Buch der Strafkompanie - memories

Our block was one of those newly built on clayish and impermeable Birkenau soil. Half-brick thick walls, no ceiling, no washrooms or water. The block was filled with four rows of low bunk beds, like a three-storeyed henhouse. Despite hot weather it was damp and chilly inside, and the sidewalks along the bunk beds turned into sticky mud. The straw in the bunk beds came from the roofs of the demolished neighbouring houses. It was half-decayed and smelled bad. In the lower bunk beds, the straw, mixed with mud, turned into manure. It was best to get yourself one of the upper bunk beds, but these had been already occupied. Some of the middle and bottom ones were free, but there was no straw. In the other section of the block, where the kapos and those ones who they liked slept, there was some spare straw. We got there stealthily and carried a few sheaves of rotten straw each for one of the free bunk beds. Two homeless fellows joined the four of us. The floor of the upper bunk bed, located above us, was not made of planks, but of round beams, so we were constantly besprinkled with rotten straw dust. To protect our heads against it, we wrapped them with drill. Shoes and hats served us as pillows. The fellows we took in have somehow obtained a blanket. Stretched across, it covered all six of us. We could not fall asleep because of stuffiness, thirst and hunger.

Józef Kret (no. 20020)

After a while, Schlage left Blockführerstube holding a machine gun and turned to one of the kapos of the penal company, saying: “Hol ein Mann raus!”. The kapo told one of the Jews to get out of the pit and to run towards the wooden shed where the tools were kept. The prisoner, who got the order, followed it and he headed towards the shed. Schlage pointed his machine gun at him and shoot some rounds. He missed. The Jew kept running. The situation became serious, as the runner was farther and farther away, while Schlage struggled with the gun in vain. (...) The situation was saved by a tower guard. One clear shot stopped the running prisoner, who collapsed on the ground shot through the head. (...) A moment later, Schlage appeared with the machine gun once again. The scene repeated. In the meantime, a large group of SS officers gathered and observed the "hunt" with interest. Schlage addressed the kapo with a similar command.

Kazimierz Szczerbowski (no. 154)

A column of them looked terrible then. Living skeletons covered with skin, dripping with blood, carrying a dozen or so of corpses at every call were a ghastly macabre view.

Materials of the camp Resistance Movement