The Stone Crusher
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38. Sagel‑Grande et al., Justiz, pp. 194–5.
39. SS‑Lieutenant Arlt, June 16, 1942: file 136 M.38, YVP.
40. Tini refers to this rowing outing and to her own childhood in her last letter to Kurt, July 15, 1941, DKK.
41. Altogether, according to the Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Wider‑
standes (www.doew.at), about nine thousand Jews were deported from Vienna to Maly Trostinets. Only seventeen are known to have survived. The total numbers killed at Maly Trostinets are not known for certain, but it is estimated that over two hundred thousand German, Austrian, and Belarusian Jews and Soviet prison‑
ers of war were murdered there between 1941 and 1943, when the camp was shut down (Gilbert, Holocaust, p. 886, n. 38).
Chapter 10: A Trip to Death
1. An account given after the war by prisoner Hermann Einziger (in Hackett, Buchenwald Report, p. 189) states that this occurred in April, and that the labor detail was carrying the logs to the camp by hand. However, Gustav’s diary (which returns to its usual chronological reliability in 1942) suggests that it was later in the year (mid to late summer) and although sketchy it implies that the logs were being loaded (i.e., onto a wagon) rather than carried and stacked. Einziger says Fried‑
mann was from Mannheim; Gustav says he was from Kassel. Neither offers any further details about him.
2. The ban on Jews being admitted to the infirmary had been lifted at some point; the precise date isn’t known.
3. Stein, Buchenwald, pp. 138–9; Ludwig Scheinbrunn in Hackett, Buchenwald Report, pp. 215–6.
4. Stein, Buchenwald, pp. 36–7; Hackett, Buchenwald Report, p. 313.
5. Order of October 5, 1942, quoted in Stein, Buchenwald, p. 128.
6. Stein, Buchenwald, pp. 128–9.
7. This was a full week after the drafting of the list on October 8 (Stefan Heymann in Hackett, Buchenwald Report, p. 342).
8. Fritz (in Doch der Hund, p. 86) says there were eighty men to a car; however, Commandant Pister had ordered a train from the railway company consisting of ten cattle/freight cars and one passenger car for SS personnel (Stein, Buchenwald Report, pp. 128–9). Fritz also gives the date of departure as October 18 and of arrival at Auschwitz as October 20; his dates are off by one day.
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9. Gustav uses the stock expression Himmelfahrtskommando, which translates literally as “trip to Heaven mission” and is the German equivalent of “suicide mission”
or “kamikaze order.”
Chapter 11: A Town Called Oświęcim
1. Men in Austria‑Hungary were drafted into the army in the spring of the year in which they turned twenty‑one; infantrymen did three years’ full‑time service, followed by ten years in the reserves (Lucas, Fighting Troops, p. 22). Gustav Klein‑
mann turned twenty‑one on May 2, 1912. The kaiserlich und königlich (k.u.k.) Armee (Imperial and Royal Army) was made up of troops from all over the empire.
2. Lucas, Fighting Troops, pp. 25–6.
3. Schindler, Fall, p. 13. The suggested phrases are (German) “Alles Erdreich ist Österreich untertan” and (Latin) “Austria erit in orbe ultima.”
4. Lucas, Fighting Troop, p. 210.
5. The 12th Infantry Division was part of First Army’s support force and was attached to X Corps for the advance.
6. Schindler, Fall, p. 171. In 1914, the north and west of what is now Poland was part of the German Empire, and the south (comprising Galicia) belonged to Austria‑
Hungary. Central modern Poland (including Warsaw) was part of the Russian Empire. Thus Austria’s border with Russia was to the north and east.
7. Ibid., p. 172ff.
8. Ibid., pp. 200–39.
9. Watson, Ring of Steel, pp. 193–5.
10. Watson, Ring of Steel, pp. 200–1; Zalewski, Galician Portraits, pp. 205–6.
11. Keegan, First World War, p. 192.
12. Gemeinesames Zentralnachweisbureau, Nachrichten Nr 190, p. 24; Nr 203, p. 25.
The exact circumstances of Gustav’s wound are not known, other than that he was shot. The two reports cited indicate respectively that he was shot in the left lower leg ( linken Unterschenkel, January 6, Biala) and left forearm ( linken Unterarm, January 11, Oświęcim); either one of these was a misprint or he was wounded in both at the same time. Simultaneous wounds in the left arm and left leg sometimes happened when a soldier was kneeling to fire his rifle. The fact that he suffered a bullet wound to the lower body suggests that it probably occurred during an attack or raid rather than while in trenches.
