body-wherever it may have been located-is brought back to camp (it is easy to identify the corpse by means of the tattooed number) and seated at the entrance gate, a small notice clasped in his hands, reading: "Here I am.” During our two years' imprisonment many attempts to escape were made by prisoners but, with the exception of two or three, all were brought back dead or alive. It is not known whether the two or three escapees who were not caught actually managed to get away. It can, however, be asserted that among the Jews who were deported from Slovakia to Auschwitz or Birkenau we are the only two who were lucky enough to save ourselves. ...

Within a radius of 2 kilometers, as with Auschwitz, Birkenau is also surrounded by an outer chain of sentry posts with the same type of watch system as at Auschwitz.

The buildings we found on our arrival had been erected by 12,000 Russian prisoners of war brought there in December, 1941. In severe winter weather they had to work under inhuman conditions as a result of which most of them, with the exception of a small number employed in the kitchen, died of exposure. They were numbered from 1 to 12,000 in a series which had no connection with the ordinary camp numbering system previously described. Whenever fresh convoys of Russian prisoners arrived, they were not issued the current Auschwitz prisoner numbers, but received those of deceased Russians in the 1 to 12,000 series. It is, therefore, difficult to estimate how many prisoners of this category passed through the camp. Apparently Russians were transferred to Auschwitz or Birkenau on disciplinary grounds from regular prisoner-of-war camps. We found what remained of the Russians in a terrible state of destitution and neglect living in the unfinished building without the slightest protection against cold or rain. They died "en masse." Hundred and thousands of their bodies were buried superficially, spreading a stench of pestilence. Later we had to exhume and burn the corpses. . . .

Together with the remaining Russian prisoners the Slovak Jews worked at the construction of buildings, whereas the French Jews had to do spade work. After three days I was ordered, together with 200 other Slovak Jews, to work in the German armament factories at Auschwitz, but we continued to be housed in Birkenau. We left early in the morning returning at night and worked in the carpentry shop as well as on road construction. Our food consisted of one litre of turnip soup at midday and 300 grams of bad bread in the evening. Working conditions were inconceivably hard, so that the majority of us, weakened by starvation and the inedible food, could not stand it. The mortality was so high that every day our group of 200 had 30 to 35 dead. Many were simply beaten to death by the overseers— the "Capos" during work, without the slightest provocation. The gaps in our ranks caused by these deaths were replaced daily by prisoners from Birkenau. Our return at

night was extremely painful and dangerous, as we had to drag along over a distance of 5 kilometers our tools, firewood, heavy caldrons, and the bodies of those who had died or had been killed during the working day. With these heavy loads we were forced to maintain a brisk pace, and anyone incurring the displeasure of one of the "Capos" was cruelly knocked down, if not beaten to death. Until the arrival of the second group of Slovak men some 14 days later, our original number had dwindled to 150. At night we were counted, the bodies of the dead were piled up on flat, narrow-gauge cars or in a truck and brought to the Birch Forest (Brezinsky) where they were burned in a trench several meters deep and about 15 meters long. Every day on our way to work we met a working party of 300 Jewish girls from Slovakia who were employed on ground work in the vicinity. They were dressed in old Russian uniform rags and wore wooden clogs. Their heads were shaven and, unfortunately, we could not speak to them.

Until the middle of May, 1942, a total of four convoys of male Jews from Slovakia arrived at Birkenau and all received similar treatment to ours.

From the first and second transports 120 men were chosen (including myself) and placed at the disposal of the administration of the camp of Auschwitz, which was in need of doctors, dentists, intellectuals, and clerks. . . . As I had in the meantime managed to work my way up to a good position in Birkenau-being in command of a group of 50 men, which had brought me considerable advantage-I at first felt reluctant to leave for Auschwitz. However, I was finally persuaded to go and left. After eight days, 18 doctors and attendants as well as three further persons were selected from this groups of 120 intellectuals. The doctors were used in the "sick building" or "hospital" at Auschwitz, while we three were sent back to Birkenau. My two comrades, Ladislav Braun from Trnava and Gross from Vrbove (?), both of whom have since died, were sent to the Slovak block while I was ordered to the French section where we were employed at collecting "personal data” and at “nursing the sick." The remaining 99 persons were sent to work in the gravel pit where they all died within a short time.

Shortly thereafter a so-called "sick-building" (Krankenbau) was set up. It was destined to become the much dreaded "Block 7" where at first I was chief attendant and later administrator. The chief of this "infirmary" was a Pole. Actually this building was nothing else than an assembly center for death candidates. All prisoners incapable of working were sent there. There was no question of any medical attention or care. We had some 150 dead daily and their bodies were sent for cremation to Auschwitz.

