The Manic Experiments Performed By Nazi Doctors | Destruction | Timeline

[Music] ouch Fitz is not a concentration camp ouch wits is a concentration complex composed of several sites extending over thousands of hectares three kilometers from the main camp Auschwitz one the concentration camp there are outfits to Birkenau a concentration camp but also and primarily an extermination camp the rice go laboratories the summit of biological and medical research of the Third Reich the Union vehicle weapons factory and other factories and subsidiaries of the large German companies Siemens da W crop and seven kilometers away the camp of Auschwitz three Monowitz which provided labor for the buna factory owned by the largest german petrochemicals group ej Farben - this complex must be added some 40 auxilary camps agricultural farms and various commandos outside the perimeter of this satellite photo the nazi project carried out at auschwitz is thus based on four converging activities concentration extermination industry and science the descriptions presented here by mark Klein on Ashford's one in rice go Suzanne Birnbaum and robertlevi on Auschwitz to bear Canal and Robert rights on Auschwitz three Monowitz were all written during the days that followed the returned from captivity this immediacy between the events they experienced and they're telling makes these testimonies completely unique and brings us very close to the reality of Auschwitz and of those who did not survive there [Music] [Music] [Music] we travel from Drancy on October the 7th 1943 enclosed wagons ninety to a hundred people are packed together with sufficient provisions there are two infirmary wagons with a few mattresses on the floor too which are taken old people patients convalescing from typhoid or pneumonia pregnant women women with babies and nine mad women taken out of mental asylums by the Germans who shriek continually [Music] with us there was a family from Alsace the father and mother aged at least 80 or 85 were unable to stretch out their legs throughout the whole journey we were packed so tightly we were terribly uncomfortable and this journey was so frightful that all of us wanted to arrive no matter where but as quickly as possible [Music] I was put in charge of one of the three infirmary wagons which differed from the others only in having a few mattresses water tanks that we were allowed to fill at some stations and a reserve medicines [Music] the mothers with babies have no clean linen and nothing to make the bottles but cool water that has not been boiled [Music] at one stop I tried to obtain tani Cardiacs for an old man the German NCO tells me he can die in any case he's going to croak soon [Music] [Music] after traveling for 60 hours our convoy which left Drancy on September 2nd 1943 comes to a halt yelling SS opened the padlock cattle trucks filled with their pitiful cargo of stunned old men frightened women crying children exhausted men we climb out of the wagons pushed by the Germans onto a muddy platform where our feet sink into 20 centimeters of slime men this way women that way get into rows of five everybody without exception put the luggage on a pile on the platform we comply 800 meters away we make out a camp Hut's surrounded by barbed wire we see some 50 creatures oddly rigged out and blue and white striped outfits arriving at a John trot they rush avidly at our luggage swiftly take charge of it and carry it all they empty the wagons endeavoured to find food and spared it away risking blows from the SS if they are caught in the act SS with machine guns pointed all around us on every side the guard shout the SS beat the late comers with sticks and also those who try to keep some personal belongings a food box a blanket a handbag gradually the prisoners move towards the end of the platform two SS stand in the middle one is a medical officer the officer directs the prisoners with his thumb or a stick either to the right or to the left thus two lines form and gather at opposite ends of the platform I was first directed to one of the two groups then after a remark by an NCO of the SS I was roughly sent back to the other only much later did I understand that I had just escaped from death the sorting out on the arrival platform at Birkenau was done without any examination or questioning hastily and at random at the pleasure of the SS doctor in charge the women children those over 50 and the sake are placed on the right women who don't want to be separated from their husbands sawed up others with little children are happy for they are not separated only the bigger ones aged over 16 are taken away apt for work the sick and infirm are worried never will they be able to walk there reassured the line on the left is composed of men from 20 to 45 relatively strong in appearance some young women are also sent to this line they are directed to the neighboring camp on foot the line begins to move we advance slowly 5x5 wading in the mud and with a marching military step in half an hour we cover the distance between the platform and the camp entrance it looks immense terrifying I see the group I was in included about 200 men either young or seemingly in good health we were directed on foot to Auschwitz one which was four kilometers from where we had arrived the men in my convoy were taken to Monowitz standing packed in lorries were trailers driving at full speed after seven or eight kilometres they enter the camp passing the guards and crossing the double barbed-wire fence from the whole of occupied Europe Norway Holland Belgium France Italy Yugoslavia Greece Czechoslovakia Romania