KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps

by Nikolaus Wachsmann

  259. Quote in Gostner, KZ, 112–14. See also Maršálek, Mauthausen, 217.

  260. Broszat, Kommandant, 152–53; Albin, Gesucht, 220–21.

  261. Czech, Kalendarium, 88, 107, 111; Todorov, Facing, 54–55. The Catholic Church later canonized Kolbe; the prisoner he had saved survived the war.

  262. Piper, Briefe, 5, 13 (apparently, Pogonowski hanged himself before the Camp SS could do so; ibid., 6, 55).

  263. Paserman, “Bericht,” 158.

  264. StAMü, StA Nr. 34588/8, LG Munich, Urteil, October 14, 1960, p. 18.

  265. Quotes in AdsD, KE, E. Büge, Bericht, n.d. (1945–46), 99; AS, Häftlingsdatenbank.

  266. Świebocki, Resistance, 203; Loewy, “Mutter”; Gałek and Nowakowski, Episoden.

  267. For this and the previous paragraph, see Kagan, “Mala”; Czech, Kalendarium, 303, 805, 878–79; Kielar, “Edek”; idem., Anus Mundi, 242, 297–98; Świebocki, Resistance, 259–61; DAP, Aussage Steinberg, September 28, 1964, 19448; BoA, testimony of H. Frydman, August 7, 1946 (also for the quote). My account of the escape draws primarily on the 1947 testimony of Raya Kagan, a former Auschwitz prisoner who had had access to SS files in the political office.

  268. Wagner, Mittelbau-Dora, 95.

  269. Langbein, Menschen, 135; Nansen, Day, 500; Świebocki, Resistance, 40; Broad, “Erinnerungen,” 143–44.

  270. Unbekannter Autor, “Einzelheiten,” 179; Vaisman, Auschwitz, 32.

  271. Quotes in Borowski, This Way, 146; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 271. For the most common version of Schillinger’s death, see Friedler et al., Zeugen, 154–57. Other accounts in Lewental, “Gedenkbuch,” 195; Chatwood, “Schillinger.” For the SS response, see APMO, Proces Höss, Hd 6, Bl. 51–62: O. Wolken, Chronik des Lagers Auschwitz II, n.d. (c. spring 1945).

  272. Friedler et al., Zeugen, 271–73 (with a different numbering for the crematoria). See also Müller, Eyewitness, 155–56; Lewental, “Gedenkbuch,” 241.

  273. S. Gradowski, letter, September 6, 1944, in SMAB, Inmitten, 137–39.

  274. Friedler et al., Zeugen, 240–42, 248–51, 258–63, 266–68. See also Lewental, “Gedenkbuch,” 239–40; Gutman, “Aufstand”; Arad, Belzec, 286–364, esp. 299. For the possible link to liquidation of the family camp, see Van Pelt, “Resistance.”

  275. Lewental, “Gedenkbuch,” quote on 229; Świebocki, Resistance, 81–82, 134–35, 237–41.

  276. DAP, Aussage F. Müller, October 5, 1964, 20543; Lewental, “Gedenkbuch,” 228, 238–41; Friedler et al., Zeugen, 273–74, 278.

  277. Müller, Eyewitness, quote on 157; Friedler et al., Zeugen, 272–75.

  278. For this and the previous paragraph, see Friedler et al., Zeugen, 275–81, quote on 292; Fulbrook, Small Town, quote on 316; Lewental, “Gedenkbuch,” 241–43; Gutman, “Aufstand,” 216–19.

  279. Friedler et al., Zeugen, 274–79; BArchB (ehem. BDC), SSO Pohl, Oswald, 30.6.1892, Pohl to Himmler, April 5, 1944; StB Nr. 26/44, October 12, 1944, in Frei et al., Kommandanturbefehle, 499. The escapes from Treblinka and Sobibor were also aided by better planning and large numbers of participants. In total, up to 400 prisoners evaded the SS and police pursuit, and 120 to 130 survived until the end of the war; Arad, Belzec, 363–64.

  280. Pressac and Van Pelt, “Machinery,” 234; Czech, Kalendarium, 891–921; Friedler et al., Zeugen, 285; Adler, Theresienstadt, 185–95; Piper, Zahl, 192; Kárný, “Herbsttransporte.”