At the same time the so-called "selections" were introduced. Twice weekly, Mondays and Thursdays, the camp doctor indicated the number of prisoners who were to be gassed and then burned. These "selectees" were loaded into

trucks and brought to the Birch Forest. Those still alive upon arrival were gassed in a big barrack erected near the trench used for burning the bodies. The weekly “draft" in dead from "Block 7” was about 2,000, of whom 1,200 died of "natural death" and about 800 through "selection." For those who had not been “selected” a death certificate was issued and sent to the central administration at Oraienburg, whereas for the "selectees" a special register was kept with the indication "S.B." ("sonderbehandelt"-special treatment). Until January 15, 1943, up to which time I was administrator of "Block 7" and therefore in a position to directly observe happenings, some 50,000 prisoners died of "natural death" or by "selection."

As previously described, the prisoners were numbered consecutively so that we are able to reconstruct fairly clearly their order of succession and the fate which befell each separate convoy on arrival.

The first male Jewish transport reaching Auschwitz for Birkenau was composed, as mentioned, of 1,320 naturalized French Jews bearing approximately the following numbers 27,400-28,600.

without further procedure from the railroad siding directly to the Birch Forest, and there gassed and burned. From this moment on all Jewish convoys were dealt with in the same manner. Approximately 10 percent of the men and 5 percent of the women were allotted to the camps and the remaining members were immediately gassed. This process of extermination had already been applied earlier to the Polish Jews. During long months, without interruption, trucks brought thousands of Jews from the various "ghettos" direct to the pit in the "Birkenwald."

33,100-35,000 1,900 Jews from Cracow.

44,200-45,000

200 Slovak Jews. The convoy consisted of 1,000 persons. A number of women were sent to the women's camp, the rest gassed in the Birch Wood. Among the prisoners sent to camp were: Jozef Zelmanovic, Snina-Adolph Kahan, Bratislava-Walter Reichman, SucanyEsther Kahan, Bratislava.

On December 17, 1942, the 200 young Slovak Jews, the so-called "special squad" employed in gassing and burning the condemned, were in turn executed at Birkenau. They were executed for having planned to mutiny and escape. A Jew betrayed their preparations. This frightful job had to be taken over by a group of 200 Polish Jews who had just arrived from Makow.

The men belonging to the "special squad" lived separately. On account of the dreadful smell spread by them, people had but little contact with them. Besides they were always filthy, destitute, half wild and extraordinarily brutal and ruthless. It was not uncommon to see one of them kill another. . . .

No. 80,000 marks the beginning of the systematic extermination of the Polish ghettos.

80,000-85,000 Approximately 5,000 Jews from various ghettos in Mljawa-Makow-Zichenow

Lomza-Grodno-Bialostok.... For
fully 30 days truck-convoys arrived
without interruption. Only 5,000 persons
were sent to the concentration camp; all
the others were gassed at once. The
"special squad" worked in two shifts, 24
hours daily and was scarcely able to cope
with the gassing and burning. Without
exaggerating it may be said that out of
these convoys some 30,000 to 90,000
received "special treatment." These
transports also brought in a considerable
amount of money, valuables, and
precious stones.

85,000-92,000 6,000 Jews from Grodno, Bialostok and Cracow as well as 1,000 Aryan Poles. The majority of the Jewish convoys were directly gassed and daily about 4,000 Jews were driven into the gas chambers.

During mid-January, 1943 three convoys of 2,000 persons from Theresienstadt arrived. They bore the designations “CU" "CR" and "R".... Out of these 6,000 persons only 600 men and 300 women were admitted to the camp. The remainder were gassed.

99,000-100,000 End of January, 1943 large convoys of French and Dutch Jews arrived; only a small proportion of them reached the camp.

100,000-102,000 In February, 1943, 2,000 Aryan Poles, mostly intellectuals.

102,000-103,000 700 Czech Aryans. Later, those still alive were sent to Buchenwald.

103,000-108,000 3,000 French and Dutch Jews and 2,000 Poles (Aryans).

During the month of February, 1943, two contingents arrived daily. They included Polish, French, and Dutch Jews who, in the main, were sent to the gas chambers. The number gassed during this month can well be estimated at 90,000.

