A There was a very peculiar system in the concentration camps, as far as punishments were concerned. Officially there was not too much punishment for which certain regulations had been set up. So it was always possible for the higher-ups to say - of course, I am speaking now of floggings, and all those things. For instance, it was strictly forbidden to carry out the flogging on inmates who were naked. That is, the flogging was then entirely cancelled by Himmler after '42 or '43. But, generally speaking, the cause for the punishments and the way in which punishments were carried out were so horrible and numerous that it is very difficult to give a clear-cut picture of all those things. There were more or less normal punishments. They could be inflicted on the smallest offense; or then, due to a very heavy offense at least heavy in the eyes of the SS, because we did not know any regulations, and we did not ever hear of regulations. For instance, we could be punished because we looked at some SS leader on the camp street in an "unruly" manner. Our number would be written down because our hands were not pressed correctly against the seam of our trousers; because the cap was crooked, or because a button was missing; or then because when we came back from the working Kommandoes, our clothes were dirty; sometimes because we carried out sabotage; during a storm we put some sort of a piece of paper from a paper cement bag underneath our clothes in order to protect ourselves from the rain. Or then sometimes because our clothes were not clean enough. Or then because the stone we carried was not clean enough or was not heavy enough. Or because we smoked - or allegedly smoked; because somebody had given us a stub of a cigarette; because somebody had picked up a stub of a cigarette off the SS roads.
Or then because somebody had allegedly written or used a wrong word in a letter to one of his relatives. Or because the letter was not properly written. Or then, because we didn't answer a Scharfuehrer. For instance, they asked us why we were standing at the gate when we had been called up. Because none of us knew why we were standing at the gate, we couldn't answer - because we didn't know we couldn't answer. Or then because we had to answer in a "fresh" manner. For instance, "I don't know why I am standing here."
One of my close friends, the Austrian Section Chief, Franz von Nortsch, who now is dead, was called up to the gate, around Christmas, and stood there from morning until evening, and was abused by the SS. And he didn't know why. And he was punished thousands of times. Then he was sent away.
And the man who only weighed forty-nine pounds, could hardly stand up, was called up again on Christmas and he stayed there from morning until evening. In the evening the Report Clerk pushed a telegram through the window that his father had died. That is how punishments were carried out in the concentration camps.
Because, for instance, we hadn't kept up the working time. Of course, there were certain cases when people tried to escape, and if someone tried to escape, he was hanged in front of all the concentration camp inmates there. Or then he was tortured prior to that. One was sent to the bunker - or, rather, someone was sent to the bunker - it meant death for him in a gruesome manner.
Somebody could die, for instance, from starvation; somebody could be fed with salt herrings without water until he went crazy.
Or we could be hanged by our feet. All those things are not things I am imagining right at the present moment. All those things actually happened to comrades of mine in the concentration camp Buchenwald, and I know in Dachau, too, worse things happened. And I know in Sachsenhausen, and I know from other camps - and they are all absolutely authentic.
Why else could we be punished? Let me think. I don't know exactly all the occasions. It was nothing but pure will! There were no regulations. The general was for escaping, but there were other regulations for escapees so that people were beaten until they started running and then they were shot.
Then came the function of the SS, who said that an inmate was caught for trying to escape; this was then written into the record, details were given about his execution or the way he was killed. For instance, he ran away and he was short in the back, etc., etc. But I also went through that where another inmate was hiding behind some bushes, and he wanted to go run through the chain of guards in order to be killed there. And that then one of these people asked, "What do you want?" And he said, "I want to be shot;" whereupon he was told, "Why don't you stick around for a moment?" And only when this commission of visitors had left and the inmate had been killed in the meantime, then the commission came back and wrote a new report that somebody else had tried to escape. We had many such cases; and again one of my best friends, the Austrian Justice Minister, Dr. von Winterstein, who was 65 years of age, was killed during one of those "escapes." Punishments? People were hanged to trees so that their toes could not touch the ground; people were hanged to wooden legs; people were killed, hanged, choked, shot to death.
It is quite a chapter if I want to go into detail.... The reasons for punishment and the way the punishment was carried out. And there were enough SS leaders who were in positions in which they allegedly - or really - knew nothing; who, however, at all times, had the possibility, on the basis of their official position, to see all these things - or, rather, who could but who didn't say a word because they were leading their own lives... in their proud uniforms due to which tens of thousands died.
