Commandant of Auschwitz
Page 26
Pohl constantly inspected all the concentration camps and also a large proportion of the labor camps. He saw the deficiencies and tried whenever he could to remedy them. If he discovered somewhere that an officer or a junior officer was at fault, he would deal ruthlessly with him, without regard to his person or position. His inspections were mostly unheralded and very thorough. He would not let himself be taken around, but insisted on seeing everything for himself. Regardless of time, or people, or meals, he rushed from one place to another. He had a prodigious memory. Figures, which he had been told only once, he never forgot. He was always on the lookout for things which he had seen and to which he had objected on previous inspections.
Next to Dachau, Auschwitz received his special attention. He spent a great deal of energy in connection with the construction and development of the camp. Kammler often said to me that Pohl began every building conference in Berlin by first asking how matters were going at Auschwitz. The SS department concerned with raw materials had a voluminous file of demands, memorandums, and angry letters from Pohl regarding Auschwitz. I must have been the only SS officer in the whole SS who possessed such a comprehensive blanket authority for procuring everything that was needed in Auschwitz.
Later on as DI he was; perpetually harrying me about defects that he had found in the concentration camps and labor camps, which he had not been able to clear up, and demanding that the culprits be discovered and the worst of the abuses be rectified.
But so long as Himmler’s basic attitude remained unchanged, any attempts to improve the conditions were hopeless from the start.
Anyone who had distinguished himself by his proficiency could come to Pohl at any time with requests or wishes, and he would give him all the help that he could.
Pohl was very capricious and often went from one extreme to the other. It was inadvisable to contradict him when he was in a bad humor, for this would result in a snub. But when he was in a good humor, even the most disagreeable and unpleasant things could be told him and he would not take them amiss. It was not easy to work with, him in his immediate presence for any length of time, and his adjutants were changed frequently and often with startling suddenness.
Pohl liked to show his position and his power. His uniform was deliberately simple and he wore no decorations, although Himmler forced him to wear the German Cross and the Knight’s Cross to the War Service Cross, with which he was later decorated.
In spite of his age (he was over fifty) he was exceptionally brisk and active, and tremendously tough. To accompany him on a duty journey was not an unmixed blessing.
Pohl’s behavior toward the Reichsführer SS was peculiar. He did everything through Himmler. Every letter and every teletype message was dispatched under Himmler’s name, and yet Pohl only went to him in person when he was summoned.
For Pohl every wish expressed by the Reichsführer SS, and they were not few in number, was a command. I have never known of an occasion when Pohl criticized or even expressed disapproval of an order from Himmler. An order from the Reichsführer SS was something that was settled and fixed, and had to be carried out exactly as it stood. Nor did he like there to be any discussion as to the interpretation or impracticability of these orders, which were often very obscure. This was especially so with regard to Kammler and Glücks, both of whom were very talkative; they were often bluntly reproved in this connection, although in other respects Pohl allowed them to take many liberties. In spite of his commanding personality Pohl was the most willing and obedient executive of all the wishes and plans of the Reichsführer SS, Heinrich Himmler.
APPENDIX 6
Maurer
SS Standartenführer Gerhard Maurer was the chief of department DII in the Economic Administration Head Office
He was a businessman and a veteran member of the Party and the SS. He originally came from Saxony. Before 1933 he held a senior position as accountant in his local SS unit.
In 1934 he took an administrative post in the SS in Munich, and Pohl brought him into the auditing department. His skill as an auditor had already been noticed by Pohl, and he was employed in the newly established Central Administrative Office concerned with the commercial undertakings of the SS, of which Pohl later made him inspector.
Maurer thus gained a knowledge of the concentration camps and took a particular interest in matters connected with the industrial employment of the prisoners. He obtained an insight into the peculiarities of the commandants and commanders of the protective custody camps and their negative attitude toward these industrial schemes. Most of the older commandants and commanders felt that the prisoners employed in the commercial undertakings were too well treated and also that the heads of these undertakings were learning too much from the prisoners about what went on in the camps. They played many tricks on the executives of these industries. They would, for example, suddenly remove skilled men and employ them on outside work, or retain them in the camp, or they would send them prisoners who were quite unfit for work.
Maurer dealt ruthlessly with these schemes by giving Pohl many reports which he found useful. On Maurer’s instigation and in order to avoid these unedifying intrigues, Pohl later made the camp commandants directors of all the commercial undertakings set up in the camp. They received a considerable monthly allowance for this according to the size of the industries, and later they received a share of the profits. As a result, the commandants paid more attention to these industries, and their subordinates were forced to recognize their needs.
It was Maurer, however, who persuaded Pohl to introduce a system of bonus payments. Later, in 1944, Maurer drew up, at Pohl’s request, the regulations for the payment of prisoners, which laid down that every prisoner was to be paid according to the work he had done. These regulations, however, were never carried into effect.