At the end of February, 1943 a new modern crematorium and gassing plant was inaugurated at Birkenau. The gassing and burning of the bodies in the Birch Forest was discontinued, the whole job being taken over by the four specially built crematoria. The large ditch was filled in, the ground levelled, and the ashes used as before for fertilizer at the farm labour camp of Hermense, so that today it is almost impossible to find traces of the dreadful mass murder which took place here....

At present there are four crematoria in operation at Birkenau, two large ones, I and II, and two smaller ones, III and IV. Those of type I and II consist of 3 parts, i.e.: (A) the furnace room; (B) the large hall; and (C) the gas chamber. A huge chimney rises from the furnace room around which are grouped nine furnaces, each having four openings. Each opening can take three normal corpses at once and after an hour and a half the bodies are completely burned. This corresponds to a daily capacity of about 2,000 bodies. Next to this is a large "reception hall" which is arranged so as to give the impression of the antechamber of a bathing establishment. It holds 2,000 people and apparently there is a similar waiting room on the floor below. From there a door and a few steps lead down into the very long and narrow gas chamber. The walls of this chamber are also camouflaged with simulated entries to shower rooms in order to mislead the victims. The roof is fitted with three traps which can be hermetically closed from the outside. A track leads from the gas chamber towards the furnace room. The gassing takes place as follows: the unfortunate victims are brought into hall (B) where they are told to undress. To complete the fiction that they are going to bathe, each person receives a towel and a small piece of soap issued by two men clad in white coats. Then they are crowded into the gas chamber (C) in such numbers that there is, of course, only standing room. To compress this crowd into the narrow space, shots are often fired to induce those already at the far end to huddle still closer together. When everybody is inside, the heavy doors are closed. Then there is a short pause, presumably to allow the room temperature to rise to a certain level, after which SS men with gas masks climb on the roof, open the traps, and shake down a preparation in powder form out of tin cans labelled "CYKLON" "For use against vermin," which is manufactured by a Hamburg concern. It is presumed that this is a "CYANIDE" mixture of some sort which turns into gas at a certain temperature. After three minutes everyone in the chamber is dead. No one is known to have survived this ordeal, although it was not uncommon to discover signs of life after the primitive measures employed in the Birch Wood. The chamber is then opened, aired, and the “special squad" carts the bodies on flat trucks to the furnace rooms where the burning takes place. Crematoria III and IV work on nearly the same principle, but their capacity is only half as large. Thus the total capacity of the four cremating and gassing plants at Birkenau amounts to about 6,000 daily.

On principle only Jews are gassed; Aryans very seldom, as they are usually given "special treatment" by shooting. Before the crematoria were put into service, the shooting took place in the Birch Wood and the bodies were buried in the long trench; later, however, execution took place in the large hall of one of the crematoria which has been provided with a special installation for this purpose.

Prominent guests from Berlin were present at the inauguration of the first crematorium in March, 1943. The "program" consisted of the gassing and burning of 8,000 Cracow Jews. The guests, both officers and civilians, were extremely satisfied with the results and the special peephole fitted into the door of the gas chamber was in constant use. They were lavish in their praise of this newly erected installation.

109,000-119,000 At the beginning of March, 1943, 45,000 Jews arrived from Saloniki. 10,000 of them came to the camp, including a small percentage of the women; some 30,000 however went straight to the cremating establishment. Of the 10,000 nearly all died a short time later from a contagious illness resembling malaria. They also died of typhus due to the general conditions prevailing in the camp.

Malaria among the Jews and typhus took such toll among the prisoners in general that the "selections" were temporarily suspended. The contaminated Greek Jews were ordered to present themselves and in spite of our repeated warning many of them did. They were all killed by intracardial phenol injections administered by a lance-corporal of the medical corps.

Out of the 10,000 Greek Jews, some 1,000 men remained alive and were later sent, together with 500 other Jews, to do fortification work in Warsaw. A few weeks later several hundred came back in a pitiful state and were immediately gassed. The remainder presumably died in Warsaw. Four hundred Greek Jews suffering from malaria were sent for "further treatment" to Lublin after the phenol injections had been stopped, and it appears that they actually arrived. Their fate is not know to us, but it can be taken for grated that out of the original number of 10,000 Jews not one eventually remained in the camp. . . .

At the beginning of 1943 the political section of Auschwitz received 500,000 discharge certificates and we thought with ill-concealed joy, that at least a few of us would be liberated. But the forms were simply filled out with the names of those gassed and filed away in the archives.

119,000–120,000 1,000 Poles (Aryans) from the Pawiak penitentiary in Warsaw.