Resistance in Auschwitz [1 ed.]

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BRUNO BAUM

RESISTANCE IN AUSCHWITZ Report of the International Anti-Fascist Camp Administration

[GOOGLE TRANSLATED FROM GERMAN – FOR ORIGINAL GERMAN SEE APPENDIX]

WN-VERLAG / BERLIN-POTSDAM / 1949 1

“Our international task and obligation now is to transfer the camp’s common fate and struggle to the common solidarity struggle in all countries; against the newly emerging fascist reaction and against the warmongers, for the achievement of internal and external freedom in every country, for international peace." - Josef Cyrankiewlcz

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Josef Cyrankiewicz, prime minister of the young Polish republic, was arrested by the Gestapo after Poland was occupied. He was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp and transferred from there to the Mauthausen extermination camp. Josef Cyrankiewicz belonged to the illegal international committee of political prisoners of the concentration camp Mauthausen; he was liberated in 1945.

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As an Introduction I don't see my task in describing the horrible life in this hell, but in prisoners from almost everyone who had joined the resistance organization—Parts of Europe, the organizers of which were predominantly communists and socialists. The camp was established in 1940 and was only occupied by a few Poles and Germans, whom the SS camp administration wanted to incite against each other so as not to let them come together in a common front. In the following years the camp grew steadily and divided into three groups: • Auschwitz I main camp, • Auschwitz II Birkenau, • Auschwitz III Monowitz (Buna) Several sub-camps were attached to each of these camps. It has not yet been determined how many German companies in Auschwitz profited from the deaths of the prisoners. Three of them are perfectly clear: IG Farben with its large Buna plant, Krupp with its large factory and Siemens with one company. Through their ruthless use of the prisoners, they are to blame for the many selections (choosing the sick and unfit prisoners for extermination) through which the men and women weakened by work and hunger were repeatedly chosen for gas death; the Siemens company was even involved in the electrical installation of the gas chambers and crematoria, according to impeccable witness statements. The Siemens gas extraction devices made it 4

possible to gas at a rate of ten minutes, ie six shifts could be pumped through a gas chamber in one hour. The initiators of the resistance movement were the imprisoned functionaries of the labor movement from all European countries. They were all united in the struggle by the common danger of gas death, and thousands of prisoners from all walks of life joined them. The First Beginnings Long before we started building our resistance organization, all groups included, of course, has a large number of communists and social democrats worked together, individually — or in small groups — from different countries; such as the German Ludwig Wörl and the Austrian communist Hermann Langbein. (If I don't mention the names of members of other nations from this time, it is because I am not familiar with their names. But they—what can be said of the Poles in particular - played an outstanding role and often played a leading role.) Two examples may show how the individuals fulfilled their tasks: Hermann Langbein, an Austrian communist, became a clerk at the in-house doctor at Wirts. He very soon succeeded in gaining a strong influence over this crucial SS doctor and thereby save many lives. His influence made it possible for typhoid sufferers to venture back into the infirmary, sometimes literally on the camp road for fear of being hosed down (hosing down means being killed by injection of petrol or something similar straight into the heart). Many at a time, when executions were to take place in Block 11 of the main camp (bunker), Grabner and Bogner 5

from the political department simply randomly assigned 50 or 100 Poles from the camp, and that was only because they were the Polish part of the camp wanted to decimate the workforce. Langbein often succeeded, already here in cooperation with the Polish socialist Cyrankiewicz and later with the German communist Karl Lill, in mobilizing the garrison doctor against these murders and thus saving the lives of hundreds of Polish fighters against German fascism. Many inmates from the infirmary destined for gassing were made redundant through the work of these comrades saved; A number of improvements in the infirmary and in the camp can also be credited to them, even if their work—particularly after the Battle of Stalingrad—was favored by the fact that the prisoners were needed more and more as workers. Of course, Langbein's activities did not go unnoticed by the political department (camp Gestapo). They would have liked to kill him, but the garrison doctor was able to prevent that for a long time. — One day the political department took action. He was sent on a transport to Bremen. We kept in touch with him for a long time and then learned that he had escaped with the help of the workers from the factory where he was employed. We also heard about his re-arrest in Berlin; then the connection broke. Many Auschwitz prisoners owe their lives to him. — Today Langbein plays a leading role in the Austrian labor movement. The Old Roller Every old prisoner remembers the roller in the main camp, which had a long drawbar at the back and at the front. One day 20 6

Catholic clergymen were hitched to each of these drawbars, who were driven with clubs by a kapo, a criminal bandit, under the supervision of the SS. Under these conditions they had to pull the heavy roller back and forth through the camp all day. Here again it was individual comrades who took care of the afflicted in the evening and gave them material as well as moral help. We could extend these individual examples at will; there were many of them—here two will suffice. We Create Our Resistance Organization Life in Auschwitz was cruel because the camp had the character of a place of extermination. This annihilation was first carried out by beatings, starvation, hosing down, mass shooting etc. We still remember that once within three days 12,000 Russian prisoners of war were hidden, with the exception of a few by good comrades were kept destroyed. One day the news spread that an attempt had been made to kill inmates with gas in the old crematorium of the main camp. Very soon this message was confirmed. Four large crematoria with gas chambers were built in the Birkenau sub-camp. Paralyzing horror settled over the entire camp when the first inmates from the infirmary were selected for gas death. This was followed by selections from the camp and much more frequent transports, who were led directly from freedom into the gas chambers. From Poland, France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Italy, Greece, Belgium, from all countries occupied or influenced by Hitler, Jews and freedom fighters against Hitler's yoke were dragged to be exterminated. Only a small percentage of the strongest were 7

