Translation of USSR-8,
Soviet War Crimes Report
on Auschwitz,
Nuremberg Trial - 6 May 1945
Translated by Carlos W. Porter
Introduction
"The Nuremberg Trials." The mere mention of these
words conjures up stark images of atrocities of the Second
World War. These were the trials of the top surviving members
of the Nazi leadership. At the conclusion of the trials,
a set of volumes would be produced documenting the evidence
presented. These volumes would become a major resource for
most writers on the period, with citations carrying the
weight of gospel. But what exactly were these trials?
U.S. Supreme Court Justice, William O. Douglas would
write, "the crime for which the Nazis were tried had never
been formalized as a crime with the definiteness required
by our legal standards, nor outlawed with a death penalty
by the international community." Similarly one-time Presidential
candidate, Robert Taft condemned the judgement, "About this
whole judgement there is the spirit of vengeance, and vengeance
is seldom justice. The hanging of the eleven men convicted
will be a blot on the American record which we shall long
regret." The star-defendant of the trial, Herman Göring
wrote,"I have always regarded the trial as a purely political
act by the victors."
The prosecution of the defendants
was not carried out by neutral powers but by the "victors."
Although none of the victorious powers could claim to be
innocent of terrible warcrimes, the greatest hypocrisy of
the court was the decision to allow the Soviets to sit in
judgement. Speaking in the House of Lords on May 5, 1949,
Lord Hankey would say, "there was something cynical and
revolting in the spectacle of British, French, and American
judges sitting on the Bench with colleagues representing
a country which before, during and since the trials had
perpetrated half the political crimes in the calendar."
The Soviets, who were responsible for so many atrocities
would now sit in judgement of their arch-enemies.
In a widely distributed Soviet leaflet written by Ilya
Ehrenburg the sentiment was clear, "The Germans are not
human beings...there is nothing more amusing for us than
a heap of German corpses." Now Soviet lawyers and judges
could carry out the theme of their propaganda within the
environment of a court-of-law. The Soviets would manufacture
documents proving that the Nazi leadership were guilty of
numerous crimes of which they were innocent, including the
Katyn Forest massacre of Polish officers. The documents
regarding Katyn were signed by Burdenko and Nikolai (Nikolaus)
amongst others. Years later the Soviets would admit their
guilt for the Katyn Forest mass murder. Although the defendants
were able to produce much evidence to show that the Soviets
were guilty of this crime, its true perpetrators have never
stood trial.
The Soviets would also present other
documents of a similar nature regarding outrageous crimes
allegedly perpetrated by their enemies. The crimes of Auschwitz,
namely medical experiments and mass murder through the use
of poison gas are detailed in the Soviet document USSR-008.
Interestingly, this document was signed by Nikolaus and
Burdenko, two of the Soviet factotus who signed the fraudulent
Katyn documents!
Presented below is a translation
of USSR-008. Can this document be accepted at face value?
You decide!
[RW - 08 Feb. 96]
Translator's
note:
The document is not signed by any of the so-called
witnesses. No documents are attached to the report. This
report is quoted as a reliable source somewhere or other
by nearly all Holocaust writers, for example, by Raul Hilberg
on p. 884 of THE DESTRUCTION OF THE EUROPEAN JEWS ("revised,
definitive" edition). Nearly all Hilberg's other references
are of similar quality, i.e., of Communist origin. Serge
and Beate Klarsfeld, on p. 13 of Pressac's AUSCHWITZ: TECHNIQUE
AND OPERATION OF THE GAS CHAMBERS, have even had the audacity
to state: "As for the archives of the Soviet War Crimes
Commission which worked for two months at Auschwitz, only
fragments of them have come to light, and the Soviets themselves,
who lost interest in the subject after the war, do not seem
to even know where they are." For reasons best known to
themselves, Jews always assume that Communist sources generally,
and Stalinist sources in particular, are impeachably reliable,
and that no reasonable person can as! sert the contrary.
Two of the signatories to USSR-8 (Burdenko and Nikolai)
are the same as on USSR-54 (the Kaytn report); the third
is the biological quack, Lyssenko.
If we can't believe
the Soviets on Katyn, why should be believe them on Auschwitz?
DOCUMENT 008-USSR
Report by the Soviet War Crimes Commission, 6 May 1945.
There were usually 200,000 inmates at one time in the extermination
camp of Auschwitz. Over 4 million people from the countries
occupied by Germany were killed in Auschwitz, in most cases
by gas immediately after their arrival; the remainder were
first used for labour or for medical experiments and later
killed in various ways (injections, ill treatment etc.).
Details relating to the camp and the persons responsible
for the crimes.
Description
Record no. 56
of the Soviet War Crimes Commission, second edition. Russian
language. Signatures ink. With German translation.
Report of the Special State Commission for the investigation
and examination of the misdeeds of the German fascist invaders
and their accomplices of the monstrous atrocities and crimes
of the German government in Auschwitz (Oswiezim).
Even before the Red Army had liberated Polish territory
in Upper Silesia, numerous reports had reached the Special
Commission regarding the existence of a gigantic camp which
the German government had erected for the extermination
of Russian prisoners in the vicinity of the city of Oswiezim
(Auschwitz). After the liberation of Polish Silesia by Soviet
troops, units of the Red Army found this camp. Upon order
of the Special State Commission, a thorough investigation
of the crimes committed in Auschwitz by the Germans took
place in February and March 1945.
