liberation of auschwitz testimony
For this reason, everyone continued to make use of the primitive latrines located between the blocks. Her parents had been killed, and she didn’t have anyone or anywhere to return to. Nevertheless, they signed me up immediately as a nurse. The truck stopped frequently, since there were bottlenecks of Soviet military transports on the road, and, coming in the opposite direction, crowds of people returning from the camps in the West. We traveled to Ooewięcim in a truck, probably a Soviet army truck. The published manuscripts and documents relate to the specific process of extermination at Birkenau, and provide detailed descriptions of the crematoria and gas chambers.). Of course we spoke with them. The metal furnace parts were taken after dismantling to the railroad platform and loaded onto cars. Bedpan!” The patients were suffering from Durchfall, or starvation diarrhea. Abraham Steinhardt testified in a deposition in May 1945 on his work in the labor detail assigned to demolish buildings (Abbruchkommando): “At the end of 1944, in connection with the approach to the camp of Russian units, the dismantling of the crematorium began. Among them were some who already worked in the hospital there, and were returning from short visits to their families. If I had to die, however, I wanted to do it as a free man. I took these instructions very much to heart. On January 21 Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna sparked controversy with the claim Auschwitz was liberated by Ukrainians — a statement that … The SS men were going around trying to talk women into joining the transport. The camp was liberated by American troops in May 1945 and Premysl worked with the Americans as an interpreter. I helped her up. Thus it was theoretically possible to cremate about 12,000 corpses in twenty four hours or 4,380,000 a year. In essence, well-nourished corpses were burned with emaciated ones in order to determine the most efficient combination. THEY EXPECTED THE WORST - NOT THE UNTHINKABLE. I fell asleep the next night, because I was completely exhausted. They don’t even know how to give injections…! Any interference in the integrity of the images – including cropping or graphic processing – is prohibited. And so we found ourselves at the tail end of the column. All night, from various corners of the room, I heard calls: “Schwester! When she fell for the final time, and I no longer had the strength to lift her up, I called for help, and somebody’s hand took hold of me and pulled me forward. You could say that there were pyramids on the grounds of the camp. Supposedly, they were being shipped to Gross-Rosen [concentration camp]... We did this and similar jobs until January 18, 1945. I begged her to gather up her strength, to hold out until dawn, because the sun would come up in the morning and that would make things easier. All my strength was gone. In the morning, along with other people brought to work in Ooewięcim on February 24, I was introduced to the head physician of the PRC hospital in Ooewięcim, Dr. Józef Bellert. The Italian whom I mentioned above, Aldo Ragazzi, gave me a personal invitation, as did his two Yugoslavian colleagues. 24, the prisoners had better conditions. Remember.org - The Holocaust History - A People's and Survivors' History. In this effort, they had the assistance of the firm of Topf and Sons, who had built the crematoria. 95AD, remember.org. We reached the place late in the evening. But it soon evidenced crumbling; and the extermination process, never very effective, began to disintegrate. Eva Votavová: Jewish July 1942: Otto Pressburger: Jewish From Trnava. 1. She used up a good deal of energy in her lamentation. Survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp gathered Monday for commemorations marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the camp, using the testimony of survivors to … I walked and walked until I came to a village – I did not even notice that I was going back towards Pszczyna. Nobody helped me. From there he was sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, where he was forced into slave labour and subjected to medical experimentation. This online exhibit explores the themes of liberation, ranging from the joys of freedom to the perils people faced in the aftermath, whether they were refugees in a strange land or felt like strangers in their own countries. The Soviet soldiers attempted to help the survivors and were shocked at the scale of Nazi crimes. The whole complex had forty-six retorts, each with the capacity for three to five persons. But the German murderers with medical degrees were only keen on a particular kind of children. These were open holes. Then someone ahead of me fell over. In a later period, this mortality diminished considerably, until in the end there were hardly any deaths at all. All Rights Reserved. No one carried corpses out of the block and no one cleaned up the filth. We wrote down the things they told us. On 27 January 1945, Auschwitz concentration camp—a Nazi concentration camp where more than a million people were murdered—was liberated by the Red Army during the Vistula–Oder Offensive. Podcast: Surviving Auschwitz. Crematorium II [III] was still operating at this time, burning corpses supplied from the camp. Three to four bodies were burned at a time, and different kinds of coke were used, then the results were recorded: Afterwards, all