selected to be used as working cattle. All others, including women and children, were immediately gassed. We were powerless against these mass gassings, yes, we got these people not to be seen at all. In all camps that belonged to the Auschwitz camp system selections are constantly taking place. Those whose labor power was used up in the opinion of the SS authorities were always gas-killed. Sometimes when the inmates of the camp became too large due to individual transports, a certain number of prisoners were simply sent to be gassed. Many political prisoners from German and other prisons perished here in Auschwitz in the gas chambers. The last of the Warsaw Ghetto freedom fighters, many French, Soviet and other partisans were exterminated here. In addition to these gassings, the mass shootings of Poles continued in Block 11. Because of these circumstances, the inmates were, in large part, fatalists. They lived from one selection to the next. Others, on the other hand, asked themselves the anxious question in the morning: Will I still be alive in the evening or will I already have been gassed? So in the face of this hell we had to try to give people the courage to face life again and show them that there is a way out of this misery. This way out could only be a common resistance, we could not surrender to our fate without a fight. First we issued the slogan: If we are packed into the cars to take us to the gassing site, then we will jump off the cars at the main Upper Silesia-Krakow railway line (which you had to cross) and we will meet with the SS and deal with them. We had nothing to lose, absolutely nothing.

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In the ranks of the Jews in particular, this first, extremely primitive slogan found an echo and became a means of rallying the active forces among them. The Battle of Stalingrad had long since been fought, we heard from the Balkan countries of great partisan battles, from France from prisoners how heroically the antifascists fought against the Hitler yoke. And with us here in the East, we experienced at close range the costly struggle of the Polish people for their freedom. More and more partisan squads appeared near the camp. The Soviet front was getting closer. In view of this, Austrian and German communists and socialists got together to build up the resistance organization together. At first we met with distrust from our Polish comrades, then we came to an agreement on the fact that the Poles build up their organization alone and that we build ours together with the other nationalities. We only wanted to work together in top management. Structure of Our Organization We now gathered all our friends who wanted to fight with us, first the political prisoners and many Jews who had only come to the camp because they were Jews. French, Czechoslovak, Belgian, Austrian and German anti-fascists, mainly forces of the labor movement, were the organizers in most cases, but many other freedom fighters from said countries also joined. In the most important work details we first created our groups; in the inmates' tailor shop, in the laundry (old and new), in the DHW workshops, in the Krupp workshop, which was later called the Union, in the disinfection, motor pool, etc. The First Task 9

Was to make our fellow combatants aware of the situation in which they found themselves to prepare the ground for the right conclusions to be drawn from it. For this we collected messages, partly from the press, partly from the radio — also from foreign radio, and gave our friends verbal information about the situation at least once a week. Of course, we attached particular importance to bringing all the news that could give the prisoners new courage. The Relief Actions The official diet was totally inadequate. Some of us worked in the SS kitchen, in the SS hospital, in the troop supply camp, in the slaughterhouse or outside the camp and met free workers there. We are not ashamed to report that we hired our friends to steal as much as they could from these places and put these things at our disposal for distribution. In this way we collected up to a hundred loaves of bread a week, which we distributed to the friends of all nations in the heavy commandos. We were able to help some good anti-fascists or good comrades in this way, and we were able to procure many medicines that we could not otherwise find and give to the needy. There were Poles and mostly Czechs who still received parcels from home; with some we coupled a hungry man who had to be helped. We assigned comrades to watch the access quarantines to see who was newly admitted to get the needed connection immediately. Since the newcomers who escaped gassing were still full of pain over the extermination of their relatives or friends, we had to try to 10

give these people new impetus to live. So the piece of bread that we shared with them was a sign for them that solidarity also lives in this hell. How many tears have found new courage in this way — Unfortunately we couldn't help everyone; many a good antifascist fighter surely perished alone — But we have helped many. The Selections The selections were carried out in various ways and were all aimed at reducing the number of camp inmates as far as possible. In the early days, for example, in the main camp it was said: "Line up on the 'Birkenallee'!" And then, one by one, they went naked through the bathroom, where the SS doctor chose his gas victims. To prevent particularly weak prisoners from fleeing in time were hidden, the selections were set quite unexpectedly in 1944. Not even the camp elder was informed beforehand. The over fifty year olds were therefore in constant danger, because they were to be exterminated first. All block elders and block clerks associated with our organization undertook to forge their card files in such a way that no one over the age of fifty remained in them. The difficulty often arose that those affected were not allowed to be informed because they could only seldom overlook the magnitude of the danger in which they found themselves and perhaps also feared that the making of disciples could even harm them. We therefore judged in the last Nine months of the Auschwitz concentration camp a formal readiness for such cases one. Since mainly Jews were subjected to the selections last year and the German block elders and kapos had to take over the cordoning service for these actions, we gathered our people at the disinfection and had them get those who were endangered out of the cordon and thus out of the danger zone. 11

This was of course associated with dangers. The Kapo of Disinfection, Alfred Ponthius (German communist), the block elder from Block V, Rudolf Göbel (communist from Reichenau), the camp elder Heinz Dürmayer (Austrian communist) and our friends from other countries were particularly involved. You've helped a lot with these things. In this way and through the work of our organization, many people could be rescued from gas death. Here, too, we have to say: many, only too many, we could not help, they fell victim to gas death. Military Apparatus We created a military leadership consisting of one French, one Polish, and one Austrian comrade; first it was the Austrian communist Heinz Dürmayer, later when he himself became a camp elder, Rudolf Frömmel (Austrian communist). The tasks consisted of making all preparations for a possible armed resistance against a possible total destruction of the camp. The able-bodied from all groups were grouped together and assigned a series of tasks that they worked to fulfill. For example, if they were in metal works, they stole pliers with insulated handles, which we needed to be able to pinch the electric wire if necessary. Under the umbrella of disinfection we had about ten such tongs ready. Firearms were organized either from outside or by corrupt SS men. Unfortunately, we only had a few firearms in the main camp. Our brave women organized explosives from the powder room of the Union workshop, which, hidden in bread, were smuggled into the camp. We had also hid this under the roof of disinfection buildings.

