It was this that wore them down and broke the strongest wills.
According to my experience and observation, it was this uncertainty, often dependent on the whim of some quite junior official, that had the gravest and strongest psychological effect on the prisoners.
A professional criminal, who might have been sentenced to fifteen years’ hard labor, always knew that he would at least regain his freedom at the end of this period, and probably much sooner.
A political prisoner, however, who had in many cases been taken into custody merely because of a vague accusation brought against him by some personal enemy, was sent to a concentration camp for an indefinite period. It might be for a year, or it might be ten. The quarterly review of prison sentences, as laid down for all German prisoners, was a mere formality. The final word lay with the office that had sent the man to the camp, and the last thing such an office wished to do was to admit to a mistake. The victim of mistake was inevitably the prisoner, who for good or ill had been handed over by the “sending office.” He could make no appeal or complaint. Favorable circumstances might in exceptional cases lead to a “recheck” and result in an unexpected release.
But these were invariably exceptions. As a general rule the period of detention remained in the lap of the gods!
The guards who have the duty of supervising prisoners can be divided into three distinct categories, and this applies equally to remand prisons, penitentiaries, and concentration camps. They can make life hell for the prisoner, but they can also make his wretched existence easier and even tolerable.
Malicious, evil-minded, basically bad, brutal, inferior, common creatures regard the prisoner as an unresisting object on which they can exercise their unrestrained and often perverted desires and whims and so find relief for their inferiority complexes. They do not know the meaning of pity or of any kind of warm fellow feeling. They seize every opportunity to terrorize the prisoners entrusted to their care, especially those against whom they have a personal grudge. The odious machinations of these creatures range over the whole scale from the smallest trickery to the most brutal ill-treatment, according to the individual’s temperament and talents. The spiritual anguish of their victims gives them particular satisfaction. No regulations, however strict, will restrain them in their evil ways. Only supervision can limit the torments they inflict. They spend their time thinking up new methods of physical and mental torture. Woe to the prisoners under their charge when these perverted creatures have as their superiors men who acquiesce in their evil propensities, or even share in their inclinations and encourage them!
The second category, comprising the overwhelming majority, consists of those who are uninterested or indifferent. They carry out their tasks stolidly and discharge their duties, so far as they must, in a competent or indolent fashion.
To them, too, the prisoners are mere objects that they have to supervise and guard. They scarcely regard them as human beings with lives of their own.
For convenience they keep to the regulations, which they obey to the letter. It is too much of a strain for them to attempt to interpret those regulations sensibly. They are in general men of limited abilities.
They have no deliberate wish to do the prisoners harm. But because of their indifference and narrow-mindedness and their desire for an easy life, they do cause a lot of harm and inflict much physical and mental anguish upon the prisoners quite unintentionally.
It is primarily they, however, who enable some prisoners to obtain a domination over their fellows that is so often evil.
The third category consists of men who are kindly by nature, good-hearted, compassionate, and able to sympathize with a fellow human’s troubles.
Within this category the individual guards vary considerably.
First there are those who stick firmly and conscientiously to the regulations and will overlook no departure from them on the part of the prisoners, but who, out of kindness of heart and good nature, construe the regulations in favor of the prisoners and endeavor, so far as this is possible, to alleviate their situation, or at any rate not to make it unnecessarily hard.
There are others who are simply good-hearted, and whose naïveté borders on the miraculous. They will try to gratify a prisoner’s every wish, and out of sheer good nature and boundless sympathy will attempt to help him in every way. They are unable to believe that evil men exist among prisoners, too.
Generally speaking, strictness, combined with good will and understanding, gives a prisoner a certain reassurance, for he is perpetually on the lookout for human comprehension, and the worse his position the greater his need of it. A kind glance, a friendly nod, or a pleasant word will often work wonders, especially on sensitive minds. To find that some consideration, however slight, is being given to his situation and position produces an unexpected effect upon a prisoner. Even the most desperate man, who has already given up all hope, will find new courage if he sees or feels the slightest sign of human fellow feeling.
Every prisoner tries to improve his lot and to make his conditions of life more tolerable. He will exploit kindness and human understanding. Unscrupulous prisoners will go the limit and will try, by evoking sympathy, to get the better of their guards.
Since the prisoner is, generally speaking, mentally superior to the junior guards and supervisory staff, he is quick to find the weak spot in those who are kind or merely stupid.
And this is the disadvantage of showing too much kindness and good will toward the prisoners. A single gesture of human understanding toward a strong-minded prisoner will often inaugurate a series of lapses from discipline on the part of the guard that can only end in the most severe punishment. Such lapses may begin with the harmless smuggling out of a letter, but may lead to actual assistance in escaping.
Examples will show the different effects in the same circumstances, produced by the three characteristic types of guard mentioned above.
To take the remand prison first. The prisoner asks the guard to increase the steam heat in his cell because he has a bad cold and is freezing. A malicious-minded guard will immediately turn the heat off altogether and watch with amusement while the prisoner runs round and round his cell or tries to keep warm by doing endless gymnastic exercises. In the evening another guard comes on duty. He is one of the indifferent type. Once again the prisoner asks for more heat. The guard turns it on full, and forgets all about it for the rest of the night. Within an hour the cell is so overheated that the prisoner has to leave the window open all night, with the result that his cold becomes far worse.
Now take the penitentiary. There is a stipulated time for bathing. A sadistic guard marches the prisoners to the baths. He throws the window in the dressing room wide open, in midwinter, because the place is full of steam. With much shouting to hurry them on, he drives the prisoners under the showers and turns the hot water on full so that no man can stay underneath it for more than a second. Then he turns on the cold water, and makes them stand under it for a long time, shivering. With a mocking grin he then watches the prisoners, who are now so cold that they can hardly dress themselves.
On another occasion they are taken to the baths by a guard of the indifferent type. It is also winter. The prisoners undress and the guard sits down and reads a newspaper. After a long time he manages to tear himself away from his paper and switches on the water. He turns the hot on full and returns to his paper. No one can go under the shower, which is almost boiling. He pays no attention to the prisoners’ shouts. Only when he has finished his reading does he stand up, and then immediately turns the water off altogether. The prisoners dress themselves again without having washed at all. He looks at his watch, sees that the time is right, and feels he has done his duty.