Q Witness, going back for a moment to "work", can you describe to the Tribunal the happenings on May Day or Labor Day - in a concentration camp?
A I did not quite understand the first expression. Would you repeat, please? (Interpreter repeats question) Well, on the first of May - that is '41 or '42 - the dates were more important than the years, really - well, special Scharfuehrers were detailed for the camp, or for the camp administration, and ordered to provide for a very hard work program in the gardens because that was the international holiday of the workers, and we were to be given an opportunity to celebrate first of May.
I shall describe everything that happened in the garden on that particular day.
The result was, over a dozen comrades had been flogged to death - or, rather, five to six death on that evening, not speaking of other things. The Scharfuehrer was very angry about the fact that they also had to lose their time off for the supervision, and, therefore, that is how they expressed their anger - on the inmates themselves. On the time off we worked very hard in the camp. That is, all the punitive details or the special details, so-called "K" inmates. These "K" inmates were the ones who wore green triangles with the letter "K". They were inmates who were considered war criminals and thus sent to the camps.
I had quite a few political friends among them, friends I knew before. That is, people who had nothing to do with criminal things.
Well, as I was saying, all these special commanders and of course the Jews; and in many cases the Poles - had to work on their time off. All the other camp inmates had to do whatever they were told to do. Once in a while we had a Sunday afternoon off.
Q Will you tell us something about the food which was given to the concentration camp inmates?
A That is not very easy to explain either. For a concentration camp inmate originally, 60 Reichpfennigs per day were figured out. Then, this amount, for a short period of time, was reduced to 55 pfennigs. And after a short period of time it was increased to 65 pfennigs.
There was an official food allocation. The value of the calories which were on the paper from 1942, on, was approximately the same as the number of calories which the Germans received outside of the concentration camp - but only on paper. I compared the figures sometimes during my time in the camp and also after my release: they were almost the same. The result, however, was different. The food allocated by the Food Ministry upon orders from the WVHA was first divided up by the SS itself, then the man who was in charge of the stores removed a certain amount of food, then the kitchen; that is, the inmates and the SS people removed a little bit of the food. Then the block eldest received food. And whatever was left - which was very shabby - was left for the inmates, the mass of inmates.
The bread in the various camps, according to the ex perience we had there, was different.
For instance, in Buchenwald for a short period of time it was not bad at all and was the same bread which was used in the Wehrmacht. But at other times it was bad, and it was not enough very little for most of the people in the camp. Some of the Kommandos had special food allocations for those who did heavy work in the armament factories.
Court No. II - Case No. 4 That additional allocation consisted of a small piece of sausage every second or third day, a piece of sausage approximately five centimetres, and a piece of bread, perhaps 1/8 to 1/3 of a loaf.
There were certain times for which the bread was quite sufficient for these Commandos. However, one does not look at the food separately, but in connection with all the other situations in the camp. Then it can be understood why until the end, even during the time of the war, hundreds of inmates, particularly, Russians, Ukranians, and Poles, you actually collected the least small piece of garbage, which were selected out of the garbage cans and eaten by them. Then you can also understand why in our concentration camp in Buchenwald Russian prisoners of war were turned in who came from the outside camps of Buchenwald in the Sperrgebiet because they had eaten food from the cans. The people were sent to bunkers there and killed. All these things couldn't be expressed or understood if the ration which was on the paper would have really been landed out everywhere and to all of them in the correct manner and properly. To this I may add a point mainly the way in which this food was prepared, that didn't have any taste at all, but the taste, the way it was prepared, it was horrible. If you receive sticky beets two or three times a week, then you can't eat them after a long period of time and many people have certain stomach diseases after a little while and this, generally speaking, illustrated the food situation in the camps.
