The Theory and Practice of Hell (11 page)

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tember 1939 to about the spring of 1940—brought a steep decline. The food situation in those six months was disastrous. Malnutrition threatened to become famine. This situation recurred toward the end of the war, from the spring of 1944 to that of 1945, intensified by unimaginable over crowding that brought another trail of epidemics, as in 1939-40. This sequence must be borne in mind when reading of general conditions in the camps in this book: far below the “ normal* * level in the initial camp phase; relatively stable in the ensuing years; near-disastrous in the first six months of the war; relative improvement during the war years, partly because of the increasing importance of manpower in war production; outright disintegration in the final four to eight months. This curve can be traced in all the concentration camps, no matter what their classification. Those in which conditions were generally low naturally suffered the greatest losses during the periods of decline.

For the reasons already mentioned, but also because it had to deal with new opponents in large numbers throughout Europe, the SS sharply increased the number of concentration camps during the war. Even before the war there had been a well-developed trend to support each base camp with a number of subsidiaries. Germany was systematically studded with these instruments of terror. By 1939 there seem to have been more than 100 camps of all kinds, though the large camps mentioned remained the most important. The spread of Nazi rule over Europe brought a veritable concentration-camp boom in its wake. Notorious new camps came into being, such as Auschwitz, Lublin, Maidanek, Riga, Stutthof near Danzig, Natzweiler in the Vosges mountains, Bergen-Belsen near Hanover, and a long series of smaller ones.

There are so far no reliable statistics as to the total number of persons the Nazi regime sent to the concentration camp. The rapid turnover makes even an approximation ex traordinarily difficult. We are reduced to reasonable estimates. Beyond all doubt millions passed through the camps during the twelve years of Nazi rule. Counting the dead in Auschwitz (where alone they seem to have amounted to between 3,500,000 and 4,500,000) and similar camps, we readily arrive at a total figure between eight and ten million. The great base camps, such as Dachau, Buchenwald and

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Sachsenhausen, seldom numbered more than 100,000 inmates each, including all their subsidiary camps. An indication is furnished by Himmler’s directive to his Chief Medical Officer in early March 1945, according to which there were 600,000 inmates remaining in the camps of whom 120,000 were unfit for work. (Purpose of the directive, incidentally, was a belated effort to improve the health of the latter.) At this juncture the concentration camps at Lublin, Riga, Stutthof, Auschwitz, Gross-Rosen, Natzweiler and a few others had already been liberated by Allied troops or evacuated by the SS. An estimate of one million as the average number of prisoners in the concentration camps at any one time is therefore unlikely to be far off the mark.

Chapter Three

THE CATEGORIES OF PRISONERS

Who belonged in a concentration camp, in the view of the Gestapo? Primarily four groups of people: political op ponents; members of “ inferior races” ; criminals; and “ shift less elements” (called “ asocial” by the Germans).

The Gestapo applied its qualifications most readily to the second group. This embraced chiefly the Jews and the Gypsies.

Originally the Nazis had intended to settle the Gypsies per manently. But efforts in this direction proved troublesome. Rural communities and police authorities no longer knew what to do with the “ scum.” In the old days the Gypsies were simply told to move on, but now Himmler had prohibited their freedom of movement. In order to get rid of them, it was decided simply to put them in the concentration camps. Ef fective it certainly was, for all but an insignificant remnant perished there.

The Jews were the target of Nazi bloodlust from the very outset. They were divided up among all the prisoner categories—political prisoners, criminals, shiftless elements, etc.—although they remained segregated in special

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barracks—which exposed them constantly to a heightened danger of annihilation—and usually had to be content with the most menial jobs. They were often the scapegoats for the cruel whims of the SS, which meant that the other inmates got off somewhat better. This led to particularly close co operation between Jewish and non-Jewish political prisoners, expressed in countless acts of solidarity. This solidarity, as well as sheer luck, was the reason why a number of the Jews who were imprisoned in the early years managed to survive.

