Sixth day of the hearing
Presiding Judge: Is the Czech interpreter present?
Prosecutor Pęchalski: He was here a moment ago.
(The interpreter walks up to the stand.)
Presiding Judge: I request the witness, Otto Kraus, to approach.
Presiding Judge: I hereby instruct the witness, pursuant to the provisions of Article 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, that you are required to speak the truth. The provision of false testimony is punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to five years. Do the parties want to submit any motions as to the procedure according to which the witness is to be interviewed?
Prosecutors: We release the witness from the obligation to take an oath.
Defense attorneys: We likewise.
Witness: Otto Kraus, 38 years old, a privately employed office worker, religion – Roman Catholic, married, resident in Prague, relationship to the accused – none.
Presiding Judge: I would ask the witness to describe the goings-on at Auschwitz, and also to state whether he recognizes any of the accused.
Witness: I arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942 from the concentration camp at Neuenhammer. There was an immense difference between all the German concentration camps and that in Birkenau. This was an extermination camp. During the two years that I spent in Birkenau I got to know all of the SS men who served there. Amongst those of the SS men and women who are present today, I would like to point out Grabner, one of the most dangerous, the accused Buntrock, one of the harshest, and the accused Mandl, an eminent sadist. I would like to add that some of the SS men were more lenient, and they did not maltreat prisoners. Amongst them, and he is present today in the dock, I would like to mention Blockführer [block leader] Götze, whom you could encounter without fear of being wounded or losing your life.
The SS men are trying to excuse themselves by saying that they were only following orders – just like all war criminals they are explaining their actions by the orders of superiors. But this is not true. There was one Rapportführer [report leader], Wolf, who did not torment or kill prisoners, but even helped them.
In Birkenau there was an exceptional incident, when an SS man, Pestek, who served in the Czech “family camp”, protested against the methods used and fled with one of the prisoners to join the partisans. He even returned to the camp and tried to drive away with many of the prisoners in a truck. Amongst those present today, the accused Buntrock must surely remember how, in connection with this escape, he beat up prisoner Neumann, who was preparing to flee along with Pestek. The SS man Pestek was later killed in Auschwitz.
All of the serving SS men behaved with great inhumanity, never failing to show us prisoners that they were Übermenschen, members of the Herrenvolk [master race]. I managed to read the internal camp regulations of one of the Blockführers, and it was written thus in the very first sentence: “Every prisoner is your archenemy”.
And although not all of them killed in person, they created such a criminal system within the camp, awakening the basest instincts amongst prisoners, that the inmates maltreated and killed one another. They did all this on purpose, so that today, when they are imprisoned, they can proclaim their innocence. And when they did actually kill someone, they did not call it murder, but fertig machen [finishing off].
The camp in Birkenau was used for the extermination of entire nations. The first to be killed were the Jews, while the Poles and Czechs were to be liquidated next. The camp had been planned to accommodate several dozen thousand inmates.
I read in the Czech newspapers that the accused have declared that prisoners died of natural causes or accidentally. During my period of incarceration in Birkenau every child prisoner knew full well what the tall chimneys served for, the chimneys that spouted sheets of flame and belched thick, greasy smoke throughout the day and night – generated by the tens of thousands of bodies of murdered human beings.
This was how all of the SS men present here today collaborated. According to Hitler’s plan, the crematoria were intended to resolve the “Jewish question”. These SS men were supposed to assist, or otherwise persecute the prisoners, while at the same time robbing them of money and gold, plundering the assets of the dead. To become rich – this was the main reason for maltreating the prisoners, which the SS men called “organizing”, so as to ensure their material well-being after the War. They said that they were at the concentration camp by some order, or even that they were forced to serve there. This is not true, for they could have volunteered for front-line service, however they did not want to do so, because there they could have died for their leader, and so they preferred to sit out the fighting in the camp. The concentration camp at Birkenau offered them an easy life that was at once useful for Germany. On the one hand, they maltreated and murdered the prisoners, while on the other they plundered them – and the most cunning and able among them even received medals [Dienstkreuz – meritorious service medal] for their work. The accused Grabner was the most dangerous of the lot. He was the head of the political department. Both Poles and Czechs knew that this was the camp Gestapo. His statement, to the effect that he does not know the number of victims in Birkenau, is a falsehood. I think that he knows full well how many people were destroyed in the concentration camp at Birkenau. For immediately after the arrival of a fresh transport at Birkenau – or Auschwitz – train station those in charge of this human cargo, intended for the great factory of death, would present themselves with documents at the command of the political department, of which Grabner was in charge. Usually, they would take 20 percent or less for work in the camp, and the rest would be sent to the gas chambers. There were people who kept a secret register of the number of those murdered. We ourselves drew up lists in the camp, and according to our calculations the victims of the gas chambers included approximately two million citizens of the Republic of Poland, 150,000 Czechs, 500,000 Hungarians, 250,000 Germans, 90,000 Dutchmen, 60,000 Belgians, 80,000 Greeks and several dozen thousand Yugoslavians, Italians and others. The total number was three and a half million, with Jews accounting for the majority. To this we should add some 400,000 people who were incarcerated as political prisoners, and so the total number of those who perished in Birkenau amounts to 4 million. I am firmly convinced that this tally must be known to the head of the political department, Grabner.
