AUSCHWITZ by Renate Lasker-Allais

Flat 2, 49 Ladbroke Grove, London W11

Tel: PARK 4753

My name is Renate Allais (maiden name Lasker). I am Jewish, German by birth, and come from Breslau (Wroclaw), where my father worked as a lawyer at the regional appeal court. Soon after the start of the war, I was arrested by the Gestapo. After an imprisonment of one and a half years, I was taken to Auschwitz and reimprisoned. This section of the camp was called Birkenau. I was brought in as a political prisoner late at night. The camp, which covered an area of many kilometres, was illuminated as bright as day, despite the war. An SS woman and an SS man with two large Alsatian dogs beat us and drove us into a barracks, where we were shut in until the next morning.

The next morning, we were shorn bald and I was tattooed with the number 70159 on my left forearm. All luggage and valuables were confiscated and, although it was mid-December and icy cold, we were each given a thin dress, a set of ripped summer underclothes and a pair of clogs. No hosiery, no coat and nothing to cover our heads. After only a few steps in the clogs, my feet were rubbed raw and bleeding.

Like all other newcomers, I was put in quarantine barracks, where I remained for four weeks. The barracks were not heated, and instead of beds, we had so-called bunks, which were a sort of box. Two of these lay on top of each other, and eight people slept in each. For eight people, there were only two blankets.

Every morning, we were woken at 4 am by a piercing whistle and we were required to have got up within two minutes, otherwise there was a hail of blows. At quarter past four, tea or sometimes some sort of coffee was shared out. Those of us who tried to keep ourselves to a certain extent clean used this drink to wash with, as the only other available water was generally frozen over. At 4.30 am, we had to present ourselves for the roll call and stand completely still until the entire camp had been accounted for.

At 6 am, the labour battalions marched out. We quarantine prisoners did not go out to work and we attempted to keep ourselves warm, at least as far as this was possible. We also tried not to be noticed in any way, because as soon as the labour battalions had left, the selections began in the camp. The camp commander with the camp doctor (a Dr. Mengele at that time), also accompanied by two high-ranking SS women visited every barrack and ordered the prisoners to report to them. We had to undress completely and, depending on the mood of the SS, we were selected for gassing due to any of the following reasons: a skin rash, which was unavoidable due to bugs and lack of vitamins; too thin; lice-infested; or simply a face that did not fit. Those whose numbers were written down, were delivered by the block elder, who was also a prisoner, to Block Number 25. This block was always so over-full because the gas chambers were so overloaded that many who had been selected to be gassed had to wait a week until it was their turn. The selected victims were shut

in this barrack number 25, stark naked, without beds, without washing facilities. There were no toilets in any of the barracks, just mass latrines in a separate building. The prisoners of number 25 were not allowed to the latrines, as one knew that they would try to hide in their panic. They were given nothing to drink. Once a day, at 6pm, a basket of bread was thrown into the barrack, for which the prisoners then beat each other half dead. Whenever I passed by barrack 25, I saw arms stuck out of the barred windows and heard whimpering voices, begging for water. Mind you, all of those selected for gassing inside the camp knew exactly what was happening.

In contrast were the big transports that rolled into the camp every single day, although most of them ended up in the gas chamber as well, they were at least spared the agony of knowing that they were facing certain death. In their case, it took place in the following way: the cattle trucks rolled into the camp, the wagons were opened, the dead were brought out, as most of these trains were underway for several days and contained many elderly people. The camp doctor, together with other SS officers, and the female camp commanders mustered all of the incomers and sorted them according to the following criteria: young, healthy-looking men to one side; older people, as well as those who looked ill or pale to the other. Amongst the women, all of those who came into the camp with children were put onto the same side as the older and ill-looking men.

