Arbeit macht frei: - Fredrick Töben

chamber they would have to pass in review before Dr. Klain. But he
made them wait three days. During this time the condemned women lay
crushed together on the concrete floor without food or drink or the use
of a latrine. They were human beings, but who cared about that. …
‘Herr Oberarzt,’ I said to him, trembling all over, as we began our
rounds, ‘surely there must have been some mistake in the last selection.
There are people shut up in the washroom who are not sick. Perhaps
it’s not worth while to send them to the hospital.’ I pretended that I did
not know of the existence of the gas chamber.>As I turned, I saw Irma griese coming from the Fuehrerstube, her
whip in hand, to designate the next batch for the gas chamber. Why she
did not send me there, or shoot me, or put me to death in some more
evil fashion, I could never guess.>The most poignant problem that faced us in caring for our
companions was that of the accouchements. As soon as a baby was
delivered at the infirmary, mother and child were both sent to the gas
chambers. That was the unrelenting decision of our masters. Only when
the infant was not likely to survive or when it was stillborn was the
mother ever spared and allowed to return to her barrack. The
conclusion we drew from this was simple: the Germans did not want the
newborn to live; if they did, the mothers, too, must die. …Yet I try in
vain to make my conscience acquit me. I still see the infants issuing from
their mothers. I can feel their warm little bodies ad I held them. I
marvel to what depths these Germans made us descend.>Generally, pregnant women who came in the Jewish transports were
immediately ordered to the left when they arrived at the station.>Why would anyone here believe anything the Germans said? First,
because many never saw the final horrors until it was too late for them to
communicate the truth to their neighbours. Second, because no human
being could fathom the ends of which they were capable, which they
plotted daily, and which was part of their master plan for world
conquest.>In the camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau and, later, everywhere, many
stories circulated about the tattooing of the prisoners. One would think
that all the internees were tattooed upon arrival. Some believed that
tattooing safeguarded one against being sent to the gas chamber, or that,
at least, a special authorization from Berlin would be necessary before a
registered-tattooed internee could be put to death. Even in our camp
many were convinced of that. Actually , as in so many matters, there was
no fixed regulation. Sometimes all deportees were tattooed when they
arrived. Then again there was laxity, and over a period of months the
ordinary deportees were not tattooed at all.