Soon after the incorporation of the Concentration Camp Inspectorate into the Economic Administration Head Office, Maurer became chief of department DH, concerned with the employment of prisoners. Maurer proceeded to organize this office with great thoroughness. He installed an employment officer in each camp, who was responsible to him and was thoroughly instructed in his task of procuring prison labor for the war industries. This officer also had to make a record of every prisoner’s trade or profession and take strict care that each prisoner was employed according to his abilities. Most of the commanders of the protective custody camps, as well as the Rapportführer and labor officers, tried to sabotage the work of the employment officer, because they wanted to continue to have independent control over the prisoners’ employment. At first this caused a lot of friction, but Maurer took severe action whenever any incidents of this kind were brought to his notice.
Maurer was an energetic man and had sharp eyes and ears. If anything was wrong in the camp he would notice it at once and either make the commandant aware of it or report the matter to Pohl.
Pohl had complete confidence in Maurer. When Glücks wanted to keep something unpleasant from Pohl, Maurer would always tell him about it.
After Liebehenschel’s departure, Maurer became Glücks’s deputy. By this appointment, Pohl to all intents and purposes handed the inspectorate over to Maurer. Glücks gradually entrusted all the most important matters to Maurer. He was Inspector in name only.
I had already known Maurer when I was at Dachau and Sachsenhausen, but we got to know each other better during my time as commandant of Auschwitz. We always got on with each other and worked together very well. I was able to bring many things to Pohl’s attention through Maurer, which it was impossible to do through Glücks. We shared the same views on almost all problems concerning the prisoners and the conduct of the camp. Only on the question of selecting the able-bodied Jews from the rest did we hold contrary opinions. Maurer wanted to employ as many Jews as possible, even those who would probably only be able to work for a short time, whereas I wanted only the fittest and strongest to be selected, for reasons which I have often explained. We never agreed on this matter, and altho
ugh the results of Maurer’s attitude became plain enough later on, he refused to grasp their significance.
Maurer had watched the development of Auschwitz from the start, and I had drawn his attention to the deficiencies on every visit he made. He observed them for himself as well. He reported them all to Pohl, who was then inspector of the industrial undertakings, but it had no effect.
Maurer was always in favor of treating the prisoners well. During his factory inspections he often talked with the prisoners about their accommodations and feeding and about the way they were treated. By doing so, however, he often harmed the prisoners more than he helped them, since the Capos were always lurking in the background.
Maurer displayed enormous energy in pursuing his main task of obtaining labor for the armaments industry. He traveled a great deal, inspecting the start of an undertaking in one place, or the progress of one somewhere else, or solving difficulties which arose between the industrial chiefs and the labor company officers and hearing complaints about the prisoners’ work or from the industrial employers about their ill-treatment. There were hundreds of matters with which he had to deal. There was the eternal pressure from the Armaments Ministry and the Todt Organization for more prisoners, and the everlasting cry from Auschwitz about the many too many transports. Maurer had his full measure of work. But it was never too much for him, and in spite of his lively manner he maintained an unruffled composure.
As a result of his continual requests to be employed at the front, and on Kammler’s; instigation, he was given the post of commissary to Kammler’s Special Services Division from January to the middle of April 1945; it afterward became an artillery corps.
Maurer had an understanding for all matters concerning the prisoners, even though he always regarded them from the point of view of their employment as a labor force. He would never appreciate that the selection or retention of too many Jews for employment resulted directly in a deterioration in the general conditions in Auschwitz, followed by a similar deterioration in all the other camps. Yet the truth of this could not be doubted.
APPENDIX 7
Globocnik
SS Gruppenführer Globocnik was head of the SS and police in Lublin
Shortly after the beginning of the Russian campaign, the Reichsführer SS ordered a concentration camp to be set up in Lublin. The Inspector of Concentration Camps, Glücks, took over from Globocnik the land which had been selected for this purpose, together with the beginnings of the camp, and installed Koch (hitherto commandant of Buchenwald) as its commandant. Globocnik then promised to supply Glücks with enormous quantities of blankets and sheets and footwear, and also cooking utensils and surgical instruments and medicines, for use in the concentration camp. Eventually Glücks came to Auschwitz and authorized me to go to Lublin and select the supplies that I needed. I visited Globocnik straight away, accompanied by my administrative officer, Wagner. After much dashing about, we were able to collect a certain amount of supplies that could be of use in Auschwitz. I cannot now remember of what they consisted but they included some surgical apparatus and instruments and also some medicines. At any rate the spoils were miserably small compared with the amount that Globocnik had promised. They were articles which had been requisitioned in the Lublin area and indiscriminately heaped together in a factory building.
It was during this transaction that I got to know Globocnik. He assumed a great air of importance, with his instructions from the Reichsführer SS to set up police strong points in the territories which had been taken over. He worked out fantastic plans for a series of strong points stretching to the Urals. He could see no difficulties in this, and he waved aside all objections. He wanted to destroy every Jew in this area on the spot, except those whom he needed for work on “his” police positions. He proposed to put all their property into a collecting center and utilize it for the SS. He talked about all this in his Viennese dialect in an easygoing way sitting in front of his fire in the evening, as though it were a most innocent adventure. I was rather shocked by Globocnik, who according to Glücks’s account was supposed to be extremely competent and to be held in high regard by the Reichsführer SS.