corpses were divided into the above-mentioned categories, the criterion being the amount of coke required to reduce them to ashes. Early in the morning, orderlies carried these corpses out of the block. She calmed down, and went on for a while with a regular gait, and then she fell again. They were skeletons clad in skin, with vacant gazes. I said: “Give me something to drink!” The woman asked, “What do you want to drink? Source: Scenario of the documentary film Die Befreiung von Auschwitz, by Irmgard von zur Mühlen (Chronos-Film GmbH, West Germany), commissioned in 1986 by the HolocaustMemorial Council of the USA. The toilets, however, continued to be closed, probably because they were damaged. Then they took me to the hospital for treatment... ". While the corpses burned, the stokers stripped the waiting bodies. I could see that he was moved. I did not personally possess adequate preparation for that work, since all I had done before the war was to serve as a hygienist at a Scouts’ unit run by Olga Małkowska in Sromowce Wyżne (Dworek Cisowy). There were no longer any shortages of medicine. They said that the whole camp was mined and that they were going to blow it up after they left. The prisoners required treatment and food, but there was a lack of willing hands to look after them. What the liberators found in these camps astounded them. In the final minutes before the column started out, they were looking for me in the blocks. I’ll show you how to do it, nurse!” He hurried over to the patient and pulled back her blanket. We went to work in the hospital without delay. The PRC Camp Hospital in Ooewięcim was independent, but cooperated closely with the Soviet army field hospital for former prisoners that was operating at the same time. The process moved too slowly; the stench contaminated the surrounding countryside at night; and the red sky over Auschwitz could be seen for miles.[11]. 23–26, 29, 40. Liberation of Buchenwald by Harry J. Herder, Jr. The accounts presented in 'Voices of Memory' are the testimony of particular people known to us by name, which is all the more reason to remember that the tragedy of Auschwitz is, at one and the same time, the tragedy of the more than one million victims, and also the tragedy of each individual person. As far as I know, some prisoners exchanged sharp words or even blows. After the departure of the last evacuation transport, there were about 2,000 patients left in the women’s camp hospital, and a mere handful of moreor- less healthy prisoners to care for them. Excerpt from Elizer Eisenschmidt’s account of his escape and the way the Tender family of Radostowice near Pszczyna helped him: "I walked towards the artillery fire, but that was not a good decision. If I get rid of it, I’ll starve to death”. I woke up freezing cold. I was active in the Home Army at the time and worked with other people to prepare parcels for Polish soldiers held captive in the depths of Germany. The use of the images for commercial purposes requires the Museum’s approval and information about the publication. From the testimony of Filip Muller, an Auschwitz survivor, Connilyn Feig reports the following account in “Hitler’s Death Camps”: Filip Muller, a young Slovakian, arrived early in Auschwitz _ April 1942 _ and survived! He did so, however, because of his forced work assignment as a stoker in the Auschwitz crematorium and then as a jack-of- all-trades in the Birkenau extermination plant squad, the … You haven’t got the strength to carry anything”. We only managed to take the chimneys and roof apart. At the most fifty-four bodies could be cremated in one hour. The women wept, and – this cannot be concealed – the men wept as well. Auschwitz-Birkenau has become the symbol of the Holocaust and of willful radical evil in our time. CTRL + SPACE for auto-complete. I sat down, and she brought me some coffee and even a hunk of bread. Liberation from genocide takes many forms. I’ll drink this and be on my way”. I even talked one of my fellow prisoners, who was in danger, into leaving the camp immediately. In Block No. January 27, 1945. Account by former prisoner Dr. Irena Konieczna, a doctor in the camp hospital, on the last days of Auschwitz and liberation: The final evacuation on foot of women from Birkenau began on January 18, 1945. Request deathcamp.02, Gricksch.rpt, and jahrling.may43), but, as Feig tells us, the SS eventually had to employ large pyres and pits to dispose of the mounting pile of corpses: As early as June 13, 1943, all was not well with the new installation. She was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp, Poland in … The prisoners were found by Soviet forces when they liberated Auschwitz on January 27, 1945. In August the total cremation reached a peak one day of 24,000, but still a bottleneck occurred. This week, we commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, one of Nazi Germany's largest concentration and extermination camps. (Ed.). When the Soviet soldiers realized what our situation was like, they supplied us with food of the highest quality (excellent army bread baked in pans, melba toast, and natural fats). ... 