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In addition, an airplane once parachuted twenty kilograms of explosives outside the camp. This was made available to us via partisan connections and gradually brought to the camp in small quantities. Anticipating attacks on the entire camp staff, we often kept ourselves on alert, with management hovering in the disinfection laundry. In block 15, from observers were seated from which one could overlook the camp entrance, and with the help of the hand truck of the laundry (the laundry worked in day and night shifts), which was regularly driven to the drying floors, which were scattered throughout the camp, we established the connection. The Connection With the Other Camps In Birkenau — the largest sub-camp of Auschwitz, where at times there were four or five times as many prisoners as in the main camp — we had a few relatively weak groups, which were well armed compared to us in the main camp. They saw the large transports arrive and literally saw the large-scale human exterminations up close. No wonder they often wanted to strike, misjudging the situation. We from the main camp often urged moderation, because it was clear to us that if Birkenau attacked, it meant by the strong SS forces that were in the camp that we are taking a step towards self-destruction. We had to be patient and wait for the most opportune moment. But in order to deepen the understanding of these things among our Birkenau comrades, we sent a good organiser, the Austrian communist Simra, who had previously been active in the SS motor pool group, to Birkenau to take charge of the groups there gain weight. We then had regular contact with Simra and were able to influence what was happening in Birkenau through him. 13

The Special Command In a specially locked camp of the Birkenau camp, not far from the crematoria, housed the so-called special command. These were the prisoners who had to carry out the work at the gassing sites and crematoria. Of course, none of them was among them who volunteered in this terrible commando worked. Many of them went insane at work. The SS granted them a number of privileges over the other prisoners. Some as a result of these improvements, the prisoners of the Sonderkommando were in a peculiar moral condition. Here, too, we had comrades connected to our resistance movement. They stood in front of mountains of corpses literally every day and had to fight against the swamp beneath the prisoners. We maintained an indirect connection with these comrades via the Birkenauers. We suggested that they join forces with the incoming gassing transports, but our comrades were unable to persuade the other prisoners to do so. Yes, once during a transport, when the death row inmates realized what awaited them and some of them put up a fight, no one from the special commando movement moved to join them in taking action against the SS. It was clear that every Sonderkommando member was a death row inmate himself. No one was transferred to another job from the Sonderkommando. From time to time, some of those who had been in command for a particularly long time were summarily seized and gassed themselves. There were also instances where a high percentage of the commandos were gassed at once. In this way, the SS tried to get rid of those who knew about their mass 14

murders. In the summer of 1944, the command had grown to almost 1,200 men, who carried out the so-called "Hoess Operation". It was about the gassing of three-quarters of a million Hungarian Jews in a short time, of whom only 80,000 of the strongest came to the camp or to work in were sent to various parts of Germany. On those days, the crematoria's ovens were not sufficient, huge pits were dug and great pyres were built in them, in which thousands of corpses were piled one on top of the other. When this action was over, about 160 prisoners of the special detachment were sent on transport for the first time. They were told it was going to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, where they were to represent the new special unit. In reality, they came here and were gassed in a disinfestation chamber far in front of the camp but within the main chain of posts. We made sure that our friends in the Sonderkommando found out about this fact and suggested to them, who were sentenced to death anyway, that they immediately launch an armed act and break out. At the same time we warned our other comrades in Birkenau not to take part, because what was the only chance of life for some must mean suicide for others. In months of preparation, the comrades from the special commando had procured weapons, there were even a few submachine guns along with other firearms, as well as hand grenades they had made themselves (some of which the women from the Union factory supplied the powder for).

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One day the news spread in the Sonderkommando that another large partial gassing of their number was planned. The illegal head met in Crematorium 3 to comment on the situation. Then the Oberkapo, a German criminal bandit, came and threatened to report what he had seen to the SS. After an exchange of words, they grabbed the bandit and threw him into the flames. Now there was no turning back. The crematorium was set on fire, the weapons were taken out of hiding, and within a few minutes the uprising of 600 prisoners raged. It was barely a quarter of an hour before the chain of guards was broken, some guards were dead, the others had fled. The Rapportfuhrer thought that the whole camp was in rebellion, so the first thing he did was to get his family to safety. Other SS men grabbed the gold and valuables they had taken from the gassed victims and wanted to flee with them. A hopeless confusion reigned throughout the camp. In this atmosphere, the insurgents managed to break through to the Budi area (about 6 kilometers from the camp); only here were they caught by larger SS formations and, after a fight, destroyed, except for a few who escaped. The special command consisted mainly of Jews and Russians. The whole camp watched the battle breathlessly. Apart from its symbolic importance, the courageous death of the fighters from the Sonderkommando helped to make cooperation between the nationalities more trusting; here was an example that Jews can fight. Many Poles and Germans had previously believed that Jews could not fight. The inmates of the special commando taught them otherwise. They fell gun in hand and didn't let themselves be gassed. The self-confidence of the Jews in the camp was also greatly increased by this fact. In this way, the blood sacrifice of the special commando became a strong bond that strengthened international camp solidarity.

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Budi Was a small sub-camp dealing with agriculture and fishing. In this camp there was also a resistance group led by the German communist Heinz Brandt and the Czech communist Karl Beran. The independent Czech doctor Walter Löbner worked with them. We kept in constant contact with this group. We had occasional connections to other sub-camps, but we didn't really have any solid ones in which we could influence the resistance work. It's possible that individual comrades also had connections, but we didn't have them from the illegal head, which we particularly regretted for the large camp in Monowitz (Buna), which belonged to IG Farben, in which there must have been an independent resistance organization. The Illegal Head The illegal head of the resistance organization initially consisted of the Austrian communist Ernst Burger, the Polish socialists Josef Cyrankiewicz and Hermann Langbein (Austrian communist) and Zbyszek Raynoch (Polish communist). Ernst Burger left in the summer of 1944 and I took his place. Hermann Langbein had been deported so that in the summer of 1944, since Raynoch was also preparing to flee, the management consisted of Josef Cyrankiewicz, Heinz Dürmayer (Austrian communist, who had come from Flossenbürg), the Austrian communist Ludwig Soswinski, who later came from Lublin, and myself duration. We worked together as friends until our evacuation.

