The Theory and Practice of Hell (22 page)

82
E
U G E N KO G O N

honors. An especially popular procedure for entertaining visitors to the camps was to have the Jews line up in the roll-call area to the left of the tower and sing the vile tune.

Everyone had to appear for roll call, whether alive or dead, whether shaken by fever or beaten to a bloody pulp. The only exceptions were inmates on permanent detail, and those in the prisoner hospital. The bodies of men who had died during the day, either in the barracks or at work, had to be dragged to the roll-call area. During particularly virulent sieges, there were always dozens of dying and dead laid in neat “ rank and file” beyond the block formations, to answer the final roll call. For the SS exacted order and discipline down to the last breath. Not until after roll call could the dying be taken to the hospital, the dead to the morgue.

Once evening roll call was over, with the commands of “ Caps off!” and “ Caps on!” there usually followed another command: “ Left face!” —and the public punishments, yet to be discussed in a separate chapter, were meted out. Or one of the Officers-in-Charge might call for a song. It might be raining or storming. The prisoners might scarcely be able to keep to their feet. All the more reason for exacting a song, as much as possible at odds with the situation—once, three times, five times in succession—“ I saw a little bird flying,” or “ Something stirs in the forest.” Most of the camps had songs of their own, written and composed by prisoners, on com mand. Some of these have become widely known, notably “ The Peat-Bog Soldiers” and “ The Buchenwald Song.”

It might have been thought that once the final “ Fall out!” had sounded the day’s torments were over and the prisoners could sit down to eat and rest at leisure. But often they re turned to the barracks, only to be confronted by the results of the inspections conducted during the day by the Block Leaders—lockers overturned, their contents scattered in every direction. The search for one’s mess kit often led to savage clashes among the prisoners, driven beyond the limits of human endurance.

When the prisoners worked through the day, the main meal was issued at night. Of course it was cold by the time a protracted roll call was completed. The remaining ration, when issued at night, consisted of bread, a dab of margarine, and a bit of sausage or possibly a spoonful of cottage cheese.

T H E T H E O R Y A N D P R A C T IC E O F H E L L
83

At any moment during “ dinner” the Barracks Orderly might suddenly sing out: “ Attention! B-wing of Barrack X re porting! One hundred and thirty-five prisoners at mess!” Some SS sergeant had conceived the notion to pay a visit. Not yet through the door, he would bellow: “ Get under the tables, you swine!” Benches would be overturned, mess gear clatter to the floor. Still, there were always a few left over who, try as they might, could not find room under the tables and became the particular whipping boys. There were many variations on this tune. A Block Leader might simply order a barracks cleared during the meal, having the prisoners execute some senseless command, such as standing on their heads in the snow. To execute a headstand is not the easiest thing, even for a youngster. But even the aged and decrepit had to do it as a matter of course, just as they might have to double-time endlessly around the barracks. Any hesitation drew kicks and beatings. Even when nothing whatever happened in the barracks after roll call, the prisoners were obsessed by the fear that lightning might strike at any moment.

If roll call had been concluded with reasonable dispatch, work had to be continued for several hours deep into the night by certain prisoner groups. The rest might stroll about the camp streets, in front of the barracks, in the washrooms or toilets—unless they preferred to retire immediately. When taps sounded—-between eight and ten o ’clock, according to season—everyone except those on detail had to be indoors, half an hour later in bed.

Prisoners were permitted to wear only their shirts while sleeping, even in the deep of winter, when the barracks grew bitter cold and the damp stone walls often coated with ice at the windows and corners. Block Leaders frequently conducted night inspections, ordering all the inmates in a barracks to line up beside the beds or even outdoors, in order to catch those who might be wearing an additional garment. Whoever was found in socks or underwear could expect merciless punish ment. On occasion an entire barracks was chased around the block for as much as an hour, barefoot and dressed only in shirts.