Q. What about the possibility of prisoners receiving money or purchasing things in the concentration camp canteen?
Court No. II - Case No. 4
A. Every month we could write one letter - not all the inmates, not by far. As a matter of fact, that also is only generally speaking. There was a special letter head on that letter which took approximately one-third of the first page and it said there among other things that every inmate in the concentration camp can receive money from his relatives. The sum was not mentioned and he could buy anything he wished to in the concentration camp. Therefore, some of the relatives who had money out of the war, that applied to approximately 1/3 of the inmates from Germany particularly and in some surrounding countries. From 1942 on they did not receive any money at all. At the end, perhaps 9/10 of the camp in the last three years received no money. Anyway, generally speaking 1/3 of the people could receive money. As people found out that money could be sent they sent hundreds of marks and some inmates received thousands of marks, when they could receive thirty marks per month. I shall skip how money was paid out. Well, what was it that a man could actually buy with these thirty marks. There were canteens which was purchased by the SS administration which received generally things from Dachau up until 1939. That canteen community, that was the exact name of it, received certain nice things who ever had money and did not lose it through bribery or pressure, if he had connections, that is, then they probably could buy a few nice things. There were Capos sometimes who got up to four hundred or five hundred marks monthly and who had a wonderful breakfast sometimes even with cream, whipped cream, cakes, cookies, but that applied not to 98% of all the other inmates; in Dachau, for instance, there was a restaurant. I could Court No. II - Case No. 4 only call a name.
It is true that we could receive coffee or a small piece of cake or cookie. That is true in 1939. Whatever ration there was in the camp was purchased. However, from 1939 this diminished rapidly as an average one could only buy certain things like salad and once in a while Germany cigarettes or paper cigars or sometimes tobacco. All these things which were very valuable to us were sold at the same time. They were sold at the same time, with for instance for twenty cigarettes you could buy garters. There were people who had three or four garters because they wanted cigarettes all the time. It was the only means of exchange. The Jews for instance, had to provide the sum in order to buy these garters. It occurred that the SS would collect all these items or special needles, hair needles from the women, so that these needles were sold to us, together with something we really needed for a high price. Then after 1944 we received thin beer for certain inmates, that is in Buchenwald. Apart from that we couldn't buy anything important in the canteens. I can't remember of anything I could have bought myself. From 1943 on a premium or bonus system was introduced in many camps. That is, we the inmates, who worked particularly well were paid a certain weekly bonus. In other words, it was some sort of an ersatz money that was printed by the SS. We found out that money had not been paid out for special work, but that it had simply been given to the Capos and they had distributed it to certain people whom they wanted to give it to and we never saw real money for that money remained with the Capo when it was put down on the accounts of the SS and the SS itself worked with that money. In the Court No. II - Case No. 4 SS-WVHA sometimes it amounted to millions of marks which they could use and trade from these various sources.
In the last few years, I believe, not more often than three times money was paid out to certain categories of inmates, that is, real money. There were bonuses, but, to be exact, we couldn't buy very much with those bonuses. Once in a while we could buy cigarettes. That was possible. It was different in different camps. That just goes to show you how the corruption works. For instance, some of the SS commanders sent some inmate to Holland in order to buy cigarettes or cigars. We were told to pay 10 or 15,000 marks in advance and you will receive cigarettes or tobacco whatever in the world you wish, and the man came back with a few boxes and everyone received two or three cigars, perhaps eight or ten cigarettes, and perhaps just one candy bar. Once could really tell the whole world that there was chocolate in the concentration camps. Then from a certain moment on we could receive parcels from the outside world, which rule was from 1941 on. These parcels proved to be quite some help. All the relatives tried to spare all which would make it easy in order to buy parcels. A woman, for instance, who had two or three children, worked in horrible conditions for five years so that I myself, her kin, in order to save money so she could send me small parcels. And even those small parcels were quite some help. Particularly the protectorate, certain communities collected money to help people in the concentration camps and did help them. Then from a certain moment on, that is from 1943 quite a few Red Cross parcels came in for the French, the Danes, and the Norwegians. We had, for instance, Court No. II - Case No. 4 960 Danish policemen in the camp at Buchenwald and they received Red Cross parcels constantly.
