Safety Island newspaperman Liu Yadong A
Source: Short History - Tencent News
What do people do under extreme conditions?
Coming up with a definitive answer is no easy task. Especially those that are like suffering in the deepest recesses of hell. In concentration camps, for example, jewish mothers sometimes had to decide which child to keep and which one to leave to the executioner; in some Jewish communities, the Jewish council (Judenrat) had to make a list of which members to send to the extermination camps.
None of these circumstances, however, can be compared to the tragic situation of the Task Force (Sonderkommando). Because they are forced to go through everything that has never been done before in human history. We have no way of comparing, nor do we know what other people would do in similar situations. That is why extreme caution must be exercised in evaluating the behaviour and reactions of these individuals. It is impossible to recreate the history of the Task Force in detail, because it is extremely complex and most of its members have been killed without leaving testimony.
Establishment of the "Special Task Force"
The first people forced by the SS to carry and cremate corpses were not Jews, and there was no such thing as a "task force" at first.
The term "task force" is derived from the "Krematoriums–Kommando", which refers to a small group of prisoners sent to work there after the opening of the crematorium in the main camp of Auschwitz in 1940. With regard to the initial period of the Task Force, we know only a few of them by name. The task of the team was to add fuel to the crematorium and burn the corpses of the prisoners. The crematorium task force began with six prisoners: three Poles and three Jews. A new squad, known as the Fisher Task Force, was later formed, consisting of four to seven prisoners, assigned to the Gestapo office in the camp, attached to the Crematorium Task Force.
The reason for the formation of the "task force" is that too many people have been executed in the gas chambers. The bodies were stripped of their clothes and collected for transport by another task force; the gas chambers were cleaned after the gas slaughter, ventilated first, and then cleaned up the remnants of the Zikron B crystals and the prisoners' poisoned excrement; the yard of the crematorium was quickly cleared before the next inmates were delivered, so that the newly arrived prisoners were unaware of what had happened here; the prisoners were led into the gas chambers, and in the process those who were suspicious and nervous were isolated so as not to disturb the mood of the other prisoners ; to transport the bodies into the crematorium, or out of Auschwitz to Birkenau and thrown into a large pit, covered with earth; These are the tasks that the Prisoners of the Task Force need to accomplish.
From September 1942 onwards, these prisoners began to be officially called "task forces". At the Chelmno extermination camp, the term "task force" referred to both members of the SS who were responsible for the affair and prisoners on a mission to destroy evidence of incriminating evidence. In Auschwitz, however, the term "task force" could only be used to refer to prisoners.
The endless burning of corpses has led to the desire to flee among the prisoners in the Task Force. Two known escapes have occurred. On December 7, 1942, two members of the Task Force escaped from the camp. Two days later, six more prisoners tried to escape. All six were captured and publicly executed in front of all members of the Task Force. The team's prisoners had planned to flee en masse on December 9, 1942, but someone had tipped off the SS. On 3 December, all members of the Task Force (some 300 people) were brutally murdered to set an example. Soon after, another group of prisoners was selected to form a new "special task force".
? The main entrance to Camp Two (Birkenau) of Auschwitz, quoted from Wiki
Second, the basic situation of the "Special Task Force"
The Germans forced the prisoners of the Task Force to carry out various tasks at all stages of the mass extermination operation.
The work of the prisoners was very organized and very similar to the process of industrial production. The Auschwitz-Birkenau extinction facility is like an assembly line in a factory, with shifts, Vorarbeiter, interlocking assembly lines, income statements, work intensity cycles, and so on. But the "raw material" of Auschwitz-Birkenau was the living, and its ultimate "product" was ashes; as a labor force in the extermination camp, the "task force" was a squad of slaves in the death factory, unprecedented in human history.
As a result, these people became the saddest characters and the most unfortunate people in the history of the Holocaust. They are the most suffering of all those who suffer.
When the Task Force needs new members, it is selected from among prisoners who have recently arrived in the camps or from among the more qualified prisoners in the camps. The chosen ones have no idea what they're going to do. They were escorted to the barracks of the Task Force by SS with military dogs, where veterans would tell them the harsh truth.
