Q: were you present at a gassing operation one day?
A: Yes, it was one evening. I accompanied the driver Hoeblinger. A
transport had arrived from Holland and the prisoners had to
jump from the wagons. They were well-off Jews. There were
women with Persian furs. They arrived by express train. The
trucks were already there, with wooden steps before them, and
the people climbed aboard. Then they all started off. In the
place Birkenau once stood, there was only a long farmhouse
(Bunker 2) and beside it four or five big huts. Inside, the
people were standing on clothes which were building up on
the floor. The block leader and the sergeant, carrying a cane,
were there. Hoeblinger said to me ‘lets go over there now’. There
was a sign ‘to disinfection’. He said ‘you see, they are bringing
children now’. They opened the door, threw the children in
and closed the door. There was a terrible cry. A member of the
SS climbed on the roof. The people went on crying for about
ten minutes. Then the prisoners opened the doors. Everything
was in disorder and contorted. Heat was given off. the bodies
were loaded on a rough wagon and taken to a ditch. The next
batch were already undressing in the huts. After that I didn’t
look at my wife for four weeks.
Testimony of SS private Boeck:
[Extracted from “Der Auschwitz Prozess”, by Hermann Langbein,
Vol. I, quoted in “Auschwitz: Technique and operation of the gas
chambers – J.C Pressac, the Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, NY, 1989,
p. 181].
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