Homicidal gas chamber at KL Stutthof

[David Thompson]

Here is what Eugen Kogon, Hermann Langbein and Adalbert Rueckerl (editors) had to say about the gas chamber at KL Stutthof, in their book Nazi Mass Murder: A Documentary History of the Use of Poison Gas, Yale University Press, New Haven (CT): 1993, pp. 190-93:

Stutthof

It is no longer possible today to find out when building began on a gas chamber at the Stutthof concentration camp near Danzig: the prisoners who took part in

Gassings in Other Concentration Camps 191

the work do not remember exactly. Originally the chamber was built as a room for delousing clothing, and it continued to be used for this purpose, too, for as long as it existed. It was five meters long, three meters wide, and two and a half meters high. Zyklon B was thrown in through a little opening in the ceiling, about fifteen centimeters in diameter. The chamber was heated before each operation to hasten the release of the gas. [62a]

The first gassing at Stutthof of which we have proof took place on 22 June 1944. About a hundred persons were killed that day, mostly Poles and Byelorussians who had been condemned to death by the Reich Security Main Office. In the case of the second group, there were incidents; the German court had investigated these murders after the war described them, on the basis of the evidence collected, in the following way:

"The prisoners were pulled . . . out of the camp housing, bound, and, on the order of the camp commandant, taken by Bernhard Luedtke and other SS-Unterführer in the direction of the gas chamber where they were to be asphyxiated. On the way, the prisoners tried to flee, and the escort and the sentinels in the watchtowers fired on them. A large proportion of the Poles perished that way. The rest, about ten, were pushed into the gas chamber, where they were killed with Zyklon B."[63]

The second known gassing at Stutthof occurred on 26 July 1944, when twelve members of a Polish resistance organization were killed.

The next victims were about seventy invalids, transferred from a camp for Soviet prisoners of war. In the judgment cited above, it is stated that the gassing did not take place until several days after the prisoners had arrived. A large number of them, however,

"had already died from lack of food and care. The rest, at least forty men, were taken to the gas chamber by the SS men in the middle of the day and killed. On the order of SS-Sturmbannführer Hoppe, commandant of the camp, the defendant Luedtke took part in the operation: he chased and pushed the victims, some of whom defended themselves with their crutches and canes. . . . Luedtke knew that they were war-disabled Soviet prisoners, and that their killing had been ordered by the Reich Security Main Office, which saw in them only useless mouths."[64]

It was SS-Unterscharführer Otto Karl Knott who managed the gassings. In the summer of 1943 he had been trained as a disinfector at Oranienburg, where he had followed a course that lasted several weeks. He was not just taught how to use Zyklon B for disinfesting clothing; he and the other participants in the course heard the instructor, SS-Standartenführer Dr. Enno Lolling,* say that

"if by chance they were ordered to collaborate in the gassing of people, they should carry out this order."[65]

* Head of the SS Main Economic Administrative Office's Sanitation Bureau D III for concentration camps. (Editor's note.)

192 Gassings in Other Concentration Camps

The camp commandant, SS-Sturmbannführer Paul Werner Hoppe, later received orders to kill the many Jews incarcerated in his camp. He transmitted this order to his subordinates:

"All the Jews who were old, sick, or unable to work had to be killed. Meanwhile, the head of the D.1 central bureau of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office, SS-Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höss, who had previously commanded the Auschwitz concentration camp, gave, on the occasion of a visit, detailed instructions on the gassing procedure."[66]

A German court investigated all of these murders, which took place between August and November 1944. It summarized the results of its investigations in its verdict:

Among the Jews housed in the row of barracks at the northernmost point of the "new camp," those who were sick, old, or unable to work were selected on certain days. The great majority of them were women, and twenty-five to thirty-five were taken every time. The selection was made . . . without closely examining the victims' state of health or their lack of fitness for work. It was made quite superficially, on the basis of physical appearance or the ability to do certain physical exercises, such as running or jumping. The victims were led to the gas chamber (the room for delousing clothes) either directly or after a short stay in a so-called isolation barrack. The victims who could not walk were carried on a flat wagon pulled by prisoners. They were not given the [real] reason for this selection. A member of the SS explained to them that they were going to be taken to the hospital or to another camp. They were advised not to forget to take their mess tin and spoon. It is impossible to say with any certainty to what extent this ploy actually succeeded at the start. But, on the basis of the witnesses' depositions, the court reached the conclusion that after a while the real aim of these operations was known to the Jewish prisoners in the camp. [67]

To maintain the illusion in spite of everything, and to prevent attempts at resistance, a railway car standing on a little siding leading to the camp was sometimes used as a gas chamber. The women were told that they were being taken to a stocking-darning shop—in other words, to an easy job.

