Passage from a letter

to Mr. Hugo Glaser, Prague XII., Zelená 7, from Mr. Berthold Burg, prisoner of the concentration camps in Lodz, Poznan, Auschwitz and Fürstengrube, current profession interpreter with Co.C 823 T.D.Bn. A.P.O. 339, U.S.Army c/o Postmaster N.Y.

Dear Glasers,

I have just received a letter from Napoleon and I am as happy as a child to hear that you are healthy and home once again. In October last year, I learned that you were in Theresienstadt and that you were doing well, that little Hugo was working in a bakery, and that after 9 years – instead of after 9 months – you had a boy. Where, pray, is this child?

My mother was gassed.

I have some sad news for you, but you have seen so much that we need not hesitate, especially when it concerns our dearest loved ones.

This is what happened: on December 18th, 1943, when we were in the Fürstengrube camp near Auschwitz, around midnight, the afternoon shift returned to the camp. I was in KB at the time. After being injured in the mine, I had a bad hemorrhage in my ankle and whatnot. Max was a Vorarbeiter on the afternoon shift.

Two days earlier, zugangi arrived in the camp – Galicians – Jews from Galicia. Some lived nearby, on the border of Upper Silesia and Galicia. One of them escaped at the start of his shift. The SS was celebrating Julfest that day. When the shift returned to the camp, Lagerführer- Hauptscharführer Moll (I remember his name, he’s one of the biggest murderers in all of Auschwitz, Birkenau and their surroundings) was drunk when he let them in. He interrogated the capo and then Vorarbeiter Häftling to find out who had escaped, and, unfortunately, that Vorarbeiter was Max. Max thought that he could explain everything to the Lagerführer and calm him down, but he miscalculated. The Lagerführer shot him and 5 or 6 other Häftlings. He would have shot more if Max Schmidt, his deputy at the time, hadn’t stopped him. Later, Max Schmidt became our Lagerführer.

I became a Rapportschreiber in December 1944, and I discovered a statement with the following contents:

On 8. 12. 1944 the afternoon shift returned to the camp at the usual hour during an air raid siren. Häftling Max Glaser, a Czech Jew, suddenly attacked an SS-man, using the cover of a total blackout, and tried to grab his service pistol. But the SS-man managed to defend himself, discharged his weapon, and killed him. Several häftlings used the confusion to attempt a mass escape – Massenausbruch. The guards immediately opened fire on them, and shot another 5 or 6; one escaped. This was followed by signatures.

Maybe you have heard about this already. These are the facts I’ve received from eyewitnesses.

Documentary campaign:

Alex. Schmiedt

12.9.1945

Scheck