13. Van Pelt and Dwork, Auschwitz, p. 59.
14. Ibid.
15. The report describing Gustav’s actions (Award application, 3 Feldkompanie, Infan‑
terieregiment 56, February 27, 1915, BWM) indicates that this was entirely on 294265XGB_STONE_CS6_PC.indd 356
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Gustav and Aleksiak’s own initiative, which suggests that their sergeant and/or platoon officer was absent, most likely killed in the assault.
16. Austro‑Hungarian Army report, February 26, 1915, Amtliche Kriegs-Depeschen, vol. 2 (Berlin: Nationaler Verlag, 1915): reproduced online at www.stahlgewitter
.com/15_02_26.htm (retrieved October 1, 2017).
17. Award application, 3 Feldkompanie, Infanterieregiment 56, February 27, 1915, BWM.
18. Wiener Zeitung, April 7, 1915, pp. 5–6. Altogether, nineteen men of the 56th were awarded the Silver Medal for Bravery 1st Class (Silberne Tapferkeitsmedaille erster Klasse) while ninety‑seven received the 2nd Class.
19. K.u.k. Kriegsministerium, Verlustliste 244, p. 21. The official list of wounded doesn’t specify how Gustav received this wound or where it was located (nor indeed which hospital he was in); he is merely listed as “verwundeten. ” Family oral history says it was in the lung.
20. Tini Rottenstein birth record, January 2, 1893, Geburtsbuch and Geburtsanzeigen, IKA.
21. This is the substance of speeches given by Rabbi Arnold Frankfurter at this time, including at weddings, as quoted by Hecht in “Der König rief,” pp. 212–3, which specifically mentions Gustav and Tini’s wedding.
22. Watson, Ring of Steel, pp. 503–6.
23. Prior to 1944, when a rail spur and loading ramp were constructed in the Birkenau camp, prisoners arriving at Auschwitz disembarked at a spur near Auschwitz I, and prior to that at the train station in the town, and marched to the camps.
24. Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle, p. 255.
25. There were 405 men on the transport list, but only 404 were admitted to Auschwitz (Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle, p. 255). Presumably one had died en route.
26. In 1944, Auschwitz I acquired a purpose‑built admissions building outside the camp entrance (van Pelt and Dwork, Auschwitz, pp. 222–5; Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle, p. 601). Prior to that date there were only the regular facilities inside the camp.
27. The first gassings in Germany, using trucks and gas chambers, had occurred in 1939 as part of the T4 euthanasia program (Cesarani, Final Solution, pp. 283–5).
The first experimental gassings with Zyklon B at Auschwitz were done in August 1941 in Auschwitz I; the use of crematoria for gassings soon followed, and the specialized gas chambers came into use in Auschwitz‑Birkenau in early 1942
(Wachsmann, KL, pp. 267–8, 301–2; Franciszek Piper in Megargee, USHMM
Encyclopedia, vol. 1A, pp. 206, 210). By late 1942, rumors about gassings in camps had spread through the concentration camp system and among local populations.
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28. Eine Laus dein Tod—this message was painted on walls throughout the Auschwitz complex.
29. Delousing of uniforms was done by fumigation with Zyklon B.
This was the original intended purpose of this poison gas infamously adapted by the SS for use in the killing gas chambers. For that purpose, the SS asked the manufacturer (a subsidiary of IG Farben) to remove the noxious warning smell that was normally added to it (Hayes, Industry, p. 363).
30. The first recipients of tattooed numbers were Soviet POWs, beginning in fall of 1941 (Wachsmann, KL, p. 284). No other concentration camp used tattooing.
31. Arrivals list, October 19, 1942, ABM.
32. The numbering Auschwitz I, II, and III was not introduced until November 1943
(Florian Schmaltz in Megargee, USHMM Encyclopedia, p. 216), but is used here for clarity and consistency.
33. Franciszek Piper in Megargee, USHMM Encyclopedia, p. 210. Auschwitz‑ Birkenau (Auschwitz II) began construction in October 1941 and was operational in early 1942. It continued expanding over the next few years.
34. Gustav uses the phrase schwarze Mauer rather than the more commonly used schwarze Wand. Both mean the same. It was named for the black‑painted screen that protected the brick wall from bullet strikes.
