Forget about Hoess's confession and consider his testimony as expert witness and cross examination at the trial of RSHA head Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Hoess spoke freely and in considerable detail there about his recollections of what had happened at Auschwitz during the time he was commandant.
Source:
Testimony of Rudolf Hoess, Commandant of Auschwitz Testimony on Monday, April 15, 1946 Morning Session DR. KAUFFMANN: And then the railway transports arrived. During what period did these transports arrive and about how many people, roughly, were in such a transport? HOESS: During the whole period up until 1944 certain operations were carried out at irregular intervals in the different countries, so that one cannot speak of a continuous flow of incoming transports.Ê It was always a matter of 4 to 6 weeks. During those 4 to 6 weeks two to three trains, containing about 2,000 persons each, arrived daily. These trains were first of all shunted to a siding in the Birkenau region and the locomotives then went back. The guards who had accompanied the transport had to leave the area at once and the persons who had been brought in were taken over by guards belonging to the camp. They were there examined by two SS medical officers as to their fitness for work. The internees capable of work at once marched to Auschwitz or to the camp at Birkenau and those incapable of work were at first taken to the provisional installations, then later to the newly constructed crematoria. DR. KAUFFMANN: During an interrogation I had with you the other day you told me that about 60 men were designated to receive these transports, and that these 60 persons, too, had been bound to the same secrecy described before. Do you still maintain that today? HOESS: Yes, these 60 men were always on hand to take the internees not capable of work to these provisional installations and later on to the other ones. This group, consisting of about ten leaders and subleaders, as well as doctors and medical personnel, had repeatedly been told, both in writing and verbally, that they were bound to the strictest secrecy as to all that went on in the camps. DR. KAUFFMANN: Were there any signs that might show an outsider who saw these transports arrive, that they would be destroyed or was that possibility so small because there was in Auschwitz an unusually large number of incoming transports, shipments of goods and so forth? HOESS: Yes, an observer who did not make special notes for that purpose could obtain no idea about that because to begin with not only transports arrived which were destined to be destroyed but also other transports. arrived continuously, containing new internees who were needed in the camp. Furthermore, transports likewise left the camp in sufficiently large numbers with internees fit for work or exchanged prisoners. The trains themselves were closed, that is to say, the doors of the freight cars were closed so that it was not possible, from the outside, to get a glimpse of the people inside. In addition to that, up to 100 cars of materials, rations, et cetera, were daily rolled into the camp or continuously left the workshops of the camp in which war material was being made. DR. KAUFFMANN: And after the arrival of the transports were the victims stripped of everything they had? Did they have to undress completely; did they have to surrender their valuables? Is that true? HOESS: Yes. DR. KAUFFMANN: And then they immediately went to their rest? HOESS: Yes. DR. KAUFFMANN: I ask you, according to your knowledge, did these people know what was in store for them? HOESS: The majority of them did not, for steps were taken to keep them in doubt about it and suspicion would not arise that they were to go to their rest. For instance, all doors and all walls bore inscriptions to the effect that they were going to undergo a delousing operation or take a shower. This was made known in several languages to the internees by other internees who had come in with earlier transports and who were being used as auxiliary crews during the whole action. DR. KAUFFMANN: And then, you told me the other day, that rest by gbutting set in within a period of 3 to 15 minutes. Is that correct? HOESS: Yes. DR. KAUFFMANN: You also told me that even before rest finally set in, the victims fell into a state of unconsciousness? HOESS: Yes. From what I was able to find out myself or from what was told me by medical officers, the time necessary for reaching unconsciousness or rest varied according to the temperature and the number of people present in the chambers. Loss of consciousness took place within a few seconds or a few minutes. DR. KAUFFMANN: Did you yourself ever feel pity with the victims, thinking of your own family and children? HOESS: Yes. DR. KAUFFMANN: How was it possible for you to carry out these actions in spite of this? HOESS: In view of all these doubts which I had, the only one and decisive argument was the strict order and the reason given for it by the Reichsf‡hrer Himmler. DR. KAUFFMANN: I ask you whether Himmler inspected the camp and convinced himself, too, of the process of annihilation? HOESS: Yes. Himmler visited the camp in 1942 and he watched in detail one processing from beginning to end. DR. KAUFMANN: Does the same apply to Eichmann? HOESS: Eichmann came repeatedly to Auschwitz and was intimately acquainted with the proceedings. COL. AMEN: Witness, you made an affidavit, did you not, at the request of the Prosecution? HOESS: Yes. COL. AMEN: I ask that the witness be shown Document 3868-PS, which will become Exhibit USA-819. The document was submitted to the witness. COL. AMEN: You signed that affidavit voluntarily, Witness? HOESS: Yes. COL. AMEN: And the affidavit is true in all respects? HOESS: Yes. COL. AMEN: This, if the Tribunal please, we have in four languages. Turning to the witness. Some of the matters covered in this affidavit you have already told us about in part, so I will omit some parts of the affidavit. If you will follow along with me as I read, please. Do you have a copy of the affidavit before you? HOESS: Yes. COL. AMEN: I will omit the first paragraph and start with Paragraph 2: "I have been constantly buttociated with the administration of concentration camps since 1934, serving at Dachau until 1938; then as Adjutant in Sachsenhausen from 1938 to 1 May 1940, when I was appointed Commandant of Auschwitz.. I commanded Auschwitz until 1 December 1943, and