knew
about the mass liquidation of innocent human beings in crematoriums, you devoted yourself to designing and creating higher
capacity incineration furnaces for crematoriums - and on your own initiative.
A. I was a German engineer
and key member of the Topf works and I saw it as my duty to apply my specialist knowledge in this way to help Germany win the war, just as an aircraft construction engineer
builds airplanes in wartime, which are also connected with the destruction of human beings.
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Testimony of Engineer
Karl Schultze.
Q. What was your personal
part in these "Krema" building operation and what was Prufer's part?
A. Prufer was an expert.
he designed and constructed these crematoriums and led the building operations in the concentration camps. I was responsible
for the ventilation systems and for its air injection into the muffles. In specific instances, I led the installation operations
personally. I personally led the installation work in Auschwitz crematoriums and gas chambers.
For this purpose, I traveled to Auschwitz three times in 1943.
I did not know that in
the crematoriums in Auschwitz-Birkenau innocent human beings were being liquidated. I thought criminals were being killed
there who had partly been sentenced to death because of the crimes they had committed against the German army in Poland and other occupied territories. I am a German and supported
and am supporting the Government in Germany
and the laws of our Government. Whoever opposes our laws is an enemy of the State, because our laws establish him a such.
I did not act on personal initiative but as directed by Ludwig Topf. I was afraid of losing my position and of possible arrest.
Q. Your views do not
really differ from the views of a Nazi.
A. No, I was not a member
of the NSDAP . I only respected and acted according to the laws of my country.