The investigation
was carried out by the legal officer of the 1st Ukrainian
Front with KUDRYAVTSEV and KUZMIN as representatives of
the Special State Commission. Special expert commissions
participated in the investigations. These included a forensic
medical expert commission from the 1st Ukrainian Front,
BRYSHIN F.F., the forensic medical expert of the Army, TSCHURSAVNOW,
among others, and a technical commission consisting of the
Cracow Professors DAVIDOWSKY ROMAN and DOLINSKY JAROSLAUS,
among others. The interrogation and medical examination
of 2,819 former inmates of Auschwitz camp who were rescued
by the Russian army; a study of the material found in the
camp, German documents, the remains of crematoria and gas
chambers blown up by the Germans during their retreat; an
examination of corpses found on the grounds of the camp,
of objects and papers which remained behind on the grounds
of the camp and in the barracks, and which had belonged
to people who came from various coun! tries of Europe and
who were murdered by the Germans, have established the following:
1) the Germans exterminated over four million citizens
of the Soviet Union, Poland, France, Belgium, Holland, Czechoslovakia,
Roumania, Hungary, and other countries by shooting and monstrous
tortures in Auschwitz camp;
2) Germany professors
and doctors performed so-called medical experiments on living
men. women, and children in the camp. Auschwitz camp by
far exceeded all hitherto known death camps in the refinement
of its methods -- in technical organization, in the number
of victims, and in the cruelty of the means with which the
people were killed. Auschwitz camp contained gas chambers
and crematoria, and surgical stations and laboratories,
all aimed at the extermination of human beings. The Germans
called the gas chambers "Baths for Special Purposes". The
entrance to the "baths" bore the sign "To the Disinfection";
the exit "entry to the bathhouse. Thus, the people intended
for death went unsuspectingly into the room "for disinfection",
and undressed; they were then driven into the "Bath for
Special Purposes", and killed with "Zyklon" poison. Special
hospitals, surgical blocks, laboratories, and other installations
were erected in the camp -- not to heal men, but to kill
them. German pr! ofessors and doctors performed mass experiments
on completely healthy women and children: sterilization
of women and castration of men (mass experiments on artificial
excitement of cancer, typhus and malaria, experiments on
the effects of poisons on living people.
SS Reichsfuehrer
HIMMLER was the organizer of Auschwitz extermination camp.
Auschwitz camp was built in 1939, on the order of
SS Reichsfuehrer Himmler, for the exclusive purpose of killing
the enslaved citizens of occupied European lands. The camp
occupied a huge surface area in the vicinity of the city
of Auschwitz. It was originally a whole system of camps:
Auschwitz, Birkenau, Monocice , Goleschan, Jawiszowiz,
Neudachs, Blachamer, etc. The two main camps -- Auschwitz
and Birkenau -- covered 467.5 ha. and consisted of more
than 620 living barracks and administrative buildings. There
were always between 180,0000 and 250,00 prisoners in Auschwitz.
All camps were surrounded by ditches full of deep water
and thick barbed wire charged with high electrical voltage.
In 1941, the first Auschwitz crematorium was built
to burn bodies of murdered persons. In the summer of 1942,
SS Reichsfuehrer Himmler visited the Auschwitz camp, ordered
its expansion to gigantic proportions, and gave instructions
for technical improvements. The German firm Topf & Soehne
in Erfurt received the order to build four powerful new
crematories and gas chambers in Birkenau. Berlin insisted
on faster completion and demanded that all work be finished
by the beginning of 1943. The complete correspondence between
the camp administration and the firm Topf & Soehne was found
in the office files of Auschwitz camp, which files also
contained the following letter:
1) "I.A.
Topf & Soehne, Erfurt, 12 February 1943. To the Central
Building Administration of the SS and Police, Auschwitz
(Oswiezim). Regarding: crematoria for the second and third
prison camp.
"We politely confirm receipt of your
telegram of 10 February with the following content:
"'We once again confirm receipt of your order for five
three-part 3-muffle> crematory ovens, including two electric
lifts for the removal of corpses and a second two-part lift
for corpses. A usable installation for the heating with
coal and an installation for the removal of the ashes are
also included in the order. You are to deliver the complete
installation for crematory no 3. We expect that you will
do everything to send all machines and accessories immediately.
The installation must be ready for operation by 10 April
1943.' (signed I.A.Topf & Soehne."
Translator's
note: note the "quote-within-a-quote-quoted-in-a report"
technique for the falsification of quotes. Topf tells Auschwitz
what Auschwitz told Topf, then Topf writes a letter to itself
telling itself what Auschwitz told Topf -- or is Topf ordering
ovens from Auschwitz? The "original" letter was not introduced
into evidence at Nuremberg, but the second quote is good
enough for William L. Shirer, who clipped it out of the
middle.
2) "No. 12, 115/42 -- EP-HA Article
2. Regarding: order for two three part crematory ovens for
each of the "baths for special purposes". Engineer Pruefer
proposes that these be taken the crematory
ovens which are ready for shipment to Mogilew. The leader
of the division who was in the SS commissary management
of the main division Berlin was immediately notified of
this, and was asked for further instructions. (Signed) SS
Untersturmfuerher (S). Oswiezim 21, August 1942."
Translator's note: the (S) means there is only the
initial S on the "original document", which is not attached
to the report.
Twelve crematory ovens with 46
retorts were available in four new crematoria. Every retort
could take three to five corpses. The cremation procedure
took approximately 20 to 30 minutes. The baths for special
purposes, that is, the gas chambers for the killing of human
beings were located in the cellars of special buildings
next to ?> the crematoria. There were also another two separate
"baths", the bodies of people killed here were burnt in
separate fires in the open. Dogs helped to drive the men
intended for death into the baths. On the way, they were
driven with blows from clubs and rifle butts. The doors
to the chambers were hermetically sealed, and the people
in them were poisoned with Zyklon. Death occurred within
3-5 minutes; after 20-30 minutes, the bodies were removed
and taken to the crematory ovens in the crematoria.
Before cremation, cremation dentists removed all gold
teeth from the bodies. The "production" of the "baths" and
gas chambers by far exceeded the capacity of the crematory
ovens; therefore the Germans used gigantic fires in the
open to burn the bodies. Ditches 4 - 6 m wide, 25 - 30 m
long, and 2 m deep were dug for these fires. Channels ran
along the floor of the ditches and were used for air supply.