Hungary Poland Russia the convoys were arriving the majority of these prisoners did not even enter the camp but went immediately to the gas chamber to relieve congestion in the camp transportations were sent to other camps durian burn wasn't bird Mauthausen robbins ba bergen-belsen and victims especially chosen to nots villa at that time we thought that Sphero was a work camp he have since learned that these poor souls sent from Birkenau to nuts Villa served as guinea pigs were to provide anatomical parts for the Strasbourg and Adam Institute on my arrival at Auschwitz one the camp made a surprising impression on me that of an extremely clean collective housing complex the schtum lager comprised 28 tile-roofed blocks arranged in three rows separated by lined broken stone streets the whole covering a rectangle roughly 800 by 400 meters was surrounded by a concrete wall itself lined inside and out by barbed wire fences charged with high tension electricity inserted in this wall at intervals they were imposing watchtowers on which SS armed with machine guns stood guard each block comprised a raised basement a ground floor the first floor and a loft on the ground floor of each block with small dormitories reserved for favored prisoners toilets and spacious well equipped washrooms with a large number of taps on the first floor of the blocks was spacious dormitories that could take up to a thousand prisoners the beds were of the kind found in German military barracks composed of a wooden frame with three bunk beds each of these beds had a mattress two blankets and in some privileged commandos they had one or even two sheets during usual periods every prisoner thus had an individual bed which in a concentration camp is a special favor the cleanliness of this bed and making it when we got up was a big worry in our lives as prisoners a badly made bed spotted in a daily inspection of the dormitories by the SS block Fuhrer or by the prisoner in charge of the block could lead to the cruelest physical punishment or relegation to a bad commander with his often fatal outcome in addition to the actual housing blocks a certain number of buildings were fitted with special installations block 24 had on the ground floor a rehearsal room for the orchestra and on the first floor the individual bedrooms for the prostitutes block 25 contained a canteen and ironically on the same landing the politician up tiling the political section block 11 was the camp prison which could hold over a thousand prisoners between blocks 10 and 11 there was a small strictly closed courtyard whose black wall was used for executions block 10 was used for some time as an isolation block for women on whom experimental research was performed later still isolated it held a good thousand Hungarian gypsies after these had been massively exterminated it was transformed into a quarantine block finally particular mention must be made of the vast constructions filled up to the ceilings with countless objects taken on arrival from the millions of prisoners who had ended at Auschwitz since 1941 these heaps were known as Canada in the camp slang the Birkenau camp had been built in 1942 by Russian prisoners of war was initial number of 12,500 had rapidly dropped to 150 it was situated two kilometers from the central Auschwitz camp itself near the town of Auschwitz as yet seen in Polish completely surrounded by rivers the camp was located in marshland so that malaria rained constantly Bill Canal was the center of some 30 other camps insulation Poland providing these was labor for the coal mines Ioannina Yavor was no evil squeaks and others and the War factories drive its da W Siemens Buena and others in exchange Birkenau received the prisoners in apt for from all these camps and took charge of making them disappear forever the air canal was named ouch wits - or aerobats lager America now by Nora Baron the camp was composed of several groups of buildings the women's camp the quarantine camp the check camp the men's camp the gypsies camp the main infirmary Canada the disinfection sauna the gas chambers and crematoriums the huts for 500 to 600 men were most often horse stables partition de source to make rows of three bunk beds sometimes with mattresses filmed with wood shavings and nearly always blankets the Monowitz camp our Auschwitz 3 was created in 1942 it was annexed the giant buna Monowitz factory of ej farmen which manufactured synthetic rubber or buna but production had not started yet for byproducts are produced including benzo and glycol the prisoners are employed in the buna factory in exchange for a daily indemnity paid to the SS by the EK Farben industrial group it is called a work camp in fact the prisoner there is often subjected to torture causing a progressive decline that leads him to the gas chamber I heard an SS officer tell the prisoners you are all under a deferred sentence of death the Monowitz camp is rectangular surrounded by a double barbed-wire fence the centuries occupy watchtowers installed outside the enclosure in the middle of the camp an enormous Esplanade forms the roll-call area illuminated during the evening roll call by a projector mounted on top of a mast the SS camp with its administration buildings barracks garages and infirmary is located outside the prisoners camp inside the camp the blocks mostly wooden huts are surrounded by lawns with a few flower beds in spring and summer the SS liked the contrast between the elegance of the setting and the atrocities committed there as soon as we arrived at the schtum lager we were deprived of all the objects we had on us including