Surviving the selection process at Auschwitz..

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Dan W.
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Surviving the selection process at Auschwitz..

#1

Post by Dan W. » 04 Jan 2003, 05:38

Last spring the Germans had constructed huge tents in an open space in the Lager (camp). For the whole of the good season each of them held over a thousand men. Now the tents had been taken down, and an excess two thousand guests crowded our huts. We old prisoners knew that the Germans did not like such irregularities and that something would happen soon to reduce our number.

One feels the selections arriving. 'Selekcja': the hybrid Latin and Polish word is heard once, twice, many times, interpolated in foreign conversations; at first we cannot distinguish it, then it forces itself on our attention, and in the end it persecutes us.

Today is working Sunday, Arbeitssonntag: we work until 1:00 PM, then we return to camp for the shower, shave and general control of the skin diseases and lice. And in the yards, everyone mysteriously knew that the selection would be today. Rumors circulate, the young tell the young only the old will be chosen. The healthy tell the healthy only the ill ones will be chosen. Specialists will be excluded. German Jews will be excluded. Low numbers will be excluded. You will be chosen. I will be excluded.

The bell sounds. The bell always sounds at dawn, when it means the reveille; but if it sounds during the day it means 'Blocksperre', enclosure in the huts, and this happens when there is a selection to prevent anyone from avoiding it, or when the selected leave for the gas, to prevent anyone from seeing them leave. Our Blockaltester knows his business. He has made sure we have all entered, he has the door locked, he has given everyone his card with his number, name, profession, age and nationality and he has ordered everyone to undress completely, except for shoes. We wait like this, naked, with the card in our hands, for the commission to reach our hut. We are hut 48, but one can never tell if they are going to start at hut 1 or hut 60. At any rate, we can rest quietly at least for an hour, and there is no reason why we should not get under the blankets on the bunk and try to keep warm.

Many are drowsing when a barrage of orders, blows and oaths proclaims the imminent arrival of the commission. The Blockaltester and his helpers, starting at the end of the hut, drive the crowd of frightened, naked people in front of them and cram them in the Tagesraum which is the Quartermasters office. When the drive is over a warm and compact human mass is jammed into the Tagesraum, prefectly filling all the corners, exercising such a pressure on the wooden walls as to make them creak.

The Blockaltester has closed the connecting door and has opened the other two which lead from the dormitory and the Tagesraum to the outside. Here, in front of the two doors, stands the arbiter of our fate, an SS subaltern. On his right is the Blockaltester, on his left the Quartermaster of the hut. Each one of us, as he comes naked out of the Tagesraum into the cold October air, has to run the few steps between the two doors, give the card to the SS man and enter the dormitory door. The SS man, in the fraction of a second between two successive crossings, with a glance at one's back and front, judges everyones fate, and in turn gives the card to the man on his right or his left, and this is the life or death of each of us. In three or four minutes a hut of two hundred men is 'done', as is the whole camp of twelve thousand men in the course of the afternoon.

Jammed into the charnel-house of the Tagesraum, I gradually felt the human pressure around me slacken, and in a short time it was my turn. Like everyone, I passed with a brisk and elastic step, trying to hold my head high, my chest forward and my muscles contracted and conspicuous. With the corner of my eye I tried to look behind my shoulders, and my card seemed to end up on the right.

As we gradually come back into the dormitory we are allowed to dress ourselves. Nobody yet knows with certainty his own fate, it has first of all to be established whether the condemned cards were those on the right or the left. By now there is no longer any point in sparing each others feelings with superstitious scruples. Everybody crowds around the oldest, the most wasted-away. If their cards went to the left, the left is certainly the side of the condemned. Even before the selection is over everybody knows that the left was effectively the 'schlechte Seite', the bad side. There have naturally been some irregularities: Rene for example, young and robust, ended on the left. Perhaps it was his glasses, perhaps because he walks a little stooped, but more probably because of a mistake.