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We've had a few spots where we've held our sessions, and often the three of us would sit together with Burger and Raynoch in a Block 4 basement closet and make our plans. A young non-party Pole who was a block elder kept watch so that nobody would disturb us. In the disinfection, where Polish, Austrian and German comrades were employed and only rarely an SS man came, many individual meetings could be held. In the (new) laundry, where I myself worked as an electrician and because of this I had considerable freedom of movement, my Russian comrade Monek Majowitsch was at the centrifuge on the second shift, and in my absence he received all the reports for me and sent them to me forwarded. In Block 20, Josef Cyrankiewicz was the room elder in a room that remained free as an emergency reserve for those injured in air raids. The two of us met in this room and discussed our problems. Our Women While the men lived under difficult conditions, the women had it many times worse. The dirt was unimaginable, e.g. B. in the camp in Birkenau. Block 25, from where the women came to be gassed, was always full, although it was emptied almost every day. Scabies, phlegmon, hunger and filth diseases tormented the women tremendously. In this atmosphere of filth and great need, our brave women also created their resistance organization. At its head was the Czech communist Hertha Soswinska. She also worked with women of all nations. Their organizational network extended through a number of businesses, such as Union Werkhalle, SS laundry, tailoring, etc.; 18

German comrade Orly Reichert also worked in the Birkenau sick camp. There were also some sub-camps with women, such as the so-called staff building, in which women from special commandos lived for a while, from labor deployment, from the political department, etc. Here some women did excellent work, such as B. Judith Dürmayer, who, together with Hertha, recruited some girls from the political department to work and in this way was able to pass on extremely important news to us. We can confidently say that this news, the teaching of which involved the risk of our wives' lives, did a great deal to enable us to get to know the intentions of the political department in the most varied of situations, and to save many a life. In the Union Operation Our women did good reconnaissance work and helped to arm us by putting explosive powder away. Here in Union Betrieb our men's group worked together with the women. From the bread collected in the men's camp, we set aside a part for the women in the union company, who had it particularly difficult. Block 10 Block 10, the notorious women's experimental block, was in the middle of the Auschwitz men's camp. About 500 women, some of whom were very young, were gathered here for a wide variety of experiments. Here both artificial insemination and sterilization as well as operations of the most diverse and most horrid kinds were carried out. Here, too, our organization was active and gathered strength. Slovakian doctor Slawa Klein helped alleviate some misery. 19

Nursery Raisko A group of women worked at the Raisko nursery, including Gerda Schneider, a German communist. Later, ie in 1944, a small women's camp of about 500 women was set up within the main chain of posts in the main camp. For us, the places where men and women worked together were the places of connection. For example, B. Hertha S. and Ludwig S. together in the construction management, I.e. the responsible manager of the women with the man who was responsible for the connection with the women from our point of view. Composition of Our Forces Among the Poles there were a few groups that were extraordinarily strong, but essentially one could distinguish between left-wing and right-wing groups. The left groups were led by Josef Cyrankiewicz. It cannot be denied, however, that Cyrankiewicz undoubtedly had a strong influence among the right-wing groups because of his personality, so that in many cases there was cooperation. The joint shortage of camps with the constant threat of annihilation created just such opportunities. Until the middle of 1943, the Poles, especially the Polish workers' movement, made up an extraordinarily large part of the international resistance movement; then, as the front drew nearer, the partisan movement strengthened, and our plan of insurrection took off (see later), all but a few hundred Polish prisoners were sent to other camps in the interior of Germany. 20

The Forces of the Labour Movement And the resistance movement from the countries occupied by Germany were initially combined in the manner already described elsewhere. Then there were a few Jewish groups who united with us. One that consisted of about 300 people and was mainly based on Polish people, but also on Jews from other countries. They were attracted by our slogan: "Don't let them be gassed without a fight!" They felt it was a disgrace that over 4 million Jews were gassed in Auschwitz and, in all but one case, without resistance. They told us that they felt they belonged to the last European Jews and that, if they cannot prevent their gassing, it should by no means take place without a fight. We included these people in our resistance organization and had the best experiences with them. The four brave girls whose work and death I report elsewhere came from this group. Another group, which comprised about 120 prisoners and was essentially based at the so-called building yard, also joined our struggle; Socialists, communists and independents were in this group. A number of smaller groups have also been absorbed by us over time. Certainly there were still groups working independently up to the end, with whom we had no connection, but for the main camp at Auschwitz I we can say that we had essentially united the resistance forces in our organization. This organization comprised a high percentage of the prisoners, at times 5 to 8 percent, which, given the tremendous terror and national differences, meant a lot.

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Reorganizations After our organization grew so strong, we had to create new ways of connecting. We set up an independent French and Belgian group. The Austrian communist Arbert Haas dealt with the French, and the Belgian communist Berliner with the Belgian. We now always declared one comrade responsible for several companies; so for everyone within the small chain of posts the Czech communist Hans Lederer, for the entire block staff in the camp Arnim Glanz, Czech communist, for Union and DHW Arbert Haas, for the SS laundry and leather factory Sally Grünvogel (German communist), and we did the same the other companies or positions. Changes in work details, and especially from mid-1944 onwards due to mass transports to the Reich, made the work extremely difficult, of course, because those who had just gotten to know each other and had gained trust in each other broke up again. Connecting Paths For a while the connection to Birkenau was through comrades who worked with women from Birkenau. Sometimes we were able to smuggle ourselves into a detail that had to carry out work directly in Birkenau and talk to our comrades there ourselves. Ernst Burger, who for the last quarter of a year before his escape belonged to a wagon detachment, four of whom delivered wood to the most varied places, also took mail with him—some oral, some written. He received the written mail in a 60 to 100 amp strong fuse cartridge with a cutout on the inside, so that it was harmless. The food truck that came to the main camp every day served as a route to Budi. Heinz Brandt, Karl Beran, and the Czech doctor 22

