Archive/File: camps/auschwitz auschwitz.012 Last-Modified: 1994/01/11 From: dzk@cs.brown.edu (Danny Keren) Newsgroups: alt.revisionism Subject: Those Who Kept Their Humanity Date: 3 Jan 1994 09:27:58 GMT Message-ID: <2g8oeu$ogr@cat.cis.Brown.EDU> This is a short tribute to some of the SS men who, in the midst of hell, tried to help. Often, they risked their own life in doing so. The material is summarized from "Auschwitz: A Report on the Proceedings Against Robert Karl Ludwig Mulka and Others Before the Court at Frankfurt", By Bernd Naumann, 1966, published by Frederick A. Praeger, NY. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Lucas does not deny the accusations against him. Yes, he was forced to select on the Auschwitz ramp (where the newcomers were sorted out - fit for work into the camp, to be tattooed and enslaved, and the much larger group of the "unfit" sent directly to be gassed). But he couldn't take it, and eventually succeeded in having himself assigned to other duties. He says that while selecting, he tried to classify as many people he could as fit, and save them from being gassed immediately. Some survivors testified that Dr. Lucas tried to help the inmates in other ways. Because his behavior was considered intolerable by his superiors, Lucas was transferred to the Mauthausen concentration camp, where commandant Ziereis (whom Lucas describes as "the most brutal man I have ever seen") welcomed him with "we make short shrift with your kind". SS Judge Dr. Konrad Morgen, says how shocked he was when he visited Birkenau and learned of the mass gassings. He tells of how diabolically the murder installations were set up, in an attempt to fool the victims, so they will not suspect they are going to their death. Morgen, like some other SS officers, claims he actually tried to stop the mass murder. Another SS man, Wiebeck, tells of how he and Dr. Morgen were sent to Auschwitz to investigate an allegation that commandant Hoss was having an affair with a female prisoner. SS officer Baer told them "into the chimney with her", but Morgen succeeded in getting the woman out of Auschwitz. SS medical officer Dr. Munch was sent to serve at Auschwitz in mid-1943. He tells about how a few days after his arrival, Dr. Wirths - the chief medical officer - ordered him to report to the ramp and choose victims for the gas chambers. This deeply disturbed Munch, and eventually he succeeded in avoiding ramp duty; he asked a friend, the head of the Hygienic Institute in Berlin, to intervene on his behalf. The latter sent a teletype to the commandant of Auschwitz, and consequently Munch was not assigned either to the selections or to the gassings. Arrested by the Polish authorities after the war, Munch was acquitted because survivors testified on his behalf. Polish survivor Zdzislaw Mikolajski tells how shocked SS man Simon was after being to Birkenau (where most of the mass murder took place). He said "I've been to Birkenau. What I saw there is beyond imagination. Those aren't SS men; they're criminals, murderers". Simon said that even if he is punished he will not go to Birkenau again. Another Polish survivor, Tadeusz Szewczyk, tells of an SS man who had a nervous breakdown after being ordered to work on the ramp and select victims for the gas chambers. "He threw his cap and pistol into a corner and yelled: 'Let them do whatever they want with me, I will not work on the ramp'". A German prisoner, doctor Ella Lingens, praises SS officer Flacke who tried to help the prisoners with extra food and didn't abuse them. The witness Brieden testifies about SS men who treated the prisoners decently. He recalls that a group of SS men came to Auschwitz from the front, and they did not torture and mistreat the prisoners. When they were reprimanded for this by the work-detail leader of the camp, they reached for their pistols and chased him away, saying he should prove his courage at the front. The next night shots were heard and it was rumored that these SS men attacked the commandant's villa. After that, they were no longer seen at the camp. Karl Husmann, who once worked in the RSHA ("Reich Main Security Office"), mentions SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Noske, who refused to shoot Jews and half-Jews in Dusseldorf. Noske was stripped of his rank and sent to the front. Noske himself confirms the story. He was actually to be tried in an SS court for his refusal to murder the people, but a friend succeeded is squashing the proceedings, and Noske was sent to the front as an artillery observer. -Danny Keren.
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