1995, because today is my 50th anniversary of my liberation from Auschwitz. Someone told me that men prisoners had carried a certain amount of food, or rather delivered it on carts, to Birkenau from the storehouses in the Main Camp. Schieber! At first, we carried out demolition work in Crematorium I [II], and went back to Crematorium II [III] for the night. Liberation is often imagined as a time of celebration. Russia releases 70-year-old classified testimony of Red Army soldiers who liberated Auschwitz Documents released by Russia after Polish FMO claims Ukrainians were first soldiers to … Debate the Holocaust? I remember how the SS men from the infirmary were urging me at the last moment to go with them in the transport. But the well-constructed crematoria fell far behind at a number of camps, and especially at Auschwitz in 1944. Eleven women died during the first night shift in that room. I replied dryly, “What does it matter to you who I am? However, these were brief conversations, because these people who remained alive were totally devoid of strength, and it was hard for them to say much about their time in the camp. When we talked with these people and explained to them who we were and why we had come here, they trusted us a bit more. Among the 2,819 liberated Auschwitz inmates, there were 180 children. Among the Soviet personnel, I remember Major Doctor Polakov and Dr. Zhilinska... Major Dr. Polakov came to the buildings from time to time. She was a Jewish girl from the vicinity of Radom. They managed to survive because they were wanted for medical research, instead of mice and rabbits. There was no one to help me. I picked her up. Life stopped mattering to me. The Soviet field hospitals were changed. On several occasions, special missions from abroad took ex-prisoners with them.". I also received instructions as to my most important duties. Tuesday 27 January is the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. That was the first time I had seen him. The temperature was below freezing. Their words are our heritage. I believe that not even the commanders of our army had any idea of the dimensions of the crime committed in this largest of camps. Among those soldiers were artists who began to capture the unimaginable scenes they encountered, using their talents to create representations of the Final Solution and to process the shocking reality of the Nazi camps. Accessed 28 Feb. 2018. Many women asked me: should they go with the transport or stay there? I had lost so much strength, I was all sweaty from the effort, but I was past the point where I could have left her. Their use must not tarnish the good reputation of the victims of KL Auschwitz. They lay in multi-tiered camp bunks, covered in blankets of a very good sort that came from the so-called “Kanada”, the camp storehouses. The rooms were illuminated with electric lighting. Dov Paisikovic, former prisoner of Sonderkommando, stated in 1964: “The SS ordered the dismantling of the crematoria in November 1944. It was such a solid structure that it was impossible to tear it down with our bare hands alone. Camp authorities needed an economic and fast method of corpse disposal, so they again dug six huge pits beside Crematorium Five and reopened old pits in the wood. Thus, late in 1944, pit burning became the chief method of corpse disposal. … Eventually the ovens seemed to fall apart. There were no more SS guard posts to be seen, only individual SS men who came into the grounds of the camp. More than 15,000 died during the death marches from Auschwitz. Of the hundreds of testimonies he heard from survivors of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, retired German prosecutor Gerhard Wiese says the one that touched him most was of a Jewish father who had tried but failed to save his twins from the gas chamber. In the difficult nutritional conditions, the only food available for the patients was grated potato soup, which was administered to them almost like medicine, one tablespoon per person, three times a day. No one obeyed anyone, or showed any respect to the previous prisoner functionaries. In the end, I forbade her to talk or moan. I’ve got bread in there. Write CSS OR LESS and hit save. I never made use of these invitations, and did not remain in touch with them... At first, the mortality among the prisoners... was horrific. Although most of the prisoners had been forced onto a death march, about 7,000 had been left behind. I went up to a house where a woman was standing in the doorway. 52 of them were under eight years of age. Out of fear of being rearrested, I feigned indifference and said, “Do you really want to know? They traveled by truck. His memoir, ‘Last Stop Auschwitz’ is the only survivor testimony written in Auschwitz. They placed dynamite charges in these holes. In 1945, soon after the liberation of Auschwitz, Soviet authorities in control of the Kattowitz (Katowice) camp in Poland asked Primo Levi and his fellow captive Leonardo De Benedetti to compile a detailed report on the sanitary conditions they witnessed in Auschwitz. One of the prisoners, a stranger, oriented herself in the situation, grabbed me by the arm, and pulled me along with her. From an account by Polish Red Cross volunteer Maria Rogoż, registered nurse, who lived in Krakow after the war: "I had been staying in Krakow since 1939 as a refugee from Volhynia, living at the Home for Expelled Persons and Refugees run by a social welfare organization, probably the M[ain] W[elfare] C[ouncil]17. Ex-prisoner physicians also worked with us. They sent all of us to the camp, and then they blew it all sky high...”