The bodies were brought to the fires by narrow-gauge railway,
and placed in layers crossways in the ditches. Oil was poured
over them and that is how they were burnt. The ashes were
buried in deep ditches ?> or thrown in the Sola and Vistula.
In 1943, they began to grind up the unburnt bones
for industrial purposes, and to sell them to the "Strem"
company for the manufacture of superphosphates.
Written proof
was found in the camp that 112 tons and 600 kg. of bone
meal from human bodies were sent to the Strem company. The
Germans also used hair cut off the heads of murdered women
for industrial purposes. In Auschwitz camp, the Germans
killed and burnt daily between 10,000 and 12,000 human beings
daily, of whom 8,000 - 10,000 arrived by railway and were
immediately killed, plus 2,000 - 3,000 camp inmates. Two
former prisoners who were interrogated as witnesses -- SHYLOMA
DRAGON (a resident of the small town of Zitovnin in the
province of Warsaw), and GENRICH TAUBER, from the city of
Krzanow in Poland), who worked in a special commando servicing
the gas chambers and the crematoria -- testified as follows:
"...First, the Germans had two gas chambers two
kilometres apart. They were two wooden barracks ?>, each
the same. People who arrived by train were taken to the
barracks, undressed, and then driven into the gas chambers.
SS men with gas masks threw Zyklon through the holes. The
gassing lasted 15 - 20 minutes, after which the bodies were
removed in little wagons and taken to the ditches and burnt
there."
Translator's Note: Tauber is considered
reliable by Jean-Claude Pressac, who seems unaware that
the gas chambers were wooden barracks.
Later,
four crematoria were in operation on the grounds of Birkenau
camp; every one of them had one gas chamber. Crematoria
nos. 3 and 3 were of the same type, and each had 15 crematory
ovens while those of crematoria nos. 3 and 5 were of another
type -- not as big, and of inferior technical quality, each
with 8 crematory ovens. All the crematoria incinerated 10,000
- 12,000 bodies per day.
German fascist professors
and doctors as murderers of Auschwitz prisoners
In Auschwitz camp, German fascists professors and doctors
performed extensive "medical" experiments with monstrous
ingenuity on living people. Former inmate doctors rescued
by the Red Army -- STEINBERG, (Paris), GORDON (Vilnius,
Prof. GROSSMAN ( Yugoslavia), Dr. of med. WALENTIN ERWIN
(Berlin), KEPPICH ANNA (Hungary), DE WIND EDUARD (Netherlands),
FLECHNER ALBERT (Paris) -- established they had seen a great
number of "medical" experiments with their own eyes, arbitrarily
performed by German fascist professors and doctors on prisoners
in order to learn surgical techniques. A young German doctor
sought out prisoners with ulcerating sores on their limbs,
and practised performing amputations on them. The German
doctors TILLE and FISCHER gathered great groups of prisoners
and then carried out fracturing operations on them.
The leading doctor at the hospital, Dr. ENDERS,
performed stomach operations in the absence of the slightest
complaint of any stomach trouble; he also practised ulcer
operations on them.
Sterilization experiments were
performed on women in the camp hospital division of Auschwitz
camp. 400 women prisoners were housed in Block 10 of the
camp, and simultaneously subjected to sterilization experiments
with x-rays, and then by removal of the ovaries; the neck
of the uterus was infected with cancer, experiments were
performed to induce premature birth artificially and to
test contrast substances, as well as to test x-ray exposure
of the uterus. In Block 28, doctors tested methods of artificially
wounding the skin with kerosine oil, various salts, pastes,
and powders. They also used Arichink to study artificially
induced jaundice. These experiments were led by the German,
Dr. Emil KOSCHUB.
In Block 21, mass experiments
were performed in the castration of men and to study the
possibility of sterilization with x-rays. Castration was
performed some time after treatment with x-rays. These x-ray
and castration experiments were led by Prof. SCHUMANN and
Dr. DERING. The operations frequently consisted of removing
one or both testicles for study after treatment with x-rays.
All these facts are attested to by the testimonies
of former inmates, KLEIN JUDITH, AUSSEN KLARA, HORBANN MINNA,
SONDERS NONNA, SKURNIKC JAKOB, SURES DAVID, and many others
on whom the German doctors performed various experiments.
Upon order of the German doctor Dr. ENDERS, in 1941-1944,
prisoners were killed in the hospitals by injection of phenol
in the heart. First, the injections were given by Dr. DERING;
later by nurses. A German named KLER, a former shoemaker,
proved himself especially enthusiastic, killing thousands
of victims in this manner. A prisoner named PANSZIK, a Pole,
killed 12,000 men with phenol injections (he was later killed
by Polish prisoners). A German named STESS killed 10,000
people with these injections.
The fact that inhuman
experiments were performed on prisoners is also confirmed
by a number of documents found in the camp offices. A report
from the surgical division of the camp hospital testified
that in three months -- October, November, and December
1943 -- there were 89 removals of the testicles (castration),
five sterilizations, five removals of the ovaries among
the many operations performed by surgeons of the division.
In the the telegram no. 2768 of 28 April 1943, the Obersturmfuehrer
Colonel SOMMER issues an order to the office of the camp
commandant, stating that 128 women are to be included in
a list with the designation "prisoners for experiments".
A statistical survey of the camp commandant is concerned
with the number and distribution of female prisoners to
the various categories, and is signed by the representative
camp commandant. There is one constant column: prisoners
for various experiments. The column is entitled "women for
experiments". On 15 May 1944, 4! 40; on 5 June 1944, 413;
on 19 June 1944, 348; on 30 July 349, etc.
