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SONDERKOMMANDO

KL AUSCHWITZ – CONCENTRATION AND EXTERMINATION CAMP

SONDERKOMMANDO

Source: A-BSMA

Photographs taken illegally by members of the Sonderkommando in 1944, presenting naked women being chased by the SS to the crematoria as well as the burning of the bodies of those murdered in the gas chambers.

Source: A-BSMA

Crematorium V was concealed from the side of the road by a makeshift fence of branches fastened to wires stretched between trees and wooden posts. Those to be killed would undress in the area between this fence and the crematorium whenever the undressing room was not emptied in time. One of the three resistance movement photographs was taken by us (Alex, the Greek Jew, I and some others) from the vestibule leading to the gas chamber and it shows naked women coming from the grove. The remaining two photographs were taken through the doorway from inside the gas chamber and shows the corpses lying in front of smoking pits. All these photographs were taken with a camera provided by Dawid Szmulewski. It came from the luggage of victims and it only had three frames left. Szmulewski took the exposed film and I buried the camera near the crematorium, I no longer remember exactly where.

Source: Alter Fajnzylberg, A-BSMA, Testimonies Fond, vol. 113, pp. 4-5.

SEE THE AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY

ALTER FAJNZYLBERG

Born in Stoczek on 23 November 1911. On 14 November deported to Auschwitz, where registered as prisoner number 75019. Initially employed as a joiner, then from November 1942 to July 1943 as a stoker in Auschwitz Crematorium I, and later as a Sonderkommando member in Crematoria IV and V in Birkenau. After the war lived in Paris.

In the first years of the camp’s existence the burning of corpses in the Main Camp crematorium was carried out by prisoners of the Heizerkommando (stokers Kommando). Their job was to receive the bodies of prisoners who had died or been killed from the ‘pallbearers’ Kommando (Leichenträgerkommando), take them to the crematorium and burn them.

The first Sonderkommando was immediately formed when the mass extermination of Jews at Birkenau began. It exclusively comprised Jewish prisoners. Some of them worked in the undressing barracks, initially sorting the clothes and other belongings of the murdered victims into piles which were transported to the ‘Canada’ warehouses. Others had to deal directly with the gas chamber, pulling out the corpses, extracting the gold teeth, cutting off the hair, washing off the traces of blood and excrement on the floor and occasionally also whitewashing the walls and floor with lime. Yet another group of prisoners was employed digging and later covering the mass graves.

By mid-1942 there were two Sonderkommandos, one employed at the ‘little red cottage’ and the other at the ‘little white cottage’. Soon a third Sonderkommando was probably formed to dig up the mass graves, pull out the corpses and burn them on pyres. After this work was finished, at the start of December 1942, these prisoners were murdered in a gas chamber. The exact chronology of events is not entirely clear: we know that at least two groups of prisoners from the Sonderkommando had tried to escape. Most probably worried by this fact, the SS decided to kill the entire Kommando, which they did on 9 December. Next a new Sonderkommando was formed by selecting several hundred prisoners from subsequent transports arriving at Auschwitz.

When the new crematoria in Birkenau became operational (in the spring of 1943), the SS employed there prisoners who had previously worked in the old Auschwitz crematorium as well as members of the ‘red’ and ‘white cottage’ Sonderkommandos. The appointed Kapos were professional stokers (one German, five Poles and several Jews). The rest of the Kommando were exclusively Jews. They were quartered in a separate barrack (first in Block 2 of Birkenau BIb and later in Block 13 of Birkenau BIId) and forbidden to have any contact with other prisoners. In 1944 the Sonderkommando was moved to the attics of the crematoria buildings and to Crematorium IV, which was then out of order. The number of Sonderkommando prisoners fluctuated in relation to current needs. When in February 1944 the number of transports fell, the number of Sonderkommando members was reduced to only 200 prisoners (after approximately 200 of their colleagues were transferred to Majdanek and murdered). On the other hand, when the extermination of the Hungarian Jews began, the number of Sonderkommando members rose to some 900 prisoners. Some of these were again employed at the ‘little white cottage’, unloading wood and burning corpses on pyres. The Sonderkommando worked in to two 12-hour shifts, daytime and night time. When despite this problems arose with disposing of all the corpses in time, the victims of the Crematorium V gas chamber were burned not only in the furnaces but also in massive pits, specially dug nearby.