our identity papers watches wallets pens glasses rings all the ordinary objects a man may have on him were thrown onto separate piles according to type we are unloaded into the hospital courtyard two or three SS and above all a swarm of prisoners well fed well dressed in suits admittedly striped but thick rush at the captives shouting in German and Polish and explaining that they are going to have everything taken away they asked for valuables jewelry watches pens lighters they promised food or a less arduous commando for the following days and amazingly in some very rare cases they keep their word along with these prominent prisoners little jackals Steuben's Dienst camp workers and others circle cautiously around the new arrivals and are beaten with sticks by the SS and also the prominent prisoners they make do with a shirt jumpers cigarettes food some of the doctors or nurses take part in the Scramble the big ones involve the services they can offer the small ones beg for the sick prisoners in the infirmary who will never get anything a long absolutely empty Hut appears before us we have to go inside strip naked make a bundle with all our things leaving everything in the pockets they examine the mouth and buttock folds on the pretext of detecting venereal disease or lice in fact they are looking for valuables that might be hidden there [Music] three German officers are there they order us to undress but we hesitate out of cold fear modesty for girls with belts in their hands push us about laugh shout and pull off our clothes if they think we are undressing too slowly if anyone grumbles she gets a whack with a belt even so we attempt to fold our dress as a coats but they kicked them away in heaps the Germans are looking at us young girls of sixteen a seventeen are embarrassed at being naked in front of men and don't know what to do with themselves a fat girl in a headscarf Polish grabs me by the arm and before I can understand or resist quickly pricks my forearm with a sort of pen holder with short sharp jabs watched by a German officer from now on I will be number seven for 837 then we go in front of tables where secretaries schreiber write down our civil status no nationality is marked for the Jews since they are by definition stateless in the special peculiarities section they note the number of gold teeth crowns and bridges any false information we are told constitutes an intellectual forgery and will be punished as such this does not prevent two good many deliberate falsifications especially about the families address in France the professional and date of birth the smartest ones give a manual profession it is dangerous to be a shopkeeper a lawyer a teacher the toughest commandos are reserved for prisoners in these categories with another push I am seated on a stool and off with my hair a minute later it lies on the floor before I realize what's happening the door opens and a second girl from our group is pushed in just as I was she looks at my shaven head with such an appalled expression I can't help laughing but this doesn't please the Polish woman and I receive a mighty slap in the face the first of many a hot shower that follows is the only comfort of the day the water runs lukewarm but we have neither soap nor towels we have to dry ourselves in minus 30 degree weather a pair of shorts a shirt trousers and a jacket all the mentally dirty and time-worn are handed out and here we are transformed into anonymous tramps we have to put on these rags in three minutes and quickly get back into rows of five I was given a shirt made of run proof material dirty and tattered and addressed that must once have been black but has turned green and yellowish after being worn by 20 other prisoners before me the shoes were unbelievable one was a woman's 1900 period boot with a worn down Louis 15 heel and no lace size 3 the other was a man's low heeled shoe as worn down as the first size 10 to top it off they were both for the right foot squeezed tightly together in a much too restricted space we collapse onto the bare concrete floor exhausted late in the night the drilling starts the next morning blows meted out with the bludgeons by the couples and the SS rest us from the drowsiness and oblivion of a heavy sleep ouch 10 it is half-past four everyone is quickly up at the Furious command of the SS and the dark and cold of dawn we leave the hut and standing motionless in our ranks we discern the outlines of the huts watchtowers barbed wires as far as the eye can see in our bare feet we make our entry into camp t to be crammed into the block where 300 French have joined the 300 Dutch who arrived two days earlier the morning is taken up for the repeated roll calls they instill into us the notions of camp hierarchy and the signs of respect due to superiors and the SS we have to learn to line up in fives in front of the tent to salute four times woodson oath and take our skull caps off then four times boots and AB put our caps back on again these drills sometimes lasts for hours interspersed with slaps and blows we had to come forward still in rows of five and were given a single tin bowl containing about a liter of greyish liquid for five we had to drink out of the tin one after the other without a spoon for the first few days there are not enough bowls so they used tin basins with soup for two or three there are no spoons every participant pulls the ball his way and spills the contents over himself or onto the floor while trying to lap up his share from the edge of the basin later with four other companions I was assigned the task of returning the bats to the