THE
main prosecution witnesses at the Belsen trial held in
the British Occupation Zone of Germany who testified
about the gas chambers in Auschwitz were Charles
Bendel and Ada Bimko (now Hadassah Rosensaft
of the Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC: she
testified to being shown by an SS officer the huge
cylinders of gas in a room above the gas chanmber! --
Another passage omitted by the experts in the Lipstadt
Trial); but another witness was Sophia Litwinska,
a Polish Jewess. Here is an excerpt from her testimony of
September 24, 1945 as recorded in the book The Belsen
Trial (ed. R. Phillips). WHILST
I was fetching food one day I fell down and broke my leg,
and was taken to the camp reception station, and was in
hospital at Christmas, 1941.
What happened on the day before Christmas Day? - There
was a big selection in Block No. 4, the hospital block. Over
3000 Jewish women had to parade in this selection, which was
under the charge of Hoessler. We had to leave our
beds very quickly and stand quite naked to attention in
front of him and the doctors, Enna and Koenig.
All those who could not leave their beds had their numbers
taken, and it was clear to us that they were condemned to
death. Those whose bodies were not very nice looking or were
too thin, or whom those gentlemen disliked for some reason
for other, had their numbers taken, and it was clear what it
meant. My number was also taken. We stayed in Block No. 4
for a night and the next day were taken to Block No. 18.
About half-past five in the evening trucks arrived and we
were loaded into them, quite naked like animals, and were
driven to the crematorium. When you reached the crematorium what happened there? -
The whole truck was tipped over in the way they do it
sometimes with potatoes or coal loads, and we were led into
a room which gave me the impression of a shower-bath. There
were towels hanging round, and sprays, and even mirrors. I
cannot say how many were in the room altogether, because I
was so terrified, nor do I know if the doors were closed.
People were in tears; people were shouting at each other;
people were hitting each other. There were healthy people,
strong people, weak people and sick people, and suddenly I
saw fumes coming in through a very small window at the top.
I had to cough very violently, tears were streaming from my
eyes, and I had a sort of feeling in my throat as if I would
be asphyxiated. I could not even look at the others because
each of us concentrated on what happened to herself. What was the next thing you remember? - At that moment I
heard my name called. I had not the strength to answer it,
but I raised my arm. Then I felt someone take me and throw
me out from that room. Hoessler put a blanket round me and
took me on a motor cycle to the hospital, where I stayed six
weeks. As the result of the gas I had still quite
frequently, headaches and heart trouble, and whenever I went
into the fresh air my eyes were filled with tears. I was
subsequently taken to the political department and
apparently I had been taken out of the gas chamber because I
had come from a prison in Lublin, which seemed to make a
difference, and, apart from that, my husband was a Polish
officer. But
compare this with her earlier version of the same events,
which she gave in an affidavit: AT
AUSCHWITZ, on 24th December, 1942, I was paraded in company
with about 19,000 other prisoners, all of them women.
Present on parade were Doctors Mengele and
Konig and Rapportfuhrer Tauber. I was one of
the 3000 prisoners picked out of the 19,000 by the doctors
and taken to our huts, where we were stripped naked by other
prisoners and our clothes taken away. We were then taken by
tipper-type lorries to the gas chamber chute. They were
large lorries, about eight in all and about 300 persons on
each lorry. On arrival at the gas chamber the lorry tipped
up and we slid down the chute through some doors into a
large room. The room had showers all around, towels and soap
and large numbers of benches. There were also small windows
high up near the roof. Many were injured coming down the
chute and lay where they fell. Those of us who could sat
down on the benches provided and immediately afterwards the
doors of the room were closed. My eyes then began to water,
I started to coughing and had a pain in my chest and throat.
Some of the other people fell down and others coughed and
foamed at the mouth. After being in the room for about two
minutes the door was opened and an S.S. man came in wearing
a respirator. He called my name and then pulled me out of
the room and quickly shut the door again. When I got outside
I saw S.S man Franz Hoessler , whom I identify as No.
1 on photograph 9. He took me to hospital, where I stayed
for about six weeks, receiving special treatment from Dr.
Mengele. For the first few days I was at the hospital I
found it impossible to eat anything without vomiting. I can
only think that I was taken out of the gas chamber because I
had an Aryan husband and therefore was in a different
category from the other prisoners, who were all Jews. I now
suffer from a weak heart and had two attacks since being at
Belsen. I do not know the names of any persons who went into
the gas chamber with me.
Finally,
consider the account of another Auschwitz inmate,
Regina Bialek, taken from her affidavit (perhaps,
unsuprisingly, she wasn't called to testify): ON
25th December 1943, I was sick with typhus and was picked
out at a selection made by Doctors Mengele and
Tauber along with about 350 other women. I was made
to undress and taken by lorry to a gas chamber. There were
seven gas chambers at Auschwitz. This particular one was
underground and the lorry was able to run down the slope and
straight into the chamber. Here we were tipped
unceremoniously on the floor. The room was about 12 yards
square and small lights on the wall dimly illuminated it.
When the room was full a hissing sound was heard coming from
the centre point on the floor and gas came into the room.
After what seemed about ten minutes some of the victims
began to bite their hands and foam at the mouth, and blood
issued from their ears, eyes and mouth, and their faces went
blue. I suffered from all these symptoms, together with a
tight feeling at the throat. I was half conscious when my
number was called out by Dr. Mengele and I was led from the
chamber. I attribute my escape to the fact that the daughter
of a friend of mine who was an Aryan and a doctor at
Auschwitz had seen me being transported to the chamber and
had told her mother, who immediately appealed to Dr.
Mengele. Apparently he realized that as a political prisoner
I was of more value alive than dead, and I was
released.
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