Löbner took turns with him, and we discussed all the necessary questions. We also made use of some SS men, who, however, helped us for very different reasons. One of the SS men was so corrupt that he transported letters abroad in exchange for money that we had to procure. On the other hand, there was an old chauffeur who was conscripted into service with the SS and took laundry to various places, who actually helped us honestly. He came to my laundry and pretended that I should do some small repairs on his car. That gave me the opportunity to give him the orders directly in the car; some of these were installed in safety plugs, some in toothpaste tubes. This courier route has always worked. This old man had been won by our comrade Ernst Burger, who showed a lucky hand. The Way Out There were several ways of communication with the outside, most of them were one-way, i.e. messages and news could be sent only to the outside. So e.g. For example, letters were transported to prisoners who were later released with the obligation to work in the camp area. That wasn't always easy, because they had to put the letters, which were often destined for Vienna or certain parts of Germany, in the mailbox in Kattowitz. Getting there without a holiday permit was very difficult and dangerous for semifreelancers. Letters were occasionally sent to places where prisoners worked with freelance workers, but we had no means of checking that they were reaching their destination. We can say the same of experiments of this kind with bribed SS men.

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We had a good two-track route via a few intermediate stations to Kraków to the resistance movement there. Cyrankiewicz, who was the head of the Kraków Socialists before his arrest, kept in touch here and led the resistance groups in Kraków and the surrounding area practically from the camp. It often happened that this path was interrupted by arrests and shootings, but it was always rebuilt, often by Polish comrades who fled the camp for this purpose. Of course, there were also difficulties from time to time, because many a Polish cavalry lieutenant who was in a concentration camp believed that the liberation of Poland must come from him, sat down, worked out a plan and then tried to carry it out in every possible way. There were conflicts with the reactionary forces precisely in connection with the outside world. The London Poles had sent a military representative for the Upper Silesian area, who was also in contact with us from outside. His tasks were, of course, of a military nature. We nevertheless succeeded, albeit with many difficulties, in cooperating with all these forces. We inform the world Our greatest task consisted of communicating in letters or reports what was happening in the camp. The enormous gassings—like this kind of killing in general - were not believed even by those who had fought illegally against Hitler for many years and knew the endless cruelties of the Nazis. We, who knew that Auschwitz is the largest human extermination site in the world that has ever existed, were aware that we can only be helped if the world knows what is happening here; for nothing feared the SS criminals so much as the public.

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After we found out that some Polish comrades had installed shortwave devices in the camp area, as in Kraków, we got the connection there and tried to bring some material about the conditions and the mass deaths in the camp to the public. From Kraków in particular, it was sent to an apparatus belonging to the Poles in London. We knew very well that we were being heard, but the London radio station, like the world press, did not carry our news. We again experienced the disappointment that no one believed us, our reports sounded too fantastic even for these passages. It was not until mid-1944, when the advance of the Soviet Army left the British with no other option of establishing the second front, that large-scale publications began. We now drafted an appeal from the prisoners in the German concentration camps and had the joyful satisfaction of listening to it secretly from abroad ourselves. In order to give this work a firm basis, we created an editorial commission consisting of the Austrian comrades Arbert Haas and Otto Heller. These comrades collected material, wrote speeches and essays; but others also worked occasionally, without being allowed to know in detail what it was for. A 17-year-old Jewish Slovak once wrote to us about her particularly cruel experiences in the camp. When we sent this article, the writer was no longer alive; she had meanwhile become a victim of Auschwitz. Work of the Editors Comrade Heller had to collect his material from his detail and therefore his main concern was getting it into the camp. He used 25

toothpaste tubes for this, in which the articles written on thin paper could easily be stored. A similar method was also used by Haas. The finished speeches, articles, etc. came to me afterwards and I looked through them, mostly during the night shift, in the small laundry workshop, which I protected against surprises. At the entrance to the laundry there was a porter who had a doorbell next to him under the shelf. When pressed, a buzzer went off in the small workshop next to a bell that lay in the middle of the laundry, so that in case of danger the warning was always given in good time. I sent the material to Cyrankiewicz, who forwarded it. From the middle of 1944 we sent something at least twice a week. Now the tragedy of Auschwitz went through the world. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that most of the Auschwitz propaganda that was being circulated around the world at that time was written by us in the camp itself. We have thwarted the intentions of the political department several times these days by making their plans public. At the same time, we sent good documents that we got our hands on to Kraków, so that we could use them to document the whole monstrosity of the mass extermination. A brave comrade photographed the interior of the gas chambers and crematoria at the risk of his life; we also sent these pictures to Kraków. We carried out this propaganda to the world public until the last day of our stay in Auschwitz.

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Auschwitz Echo Furthermore, the newspaper "Auschwitzer Echo", which was also written in the camp, was published in Kraków. With this newspaper we wanted to enlighten the Kraków population about the outrages of the SS leaders and the concentration camp crews. The enormous bloodguilt of the camp commandants Hoess, Baer and others, the bloodhounds from the political department, Grabener, Schurz, Bogener and Lachmann, who could be proven to have murdered countless prisoners from all nations—but especially Poland—was shown in this newspaper. The Polish resistance movement sentenced them to death and published it in the "Auschwitzer Echo". In addition, the individual bandits were sent their death sentences by post. The public outside the borders of German fascism was now mobilized. When the first Auschwitz speeches were held, everything remained calm. Berlin later demanded that the political department take action, because it was clear from the constant concrete information that the organizers of this propaganda could only be based in the camp itself. The head of the political department, Schurz, once said when someone bugged us: "You have no idea how well organized the camp is. If we pack up, we usually don't get the right ones after all; but the world will know about it immediately!" Gestapo investigative commissions came from Berlin. They couldn't get hold of us either, the international camp solidarity was already too great. In Kraków, Mr. Frank had leaflets distributed saying: "The news about Auschwitz that is currently being circulated is lies, everything is fine in Auschwitz!" 27