A small batch were then led into camp under SS guard,

where they were shorn, tattooed and completely undressed and then incorporated into the camp. All of the others were led directly to the crematorium. They were told they were going to be bathed, and were urged to tie their clothes together well, so that they could find them again after their wash. After they were undressed, they were brought into a vast room and, when it was bulging full, it was locked shut. Then the gas was let in and, after terrible agony, they would die in approximately ten minutes. I am reporting this to the best of my knowledge and conscience, although I was obviously never in the crematorium myself. However, I knew a prisoner, who belonged to the so-called special unit (Sonderkommando). Once, he smuggled himself into the womens’ camp under a pretext and told me about his work. The special unit consisted solely of Jews who were forced to do this work. They did all of the work in the crematorium, apart from the operation of the gas, which was left for the SS. It was reserved for the special unit to sort out the corpses after the gassing, which were stuck to each other in wild convolutions after their agonising death throes. The special unit then had to break all gold teeth out of the corpses and they were also responsible for the incineration of the bodies. Members of the special unit were strictly separated from the ordinary prisoners. They had their own barrack and were treated unusually well for the duration of their work. They were given as much food and alcohol and as many cigarettes as they wanted. However, every six months they had to go the same way as those they were forced to burn. The special unit was changed over every six months, to avoid the danger of any survivors remaining after the war who would be able to give eyewitness accounts of their work. In the late autumn of 1944, the special unit who had prepared themselves to be killed in the next few days, decided to riot. However, it was unsuccessful and the result was that they were all shot whilst trying to break out of the camp.

Two weeks after my arrival in Auschwitz, I was taken ill with spotted fever, an illness that was rife every winter in the camp and could not be fought off, because we were all completely lice-infested and the germs spread themselves through the lice. I was marked down for gassing twice, but was saved at the last moment both times. The first time was because my sister, who belonged to the camp orchestra, appealed to the camp commander who had a weakness for music and the second time because one of the selection officers (Hessler), who incidentally has since been executed in Hamelin (Hameln), was humane for a moment and crossed out my name again.

There was no medical treatment available, for the simple reason that there was no medicine. The few medicines, that were smuggled under great danger by the prisoners who worked in the warehouses, were only obtainable if one had a valuable means of barter. Aside from the typhus, we

all suffered from chronic dysentery, an illness that claimed more lives than the typhus. We all suffered from open, festering wounds on our whole bodies, because of the complete lack of vitamins in our diet. Our nutrition consisted of a piece of bread, which was shared out in the evenings and had to be sufficient until the next evening, as well as a bowl of nondescript soup, in which a few chunks of turnip swam. Absolutely no fruit, nor vegetables. Hard workers received a 3cm long piece of black pudding and a tiny piece of cheese twice a week. Saltpetre was also cooked in the soup to prevent the women from menstruating. None of the female prisoners who were dependent on the food provided by the camp ever got their period.

After four weeks of quarantine, I was brought into the main camp and assigned to work. Our work consisted mainly of carrying stones and shovelling clay, as well as loading and unloading waggons. We worked eleven hours a day, with a ten minute break at midday, when we were given a bowl of soup. There were no spoons and the soup was so hot, that we were often unable to eat it in the time available to us. We were guarded the entire time whilst we were working by the SS with dogs, which they released on us, if we paused for even a moment to catch our breath. At 6pm, we marched back into the camp, so deathly tired that one always tried to support the others. To that end, we had to sing marching songs and march at a walking pace. If someone lagged behind a bit, the dog was set loose on them. At the camp gates stood two SS women and a prisoner, who counted us and occasionally one of us would be removed from the ranks and searched.

We beside the unlucky ones who tried to smuggle a turnip or a tomato into the camp. They would be battered so badly until they were lying unconscious on the road: if they were lucky and could get themselves up out of the dust inconspicuously, the whole affair was over. If they stayed lying on the floor, they would be transported to the crematorium and gassed.

The camp was fogged day and night in a fatty, black smoke that came from the three chimneys of the crematorium. The stench, which I became used to after several months, was so unbearable that I continually vomited. It was the revolting, sweet stench of burnt flesh and hair. Those primarily responsible for the gassings were: Dr. Mengele, a young man whose pet fad it was to conduct experiments on twins for his thesis on this subject; Dr. Klein, who was sentenced to death at trial in Lüneburg; the camp commander Cramer, also executed; and the SS women Mandel and Drechsel. Mandel and Drechsel were, as far as I am aware, never found, and are probably still at large.