kitchens 50 meters away in front of the kitchens there was a band of Russian and Polish women fighting to pick up a few potato peelings that had dropped into the mud a few rare Frenchmen survivors from earlier transportations asked anxiously for news from our country searching among us for a relative or a friend they tell us about the atrocious conditions at bill canal and we listened in disbelief we asked for news of our companions who got on the lorries when they arrived yesterday you will never see those people again they have been gassed and burned in the crematoriums from which you can see the smoke coming out day and night we are seized with terror appalled I had been in the camp for days when I had my period it was no fun having nothing to deal with it but this problem did not last long since from the second month of imprisonment my period disappeared completely only the heads of the blocks and the bedrooms who stole our food had regular periods after the various administrative and health formalities usually on the third day the prisoner is sent to work the camp's head doctor an old Polish prisoner gave us a short examination to find out the fake doctors we pass our examination successfully and I am transferred to the central camp infirmary the doctors dentists and pharmacists form a special commando remaining in the camp temporarily employed in minor tasks cleaning the hut and its surroundings transporting food from the central kitchen and in particular tracking down people with lice and scabies the cases were not very varied wounds caused by work accidents burns erosions edema skin ailments and especially interminable infections and countless diseases due to parasites it scarcely arrived in the camp when nearly all of us had diarrhea and what diarrhea we didn't have time to run to the toilets which were 50 meters from the block 10 20 times a day we couldn't restrain it the diarrhea ran down our legs they called us pigs but there was nothing in the block to help keep us clean many women died within a few days from this de sentry that nothing could stop in addition we sorted out the patients wishing to be admitted to the hospital this was the moment when we could exchange a few words with our companions in the camp even though it was strictly prohibited and begged them not to go into the hospital when a selection was imminent or persuade them to have themselves put in a hospital when the danger had passed I work in the prisoners infirmary 200 metres from the crematoriums and the gas chambers every day we see a crowd of people entering the Sinister brick building and we don't see them come out again thick acrid reads of smoke rise continually from the tall chimneys theoretically each prisoner had to be used to the best of his professional abilities in practice this rule was rarely respected by the abates Dienst who were all powerful in assigning prisoners and distributing work and the SS authorities generally did no more than ratify their decisions my speciality was to take me to the rice collaboratory during the final weeks of my stay at Auschwitz when I was a thousand miles from supposing that highly specialized laboratories existed at Auschwitz one the laboratory my school o'hagan institute located about four kilometers from the schtum lager in a hamlet from which the local inhabitants had been evacuated was an important Institute divided into a number of sections bacteriology chemistry serology sterilization histology and parasitology experimental biology rearing of laboratory animals the library and meteorology during the time I spent in the laboratory my school I did not have to examine elements derived from experiments on humans the elements in room 13 of block 28 was sent to another laboratory outside the camp at Rice Co itself the SS officers pursued biological research on animals for example on the pharmacology of sulfonamides or the toxicity and diuretic power of a substance extracted from the oriental cockroach they also attempted to produce latex from the dandelion the most enviable jobs were therefore as scribes or nurses existing in all the work groups and various types of work in the good Commandos the latter included all the jobs for semi skilled workers in the factories such as Deutsche Oscar esteems merica and the Union weapons factory the buna factory under construction is a real Tower of Babel there deportees work alongside English prisoners of war men from the French shantae doujin s French and polis civil workers Ukrainian boost are my dere Germans and many women particularly Polish and Ukrainian the deportees and the workers are commanded by German or polish Meister's some of the prisoners will cast technicians in the offices chemists engineers electricians clerks but the vast majority work out in the open exposed to the cold wind rain and snow they have to supply grueling labor excavation building unloading trucks transporting huge cast-iron or clay pipes bags with cement sand or coal the shift iron and metal girders these types of work are all the more exhausting and they are forced on men most of whom are out of shape and already weakened by undernourishment during the winter they suffer true agony they were there for differences in the nature and harshness of the work according to the different commanders and within the same commando depending on the job they were the good commandos in which the work was light and specialized and the chances of survival considerable they were the bad commanders scheisse commando in which the continual hard work quickly wore out the prisoners who were out of training and ill-nourished at 