On many occasions Himmler, as well as Eicke, used the fanatical faith of Jehovah’s Witnesses as an example.
SS men must have the same fanatical and unshakable faith in the National Socialist ideal and in Adolf Hitler that the Witnesses had in Jehovah. Only when all SS men believed as fanatically in their own philosophy would Adolf Hitler’s state be permanently secure.
A Weltanschauung could only be established and permanently maintained by fanatics utterly prepared to sacrifice their egos for their ideals.[37]
I must refer once more to the executions which took place in Sachsenhausen at the beginning of the war.
How diverse were the ways in which men went to their death!
Jehovah’s Witnesses were filled with a strangely contented, one might almost say radiant, exaltation, firm in the knowledge that they were about to be permitted to enter Jehovah’s kingdom.
The men who refused to do their military service and the political saboteurs were generally composed, steadfast, and calm, resigned to the inevitability of their fate.
The professional criminals, the real asocial types, were quite different: these were either cynical, brazen, feigning indifference, yet inwardly trembling before the Great Unknown. Or raving and struggling. Or whining for spiritual support.
Here are two striking examples. Two brothers by the name of Sass had been arrested in Denmark after a police raid and, in accordance with international law, had been extradited to Germany. Both were internationally notorious thieves, who specialized in safe breaking. They had many previous convictions but had never served a complete sentence, since they had always managed to break out of prison. In spite of every safety precaution, they invariably found a way of escape. Their latest spectacular “job” had been to break into the very up-to-date vault of a big Berlin bank. They had dug a tunnel under the street, starting from a tomb in a graveyard across the way. After carefully dealing with the various alarm mechanisms, they entered the vault, where they were able to work in peace. They succeeded in removing a vast amount of gold, bills of exchange, and jewelry. They buried their loot securely in several graves, and helped themselves from their “bank” until they were caught.
After being extradited, these two big-time crooks were sentenced by a Berlin court to twelve and ten years’ imprisonment; these were the maximum sentences that could be imposed under German law.
Two days after they had been sentenced, the Reichsführer SS, by virtue of his special powers, ordered them to be removed from prison and brought to Sachsenhausen for execution. They were to be shot at once.
They were taken by truck straight to the sand pit. The officials who accompanied them said that they had been impertinent and demanding during the journey, and had wished to know where they were being taken.
At the place of execution I read out to them the sentence of death. They at once began to shout: “That’s impossible. You’ve got it all wrong. We must first see a priest,” and so on and so forth. They absolutely refused to stand at the post and I had to have them bound to it. They struggled furiously. I was extremely relieved when I could give the order to fire.
A man who had many previous convictions for indecent assault had enticed an eight-year-old girl into a doorway in Berlin, and there assaulted and strangled her. He was sentenced by the court to fifteen years’ imprisonment. On the same day he was brought to Sachsenhausen for execution.
I can see him now as he stepped out of the truck at the place of execution. Grinning cynically, he was an evil and vicious-looking, middle-aged individual, a typical asocial. The Reichsführer SS had ordered that this professional criminal be shot straight away. When I informed him of his fate, his face turned a sickly yellow and he began whining and praying. Then he screamed for mercy, a repulsive sight. I had to have him bound to the post. Were these immoral creatures frightened of what they might find on “the other side”? I can see no other explanation for their behavior.
During the Olympic Games the beggars and tramps were cleared off the streets and put in workhouses and concentration camps, and at the same time the many prostitutes and homosexuals were rounded up in the towns and at the bathing places. They were to be trained to do more useful work in the camps.
The homosexuals in Dachau had already presented a problem, although there were not nearly so many of them there as in Sachsenhausen. The commandant and the commander of the protective custody camp believed that it would be best to distribute them throughout the camp, one or more in each room. I was against this, for I had learned to know them well during my own years in prison.
It was not long before a constant stream of reports of homosexual activities began to flow in from every block. Punishment had no effect whatever.
The epidemic spread. I now proposed that all homosexuals be kept together. They were given a block senior who understood how to deal with them. They were also kept away from the other prisoners at work. They were given the job of pushing the heavy rollers used to level the camp streets. Some prisoners from the other categories, also afflicted with this vice, were sent to join them.
In this way the epidemic was at once stopped from spreading. Thereafter only isolated cases of this unnatural intercourse occurred, since a strict watch was kept on these men.
In this connection an extraordinary case comes to mind. A Romanian prince, who lived with his mother in Munich, had become a public scandal owing to his unnatural behavior. Despite all political and social considerations, the publicity which he had brought on himself had become intolerable and he was brought to Dachau. The police thought that his excessive debaucheries had wearied him of women, and that he had taken to homosexuality as a pastime in order to get a new thrill. The Reichsführer SS believed that hard work and the strict life of a concentration camp would soon effect a cure.
The moment he arrived, it was obvious to me what was wrong with him. His roaming eyes, the way he started at the slightest noise, his weak and dancerlike movements, all made me suspect the true homosexual at once. When the commandant harshly ordered him to go through the customary routine for new entrants, he began to weep. Then he did not want to have a bath, because he was shy. We saw the reason when he undressed. The whole of his body, from neck to wrists and ankles, was tattooed with obscene pictures. Curiously enough, these pictures not only depicted every form of perversion that the human brain can invent, but also normal intercourse between man and woman. Students of sexology would certainly have obtained some new and unusual material for their researches from this living picture book. On being interrogated, he said that he had acquired these tattooings in every sort of seaport, both in the Old World and the New.
When his sexual picture book was photographed by the police, for all tattoo marks had to be recorded for the purposes of the State Criminal Police Office, he became sexually excited, particularly when touched. I told his room senior that he was directly responsible for him and that he was never to let him out of his sight. After a few hours I went to see how this rare plant was thriving, and I was met by the room senior who begged me to release him at once from his charge. It was, he said, rapidly “getting him down.” The prince stood the whole time in front of the stove, staring before him. Whenever anyone came near him, or touched him in order to move him away, he became sexually excited and began to masturbate. I took him to the doctor. No sooner had the doctor started to ask him questions about his condition than he began to get excited again. He said that since his earliest youth he had suffered from strong sexual impulses, for which he had never been able to find any means of complete satisfaction. He was perpetually seeking new ways to satisfy these impulses.