The Theory and Practice of Hell (19 page)

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the line in the personal record form marked “ Parents.” “ What was the name of the whore that shat you into the world?” the sergeant asked. The wretched prisoner, un familiar with the choice jargon of racialism, did not grasp what was meant. After much invective and a few slaps, it developed that the prisoner was one of six children, whose mother had been decorated by Hitler with the Golden Order of Parenthood!

Processing by the Political Department was followed by ad mission to the camp proper, through the gate surmounted by the inscription already cited. Its iron grating carried another legend—“ To Each His Own!” The prisoners now had to stand facing the wall of the camp prison, again giving the “ Saxon Salute,” with periods of knee-bend. This might last for two hours, or five, or ten. SS noncoms who happened by were allowed to treat the arrivals as ready game. It might please them to chase the men—some of them still carrying their bags—around the roll-call area to the point of utter exhaustion; or they might be forced to roll around in the mud in their civilian clothes.

Next, there was a so-called “ indoctrination lecture,” delivered by the Officer-in-Charge, the Roll Call Officer, or one of the staff members of the Political Department. This was to provide the prisoners with their first basic orientation. It was limited to threatening the death penalty twenty or thirty times, for an endless series of offenses. I cannot recall a single permissible act that was mentioned. During the time that a gallows stood in the Buchenwald roll-call area, this indoctrination lecture appropriately took place at its foot.

The next stopping place, to be reached in double time, was the bathhouse. The men had to strip, and during this process the first part of their property began to disappear. They passed under the hands of barbers who applied the clip pers—of far from excellent quality—front and back, top and bottom. There followed a shower. In some camps the bath was preceded by a disinfectant dip. The freshly and crudely shorn men had to jump into a vat of antiseptic solution which grew fearfully dirty in the course of time and severely burned the scored skin. By way of “ control,” the men had to squat down before the SS noncoms, backside forward and legs spread out. This was a source of particular glee to perverts

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among the SS, especially when celebrities were involved. The prisoners were then conducted to the Clothing Room, by a cir cuitous route of camp streets and roll-call area, often tra versed stark naked, even in winter. This procedure claimed hundreds of victims, either immediately or because of resultant pneumonia.

Without respect to his size, weight, or peculiarities, the newcomer next had his striped “ duds” flung at him in the Clothing Room. They consisted of shirt, jacket, trousers, un derpants, cap, possibly a pair of socks, and a pair of shoes. Civilian connotations of these terms, however, fail altogether to convey a picture of the apparel issued in the camps. A few prisoners might be lucky, if new supplies had recently arrived. Most of them received rags and tatters, sketchily patched, their only asset being that they were freshly laundered. Only in the course of time, by trading and “ finagling,” were most men able to improve their outfits.

Hundreds of thousands of pieces of underwear were ship ped in from Auschwitz, property of the murder victims. They ranged from infants’ wear to lingerie and men’s shirts. A good half of this had to be discarded, however, since the pieces were full of gunshot holes and blood stains. The rest consisted largely of nightshirts and priests’ surplices, in which many prisoners went about.

The situation was particularly bad with regard to footwear. Many prisoners who were issued wooden shoes could scarcely walk after a few days. The so-called “ Dutch Clogs” were worst of all. Those unused to them, especially if they lacked socks or winding rags, could not even walk, let alone run in them. They caused countless foot injuries and abscesses, and when manpower had become essential during the war, the SS was compelled to permit prisoners to have shoes sent from home.

The next station in the prisoners’ martyrdom was the Per sonal Property Room. Here, remaining personal effects were sorted, recorded and placed in a bag, where they were kept for the duration of the stay in camp. Money had to be surren dered, likewise all valuables, such as watches, wedding rings, and the like. Trade in stolen property was rife in all camps during the initial phase. Opportunity for theft existed at all of these way stations, and it was exploited not only by the SS,

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but shamefully enough by many fellow prisoners as well. In every camp the malevolence of the prisoners in this respect stood in direct proportion to the power wielded by the con victs. Conversely there were prisoners who did everything within their power to help newcomers, to improve their chances and soften the impact of this first ordeal by valuable whispered advice.