  281. S. Gradowski, letter, September 6, 1944, in SMAB, Inmitten, quote on 138; Friedler et al., Zeugen, 376.

  282. Lewental, “Gedenkbuch,” 247–49.

  283. Figures in Friedler et al., Zeugen, 299, 307.

  11. Death or Freedom

      1. For this and the previous two paragraphs, see Nansen, Day, 553–68, quotes on 562–63; Buergenthal, Lucky Child, 64–105; Kubica, “Children,” 282; Strzelecki, “Liquidation,” 31.

      2. Figures in Knop and Schmidt, “Sachsenhausen,” 23.

      3. Blatman, Death, 11.

      4. IfZ, Burger to Loerner, August 15, 1944, ND: NO-399; ibid., Fa 183, Bl. 6–7, n.d.; Neander, Mittelbau, 86–87.

      5. In Mauthausen, over twenty thousand new inmates were registered between January and April 1945, in addition to existing prisoners from other, abandoned KL; Fabréguet, Mauthausen, 126; idem, “Entwicklung,” 207; OdT, vol. 4, 314.

      6. Keller, Volksgemeinschaft.

      7. Zámečník, “Aufzeichnungen,” 224; Nansen, Day, 482.

      8. Kautsky, Teufel, 182–83; Rózsa, “Solange,” 137, 204; Kupfer-Koberwitz, Tagebücher, 403–404.

      9. Bessel, Germany, 31–34, 46–47, 130–31; Kershaw, End, 129–61.

    10. Marszałek, Majdanek, quote on 240; Mess, “Sonnenschein,” 64, 66, 76; Rózsa, “Solange,” 222; Kielar, Anus Mundi, 347.

    11. Nansen, Day, 561–68, quote on 563; Levi, Periodic Table, 140; Gross, Fünf Minuten, 118; Kupfer-Koberwitz, Tagebücher, 431, 442–43; Overesch, “Ernst Thapes,” 641.

    12. This is assuming that some 750,000 prisoners went through the KL system in 1945. Other historians have estimated a death rate of between one-third and half of the prisoner population; Orth, System, 335, 349; Neander, “Vernichtung,” 54; Bauer, “Death Marches,” 2–3.

    13. A similar estimate (c. 450,000 survivors) was put forward by the French historian Joseph Billig; Spoerer and Fleischhacker, “Forced Laborers,” 193. For a far too high estimate (700,000 or more survivors), see Gellately, Backing, 219.

    14. Morsch and Ley, Sachsenhausen, 142; Morsch, “Einleitung,” 8.

    15. Quotes in Buergenthal, Child, 112, 211. On luck, see also P. Levi, “Preface,” 1965, in Belpoliti, Levi, 12–16; Bettelheim, Surviving, 101.

    16. Strzelecki, “Liquidation,” 19–20, 41–48; Czech, Kalendarium, 860, 989; Pressac and Van Pelt, “Machinery,” 239.

    17. In addition to individual countries honoring the date, the UN General Assembly has designated January 27 the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust; www.un.org/en/holocaustremembrance.

    18. Müller, Weltkrieg, 314–18; Kershaw, End, 61.

    19. OdT, vol. 7, 146–47, 156–84.

    20. Steegmann, Konzentrationslager, 100–145, 162–68; OdT, vol. 6, 48–190; Müller, Weltkrieg, 318–21. The evacuation of the satellite camps on the left bank of the Rhine appears to have continued until October 1944.

    21. Strebel, Ravensbrück, quote on 171; Steegmann, Konzentrationslager, 100, 105, 164; OdT, vol. 6, 41; Neander, Mittelbau, 139–40.

    22. Evans, Third Reich at War, 618–24; Kershaw, End, 92.

    23. OdT, vol. 7, 66–68, 86–87, 91, 95, 97; ibid., vol. 8, 109–13; Marszałek, Majdanek, 239–44.

    24. OdT, vol. 8, 272–80, 292–98.

    25. OdT, vol. 8, 51–54, 66–87; Megargee, Encyclopedia, vol. 1/B, 1230–32; Harshav, Last Days, 699. Some prisoners of the Riga complex were taken to Libau on the west coast of Latvia, where a few remained until February 1945; OdT, vol. 8, 81.

    26. Dieckmann, Besatzungspolitik, vol. 2, 1299–1321, quote on 1320; Blatman, Death, 60–61; Friedländer, Jahre, 614; OdT, vol. 8, 202, 210–31.

    27. OdT, vol. 8, 135, 140–42, 149–77; Gruchmann, Krieg, 205–10. Quotes in Harshav, Last Days, 667, 702, 703; LULVR, interview No. 422, July 28, 1946, p. 10, Gdansk in the original.

