17: Special Action

The assembly-line extermination of Jews had begun by the summer of 1942. Except for the choice of gas the procedure was much the same at all six death camps. A train of boxcars arrived at the camp station. "Special commandos" -- Jews who had been lured into service with bounties of food and promises that their lives would be spared -- opened the doors, urged the new arrivals onto the platform and carefully instructed them to leave their luggage on the train. The newcomers obeyed, reassured by the fact that the special commandos spoke their own language. Often, many Jews had died on the trains before their arrival. Kurt Gerstein, in his visit to Belzec, noted that 1,450 of the 6,000 arriving Jews were already dead.

As the new arrivals walked forward along the platform, they passed the camp doctor or an SS officer, who signaled each to step either to the left or to the right with a wave of his finger. Those who were sent to the right -- the healthy looking ones -- were taken to one of the camp's work projects, where they labored 12 hours a day and longer in a munitions factory, coal mine, synthetic-rubber works or farm. The life extectancy of these workers was short -- malnutrition normally weakened them in about three months' time -- and as soon as they became too weak or ill to work, they were gassed.

The newcomers who were sent to the left were gassed within an hour or two. Ordinarily, children and most of the women were directed to the left. In all, only about 10 percent of any trainload were selected for work, but if the workers' barracks were already full, everyone was waved left. At Chelmno and Belzec there was no industry, so the selection step was unnecessary.

The doomed Jews were ordered to undress for a shower. At the more commodious camps, such as Auschwitz, they hung their clothes on numbered hooks, and the special commandos instructed them to remember their numbers in order to reclaim their clothes after their "bath." At smaller camps like Belzec and Treblinka, they undressed outside, sometimes in freezing weather. Many mothers had to help their small children undress. This caused delays that irritated SS guards. Occasionally, guards would grab the wailing children by the legs and smash their heads against a wall. But at Auschwitz such brutality was unusual as care was taken not to alarm the Jews so they would offer no resistance.

Next, the special commandos urged their charges -- up to 2,000 Jews at a time -- toward the gas chambers. The special commandos tried to be helpful and good-humored, chatting about camp life and assuring the victims that they would be able to reclaim luggage at a later time. At Auschwitz, the SS organzied a small camp orchestra. Groups of muscians accompanied the victims and played popular tunes or light operatic music, often from the Tales of Hoffmann or The Merry Widow.

At Belzec, Gerstein had watched while men, women and children -- all stark naked -- filed past in ghastly parade as a burly SS man promised in a loud, priestlike voice that nothing terrible was going to happen to them. "All you have to do is breathe in deeply. That strengthens the lungs. Inhaling is a means of preventing infectious diseases. It's a good method of disinfection."

These precautions sometimes failed. Occasionally, victims noticed upon stepping into the so-called shower room that it lacked any kind of drainage. That caused them to panic, and the special commandos would have to use clubs and whips to beat the rest of the victims into the chambers.

At Belzec, the odor from the death chamber was telltale and those at the head of the column had to be shoved by those behind. Most were silent, but one woman, eyes flashing, cursed her murderers. As Gersteain watched, she was spurred on by whiplashes from Commandant Wirth. Some asked, "Who will give us water to wash the dead?" Others prayed. Gerstein prayed with them.

Next, the special commandos slammed the doors shut and screwed them tight to their gasproof jambs. Then, at Auschwitz, a camp officer dropped the Zyklon B pellets down the ventilating shafts. The results were dramatic.

"It could be observed through the peephole in the door," Commandant Hoess reported, "that those who were standing nearest to the induction vents were killed at once. In can be said that about one third died straightaway. The remainder staggered about and began to scream and struggle for air. The screaming, however, soon changed to the death rattle and in a few minutes all lay still."

The process took somewhat longer in the camps that used carbon monoxide. The chambers were smaller and the victims sometimes had to stand tightly packed for an hour or two before the diesel engine roared into life. The gas it delivered killed slowly. One visitor, who put his ear to the wall after the gas had been pumped in, heard wailing sounds, "just like a synagogue."

On Gerstein's visit to Belzec, the driver of the diesel truck, whose exhaust would exterminate the Jews, could not start the engine. Incensed with the delay, Wirth began lashing at the driver with his whip. Two hours and forty-nine minutes later the engine started. After another interminable twenty-five minutes, Gerstein peered into one chamber. Most of the occupants were already dead. At the end of thirty-two minutes all were lifeless. They were standing erect, recalled Gerstein, "like pillars of basalt, since there had not been an inch of space for them to fall in or even lean. Families could still be seen holding hands, even in death."

The carbon monoxide killings also left a bigger mess. Gerstein reported that the bodies were "blue, wet with sweat and urine, the legs covered with excrement and menstrual blood." At Auschwitz, Hoess reported that "there was no sign of convulsions or discoloration. Soiling through opening of the bowels was also rare."