35. Gustav does not comment on this return to Auschwitz in his diary (which is admit‑
tedly written extremely sketchily during the initial period at Auschwitz, recording only the barest facts). Neither does Fritz ever refer to it in his memoir or interview; possibly Gustav didn’t mention to Fritz the fact that he had been in the hospital here during World War I. It is possible that Gustav didn’t remember his previous time at Auschwitz, but this is unlikely; he was familiar with the general area from his upbringing and had been stationed in the district at the time when the Zasole barracks were being constructed. He would remember it well.
36. Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle, p. 259.
37. Höss, quoted in Langbein, People, pp. 391–2.
38. Quoted in Langbein, People, p. 392. From November 1942 SS‑Sergeant Gerhard Palitzsch became increasingly unbalanced due to the death of his wife. They lived in a house near the camp, and Palitzsch, who was involved in corruption, obtained clothes stolen from the prisoners in Birkenau. In October 1942 she contracted typhus—probably from lice carried in these clothes—and died. Palitzsch took to drinking heavily and his behavior became erratic (ibid., pp. 408–10).
39. Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle, pp. 255–60.
40. Ibid., p. 261. The 186 women from Ravensbrück were declared fit and assigned work separately from the men (ibid., pp. 261–2).
41. In Gärtner and Kleinmann, Doch der Hund, p. 90. Fritz says that they stayed only a week in Auschwitz I, and in their testimony to the Frankfurt trials both he and 294265XGB_STONE_CS6_PC.indd 358
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Gustav stated the time as eight days (Abt 461 Nr 37638/84/15904–6; Abt 461 Nr 37638/83/15661–3, FTD); in fact it was eleven days (Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle, pp. 255, 260–1).
42. The truth of this is uncertain. There was a heavy demand for workers for con‑
struction of the new Monowitz camp, and the records imply that the intention all along had been to send the transferred prisoners to work there (Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle, p. 255). However, the record is unclear, and Fritz and Gustav had the impression that they were all slated for execution. Certainly that was the purpose of their selection at Buchenwald—hence the retention of construction workers.
Chapter 12: Auschwitz-Monowitz
1. At this time the camp was officially referred to as the Buna labor camp (or as
“Camp IV” by IG Farben management—see Wagner, IG Auschwitz, p. 96), later as Monowitz concentration camp or Auschwitz III. The later names are used here for clarity.
2. By early September 1942 the Monowitz camp had been completely laid out, but construction hadn’t progressed beyond a small number of barracks (between two and eight, according to sources). The rest of the camp buildings had been delayed in order to expedite construction of the Buna Werke factory. The camp officially opened for reception of prisoners on October 28 (Wagner, IG Auschwitz, pp. 95–7).
3. The IG Farben Buna Werke was named for the brand of synthetic rubber intended to be produced there. Among other applications, rubber was vital in aircraft and vehicle manufacture, e.g., tires and various shock‑absorbing components.
4. Florian Schmaltz in Megargee, USHMM Encyclopedia vol. 1A, pp. 216–7; Gärtner and Kleinmann, Doch der Hund, p. 92. Eventually camp inmates would make up about a third of the Buna Werke’s total workforce, the rest made up of paid workers from Germany or occupied countries (Hayes, Industry, p. 358), many of whom would be drafted labor from enforced schemes such as France’s Service du Travail Obligatoire.
5. Florian Schmaltz in Megargee, USHMM Encyclopedia vol. 1A, p. 216. Figures cited in various sources for this vary enormously, from two thousand down to just six hundred (Wagner, IG Auschwitz, p. 97).
6. Hayes, Industry, pp. 354–8; Florian Schmaltz in Megargee, USHMM Encyclopedia vol. 1A, p. 216; Wagner, IG Auschwitz, pp. 94–6.
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Chapter 13: The End of Gustav Kleinmann, Jew
1. Wachsmann, KL, pp. 49–52; Joseph Robert White in Megargee, USHMM Encyclopedia vol. 1A, pp. 64–6. Esterwegen and the other Emsland camps were shut down in 1936.
2. Lehmann directory name listings, 1891, WLO; Teichova, “Banking in Austria,” p. 4.
3. Wagner, IG Auschwitz, p. 107.
4. The origin of the term—which is mainly associated with Auschwitz but was used in other camps as well—is not known. (See Yisrael Gutman in Gutman and Beren‑
baum, Anatomy, p. 20; Wachsmann, KL, pp. 209–10, 685 n. 117; Wladyslaw Fejkiel quoted in Langbein, People, p. 91.) By the time the concentration camps were liberated in 1944–5, most long‑term prisoners had been turned into Muselmänner, and they became emblematic of the Holocaust’s victims. But they existed in the camps as early as 1939.
