SS garrison in the Auschwitz camp

The transcript of the podcast

Slightly over eight thousand SS-men served in the Auschwitz camp during its entire existence. Dr Piotr Setkiewicz, the head of the Memorial Research Centre talks about SS garrison, as well as the structure of the administration of the camp.

What was the difference between the SS garrison in Auschwitz from the SS garrisons in other concentration camps?

Well, Auschwitz concentration camp was simply many times bigger than the old camps in Germany including such ones like Dachau, Sachsenhausen and others. Therefore, the number of officers was smaller and, in many cases, they were unable to supervise the Non-Commissioned Officers and supervisors properly, as it was usually done in old camps in Germany. Moreover, Auschwitz was a new camp in the Nazi system and as usual in such situations, when a certain institution is about to open a new branch somewhere, the leadership of the institution, of the company had to transfer a certain number of old experienced workers from the old parts of the conglomerate to the new one. And in such situations the directors of old branches of the company, they are usually transferring people who are troublesome, who are not skilled enough to work properly and so on. If we remember the complaints by Rudolf Höss about the moral standard and usefulness of the transferred officers to Auschwitz, it seems to be quite reasonable that these people represented certain lower moral standards than other guards in the old concentration camps in Germany.

How many SS-men in total served in Auschwitz? And of course, we need to remember that these numbers, in any given time were changing, because the camps developed.

At the beginning of the fall of 1940, approximately 340 guards were in Auschwitz. They formed only one guards company. But of course, over the course of time, the number grew to approximately 2200 at the beginning of 1942 and to over 4 thousand guards on the eve of the final evacuation of the camp in January 1945. Interestingly, that was practically the same number as an average count of a German infantry division at this time. So, we may say that an entire division of soldiers was moved to Auschwitz to guard the prisoners to work here.

If we assume those SS men, who were transferred from Auschwitz to other places, to other concentration camps, some of them were released because of ill health and many of the guards in Auschwitz were transferred to the combat units of the Waffen SS fighting on the frontline. So, all together we are able to estimate that more then, 8000 SS-men were in Auschwitz, sometimes for the entire period of the operation of the camp, sometimes only for a couple of months as a replacement for example. So, that was a large number of people who were engaged in the operation of Auschwitz who are in contact with prisoners of the concentration camp here.

Analysing this situation, the number of SS guards was relatively low when we look at the number of prisoners. And the question which sometimes is asked is, did the prisoners try to use their advantage in numbers to, for example escape from the camp, to do something using their outnumbering of the SS guards? Was it even possible? Because, there are not only the guards but, the whole security system around the camp and around the groups of prisoners who were working outside.

Considering the number of prisoners of course is very high, nevertheless, it’s necessary to remember that they were separated in many sectors of Auschwitz, in isolated certain groups. The prisoners in Auschwitz were practically placed two kilometres from the camp at Birkenau. And inside Birkenau the camp itself was divided into number of compounds of sectors. I don’t think that it would be possible for any sort of common action between the prisoners of at least two major parts of the Auschwitz concentration camp. But, perhaps more importantly, the guards had weapons, they had rifles, machine guns, machine pistols, grenades, and in any certain attempt of massive rebellion or escape, the prisoners, when confronted by the armed garrison practically had no chances at all.

I presume that one platoon of SS guards was able to cope with any sort of larger attempts of mass escape. Something like this happened for example in October 1944 during the rebellion of the Sonderkommando. So, relatively small numbers of guards were able to prevent prisoners from escaping and they shot all the opponents. So, that was simply impossible. I think that despite plans that existed among the resistant organisations in Auschwitz, including this one lead by Capitan Pilecki, or later on the organisation that was organised around the Polish socialist party and the leftist political groups, could be taken into account only in the case of mass liquidation of prisoners before the Soviet troops entered. But even in this case, such an attempt seems to be desperate and the prisoners practically had no chances for any success in confrontation with a well-armed SS garrison.

Of course, some people claim that the guards were armed with outdated weaponry like old - styled Mauser rifles or certain kinds of machine guns that were seized by the German army in certain European countries like Yugoslavia. The concentration camp had a number of Yugoslav guns or Soviet machine guns. And it was in 1944 the garrison received a number of Danish rifles which had an unusual calibre of 8 millimetres with a very limited amount of ammunition. Nevertheless, if we consider the practically defenceless prisoners and the well-armed soldiers of the SS garrison in Auschwitz, any sort of open fight would eventually develop into a massacre.

