Procedures to Deter Escapes from Auschwitz

[offlineJ William]

I have just been reading about one Father Kolbe, a Polish Catholic priest incarcerated in Auschwitz probably for his newspaper activities. I am especially interested if anyone knows of a policy of starving 10 persons to death in specially constructed "bunkers" for each escapee. Also were there recorded escapes in 1941? The following artice piqued my curiousity.

THE DEATH OF MIETEK AND FATHER KOLBE'S SACRIFICE

After evening roll call, I was shocked to see I someone resembling Mietek lying at the end of our rows among the dead. Approaching the bodies, I discovered it was indeed Mietek, half-conscious and displaying the wounds of a severe beating.

There was no time to be lost. He had to be taken to the hospital at once. I succeeded in pulling him to his feet, but his legs were so stiff he required all the support I could give him. I desperately looked around for help, but men had begun lining up for evening soup and no one wanted to risk losing his portion of the food.

I do not know how I managed to drag my friend across the roll call square to Block 16. By the time we arrived Mietek was unconscious, so I laid him on the ground in the rain and rushed into the washroom to find Fred.

But the one man who could help was unhappy to see me.

"I can't possibly admit him," Fred told me. "Do you know what this silly ass did? Bock examined him and was ready to admit him only because Mietek's my friend, but that wasn't good enough for Mietek. He had to be doubly sure so he rubbed the thermometer so hard it registered 42º Celsius. Bock knows these tricks, of course, and for attempting to fool him sent the guy to Leo for a special treatment of sport."

I had to agree with Fred; Mietek could not have done any-thing worse to jeopardize his chances. Bock, playing the role of medical doctor, was especially sensitive to any attempt at interfering with his official diagnoses. If a man dared to undermine his power, he had to pay for it. But understanding the situation did not change the fact that my friend needed care immediately.

"Mietek is dying," I said. "Would you at least come out with me to look at him?"

The sight of our badly beaten companion must have soothed Fred's anger somewhat.

"Let me see if Bock will be forgiving and compassionate enough to admit him now. I doubt it very much, but let me try."

A short time later both Fred and Bock emerged from the hospital. Bock examined Mietek, gave me a lecture on honesty in the camp, then ordered Fred to admit him. It was an unusually magnanimous gesture from a German criminal.

When I returned to my block all the soup was distributed; I had missed my main meal. However, I was glad that Mietek had a friend in the hospital and a good chance to get better.

Next day the weather improved significantly and my surveying team got a previously tamed SS man as our guard. We went first to the farmhouse where each of us received a piece of bread with bacon and coffee. Watching the guard as he munched on the bacon together with his prisoners, I thought of how little he looked like a member of a super race. His gun stood against the wall within easy reach of any one of us, offering an ideal means of escape; we were also a long way from the camp. It did not even occur to us, however, to use this opportunity. An escape at that time brought responsibility on the prisoner's family, who were brought to the camp and hanged in front of the kitchen. The remaining prisoners were also punished by having to stand at roll call while ten men were selected to starve to death in specially constructed concrete cells called bunkers. Without windows, they were so small one could not stand erect and so narrow one could not sit down. This punishment was later "improved" by putting ten men in a bunker at a time. What happened in that cell before its occupants died was difficult to imagine - even for us, who had become used to all sorts of brutality.


Bunker with bricks removed from one corner
to show the smallness of the interior
(courtesy of Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum)

The Germans liked this type of punishment so much they apparently devised a means of watching their unfortunate victims and ensured that plenty of these chambers were constructed in the penal block. Prisoners would sometimes spend 12, 24 or 36 hours there for such minor infractions as "sluggishness" in removing one's cap in front of an SS man.

Fearing such severe repercussions, the underground army agreed in 1940 to discourage escapes. Indeed, those of us who found opportunities to flee had to make very tough decisions for the next year and a half, until the regulations were changed.

I went immediately to the hospital at the end of our working day to check how Mietek was doing. Fred informed me that the poor man could not pass even Kieliszek's diagnostic procedures. He had died on the cement floor of the shower room without regaining consciousness.

Late in 1940 the camp was surrounded by two tall encirclements of barbed wire, punctuated at intervals by guard towers perched high up for the benefit of SS men armed with machine guns. During working hours an outer as well as an inner ring of sentries guarded every working area in the camp and its surroundings. The sentries of the outer ring, though far removed from the working squads, were also positioned on high wooden towers within sight of each other.

If, at evening roll call, all prisoners were accounted for, the outer ring was withdrawn. Should someone be absent, the outer guards remained in position and we were kept standing in the square while a special detachment of kapos and SS men with dogs went out in search of the deserter.

