Shoah Page #21

They were forced to strip,

to sit on a sandbank,

and were killed with a shot in the neck.

They fell into the pit.

There was always a fire in the pit.

With rubbish, paper and gasoline,

people burn very well.

RICHARD GLAZAR:

- SWITZERLAND -

[ In German]

The infirmary was a narrow site

very close to the ramp

to which the aged were led.

I had to do this too.

This execution site wasn't covered,

just an open place with a roof,

but screened by a fence,

so no one could see in.

The way in was a narrow passage,

very short,

but somewhat similar to the funnel.

Ja. A sort of tiny labyrinth.

In the middle of it, there was a pit.

And to the left as one came in,

there was a little booth,

with a kind of wooden plank in it,

like a springboard.

If people were too weak to stand on it,

they'd have to sit on it,

and then,

as the saying went in Treblinka jargon,

SS man Miete would

cure each one with a single pill:

a shot in the neck.

In the peak periods,

that happened daily.

In those days, the pit...

and it was at least

10 to 12 feet deep...

was full of corpses.

There were also cases

of children who

for some reason arrived alone

or got separated from their parents.

These children were led to the infirmary

and shot there.

The infirmary was also for us,

the Treblinka slaves,

the last stop.

Not the gas chamber.

We always ended up in the infirmary.

AUSCHWITZ TODAY:

THE SORTING STATION

[ Vrba, In English]

There was always an amount of people

who could not get out from the wagons.

There were those who died on the road,

or people who were sick to such a degree

that even a persuasion with violent beating

wouldn't get them moving fast enough.

So those people remained in the wagons.

RUDOLF VRBA:

Survivor of Auschwitz

So our first job was to get into the wagons

to get out the dead bodies or the dying

and transport them im Laufischr/tt,

as the Germans like to say.

This means running.

- [ Lanzmann ] Laufischritt.

Laufischritt, yeah.

Never, never, never walking, or something.

Everything had to be done im Laufischritt.

- Immer Iaufen?

- Immer Iaufen.

So...

Very sporty.

They are a sporty nation, you see?

And, uh, we had to get out those bodies

and, on the ramp, running,

to get them on a truck,

which was at the head of the ramp.

There were already trucks prepared.

Trucks were ready.

Say, uh, the trucks were five, six

sometimes standing there, sometimes more.

There was no iron rule.

But the first truck

was for the dead and the dying.

There was not much, uh,

medical care taken to establish

who is dead and who feigns to be dead.

I mean, you know, who is only simulating.

So they were put on the truck,

and these trucks went to...

Then, once this was finished,

then this was the first truck which move off,

and it went straight to the crematorium,

which was about two kilometers

to the left from the ramp.

- At the time, it was two kilometers.

- At the time.

- It was before the construction of...

- Before the construction of the new ramp.

THE OLD RAMP:

[ Vrba ]

This was the old ramp.

Through that old ramp,

the first one and three-quarters

of a million people went.

Through that old ramp.

I mean the majority.

The new ramp was only built

for the expected murder,

in a very shod time,

of one million Jews from Hungary.

THE NEW RAMP BUILT IN EARLY 1944

The whole murder machinery could work

only on one principle:

that the people came to Auschwitz

and didn't know where they were going

and for what purpose.

The new arrivals were

supposed to be kept without panic

and orderly marching into the gas chamber.

Especially, the panic was dangerous

from women with small children.

So, it was important for the Nazis

that none of us give some sort of a message

which could cause a panic

even in the last moment.

And anybody who tried

to get into touch with newcomers

was either clubbed to death

or taken behind the wagon and shot.

Because, if a panic would have broken out,

and a massacre would have taken place

on the spot, on the ramp,

it would already be a hitch

in the machinery.

You can't bring in the next transport

with dead bodies and blood around,

because this will only increase the panic.

The Nazis were concentrated upon one thing:

It should go in an orderly fashion,

so that it goes unimpeded.

One doesn't lose time.

[ Muller, In German]

Before each gassing operation,

the SS took stern precautions.

The crematorium

was surrounded by SS men.

Many SS men patrolled the court

with dogs and machine-guns.

To the right were the steps

that led underground

to the undressing room.

In Birkenau, there were 4 crematoria,

Crematorium II, III and IV, V.

Crematorium II was similar to III.

In II and III,

the undressing room

and the gas chambers were underground.

A large undressing room

of about 3000 square feet

and a large gas chamber...

where one could...

gas up to 3000 people at a time.

Crematorium IV and V

were of a different type

in that they weren't located underground.

Everything was at ground level.

In IV and V,

there were 3 gas chambers

with a total capacity

of at most 1800 to 2000 people at a time.

AUSCHWITZ MUSEUM

MODEL OF CREMATORIUMS ll AND Ill

Elevators hoisted bodies

to the ovens

Crematorium II and III had 15 ovens each.

Crematorium IV and V had 8 ovens each.

As people reached the crematorium,

they saw everything...

this horribly violent scene.

The whole area was ringed with SS men.

Dogs barked.

Machine-guns.

They all, mainly the Polish Jews,

had misgivings.

They knew something was seriously amiss.

But none of them

had the faintest of notions

that in 3 or 4 hours

they'd be reduced to ashes.

When they reached

the undressing room,

they saw

that it looked like

an International Information Center!

On the walls were...

hooks,

and each hook had a number.

Beneath the hooks were...

wooden benches.

So people could undress

more comfortably, it was said.

And on the numerous pillars

that held up

this underground undressing room,

there were signs with slogans

in several languages:

Clean is good!

Lice can kill!

Wash yourself!

To the disinfection area.

All those signs

were only there

to lure people into the gas chambers

already undressed.

And to the left,

at a right-angle,

was the gas chamber

with its massive door.

CREMATORIUM Ill:

THE UNDRESSING ROOM

THE GAS CHAMBER:

In Crematoria II and III,

Zyklon gas crystals were poured in

by a so-called

SS disinfection squad,

through the ceiling,

and in Crematoria IV and V

through side openings.

With 5 or 6 canisters of gas,

they could kill around 2000 people.

This so-catted disinfection squad

arrived in a truck

marked with a red cross

and escorted people along

to make them believe

they were being led to take a bath.

But the red cross was only a mark

to hide the canisters of Zyklon gas

and the hammers to open them.

The gas took about

10 to 15 minutes to kill.

The most horrible thing was,

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