. Vasily Gromadsky, a Russian officer with the 60th Army liberating Auschwitz recalls what happened. As orderlies, they washed the floors, brought water, lighted the stoves, and carried out the corpses. In 1941 she entered the Lodz ghetto, Poland. “Get rid of that, it’ll be lighter”, I urged her. The severe physical exhaustion of the former prisoners limited the possibilities for giving them injections. During my time in Ooewięcim, I worked in Blocks 12, 13, 22, and 24 in turn. Liberating Auschwitz was not in their orders, but when a group of scouts stumbled into Birkenau on January 27, 1945, they knew they had found something terrible. We are building this Liberators’ section in the Cybrary, and … Ex-prisoners were a great help to us in maintaining cleanliness. They sent us to lodgings in one of the buildings on the grounds of the former Main Camp. The Holocaust History – A People's and Survivor History – Remember.org, Holocaust Picture Book – The Story of Granny Girl as a Child, Anne Frank: The Biography | 1998 Holocaust Book, Holocaust history and stories from Holocaust Photos, Survivors, Liberators, Books and Art, Witnesses to the Holocaust – Liberators, Resistance, Nazis, and Rescuers, The following is a series of concentration camp photos taken by Josh C, Joseph Weismann – Remembering with After the Roundup, After the Roundup by Joseph Weismann – Part 1 of Chapter 3, Liberation of Auschwitz 75 years later – a poem, Forever Alert German Child Survivors in Action Before 1945 and Beyond by Philipp Sonntag, Holocaust Curriculum for Middle School and High School 7-12 (Part 2). He moved to London in 1947. They had been trained for combat, and most of them had barely even heard of these camps. (TWC, V:624) (Between 1945 and 1962 Polish officials found five manuscripts written by Sonderkommando members before their deaths. Despite open tubercular lesions, one of the Yugoslavians performed all sorts of duties with exceptional zeal. They were skeletons clad in skin, with vacant gazes. All of this was the most moving and most terrible thing that I saw and filmed during the war. We prepared the building for demolition by making holes in its walls...”. It is extremely important for Liberators and any other witnesses to the atrocities of the Holocaust to document their testimonies. The prisoners rushed joyously towards them. “No. It was a long ride in difficult conditions. Between 1941 and 1945, an estimated 1.1 million people were murdered there, mostly European Jews but also prisoners of war, gay people, and Roma. Crematorium Four failed completely after a short time and Crematoria Five had to be shut down repeatedly. During World War II, for prisoners and Allied troops alike, liberation from the death camps of the Holocaust was a shock to the senses – at once a … To keep the pits burning, the stokers poured oil, alcohol, and large quantities of boiling human fat over the bodies. Connilyn Feig provides an overview of the operation of the crematoria (Request auschwitz.01), and describes the process by which the stoking gangs sorted bodies into combustibility categories as the result of earlier experiments by the SS staff to reduce fuel consumption. She was a tiny girl, totally exhausted and as completely alone as I was. In each block, there were one or two (seldom three) PRC nurses, and several Soviet nurses. The burning in a retort lasted about half an hour. Statement by Alexander Vorontsov of Moscow, camera operator in the Soviet military film crew that recorded the liberation of Auschwitz: "A ghastly sight arose before our eyes: a vast number of barracks (in Birkenau)... People lay in bunks inside many of them. They were in two-person rooms on the second floor... During the last two–three months before I left Ooewięcim, the conditions for the ex-prisoner patients improved radically. Among other things, he told me: “Who do they send here to work? When the Soviet Red Army rolled into the camp, only about 7,000 prisoners remained. A thick, unpleasant odor prevailed in the rooms. The staff built a new modern chimney in the summer of 1942. In general, special transports were organized for the discharged. I immediately went on duty in a room with eighty women in it. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, listen to the testimonies of 70 Holocaust survivors, drawn from the Visual History Archive at USC Shoah Foundation, as they recall their personal experiences in the Nazi extermination camp. Several graves are still full of ash... A vast amount of ash from hundreds of thousands of Jews, Russians, and Poles is scattered and plowed into the grounds of the crematoria...”. From the testimony of Filip Muller, an Auschwitz survivor, Connilyn Feig reports the following account in “Hitler’s Death Camps”: Filip Muller, a young Slovakian, arrived early in Auschwitz _ April 1942 _ and survived! 13. Of course we spoke with them. We placed the fire-clay and bricks in neat piles. They came as soldiers, and left as liberators. Then her husband appeared and wanted to know who I was. The scientifically planned crematoria should have been able to handle the total project, but they could not. The PRC doctors and nurses lived on the second floor of this building. Sister! He did so, however, because of his forced work assignment as a stoker in the Auschwitz crematorium and then as a jack-of- all-trades in the Birkenau extermination plant squad, the Sonderkommando. Gunshots kept ripping the nighttime silence apart and women were constantly thudding into the ditch for their eternal repose.