After the inspection in Birkenau, he watched the whole process of destruction of a transport of Jews, which had just arrived. He also spent a short time watching the selection of the able-bodied Jews, without making any objection. He made no remark regarding the process of extermination, but remained quite silent. While it was going on he unobtrusively observed the officers and junior officers engaged in the proceedings, including myself.
He then went on to look at the synthetic rubber factory. He inspected the buildings just as carefully as he did the prisoners and the work they were doing. He made inquiries concerning the health of these prisoners. Kammler then heard him say: “You complain about difficulties, but look at what IG Farben Industrie have done in one year, and under similar difficulties!” He never mentioned the quotas, or the more favorable opportunities, or the thousands of skilled workers (about 30,000 at that time) which IG Farben Industrie had at their disposal. Himmler made inquiries concerning the working capabilities of the prisoners, and received evasive replies on the part of the IG Farben Industrie. Whereupon he told me that I must by all means increase their efficiency! How this was to be done was, once more, to be my affair, in spite of the fact that earlier he had heard from the Gauleiter and the IG Farben Industrie that in a short time they would have to reckon with a serious cut in rations issued for prisoners, and that he had also seen for himself the general condition of the prisoners.
From the synthetic rubber factory we went to the sewer gas installation, where progress had stopped owing to the impossibility of overcoming the shortage of materials.
It was one of the worst spots in Auschwitz, and it affected everyone. The drainage water from the base camp was discharged, without any purification worth mentioning, directly into the Sola. The population was constantly exposed to the danger of infection, because of the diseases which were always rampant in the camp. The Gauleiter described the position with great clarity, and asked in unmistakable terms for assistance. “Kammler will apply all his energies to the problem” was Himmler’s reply.
The Kok-Saghyz (natural rubber) plantation, which he visited next, was of far greater interest to him.
Himmler always found it more interesting and more pleasant to hear positives rather than negatives. The SS officer counted himself lucky and enviable who had only positives to report, or who was skillful enough to represent negatives as positives!
In the evening on the first day of the inspection a dinner was given which was attended by the visitors and by all the officers of the Auschwitz command.
Before dinner, Himmler had everyone introduced to him. If a man interested him, he would talk with him about his family and work. During dinner he questioned me about different officers whom he had noticed.
I seized the opportunity to tell him about the troubles I had with my staff and how many of the officers were completely unfit to serve in a concentration camp or to command troops. I begged him to give me some replacements and to increase the strength of the guards.
“You will be amazed,” he replied, “at the impossible officer material with which you will have to be satisfied in the end! I need every officer, junior officer, and man who is capable of serving in the front line. For the same reasons it is impossible to increase the strength of the guard. You will have to think up some technical ways of economizing in guards. You must use some more dogs for this purpose. I will get my expert in dog handling to call on you in a few days and explain the new method of using dogs as a substitute for guards. The numbers of escapes from Auschwitz is unusually high, and is unprecedented in a concentration camp. I approve of every means, I repeat every means, being used to prevent these escapes. This escape disease, which has become rampant in Auschwitz, must be eradicated!”
After this dinner party the Gauleiter invited the Reichsführer SS, Schmauser, Kammler, Caesar, and myself to his house near Kattowitz. Himmler was to” stay there overnight, since he had some important matters concerning population registers and resettlement to discuss with the Gauleiter on the following morning.
Himmler expressed a wish that my wife, too, should come to the Gauleiter’s house.
Although during the day Himmler was occasionally very ill-humored and angry and even downright unfriendly, yet this evening, and among this small company, he was a changed person.
He was in the best of spirits, took a leading part in the conversation and was extremely amiable, especially toward the ladies, the Gauleiter’s wife and my own wife. He talked on every possible subject which came up in the conversation. He discussed the education of children and new buildings and books and pictures. He spoke about his experiences with the front-line divisions of the SS, and about his visits to the front with the Führer.
He deliberately avoided saying one word about day-to-day events or about service matters, and ignored the attempts of the Gauleiter to get him to do so.
It was fairly late before the guests departed. Very little was drunk during the evening. Himmler, who scarcely ever touched alcohol, drank a few glasses of red wine, and smoked, which was also something he did not usually do. Everyone was under the spell of his good humor and lively conversation. I had never known him like that before.
On the second day I called for him and Schmauser at the Gauleiter’s house, and the inspection was continued. He inspected the base camp, the kitchens, the women’s camp (which then included the first row of the block from the headquarters building up to block 11), the workshops, the stables, Canada and DAW, the butcher’s shop and the bakery, the lumberyard, and the troops’ supply depot. He inspected everything with care, observed the prisoners closely and made precise inquiries concerning the different types of confinement and the numbers involved.