The end of the admission formalities removed the prisoners for the time being from the clutches of the SS which few prisoners survived without some damage to their personality. Many kept their bearings only by a kind of split personality. They surrendered their bodies resistlessly to the terror, while their inner being withdrew and held aloof.

Normally the prisoner passed through the prisoner Orderly Room the same day, having his data again recorded in a file. He was then assigned to a barracks. The following day there was a medical examination, and another large form was filled out for the medical file of the prisoner hospital.

In the barracks a wealth of new and confusing impressions overwhelmed the prisoners. Making up beds was a particular source of SS chicanery. Shapeless and matted straw pallets had to be made as even as a board, the pattern of the sheets parallel to the edges, head bolsters set up at right angles—all the hoary tricks of Prussian drill, reinforced by new SS goads. The tiniest wrinkle in a bed could visit the most drastic penalties on the entire barracks. Many prisoners had no ex perience in making up a bed, or were careless and indifferent about the art. The Barracks Orderlies—one for each wing, with two or three unofficial hangers-on—therefore developed a harsh and inexorable discipline that greatly contributed to the general atmosphere of indignity in camp.

There was a perpetual struggle for authority to keep the few wretched possessions acquired in the course of time by the prisoners in their lockers. Often enough they were simply thrown out and confiscated during inspection. There was no other place where a prisoner could keep anything.

Newcomers often brought infection into a camp, and some camps therefore established special quarantine barracks, where new prisoners were confined for seven to twenty-one days, before being assigned to an ordinary barracks. Nowhere could this institution be maintained for any length of time.

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The influx during the war years grew too great, as did the everlasting transfer shipments between camps.

After about 1941 the “ standard atrocities” described in this book were to a large extent slowed down in the base camps. The admission of newcomers took place under tolerable con ditions. Bathhouse, delousing dip and the various processing rooms functioned fairly well. Apart from the “ official” im position of corporal punishment, there was in general far less beating and kicking. The camps were still way stations of human degradation, but they lost those shameless and exquisite torments that had long characterized them. In ad dition to a Senior Block Inmate, Deputy Seniors from the various nationality groups were appointed for each building. The Block Officers paid little attention to what went on. Many of the older Detail Officers were transferred, while others were somewhat tamed. These latter developments did much to curtail the terror that had once haunted the old “ con solidated camps.”

These changes must be emphasized, in the interests of truth. They do not by any means imply that the concentration camps were transformed into rest homes! Far from it. The stories of what happened to various special groups of prisoners prove that to the hilt. What it does mean is that the daily onslaught of terror which exceeded all human capacity in the early years tended to dwindle more and more in some of the camps. What remained was the “ standard” hardship affecting the daily lives of from twelve to thirty-five thousand men herded together in an area of less than half a square mile. These con ditions remained inhuman enough, even when they were not intensified by all manner of deviltry.

Newcomers, unaware of any changes and developments, were as horrified over conditions in the camps as ever. And certainly there can be no question of amelioration in the many newer concentration camps, subsidiary camps and outside labor details. Even in some of the base camps the change came only very slowly, at an uneven rate in various fields, and often accompanied by grave setbacks. Thus the decline in cruelty directed toward individuals had a frequent counterpart in growing mass liquidations.

Death was always much more likely to end a concentration-

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camp term than the Gestapo. Most prisoners entered the camps under the illusion, carefully fostered by the Gestapo or the police, that their imprisonment would be limited to between three and six months, according to good behavior. There could have been no greater fallacy. On one occasion, in 1936, even Himmler publicly declared that thousands of political prisoners would be kept behind barbed wire for life.

Once a man was arrested, his chances of escaping the clutches of the Gestapo, with or without a sojourn in a con centration camp, were largely a matter of either caprice or bribery. I myself was present in Gestapo offices when officials laughed at the countless teletype petitions that always “ get lost.” I also have personal knowledge of instances in which

bribes were paid to effect a release. In one case the sum in volved was 6,000 marks. The Gestapo official had originally demanded 10,000 marks, but an attorney had beaten down the price. In another case the amount was 250,000 marks in pounds sterling—the victim was a Jew who finally managed to emigrate. In a third case there was a 50,000-mark “ con tribution to the Party” and a 20,000-mark “ fee.”