Translator's
note. Hmmm. Sounds interesting. Why not bring the documents
to court?
German doctors played a leading role
in the so-called "selection" of prisoners for gassing and
incineration. They carried these "selections" out everywhere
-- near the crematories, in the hospitals, in the barracks.
Exhausted, sick people who were unable to work were sent
to the gas chambers.
The following German doctors
participated in the selection of prisoners for the purpose
of killing: WIRTS, MENGELE, RODE, FISCHER, TILLE, KOENIG,
KLEIN, and many others.
Upon order of the leading
German doctor of the Auschwitz division, the populations
of entire barracks were murdered by poison gas during typhus
epidemics.
The forensic medical experts found that
German doctors of Auschwitz camp performed the following
experiments on living people:
1) removal of tissues
from the neck of the uterus or even complete removal of
the same;
2) testing of a number of unknown substances
for the purpose of x-ray exposure of the uterus and ovaries,
These substances were injected under pressure into the uteral
region with the help of special installations, and often
caused frightful pain to the the victim of the experiment;
3) sterilization of women by x-rays of the pelvic
region, followed by the removal of the ovaries. These experiments
were performed chiefly on younger women;
4) study
of the reactions of various chemical preparations to the
order of German firms. According to the eyewitness testimony
of a German doctor, Dr. med. Erwin VALENTIN, the representatives
of German chemical industry -- GLAUBER, a gynecologist from
Koenigshuette, and GEVEL, a chemist -- actually bought 150
women from the camp administration at one time for such
experiments.
5) sterilization of men through x-rays;
6) experiments on men using chemical irritant preparations
on the skin of one leg for the artificial inducement of
ulcers and inflamed tumours;
7) a number of other
experiments, such as artificial infection with malaria,
artificial insemination, etc..
Very many experiments
ended in the rapid, excruciating death of the prisoner involved.
When the victims for experimental purposes were no longer
useable, they were killed and cremated. In this manner,
the Germans attempted to wipe away their inhuman experiments.
Samuel Abramowitsch STERN, a former prisoner from
Bucharest, testified:
"...In Auschwitz camp, I worked
as the assistant to the doctor. On the orders of Ober-Sergeant
Major KOSCHUB, I subjected prisoners to injections with
other manipulations. I know every well that kerosene was
injected into the leg... Experiments were performed on the
irritability of the skin...For these purposes, an 80% solution
of alum actinium was used. The entire layer of skin was
then removed and sent for examination. Those who had deep-seated
skin inflammations had the entire piece of flesh cut out,
together with the skin, and this was also sent for examination...
KOSCHUB infected prisoners with artificial jaundice
and gave them malarial blood transfusions. WALIGUVA M, a
test subject, testified:
"...Several days after
my arrival at Birkenau, I believe it was the beginning of
December 1942, all younger men between 18 and 30 were sterilized
by x-ray exposure of the scrotum. I was also among those
sterilized. Eleven months after I was sterilized, that is,
on 1 November 1943, I was castrated... together with 200
other men who were sterilized in one day."
The witness
DAVID SURES, from Salonika (Greece), gave the following
testimony:
"Approximately in July 1944, I was entered
onto a list, together with many other Greeks, and sent to
Birkenau. There, we all had to undress, and were all sterilized
with x-rays. A month after sterilization, we were all ordered
to the camp central division, where we were all castrated."
The former inmate M. HAUSER (Paris, Citemilion 9),
testified:
"In Auschwitz, we were housed in Block
10. The reason why we were housed in this block was unknown
to us. It contained a hospital division, although we were
all entirely healthy women. In Block 10, they took a syringe
full of blood from me, I don't know for what purpose. At
the end of August 1943, I was taken to the operating room,
received an anaesthetic, and an operation was performed
on my sexual organs. The operation was performed by a prisoner,
Dr. SAMUEL, under the leadership and instruction of the
German, Dr. WIRTZ. After the operation, I was sick for 11
months in Block 10. Among those who were subjected to the
sterilization operation was a Jewish woman named Bella,
from Greece, whose last name I can no longer remember. After
she was x-rayed, she was operated on. She received an abdominal
incision. After the operation, she got well and her abdomen
healed. The German doctor Dr. SCHUMANN came to Block 10
to examine her, and took Bella away to Block 28. There he
made a sec! ond incision, this time in a sideways direction.
I myself saw the criss-cross incision. Within a few days
of the second operation, Bella died."
The German
butchers murdered citizens from all European nations in
Auschwitz
Investigations have proven that three
to five railway trains loaded with human beings intended
for extermination arrived at Auschwitz every day -- every
train carying 1,500 - 3,000 men. These people, intended
for death, came from every country in Europe. The 2,819
liberated prisoners interrogated by the forensic medical
commission included citizens of: Poland 754; Hungary 542;
France 346; Czechoslovakia 315; USSR 180; the Netherlands
159; Yugoslavia 143; Italy 91; Greece 76; Roumania 52; Belgium
41; and other countries.
From every train, the Germans
sought out 200 - 300 of the strongest for work in the camp,
and sent the rest straight to the gas chamber, as well as
to the crematoria of Auschwitz and Birkenau camps. The railway
foreman of Oswiezim station, FRANSISZEK STANEK, testified:
"In 1942, 1943, and 1944, trainloads of prisoners
came from Czechoslovakia, Belgium, France, Holland, Norway,
Greece, Poland, and other countries."
The witness
EDWARD DE VIND testified:
"After the occupation
of Holland by the Germans, a purge of the state apparatus,
the governmental installations, and educational institutions
took place in November 1940. Three of us university assistants
were expelled., I moved to Amsterdam. A Dutch fascist was
found murdered in a residential block. As a reprisal, the
Germans arrested 400 hostages, including myself. They grabbed
me on the street and sent me to this camp."
The
witness JACKOV GORDON from Vilnius testified:
"...
