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?
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