The job of cleaning up fell to the special commandos. Once the gas had been dispelled through the ventilation system, they entered the chambers carrying special hook-tipped poles and pried apart the bodies. Using large ice tongs, which they clamped on the victims' heads, they then dragged the bodies out of the chamber and wrestled them into a rail wagon or elevator, or onto a conveyor belt for transport to the disposal site. They shaved the heads of the women and young girls and sent the hair to the camp workshop to be made into felt boots for railroad men and U-boat crews. With pliers they pulled out teeth containing gold.

Gerstein watched as one group of workers began tearing open the mouths of the dead with iron hooks, while others searched anuses and genitalia for jewelry. Wirth, a former chief of criminal police in Stuttgart, was in his element. "See for yourself," he said, pointing to a large can filled with teeth. "Just look at the amount of gold there is! And we have collected as much only yesterday and the day before. You can't imagine what we find every day -- dollars, diamonds, gold! You'll see!"

Gerstein forced himself to watch the final process. The bodies were flung into trenches, each some hundred yards long, conveniently located near the gas chambers. He was told that the bodies would swell from gas after a few days, raising the mound as much as six to ten feet. Once the swelling subsided, the bodies would be piled on railway ties, covered with diesel oil, and burned to cinders.

Every three or four months the special commandos, who had by now seen too much, were themselves sent to the gas chambers. Gerstein, meanwhile, returned to Berlin, resolved to tell those who would listen of the ghastly sights he had witnessed. A modern Ancient Mariner, he began spreading the truth to incredulous colleagues. As a rock thrown into a pond creates ever widening ripples, so did the tale of Kurt Gerstein.

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The SS officers and the technical aides never found a completely satisfactory way to dispose of the bodies. Explosives were tried at least once with unsatisfactory results. Burial, cremation in ovens and mass burning pits were the most common method used, but each process had certain disadvantages.

Burial ultimately was rejected because it required too much land and labor, and the earthen cover sometimes collapsed before the quicklime had worked completely, allowing odors to spread for miles. The mass graves, moreover, left telltale scars on the landscape, evidence many Nazis considered a problem. However, SS Lieutenant General Odilo Globocnik could see no objection and on one occasion argued his point with a visitor from Berlin.

Dr. Herbert Linden, a sterilization expert of the Ministry of the Interior, opposed the mass graves, remarking, "General Globocnik, a future generation might not understand." The general replied, "Gentlemen, if ever a generation should rise so slack and soft-boned that it cannot understand the importance of our work, then our entire National Socialism will have been in vain. I am of the opinion that bronze plaques should be erected with inscriptions to show that it was we who had the courage to carry out this great and necessary task."

Though cremation left little evidence, it was slow. At Auschwitz, for example, the two large new crematoriums that went on line in the spring of 1943 could incinerate fewer than 2,000 bodies in 24 hours in their five ovens, each with three retorts. Attempts to increase the capacity damaged them severely and caused them to be shut down for repairs on several occasions.

Commandant Hoess ordered two additional four-retort ovens and paired them with new gas chambers. I. A. Topf and Sons, an Erfurt heating-equipment firm, won the contract after highly competitive bidding. Company technical experts calculated that the new units would be able to handle 1,500 bodies a day, but wartime shortages led to shoddy construction and the ovens were a great disappointment. One broke down after only a short time and eventually had to be taken out of service altogether. The second had to be shut down repeatedly after four to six weeks of continuous use, its flimsy fire walls and chimneys would be burned out.

After the war, Hoess said that "The killing itself took the least time. You could dispose of 2,000 head in a half hour, but it was the burning that took all the time."

One by-product of incineration caused further delays. So many bodies were burned at Auschwitz and Belzec that periodically a foot or more of human fat had to be scraped off the chimney walls.

When the camp's ovens were inoperative, the commandant had no choice but to order the bodies burned in open pits. Special commandos alternated layers of bodies with layers of railroad ties to assure good draft, and then soaked the pile with whatever petroleum wastes were available. Sometimes they drew buckets full of human fat from the pit bottoms and hurled the fat back onto the fire to increase the intensity of the blaze. Once the fire was burning properly, more bodies were added. If the fires burned out too soon, the special commandos would complete the incineration with flamethrowers.

Ultimately, the pit fire proved the cheapest and fastest method of disposing of bodies. But the fires burned slowly and gave off dense clouds of smoke that hung unpleasantly low in misty or rainy weather. Townspeople many miles away complained about the stench of the burning flesh. Local air-defense authorities also protested: The fires made dangerous beacons for enemy bombers to use as checkpoints on their way to or from their targets.