The occupants of my barrack consisted of Italian, French, Greek and Polish women. The hardiest prisoners were the Poles and Russians, whereas the Greeks and Italians died like flies. If they didn’t die a natural death from typhus or dysentery, they were inevitably chosen at the selections. They could not cope with the icy winter weather and suffered terribly from the symptoms of frostbite. At the end of 1943, the German Jews were practically non-existent:

the work was just too difficult for them and they were often taken straight from their place of work, where they collapsed unconscious, to the gas chambers.

The internal administration of the camp, namely block elders, the clothing store, sick bay, kitchen, delousing etc. was put solely in the hands of prisoners, who were selected by the SS for this work. Some of the prisoners misused their preferential treatment, above all the so-called Kapos, who were responsible for the labour units. They were often German, non-Jewish prisoners, who were in the camp for one of the following reasons: refusal to work, prostitution or repeat offenders. We often suffered more under these prisoners than under the SS, who at least concerned themselves with the internal affairs a little, whereas we relied on these prisoners for matters of life and death. They have the lives of lots of Jews, and non-Jews, on their conscience, as they wanted to distinguish themselves in front of the SS by violence towards us.

The mortality rates in the camp rose every winter at an alarming rate. First of all, the year-round typhus epidemic claimed a lot of victims, as did dysentery and finally exhaustion. Many committed suicide by throwing themselves at the high-voltage barbed wire, on which they would hang for the whole night, until their

bodies were removed from the wire in the morning.

Every morning before the roll call, those who had died overnight were laid out before the barrack, after they had been completely undressed, then the block elders, who were given their rapport by the SS, reported: two thousand standing, fifty dead, two hundred sick. The 200 sick prisoners were then sent off to the so-called Revier, the sick bay, the next step being the gas chamber.

Before my arrival into the camp, I had never seen a dead body before and I will never forget how, on the first day after my arrival, I stared disbelievingly at a pile of twisted limbs piled on top of each other, until it became clear to me that these were dead women. I soon got used to this sight, however and later worked in the Leichenkommando for a while, in which it was my responsibility to load the naked bodies onto a cart, which would then be driven into the crematorium.

In conclusion, I would like to say that, for the individual people, the worst part of being in the camp was the continual physical humiliation and the sense of complete hopelessness in facing their future. Many of us had no fear left of being gassed and hoped to die. Those of us who still believed in God prayed every evening: Dear God, let us not wake up tomorrow. No, the worst was to stand still, for hours on end, morning and evening in the piercing cold, and in summer in sweltering heat, until the entire camp had been accounted for. Almost all of us suffered from chronic, bleeding dysentery. However, it was strictly forbidden

to go to the latrines during the roll call. The consequences of this ban were unavoidable and it was this degrading humiliation that was a greater agony for many of us than the constantly smoking chimneys of the crematorium in front of us. It was the realisation that we had all lost every sign of civilisation in a frighteningly short space of time. We did not wash any more, as there was no water, it was so icy cold and we were lice-infested, we stank, our whole bodies were festering, we threw ourselves like wild animals at a piece of bread and we drank the water from dirty puddles.

In the summer of 1944, the first Hungariantransport of Jews arrived in Auschwitz. They arrived in such numbers that the crematorium could no longer cope with the workload. We had to shovel enormous pits near to the gas chambers. Those who had been gassed were covered in petrol there and burnt out in the open. Small children were thrown into the flames alive. We could hear their screams right in the centre of the camp. At this time, on command from Berlin, the entire gypsy camp, which was next to our camp, was exterminated. Nobody survived. They were all gassed, although there were many perfectly healthy young men and women in this camp.

Shortly after the arrival of the last Hungarian transport, the evacuation of the camp began, as the Russian front was advancing at an alarming rate. The gas chambers were blown up, so that the Russians would not find them. On 10th October 1944, I left the camp of Auschwitz with my sister and arrived a week later in the concentration camp of Belsen, after an eventful journey in a cattle wagon. On 15th April 1945 we were released by the English.