Extract from the Statement of Dr Walter Löbner, born 27.1.1903
In the Ellrich im Harz camp, the camp commandant SS Oberscharführer Brinkmann forced a prisoner who had been accused on cannibalism to eat human body parts in front of witness, even having salt and pepper passed to him. On the same day, he had the prisoner killed.
Kremmen, 14.5.1945
Dokumentační akce 26.VIII.1945
Zeev Scheck
Transcript
Kremmen, 14.5.1945
I, Dr Walter Löbner, born 27.01.1903 in Hermannshütte in Bohemia, a Czechoslovak citizen, last living at Prague-Vinohrady, Fochova 9, was arrested by the Prague Gestapo on 18.04.1939 and imprisoned in several different concentration camps in Germany (Sachsenhausen, Oranienburg, Auschwitz, Auschwitz 3, Gross Rosen, Dora, Ellrich im Harz, Oranienburg) until I was able to escape to freedom on 21.04.1945. At the moment, I am in Kremmen, because the garrison and population is without a doctor, and I am employed as the head doctor in a newly founded city hospital.
Until the loss of the Sudetenland and the
occupation by the Germans, I was a
doctor and surgeon in Marianské Lázně and
the interim head of the hospital there. I made no secret of my antifascist opinions
which, in April 1939, let my arrest. The arrest
warrant stated the reason for my imprisonment as strong suspicion of high treason against
the German people
.
During the six-year path of martyrdom and suffering, I had the opportunity to learn about the terrible, sadistic methods of the Gestapo and the SS, both first-hand and by observation. As I want to play my part in making sure that those responsible are punished, I want to make the names of several perpetrators that I know available to the commendable investigating authorities.
1. The Gestapo and SS man, Commissioner Wiggers of the Prague Gestapo, who imprisoned me and sent me to the concentration camp without affording me – a Czech citizen – the right to a proper trial.
2. The SS man and director of the Gestapo prison Pankrac in Prague, by the name of Zoppa or something similar, who often terrorised the prisoners personally with beatings. He broke two of my ribs on 16.09.1939 by punching me.
3. The policeman Max Böhlke – or something similar – from Leipzig who was a prison guard and burst my eardrum by punching me whilst I was in prison in Prague, and as a result I got a terrible middle ear infection, and lost my hearing.
4. In the concentration camp
Sachsenhausen
Oranienburg near Berlin,
the following SS men who are known
to me by name and whose unheard of brutality – both physical and mental – was an outrage to
even the most primitive requirements of a prisoner’s human
rights: Oberscharführer
Bugdahle, Fickert, Van Deezen, Birke, Kaiser,
Schubert, Brumm, Gustav
Sorge, Sinke, Camp Commandant
Schwarzhuber from Munich who was later the commandant in
Birkenau, Commandant
Sturmbannführer Heydrich later Commandant
Heinkel-Oranienburg. They have,
along with many others whose names I don’t know, contributed to, or directly caused, the
deaths of thousands of innocent people through
beatings with their fists and sticks, through so-called sport
and other torments, the
withholding of food and were also involved in the killing
of many Russian
prisoners
of war in the summer and autumn of 1941.
5. Sturmführer Höss(name unknown) in 1940 the camp commandant in Sachsenhausen and later in Auschwitz, is the person responsible for the deportation and killing by gas and starvation of one and a half million Hungarian, Romanian, Slovakian, Italian and Greek Jews.
6. For the killing by starvation, terror, epidemics, gas, shooting, beating, torture and similar of 7 million Jews from the other countries of Europe and many hundreds of thousands of non-Jews in the camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau, the following SS men are
7. In the women’s camp, Auschwitz I Harmense, the female SS guard Major Rendel (name unknown) née Klein was involved in the harassment and physical and mental abuse of the female prisoners and is to blame for the deaths of many.
8. The same is true for the women’s concentration camp Auschwitz 1 Budy and the female SS guard Frau Hasse from Görlitz, who was later the head of labour in the women’s camp Birkenau and took part in the selections of women who were no longer able to work and so contributed to the deaths of many women.
9. The following so-called doctors from the SS made personal decisions about killing hundreds of thousands of people who were unable to work but also completely healthy people through the use of phenol injections into the heart, gas, by being burnt alive, use in experimental operations as medical guinea pigs, etc. Sturmbannführer Dr Wirths (spelling unknown), Hauptsturmführer Dr Mengele, Hauptsturmführer Dr Fischer, Sturmführer Dr Rode, Sturmführer Dr Klein, Sturmführer Dr König, Dr Lucas, Dr Thilo.
10. The mutilation of living persons through sterilisation, castration and similar operations were carried out particularly by the Luftwaffe doctor, Schumann or a name similar to that.
11. In the so-called women’s block of the men’s camp Auschwitz 1, thousands of healthy women were mutilated by injections, exposure to radiation and operations and later violently murdered, for which the nine or ten named doctors are responsible.
12. Involved in the mass shootings in Block 11 of the concentration camp Auschwitz were SS Oberscharführer Kleemann– later the camp commandant in Janina and SS Unterscharführer Schmidt (spelling unknown) from Saarbrücken.
13. Oberscharführer Glaue, camp commandant in Auschwitz 1 Budy is responsible for the deaths of many people through physical stress and forcing them to work 19-hour work days without sufficient nutrition.
14. As the camp Auschwitz, Birkenau was emptied in January 1945 due to the advance of the victorious Red Army and the prisoners were deported to Germany, SS Rottenführer Niemeier from Hannover shot prisoners in the neck and left their bodies where they fell on the 18-day march from Auschwitz 3 Janina to Gross Rosen in Silesia if they were no longer able to walk.
15. In the Ellrich camp in Harz, the camp commandant, SS Oberscharführer Brinkmann, forced a prisoner who had been accused on cannibalism to eat human body parts in front of witnesses, even having salt and pepper passed to him. On the same day, he had the prisoner killed.
16. As the Ellrich camp in Harz was forced to Heikel-Oranienburg in 1945, the leader of the transport, Oberscharführer Gaudeck, was responsible for the death of many hundreds of prisoners due to insufficient distribution of food.
17.This is just a small excerpt of the horrific catalogue of guilt of Hitler’s dogs
of Hell and many names as I can remember. The number of the innocent dead is
without end, including my whole family, my parents and
siblings and I can be considered some kind of wonder of the world, that I managed to survive
the past 6 years of the most terrible mental, spiritual, physical and sexual distress, and,
in the last hours – through a brave escape
over the wire – was able to avoid physical annihilation. To the public prosecutors, who
might perhaps be helped by this indictment document, I would like to say one sentence, that
I often recited in the shadow of the gas
chambers in Auschwitz and Birkenau, as I
wanted to collapse from anger, suffering and torment and only the thought of vengeance kept
be going: Death is no
punishment.
Signature of the witness:
Marta Kratková Berta Gerzonová
Own signature:
Dr. Walter Löbner
For the Documentary campaign
Zeev Scheck
For the archive:
Alex Schmiedt
26.VIII.1945