I was sent to the Auschwitz camp on 22 January 1943. In
all, there were 3,650 people in the train. Of these, 265
men and 80 women were sent into the camp; the rest were
sent to the crematorium immediately, where they were gassed
and burnt. Among the victims were my wife, Matilda, a nurse
by profession, my son, 4 1/2 years old, and my father (73
years old), as well as my mother (64 years old).
The witness EMILIE DESSANTI, an Italian, testified:
"...On 12 September 1944, the Hitlerians deported
us from Italy and sent us to Auschwitz camp. In all, they
sent 500 Italians to the camp. Of these, 30 remained alive.
The rest were brutally tortured to death and killed in the
camp."
The witness DAVID SURES testified:
"... I came from Greece on 3 April 1943 with a trainload
of Greeks, together with more than 2,500 other persons,
including my mother, 53 years old, and my sister and her
child. Approximately 300 persons of the 2,500 were sent
into the camp, while the remaining, among them my mother,
my sister, and her five-year old child, were sent straight
from the train to be burnt in the crematorium."
The witness GEORG KITMAN from Roumania testified:
"...In June 1944, I and my parents were sent to Auschwitz,
together with other people, old people, women and children,
in a railway train. When we got out, all the old people
and mothers with small children were separated from the
strong ones, sent to the crematorium, and burnt. Among them
were my father, 42 years old, and my mother, 48 years old.
Of the 3,000 persons, not more than 350 were sent into the
camp."
The witness ZISKA testified:
"...I
arrived in February 1943 with 1100 other people from France.
On the same day, 205 strong people were selected and sent
to the barracks and the other 895 -- old people, women,
and children -- were sent to the gas chamber, where they
were asphyxiated."
The former inmate, ANNA KEPPICH,
a Hungarian from the city of Cluj, testified:
"...I
arrived in Auschwitz camp in June 1944 with 3,000 Hungarian
prisoners. After our arrival in the camp, 500 strong people
were selected for work in the camp, while the other 2,500
were sent for extermination in the gas chambers."
Professor BERTHOLD EPSTEIN of the University of Prague
reported to the Commission:
"Selected prisoners
were sent to the gas chambers for extermination. For several
months, we saw long lines of people sent to their death
in the crematorium. Specially large groups were killed in
May, June, and July 1944. During this time the crematorium
worked day and night, as we could see from the flames
which shot out of the chimneys. We often smelled the
stench
of burning flesh, hair, and nails. In this time, we saw
two gigantic fires in the open, which blazed brightly during
the night, in addition to the flames that shot out of the
crematorium chimneys. Shrieks and cries as well as the barking
of SS watch dogs could be heard throughout the night. The
unfortunate victims, who were sent to death in the open
fires in long rows due to the overfilled crematoria, anticipated
the fate that awaited them..."
"I knew that my nearest
relatives had shared this fate, and that I, too, would not
succeed in escaping it. Approximately every two weeks, the
camp doctor, MENGELE, selected the people who were to be
killed in the crematorium. Thus, approximately 500 children
were killed in one day. Heart-breaking scenes occurred when
these children were taken away, since everyone knew, where
they were going ?>. The SS men and their accessories showed
special brutality in this procedure. When we arrived in
Auschwitz, I was separated from my wife and never saw her
again. Later I heard that she was never even accepted into
the camp. My wife was no doubt killed in the usual manner.
In March 1944, SS men murdered my wife's sister with her
two children and my niece 38 years old. In July 1944, my
sister also died."
Death on a conveyor belt
The investigations showed that, apart from people who
were intended for experimental purposes in the camps of
Auschwitz, some 200,000 prisoners were kept for purposes
of exploitation through the most exhausting forced labour.
Every week, German doctors took a "selection", the result
of which was that all the sick were killed in the gas chambers.
These were replaced by those who arrived in the camp by
train. It was an exactly organized system, a horrible conveyor
belt of death. The first ones were killed in order to be
replaced by others, who were then brought to a point of
exhaustion and illness through the most brutal exploitation,
and then they were sent to the gas chambers.
Slaves
for the I.G. Farben-Industrie
In 1941, the Germans
began the construction of a large, chemical armaments plant
for the I.G. Farben-Industrie near Auschwitz and with the
construction of an armaments factory for artillery and other
ignition material. The construction was carried out by Krupp,
by "Union" companies, and other companies with tens of thousands
of Auschwitz prisoners of all European nationalities --
Russians, Ukrainians, White Russians, Poles, French, Yugoslavia,
Greeks, Belgians, Czechs, Dutch, Italians -- who died under
the brutal exploitation, working in these structures, as
well as in the draining of swamps, in mines, and the building
of roads.
The barracks of the concentration camp
were located seven or eight kilometres from the worksites.
Crews of SS men made the prisoners assemble, then thousands
were driven to work under armed guard and surrounded by
overseers with clubs and dogs. At work, the prisoners were
beaten by the SS men, overseers, and foremen: one blow for
straightening up the back, another for not picking up enough
earth on the shovel, another for not working fast enough.
Others were made to run with earth-laden carts by blows.
The foremen said: "The company pays 4 marks for you and
therefore you must work like a horse." The worksites were
execution grounds at the same time. The killing of prisoners
in any manner was permitted by the camp administration.
Obersturmbannfuehrer LIEBERGERSCHEL issued an order in which
he offered the SS 50 marks for every inmate killed "trying
to escape". To receive this reward, the guards murdered
without being punished.