Very often the "escapee" proved to be one of the Musselmen who had retired into some tight spot to die in peace. But whatever the reason, no prisoner could budge from his position until the man, living or dead, was found. On one occasion we stood at attention for 36 hours. Many among us were killed or severely beaten by furious blockelders who had to join us in waiting out the search without food.

There inevitably came a time when someone actually was missing. Kapos and SS men searched every inch of the outer ring but came back empty-handed. Apprehension on a new scale ran through our ranks: because the missing man was from our block, ten of our block-mates would now be chosen for slow death in a bunker of the penal block.

The wait was unnerving. We were standing in two rows about five paces apart. Up came Karl Fritsch with his deputy, Aumeier, and the infamous Palitsch. Behind them marched the SS men responsible for the roll call procedures and a couple of SS guards with dogs. Fritsch walked slowly down the ranks, often stopping and looking into the eyes of the terror-stricken prisoners. Occasionally he would point at a man with his riding whip and the victim was immediately dragged out in front of the block. Several of my colleagues were already standing there. A grave silence prevailed during this procedure. Even the usual shouting of the SS men was absent.

When they finally approached my row, I noticed a look of complete indifference and even boredom in Fritsch's eyes.

My face has an unfortunate characteristic: my mouth is shaped so that it appears I am smiling even when I am in a most serious mood. I was obviously as scared as everyone else, but my face did not show it. As Fritsch came up to me he looked surprised, paused, lifted up his whip - his eyes showing curiosity and interest for a second or so - then he walked away. Looking back at him I somehow knew that it would not be my turn to die, though he went through almost all the motions to select me. Perhaps it was that moment of eye contact that saved me. I will never know.

Fritsch passed along, followed by Aumeier and Palitsch. As Palitsch walked by me, he said: "You were lucky this time." I knew that I was lucky but I regretted that Palitsch had registered my face - he was a dangerous man to know. At last ten men were selected. The commandant returned to his place in front of our block, said something about the joint responsibility for escapes, and was prepared to walk away when an incident occurred unlike anything else in the history of the camp.

From our ranks a prisoner suddenly leapt forward. He was about 50 years of age, quite thin from hunger and wore Dutch wooden shoes, but his face and light blue eyes were lit with a radiant smile. Boldly and in a loud, clear voice, he said: I would like to speak to the commandant!"

Everyone stood astounded. A prisoner asking to speak to the commandant? At this time and in such a daring voice?

Even the kapos were dumbfounded and did not move to silence him. The SS men just looked at Fritsch, wondering what he would say. Fritsch seemed to be interested. Turning to the prisoner, he asked him in an almost polite voice: "What would you like to talk to me about?"

The prisoner pointed to a man standing among those condemned to die and who was crying like a child. Then he said, strongly and evenly, the smile still clearly visible: "I want to ask you, sir, to let me change places with this man."

"Is he your son?" asked the commandant.

"No sir, I have never seen him before. But he is young and I haven't a very long time to live anyway."

The commandant frowned, then simply nodded his agreement and walked away.

The prisoner went up to the man, tapped him on the shoulder and gently pushed him back into the ranks. Then, still smiling, he took his place among the condemned.


St. Maksimilian Kolbe in 1940
(courtesy of the Franciscan Friary
Niepokalanow Poland)

The man who displayed this heroic behaviour was a Roman Catholic priest named Father Kolbe. Sometime later Fred informed me that our Doctor Bock went at night to the bunker, dragged out the semiconscious Kolbe and injected phenol into his heart, causing instant death. We interpreted this as an act of euthanasia, delivered by a German criminal to a saintly Catholic monk.

[offlineTurpitz]

Sounds very much like the inconceivable tales Wiesenthal, Weisel or Vbra blurt out.

Can you substantiate any of it? Or do you even question any of it? Or do you even care if any of it bears any truth?

When I can force myself too read some of this imaginative shock propaganda I always get the impression they are tripping on LSD, or some other mind-bending drug.

These fantastic yarns, what yarns!

In the mean-time while selling their tall-tale horror books, they treat others with such kindness.

[offlineMaly Jacek]

Well,Kolbe if I remember right was arrested first in 1939 and send to various camps in Germany.He was released in early 1940 and arrested again in February 1941.As for his "sacrifice"... well again we have to relay on "eyewitnesses" and "testimonies" and how misleading that could be we all well know....

"Artist vision"

[offline Sailor]

Sometime later Fred informed me that our Doctor Bock went at night to the bunker, dragged out the semiconscious Kolbe and injected phenol into his heart, causing instant death. We interpreted this as an act of euthanasia, delivered by a German criminal to a saintly Catholic monk.