My first impressions were correct. Globocnik was a pompous busybody, whose object was to put himself in the foreground and to describe his fanciful plans as though they had to a large extent already been put into practice. It was he and only he who could get things done properly, whether it was a question of exterminating the Jews or resettling the Poles or the utilization of sequestered property. He was able to spin the most extraordinary yarns to Himmler. The latter believed him and continued to keep him, although he became unbearable and was attacked from all sides by the SD and the General Governor and the District Governor.
I do not know what led to his final dismissal. He left Lublin and went to Trieste as a senior SS and police officer. I know nothing about his activities there.
The second occasion on which I had anything to do with him was in Lublin in the spring of 1943. There had been a dispute between us over some machines and tools which he had got the local DAW (at that time subordinate to him) to deliver to the DAW at Auschwitz. He had described some ancient junk as being the most up-to-date machinery and had used the same description in his report to Pohl.
Since he had personally given orders for these swindles he did not feel very happy about it, but he dismissed the affair without comment and gave me five really modern and most urgently needed machines for the Auschwitz DAW.
My administrative officer, Möckel, had to settle accounts with his department, which had also advised Pohl that the promised equipment had either not been delivered or had been delivered only in negligible quantities. Promises were made of deliveries on a grand scale, but they came to nothing.
At that time, the chief of the SS Personnel Head Office, SS Obergruppenführer von Herff arrived in Lublin to make the acquaintance of the officers of Globocnik’s department. Globocnik took the opportunity of showing him all his model establishments. He began by getting him to inspect the large quantities of Jewish property collected in the former aircraft factory and “his” Jewish workshops where the most hopeless commodities were turned out, ranging from brushes to doormats. Everything he did was done in a way that can only be described as flashy. The Jews there, who had really organized it all, had effectively deceived Globocnik and his officers. They created as many supervisory positions as possible for themselves and then proceeded to conduct their own businesses. This was confirmed to me, later on, by Globocnik’s staff officer Höfle….
As might be expected, he regarded the Lublin concentration camp as “his” camp. He issued orders and instructions to the commandants which completely contradicted those given by the Concentration Camp Inspectorate or by Pohl. This was the cause of perpetual dissension. Globocnik, however, always managed to get his way with the Reichsführer SS by pointing out to him the special position that Lublin occupied. He hardly bothered about instructions that came from the Reich Security Head Office. He organized “his own” police actions, when it suited him. He carried out executions at his own discretion. He built labor camps for the prisoners just where he liked, without bothering in the least about Pohl or DII, for to him they were always “his” camps and “his” prisoners. In the same way he regarded Sobibor, Belzec, and Treblinka as “his” extermination centers.
Eichmann, who had known Globocnik during the time of the SS’s illegal activities prior to the invasion of Austria, was greatly bothered by him. While I spent my time arguing with Eichmann about slowing down the transports of Jews to Auschwitz, Globocnik was saying that he could not get hold of enough. He wanted to be in the forefront with “his” exterminations and “his” collections of valuables.
As his adviser on exterminations, he had SA Oberführer Oldenburg, from the Führer’s Chancellery, who before the war had devised methods of liquidating mental patients.
Among Globocnik’s extermination centers, I saw Treblinka on the same tour of inspection.
As might have been expected, these guards, who were called police, were unreliable. A company of them was given to me for Auschwitz. After a short time fifteen fled, taking with them all the weapons and ammunition they could lay their hands on, and during the chase that followed they engaged their pursuers with fire, which resulted in the deaths of three junior officers. All of them were recaptured, except three who managed to make their escape. The company was immediately disbanded and distributed among all the concentration camps.
His staff officer, Höfle, came to Oranienburg in 1944 and should have taken over the position of commander of a protective custody camp. In spite of the lack of suitable officers, even Glücks refused him the post. He had been too long under Globocnik’s tuition. I learned from Höfle something about Globocnik and his machinations.
Globocnik wanted to create a large German settlement in “his territory.” With this in mind, he chose the district around Zamosch. He promised the Reichsführer SS that he would move 50,000 new German settlers there within a year, as a model for the large settlements which it was intended to build later on in the far eastern districts. He wanted to collect the necessary cattle and machines required for this purpose in the shortest possible space of time. But the district he had chosen was then occupied by Polish peasants. He therefore began straight away to evacuate them. He was quite indifferent as to where they were to go, but left that for the UWZ or the Reich Security Head Office or the BDS in Cracow to work out. His main concern was to get the area ready to receive the 50,000 new settlers. According to Höfle’s descriptions this resettlement organized by Globocnik must have been catastrophic. Moreover, the German settlers themselves were by no means satisfied. Their hopes were unfulfilled and they worked themselves to death under the unusual conditions, waiting endlessly for Globocnik to give them assistance.