estimate that at least 2,500,000 victims were executed and exterminated there by gbutting and burning, and at least another half million succumbed to starvation and disease making a total dead of about 3,000,000. This?figure represents about 70 or 80 percent of all persons sent to Auschwitz as prisoners, the remainder having been selected and used for slave labor in the concentration camp industries; included among the executed and burned were approximately 20,000 Russian prisoners of war (previously screened out of prisoner-of-war cages by the Gestapo) who were delivered at Auschwitz in Wehrmacht transports operated by regular Wehrmacht officers and men. The remainder of the total number of victims included about 100,000 German Jews, and great numbers of citizens, mostly Jewish, from Holland, France, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Greece, or other countries. We executed about 400,000 Hungarian Jews alone at Auschwitz in the summer of 1944." That is all true, Witness? HOESS: Yes, it is. COL. AMEN: Now I omit the first few lines of Paragraph 3 and start in the middle of Paragraph 3: Ò. . . prior to establishment of the RSHA, the Secret State Police Office (Gestapo) and the Reich Office of Criminal Police were responsible for arrests, commitments to concentration camps, punishments and ends therein. After organization of the RSHA all of these functions were carried on as before, but pursuant to orders signed by Heydrich as Chief of the RSHA. While Kaltenbrunner was Chief of RSHA orders for protective custody, commitments, punishment, and individual ends were signed by Kaltenbrunner or by M‡ller, Chief of the Gestapo, as Kaltenbrunner's deputy." THE PRESIDENT: Just for the sake of accuracy, the last date in Paragraph 2, is that 1943 or 1944? COL. AMEN: 1944, I believe. Is that date correct, Witness, at the close of Paragraph 2, namely, that the 400,000 Hungarian Jews alone at Auschwitz in the summer of 1944 were executed? is that 1944 or 1943? HOESS: 1944. Part of that figure also goes back to 1943; only a part. I cannot give the exact figure; the end was 1944, autumn of 1944. COL. AMEN: Right. "4. Mbutt ends by gbutting commenced during the summer of 1941 and continued until fall 1944. 1 personally supervised ends at Auschwitz until first of December 1943 and know by reason of my continued duties in the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps, WVHA, that these mbutt ends continued as stated above. All mbutt ends by gbutting took place under the direct order, supervision, and responsibility of RSHA. I received all orders for carrying out these mbutt ends directly from RSHA." Are those statements true and correct, Witness? HOESS: Yes, they are. COL. AMEN: "5. On 1 December 1943 1 became Chief of Amt 1 in Amt Group D of the WVHA, and in that office was responsible for co-ordinating all matters arising between RSHA and concentration camps under the administration of WVHA. I held this position until the end of the war. Pohl, as Chief of WVHA, and Kaltenbrunner, as Chief of RSHA, often conferred personally and frequently communicated orally and in writing concerning concentration camps. . . ." You have already told us about the lengthy report which you took to Kaltenbrunner in Berlin, so I will omit the remainder of Paragraph 5. "6. The 'final solution' of the Jewish question meant the complete extermination of all Jews in Europe. I was ordered to establish extermination facilities at Auschwitz in June 1941. At that time, there were already in the General Government three other extermination camps: Belzek, Treblinka, and Wolzek. These camps were under the Einsatzkommando of the Security Police and SD. I visited Treblinka to find out how they carried out their exterminations. The camp commandant at Treblinka told me that he had liquidated 80,000 in the course of one-half year. He was principally concerned with liquidating all the Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto. He used monoxide gas, and I did not think that his methods were very efficient. So when I set up the extermination building at Auschwitz, I used Cyklon B, which was a crystallized prussic acid which we dropped into the rest chamber from a small opening. It took from 3 to 15 minutes to kill the people in the rest chamber, depending upon climatic conditions. We knew when the people were dead because their screaming stopped. We usually waited about one-half hour before we opened the doors and removed the bodies. After the bodies were removed our special Kommandos took off the rings and extracted the gold from the teeth of the corpses." Is that all true and correct, Witness? HOESS: Yes. COL. AMEN: Incidentally, what was done with the gold which was taken from the teeth of the corpses, do you know? HOESS: Yes. COL. AMEN: Will you tell the Tribunal? HOESS: This gold was melted down and brought to the Chief Medical Office of the SS at Berlin. COL. AMEN: "7 Another improvement we made over Treblinka was that we built our gas chamber to accommodate 2,000 people at one time whereas at Treblinka their 10 gas chambers only accommodated 200 people each. The way we selected our victims was as follows: We had two SS doctors on duty at Auschwitz to examine the incoming transports of prisoners. The prisoners would be marched by one of the doctors who would make spot decisions as they walked by. Those who were fit for work were sent into the camp. Others were sent immediately to the extermination plants. Children of tender years were invariably exterminated since by reason of their youth they were unable to work. Still another improvement we made over Treblinka was that at Treblinka the victims almost always knew that they were to be exterminated and at Auschwitz we endeavored to fool the victims into thinking that they were to go through a delousing process. Of course, frequently they realized our true intentions and we sometimes had riots and difficulties due to that fact. Very frequently women would hide their children under the clothes, but of course when we found them we would send the children in to be exterminated. We were required to carry out these exterminations in secrecy but of course the foul and nauseating stench from the continuous burning of bodies permeated the entire area and all of the people living in the surrounding communities knew that exterminations were going on at Auschwitz." Is that all true and correct, Witness? HOESS: Yes.
Regards, Eugene Holman
