Commandant of auschwitz, p.29
Commandant of Auschwitz, page 29
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17
Hoess’s description of the Parchim murder is colored in his favor and contains inaccuracies. Evidence given before the court which sat in Leipzig from the 12th to the 15th of March 1924, shows this to have been a particularly brutal murder. It had been decided that a former elementary schoolteacher by the name of Kadow was a Communist spy who had infiltrated the Rossbach organization. Hoess and others—Martin Bormann was indirectly implicated— spent the night of May 31-June 1, 1922, drinking, and then abducted Kadow into the woods, where he was beaten almost to death with clubs and branches, after which his throat was cut and he was finally finished off with two revolver bullets. There is not the slightest scrap of evidence to show that Kadow was in any way connected with the Schlageter affair. However, since Schlage-ter had been condemned to death by the French authorities in the Ruhr only a few days before the Kadow murder, it is possible that Hoess had been confused by remarks that Kadow was a traitor “like the man who betrayed Schlageter to the French.” Nor is there any reason to believe that the man who gave evidence against Hoess and the others sold his story to Vorwärts. He was named Jurisch, and the Court for the Defense of the Republic decided that he told his story, thus implicating himself, because he feared lest he himself be murdered by members of the Rossbach organization for knowing too much.
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18
Hoess was arrested on June 28, 1923. On March 15, 1924, he was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment, six months of this sentence to count as already served.
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19
Dr. Erich Zeigner had attempted to set up a Communist government in Saxony, and was deprived of his functions as Prime Minister and Minister of Justice for Saxony by a decree of the President of the Reich dated October 29, 1923. He was later tried on a charge of abuse of public office, specifically for destroying public documents and subverting public funds for political party ends. On March 29, 1924, he was sentenced to three years in prison.
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20
The Amnesty Act in question was passed on July 14, 1928.
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21
Rossbach was responsible for Hoess visiting Munich, where he joined the NSDAP in November 1922 with Party number 3240.
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22
In 1929.
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23
This statement requires amplification. According to his SS record file, Hoess joined the SS as “candidate” (Anwärter) on September 20, 1933. On April 1, 1934, he was accepted as SS-Mann, and promoted on April 20 to SS-Sturmmann (private first class). In the affidavit that he signed in British custody on March 14, 1946, he described his career between leaving prison and going to the Dachau concentration camp as follows: “Period 1929-1934, with various agricultural organizations in Brandenburg and Pomerania. Heinrich Himmler was also a member of the League of Artamanen (Gau leader, Bavaria)…. In 1933 on the Sallentin estate in Pomerania I formed a troop of Mounted SS. As a former cavalryman I was asked to do this by the Party and the estate owners…. While he was reviewing the SS in Stettin, Himmler’s attention was drawn to me—we already knew one another from the Artamanen League—and he urged me to join a concentration camp administration. That is how I came to Dachau in November 1934.”
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24
The SS unit that Hoess joined as SS-Unterscharführer (corporal) on December 1, 1934, had been formed earlier that year by Theodor Eicke under the name of Guard Unit Upper Bavaria as part of the General SS. From the end of June 1933 Eicke had been Commandant of Dachau. In that same year Eicke drafted the Disciplinary and Punishment Regulations for use in concentration camps, and also the regulations for the guard units in the camps. In May 1934 Eicke was given the job of rationalizing the concentration camps, some of which, such as Oranienburg near Berlin, had been set up by the SA, while others, such as Dachau, were run by the SS. Eicke played a very prominent part in the murder of Roehm and his followers and the elimination of the SA as a political force on June 30, 1934, and in the following month was appointed Inspector of Concentration Camps and of the Death’s Head Formations, into which the Guard Unit Upper Bavaria was now incorporated. For Hoess’s views on Eicke, see Appendix 8.
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25
The commandant was responsible for the concentration camp as a whole. The SS officer responsible for the camp in which the prisoners were kept was called the Schutzhaftlagerführer (commander of the protective custody camp), whose chief assistant—and the SS official with whom the prisoners came most directly in contact—was called the Rapportführer. Under him were the SS non-commissioned officers responsible for the various blocks, originally called companies.