The Gestapo had definite ideas as to who was to be classified as a criminal. It distinguished first of all “ prisoners in limited-term preventive custody”
(Befristete Vorbeugung-shdftlinge
), who had served several sentences before. The initials of the German term (BV) also stand for “ professional criminal,” and that is the designation by which these prisoners were generally known. A second category was called “ prisoners in security custody” (
Sicherungsverwahrte
), ab breviated to SV, also the initials of the German term for “ arch criminal,” which became the popular designation. The latter group consisted of convicts who were actually serving sentences.

Both categories were admitted to the concentration camps by the Reich Criminal Police Office and its branches. Nearly all the BV’s and SV’s were the dregs of society. In some camps they managed to secure a dominant position, temporarily or permanently, which they ruthlessly exploited against the other prisoners. There was an everlasting struggle for power be tween them and the political prisoners, sometimes open, sometimes underground. The outcome of such struggles varied widely. There were many SS officers who preferred to deal with the convicts, sometimes to the exclusion of all other categories, and who assigned them to all the important prisoner functions. The convicts also furnished the largest contingent of informers. Later on, when the German armed forces suffered from a serious manpower shortage after Stalingrad, the convicts won the distinction of being recruited into the SS units in large numbers. Of those that remained behind not very many left the camps alive.

Related to the convicts, though far more innocent in character, were the so-called shiftless elements. This was a blanket designation of the Gestapo for vagrants, touts, pick

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pockets, tinhorn gamblers, alcoholics, pimps, wifebeaters and the like. But in this group there were also men whose only of fense was that they had shown up late for work once or twice, had stayed away from work or changed their job without authority, had spoken harshly to their Nazi servants, or had earned their living as gigolos. Hundreds of party-line foremen were in the habit of denouncing any worker whom they did not like as a “ loafer” —which meant a term in a labor or con centration camp.

These shiftless elements were a very mixed group and had no marked effect on the character of the camp, through they brought with them many undesirable practices from their former lives. The other prisoners regarded them as shiftless and unreliable. Many failed to survive the grim struggle for existence. They furnished the largest quota of discharges and wartime recruitments into the German armed forces.

The political prisoners too were a motley crew. Beyond doubt the majority were members of the anti-Nazi parties and persons of like mind. But there was always a certain propor tion of former Nazi party members guilty of some party in fraction and veterans accused of anything from petty thievery to desertion. Returned or captured members of foreign legions were also classified as political prisoners, as were, on occasion, foreign-exchange violators, illegal radio listeners, grumblers and unfortunates who had become victims of denunciations to the Gestapo. The non-Germans who began to arrive after the outbreak of the war were almost all classified as political prisoners. Language difficulties and national differences created many painful problems, as did the inexperience of the foreigners in camp life. Obviously this diversity among the political prisoners was calculated to con fuse the situation and sharpen mutual suspicion.

Opposition to the Nazi regime from moral and especially religious motives was regarded in the same light as political opposition. This involved principally clergymen of all the great denominations and members of the religious sect known as Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The number of clergymen sent to the concentration camps may be put at between 4,000 and 5,500. Many of them were Poles. There were far more Catholics than Protestants, and the latter were almost all ministers of the Confessional

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Church. All of them had a very difficult time of it, especially if they were known to be clergymen. They suffered not only at the hands of the SS but also from their fellow prisoners. Their situation improved only when they were all collected in Dachau in 1942. For some time they received certain privileges, supposedly granted on intervention by the Pope. High dignitaries of the church in Germany were never sent to a concentration camp. On one occasion a canon of the Olmiitz cathedral chapter was selected as suffragan while he was at Buchenwald. He was immediately released by the SS. A dif ferent policy was followed with respect to French and Belgian prelates. Bishops, abbots and other ecclesiatics of these nationalities were imprisoned in German concentration camps without distinction.