3:30 in the morning we were woken up by whistle blows and smacks on the legs from the stoop of us no time for a wash in any case we had nothing no soap no towel at 4:30 if we were capable of fighting and with a bit of luck we were entitled to a few mouthfuls of lukewarm dirty water by way of coffee and we had to exit fast beaten repeatedly with belts and sticks and line up outside in the line of the designated commando the 22 or the stones until 5:30 we waited in rain snow or wind no matter what we remained there standing in line we could have died on the spot we got as close to each other as possible to stop the wind or the flurries of snow from blowing between us the ones behind slipped their hands under the arms of the ones in front to keep them from freezing after a quarter of an hour we could not feel our feet anymore they were slowly beginning to freeze at 5:30 the Capel came to fetch us and we headed towards the camp entrance marching in quick time left left left 1 2 3 left left left at 6 o'clock on the dot we had to march through the camp gate to music after a grueling hour after climbing down ditches and up banks we were already exhausted and would have wished to sit down and not move anymore but not at all we had just arrived at the workplace in the middle of the marsh with an auto hope of a minutes rest until the evening roll call around 7:00 p.m. what mattered tremendously was the degree of harshness of the Supervisory staff SS and prisoners alike with a few rare exceptions the Capo's wore green triangles they indulge in cruelty to the point of crime against the prisoners the SS delegate their power to the prisoners in exchange for their services these prisoners enjoy advantages not to be scorned easy work food better clothing and sleeping conditions in Monowitz the brothel is reserved for prominent Aryans the civilian prisoners and Polish Lords vie for the favors of the ladies who want for nothing three times a week in the evening clients follow in succession every 20 minutes according to a pre-established timetable it is notable that only the well-fed prominent prisoners exempted from arduous work could indulge in football and basketball matches and water polo in an open-air swimming pool built by the prisoners inside the enclosure commander 22 the marshes the capital was Lisl a German prostitute she quickly divided us into groups the first group of prisoners had to load crates with mud and earth then the second group carrying these very heavy crates two-by-two deposited them 200 metres away to build an embankment Kapil ezel checked that the crates were completely full to make sure we were dead tired carrying them if by misfortune any crate was not heavy enough the women loading or carrying them were all struck hard with a stick right in the face or on top of the head 200 meters away a german supervisor also a prisoner and prostitute waited for the filled crates to be unloaded with her stick raised threatening for all sorts of reasons they managed to hit you on the head every time you passed at one end and at the other that amused them greatly little by little they derived pleasure from hitting us and this became indispensable to them at midday we had half an hour to eat the soup but it was impossible to sit down there was mud everywhere one tin bow for two about a liter each fortunately fairly hot and thicker than in quarantine this was the only moment in the whole day that we waited for impatiently we didn't stop until 4:30 assembly we were counted and sent off back to the camp in rose again 6 kilometers to do we could hardly make it after the walk back to the camp the day was still not over we had to remain standing one sometimes two hours for the evening roll call ragged muddy with feet bleeding and frozen our faces and backs lacerated with blows a last around 7:30 we returned to the block we had been on our feet since 3:30 a.m. 16 hours without sitting down a minute without a single moment's rest once back inside the block from each Koya from each bed came sobbing wailing moaning it was a big problem taking off the shoes stuck with hardened mud to our feet without crying out in pain as the sores reopened one companion pulled another's shoe gently off to avoid hurting too much and then this was reciprocated as long as your feet remained cold it was painful but still bearable as soon as they warmed up a little it would drive you mad the course wouldn't sold clogs slightly hollowed caused sores and ulcerations of the feet and legs in nearly everyone aided by the poor general condition necrotic fragments of the feet and legs diseased by dermatome Asia's fungus were one of the main causes of mortality which was also brought about by innumerable cases of tuberculosis other recent or revived by privation pneumonia and Laura see increased in the spring of 1944 there was a special service for pleurisy out of 1200 patients those with pleurisy numbered nearly a hundred during the winter of 43 44 a serious epidemic of exemplar Matic typhus claimed numerous victims the extenuating physical labor frequent work accidents the brutality of the supervisors inadequate food the wretched state of clothing and shoes the lice all this produced appalling mortality and morbidity and all this was calculated deliberate it was not poor organization or negligence now a whole system we were trying to understand was to slowly kill those who had not been exterminated on their arrival obviously they could have grouped the prisoners by nationality but this is carefully and deliberately avoided often the prisoner is mixed with common-law criminals here the role of the