Testimony on the killing
of prisoners on the worksite was given by a former inmate:
"... In August 1943, I worked on the worksite of
the I.G. Farbenindustrie installation. One day, SS men brought
400 prisoners to this worksite, including Yugoslavians,
Greeks, Frenchmen, and Belgian, drove them into a ditch,
and began to bury them alive. The people doomed to death
screamed for help in various languages. The SS men standing
around said to us: 'Look out there and work better than
before, or the same will happen to you.' Two weeks later,
we were transferred so that the terrain could be prepared
for a building in one of the Auschwitz camps. SS men LOSSMANN
and other SS men selected 30 men from our group, drove them
into a ditch, and buried them up to the neck. Then the SS
men got on horses, and began to gallop over the land, and
killed all 30 men."
The gigantic swamps ?> of Auschwitz
became a grave for thousands of men of the most varied nationalities.
Over 300 columns from 50 to 1,200 men did heavy work there.
As a result of the blows, the murders, and the violence,
not one of the ones who worked there lived more than two
or three months. They were murdered in the swamps ?>, or
when they fell ill, by phenol injections in the heart or
killed in the gas chambers.
Translator's note:
how do you burn bodies on pyres, in the open, in ditches,
in a swamp, when it rains and snows constantly? How did
they keep the wood dry?
JAKOB KOENIG, a specialist
reclamation engineer, who worked as a common navvy in the
swamps ?>, testified:
"...I belonged to a column
of 400 men working in the reclamation of swampland. The
overseers, who were recruited from among German criminals,
beat the men unconscious with their clubs and spades. In
our column, there were men and women of all ages, including
academicians, doctors, teachers, professors. Yugoslavia
alone was represented by 14 engineers who did nothing there
but ordinary work.
A former inmate, SIMON MEISELIER
BEGAIN, testified:
"From our column, the bodies
of 100 - 200 bodies of people tortured to death were brought
back daily for two or three months in 1944, and were replaced
by new victims."
The German hangmen were especially
brutal with Soviet prisoners, who were as a rule killed
immediately upon arrival in the camp. Only the strongest
of them were selected from among them. The following order,
relating to Soviet citizens, was found in the camp office:
"Oranienburg, 15 November 1941. Confidential. Reichsfuehrer
SS. Inspector of concentration camps (Oswiezim 14L14). Regarding:
execution of Russian prisoners of war. To the commandants
of the concentration camps. Copies to the camp doctors,
camp leaders of prisoners under special guard, to the camp
management. The Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German
Police has declared himself fundamentally in agreement with
extending the execution of those out of the total number
of Russian prisoners of war who are sent to the concentration
camps for execution (commissars) when their physical condition
permits work in the stone quarry. The approval of the Chief
of the Security Police and SD Police is necessary for this
purpose. I therefore issue the following order: after the
arrival in the camp of trains with prisoners of war for
execution, physically sound Russians who can work in the
stone quarries should be selected by the camp chief (E)
and the leading doctor. A list of names of the! selected
Russians should be sent to us in duplicate.
"The
camp doctor must confirm on a list that he raises no objection
from this point of view to these people being used for work.
After receipt of approval from the Chief of the Security
Police and the SD Police, the transfer of the Russians concerned
to the stone quarry by order will then be arranged. Signed
GLUECKS SS Brigadefuehrer and Generalmajor."
Based
on this order, some of the Soviet prisoners were kept alive
for the purpose of hard physical work. Their treatment by
the SS and the overseer was as cruel and inhumane as can
be imagined.
Subordinates are encouraged to use
their own initiative
Subordinates were requested
to use their own initiative
A resident of the city
of Auschwitz MARINA GANDLIZK testified:
"In the
winter of 1941, Russian prisoners of war were driven daily
like cattle from Auschwitz camp to the village of Babive
at 35 degrees below zero. Many of them had no headwear,
only soldiers' shirts and trousers and torn footwear. Every
evening, carts with the bodies of those same Russian prisoners
of war came back the village of Babive. On top of the cart
sat two or three comrades of the dead Russians exhausted
to the utmost, with frozen faces, hands, and feet.
The Hitlerians demanded unceasingly more and more murders
from their subordinates. On 24 February 1944, the chief
of the Auschwitz garrison, Obersturmbannfuehrer LIEBERGERSCHEL,
issued an order stating: "Lengthy personal observations
have enabled me to observe that there are too many prisoners
working on all worksites, with the exception of the armaments
factories -- and their working strength is not being exploited.
They loaf around. We are aware that that tougher supervision
by young SS officers would be necessary to increase the
working yield from the prisoners, but we also know that
we have no additional contingents available for this purpose,
since they are either at the front or are doing service
in other important sectors. We must help ourselves. It is
obvious that we must act quickly, and I hope that every
one will do what is necessary on his own initiative..."
The result of this order was that frightful processions
could be seen every evening, drawing along the roads --
from all sides of Auschwitz camp, from the factories, the
swamps, from the mines back to the barracks: surrounded
by SS men and overseers with huge packs of dogs, blood-bespotted,
exhausted prisoners carried the corpses of their comrades
on wooden stretchers.
At role call, the prisoners
were made to stand in long lines; the bodies of those tortured
to death were laid out before them, and the overseers reported
to their superiors regarding fulfilment of the LIEBERGERSHER
order. The administration expressed its gratitude to the
columns with the greatest number of corpses. Those guilty
of misdemeanours were beaten with clubs before the eyes
of the prisoners.
These frightful forced labour
conditions led to frightful living conditions in the barracks.
1,000 - 1,500 people were housed in buildings erected for
400 - 500 persons. Hunger, epidemics, torture, unhygenic
conditions, everything was consciously and deliberately
directed at exterminating the prisoners as quickly as possible.
Examination of 2,819 Auschwitz prisoners who were rescued
by the Red Army and interrogated by the forensic medical
commission, proved that, out of 2,189 persons, 91 percent
suffered from total exhaustion and 223 persons suffered
from pulmonary tuberculosis. The experts also established
that the Germans had tortured the prisoners. The persons
examined suffered from broken ribs, fractured limbs, fractures
of the vertebral column and bones of the face, as well as
various wounds, ulcers, and frozen hands and feet, the results
of the tortures permitted by the Germans. Very many of the
liberated prisoners suffered from severe nervous and psychological
disturban! ces. The forensic medical commission held an
examination of the corpses of 536 prisoners found on the
grounds of the camp. It was established that in 474 cases
(88.3 percent) the cause of death was exhaustion.