In this way, at least in the beginning, the attempt to mislead the women was partially successful. However, here too the truth finally came to be known to the prison inmates. The victims were led to believe that they were going to be taken by train. One of the SS men put on a railroad employee's uniform and whistled, as is usually done in marshaling yards. To make the subterfuge complete, an ordinary car was placed next to the gassing car.' . . . But all the openings in the gassing car, in the walls and the floor, had been hermetically sealed, and an opening had been built into the roof so that the gas could be

Gassings in Other Concentration Camps 193

thrown down into the interior. The SS staff of the camp urged the twenty or thirty victims to hurry: it was time to leave; they had to go clear to Danzig. As soon as everybody was in the car, the doors were closed. Then the gas was thrown through the opening in the roof. [68]

In the unheated railway car the struggle against death lasted longer. A prisoner known by the initial H., who worked as an orderly, observed that the car shook for ten or fifteen minutes. He heard the victims' cries from the infirmary, which was quite a distance away. [68a]

The number of Hungarian Jewish women who were killed by poison gas in August 1944 is estimated at about three hundred, as is the number killed in September. In October there were more than six hundred victims, including a group of men. Before an end was put to the gassings in early November 1944, about 250 more women were killed the same way.

[danyb]

hello !

i'm looking for informations of otto-karl knott:

date of birth ?
place of birth ?
ss rank: unterscharfuhrer ?

thank you

danyb

[dylan]

Otto Knott

5/06/1910 SS Unterscharf.
SS No 273009.

dylan

[Researcher]

Otto Karl Knott
SS Unterscharfuhrer
Born 5/6/1910 in Gottswalde


Regards
Researcher

[michael mills]

It seems that there was no purpose-built homicidal gas-chamber in Stutthof Concentration Camp.

Rather there was a purpose-built disinfestation facility, a common feature of concentration camps, and it is claimed that this facility was used homicidally on a number of occasions between July and November 1944.

It is also claimed that a railway car was converted into a gas-chamber by making a hole in its roof. It is however possible that this vehicle was originally some kind of mobile disinfestation chamber.

Given the relatively small number of victims (100 + 12 + 70 + 300 + 300 + 600 + 250), it is odd that the camp administration felt it necessary to adapt disinfestation facilities for a homicidal purpose rather than simply shooting the victims in small groups. Perhaps gassing had some sort of special significance.

it is also noteworthy that the order to kill the Jews in the camp unfit for labour came rather late, in August 1944.

It appears that Stutthof was not an extermination centre, but rather an incarceration camp in which batches of prisoners began to be killed at a late stage when the Red Army was approaching Warsaw.

[henryk]

Compare the following with Michael Mills unsourced statement:
http://www.jewishgen.org/ForgottenCamps ... ofEng.html

Stutthof is 34 km from Danzig and was the first concentration camp created by the Nazis outside of the country of Germany (September 2nd. 1939). It is also the last camp liberated by the Allies (May 10th 1945). The first prisoners arrived in the camp on September 2nd. 1939: 250 Polish citizens and P.O.W. Two weeks later, on September 15th 1939, there were 6,000 prisoners in the camp: prisoners of war, scientists, etc,... Most of them were executed by the SS.

The camp was composed of 8 barracks for the inmates and a huge building (the "kommandantur") for the SS. It was called "the old camp". In 1942, the SS began to build a "new" camp: 30 barracks were added. In 1943, the Nazis added a crematory and a gas chamber. The gas chamber had a maximum capacity of 150 people at one time. When the SS had too many people to execute, they also used wagons as gas chambers. Between September 2nd 1939 and May 10th 1945, 127,000 prisoners were registered upon their arrival in the camp. The lowest estimation of the number of victims is 85,000. The real number is certainly much higher: the inmates who were selected for immediate execution at their arrival were not registered.

[michael mills]

If Henryk cares to look carefully, he will see that my post was an analysis of information contained in a quotation from the book "Nazi Mass Murder: A Documentary History of the Use of Poison Gas", posted by David Thompson.

Every bit of information in my post, such as numbers of victims etc, was derived from that quotation.

[henryk]

Sorry. I missed the connection.