Viktor FranklWe were told to leave our luggage in the train and to fall into two lines-- women on one side, men on the other-- in order to file past a German officer. After a few moments, I was face to face with him. He was a tall man who looked slim and fit in his spotless uniform. It was my turn. Somebody whispered to me that to be sent to the right side meant work, and the way to the left was for the sick and incapable of working. The ones on the left were to be sent to a special camp. The man looked at me quickly and directed me to the right side. The significance of the finger game was explained to us in the evening. |
It was the first selection. For the great majoirty of our transport, about 90 percent, meant death. Their sentence was carried out within the next few hours. Those who were sent to the left were marched from the station straight to the crematorium. I inquired from prisoners who had been there for some time where my colleague friend had been sent. “Was he sent to the left side?” “Yes,” I replied. “Then you can see him there,” I was told. “Where?” A hand pointed to the chimney a few hundred yards off, which was sending a column of flame up into the grey sky of Poland. It dissolved into a cloud of smoke. “That’s where your friend is, floating up to Heaven,” was the answer. |
Elie Wiesel“Jews, look! Look at the fire! Look at the flames!” And as the train stopped, this time we saw flames rising from a tall chimney into a black sky. Mrs. Schachter had fallen silent on her own. Mute again, indifferent, absent, she had returned to her corner. We stared at the flames in the darkness. A wretched stench floated in the air. Abruptly, our doors opened. Strange-looking creatures, dressed in striped jackets and black pants, jumped into the wagon. Holding flashlights and sticks, they began to strike at us left and right, shouting: “Everybody out! Leave everything inside. Hurry up!” We jumped out. I glanced at Mrs. Schachter. Her little boy was still holding her hand. In front of us, those flames. In the air, the smell of burning flesh. It must have been around midnight. We had arrived. In Birkenau. As we left the car, a German soldier commanded: “Men to the left! Women to the right!” Eight words spoken quietly, indifferently, without emotion. Eight simple, short words. Yet that was the moment when I left my mother. There was no time to think, and I already felt my father’s hand press against mine: we were alone. In a fraction of a second I could see my mother, my sisters, move to the right. My sister was holding my mother’s hand. I saw them walking farther and farther away; Mother was stroking my sister’s blond hair, as if to protect her. And I walked on with my father, with the men. I didn’t know that this was the moment in time and the place where I was leaving my mother and sister forever. I kept walking, my father holding my hand.” We were waiting in line when another man approached me. “Hey, kid, how old are you?” It was clear that he was a prisoner. I could not see his face, but his voice was welcoming. “Fifteen.” “No. You’re eighteen.” “But I’m not,” I said. “I’m fifteen.” “Fool. Listen to what I say.” Then he asked my father, who answered: “I’m fifty.” “No.” The man now sounded angry. “Not fifty. You’re forty. Do you hear? Eighteen and forty.” |
Dr. Megele, the notorious Dr. Mengele. He was holding a conductor’s baton and was surrounded by officers. The baton was moving constantly, sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left. In no time, I stood before him. “Your age?” He asked, perhaps trying to sound paternal. “I’m eighteen.” My voice was trembling. “In good health?” “Yes.” “Your profession?” Tell him that I was a student? “Farmer, I heard myself saying. This conversation lasted no more than a few seconds. It seemed like an eternity. The baton pointed to the left. I took half a step forward. I first wanted to see where they would send my father. Were he to have gone to the right, I would have run after him. The baton, once more, moved to the left. A weight lifted from my heart. We did not know, as yet, which was the better side, right or left, which road led to prison and which to the crematoria. Still, I was happy as I was near my father. Our line continued slowly to move forward. Another inmate came over to us: “Satisfied?” “Yes,” someone answered. “Poor devils, you are heading for the crematorium.” He seemed to be telling the truth. Not far from us, flames, huge flames, were rising from a ditch. Something was being burned there. I pinched myself: Was I still alive? Was I awake? How was it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and the world kept silent? No. All this could not be real. A nightmare perhaps… We continued our march. We were coming closer and closer to the pit, from which an infernal heat was rising. Twenty more steps. If I was going to kill myself, this was the time. Our column had only some fifteen steps to go. I bit my lips so that my father would not hear my teeth chattering. Ten more steps. Eight. Seven. We were walking slowly, as one follows a hearse, our own funeral procession. Only four more steps. Three. There it was now, very close to us, the pit and its flames. I gathered all that remained of my strength in order to break rank and throw myself onto the barbed wire. Deep down, I was saying good-bye to my father, to the whole universe, and, against my will, I found myself praying. Two steps from the pit, we were ordered to turn left and herded into barracks. I squeezed my father’s hand. He said, “Do you remember the woman in the train?” |