Murder of children
In Auschwitz camp, the Hitler
criminals murdered hundreds of thousands of children, from
infants to sixteen-year olds. As a rule, children were sent
to the gas chambers to be killed as soon as they stepped
off the train, and only a small number of powerful youths
were retained for work in the camp. The investigations have
shown that the Germans demanded the same hard labour from
children 8 to 16 years old as from adults. Work that exceeded
their strength. Tortures and beatings soon reduced them
to a condition of complete exhaustion, and then they were
murdered. Ex-prisoner DR. JAKOV GORDON from Vilnius testified
after his liberation:
"At the beginning of 1943,
164 children were selected from among the inmates of the
Birkenau camp, brought to the hospital and there killed
through injections of carbolic acid in the heart."
Ex-prisoner BAKASCH WALDTRAUT from Duesseldorf (Germany)
testified:
"In the year 1943, as we were working
on the construction of a fence around the crematorium no.
5, I myself saw how SS men threw living children in the
fire."
Here are the testimonies of a few children
who were rescued by the Red Army. S. MUDIANOC, a youth,
born in 1930 in the city of Rod, said,
"We children
were forced to work and pull carts in groups of 15 - 20.
The carts were loaded with a variety of things, but chiefly
with the corpses of victims. We took them to a separate
block where they were piled up in layers and then taken
to the crematorium. We worked from 4 o'clock in the morning
until it got dark. At the end of October, the Germans inspected
our work and punished us because the block was not clean.
One hundred and fifty had to go out in the road by the block,
and then we were taken to a bath house and undressed. Cold
water was poured over us, after which they drove us along
the street to our block. After that, many children got sick."
ANDREAS LERINCIAKOS, a youth of nine years of age
from the city of Klez (Hungary) testified:
"After
we were driven to Block 22 in the camp, we were beaten,
mostly by German women placed over us as guards. They beat
us with clubs. During my stay in the camp, Dr. MENGELE often
took blood from me. In November 1944, all children were
transferred to the A camp, the gypsy camp. During a role
call, it turned out that one child was missing. Then the
leader of the women's camp, BRANDER, and her assistant MENDEL,
drove us all into the open at 1 o'clock in the morning and
made us stand in the cold until noon."
Children
who were born in the camp were torn from their mothers and
taken to their death. Women who arrived at the camp pregnant
were immediately housed in separate barracks and premature
birth was induced. Pregnant women who resisted were taken
to the gas chambers.
The former prisoner SOFIA LAKONWNA
from Cracow testified:
"Many of the women, who arrived
at the camp in August 1944 had children aged between 5 and
12 years. All children were sent to the crematorium with
their mothers immediately after their arrival. I was 7 months
pregnant when I arrived. SS Doctor KOENIG examined me and
sent me to barracks V-3 (Birkenau). There I found 65 women
in a similar condition. Three days later, I received an
injection in the hip to induce a premature birth. I was
subjected to these injections for four days. On the fifth
day I gave birth to a child, which was taken away from me.
During my stay in the barracks, I was a witness to 14 such
cases. Newly born or prematurely born babies were taken
away. We didn't know where."
Among the liberated
Auschwitz prisoners who were medically examined, there were
180 children of whom 52 were under the age of 8, and 128
between 8 and 15. All had arrived at the camp during the
second half of 1944, that is, they had spent between 3 and
8 months in the camp. Medical examinations showed that 72
out of 80 children suffered from pulmonary or glandular
tuberculosis; 49 suffered from the results of malnutrition
(severest condition of exhaustion); 31 had frostbite.
Extermination of intellectuals
In the Auschwitz
camp, the Germans brought tens of thousand of outstanding
scientists and intellectuals from a great many different
countries. ANDRE FOUDRI, a resident of the city of Samot
Dupoiet, made the following statements before the commission:
"Of 600 French citizens brought with me to the camp,
the majority died a few months after their arrival. Among
them was the famous national economist
PROFESSOR
HENRI LIMOUSIN of the University of Clermont Ferrant testified:
"In 1944, I was transferred to the Auschwitz camp
from Dachau as an expert on pathology. There I spent nearly
nine months in the quarantine block, where I was forced
to clean latrines, scrub floors, and take food to inmates
who were locked up."
Among those who were killed
in Auschwitz was the well-known Dutch national economist
FRIEDA.
These, and many others, were done to death
with intolerably hard work or killed in the gas chambers.
The Special State Commission received an appeal
to the conscience of the world in three languages, German,
Hungarian, and French, signed by 27 former inmates of Auschwitz
camp, professors, doctors, engineers, jurists, students,
and other intellectuals.
"Before the conscience
of the world, we, the undersigned, liberated by the great
Red Army from the bloody Hitler domination, accuse the German
government under the leadership of Adolf Hitler of the greatest
mass murder in the history of humanity, atrocities and kidnapping
into German slavery..."
The appeal ends with these
words: "We turn to the international conscience with a request
to begin research on the fate of the millions of men from
all national states who disappeared, and to take all conceivable
steps to rescue the millions of prisoners of all nations
who still suffer in Hitler Germany. We escaped death by
a miracle when the Nazis were withdrawing from the camp.