Apart from the SS guards, so guards who are responsible for securing the perimeter of the camp, securing the commandos of prisoners that are working outside, or standing on the system of watch towers around the camp and in the wilder perimeter, we have also the SS men who are dealing with administration of the camp. So, what was their duties and what’s their division when we talk about the whole administrative system of a concentration camp?

From among all the guards of Auschwitz, approximately 75-80% were organised inside the structures of an SS century battalion, that was divided into a number of century companies and so on. So, these were the people who were guarding prisoners on an everyday basis. They were taking the posts on the watch towers or formed an external chain post guards. But apart from them, there was also relatively high number of SS men who were engaged in doing some administrative duties. They constituted the so-called commandant who were in the headquarters of the garrison and they were divided into a number of divisions or Abteilungen. They usually worked in the offices within working hours between 7 am. to 4 pm. So, they usually had limited contact with the prisoners of the concentration camp, but practically they had to be ready when it was necessary to use them as armed forces. So, they composed the so-called Stabs-Kompanien - head-watches company, and from time to time they were being taken to a race course where they had to perform a number of basic military training. So, they were taken into account as a potential force in the case of a possible prisoner’s rebellion. Usually they did their job in the offices. Particularly, there was a case of the Abteilung number I, that was a commandant’s office, that include SS men who did their jobs for the commander of the camp, who was an adjutant of the commander. The drivers of the trucks that served for the entire garrison, there were women and SS men who worked as a radio operator’s and so on.

More importantly was division number II, Politisch Abteilung, the political division and in practical terms these people were at the same time SS men and members of the Gestapo, and therefore they had two kinds of ranks. One of them, of course according to the SS system but, also the police. They were responsible for many duties like for example, they had to be present on the ramp at the moment of the rival of the transport. Each time they had to confirm the fact that, so and so prisoners were delivered to the concentration camp, to sign a certain form of confirmation for the leader of the escort. Then they had to be present during the executions in Auschwitz, usually under the black wall in the yard of block number 11. Then there were also the administration of the crematoria, probably because that was a certain office including the political Abteilung that was responsible for issuing the death certificates. So, these were the administrative duties. But the most important one for the SS men from the political division was to combat the resistance inside the concentration camp. So, that resulted, of course in making a network of spies among the prisoners, the constant examination of those suspected in participating in any form of resistance and so on. Of course, these interrogations were based on tortures which were very cruel, so prisoners were usually very afraid of the SS men who belonged to department number II.

Department number III was composed mostly of the Blockführers, the SS NCO’s responsible for discipline in all the blocks. Every single block theoretically should have its own Blockführer. They had to know how many prisoners were in the block, and each time during the roll calls they had to report the number of prisoners from their block to the report officer who, belonged to the structure of department number III as well. His duty was to report the number of prisoners to the commandant of the camp or his deputy, that was the most important part for the commander of Auschwitz. Practically nobody cared about the number of deaths in the camp but, if somebody, if a prisoner escaped from Auschwitz in this way, the commander of the concentration camp may have some problems, some trouble.

Another department IIIa, these were the SS men who were busy with the employment of prisoners. They distributed those who had certain practical skills among different commandos. They were also responsible for all the paper work connected with hiring the prisoners to the private companies and so on.

Department number IV, these were SS men who were responsible for purchasing things that were necessary for the everyday activity of the garrison, including food for the kitchens for example, also all equipment for the SS troops, such as uniforms and ammunition for example. One may say that this sort of activity was rather far from the very purpose of the concentration camp, being the mass of killing people, but if we analyse the documents from department number IV we can find there are some hints about, for example the deliveries of Zyklon B that also belonged to the scope of responsibility of the SS men from this department. Certain sub units inside the structures of the department were responsible for accounting and registering of all the items that were seized from the luggage of the victims. So, also in many cases the SS men from this department had contact with prisoners and influenced somehow the mass murder in Birkenau.

Very important was department number V, the medical staff, which was composed of doctors. Some of them worked in the SS hospital, the others took care of the hospital inside the concentration camp. Practically all the members of this department were responsible for mass selections on the ramp, including dr. Josef Mengele, but it was not the only doctors who did the selections. When it was necessary, all the members of this department, including sanitarians, including the head of the drug store were involved in making the selections on the ramp.