blocka testa is crucial he can ease the difficulties and make life less hateful for those under his administration added to all of this was the fear of frequent blows even if only slaps in the face almost every day people with crushed ribs come to the infirmary and as a simple broken rib does not exempt one from service the pain caused by the fracture accelerates the patient's decline I will not mention the bruises and more serious traumatism x' produced by blows and ill-treatment the prisoners are permanently subjected to then there is the fear of theft stolen bread but also personal belongings a spoon a knife all objects hard to replace they have to be paid for with two three or four pieces of bread finally and above all for most of the prisoners there is the absence of news of their relatives the uncertainty about the fate of their families sometimes deported at the same time as the prisoner himself the impossibility of writing the absence of parcels the prisoner talks constantly about the gas chamber the brutality he has suffered the threat of evacuation he sees companions arriving from Auschwitz upon whom the SS have performed experiments castration sometimes with radio dermatitis from time to time hangings take place during the roll call all these factors create a combination of depression and anxiety of anguish in the face of the cold The Hunger about the family the fear of tomorrow huge rats the size of cats ate the bread above our heads at night we slept for two a Koya tears fell nond belt and myself we had three blankets for the four of us we had to put one underneath on the mattress and there were only two left to cover us as this was not enough in the extreme cold we put our poor torn coats over our feet and huddled up together we shivered for hours frozen unable to get warm our jaws clenched gradually hours later we fell asleep but not for long because at once it was afternoon get up waking in anguish despair absolute misery once again in such conditions prisoner overworked and under fed insufficiently protected from the cold gradually loses 30 40 60 pounds he loses 30 35 40 percent of his weight the weight of a normal man drops to 90 pounds it is not rare to see a man weighing 60 pounds in Boca now a prisoner working in a commando survived for two to three months maximum at the end of this period he was like a skeleton with the total loss of fatty tissue and the muscle tissue partly depleted he had become a Muslim as it was termed in the camp when he drew the thin blanket over his spent head he looked like a Muslim prayer it's impossible to forget the scorn with which the SS and some well-fed prisoners call these poor souls Muslims with what anguish the emaciated patients come to the consultation undressed themselves turned around to show their buttocks and ask I'm still not a Muslim am i doctor most often they realize what state they're in and say with resignation now I am a Muslim he walks forward slowly with a fixed stare expressionless sometimes anxious the mind is also very slow the poor man no longer gets washed or so is on his buttons he is dazed submits to everything passively he no longer tries to fight he doesn't help anyone he picks up food from the ground spooning up soup spilt in the mud he has his bridges and gold crowns pulled out in exchange for a bit of bread and he is often cheated this evolution lasts about six months and there is nothing truer than this sentence spoken by an SS officer any prisoner that lives longer than six months is a crook for he lives at his companions expense the prisoner lasts six months if his morale is good but this period decreases to a month and a half or two months when morale is low if a prisoner thinks too much about the hunger the cold the exhausting labor his family or the gas chamber within a few days he collapses every two weeks the missing women had to be replaced for three-quarters of them died those who resisted the longest were the Polish women accustomed to that country's climate and too hard work in the fields the French Dutch and Greek girls died like flies from weakness diarrhea typhus to thinner with frostbitten feet they were marked out for the gas chamber in what was called a selection curiously in spite of the atmosphere of terror that reigned in the camp under the constant threat of selection there were a few suicides of Birkenau from time to time a patient went outside the hut during the night and touched the electric wire unless a burst of machine-gun fire from the nearest Watchtower had shot him down first other patients swallowed a strong dose of narcotics although the Germans forbade us from taking care of them we managed to save some it was only in the most extreme circumstances when we were already three-quarters dead that we finally went to the hospital to die besides we didn't dare ask to go because you could not only catch scabies and typhus which were never treated but also be subjected to a selection and be gassed and we were very frightened what to do what solution to choose died in the marshes from work and exhaustion or in the hospital from gas and typhus it had to be decided fast perhaps one could also commit suicide I thought about it for a long time night after night all-in-all in the hospital there was perhaps still a chance one might come through the infirmary consisted of about 10 small blocks with 100 patients and three large ones with four hundred namely an average of 2,000 patients with a staff of 50 doctors and 120 male nurses with improvised means we struggled against diseases and infections the Germans provided a certain amount of medicines