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26
On March 1, 1935, Hoess was made block leader at Dachau, being promoted SS-Scharführer (sergeant) on April 1 and SS-Oberscharführer (staff sergeant) on July 1, 1935, and SS-Hauptscharführer (sergeant major) on March 1, 1936. From April 1, 1936, until September of that year he was Rapportführer at Dachau. In June 1936 Himmler and Bormann visited the camp, and Hoess was specially recommended for promotion both by the commandant, Loritz, and by his predecessor, Eicke. Himmler and Bormann both being aware of his “past services,” he was promoted SS-Untersturmführer (2nd lieutenant) on September 13, 1936, thus becoming a member of the SS officer corps. From September 1936 until May 1938, when he was transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, he was Effektenverwalter, that is to say, the officer responsible for the administration of stores and of prisoners’ property, at Dachau.
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27
Prisoners who acted as supervisors of the prison barrack rooms, the other prisoners’ work, etc.
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28
Arbeit macht frei was the slogan which Hoess placed above the main gate of Auschwitz concentration camp.
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29
See also Hoess’s description of Eicke as given in Appendix 8.
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30
National SS Leader, Heinrich Himmler; abbreviated RFSS.
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31
According to SS records he was transferred to Sachsenhausen on August 1, 1938.
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32
SS-Standartenführer Hermann Baranowski. From 1936 to early 1938 he had been commander of the protective custody camp at Dachau, under Loritz, where he got to know Hoess, whose transfer to Sachsenhausen he requested.
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33
The reference is presumably to the strike of January 1918.
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34
See Appendix 4.
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35
Equivalent army ranks: lieutenant or captain.
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36
For further information about Jehovah’s Witnesses in the concentration camps, see Eugen Kogan, The Theory and Practice of Hell, New York, Farrar, Straus, 1950, and also Nuremberg Doct. NG-190.
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37
Weltanschauung: literally, “attitude toward the world.”
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38
There follows a brief description of an incident in Pastor Nieniol-ler’s family life, concerning his daughter’s engagement. Since this is of no interest to the public and in no way concerns the subject matter of this book, it is omitted.
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39
The following note is taken from the German edition of this book. Pastor Wilhelm Niemöller, brother of Martin Niemöller and author of the book Kampf und Zeugnis der Bekennenden Kirche (Bielefeld, 1948), after a conversation with his brother, submitted the following comments on the above passage in a letter to the Institut für Zeitgeschichte dated March 8, 1958.
1. The statement that “the whole of the reactionary opposition” joined his Dahlem congregation is, of course, incorrect. Owing to prevailing circumstances the number of educated persons attending divine services at Dahlem was greater than in most Berlin parishes. The fact that the Dahlem congregation was very much alive cannot be minimized by the use of such words as “reactionary” and “dissatisfied.” For the life of that congregation has lasted far longer than did National Socialism. See my book, page 197.
2. Niemöller never preached “resistance.” The National Socialists failed to understand what his preaching was really about. The Confessional Church attempted to preach that men are men, even if their name is Hitler, but that God is God. That a Jew is also human, Niemöller clearly stated.
3. Niemöller was not permitted to write letters as often as he wished. Usually he might send his wife two letters per month. But at various periods he was not permitted to write at all, and this frequently for months on end. It is doubtful whether Hoess ever read a letter of Niemöller’s, since censorship was done by the “political department.” Frau Niemöller was not allowed to bring her husband any books whatsoever in Sachsenhausen. He was permitted books, within limits, after his move to Dachau, though a very strict censorship was of course imposed. The time during which he was allowed out of his cell—initially twenty minutes, later one hour—was very strictly enforced. Only in Dachau was this somewhat relaxed.
4. Hoess implies that regular inquiries concerning the prisoner’s wishes were the most characteristic aspect of Niemöller’s imprisonment. I myself was allowed on one occasion to visit my brother in Sachsenhausen (September 29, 1938), and came away with a very different impression. The commandant had never then inquired concerning the “wishes” of the prisoner. The prisoner can, indeed, not recall ever having seen the commandant. The statement that his cell was made “comfortable” is pure invention on the part of Hoess.
5. Hitler had no interest in persuading Niemöller one way or the other. The visitor referred to was Admiral von Lanz. He came on his own initiative, and attempted to persuade Niemoller that he state his intention to avoid touching on “political questions” in future. The admiral did not belong to the Confessional Church.