It must equally be a mistake about Sattler, a huge Transylvanian peasant who was still at home only 20 days ago. Sattler does not understand German, he has understood nothing of what has taken place. He stands in a corner mending his shirt. Must I go and tell him that his shirt will be of no more use? There is nothing surprising about these mistakes: the examination is too quick and summary, and in any case, the important thing for the Lager is that the most useless will be eliminated.

The selection is now over in our hut, but it continues in the others, so that we are still locked in. But as the soup pots have arrived in the meantime, the Blockaltester decides to proceed with the distribution at once. A double ration will be given to those selected. I have never discovered if this was a ridiculously charitable initiative of the Blockaltester or an explicit disposition of the SS, but in the interval between the selection and the departure (usually two to three days) the victims enjoyed this privilege.

Ziegler holds his bowl out, collects his normal ration and than waits there expectantly. "What do you want?" asks the Blockaltester: according to him, Ziegler is entitled to no supplement, and he drives him away, but Ziegler returns and humbly persists. He was on the left, everyone saw it, let the Blockaltester check the cards; he has the right to a double ration. When he is given it he goes quietly to his bunk to eat.

I see and hear Kuhn praying aloud, swaying backwards and forwards violently. Kuhn is thanking God because he has not been chosen. Kuhn is out of his senses. Does he not see Beppo the Greek in the bunk next to him? Beppo is twenty years old and is going to the gas chamber tommorrow and he knows it and lies there looking at the light without saying anything and without even thinking anymore. Does Kuhn fail to realize that the next time will probably be his turn? Does Kuhn not understand that what happened today was an abomination, which no propitiatory prayer, no pardon, no expiation by the guilty can change?

If I was God, I would spit at Kuhns prayer.

Primo Levi: Survival in Auschwitz, pgs. 126-130

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A Haunting passage

#2

Post by The Desert Fox » 04 Jan 2003, 05:48

Certainly a very haunting literary passage Dan. Sends a shiver down the spine thinking about it . Makes us all think how lucky we are.

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I agree.

#3

Post by wenty » 04 Jan 2003, 08:54

I agree with you there Desert Fox- be glad that we are still alive and in a free country- that passage was just so horrible and sad.

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#4

Post by Dan » 04 Jan 2003, 14:35

Beppo is twenty years old and is going to the gas chamber tommorrow and he knows it and lies there looking at the light without saying anything and without even thinking anymore. Does Kuhn fail to realize that the next time will probably be his turn? Does Kuhn not understand that what happened today was an abomination, which no propitiatory prayer, no pardon, no expiation by the guilty can change?
It's the sort of thing that make so much of the holocaust genre unbelievable. As if they scheduled these things and informed people before hand.

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#5

Post by Dan W. » 04 Jan 2003, 16:17

Dan wrote:
Beppo is twenty years old and is going to the gas chamber tommorrow and he knows it and lies there looking at the light without saying anything and without even thinking anymore. Does Kuhn fail to realize that the next time will probably be his turn? Does Kuhn not understand that what happened today was an abomination, which no propitiatory prayer, no pardon, no expiation by the guilty can change?
It's the sort of thing that make so much of the holocaust genre unbelievable. As if they scheduled these things and informed people before hand.
Dan, your revisionist side is showing itself again. What is not to believe? You found the above passage unbelievable?

The writings of a prisoner who survived a little less than a year and a half at Auschwitz, who was in the infirmary when in January of 1945 the Nazi's started their death march with the prisoners and this spared him his life, even though many starved and froze to death in the remaining week or two before the Russians arrived. And you also seem to believe that this all can somehow remain a secret in a camp of twelve thousand, where clandestine contacts and an underground network, often organized along ethnic lines, would pass the word around long before anything was announced.

Have you ever spoken to anyone who has spent time in a prison? Have you ever spoken to a prison guard? It is amazing what happens in a so called 'secure' environment. Information circulates amongst prisoners long before most of the camp (or prison) adminstration is made aware of it. It was no different in these death camps, in fact, due to the desperation of everyday living these contacts were much stronger, these clandestine networks much more effective.