and dressings and the rest came from the famous organization everything the Germans considered a value was classified and stored but a lot of medicines came into the infirmary without their knowledge and helped us immensely the surgical operations were performed in the middle of the block in front of all the other patients the patient was laid on a brick bench held down by a few aids and Wham a slash with the scalpel on the arm in the back of groin wherever the trouble was the poor woman screamed half a liter of pus came out of the wound and I hold her down and she screams and she howls every day they threw the dead women in front of the hospital door just as they were naked a blanket over the pile with feet arms heads sticking out almost every Saturday seriously ill and severely injured patients declared irretrievable by the Germans arrived from the external camps and especially from the coal mines among them were many boys aged 13 to 18 never will I forget the little 20 year old French girl whose name I never knew for she had no more strength to speak whose toes had all frozen while she was working her toes when I saw her were literally falling off her feet blue as black as ink full of pass rotten I also saw a poor little Dutch girl of 20 whose breasts frozen and black was rotting and becoming detached from her chest she died in atrocious pain suddenly the SS doctor appears in the blocks all the sick and injured have to parade naked in front of him pointing his finger he has almost all of them placed on one side of the hut the SS sergeant nurse writes down their registration numbers in dismay knowing these poor people are condemned to death we lied to them saying they are to be transferred to another camp within two minutes a murmur fills the whole room a horrible word goes round spoken in hushed voices selection selection it's a selection the hospital look over his eyes full of tears and with a lump in his throat silence is everyone and announces all the patients who can walk must stand up and get into line naked the others stay lying down they look at each other panic-stricken nothing can be done the doors are guarded they have to get up stand in line one behind the other and naked now dreadful scenes begin sick more of and dying women want to try their luck and go before the doctors from each peddling skeleton all skin and bone purulent attempts to rise with terrible groans the women clutch hold of the beds tried to stand up fall back cry out scrape the wood with their nails sometimes managing to get up fall on the ground crawl on their knees on their bellies trying to get into the line the nurses come and seize them and throw them back into the beds we the healthier ones line up in silence our hearts hammering with my arm folded to show the number tattooed on it and my head high I looked the German doctor straight in the eye he looks me up and down down and up makes me turn around takes my file gives it a glance and says Newmar a German woman notes the number on my arm and I made to go into the hospital anteroom on the right there I find about ten women at a short glance I can see they are all quite strong I feel a glimmer of hope some more women arrive poles and Greeks an Italian girl and some from Vienna some Hungarians in all 45 out of the 300 in Riviere 18 a German arrives and puts us in groups of 5 counts us and says go back to your beds you are good for work but we at once think of the others those who stayed inside and we hardly dare go to our beds we dare not look at them we are in despair most have no illusions about the fate in store for them the youngest ones weep and refused to understand why they have to die because of a leg ulcer or ask a DS infection they ask me anxiously if asphyxia by gas is painful that night nobody slapped a sick woman suddenly goes mad nearest during the night she gets up in house struggles chokes suffocates and moans thinking she's already in the gas chamber happy are those so extenuate they have lost all awareness and are now totally indifferent some others die in bed during the day presently their corpses will be piled up among the living assembled in the same place it is 11:30 they are giving out the soup and suddenly the door is open once more Germans with rifles stand around the doorway the whole room is transfixed all the bowls of soup are put down softly anxiously we wait the whole block watches listens eyes dilated with fear Cecile Susie Tony's Rosine she'd belt C Mon and so many others are going to die about a thousand or gasps that day that evening in the block we were entitled to extra bread the ration of those gassed and we ate it for we were hungry Suzanne boom-boom was evacuated to bergen-belsen on November 1st 1944 after several transfers to other camps she was liberated at tourism stats on May 7th 1945 she arrived in Paris on June 6th and finished writing her manuscript a Jewish French woman has returned by October 15th mark Klein remained a prisoner in Auschwitz until the whole camp was evacuated On January 18th 1945 he survived the death march and arrived across frozen was then transferred to the Buchenwald camp and liberated by the Allies on April 11th 1945 robertlevi also evacuated on January 18 1945 was transferred to Mauthausen he was liberated by American troops on may 5th 1945 robert veidt's evacuated on january 18 1945 at Buchenwald was liberated on April 11th 1945 he gave evidence several times notably at the Nuremberg trial and the trial of Eichmann the testimonies of mark Klein robertlevi and Robert White's were published in 1946 in a collection entitled the Strasburg testimonies