Department number VI was composed of only a few non-commissioned officers and they were responsible for the organisation of free time for the SS men, including ideological training and lectures, but they also invited the orchestras from Katowice or Bohemia. They also organised sports competitions, trips for the SS men to the SS resort in Międzybrodzie. So, that was the way the commander of Auschwitz wished to control the SS men in their free time.

Inside the garrison there were also a number of sub units or departments responsible to the commander of Auschwitz as head of the garrison. But they had a certain scope of independence from the official structure of the concentration camp, and it was for example, the construction department, the central construction administration of the camp, that was for example, the Hygienic Institute in Rajsko, some SS companies that operated inside the area of concentration camp and so on. This entire structure was a little bit complicated nevertheless, Höss still had power over all the members of the SS, not only as a commander of the concentration camp but also as a commander of the garrison.

When we talk about the responsibility of the SS men, of course we could find some part of the administration that were far more involved in the terror system, like the political department, like some of the guards who are constantly forcing prisoners to work harder and so on. But, when we look at the whole structure, the responsibility for the crime is shared, because someone had to deliver the trucks to get the people from the Alte Judenrampe for example to the gas chambers, and this would be the commandants office. There are telegraphists there in the office that get all this information that is spread later. The political department is signing the transport confirmation and administer the crematoria. The people who become prisoners are taken over by department III. Administration purchased Zyklon B. Doctors participate in selections. All these people are ideologically trained so that they believe this ideology. So, I think when we talk about responsibility for the crime, it is much more universal issue and we should include every member of the SS who is in the camp because, each of them had a little share of the guilt.

Definitely you’re right. But in practical terms that raises some problems with the interpretation of the dates of the SS men in Auschwitz and their responsibility for the crime part, direct or indirect participation in the crimes committed in the camp. And even for the SS men themselves who were involved somehow, that might have been the way to find an excuse for their own role that they played in Auschwitz. If we consider those SS men who personally committed crimes, so who killed men in Auschwitz, the number seems to be relatively low. And includes of course the members of the so-called sanitarians, who were trained in operating with the gas Zyklon B, who were opening the vents on the roof of gas chambers and they released crystals of Zyklon inside the gas chambers. So, of course they were guilty. A direct result of the work that they did, was the death of the prisoners.

We should also include in this category, those SS men from the chain of guards. Those SS men who were guarding prisoners in the work place, who simply beat them to death or opened fire on those who attempted to escape. So, that was again the people whose deeds resulted directly into the death of prisoners. Also, doctors, physicians, whose decisions resulted on the ramp for example, in immediate death of prisoners in the gas chambers. Of course, those sanitarians who worked in the hospitals for the prisoners who administrate the death injection with a phenol into the heart of prisoners. So, these were SS men who had direct contact with mass killing. But, if we assume the number of SS men in the entire garrison, the number of those directly involved seems to be relatively small. However, it’s necessary to remember that the concentration camp formed a certain structure, even if SS men who stood on the external chain of guards and who testified afterwards, “I had never killed anybody because, I do not remember if any prisoners had ever tried to escape around me.” And perhaps the testimony was true, but by standing within the chain of guards, he prevents the prisoners escaping and in this direct way he participated in the efficiency of the security systems and the efficiency of the camp as such.

We can find many examples or stories in which many SS men were involved, and the story resulted in the eventual death of prisoners somehow. For example, in a certain sub camp a sanitarian corporal selected, say 10 people among the patients because he saw that they were too weak, in his opinion there was no chance that they will return to work. So, he usually did not kill them with his own hands, but he made a phone call to the administration of Auschwitz to say that there is a need for the transport of these people to the main camp. So, somebody in administration had to give an order that a driver should take a car and go to the sub camp and bring these people back to the main camp. Then when he did it, these people were being taken to the hospital, murdered by the heart injections and the number of these people would eventually appear in the register of the morgue in Auschwitz. So, in this case at least four people were involved and only the last SS man did the fatal injection of the phenol.