Our work undoubtedly contributed to the SS bandits becoming unsure and many a gassing that had been planned did not take place because we were able to announce them in good time. In connection with the threatened Soviet offensive, the large gassings came to an end, the last of which took place around the end of October 1944; and of the four crematoria with associated gas chambers, three were dismantled. In a few days only harmless green areas could be seen at the site of the greatest human extermination. The dismantled crematoria did not fall victim to destruction, but were disassembled into individual parts, carefully numbered and sent, two to Gross-Rosen and one to Mauthausen camps. So they wanted to erase the traces of their activities in Auschwitz. But there was no intention of stopping the crimes altogether; therefore only one spatial change was planned and implemented. Our Escape Organization In many cases it was necessary for prisoners to escape because they were either requested by the resistance movement outside or we sent them out to establish connections. Sometimes our comrades were so burdened, partly by the organized activities of the political department as informers, partly by their anti-fascist activities from freedom—investigations of which by the Gestapo had not yet been completed - that there was a fear that they would be shot or gassed. Our Polish comrades played a major role in this. Essentially, the escape went as follows: The comrade went to a work detachment 28

that worked outside the small chain of posts. On the afternoon allotted for the escape, he then disappeared into a so-called bunker —these were hiding places which, cleverly camouflaged, were mostly near the train station and which our comrades had prepared for this purpose. So that was within the great chain of posts. When the escape sirens sounded—this usually happened when the escape was discovered - before the evening roll call, he must already be in the "bunker". The site was searched for a few hours by the SS with the help of German block elders and kapos. The odd thing that often arose was that the block seniors who had joined the resistance organization took over the strip of land where the fugitive was staying to investigate. This tactic gave him considerable protection. Three days and three nights after each escape, the great line of sentries stood still; then she was drawn back in at night. On the fourth night, the comrade then left his hiding place and went to a previously specified port of call outside the camp system, from which he was transported onward at a favorable opportunity. It once happened to our comrades in Birkenau that while three comrades were escaping, two were shot and one was shot. The latter was cared for by our comrades in a "bunker" outside the small chain of posts for six weeks until he was able to leave the camp altogether. Almost all of the escaped Poles and other comrades reached their destination, some in the cities and some with the partisans. Some

29

also remained outside the liaison apparatus between the camp and the friends. SS people often reported about partisan fights in which they found former prisoners among the dead. The only thing we knew about the other comrades was that they safely passed all the contact points. However, we could not say with any certainty that any of them reached the Soviet front. We learned from an Austrian comrade that he had been shot by the Nazis in Warsaw. Of course, other options were also used. So we had a few cases in which SS men, whom we had persuaded to work with us, obtained permits and went through the guard posts with two comrades a day. Our comrades among the tailors also procured pieces of uniform for individual cases. Passes were also forged. A few times it was possible for a prisoner in SS uniform to get through the guard line with two prisoners in prison uniform. A brave girl who fled with a man was brought back a few days later. It was Mala. She was to be publicly executed, by hanging. At her request, her bonds were removed. She immediately opened her wrists and slapped the SS executioners in the face with her bloodied hands, who then carried her from the place of execution to the crematorium and burned her alive. Our Way The front was drawing nearer, the partisan movement in Poland was growing and the nervousness among the SS men was increasing considerably. 30

We learned that when the front approached the intention was to destroy the entire camp. The head of the political department, Schurz, was already asking SS man Moll, who was in charge of the gassings, what he thought about the gassings in the camp. In Birkenau, gassings from the camp took place almost every day after the Hoess special operation had just ended. In women's camp C, the gassings numbered in the tens of thousands. The entire gypsy camp was gassed except for a few hundred survivors. The community camp, consisting of around five thousand men, women and children, which housed the remains of the privileged Jews from Theresienstadt, was the only part of the Auschwitz camp system where people could live together as families. All but two small boys from this camp were exterminated. For weeks, day and night, the smell of burned human flesh hung over Auschwitz. Some of the SS bandits did not bring the prisoners from the infirmaries destined for gassing into the gas chambers, but put them on the potato wagons, drove them to burning pits, cranked up the wagons so that the prisoners fell alive into the flames. All these atrocities were known in the camp, and we knew that if we were to survive these things at all, we would have to decide on a major action. We Decided to Revolt Realizing that there was no other way, we decided to prepare for an armed uprising. A unified plan was drawn up with our friends in Birkenau, Budi, etc., and the collection of weapons was 31

increased (unfortunately we had few firearms in the main camp); Explosives were made available to us from outside. We sent our plans, which essentially had the character of a mass breakout, to Kraków and coordinated our intentions with those of our Kraków comrades. After expressing their agreement with our plans, they promised to support us. With around 140,000 prisoners in the camp area, we were an extremely important factor in the partisan movement and after our liberation, together with the Poles, we would have carried the uprising, which had already become a fact in Warsaw, into the Upper Silesian region. Our plans were photographed in Kraków and a photocopy was sent to us. On the way, the courier was shot by SS men and the plans were found on him. He himself was sent to the infirmary in the main camp and later had to endure a great deal during the interrogations; but he behaved well and betrayed nothing. At first we feared that as a result new mass exterminations of prisoners would begin. But that was not the case. Immediate measures were: should our friend Ernst Burger go with two Poles and an SS man. A few days later the next ones were supposed to leave, so that about ten men would be gone in a week. We have also agreed that Heinz Dürmayer and I are not allowed to go; so that the resistance work in the camp is not called into question. Cyrankiewicz, who was originally supposed to go, was also instructed by the Poles to stay in the camp. The Escape of Our Best 32