The other duties of the political department included spying on inmates. Each functionary of the political department was tasked with following certain people, whereafter these would be beaten or reported on [Meldung], which entailed serious punishment. In Birkenau it was a great crime if a brother wrote a letter to his sister. This was due to an order issued by the political department, which stated that what went on in Birkenau must be kept in the utmost secrecy. Another example – Jewish prisoners were ordered to write to their families giving a different date and location, i.e. not the one where they were actually being held. And so, for example, a Czech or a Pole was to write down his or her name and surname, the number of the camp, and the concentration camp address as either A or B. The letter A stood for Auschwitz, while B for Birkenau.
But the Jewish inmates had to write otherwise. First of all, they did not give the camp number, but only their name and surname, followed by Labor Camp Birkenau bei Neuberg, and therefore not “Auschwitz”. Nor did they state their block or block number, but only – for example – Hausnummer 10b. In this way the political department kept secret the fact that the Jews were in a concentration camp, making it appear as if they were in a labor camp and thus arousing confidence among their fellow Jews in, say, Tarczyn or Łódź that they may visit them at the facility with complete peace of mind.
Grabner pulled off a masterstroke when, following the arrival of a transport at the Czech camp on 7 September 1943, he personally handed out notepaper and envelopes, insisting that it was very important for him to ensure that as many letters were written and sent as possible. This letter-writing system was maintained right until 2 March 1944, and the remaining 10,000 prisoners were kept alive solely to attract their family members to the camp.
The political department went so far in its efforts to achieve success as to think up a new name for the facility: “the camp near Waltzen”. Letters with this address were written by inmates in the building next to the crematorium. This is what happened with the Hungarian transport in the summer of 1944.
In Birkenau, maintaining secrecy went hand in hand with spying on individuals in the camp. Some of the prisoners were granted numerous privileges in exchange for turning in their colleagues.
The whole system of administration in Birkenau consisted in keeping the majority of prisoners in a state of hunger, whereas the functionaries and supervisors received more food than they could eat. In this way, by cooperating with prisoners who were their informers, the SS men kept control over the camp.
The head of the women’s camp was Maria Mandl. She was one of the most sophisticated sadists amongst the SS functionaries. She personally beat and otherwise maltreated the female inmates, irrespective of nationality. A typical example of her behavior would be the delousing of the women’s camp – all of the women were forced to march naked, also in front of the men, and she would then order the men to cut the women’s hair on all parts of their bodies.
All the SS men present today are responsible for the cruel torment and terrible living conditions of prisoners at Birkenau. And the entire German nation is responsible in the same way.
Presiding Judge: Are there any questions to the witness?
Prosecutor Szewczyk: Does the witness know whether the accused Mandl participated in the so-called selections of women for gassing?
Witness: I saw a number of selections at the women’s camp. These were conducted as follows: some higher-ranking SS man, usually a doctor, would always be present, as would the commandant of the female camp, Mandl, or her accomplice in murder, Hasse, or otherwise Drechsel. I saw – and everyone must have seen – the trucks leaving the women’s camp, full of screaming women, naked or dressed in shirts. If one of them jumped off the vehicle, she would be shot by the SS motorcycle escort that drove at the rear.
Prosecutor Pęchalski: On what data does the witness base his calculations of the total number of victims who perished in Auschwitz?
Witness: I worked in the camp as a locksmith.
Prosecutor Pęchalski: Have these data been taken from the political department?
Witness: I obtained these figures from people who worked in the so-called “Canada” barracks, in the Sonderkommando [special squad], and in the clerks’ kommando, which was made up of political prisoners.
Presiding Judge: Does the defense have any questions?
Defense attorneys: No.
Presiding Judge: The witness may step down.