As far as the Danes and the Norwegians were concerned it worked out fine. They also helped out people who did not receive parcels because the greatest mass did not receive any. As far as the French were concerned, it happened that all cigarettes were taken away by the SS because everyone who had been sent on the transport and then received some sort of a Red Cross parcel and was no longer in Buchenwald, or some other camp and did not receive the the parcel, that was the moment when the parcels were taken away by the report clerk. For instance, I remember in the last days of the camp when the SS leaders removed all the empty Red Cross boxes before the time the Allies would arrive so that they wouldn't find these boxes in their rooms. Within two months 23,000 Red Cross parcels were stolen by the SS alone. The Red Cross demanded some sort of an explanation and there was quite a scandal. One of the SS-Scharfuehrers was turned in by some citizen of Weimar. However, all the things were kept down and the French received parcels during transport and the report clerk which I mentioned before, did not distribute them to the French themselves, but the report clerk distributed them to his own friends or to the Capos or to the Germans, or whoever was near to him who ever he liked. The French who were in the camp worked under the most horrible conditions. 10 men would receive one parcel or three men received one parcel. In the first years, 1941 to 1943 up to 1944 there was a strong order of the SS that the relatives from the outside world could only send so much or as much as an inmate could eat in one day. However, that Court No. II - Case No. 4 was the reason they didn't confiscate everything for themselves, because the parcel came in and then, of course, certain complications arose and later on these parcels proved to be quite some help to the camp, but it was some help by our relatives and not a help through the SS.
At that time the WVHA in Berlin expressed interest that the death rate was going down, was sinking instead of rising and the food situation amongst the inmates would be better because they needed the power. In other other words, when parcels came in and when you received a parcel, it wasn't seimply kind of humanitarian reasons that they allowed the receipt of such a parcel. It was just calculation. Nothing else. All the last years we were allowed leather shoes, because they didn't want to give us any in the camp because they said they hadn't any. Some parcels with Cigars were complete because they wanted some propaganda when they recruited personnel abroad. The reason was therefore, that they didn't want them to know these facts.
THE PRESIDENT: The court is in recess until 1:30.
(A recess was taken until 1330 hours)
AFTERNOON SESSION (The hearing reconvened at 1330 hours, 22 April 1947.)
THE MARSHAL: Tribunal II is again in session.
EUGENE KOGON (Resumed) DIRECT EXAMINATION(Continued) BY MR. McHANEY:
Q Witness, going back once again to the subject of work in the concentration camps, can you tell me whether the name or the initials "DAW" are familiar to you?
A Yes, DAW is the abbreviation of the German equipment works, "Deutsche Ausruestungswerke", the German equipment works, an enterprise which from 1942 was conducted by the WVHA, Department W, and was under its administration. The German equipment works had workshops in quite a number of concentration camps. That is, in Buchenwald there was a special location inside the camp; and this was called the DAW location. There were a number of barracks; and they had all sorts of workshops in these barracks. They had wood workers, wood carvers, locksmiths, stone cutters, and other workers. The German equipment works worked for the SS, for the leadership of the SS, and for their personal requirements, and they worked as well inside the camp and for the SS leadership, the leaders of the rest of the organizations who were not inside the camp. They produced all sorts of utility and luxury articles. There were also in the DAW at least a couple hundred and most of the time more than five hundred inmates of all categories. They were specialists who were used for work for the SS.
Q What can you tell us about the sanitary conditions in Buchenwald?
A In the concentration camp of Buchenwald as well as in most of the other concentration camps there was a block which was the hospital for the inmates. In the beginning there were only two barracks; but later on as the requirements increased, it was extended. In the inmate hospital block there was a camp doctor who was an SS officer; and as far as the inmates were concerned there were socalled male nurses. Especially during the first years these nurses had not been selected according to special medical knowledge.
In every concentration camp the hospital was the place for the illegal work of the inmates. Very often from there the decisions concerning life and death were made. Via the hospital if one were ill one could be saved. Also, if one were not ill and were threatened by the SS, one could be saved by the inmate hospital. On the other hand, there was quite a lot of killing of all sorts by the SS through the facilities of the inmate hospital. They called it the "Reviers" to these hospitals. In these Reviers they gave the poisonous inoculations, killing inmates by these inoculations. Therefore, it was very important that this place by manned by reliable political prisoners. Thus, actually during the first years there was a shortage of specialized personnel in the hospital.
MR. MC HANEY: Witness, I believe that the Tribunal wishes to make an announcement.
THE PRESIDENT: Before we get too far away from the subject, will the interpreter explain the word "Reviers." He said there were "Reviers" in the hospital.
