Suicides by German SS and ethnic camp guards

[giles120]

From his interview with camp guard Unterscharfuehrer Franz Suchomel,
Claude Lanzmann tells us of the beginning days of Treblinka in August of
1942.

Suchomel: "So Stadie, the sarge, showed us the camp from end to end. Just as we went by, they were opening the gas-chamber doors, and people fell out like potatoes. Naturally, that horrified and appalled us. We went back and sat down on our suitcases and cried like old women."

Suchomel: "We wept too, yes. The smell was infernal because gas was constantly escaping. It stank horribly for miles around. You could smell it everywhere. It depended on the wind. The stink was carried on the wind. Understand?"

When asked during his later trial how many people could be murdered in one day, Franz Stangl, Kommandant of Treblinka, answered:

"Regarding the question of the optimum amount of people gassed in one day, I can state: according to my estimation a transport of thirty freight cars with 3,000 people was liquidated in three hours. When the work lasted for about fourteen hours, 12,000 to 15,000 people were annihilated. There were many days that the work lasted from the early morning until the evening . . . I have done nothing to anybody that was not my duty. My conscience is clear."

Historical documentation reveals differing attitudes by those charged with staffing the Concentration/Death camps towards their prisoners.

Can anyone provide specific examples of camp guards who could not come to terms with what was expected of them, and as a result took their own lives?

Thanks.

[Earldor]

[snip]

Historical documentation reveals differing attitudes by those charged with staffing the Concentration/Death camps towards their prisoners.

Can anyone provide specific examples of camp guards who could not come to terms with what was expected of them, and as a result took their own lives?

Thanks.

During the war? (You probably know that many took their lives when they were faced with a trial)

http://www.deathcamps.org/treblinka/perpetrators.html

"KAINER, Erwin
?/?/? - ?/?/1944 (last name perhaps Keina)

BACKGROUND:
Belonged to the police squad.
Served at Hadamar euthanasia center. He was sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp for talking about their work in a bar.

SERVICE AT TREBLINKA:
During the chaotic first phase of Treblinka, Kainer was assigned by Wirth to form a work-brigade and supervise the grisly work in Camp II. Kainer instead shot himself in desperation - and fear of Wirth. (Tregenza, p.7)

FATE:
After his botched suicide attempt he died in hospital at Ostrow Mazowiecki in August 1942."

Some other T4 -personnel acted unenthusiastically in their duties, so I would say that several of them did have guilty feelings. I don't know if anyone has researched whether suicides were commonplace in the Einsatzgruppen and similar units. Interesting subject.

[Michael Miller]

O/T observation- With testimony such as that, and corroborated by so many others (SS and survivors alike), it astounds me that anyone could say there were no gas chambers, that there was no systematic program of extermination.

~ Mike Miller

[giles120]

I think you raise a good point with regards to conscience concerning the activities of the Einsatzgruppen. As their 'work' was so grisly, it has been reported in historical documentation that some units of the Einsatzgruppen were given schnapps, perhaps to dull their senses. It was obviously a job that could not be performed sober, perhaps the alcohol was used to kill any inhibitions they had(at least temporarily). The below testimony tells of alcohol being consumed after the event;

"The firing-squad at the well consisted of Schutzpolizisten, Waffen-SS personnel and members of the SD. We Schutzpolizisten used our own carbines, the SD men used sub-machine-guns and pistols.....
It took barely an afternoon before the last victim was in the well. Something I still remember clearly about this execution is that afterwards the SD people got drunk, so they must have received a special ration of schnapps. We Schutzpolizisten did not receive anything and I remember that we were very angry about that."

Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Jozefow Massacre: The testimony of a thirty-five-year-old metalworker from Bremerhaven:
"I made the effort, and it was possible for me, to shoot only children. It so happened that the mothers led the children by the hand. My neighbor then shot the mother and I shot the child that belonged to her, because I reasoned with myself that after all without its mother the child could not live any longer. It was supposed to be, so to speak, soothing to my conscience to release children unable to live without their mothers."

In reaction to the experience of watching 100 human beings murdered in this fashion, Himmler ordered that a more "humane" method of execution be found. Otto Ohlendorf explained in his testimony at Nuremberg "That was a special order from Himmler to the effect that women and children were not to be exposed to the mental strain of the executions; and thus the men of the kommandos, mostly married men, should not be compelled to aim at women and children."

I have also read that as a punishment, regular Wehrmacht soldiers were assigned to Einsatzkommando(no one really wanted to do the job). This was for serious infrigements of duty including falling asleep when posted as a sentry(crimes which could have been tried at court martial).

Also of interest is the role of the civilians who worked at the T4 institutes and later staffed the Reinhard Death Camps. These were not SS men(given an SS rank when they transferred to the camps), some were members of the Nazi party, but they came from normal backgrounds. Their backgrounds differ from their Einsatzgruppen counterparts who were serving members of the Waffen SS, SIPO, SD, Kripo and Gestapo.

Rudolf Bar, Unterscharführer, Carpenter, Treblinka and Belzec.
Heinrich Barbel, Scharführer, Metalworker, Sobibor and Belzec.
Erich Fuchs, Unterscharführer, Motor Mechanic, Treblinka, Sobibor and Belzec.
Heinrich Unverhau, Unterscharführer, Plumber, Sobibor and Belzec.
Siegfried Graetschus, Oberscharführer, Farmer, Sobibor and Treblinka.

What tranformed 'normal' men into butchers? How could they participate in mass murder and then go home to their families and look at their children in the same way? Was transfer out of the Einsatzgruppen/Camp staff possible? Many saw it as an escape from the fighting. I presume in many cases, duty overcame any misgivings these men may have had. Perhaps taking another life takes less courage than taking your own, and once you have killed once, the second and third times are easier. Perhaps there is truth in testimonial evidence given that perpetrators had little choice but to obey orders. Most disturbing are those accounts which demonstrate that for some individuals killing became almost addictive, and they went further than what was required of them.

[Jacky Kingsley]

I don't know wether it is what you mean, but Christopher Browning mentions an ordinary employee being roped in for the liquidation of Marcinkance Ghetto, as they were short of proper officials, and on the morning committed suicide.

Jacky