But at the beginning of this chain of events were some others whose decisions resulted actually in death of the prisoners in the hospital. So, in many ways these innocent SS men were actually involved in mass killing, including as we mentioned, the drivers of trucks. In personal opinions that were issued by the leaders of department about the behaviour of the individual SS men, you may find for instance a document in which there was described the story of a certain driver of a truck, who usually was being sent to the sub camps to transfer food, to transport bricks from one place to another. But he voluntarily agreed to perform special tasks, and as it was stressed in this document, the next morning despite these heavy duties this driver began work again and without complaints and enthusiastically. So, we may see that in many cases the participation of the SS men in direct crimes against prisoners did not even result from direct orders of the superiors, but because they volunteered to perform these tasks because they would receive a certain reward in the form of the piece of sausage, vodka or cigarettes.

You said that all together there were approximately 8200 SS men in the garrison throughout the existence of the camp. Do we have enough sources to say something general about the sociological profile of this group of men?

Nothing unusual, I think. They were ordinary people who were recruited among the different classes, levels of German society. Before the war, among the members of the garrison, those SS men who were the so called “active” ones represented only small number, who were professionals. Most of them before the war joined the ranks of the SS, they were the members of so-called Allgemeine SS, so the general SS. So, they did their usual jobs and only on weekends they met to gather, to pass through certain forms of military training, or ideological too and so on. So, these were in most cases farmers, workers, clerks, representatives of all possible professions that existed before the war in Germany, including some opera singers, some musicians, including a man who was a captain of a river boat. So, there was nothing unusual, most of them were relatively young, if we consider their age, most of the members of the garrison were 30 or more years old. They were all Germans, that meant they had German citizenship, but in the course of time there were more people who were called ethnic Germans or Volksdeutsche, who were born in other countries like Hungary, like Romania and including Poland of course. Those SS men who belonged to the German minority who lived in the western provinces of Poland before the war, after the German invasion of Poland they accepted the German national list. If we can find in some books or on the internet, information that there were some Polish SS men among the members of the garrison in Auschwitz, of course it’s not true. We were even able to identify some SS men who were born in United States, but nobody would say that in Auschwitz there were American SS men. So, that was a general rule apart from this small group of Ukrainians who were recruited in the Trawniki training camp and sent to Auschwitz. Here they spent only a couple of weeks, and after some of them tried to escape, the company was dissolved and other Ukrainians were sent to the other concentration camps.

Where did all the SS men live? Because I presume that there is number of places but, also some kind of gradation, because we have officers, we have NCO’s, we have privates, so their living conditions are also differed.

In many respects the structure and hierarchy of the Auschwitz concentration camp reflected certain patterns of the organisation of usual military units. So, there was a strict division between the Privates, the Non-Commissioned Officers and Officers. So, Privates for example were initially quartered in former Polish tobacco monopoly buildings that were situated not far from the concentration camp, just a few hundred metres from Auschwitz. And simply, the beds were placed inside certain spaces that were divided by walls. So, living conditions were practically comparable with the standard of the life of general soldiers just before the war in barracks.

Officers and seniors Non-Commissioned Officers received better quarters in former Polish houses on the suburb of Oświęcim which were situated on the left bank of the Soła river called Zasole. So, the Poles were expelled from the entire area around the camp and these houses were given to the families of the SS Officers. Some of them lived here together with their wives and children and if there was a large family, usually they would expect to receive an entire house. While it was the case that for a single SS man, such a house was being divided into several smaller apartments. The standard of life of course was higher. Wives of SS men would receive from time to time some prisoners to do some work in the house, to paint the walls for example. They usually also received young Polish girls from the city of Oświęcim, who had to perform such work like cleaning, washing dishes, cooking, taking care of the children and so on.

The standard of life of the wives of the Officers was relatively high. In 1943 most of the SS men in Auschwitz lived in the newly opened complex of barracks in front of the Birkenau camp. And again, the conditions were relatively good. The SS men had double story beds, the canteen, the gathering hall, central heating installations and so on. That might have been perhaps the explanation for the particular cruel attitude of the SS men towards prisoners, because they understood that they might have been selected and transferred to the combat units of the Waffen SS fighting on the front line. That was of course dangerous because, someone might be killed there, while in Auschwitz they were perfectly safe here until 1944 when the first bombings of the Americans began. So, they wished to gain the opinion of the most useful ones to avoid to being sent to Eastern front.

Was there an internal system of awards and punishments within the SS structure?