Magda HErzbergerAfter three horrible days and nights, the train finally stopped. It was midmorning. We heard many loud voices coming from outside. All kinds of commands were shouted in the German language. I realized that we must be somewhere in Germany, but I wondered where. Then the locks and the bolts of our cattle car compartments were opened. The German guards came in with their sticks and hauled us out of the cattle cars. They yelled at us, “Out, out, fast, fast!” They beat us if we don’t jump down fast enough from our cattle cars, totally inconsiderate of the elderly, the young children, the pregnant women, and the sick people. I encountered true violence and evil cruelty in its worst form on that day. At the time of our arrival we didn’t know that we were at Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was the largest and most infamous German concentration camp. |
The railroad tracks which we faced while standing on the station platform were the separation points between the main camp of Auschwitz and the camp of Birkenau, which was actually a part of Auschwitz. The left tracks led to Birkenau and the right tracks led to Auschwitz. Standing on that platform facing the tracks, I could see the vague silhouette of an extensive building complex on the other side of the tracks. Looking ahead some distance, I could see tall chimneys with great flames belching from them. The air was filled with the strange, sickening, sweet odor of burning flesh. Even in my worst nightmares I couldn’t have imagined that these flames were rising from the crematory ovens of the killing facilities. There were four crematory units and gas chambers at Birkenau where the bodies of those not considered useful were consumed after they had been killed in the gas chambers shortly after their arrival at Birkenau. Birkenau was an extermination camp. Jewish prisoners from surrounding camps who were not considered useful anymore were sent to Birkenau for extermination. We, the freshly arrived prisoners, were totally ignorant of these horrible arrangements. |
Selection Line I saw Dr. Mengele in person as chief selector and high-ranking German officer. He made a point of looking us over personally and making instant decisions concerning our fate. He directed some people to the left, others to the right, indicating the directions with quick, jerky motions of his cane. We didn’t realize at the time that “left” meant death in the gas chambers in Birkenau and “right” signified life. Dr. Mengele and his German physicians’ team selected four the gas chambers all the infants, the children up to fourteen years of age, the old people, the sick ones, the invalids, the pregnant women, the mentally disturbed, etc. They were considered not able to work. “Arbeit mach frei” was their motto: “Work gives you freedom.” |
Men and women were being separated from their loved ones, the horrified children, crying in desperation while being taken away from their mothers. The Germans lied to us and told us that the children and old people would get good care and the assistance they needed. Ambulances came to pick up the sick people, the old people, and the others who were too weak to walk. We learned later on that the ambulances took all those people to the killing facilities so they could be exterminated. The purpose of all those lies was to lead the people to the extermination places willingly, since they were not suspecting the awful truth. Their fate was sealed at our arrival at Birkenau but nobody knew it. They were taken to their death chambers with little protest or rebellion. |
Gas Chamber
Magda HerzbergerI learned that each of the largest two-story killing facilities (No. 1 and No. 2) was equipped with a huge underground dressing room and an enormous gas chamber, having the capacity to kill 3,000 people all at once. On the ground level was a very large incinerating room equipped with 15 ovens. The smaller, one-story killing facilities (No. 3 and No. 4) had the same arrangements except that everything contained on one level and their gas chambers had the capacity of killing 2,000 people all at once.
Those deportees who were selected by Dr. Mengele to be gassed upon their arrival were totally unaware of their terrible fate. They were accompanied by German guards and by professional classical musician inmates selected by German officials to play for them. Could these people have imagined that it was their funeral march? |
What happened to them after they entered the gates of the killing facilities?
At first 3,000 of them were led into a giant underground dressing room marked “Bath and Disinfection,” where men, women, and children of all ages were forced to undress.
They had to let go of all of their valuable possessions as well. Then all the 3,000 people were pushed into a well-lit, enormous gas chamber located at the end of the dressing room. |
Once they were inside, the big swinging doors of the gas chamber were locked, air-tight, the lights were switched off, and a lethal gas called Zyklon B (with a base of hydrate of cyanide) was administered from outside through a system of underground pipes connected to the square, porous, sheet-iron pipes inside the gas chamber.
The gas seeped through the perforations and within five minutes, all the 3,000 deportees inside were dead. |
Citations:
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-camps
Wiesel, Elie, et al. The Night Trilogy. Hill and Wang, 2008.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-camps
Wiesel, Elie, et al. The Night Trilogy. Hill and Wang, 2008.