In September 1944 the Sonderkommando was again reduced by 200 prisoners, who were treacherously murdered in one of the disinfection chambers. Fearing that the same fate also awaited them, on 7 October 1944 the remaining Sonderkommando members rebelled. First they attacked SS guards with axes and poles, next they set fire to one of the crematoria and then, having cut through the barbed wire fencing, tried to escape. Unfortunately, all of the escapees were surrounded by the SS near the village of Pławy-Rajsko and shot. The Sonderkommando, reduced to some 200 and later to barely 100 prisoners, continued to exist in the camp until the evacuation in January 1945.

The tragic state of mind of Sonderkommando prisoners is evidenced in the notes they buried near the crematoria, to bear testimony to the truth, and in the accounts (several dozen) some of the survivors submitted after the war.

An excerpt from the manuscript by a Polish Jew, Sonderkommando member Załmen Lewental

But the next day (i.e. Saturday morning, 7 October 1944) we learned that the transport of those 300 people from Crem[atorium] IV/V was to leave at noon. For the last time we strengthened our positions and informed our contacts clearly and precisely how to behave in various eventualities. When it was 1.25 in the afternoon and they [the SS] came to collect them, those 300 people showed incredible courage and resisted. Raising a loud cry, they rushed at the guards with hammers and axes, managing to wound some; others fought with what they could, they simply threw stones at them. One could easily imagine the consequences. Not many moments later a whole SS detachment arrived, armed with machine guns and grenades. There were so many of them that against every prisoner there were no less than two machine guns. Such an enormous army was mobilised against them. Our people, seeing their fate sealed, decided to set fire to Crem[atorium] IV and die fighting, holding their ground, in a hail of bullets. And thus the crematorium went up in smoke. Our Crem[atorium] II/III Kommando, seeing from a distance the flames and hearing the very loud gunfire, were convinced no one from that Kommando could survive … At the same time it became clear to us that our contacts were also over there and that they could make use of the weapons they had. This would greatly betray us, since it would it indicate that we too had some weapons. Nevertheless, we decided not to react prematurely as this was a straightforward brawl, for which we still had time, even if it would be in the last minute. Without due preparation, without the help of prisoners from the entire camp, and, what is more, doing it in broad daylight, it would be hard to imagine anyone, just one person, had any hope of surviving. That is why we had to wait. Perhaps it would drag on until dusk, and then, if we considered it urgent, we would do it that evening. But it was not easy to restrain the Russians who were with us, because they were also convinced they would soon be put into a transport. Since over there everyone was [dying] fighting, they reckoned their time was also up, all the more so because from afar they spotted a group of armed SS men heading in our direction. They came for security reasons, but the Russians believed they were coming to take them away. And at the last moment it was impossible to hold them back. They pounced on the Oberkapo, a Reichsdeutsche, and instantly threw him alive into a burning furnace. He certainly deserved it; in his case perhaps it was even too light a death. Our companions from Crematorium II, confronted with what had now become a fact and realising there was no chance of backing out, quickly decided what had to be done and tried to coax in the chiefs [SS men], who were outside. But they already sensed the danger and would not be fooled. Not able to wait any longer, every minute counted, and that was because armed guards were already approaching, they quickly decided to distribute among themselves everything they had prepared for the final moment. They cut through the wires and all escaped beyond the guard post line. Yet before doing so, they gave testimony to a great sense of responsibility and commitment. In those final minutes, when chased by guards, life depended on every second, they nevertheless stopped for a while to perform one final action, to cut the wires of the adjacent women’s camp, so that the women could also escape. Unfortunately, there was not much more they could do. They managed to get a few kilometres away from the camp, but then were surrounded by other guards who had been telephoned from neighbouring camps. Sadly, they were all killed while trying to escape. Some had managed to make use of the ‘material’ [explosive materials, grenades?] they had taken with them, thanks to which they were able to get as far as they did. But the enemy forces proved to be their match. As could be expected, they [the SS], unfortunately, surrounded our heroic brothers and shot them dead from a distance with machine guns.

Source: Wśród koszmarnej zbrodni. Notatki więźniów Sonderkommando, Oświęcim, 1975, p. 232.

ZAŁMEN LEWENTAL – Polish Jew, Sonderkommando member. Author of manuscript found near the ruins of Birkenau Crematorium III in October 1962.