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Views: 1,706,897

Rating: 4.6146293 out of 5

Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, auschitz, nazi doctors, history documentar, ]ww2 documentary

Id: dPTvPccmLUM

Length: 75min 55sec (4555 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 19 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/MonsieurMcGregor]

The correct title of this film is Auschwitz, the First Testimonies and is from 2010, not 2020.

This information is in the video itself. Please try to use the correct title and release year in your submission titles, as described in subreddit Rule 1.

[u/easilypersuadedsquid]

haunting

[u/BuryYouWithSatan]

Does this feature the human lampshades and soap, the rollercoasters into gas chambers or the masturbation machines?

[u/[deleted]]

Nazi experiments are really fascinating, as were the Japanese experiments in the same era.

Inhumane, violent, completely immoral, truely horrific things they did to people. And they advanced our understanding of human bodies and diseases by a hundred years.

They didnt even face the consequences, because their skills and knowledge were too valuable to execute or lock up, so they were given amnesty in exchange for joining and helping an Allied force post war.

I havent watched this documentary yet, but ive always wondered where we would be without them. We may have never discovered chemotherapy, can you imagine how different the world would be without a way to fight cancer beyong cutting it out?

Edit: its disgusting, i literally said that in 4 different ways. Human history is bloody. It has to remembered or it could happen again.