SS-man Bock was a low ranking truck driver. Lethal injections were as far as I know administered by medical personnel. That Böck did this seems to be a little hard to believe.

Böck is known for his role during he Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt, Germany, where he served as a crown witness: He observed blue haze escaping from the gassed victims.

3.4. Punishments and Mistreatment
The widespread idea that limitless arbitrary cruelty prevailed in the National Socialist concentration camps and that sadistic mistreatment was a common occurrence is simply not confirmed by surviving German wartime documentation. We are aware that regulations may exist only on paper, and we do not doubt that acts of cruelty often occurred in the camps. But that such acts in no way reflected official policy is clearly obvious from the regulations for the camp administration. In Auschwitz, every SS man had to sign a declaration reading word for word as follows:[57]

"I am aware that only the Führer possesses life and death decision-making powers over enemies of the State. I am not permitted to injure or kill any enemy of the State (inmate). Any killing of an inmate in a concentration camp requires the personal approval of the Reichsführer SS. I am aware that I will be severely called to account for any violation of this regulation."

Kazimierz Smoleń, former Director of the Auschwitz-Museum, wrote an article on the punishment system at Auschwitz based on German documents, in which the various punishments provided for by the regulation are listed in order of severity:[58]

· Warning with threat of punishment
· Additional work
· Temporary transfer to a punishment company
· Arrest
· Severe arrest with withdrawal of food
· Arrest in solitary confinement
· Beating (25 blows).

Prior to execution of the beating punishment an examination by a physician was required. Death sentences required approval by the RSHA prior to execution.[59]

Severe steps were occasionally taken against SS men guilty of committing crimes against inmates: two camp commandants - Karl Koch of Buchenwald and Hermann Florstedt of Majdanek - were executed by the National Socialists themselves.

[58] Kazimierz Smoleń, "Systeme de punition infligées par la SS dans le camp de concentration d'Auschwitz", in: Contribution à l'histoire du KL-Auschwitz, Edition du Musée d'Etat à Oswiecim, w/o year, p. 67f.

Source: http://vho.org/GB/Books/dth/fndGraf.html

fge

[offlineJuan]

Anyone on the real fate of Father Kolbe?

Is it true that he was canonized?

[offlineMaly Jacek]

Yes Juan,he is an official saint in Catholic Church since 1983.

I have looked through several Polish website and did managed to find some testimonies of people who claimed to be witnesses.I'm just about to read them.

[offlineJ William]

...Can you substantiate any of it? Or do you even question any of it? Or do you even care if any of it bears any truth?...

[/img]

Don't jump to any conclusions as to what I think. My opinion is that the second and third questions are insulting to me. If I didn't question it why would I ask for information on the policy concerning escapes.
There are several goodies in the article. One is the reference to a "tamed" SS man. Another is the mention of the hospital; in an extermination camp? My, my. No homicidal gas chambers referred to and the prisioners even had bacon with their meal.

[offlineMaly Jacek]

I was wrong,Kolbe has been saint since 1982. It also turned out that our priest who heroically volunteered to die in place of another Auschwitz prisoner also happened to be an "aggressive and notorious anti-Semite in 1930s Poland" as according to Wiesel and other Jews.

There are 3 testimonies to circumstances of his death:

http://www.polandpolska.org/dokumenty/dokumenty.htm

Franciszek Gajowiczek,Brunon Borgowiec and Tadeusz Joachimowski

There is nothing there beyond what can be found in official story can't even agree on number of these who escaped in the end of July 1941.Gajowiczek mentioned 1 but Joachimowski tells about 3 prisoners.Borgowiec claimed to be the one who took Kolbe's body out of bunker and he was still alive after 14 days without food and water.He's body supposed to be "clean and shining (sic)".Not much apart from one little detail from Joachmowski's tale.He say that neither Kolbe nor another priest from his block 14B were registered as clergymen.He didn't know the reason and said the very few knew about Kolbe's being a priest.In the past I have come across story about Kolbe's homosexuality as reason for his imprisonment.Someone claimed he was wearing pink triangle but I'm not able to confirm or deny that allegation

[offlinekk]

A pink triangle? Impossible!
He would have been already immortalized as a star role in a Holywood feature,
or at least in a couple of alternative ones.
Or, well, maybe they don't know about him yet.

[offlineMaly Jacek]

Yeah he would have made great character for the movie but since Wiesel said he was anti-semite and bad boy then his story will never make it as far as movie not even made by Poles.