Rudolf Frömmel and Viktor Wessely undertook to organize the escape of the first group. Rudolf Frömmel, in his thirties, had taken part in the Vienna February Fight in 1934 as a member of the Republican Protection League and had been sentenced to several years in prison. He then took part in the Spanish Civil War, which brought him to Auschwitz via the French camps. In his capacity as an electrician for the motor pool, he dealt with making hand grenades from detonators and explosives similar to plasticine, which the Polish partisans were supplied with and which—as already reported elsewhere—was brought to the camp. Viktor Wessely was about twenty-five years old and had been a member of the Austrian Communist Youth League for many years. He was the clerk of the same motor pool. Frömmel and Wessely knew every SS man assigned to the motor pool and had secured some for themselves through various mutual favors. They undertook to get one of the SS drivers involved in the escape plan. The comrades intended for the company wanted to hide in a large box and be taken by truck from the camp to an agreed meeting point. A second SS man, an ethnic German from Warsaw, was supposed to help. When the day of the escape was to be postponed by some technical difficulties, the SS driver threatened that he would withdraw from the whole affair if the delay continued. Unfortunately, the comrades gave in to his insistence. On October 29, 1944, the time had come. Around nine in the morning, comrades Ernst Burger, Zbyszek Raynoch and Benedikt Brzezina arrived at the meeting point. Eduard Pys from Rzeszow was two minutes late and came back; he had seen no trace of the friends. The comrades were gone. 33

They drove to the first meeting point, but were received there by the SS without them knowing it was in their box and driven to Bunker Block 11 in the camp. They only realized where they were when they got out. The truck was surrounded by SS men with submachine guns. They had to get out of the closet one after the other, everyone had to strip naked and then they went into the bunker. Shortly afterwards, Frömmel and Wessely, who had been involved in preparing the escape, were brought in. The traitor was the SS driver who had played the role of decoy spy here. For this he received the War Merit Cross with a fourteen-day holiday. All took poison that same evening. Zbyszek Raynoch, a Polish communist from Kraków, died while everyone else recovered. With Raynoch, one of our most loyal fighters died, he gave his life so that no torture would be able to snatch his secret from him, which could endanger his comrades. On the same evening two dead lay in the morgue of Block 28, an old worker and a young former captain and partisan leader, who had been shot at the meeting point. The other friends survived; the poison wasn't enough for them. The Volksdeutscher SS man, who proved to be a genuine coconspirator, shared their fate. The following weeks were full of tension. During the interrogations they emphasized the fact that their testimonies were a provocation, a temptation by the SS driver to flee. Things did not seem to be going too badly, for the SS driver was an evil subject, a man who had already committed various frauds. 34

If we succeeded in convicting him as a provocateur, then perhaps our comrades would be transported to Flossenbürk or to any other penal camp, they would find good comrades everywhere who would help them further. We tried to influence SS officers who were directly or indirectly accessible to us. In the end it was all in vain. It is useless to describe what happened during the interrogations in the political department; all comrades remained firm, none of them weakened. Christmas came, the Soviet offensive could break out any day—we really felt that—because the so-called last reception position in front of the Upper Silesian industrial district ran right through the camp system. The comrades in the bunker were confident. In general, the connection to them worked well, we were informed about everything and were able to inform them and help them with food, cigarettes and newspapers. They also put an informer in their cell, Unterkapo Koch, a subject bought by the SS. Nothing could be gleaned from him either, although—as our brave girls from the political department reported to us—he simply gave false reports about conversations in the cell. Only when incriminating material was found during the arrest of some partisans did we know our comrades were in danger. For the SS, the connection with the Polish resistance movement was clearly demonstrated. On December 29, the news that the gallows were going to be erected on the roll call ground hit us like a bomb. They were pulled down again, but put up again on the 30th. The whole camp was lined up when they got out of the bunker. We let the steam 35

sirens sound from the disinfection as a last greeting. As they passed us, we all greeted them by taking off our hats. They had understood us and greeted us again. Reinforced security was set up as the five comrades were brought up. At the execution site, the death sentence was read out again: "For an attempt to escape, with the temptation of SS members, for the purpose of cooperation with partisans." While the reading was still going on, the first comrade, a Pole, was led under the noose. "Long live Poland!" he cried. The executioner slapped him in the face. "Long live socialism!" cried the second, "Long live the Soviet Union!" the third. A few voices tried to shout them down; they were German "green" career criminals. Another comrade shouted a Polish slogan. The last, whose image left the most indelible mark on everyone, was Viktor Wessely. As if he were climbing onto a speaker's platform, so freely and calmly he stepped onto the stool and cried in his youthful voice: "Down with the brown murderous plague! Long live freedom!" The SS man involved in the conspiracy was also executed. In those days all hell broke loose in the vicinity of Auschwitz. Almost all the liaisons had to be replaced because the Gestapo had managed to arrest a few Poles, including former prisoners. Only our way to the shortwave transmitter remained open the whole time and was also used. Four Brave Girls We should empty the cup to the last drop. When examining the home-made hand grenades of the Sonderkommando, the SS found that they contained explosives from the Union powder store. Now 36

they let their spy apparatus play; and one day, with the help of the bandit capo Schulz, who had been bought, eight women from the factory were brought into the bunker from the night shift. These female prisoners were beaten inhumanly by the bandits of the political department, but nothing could be gotten out of them. After a few days in the bunker they had to be released back into the camp. The efforts of the political department did not stop there. She now made use of her informer, who has already been named elsewhere, the Unterkapos Koch, who, with the help of his "girlfriend", very soon came across some girls who had been working the day shift in the powder room some time ago. Four girls were arrested, and although they remained silent, the SS gang managed to prove that they had taken material from the powder room. I won't describe what the political department did with the girls to get them to talk. But it was all in vain, they were silent! The camp management saw themselves disappointed in their hopes of rolling out our entire organization through these girls. The execution of the girls was ordered. They were to be publicly hanged in the women's camp (FL 1). The night before the execution, we managed to talk to one of them about interconnections. We were in the bunker at night and spoke to a girl of about twenty. She shamed us when we tried to encourage her by trying to encourage us to keep fighting. She told us she was proud to have been part of the resistance and was dying peacefully. Rarely have we said goodbye to a comrade like we did here. We knew these brave girls would remain silent to the grave. 37