These nocturnal invasions did not occur regularly. They came from time to time, at irregular intervals, unexpectedly, generally when the Block Leaders were drunk. But they
could

84
E
U G E N KO G O N

happen at any moment. The threat was ever-present. Merci fully, the prisoners were far too exhausted to brood on the danger. For a few short hours each night sleep spread its balm over the misery. Only the aged, the fretful, the sick, the sleepless, lay awake in a torment of worry, awaiting the ordeal of another day.

Chapter Eight

W O R K I N G C O N D I T I O N S

It was forced labor that marked the day in the concentration camp. Its stamp was deeply imprinted on camp life.

The very assignment of workers was accomplished in characteristic fashion. The morning after their first roll call, newcomers had to report to the Labor Service Officer. There would be the usual dressing-down and bullying, and then came the command: “ Skilled workers, front and center!” Those who knew the ropes invariably stepped forward, even though they knew virtually nothing about a skilled trade. But not many had the courage and presence of mind to pretend to be craftsmen, to depend on their nerve and resourcefulness in overcoming the problems that would inevitably arise.

Skilled workers were assigned to the various shops, a preliminary form of life insurance. All the others, regardless of strength, experience, and aptitude, were assigned to whatever labor details happened to be shorthanded, usually the quarry and excavation details, involving toil and punish ment of the most excruciating character. Intellectuals and white-collar workers, especially if they wore glasses, were inevitably launched on the path of doom, a ghastly mockery of the “ survival of the fittest.”

86
E U G E N KO G O N

Reassignment to another detail was a very difficult thing. Getting a better job within a detail depended entirely on the Prisoner Foreman and his assistants. Usually they could be bribed. But to leave a detail and join another required com plex connections. The standard procedure in such cases was that the SS Detail Leader of the new detail filed a specific requisition with the Labor Service Officer. The Detail Leader of the old detail signed a release, and the Labor Records Of fice effected the actual transfer. If all this was done without the knowledge and co-operation of the Prisoner Foreman, the prisoner involved was lost, for such a procedure was in terpreted as “ collaboration with the SS.” In actual practice a transfer could be effected only by devious means. The Detail Clerks had to alter their records—which could be done only when the Prisoner Foreman was in on the plot—and then friendly prisoners in the Labor Records Office had to sub stitute a new file card. Hundreds of inexperienced prisoners tried time and again simply to absent themselves from their assigned details and join others. It was impossible—they were caught at once. There was the strictest check on names and serial numbers. An attempted switch brought swift retribution even from the prisoners; for an entire detail might suffer severe disciplinary measures if it attracted attention in any way.

Who, then, was able to secure such a reassignment? It is a fact that there were few long-time concentration-camp in mates who did not in the course of time rise to more favorable, if not comfortable, working conditions. Those who failed in this endeavor simply perished. A common work slave of the SS could not long endure, as will be seen. It took money to improve one’s lot, or some other inducement for corruption, or influential friends—among the greens, if they happened to be in power, or among the reds. In the latter case, Communists were at an immediate advantage. Whenever political prisoners were in a position of dominance, it was the Communist party that was in the lead. It was difficult for other political prisoners to rise.

Occasionally the SS asked for volunteers for certain better labor details. To respond to such a call involved serious risks, for the improvement might be wholly illusory; and a volunteer

T H E T H E O R Y A N D P R A C T IC E O F H E L L
87

might “ attract attention,” invite rejection and even mistreat ment. Personnel files were likely to be consulted by the Political Department on such occasions, and the whole in cident might end in disaster.

Every concentration camp without exception had its own penal companies or special labor details in which prisoners were treated with intensified harshness. They were isolated in

a special building, which they could not leave even during their sparse leisure time. The penal companies generally slaved in the quarries, usually much longer hours than other details and including Sundays. Their lunch period was cur tailed so that many of them hardly had time to eat, provided rations were not withdrawn altogether, which happened often. They were used for the hardest and most menial labor, and were not permitted to receive money. They could not write letters at all, or at best one letter every three months. They were often compelled to do fatigue drill. For them life was literally hell on earth.