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#6

Post by Dan » 04 Jan 2003, 16:38

Have you ever spoken to anyone who has spent time in a prison?
I've been read my rights on three continents, for what you would call right wing activities, but that's another story.

No, I do not believe anything that Primo Levy has to say. I think he just made up the part about someone who knew he was scheduled for the gas chamber. I think we need a word that means "gross, hyperbolic kitsch".

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#7

Post by Dan W. » 04 Jan 2003, 17:04

Dan wrote:
Have you ever spoken to anyone who has spent time in a prison?
I've been read my rights on three continents, for what you would call right wing activities, but that's another story.

No, I do not believe anything that Primo Levy has to say. I think he just made up the part about someone who knew he was scheduled for the gas chamber. I think we need a word that means "gross, hyperbolic kitsch".
Okay, your worldly experience notwithstanding, why on earth would you discredit the revelations of Primo Levi? One thing I have discovered in reading the stories of Jewish inmates of the camp system is a notable absence of malice and hatred in their writings, as if they make a particular effort to seperate their just bitterness towards the Nazi's and try to relate their story in a dispassionate manner, all which leads me to believe they are more interested in influencing the reader with the facts, and to show that it is not a personal vendetta that drives them but an intense desire to ensure their story is not forgotten.

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#8

Post by Dan » 04 Jan 2003, 17:14

Elie Wiesel has won the hearts and minds of Holocaust Studies professors with his counsel on how to perpetuate a loathing for Germans:


Every Jew, somewhere in his being, should set apart a zone of hate—healthy virile hate—for what the German personifies and for what persists in the German.
*(Legends of Our Time, “Appointment with Hate,” NY, Avon, 1968, pp. 177-

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#9

Post by Marcus » 04 Jan 2003, 17:28

I wonder how many times Elie Wiesel and that quote has been brought up here? I very rarely get involved in these discussions, but I'll make an execption with the below quote from John Silber, the Chancellor of Boston University (originally posted here by Charles Bunch).
John Silber wrote:Smith claims, "Elie Wiesel as an authority on 'hate' " and Smith says he counseled "on how to perpetuate a loathing for Germans." No fair-minded person can read Wiesel's "Appointment with Hate" and reach that conclusion. Rather, it is a penetrating analysis of his own reactions as he visited Germany for the first time following the war. He entered Germany hating Germans and ended his visit finding it was impossible to hate. In that article, he went on to explain why Jews are not inclined to hate and why they did not engage in acts of vengeance against the Germans.
Moreover, following his receipt of the Nobel Prize for Peace Elie Wiesel has used the substance of his prize to sponsor conferences in the United States and Moscow and elsewhere on "The Anatomy of Hate:" His consistent theme at those conferences, and I have participated in two, has been to denounce hate as a corrosive, destructive element in human nature that must be replaced with understanding and hope.

The quotation cited by Smith doesn't even support his libel. In the quote, Elie Wiesel does not say that every Jew "should set apart a zone of hate -- healthy virile hate " for Germans. Rather he said they "should set apart a zone of hate -- healthy, virile hate -- for what the German personifies and for what persists in the Germans." As the Nazi generation has passed from the scene, what Germans personify and what persists in the Germans has changed. What Germans personified in 1945 is not what a different generation of Germans personify today.

Elie Wiesel was invited by the President and Chancellor of Germany to speak in Berlin on January 27, 2000, the day of the remembrance of the liberation of Auschwitz. That address was notable for the absence of hate and the plea for remembrance and forgiveness on which reconciliation between Germans and Jews can be possible In that address Wiesel commented favorably on Germany's support of Israel, on Germany's compensation for the victims of the Third Reich, and on Germany's recent initiative in compensating those who were used as forced laborers. What is the motivation and purpose of Mr. Smith and his CODOH? Why do they find it personally important to deny the Holocaust and to abuse and denigrate Professor Wiesel? Isn't it relevant to ask? Bradley R. Smith and his Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust are a travesty and a repudiation of all that a university should stand for when falsehood is disseminated and truth is suppressed.
http://www.holocaust-history.org/codoh/ ... r-01.shtml

/Marcus
Last edited by Marcus on 04 Jan 2003, 17:42, edited 2 times in total.

