For the mortality rate among the Jews was not much lower in other work places and other camps, where general conditions were far more favorable. It was always considerably higher with them than with other types of prisoner. I observed this again and again during my journeys of inspection as DI.[62]
This was even more noticeable in the case of the Jewish women. They deteriorated far more rapidly than the men, although from my observations they had in general far greater toughness and powers of endurance than the men, both physically and mentally. What I have just written applies to the bulk, the mass of the Jewish prisoners.
The more intelligent: ones, psychologically stronger and with a keener desire for life, that is to say, in most cases those from the Western countries, reacted differently.
These people, especially if they were doctors, had no illusions concerning their fate. But they continued to hope, reckoning on a change of fortune that somehow or other would save their lives. They also reckoned on the collapse of Germany, for it was not difficult for them to listen to enemy propaganda.
For them the most important thing was to obtain a position which would lift them out of the mass and give them special privileges, a job that would protect them to a certain extent from accidental and mortal hazards, and improve the physical conditions in which they lived.
They employed all their ability and all their will to obtain what can truly be described as a “living” of this sort. The safer the position the more eagerly and fiercely it was fought for. No quarter was shown, for this was a struggle in which everything was at stake. They flinched from nothing, no matter how desperate, in their efforts to make such safe jobs fall vacant and then to acquire them for themselves. Victory usually went to the most unscrupulous man or woman. Time and again I heard of these struggles to oust a rival and win his job.
In the various camps I had become well acquainted with the struggles for supremacy waged between the different categories of prisoners and political groups, and with the intrigues that went on to secure the higher posts. But I found that the Jews in Auschwitz could still teach me a lot. “Necessity is the mother of invention,” and here it was an actual question of sheer survival.
Nevertheless, it frequently happened that persons who had acquired these safe positions would suddenly lose their grip, or would gradually fade away, when they learned of the death of their closest relations. This would happen without any physical cause such as illness or bad living conditions. The Jews have always had very strong family feelings. The death of a near relative makes them feel that their own lives are no longer worth living and are therefore not worth fighting for.
I have also seen quite the contrary, during the mass exterminations, but I shall refer to this later.
What I have written above applies particularly to the female inmates of all sorts.
But then everything was much more difficult, harsher, and more depressing for the women, since general living conditions in the women’s camp were incomparably worse. They were far more tightly packed in, and the sanitary and hygienic conditions were notably inferior. Furthermore the disastrous overcrowding and its consequences, which existed from the very beginning, prevented any proper order being established in the women’s camp.[63]
The general congestion was far greater than in the men’s camp. When the women had reached the bottom, they would let themselves go completely. They would then stumble about like ghosts, without any will of their own, and had to be pushed everywhere by the others, until the day came when they quietly passed away. These stumbling corpses were a terrible sight.
The “green” female prisoners were of a special sort. I believe that Ravensbruck was combed through to find the “best” for Auschwitz. They far surpassed their male equivalents in toughness, squalor, vindictiveness, and depravity. Most were prostitutes with many convictions, and some were truly repulsive creatures. Needless to say, these dreadful women gave full vent to their evil desires on the prisoners under them, which was unavoidable. The Reichsführer SS regarded them as particularly well-suited to act as Capos over the Jewish women, when he visited Auschwitz in 1942. Not many of these women died, except from disease.
They were soulless and had no feelings whatsoever.
The Budy blood bath is still before my eyes.[64]
I find it incredible that human beings could ever turn into such beasts. The way the “greens” knocked the French Jewesses about, tearing them to pieces, killing them with axes, and throttling them—it was simply gruesome.
Luckily not all the “greens” and “blacks” were such utter brutes. There were capable ones among them, who preserved a measure of sympathy for their fellow prisoners. But such women were of course continually and cruelly persecuted by other members of their color. Nor could the majority of female supervisors understand this.[65]
A welcome contrast were the female Jehovah’s Witnesses, who were nicknamed “Bible bees” or “Bible worms.”
Unfortunately there were too few of them. Despite their more or less fanatical attitude they were much in demand. They were employed as servants in the homes of SS men with large families, the Waffen SS clubhouse, and even in the SS officers’ mess. But they worked above all on the land.
They worked on the poultry farm at Harmense,[66] and on various other farms. They needed no supervision or guards. They were diligent and willing workers, for such was the will of Jehovah. Most of them were middle-aged German women but there were also a number of younger Dutch girls. I had two of the older women working for more than three years in my own household. My wife often said that she herself could not have seen to everything better than did these two women. The care that they bestowed on the children, both big and small, was particularly touching. The children loved them as though they were members of the family. At first we were afraid that they might try to save the children for Jehovah. But we were wrong. They never talked to the children about religion. This was really remarkable, considering their fanatical attitude. There were other wonderful beings among them. One of them worked for an SS officer, doing everything that had to be done without needing to be told, but she absolutely refused to clean his uniform, cap, or boots, or indeed even to touch anything that had any connection with the military life. On the whole they were contented with their lot. They hoped that, by suffering in captivity for Jehovah’s sake, they would be given good positions in His kingdom, which they expected to enter very soon.
Strangely enough they were all convinced it was right that the Jews should now suffer and die, since their forefathers had betrayed Jehovah.
I have always regarded Jehovah’s Witnesses as poor, misguided creatures, who were nevertheless happy in their own way.
The rest of the female prisoners, Poles, Czechs, Ukranians, and Russians, were employed so far as possible in agricultural work. They thus escaped the congestion and the evil effects of camp life. They were far better off in their billets on the farms or in Raisko.[67]
I have always found that the prisoners engaged in agricultural work and living away from the camp make a very different impression from the others. They were certainly not subjected to the same psychological strains as their fellows in the massive camps. They would not otherwise have been so willing to do the work demanded of them.
62
In November 1943 Hoess was transferred from his post of commandant of Auschwitz to the Economic Administration Head Office (WVHA) of the SS in Berlin. The Inspectorate of Concentration Camps had been subordinated to this quasi-ministry since April 1942, of which it formed Department D. From November 10, 1943, Hoess was in charge of the political section
63
From mid-May 1942 the newly built Women’s Camp at Birkenau was designated as the principal detention camp for German and non-German female prisoners. In July 1942 the Reich Security Head Office informed all senior police and security offices that henceforth all arrested females were to be sent to Auschwitz. In September of that year Himmler ordered that all the Jewish women in Ravensbruck Women’s Concentration Camp were to be transferred to Auschwitz, and that Ravensbruck was to be made “Jew-pure.” A number of non-Jewish inmates from Ravensbruck had already been moved to Auschwitz to act as female Capos in the new Women’s Camp there; these were principally criminals and asocials (see below).
64
Budy was a village some five miles from the Auschwitz base camp, where a punishment company of prisoners was stationed and employed on drainage work connected with the Vistula. This punishment unit was completely cut off from the rest of the camp and the Capos of both sexes, who were recruited from among the criminals, conducted a reign of terror over their prisoners.
66
One of the agricultural undertakings run from Auschwitz. There was also a fish-processing plant at Harmense.
67
The Raisko estate belonged to Auschwitz and was farmed to the SS. It had a plant-breeding establishment run by Dr. Caesar, who in February 1942 was made responsible for all the agricultural work carried out by the Auschwitz prisoners.