The Theory and Practice of Hell (48 page)

Suddenly, in the year 1941, the Poles at Buchenwald began to be grilled for such cases of “ race defilement.” Denun ciations, both inside the camp and out, played a large part in the process. Young Poles were pressed into service as executioners of their fellow countrymen. These Polish hangmen were sent out from Buchenwald over a large area of Thuringia to do their work. Equipped with a double-armed gallows, each arm providing space for three victims, they

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visited cities and villages under SS escort, conducting public executions in order to deter the eastern slave workers. Whenever any act of violence attributed to Poles occurred in the region where the camp was located, as many as thirty Polish inmates would be taken to the scene of the incident and hanged as an example.

The youthful Polish hangmen who had been pressed into

this service were enjoined to the strictest silence and did not know the countryside. It was therefore impossible to get reliable data on the cities and villages where such executions took place—though for months I myself sat in the immediate vicinity of one of these Poles in the prisoner tailor shop at Buchenwald.

The Russians in the camps fell into two groups that were sharply distinct: Russian prisoners of war and civilians; and Ukrainians. The second group constituted the preponderant majority. The prisoners of war, Communists proudly stand ing up for their cause, were a well-disciplined body that was skillfully and rightfully intent on protecting its collective privileges. As for the mass of the Ukrainians, they were a rather motley crew. In the beginning they were favored by their German party comrades in a way that made it almost im possible to make even the slightest complaint against a “ Russian.” But the insolence, sloth and lack of solidarity among many of them soon brought a thoroughgoing change that no longer permitted them to gain leading positions. In the final year at Buchenwald the Russian prisoners of war, together with a few outstanding Young Communists from the ranks of the Ukrainians, undertook the task of training at least the useful members of this group, which was marked by utter lack of restraint, in order to fit them into the whole structure. Occasionally this difficult task succeeded in part.

Late in the summer of 1941, mass shootings of selected Russian prisoners of war began in all the large German con centration camps. Before “ Detail 99” had been formed, the first executions at Buchenwald took place on a rifle range to one side of the camp, in the area of the German Armament Works, right behind the tailor shop. To drown out the crack of the rifles, the entire camp had to assemble in the roll-call area and sing songs, often in the middle of the work day. By the second time this happened everyone knew what was going

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on, since the bodies appeared at the crematory within the hour. After several weeks, matters proceeded without this rather ridiculous camouflage, until the stable had been ap propriately equipped.

TTiere was no chance to do anything for these victims, since they were marked for “ special treatment” by the Political Department immediately on admission and there was no possibility of establishing contact with them. The executions took place by day as well as by night. In Buchenwald they ran to at least 7,000, probably more. There are well-reasoned estimates that run as high as 9,500. After the executions, the trucks with the bodies drove from the stable to the crematory, where it was possible to make a rough count. In the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps these liquidations likewise ran to about 10,000 each.

The executions affected primarily officers, political com missars, Communist youth leaders and other Communist party officials. To ferret these out there were Gestapo in formers in every “ Stalag” (prisoner-of-war base camp) and in every concentration camp admitting prisoners of war. In Buchenwald this sorry job was performed by an alleged former Czarist general named Kushnir-Kushnarev, to whom I shall revert in still another connection.

I have in my possession a document marked “ Top Secret,” the transcript of an address delivered by two Weimar Gestapo officials to a selected group, on their activities as informers of this kind in Stalag District IV E, embracing Dresden, Altenburg, Halle, Llitzen, Merseburg, Naundorf and Weissenfels. The document was found among the papers of a Weimar Nazi judge, and may be the only surviving copy. Unfortunately it does not give the names of the lecturer—his accomplice was named Pause. The two informers expressly state that the directives and decrees under which they operated were issued “ with the concurrence of the Army High Command.” In the introduction we read:

The custody, care and utilization o f 2,500,000 Soviet Russian soldiers in the Reich territory confront the Gov ernment and the Army with new tasks. A number o f con siderations enter into the question. As far as can be seen from directives and decrees issued so far, a large part of

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the territory we have conquered will be opened up to Ger man colonization. Obviously we need people for the conquered territory who (1) are acceptable for the recon struction o f the country and (2) are able to put agriculture and industry back on theirfeet. A t the present time there is no German population excess available for this purpose. We are thus compelled to resort to the Russians them selves.

Naturally not every Soviet-Russian can be considered

for this work, for since the early twenties the Russians have been systematically indoctrinated and incited along Bol shevist lines. Thus all unacceptable elements among the prisoners o f war who might be used in the occupied territory must be discovered and eliminated. These politically unacceptable elements include chiefly important government and party functionaries
,
professional revolutionaries and Comintern functionaries, all leading functionaries o f the Communist party and the Soviet Union and their subsidiary organizations from the Central Committee down to regional and local soviets, all People's Commissars and their deputies, all former Red Army political commissars, leading personalities at the top and intermediate level in government, industry and culture, all Jews and all persons known to be agitators and fanatical Communists. All persons, furthermore, must be detained who might be useful in further investigations and in clarifying questions o f general interest.

To achieve these objectives as quickly as possible, the Reich Main Security Office, in co-operation with the Army High Command, utilized the inspectors of the Security Police and Security Service at nearly all the regional Gestapo offices to form so-called Emergency Squads
(
Einsatzkommandos
)
that were detailed to the prisoner-of-war camps. How they pro ceeded is seen from a single paragraph in the lecture:

There is not the slightest reason for allowing sentimental considerations or other emotional factors to prevail in the case of the Russians. For this reason the Soviet-Russians classified as suspect by the Emergency Squads were im mediately reported to the Reich Main Security Office, ac-

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cording to its directive o f July 17, 1941, and shot upon receipt o f an execution confirmation
.
It was necessary for this purpose that the Soviet-Russians in question be released by the Army High Command and turned over to the Security Police. Under agreements entered into by the agencies in question, this was done in every instance. On receipt o f the confirmation, execution o f the measures ordered is always instituted at once. Extended detention o f the Soviet-Russians in question in the camps is avoided. Execution itself must not take place in the camp nor in its immediate vicinity. Furthermore it must not be public; in deed, no spectators whatever are to be admitted. Ac cording to instructions from the inspector in Dresden, the Soviet-Russians classified as suspect are shipped to a con centration camp as quickly as possible, and execution then takes place there.

From the moment they fell into German hands, Russian prisoners of war underwent a whole series of such weeding-out processes.

The first examination takes place in the front-line Stalags, where screening and classification along every line are conducted. This process is repeated in the rear camps, through the medium o f the labor details
.
For this reason it is easy to see that the remaining Russians havefor the most part already been winnowed from the suspect elements. Only in the last few days has the Army High Command issued detailed instructions to subsidiary commands con cerned with the treatment o f Soviet-Russian prisoners of war in all prisoner-of-war camps. . . . These instructions merely underline the importance o f political and other screening o f Soviet-Russian prisoners o f war. They are motivated by the idea that the Russian prisoners are not prisoners o f war in the ordinary accepted sense, but that they are, as the Fiihrer emphasized in his latest speech inaugurating the 1941-42 Winter Aid Campaign, com posed exclusively o f beasts and brutes. They must be primarily treated as such.

The two Gestapo agents represented themselves to the