In many respects, it was similar to the system that existed in the ordinary German army. The commander of the company, battalion, or in some more serious cases the commander of the concentration camp, they had many tools at their disposal. For example, to ban leaving the barracks. In most cases after a day of work the SS men would go to the city for example, to drink some alcohol in the restaurants for Germans, to go to the cinema, to do some things until the curfew. When an SS man did something against the regulations or their orders, he had to stay in the barracks for couple of days or weeks. In some more serious cases he might be punished, be sent to jail or Kommandantur arrest as it was called in Auschwitz for seven days, sometimes even more. And the most serious offences would be punished, not by the commander of Auschwitz itself, but by the original military court of the SS from Breslau, and also there was a branch in Katowice. So, in these cases such SS men would be sent to the penial camp near Gdańsk or would even end up in a punishment battalion on the front line.

So, that was the system of punishment inside the structure of the SS in Auschwitz. There was also a system of rewards. The SS men would receive for example, a few extra days of leave. Of course, the SS men would usually receive 2 weeks of regular leave which was usually in the summer. Then they would receive a few extra days to visit their family during Christmas and so on. But, most valuable for the SS men was the sort of extra leave that was given by the commander for an extraordinarily well-done service. That might have been for example, when the SS man, the guard prevented a prisoner from escaping from the camp. Additionally, that was the routine in Auschwitz, when a prisoner was killed while escaping by an SS man, the SS man would be mentioned in the official order of the commander and he would receive 3, 5 or even more days of extra vacation. But, after some time Höss began to understand that in many cases, such escapes were actually provoked by the SS men, and that was done in order to receive some extra days of leave. So, later on Höss only mentioned in the orders that something like this happened. Then the SS man would receive the military decorations, because from a formal point of view, the service in Auschwitz was treated by the authority of the SS, as military service on the front line. In their eyes the combating enemies of the Reich in Auschwitz, was equal to fighting on the front line, and from time to time SS men would receive promotions to a higher rank. Some of them during the entre stay in Auschwitz were not promoted at all, while in some other cases we may observe some unexpected and quick careers. For example, Vinzenz Schöttl, who came to Auschwitz with the rank of Private, he eventually was promoted to the function of the Lagerführer in Monowitz.

It is clear that the SS men were rewarded for participating in a crime. The well-done duty means that they served well and they prevented escapes, and they participated in special operations and so on. What were they punished for?

Well, there are many usual, I would say offences as happened in the army. For example, when an SS man was found by the Commanding Officer sleeping on duty. There was a long report for example, about the case of an SS man who fell asleep on the watch tower, who did not wake up until the SS Officer knocked on his helmet for example. But, in most cases as we can see on the registers of such cases of offences, were the stories about SS men who got drunk, were found in public places in the city or in the train station, or being drunk, they refused to obey the orders of commanders and so on. Practically the majority of cases resulted in such incidents of SS men being drunk. And that confirms some opinions by SS men themselves after the war, but also by prisoners of the concentration camp, that the question of bringing alcohol on a massive scale, that was one of the most serious problems among the members of staff. I think that resulted from certain emotional and psychological burdens, that of course was connected with the mass killing of people in the concentration camp.

We mainly talk about the SS men in Auschwitz, but from March of 1942 when the female sector was created, there are also women in the camp that are involved in the supervision over female prisoners. However, their status is different because they are not members of the SS.

From a formal point of view, women who served in the Auschwitz were not the members of the SS. But in practical terms the situation was not particularly different. They wore military uniforms, they got pistols, they were subordinate in terms of disciplinary power to the commander of the concentration camp. But of course, there were some differences. They stayed apart from the barracks of the SS men in the Stabsgebäude in the headquarters building. They were directly responsible to the female senior supervisors or the Lagerführer of the women’s camp. They had to perform similar duties to the male garrison in Auschwitz. First of all, to supervise the women prisoners inside the women’s camp in Birkenau, but they were also going to work with commandos of women in different places around the camp. So, they would receive in such cases, a certain number of guards, SS men with rifles that formed a sort of small chain of centuries around the walking places of the commando, but direct supervision of the work of the women was in their hands. So, their scope of responsibility was similar and the cruelty of their criminal acts against the women was very similar as the men’s camp. During the trials of war criminals from Auschwitz after the war, women supervisors were tried and put before tribunal along with SS men and they received similar penalties.