THE INTERPRETER: The word "Revier" means, so far as this is concerned, a sick barrack. It is only a sick barrack that was called a "Revier", and the witness explained that these inmates of the hospital also called it the "Revier." It is only another word for inmate hospital.
THE PRESIDENT: Possibly a wing of the hospital, a particular wing, or a separate building?
THE INTERPRETER: By the witness, this hospital was only a barrack, and the whole hospital was called a "revier" which means the sick block, that is, a block of the barracks.
THE PRESIDENT: Sickbay.
THE INTERPRETER: Sickbay, yes.
THE WITNESS: As time went on efforts of the inmates succeeded in bringing inmate doctors into these inmate hospitals, and thereafter the conditions improved partly, that is, for a certain kind of prisoners who were treated there. Furthermore, in the concentration camp of Buchenwald, and under the supervision of the inmates of the hospital, there was a pathological department, with a section through to the crematorium, and certain bodies, especially of those of the inmates who died from infection of disease, or had been executed, were cut and there were preparations made in this department, after which they were sent for expedition purposes to Berlin, or to a department which required these separations. There, there was a reception department, and as time went on it became absolutely necessary to establish a special inspection camp in the camp, and this was put under the supervision of inmates of the hospital. The general condition in the camp prevented this where the inmates had to decide on such conditions, and the inmates of the hospital very often could not deal with all the sick, as on the one hand the inmates hospital was entirely too small, and they had but little means at their disposal to deal with the bulk of the inmates who were sick, and, on the other hand the quality of the camp doctors was quite different from one camp to another.
There were camp doctors who were barbarians, and who practically did not care a "boo" for the life of an inmate, and who only aimed at killing, and there were camp doctors who were different, and who were not entirely interested in the fate of the inmate, and who left everything in the hands of the inmates, and then there was another category of camp doctors who had a sort of bad conscious concerning these general conditions, to say the least, and to do what they could in order to meet the many complaints, and there were a very few camp doctors who actually interfered for the benefit of the inmates, and collaborated with them in order to improve what then could be improved, and, finally, there were then a few camp doctors at Buchenwald, and I remember two, first of all, who absolutely refuse to continue to work under those conditions, and to continue to be camp doctors. These doctors then reported on the front at times during the year, and they were also assigned to the front. They had decided to report conditions to the chief doctor of the concentration camp in the department, D-III WVHA, Dr. Lolling; they reported the conditions in Buchenwald, and they were told under those conditions they could go to the front. I know from one of these doctors who survived the war, nothing at all happened to him. He was not even hindered in his normal career, or with anything. His name was Dr. Hofer, and the second doctor, the name of whom I can only recall in a general manner, he was another doctor of the SS. Those cases prove that a camp doctor did not incur any special risk if they refused to perform, and if they acted in a manner according to the circumstances. In a general way the sanitary conditions were then only a small part of the inmates conditions. If they were seriously ill and could really be healed, or could really be cured, thereafter, that part of the prisoners who could not stand it through the hospital went to perish there, or to be killed.
The conditions in a special camp, for instance, in the small camps in Buchenwald, so far as the sanitary conditions and hygiene were concerned, they were not improved at all, and that there these conditions were the main reason for the death of many concentration camp inmates.
Q Was it pleasant for an inmate who felt he was in need of medical treatment to go to these reviers, or to the hospital?
A In order to answer that question, I have to divide the inmates into three parts. That balance of the inmates who did not know altogether what was going on in the camp, and who could not see through all the camp situation, he would dare go into the hospital, if he was ill, and it is possible that he was beatened instead of being cured, and that also they often -- very often he was mistreated and sometimes even killed. There was a second group of inmates who knew about the general situation in camp, and who had sufficient connections in order to, if they were really ill, be treated in the hospital, but in general this group of inmates avoided any contact with the sickbay, and, then there was a third group, a smaller group which practically had the machinery of the camp in their hands, and they were treated very well in the sickbay. They could get a lot of things through the sickbay. This for them was a sort of recreation holiday in bed for say two weeks, in order to avoid any large part of any work, but that was only a very small group. In general, it was avoided to get in contact with the sickbay.