6. Martin Niemöller’s request for reinstatement in the navy was dated September 7, 1939. In it there is no reference to his possible employment as a U-boat commander. The sentence concerning Hitler’s refusal, and particularly the alleged grounds for this, are pure invention. The truth is that on September 29, 1939, Keitel wrote a letter, addressed to: “The Rev. Senior Lieut, (retd.) Niemöller, Oranienburg, near Berlin, Concentration Camp Sachsenhausen.” This letter, written in his own hand, ran as follows: “In reply to your request of September 7, 1938, I regret that I must inform you that your recall to active service with the armed forces is not envisaged. Heil Hitler! Keitel, Col.-Gen.” To the best of my recollection it was only after this that he renounced the right to wear uniform.
7. That Niemöller hoped to obtain his freedom by conversion to Catholicism is nonsense. It is well known that many devout Catholics were in Dachau. From 1941 on he was with three of these (Neuhäusler and others). He studied the doctrines of the Catholic Church in great detail, and for years on end. But this was purely in connection with matters of the faith, of which Hoess can have no comprehension.
8. The statement that the Provincial Bishop D. Wurm was in Dachau is a strange invention. This Bishop of Württemberg was never either in Dachau or in Posen. He was once under house arrest, in Stuttgart in 1934. In the Dachau cell block Martin Niemöller was the only evangelical cleric. The other pastors were in Barrack 26 of the “Priests’ Block.” The confusion can doubtless be traced to the fact that General Superintendent D. Bursche, head of the Polish Evangelical Church, was in Sachsenhausen, where indeed he died during Martin Niemöller’s time there. The commander of the Sachsenhausen protective custody camp should surely have been aware of this.
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40
The concentration camp prisoners wore triangles of cloth upon their pajama-like camp uniform, the color of the triangle indicating the category to which they belonged, viz.: red—political, green—professional criminal, black—asocial, yellow—Jew, mauve—homosexual, etc.
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41
Reichssicherheitshauptamt: Reich Security Head Office, the supreme police and SS headquarters.
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42
Owing to the size of Auschwitz there were always a first and a second prison camp commander. The first two at Auschwitz were Karl Fritzsch and Hans Aumeier.
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43
Both these places are on the Polish-Slovak border, some sixty miles from Auschwitz.
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44
The local regional representative of the RSHA (Reich Security Head Office) was the Inspector of the Security Police and the Security Service in Breslau. The Commander of the Security Police at Cracow, SS-Brigadeführer Bruno Streckenbach, was also responsible for the dispatch of prisoners to Auschwitz from all the former Polish territories which, during the German occupation, constituted the Government-General.
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45
An area of 40 sq. kilometers, containing three Polish villages, including Brzezinka (Birkenau).
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46
See Appendix 2.
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47
See Appendix 2.
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48
On one occasion Hoess himself ordered the arrest of the parents of a man who had escaped from Auschwitz. Around their necks were hung placards announcing that they would remain in the camp until their son was brought back. Other and crueler reprisals for escape were also ordered, as for example by the protective custody camp commander Karl Fritzsch, who made- indiscriminate arrests among the camp inmates and locked these people into the punishment cells, where they were left to starve.
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49
Approximately 10,000 Russian prisoners of war were moved from Lamsdorf (Stalag VIII B) to Auschwitz early in the October of 1941. They were originally put into nine blocks, stone buildings and barracks, of Auschwitz I, which were separated by wire from the remainder of the base camp. By February 1942 most of the Russian prisoners of war had died of typhus, undernourishment, and various ailments. Approximately 1,500 then remained alive, and these were moved to the new camp being built at Birkenau (Auschwitz II).
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50
On August 18, 1942—that is to say after the mass escape referred to below—only 163 Soviet prisoners of war were registered in Auschwitz. Of these, 96 survived until the end.
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51
Of the 10,000 Russian prisoners of war who came to Auschwitz, a Special Commission from the Gestapo Office, Kattowitz, in November 1941, pronounced some 300 to be commissars or fanatical Communists. These were separated from the others and executed.
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52
The feminine equivalent of the Hitler Youth, a Nazi organization for young girls.