5. Hayes, Industry, p. 358.
6. Herzog was a clerk from mid‑1943, and head of the office from January to October 1944 (Herzog, Frankfurt trials statement, Abt 461 Nr 37638/84/15891–2, FTD).
7. Detailed plan and layout of buildings by Irena Strzelecka and Piotr Setkiewicz,
“Bau, Ausbau und Entwicklung des KL Auschwitz” in Długoborski and Piper, Auschwitz 1940–1945, vol. 1, pp. 128–30.
8. Wachsmann, KL, p. 210.
9. Primo Levi, who was a prisoner in Auschwitz III‑Monowitz from February 1944, said of block 7 that “no ordinary Häftling [prisoner] has ever entered” (Levi, Survival, p. 32).
10. Wagner, IG Auschwitz, pp. 117, 121–2; Langbein, People, pp. 150–1.
11. Quoted in Wachsmann, KL, p. 515.
12. Wagner, IG Auschwitz, pp. 121–2.
13. Ibid., p. 117.
14. Freddi Diamant, quoted in Langbein, People, p. 151.
15. Irena Strzelecka and Piotr Setkiewicz, “Bau, Ausbau und Entwicklung des KL
Auschwitz” in Długoborski and Piper, Auschwitz 1940–1945, vol. 1, p. 135.
16. By the end of 1943 Auschwitz had three satellite camps dedicated to coal mining: Fürstengrube, Janinagrube, and Jawischowitz. They ranged from around fifteen to one hundred kilometers distant from the main Auschwitz camp (entries in Megargee, USHMM Encyclopedia, vol. 1A, pp. 221, 239, 253, 255).
17. Wagner, IG Auschwitz, p. 118.
Chapter 14: Resistance and Collaboration: The Death of Fritz Kleinmann 1. Wachsmann, KL, pp. 206–7.
2. Fritz Kleinmann in Gärtner and Kleinmann, Doch der Hund, p. 108.
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3. The following details are described at length by Fritz Kleinmann in Gärtner and Kleinmann, Doch der Hund, pp. 108–12.
4. Langbein, People, p. 142; Irena Strzelecka and Piotr Setkiewicz, “Bau, Ausbau und Entwicklung des KL Auschwitz”
in Długoborski and Piper, Auschwitz 1940–1945, vol. 1, p. 128.
5. Gustav did attend the Monowitz dental station in August 1944, but apparently his teeth were in good shape (dental station records, August 2–15, 1944, ABM).
6. Hayes, Industry, pp. 361–2.
7. Fritz Kleinmann in Gärtner and Kleinmann, Doch der Hund, p. 112; author’s translation.
8. Florian Schmaltz in Megargee, USHMM Encyclopedia vol. 1A, p. 217.
9. Henryk Świebocki, “Die Entstehung und die Entwicklung der Konspiration im Lager” in Długoborski and Piper, Auschwitz 1940–1945, vol. 4, pp. 150–3.
10. Goltman, Six mois, pp. 89–90.
11. Fritz states that he worked as Transportarbeiter, transport worker ( Doch der Hund, p. 113), but doesn’t elucidate; this was quite a broad label and probably denotes fetching and carrying for locksmith technicians within the factory.
12. Hermann Langbein in Gutman and Berenbaum, Anatomy, pp. 490–1; Henryk Świebocki, “Die Entstehung und die Entwicklung der Konspiration im Lager” in Długoborski and Piper, Auschwitz 1940–1945, vol. 4, pp. 153–4.
13. Florian Schmaltz in Megargee, USHMM Encyclopedia vol. 1A, p. 217.
14. Langbein, People, pp. 31, 185, 322, 329–335.
15. Ibid., p. 329.
16. In his memoir and interview, Fritz says only that he was taken to the political department, without specifying whether it was the main department at Auschwitz I or the sub‑department in Monowitz. The involvement of Grabner and the seri‑
ousness of the charge suggests that it was probably the main department. On the other hand, at the end of the interrogation he says that Grabner “went back to Auschwitz with the civilian” ( Doch der Hund, p. 114); but he also writes that Taute and Hofer took him “back to the camp” (ibid.), which again suggests Auschwitz I as the scene of the torture. Overall, the balance of evidence favors the latter. In his 1963 statement for the Frankfurt trials (Abt 461 Nr 37638/83/15663, FTD), Fritz stated that this incident occurred in June 1944; as Grabner left Auschwitz in late 1943, this is probably a transcription error for June 1943.