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#10

Post by Dan W. » 04 Jan 2003, 17:30

Dan wrote:
Elie Wiesel has won the hearts and minds of Holocaust Studies professors with his counsel on how to perpetuate a loathing for Germans:


Every Jew, somewhere in his being, should set apart a zone of hate—healthy virile hate—for what the German personifies and for what persists in the German.
*(Legends of Our Time, “Appointment with Hate,” NY, Avon, 1968, pp. 177-
I wonder what else we don't know about the above quote. Perhaps Elie Weisel says this hatred is to be compartmentalized in the furthest recesses of ones mind so as not to interfere with their daily lives and disrupt the relations they have with others?

Regardless, Elie Weisel certainly earned the right to be unforgiving if he so chooses.

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#11

Post by Dan » 04 Jan 2003, 17:44

The quotation cited by Smith doesn't even support his libel. In the quote, Elie Wiesel does not say that every Jew "should set apart a zone of hate -- healthy virile hate " for Germans. Rather he said they "should set apart a zone of hate -- healthy, virile hate -- for what the German personifies and for what persists in the Germans."
Since Dan was talking about Jewish opinions during WW2, what difference does it make? It still contradicts what Dan said.

Also, I never said the Jews shouldn't use the words Holocaust or Genocide. What I object to is howling about the uniqueness of their sufferings, and I guess that most educated Jews would agree with me that their persecutions were not unique in the history of the world.

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#12

Post by Marcus » 04 Jan 2003, 17:47

Dan,

You posted a missleading quote, of course it matters.

/Marcus

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#13

Post by Dan » 04 Jan 2003, 17:53

If I posted a twisted post, I was wrong, there is no question of that. I did it innocently, but it was wrong.

But the accurate quote is just as damning of the opinion that Dan was propagating.

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#14

Post by Charles Bunch » 04 Jan 2003, 18:17

Dan wrote:
Beppo is twenty years old and is going to the gas chamber tommorrow and he knows it and lies there looking at the light without saying anything and without even thinking anymore. Does Kuhn fail to realize that the next time will probably be his turn? Does Kuhn not understand that what happened today was an abomination, which no propitiatory prayer, no pardon, no expiation by the guilty can change?
It's the sort of thing that make so much of the holocaust genre unbelievable. As if they scheduled these things and informed people before hand.
And it is this sort of ill considered conclusion, fitting a pre-determined view, which characterizes denial of the Holocaust.

The passage describes how the prisoners determined whether the cards passed to the left or right constituted selection for gassing. If a fellow prisoner noted which way Beppo's card was passed, they would know his fate.

Having read this how could one conclude that the passage only makes sense if the Nazis announced in advance who was to be gassed?

The evidence for the attempted annihilation of Jews, and for their gassing at places like Auschwitz, doesn't depend on evidence such as this. But testimonial evidence of this sort from literally hundreds of Auschwitz prisoners provides a wealth of detail on the operation of the camp and how the system of death within it functioned.

To suggest that Levi, and the many others, created such scenes out of whole cloth, bespeaks of a view of these people which transcends any claim to intellectual skepticism.

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#15

Post by Hans » 04 Jan 2003, 18:23

Dan,

Here is another example of the "Jewish hatred" towards the Germans, from Elie Wiesel's speech on January 27th in the German parliament in Berlin:

"Ich glaube nicht an Kollektivschuld; nur die Schuldigen sind schuldig; nur sie und ihre Komplizen. Nicht jene, die damals noch nicht waren, und schon gar nicht die Kinder. Die Kinder von Mördern sind nicht Mörder, sondern Kinder."

Source: http://www.german-embassy.se/wiesel27100.htm

Translation:

"I do not believe in collective guilt; only the guilty and their accomplices are guilty, not those who were not born yet, and surely not their children. The children of murderers are not murderers, but children."

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