APPENDIX 2
My meetings with Himmler
I already knew the Reichsführer SS, Heinrich Himmler, slightly during the years 1921 and 1922, when, as courier of my Freikorps I had a great deal to do with Ludendorff. General Ludendorff was the protector and secret head of all the nationalist movements with their disguised military or semi-military organizations, which were forbidden by the peace treaty. Himmler was also a member of a Freikorps in Bavaria and it was in LudendorfPs house that I got to know him.
Later on, in 1930, at an assembly of the Artamanen in Saxony (Himmler belonged to the association as Gauführer of Bavaria), I became more closely acquainted with him….
In 1940 Himmler suddenly arrived in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Shortly before he reached the guard, he met a detachment of prisoners who passed him leisurely pulling a trolley. Neither the sentry nor the prisoners recognized the Reichsführer SS sitting in his car, and therefore did not take off their caps. Himmler drove past the guard and went straight to the protective custody camp. As I was just on the point of going into the camp (I was commander of the protective custody camp at the time), I was able to report to him at once on behalf of the camp. He was very irritated and his first question, after giving a curt greeting, was, “Where is the commandant?” After some time, the commandant, Sturmbannführer Eisfeld, appeared on the scene, but meanwhile Himmler had already entered the protective custody camp, snapping angrily that he, Himmler, had up to then been accustomed to another kind of discipline in the concentration camps, and that apparently prisoners were no longer required to salute.
He refused to listen to the commandant’s explanation and exchanged no further words with him. He made a brief inspection of the detention block, where some special prisoners had been placed, and then immediately drove off again. Two days later Eisfeld was dismissed from his position as commandant of Sachsenhausen and Oberführer Loritz (formerly commandant of Dachau and then section leader of the General SS in Klagenfurt) was recalled to concentration camp service to replace him. Himmler had previously removed Loritz from Dachau because he was too severe with the prisoners, and also because he had not concerned himself sufficiently with the affairs of the camp.
In 1942 Loritz was once again, on the same grounds, removed from Sachsenhausen on Pohl’s suggestion….
My personal meetings with Himmler during my membership in the SS were as follows:
In June 1934, during an inspection of the Pomeranian SS, Himmler asked me whether I would like to join the active SS in a concentration camp. It was only after much deliberation with my wife (for we wanted to settle on the land) that I agreed to do this, because I wanted to be on active service once more. On December 1, 1934, I was summoned to Dachau by the Inspector of Concentration Camps, Eicke.
In 1936 Himmler held a grand inspection of the whole SS organization, including that of the concentration camp in Dachau, at which all Gauleiters, Reichsleiters, and all SS and SA Gruppenführer were present. I was Rapportführer at that time and deputized for the commander of the protective custody camp, who was absent. Himmler is in the best of spirits because the whole inspection has gone off without a hitch. The Dachau concentration camp is also going well at that moment. The prisoners are well fed, clean, and well clothed and housed. Most of them are busy in the workshops and the number of sick is hardly worth mentioning. The total strength of about 2,500 is accommodated in ten brick-built huts. The sanitary arrangements are ample. There is a plentiful supply of water. Underwear is changed once a week and bed linen once a month. One-third of the complement consists of political prisoners and two-thirds of professional criminals, asocials and forced labor prisoners, homosexuals and about 200 Jews.
During the inspection, Himmler and Bormann address me and both ask me if I am satisfied with my job and inquire after my family. In a short time I am promoted to Untersturmführer.
During this inspection, Himmler, following his usual practice, chose a few prisoners and in front of the assembled guests asked them the reasons for their arrest. There were some Communist leaders who admitted quite honestly that they were, and would continue to remain, Communists. Some professional criminals, however, considerably minimized their catalogue of punishments, and their memory had to be jogged by a rapid inspection of the prison record cards. These proceedings were typical of Himmler’s visits and I had repeated experience of them. Himmler punished those who had lied by giving them extra work for a few Sundays….
My next meeting with Himmler was in the summer of 1938 in Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
The Minister of the Interior, Dr. Frick, was inspecting a concentration camp for the first time. He was accompanied by various senior administrative officials and the chief constables of the larger cities. Himmler attended and gave a commentary on the organization.
At that time I was adjutant to the commandant, and during the whole inspection stood near to Himmler and was able to observe him closely. He was in the best of humor and obviously pleased that he was at last able to show the Minister of the Interior and his officials one of the secret and notorious concentration camps. He was overwhelmed with questions, all of which he answered calmly and amiably although often sarcastically. He gave evasive, but even more genial, answers to inconvenient questions such as those relating to the numbers of prisoners and so on (the total number of those held in concentration camps was kept secret in accordance with orders of the Reichsführer SS).
Sachsenhausen concentration camp then held, I believe, 4,000 prisoners, most of them professional criminals, who were accommodated in well-constructed wooden huts, divided into dormitories and living rooms. The food was acknowledged to be good and plentiful. The clothing was sufficient and always clean, for an up-to-date laundry had been installed in the camp.
The hospital building with its surgeries was exemplary. The number of sick was small.
Apart from the cell building, which in all camps was forbidden to be shown to unauthorized visitors, since it was mostly occupied by special prisoners of the Reich Security Head Office, all the buildings and the whole camp organization were thrown open to inspection. It is certain that nothing remained hidden from the critical eyes of those experienced officials of the government and the police. Frick showed great interest, and declared at dinner that it made him ashamed to think that he was then, in 1938, seeing a concentration camp for the first time. The Inspector of Concentration Camps, Eicke, gave a description of the other camps and their special characteristics.
Although there was little time to spare, and he was perpetually surrounded by questioners, Himmler still found an opportunity to speak to me personally and to inquire especially after my family. He never omitted to do this and one was given the feeling that it was not done merely out of politeness.
I have already described the next meeting, in January 1940. This was when the incident took place concerning the prisoners who failed to salute.
In November 1940 I made my first verbal report to Himmler about Auschwitz in the presence of Sturmbannführer Vogel from Department WV of the Economic Administration Head Office. I gave a detailed account and bluntly referred to all those grievances which were causing irritation at that time, but which were insignificant compared with the catastrophic conditions of the years to come. He scarcely referred to this, but only said that it was primarily up to me as commandant to arrange for assistance, but how I was to set about it was my own affair. Besides, there was a war on and a lot of things had to be improvised; and even in the concentration camp one must not expect to live under peacetime conditions. The front-line soldier also had to give up a great deal, so why not the prisoners as well?