    28. YVA, 033/8, “Was is forgekom in di lagern fon estonia,” December 1944, quote on 5 (translation by Kim Wünschmann); BArchL, B 162/5116, Bl. 1716–21: Aussage Benjamin A., July 5, 1961; ibid., Bl. 1835–42: Vernehmung W. Werle, June 5, 1962; ibid., Nr. 5120, Bl. 2234–52: Vernehmungsniederschrift Nissan A., July 15, 1965; ibid., Bl. 2256–62: Vernehmungsniederschrift Benjamin A., September 21, 1965; WL, P.III.h. No. 1012, B. Aronovitz, “Die grausame ‘Liquidierung’ des Klooga-Camps,” September 1949; OdT, vol. 8, 135, 164; Gruchmann, Krieg, 210; Angrick and Klein, “End
lösung,” 429.

    29. OdT, vol. 8, 169.

    30. For similar motives during later KL evacuations, see Blatman, Death, 179, 425–27.

    31. Dieckmann, Besatzungspolitik, 1297–98, quote on 1286; OdT, vol. 8, 48–51, 68, 78, 80–81, 85, 215–19, 227, 267–68.

    32. OdT, vol. 8, 27–28, 51–52, 74, 77–78, 81–85; WL, P.III.h. No. 286, letter, H. Voosen, October 1945; Maršálek, Mauthausen, 174. At times, Krebsbach appears to have acted as commandant of Riga; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 53.

    33. OdT, vol. 8, 141, 149, 154, 160–61.

    34. For one example, see OdT, vol. 8, 54.

    35. OdT, vol. 8, 140, 151, 168, 172–73, 180; YVA, 033/8, “Was is forgekom in di lagern fon estonia,” December 1944, p. 4; BArchL, B 162/5120, Bl. 2234–52: Vernehmungsniederschrift Nissan A., July 15, 1965, Bl. 2241–42.

    36. Paserman, “Bericht,” quote on 160; OdT, vol. 8, 112–13, 124; Mix, “Räumung,” 272–73; Blatman, Death, 64; DaA, 6589/I, statement A. Kramer, November 1, 1945, p. 115.

    37. Historians have tended to describe the early evacuations as orderly and a far cry from the chaotic later death marches; Neander, Mittelbau, 85–88; OdT, vol. 1, 298. For postwar research on the death marches, see Winter and Greiser, “Untersuchungen.”

    38. Wenck, Menschenhandel, 345–46; OdT, vol. 7, 91; ibid., vol. 8, 273; Marszałek, Majdanek, 243; Neander, “Vernichtung,” 46–48, 59. For the destruction of evidence, see Hoffmann, “Aktion 1005”; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 206–207.

    39. For this and other factors, see also Blatman, Death, 72.

    40. Bericht I. Rotschild, January 25, 1946, in Tych et al., Kinder, 219–24; OdT, vol. 8, 79–81.

    41. OdT, vol. 6, 493, 505, 513; ibid., vol. 8, 53, 202; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 208–14. Stutthof also received transports of Jewish prisoners from other sites of Nazi detention in 1944.

    42. Bericht I. Rotschild, January 25, 1946, in Tych et al., Kinder, quote on 223–24; OdT, vol. 6, 485, 505, 513; ibid., vol. 8, 53; Rolnikaite, Ich, 258; Orth, System, 229–30; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 212, 218; Megargee, Encyclopedia, vol. I/B, 1425.

    43. Hördler, “Ordnung,” 214, 222, 230, 242, 245. There is much to learn from Hördler’s important study, though I am not persuaded by the argument that the Stutthof killings were unaffected by the impending evacuations. Preparations for the evacuation of Stutthof were being made from autumn 1944 (Orth, System, 295–96; OdT, vol. 6, 514) and prisoner killings in this period must have been part of this process, just like they were in other KL under threat of occupation.

    44. For this and the previous paragraph, see Hördler, “Ordnung,” 133, 214–17, 224, 231, 235, 241, quote on 223–24. See also Bericht I. Rotschild, January 25, 1946, in Tych et al., Kinder, 224; Orski, “Vernichtung”; OdT, vol. 6, 501–502, 506; Rolnikaite, Ich, 260–66.

    45. Czech, Kalendarium, 923–24; Kielar, Anus Mundi, 352.

    46. Gilbert, Auschwitz, 324–26; “Germans Plan Mass Execution,” The Times, October 11, 1944, p. 4; DAP, Aussage S. Kłodziński, May 22, 1964, 8470; Broad, “Erinnerungen,” 183; Dirks, “Verbrechen,” 171–72.