"Although the Hitlerians withdrew in panicky retreat,
they drove 58,000 prisoners with them from Auschwitz camp
and its satellite camps. These men, exhausted by hunger,
had to march on foot, but the majority of them can hardly
have marched more than a few kilometres. We believe that,
with the further advance of the front into the interior
of Germany, the same fate awaits all those who still remain
in the hands of the blood-thirsty Nazis. We, the undersigned,
appeal to the conscience of the world, in the belligerent
and neutral countries and to their governments, and ask
them in the name of humanity, that everything possible be
done so that a repetition of Nazi atrocities and crimes
be avoided forever, so that the blood of millions of innocent
victims not be spilled in vain. Together with the 10,000
rescued persons of all nationalities, we request that the
unbelievable misdeeds of the Hitlerians not remain unavenged.
The rescued persons owe their lives to the courageous Red
Arm! y, and we ask the conscience of the world and all governments
to take this into consideration and to thank them in our
name."
The Hitler robbers
In Auschwitz camp,
the Hitlerians not only proved themselves the blood-thirstiest
murderers of defenceless human beings, but also the greediest
thieves of their property. The millions of people who were
taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp were systematically
robbed during the first hour of their existence. All their
property, suitcases, clothing, bedding, even underwear ?>
and footwear, were taken by the SS to camp warehouses which
had been erected precisely for the purpose of storing plundered
property, and sent to Germany. People who were able to work
and were selected for forced labour received the striped
uniform instead of their own clothing.
There were
35 separate warehouses on the grounds of Auschwitz camp,
where articles of clothing and other articles were sorted
and packed. 29 of them, together with their contents, were
burnt down by the Germans, as they retreated before the
Red Army.
In the six camp warehouses which remained,
were found:
1) 348,820 mens' suits;
2) 836,255
women's articles of clothing, coats and dresses;
3) 5,525 pairs of women's shoes;
4) 38,000 pairs
of men's shoes;
5) 13,964 carpets ?>.
Furthermore,
the camp warehouses also contained great quantities of toothbrushes,
shaving brushes, eyeglasses, dentures, and dishes used by
the prisoners. Large quantities of children's clothing were
also found: shirts, baby shirts, trousers, coats, and caps.
With their blood-stained hands, the Hitlerian child murderers
carefully counted the clothing which they had taken off
the bodies of the slaughtered children and sent it to Germany.
An examination of the contents of the warehouses
revealed all the objects had belonged to the peoples of
various nationalities who were tortured to death or murdered.
Clothing, footwear, and other articles bore the labels of
French, Belgian, Hungarian, Dutch, Yugoslavian, Czechoslovakian
and other manufacturers. Stickers from various European
hotels could still be seen on the suitcases. On the camp
railway platform, the commission discovered seven railway
wagons loaded with clothing and bedding ready for shipment
to Germany:
1) 99,922 children's articles of clothing
and underwear ?>;
2) 192,652 women's articles of
clothing and underwear ?>;
3) 222,269 mens' articles
of clothing and underwear ?>, or a total of 513, 843 articles
of clothing.
Translator's note: did the Germans
really wear underwear stolen from gassed persons?
On 7 March 1945, in the camp tannery, the commission
found 293 bales of women's hair, weighing a total of 7,000
kg. The experts of the commission established that the hair
was cut off the heads of 140,000 women.
Translator's
note: presumably the hair was to be felted and made into
human hair socks; see document USSR-511.
Over
4,000,000 murdered
Prior to their retreat, the Germans
carefully attempted to wipe away trace of their horrible
crime in Auschwitz by destroying all the documents through
which the whole world might learn the exact number of human
beings killed in Auschwitz. But the gigantic installations
erected for the extermination of human lives by them in
the camp, the testimonies of Auschwitz inmates liberated
by the Red Army, the testimonies of 200 witnesses, found
documents, and other important evidence, suffice to convict
the German butchers of the extermination, gassing, and cremation
of millions of men in Auschwitz camp. In the five crematoria
alone, with their 52 retorts, the Germans were able to exterminate
the following numbers of prisoners since their installation:
In crematorium no. 1, which existed for 24 months,
9,000 bodies could be burnt monthly, which means a total
of 216,000 during the entire period of its existence;
The corresponding figures are:
- crematorium
no. 9: 19 months, 90,000 bodies per month, total figure
1,710,000 bodies;
- crematorium no. 3, 18 months,
90,000 bodies per month, total figure 1,620,000 bodies;
- crematorium no. 4: 17 months, 45,000 bodies per
months, total figure 765,000 bodies;
- crematorium
no. 5: 18 months, 45,000 bodies per month
.
The total capacity of all five crematoria was
279,000 bodies per month, for a total figure of 5,121,000
for the entire period of its existence.
Since the
Germans also burnt a great number of bodies on pyres, the
capacity of the installations for the extermination of human
beings in Auschwitz must be considered to be much higher
in fact than this figure would suggest. But even when one
considers that individual crematoria may not have worked
to full capacity, or they might have been shut down for
repairs part of the time, the technical commission established
that the German hangmen killed not less than 4,000,000 citizens
of the USSR, Poland, France, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia,
Roumania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Holland, Belgium, and other
countries during the period of the existence of Auschwitz
camp.
The German fascist criminals must be brought
to exact account
These fearful crimes were committed
under the leadership of the Hitler government, and under
the leadership of SS and Polizeireichsfuehrer "Hangman"
Himmler. The persons directly guilty for this crime are:
All those, as well as all other Germans who participated
in the murder and torture of Auschwitz prisoners, must appear
before a tribunal of the nations, and receive deserved severe
punishment.
The President of the Special State Commission
N. SCHWERNIK
The academician J. TRAININ
The Mytropolitos NIKOLAUS
The academician LYSSENKO
The academician
N. BURDENKO
----------
Translator's Note:
It seems fitting to close with a quote from Jean-Claude
Pressac:
"The Soviet Union... trapped by memories
of a guilty past (Katyn, the Gulags), and by an equally
guilty present, discredited itself in the eyes of the world...
" (TECHNIQUE, etc. p. 264.)
If that is true, then
why is their evidence still believed?
|