Arbeit macht frei: - Fredrick Töben

The German system was frighteningly effective. The guards were
rewarded for shooting escaped prisoners. First, there was the barbed
wire with its high-tension current. Then there were the ‘Miradors,’ the
dogs outside, who had been specially trained to run down fugitives.
Besides, the moment someone was missing a strict set of measures were
put into effect. A siren wailed. …If the Allies could blow up the
crematory oven! The pace of the extermination could at least be
slowed.>The bunkers were penitentiary cells sunken into the ground. They
afforded neither air nor light, and were so small that the prisoners had to
stand up in them all night. During the day they were taken out to do the
most loathsome work on reduced rations. He had six and a half ounces
of bread in three days, and that was all. After three or four days, the
strongest of men would be subdued. Tadek endured this treatment for
many weeks. When they finally decided to kill him, there was nothing
left of the human being I had known.Some trains arrived at Birkenau, having departed–from Birkenau!
One day it was announced that a train would take internees to Germany
to work in the factories. All this took place as though it were an everyday
occurrence. The deportees boarded the cars without even being jostled
very much. The train started to move, executed a few manoeuvres, left
the station, and departed for an unknown destination. After a few hours,
the same train returned–with the same passengers–to Birkenau, and the
deportees were taken directly to the crematory ovens. Why di the
Germans resort to such complicated maneuvers? Was this operation
according to plan, or was it the result of the administrative confusion? In
any case, the facts which I reported are accurate in every detail. >Birkenau was in the process of full scale liquidation. For the
administration perceived that it would be necessary to evacuate before
the advancing Russians. Even the crematory ovens must be destroyed to
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