    47. Friedler et al., Zeugen, 285; Czech, Kalendarium, 921; Hoffmann, “Aktion 1005,” 293–94. Chelmno had briefly resumed the mass extermination of Jews in summer 1944; Kershaw, End, 123.

    48. Quote in Hördler, “Ordnung,” 410.

    49. Nyiszli, Auschwitz, 144.

    50. Most historians accept the existence of a Himmler “stop” order, at least for Birkenau; Orth, System, 259, 274–75; Gerlach and Aly, Kapitel, 401; Pressac and Van Pelt, “Machinery,” 239.

    51. APMO, Dpr-ZO, 29/2, LG Frankfurt, Urteil, September 16, 1966, p. 60.

    52. Czech, Kalendarium, 941.

    53. Friedländer, Jahre, 657; OdT, vol. 7, 68.

    54. For the Mauthausen plans, see Perz and Freund, “Auschwitz”; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 381–85.

    55. Czech, Kalendarium, 860, 921–22, 929, 932, 948; IfZ, Fa 183, Bl. 6–7, n.d.

    56. Strzelecki, “Liquidation,” 22–23; OdT, vol. 6, 493.

    57. Gutterman, Bridge, quote on 146; Sprenger, Groß-Rosen, 224–26, 286–92; OdT, vol. 6, 202–17; Rudorff, Frauen, 87–101; Orth, System, 279–80; Konieczny, “Groß-Rosen,” 320.

    58. Bessel, 1945, esp. 23–28, 35–36; Kershaw, End, 167, 175; Evans, Third Reich at War, 681–82, 711–12.

    59. IfZ, Fa 183, Bl. 6–7, n.d.

    60. Blatman, Death, 52–57; Orth, System, 272–73; Neander, Mittelbau, 89–96.

    61. Orth, System, 276; IfZ, F 13/8, Bl. 468–71: R. Höss, “Richard Baer,” November 1946.

    62. Orth, System, 273–74; Kolb, Bergen-Belsen, 305–306; Greiser, Todesmärsche, 39–42; Neander, “Vernichtung,” 50.

    63. Blatman, Death, 81. For a similar approach by the German prison authorities in 1944–45, see Wachsmann, Prisons, 324.

    64. Kershaw, End, 176, 229.

    65. Czech, Kalendarium, quotes on 967; Levi, If, 161; Friedler et al., Zeugen, 299; Strzelecki, “Liquidation,” 27; Müller, Eyewitness, 166.

    66. Strzelecki, “Liquidation,” 27, 40.

    67. Strzelecki, “Liquidation,” 27–28, 31–33, 36–37.

    68. OdT, vol. 6, 217–18, 223–473; Sprenger, Groß-Rosen, 292–301; Bessel, 1945, 72–76.

    69. Figures in OdT, vol. 6, 531–792.

    70. OdT, vol. 6, 514–20, 607–609, 611–16, 670–72, 674–76, 687–89, 703–706, 737–39, 772–74; Orth, System, 282–87, 332–33; Bericht I. Rotschild, January 25, 1946, in Tych et al., Kinder, 224.

    71. An estimated twenty thousand prisoners were moved from the Sachsenhausen complex to other KL; Blatman, Death, 163–64.

    72. Neander, “Vernichtung,” 46; idem, Mittelbau, 87, 138; Blatman, Death, 62, 80, 83, 103.

    73. Blatman, Death, 56, 99–103, 114–15; OdT, vol. 6, 284, 302, 733–35.

    74. Weigelt, “‘Komm,’” quote on 184. See also Knop and Schmidt, “Sachsenhausen,” 27; OdT, vol. 3, 224–29; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 397–99; BStU, MfS HA IX/11, RHE 15/71, vol. 6, Bl. 97–99: Zeugenaussage Fritz M., June 18, 1964; ibid., RHE 15/71, Bd. 3, Bl. 113–16: H. Simon, Bericht über Lieberose, March 3, 1950; USHMM, RG-06.025*26, File 1558, Bl. 157–75, interrogation of G. Sorge, December 19, 1946, Bl. 171–72.

    75. Orth, System, quote on 284; OdT, vol. 6, 516. Other examples in ibid., 267, 299, 339.

    76. OdT, vol. 6, passim.

    77. Broad, “Erinnerungen,” 195.

    78. Levi, If, 171.

    79. Strzelecki, “Liquidation,” 48. Another five hundred prisoners survived in Auschwitz satellite camps, and several hundred more in Gross-Rosen satellite camps. In addition, thousands of prisoners escaped from death marches.