From a formal point of view for example, the SS men were not allowed to visit women’s camp, except from some exceptions of SS doctors and officers from the employment division.

How many SS Aufseherin were there in Auschwitz?

Approximately 200, and they were in Birkenau camp and in some sub camps. They would receive higher salaries than men. They were not officially included into the ranks of the SS but, if we would like to consider the status of sort of, contract workers, namely they had to sign the contract with the SS and to accept the conditions, and for many young women , the girls from rather low level of society that kind of work was attractive somehow.

A very challenging topic after the war is the issue of guilt and responsibility of the SS. What happened with them after the war? Unfortunately, when we talk about justice we may add this little, “in” in front of this word- injustice because very few of the SS men ever faced any kind of court.

After the war many officers and soldiers of the SS from Auschwitz were arrested particularly by the Western allies. Why? Because, most of the members of the former SS garrison were transferred in January 1945. They escorted the prisoners during the death marches and they were sent to perform their duties to other concentration camps where they committed more crimes, and these men after the war were tried by the British or by the Americans, particularly for those crimes committed in other camps in Bergen Belsen, in Dachau and so on. But of course, during the procedures before the military courts, from time to time of course the question of mass killings in Auschwitz, participation of these particular Officers in these killings in Auschwitz, could be heard during the proceedings.

Initially, both the Americans and the British took this very seriously and many seniors officers from Auschwitz, including living figures, including the doctors for instance, were sentenced to death and executed. But, when it was a case of mid level of the echelon and the Privates in Auschwitz, in most cases, at least initially, the Western allies tried to keep certain agreements that perpetrators who committed crimes on the territory of certain countries in Europe, should be sent to the territory of this country. So, on the basis of the agreement, more than 600 SS men from Auschwitz were sent to Poland. Initially there was an idea to organise a huge trial of all these members of the SS from Auschwitz in one single place, but from a practical and logistic reasons it was impossible.

The most important SS officers from Auschwitz were tried by the supreme national tribunal in Warsaw and in Kraków, including the two commanders of Auschwitz, Höss and Liebehenschel and many senior officers. In this particular case, many of these officers received high sentences, to spend many years in prison. But there was a problem with those SS men who were put before the regional courts in Katowice, Krakow, Wadowice and in some other places, because there was a problem with the evidence, with the documents, there were very few witnesses who remembered these particular SS men. So, usually it was done in such way that there was a trial against one leading SS man and his collaborators, let’s say 10 of them, and they testified before the court. Of course, that they did nothing wrong, they were not involved, they just heard about the crematoria, they had never heard about the gas chambers and so on, and so on. Then there were some witnesses, survivors who claimed that, “Well I’m sorry, I am not able to recognise this man, but I know that all the SS men in Auschwitz were bad guys, committed many crimes,” and so on. And then the court usually used a certain formula that was adapted in Poland at this time, these people were punished because of their membership in the criminal organisation called staff of KL Auschwitz, and in this way was possible to sentence them for year or two in prison. And after spending this time in Polish jails they were released and could go back to Germany. However, we must remember that, that happened only in Poland, few such trials took place in Czechoslovakia.

With the beginning of the Cold War, the situation in Germany had changed and practically nobody in the fifties was interested in investigating the crimes committed in concentration camps. And that was only after a decade when some leftist activists, and also honest layers including mister Fritz Bauer who was the Chief prosecutor in Hessen, they began to alarm the society, the German society and the press in the media that SS’s are still among us. That while walking down the street you can still find a man who probably was guilty of many crimes in the concentration camps, so that resulted in initiating certain investigations. A central office for investigating Nazi crimes was formed and that resulted in a series of trials in Frankfurt am Main at the beginning of the sixties. But the result was only partly satisfactory because, after so many years the witnesses did not remember the dates well and the proceedings had to be done in accordance with the rules of the German penal code. So, that was very difficult, and if, at least in some cases the sentences were high, many adults were released or received only minor punishments.

So, that was the practise in German courts for many years. Gradually the number of SS men who were put before the tribunals became lower and lower, and only recently there were some new attempts to investing former members of the Auschwitz staff. However, assuming that these people may now be 90 or even 100 years old, this may have moral meanings than a practical one.