Q What about the general hygiene conditions, for example, was was there plenty of water available for washing and for taking a bath, or were the toilet facilities adequate; were the conditions of the barracks where you slept such as you were able to get a full nights rest with adequate fresh air?
A There has to be a distinction made between the construction camp, that is, a camp which is only being constructed, made up and developed, and such camp as existed already for a long time at the beginning of the war, an old camp, that is, as mainly in Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald and Dachau.
There the conditions had improved as time went on in such a manner that I believe that every living barrack had at least one toilet, an open toilet, not a latrine, but there was at least one lavatory, but where the bulk of the prisoners went, there was water to wash. At Buchenwald the shortage of water was incredible. Water pipes had been constructed there late, and the dimensions were wrong, and the number of prisoners had increased so tremendously that it was better when during the first time, they had only small pipes, and where the prisoners could drink water to moist their lips a little bit. Later on they really had lavatories but at the same time when in the barracks of the large camps, they were improved, where the small camps still had no possibility of washing facilities. There was only a small latrine which was built even by the inmates themselves. The SS did not take any interest in the small camps at that time, and then a lot of people simply perished in the camps, but the superior camps were constructed as new camps, and they had facilities for washing, but beyond that the sanitary and hygiene conditions were very bad; not only far below average but even below what could be considered the beginning of the fulfillment of the requirements for somehow a sufficient hygiene. The sleeping accommodations were also different from one camp to another. In the main camp of Buchenwald there were four wings of the living barracks, there were the right and the left of that part on the first and second floors, and on the third floor, that is, for the stone building, but that the wooden barracks had only two wings, whereas the stone barracks had four wings. That in these barracks towards 1941 -- '40 and '41, they had about four hundred to fourhundred fifty inmates in these barracks; while in 1944 to '45 they had up to eight hundred inmates in those barracks. There they had a part only that was above the other on the third floor which consisted of sleeping accommodations, where they had at first two and then they had three and four, and sometimes as much as five people sleeping.
But on top of all of that, many, however, had to work out at times during the night, or had to go away during different times in the early morning, since they worked in the special work shops, and there was a radio wire reception in the barracks for the block commanders who were not on duty in the inmate barracks. These shop leaders were responsible for the block, and sometimes were not on duty during the night, and they had the pleasure of letting the radio work and let the loud speaker on when the camp inmates were in there who had the whole night for sleep; but for some of the people it was quite a bit of music while for the others at the last hours the possibility of having some recreation, especially the old people, was denied them, and they could not sleep. Sometimes it was late hours, sometimes one, sometimes two o'clock during the night this went on. There also was the lack of air; in that situation there was no air condition, and that was terrible.
During the winter in the stone barracks we very often had ice in the corners, and as we had only two blankets -- and sometimes only one blanket -- during the winter on the straw mats, one can well imagine the condition we were in when we had to get up. In the emergency barracks of the small camps, as I said before, we had up to 1900 and even 2000 in a sort of stable, and they couldn't even move. The conditions there were unimaginable. One can hardly describe them.
In some of the camps of the Restricted Area D in the Harzgebirge the conditions were similar. There the prisoners had very often to sleep in the tunnels, and for weeks they could sleep only three of four hours a night. They could not wash, and for six or eight weeks they could not even change their clothes.
All that played a large part in the enormous increase of the death rate.
Q Now, what information can you give us about the death rate in Buchenwald or in concentration camps generally?
A Yes, from my own knowledge and the knowledge of my very intimate comrades who were in a position where they were normally informed or where they could get at least sufficient information. Besides that, I had two sources, which at the end of my time in the concentration camp I could get together. One of the sources was the constant reports of the inmate hospital of Buchenwald concerning the monthly figure of deaths, and the figures for every three months, for every six months, and for every year, which had to go via the camp doctor to the WVHA, Department D-III; and also by the commander of the camp to Department D of the WVHA. The second source consisted of a letter which in the late autumn of 1942 was addressed by Department D-III of the WVHA in Berlin to Buchenwald to the camp doctor.
This letter had a key word, and this key word that it had was that in its distribution it was sent to 16 larger concentration camps, amongst them Buchenwald. The letter had statistics attached, of which after the camp was finished -- that is, in the first days of the liberation -- I got a copy.