The next day they were hanged at roll call in the women's camp. They died calmly and serenely, and one cried out, "We shall be avenged!" Our brave girls were now dead. Fate overtook the rags cook later in Mauthausen. Who were these girls? They were young Jewish girls between the ages of 18 and 22. They came from Poland and had actually spent their whole conscious life in bondage; because in 1939 they came to the ghetto and in 1942 or 1943 to Auschwitz. On the ramp, as soon as they arrived, their parents and siblings were taken away and sent to the gas. They were the only surviving families and soon joined the Jewish group of 300 inmates associated with us in the resistance organization. On January 6, 1945, her life was ended by the execution. No Auschwitzer will forget these brave Jewish girls. The Work Goes On We were deeply shocked by these victims of the struggle, but we continued our work. We couldn't get tired. The flight of individuals was successfully continued, as was the whole system of work just described. The will to resist grew in the mass of the prisoners. One sign of the fighting spirit in the camp was the following: a Belgian Jew who had worked as a Gestapo informer in Belgium arrived in Auschwitz himself one day. The Gestapo always got rid of their accomplices whenever they could no longer be used for their purposes. This informer had played many hiding Jews into the hands of the Gestapo, who then sent them to the

38

concentration camp in Auschwitz. Many of them were no longer alive. He was then taken out of quarantine by the outraged inmates and beaten throughout the camp. The prisoners of all nationalities took part until he was finally taken half dead to the bunker by the SS for his protection. The same thing happened when a German career criminal came out of a sub-camp and had badly mistreated the inmates there. He too was beaten around the camp. He was even already hanging on the electric wire, but got free again and was then also taken to safety by the SS. The above-mentioned bandit capo Schulz, who not only worked as a spy for the political department, but also frightened the prisoners in his command with his wild beatings, was found on New Year’s Eve 1944/45, completely beaten, on the ice of the camp’s water tank. Heinz Durmayer In the early days, all the main positions in the camp were occupied by criminal bandits, who used these positions to improve their lives at the expense of the other prisoners. At the same time, they were the ones who carried out the SS beating orders in kapo or block elder positions. The situation even developed in such a way that in many cases they beat the other inmates without direct instructions, albeit always in accordance with the general directive of the SS. Criminal Poles were preferred to be placed above Germans or Jews, and criminal Germans to be placed above Poles and Jews, in order to perpetuate constant differences. 39

At first, political prisoners from all countries were reluctant to hold such offices. They didn't want to become the servants of the SS gang. In the course of time, however, it became apparent that many things could be mitigated with the help of these offices. We therefore decided to change our position and now advocated that as many positions as possible be filled with prisoners from the resistance organization. One day Heinz Dürmayer became camp elder. With him, who was a member of our illegal head, we could work to the fullest. Of course, we had to solve it from all the other tasks. He managed to fill a number of new block senior posts and block clerk posts with reliable comrades and thus gain influence in the camp. He was particularly keen on chasing spies of all kinds, especially those in the political department. By skillfully exploiting his connections with the camp commander, he succeeded in making it clear to him that the informers of the political department were bringing considerable unrest into the camp; yes, that they blackmailed many prisoners with threats in order to deport most of them to punitive transports. Of course, this was only possible because there were constant problems of competence between the camp leadership and the political department, and everyone was happy to get one over the other. Because of this work, the tone in the camp slowly changed. It is going too far to give all the details. It was only too clear that the political department was now also interested in him, but at least he managed to hold out until the evacuation. Evacuation

40

The Soviet offensive began. After a lot of back and forth as to whether we shouldn't be exterminated after all, the evacuation of the camp was decided and carried out except for the sick, who were left behind in the camp. The plan was actually to blow up the camp with the sick; but first of all some of the material had been taken away by prisoners. Second, the Soviet advance was very rapid. On the morning of January 18, 1945, the evacuation began. First 1500 went, at noon 4000 and then the rest. 600 of those able to walk stayed for two more days, then they also left the camp. We marched off in the night and in the next few days covered the route to Loslau (about 80 kilometers). Anyone who weakened and stayed behind was shot by the SS. In addition to many men, we once saw about 200 women lying dead on the way during an hour's walk. Hundreds froze to death during the nights that followed. In the open, overcrowded coal truck, we then drove for a few days in 16 to 18 degrees of cold. First we were supposed to go to Gross-Rosen (Concentration Camp), but since the way there was no longer clear, we drove to Mauthausen in Upper Austria, where we also transferred a large part of our resistance organization. On the way, a few good comrades from Birkenau were shot trying to escape. Ending We were in the cruelest concentration camp, on the biggest battlefield of this war. We fought gas death with everyone who was willing. We tried to inform the world of what was happening in Auschwitz and worked fraternally with the Polish resistance movement.

41

Auschwitz was a tough school for all of us. When we left it, we couldn't even believe that we got out alive. But many, just too many, we left there. They died for the profit of IG Farben, Krupp, Siemens and many other monopolistic companies. We, who have escaped the hell of Auschwitz, should always think about this and not rest until these mighty men have been brought to their just punishment and their companies have been transferred to public ownership. This is the only way we can prevent a new Auschwitz.

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All rights reserved, especially those of reprints and translations, including excerpts. Copyright 1949 by WN-Verlag GmbH, Berlin-Potsdam. Published under license no. 497. Printing: (87/2) VEB Berliner Druckhaus GmbH., Berlin N4, Linienstr. 139/40

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APPENDIX Original German File

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