The Theory and Practice of Hell (13 page)

The Gestapo and the SS were always intent on having the categories well mixed within the individual camps. There was not a single camp with but one category. Two purposes were served by this policy. On the one hand the political prisoners, the most dangerous enemies of the Nazi regime, were to be degraded by being put on an equal footing with the scum of society. They were to be deprived of any sense of dignity, to be made to feel even lower than the criminals who, supposedly at least, accepted the basic premises of the Nazi State. On the other hand the intermingling of the prisoner categories was to

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serve the principle of “ Divide and Rule.” Conflicts were to be pointed up, every sense of solidarity undermined, so that a few could control the many. Control of each camp was in the hands of a very small group of picked Death-Head officers permanently assigned to the Commandant. They used dif ferent prisoner categories for their purposes in turn, playing one off against the other. In view of the motley character of the prisoners, the SS had no trouble in finding and planting its ever-present informers. Coupled with the merciless exercise of terror, these methods enabled a handful of men to keep even the hugest camps in check. They must also be taken into ac count in evaluating the accomplishments which the political prisoners were able to chalk up in the camps over the years.

I cannot conclude this chapter without mention of the children and minors who found their way into the con centration camps.

In the fulfilment of its imperialist aims, National Socialism preached the gospel of the large family, promoting this policy throughout Germany. At the same time it insisted that “ Youth Must Educate Youth!” It snatched young people from the wholesome soil of religious devotion, of mutual trust in parents and teachers, of respect for their fellow men, only to expose them to racial fallacies and intoxication with power—and to a large extent to delinquency. Tens of thou sands of German families were scattered to the winds. Hun dreds of thousands of families of other nationalities were ex terminated. And millions of minors were exposed to all the terrors of the times under such a regime. Not a few of them, with or without their parents, were carried off to the German concentration camps, where experiences extremely harmful to normal juvenile development left their imprint on them. Some fifteen per cent of the minors admitted to the concentration camps were less than twelve years old. Eighty-five per cent were between twelve and eighteen. During the final phase there were 877 minors at Buchenwald, the youngest a three-and-a-half-year-old Polish child whose file card actually listed him as a “ partisan.”

The first group of children arrived in Buchenwald in 1939, together with the Polish prisoners. The youngsters were quar tered in a special building and in the beginning did not have to work. In the course of time a large proportion of them grew

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abominably spoiled in camp—as did many of the youthful Russians and Ukrainians admitted later on. Enough has been published on the subject to show that sexual starvation among men who are sequestered for years on end is a familiar phenomenon. The brothel by no means satisfied this hunger. Unprincipled prisoners, including many confined for political reasons, created a cesspool of depravity, first by means of homosexuality, and later on, when the boys had arrived, by pederasty. The so-called “ Doll Boys,” unable to resist such temptation as good food, sometimes forcibly seduced by im moral Senior Block Inmates and Prisoner Foremen, soon played a vicious role everywhere. In Buchenwald this reached its climax in 1943 under Senior Camp Inmate Wolff, a former cavalry captain and German nationalist, who outrageously misused his position. More and more he took the part of the SS against his own comrades, until he was finally deposed by the camp itself. By dint of such conditions the ranks of the Polish youngsters who had come into camp in 1939 gave rise to the most insolent ruffians and rowdies—regular hooligans such as ravaged the Soviet Union in the terrible years from 1919 to 1923.

All the more praiseworthy was the example of those prisoners who unselfishly helped the lads in camps whenever they could, keeping them from slipping into the clutches of the pederasts. A number of the juveniles had the advantage of instruction under the supervision and direction of prisoners, were assigned to appropriate light work, and were trained in the spirit of true fellowship. Their stories show that they fully grasped the sinister and terrible character of their fate, which they had faced with perplexity and bafflement until they were put on the right path under the care of older comrades. Despite the Wild West atmosphere of the concentration camp, not a few of them proved themselves, bringing much joy into individual labor details. Even hardboiled prisoners were deeply moved when the SS in the fall of 1944 suddenly singled out and herded together all Jewish and Gypsy youngsters. The screaming, sobbing children, frantically trying to get to their fathers or protectors among the prisoners, were surrounded by a wall of carbines and machine pistols and taken away to be shipped to Auschwitz for gassing.

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It would be a rewarding task for educators to trace the careers of the various types of youngsters described, to com pare the behavior patterns of the few who escaped the con centration camps alive with those of their contemporaries who suffered no such ordeal.

Chapter Four

THE PHYSICAL SET-UP OF THE CAMPS

As sites for concentration camps the SS invariably chose inac cessible areas, preferably forests and moors, not too far from the larger cities. This served a dual purpose. The camps were to remain isolated from the outside world, while the SS itself was to retain access to urban amenities. Again, the Nazis and their sympathizers were thus enabled to profit in supplying the camps, while the rest of the population was kept in a state of terror.

The prior existence of road and industrial facilities was not taken into account. SS industrial enterprises were generally self-sufficient, in any event. If there were indispensable plants already in existence at other locations, subsidiary labor squads were detailed from the camps. Traffic was fully motorized, and in case of need there was plenty of prisoner labor to build roads and even railroad lines. Not even the water supply played a dominant part in site-planning. Emergency water mains, adequate for the needs of the SS, were quickly installed—from far away, if necessary. As for the prisoners, they had to wait. More than almost anything else, the water shortage contributed to the wretched con ditions under which the prisoners lived in many camps.

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As a rule a site large enough to accommodate the SS and ten to twenty thousand prisoners was staked out. Only a small part of the area was allotted to the latter. First of all the quar ters for the SS were built, while the prisoners lived in emer gency shelters. Much later, when every need and whim of the overlords had been satisfied, construction of the camp proper was tackled.

Each concentration camp had three main areas: the headquarters area; the SS residential settlements; and the compound, surrounded by barbed wire.

The headquarters area included an administration building, barracks for the SS, fine residences with large gardens for the leading officials, and a whole series of show places, such as zoological gardens, hothouses, parks, riding academies and clubs—all carefully planned and beautifully landscaped. At some distance were essential installations ranging all the way from farms and truck gardens to armories and war plants.

Prime examples of SS parasitism at Buchenwald were a falconry court built as a tribute to Hermann Goring, and a riding hall for the wife of Commandant Koch. Construction of the falconry court was begun in 1938 and completed in 1940. The costs for materials alone ran to 135,000 marks. The area held the following buildings: the falcon house proper, in ancient Teutonic style, of massive and artfully carved oak; a hunting hall with hand-carved oak furniture, huge fireplaces and hunting trophies; a circular garden house; and the falconer’s house, where later, when the sport of falconry could no longer be practiced, the former French Premier, Leon Blum, and other prominent persons were quartered. There was also a game preserve and a cage for wildcats. Fallow deer, roebucks, wild boar, a mouflon, foxes, pheas ants and other animals were kept there. Outside the falconry court, in the so-called zoological garden, five monkeys and four bears were kept in cages. In the early years there was even a rhinoceros. Whenever one of the animals died, a “ volun tary” collection was taken up among the Jews to provide a replacement. A wolf cost about 4,000 marks and a squirrel might cost the same amount. One of the satanic SS pastimes under the regime of Commandant Koch was to throw prisoners into the bears’ cage to be torn limb from limb.