    80. APMO, Proces Höss, Hd 6, Bl. 129–312: Vernehmung O. Wolken, April 17–20, 1945, quote on 310; Strzelecki, “Liquidation,” 45–47; Czech, Kalendarium, 994 (my thanks to Dan Stone for this reference); Adler et al., Auschwitz, 128; Levi, If, 162–79.

    81. Megargee, Encyclopedia, vol. 1/A, 240–41; OdT, vol. 5, 224.

    82. Estimates in Strzelecki, “Liquidation,” 27, 40; Orth, System, 286.

    83. Neander, Mittelbau, 128, 136; Steinke, Züge, 62; Bessel, 1945, 77.

    84. OdT, vol. 5, 440–41; Megargee, Encyclopedia, vol. 1/A, 261–62; WL, P.III.h. No. 416, A. Lehmann, “Die Evakuations-Transporte,” n.d. (1946?).

    85. LULVR, interview No. 139, January 16, 1946.

    86. LBIJMB, MM 32, P. Heller, “Tagebuchblätter aus dem Konzentrationslager,” October 1945, p. 7; BoA, interview with Dr. L. Frim, September 25, 1946.

    87. Blatman, Death, 87, 116, 431. See also NARA, M-1204, reel 4, Bl. 2373–97: examination of M. Pinkas, August 19–20, 1946, Bl. 2385; Vaisman, Auschwitz, 61; Laqueur, Berge
n-Belsen, 115.

    88. Broszat, Kommandant, 219.

    89. Blatman, Death, 12, 432; Neander, Mittelbau, 140. When general conditions were better and prisoners healthier, a large proportion survived even lengthier death marches; OdT, vol. 6, 223–25.

    90. APMO, Oswiadczenia, vol. 89, Bl. 131–35: testimony J. Wygas, July 10, 1978; Orth, System, 276–77, 285.

    91. BArchL, B 162/20519, Bl. 186–95: Aussage Moszek G., February 25, 1947; Blatman, Death, 85–86; Neander, Mittelbau, 141–42.

    92. IfZ, F 13/8, Bl. 468–71: R. Höss, “Richard Baer,” November 1946; Neander, Mittelbau, 137–38; Blatman, Death, 103; Bessel, 1945, 88–89.

    93. Blatman, Death, 96, 370–72, 378–80, 418, quote on 193. See also Neander, “Vernichtung,” 50; Greiser, Todesmärsche, 97, 108; OdT, vol. 6, 253.

    94. Orth, System, 278–79; Blatman, Death, 76–79, 92; Kershaw, End, 114–16, 181–82. Quote in Stuttgart SD report, November 6, 1944, in Noakes, Nazism, vol. 4, 652. The killing of frail prisoners was also intended as a warning to others not to fall behind.

    95. Blatman, Death, 117–25; Henkys, “Todesmarsch.”

    96. Quotes in testimony O. Pohl, June 7, 1946, in NCA, supplement B, 1595; Broszat, Kommandant, 211. See also ibid., 217; StANü, Erklärung R. Höß, March 14, 1946, p. 6, ND: NO-1210; IfZ, ZS-1590, interrogation of G. Witt, November 19, 1946, p. 20. The full itinerary is unknown. According to Höss, it included Neuengamme, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Dachau, and Flossenbürg. Pohl said that he also went to Mauthausen, Sachsenhausen, and Ravensbrück (testimony above, dated June 7, 1946, and StANü, testimony of O. Pohl, June 13, 1946, p. 19, ND: NO-4728).

    97. Rost, Goethe, 234; OdT, vol. 3, 347 (figure for deaths among men); Strebel, Ravensbrück, 523; KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau, Gedenkbuch, 11; Buggeln, Arbeit, 210–13; Orth, System, 314; NARA, M-1174, roll 3, Bl. 1441–65: examination E. Mahl, December 6, 1945, Bl. 1461.

    98. StANü, Erklärung R. Höß, March 14, 1946, p. 6, ND: NO-1210; ibid., testimony of Oswald Pohl, June 13, 1946, p. 18–20, ND: NO-4728; Orth, System, 303–304; Erpel, Vernichtung, 73; NAL, WO 253/163, Trial of War Criminals, Curiohaus, April 2, 1946, p. 55–56.