The "task force" is divided into five groups and performs different tasks at specific stages of the extermination process: to receive new prisoners in the striptroom, to have the prisoners undressed, to clean up the remaining clothes after they have left, to transport the bodies to the crematorium after the gas has been released, to collect valuables, to cut off the dead bodies' hair, to pull out gold teeth, to incinerate the bodies into ashes with a crematorium, to smash the remaining bones and to dump the ashes.
In most cases, the prisoners of the "Task Force" are permanent once assigned to which group. However, sometimes the grouping situation changes. For example, when large numbers of prisoners are brought into concentration camps, some prisoners are assigned to different groups. Almost all of the prisoners served in the "Task Force" were Jews, including the highest-ranking officer (i.e., Captain Oberkapo). They regularly learned from the manager of the crematorium the number of prisoners to be executed in the camp, and then arranged the division of labor according to the number. Prisoners in the "Task Force" usually rotate in two shifts (day and night), depending mainly on the number of prisoners gassed each time.
The prisoners of the Task Force were isolated. They had little contact with other prisoners and were not allowed to leave their barracks. There was a guard at the entrance of the barracks, which was guarded twenty-four hours a day. They ate in the barracks, and the inmates on the task force would bring them food from the camp canteen. They have dedicated toilets and bathing facilities. All arrangements were made to prevent the prisoners of the Task Force from having contact with other prisoners in the camp. Prisoners in the Task Force, like other members of the Labour Force, need to be named, usually once a day. Their roll call is also separate, and there are no strict implementation norms. The team members can wear ordinary casual clothes according to the season, and the red crosses are painted on the back of their shirts or jackets.
They don't have to wear prison uniforms. When they are not on duty, the team members can rest in the barracks and try to overcome the heavy psychological burden that this work brings to them. In the absence of the SS, they could sleep or talk, but the SS rarely came to inspect their barracks. After a terrible job, they have a certain amount of time to rest a little, to relax, to get a moment of peace during this time, to recover their strength and then go to the shift. Some of the team members, especially those from Greece, would sing songs or fondly recall their lost youth and loved ones as a way to encourage each other and improve their mentality. If no Jews had arrived in the camps, the prisoners would have cleaned their homes or done nothing at all.
The prisoners of the Task Force were powerless against all that had been suffered by the victims. They sympathize with these people who are dying, but they still have to work. In a few cases, they worked under the curse of these dying men, who saw them as accomplices of Nazi executioners. A seven- or eight-year-old boy once said to the prisoners of the Task Force, "You are a Jew!" How can you bring these innocent Jews into the gas chambers for your own survival? You are in the same group as this group of murderers, is your life more precious than the lives of so many Jews? ”
If the prisoners of the Task Force are unable or unwilling to do the work, then they have only one way to do it – to end their lives. Eyewitness testimony suggests that very few people choose suicide. In addition to not having the courage to end their lives and all human emotions have been erased, some people will take "surviving to testify" as a belief in their own survival. Filip Müller, a member of the team, said he had decided to go into the gas chambers and die with the Jews. But someone said to him, "It's pointless. Your death will not keep us alive. This is not possible. You must get out of here alive, and you have to testify about the suffering and injustice that we have suffered. "In addition, there are also some people who did not commit suicide in the desperate situation of the concentration camp, but committed suicide when they left the concentration camp.
Some prisoners in the Task Force maintained their cultural lives, even religious ones. As unbelievable as it sounds, the oral testimony of the prisoners suggests that many members of the Task Force still stand by their beliefs. There are still some prisoners who recite Jewish prayers every day. They dodged the guards' eyes and chanted hymns, or verses from Missina, or prayers. For them, faith protects them like a barrier, preventing them from falling into despair and becoming indifferent. But there were also players who didn't think so, and they were so angry at God's way of doing things that they didn't understand why he didn't even listen to the cries of innocent babies.
? Inside Auschwitz, quoted from Wiki
Armed uprisings and secret writing
Those who secretly wrote diaries were the most important members of the "Task Force" resistance movement, and they played an important role in the process of launching the uprising. Most paid with their lives, and those who did not die in the uprising were killed not long after.
The idea of the "Task Force" uprising was put into practice on Saturday, 7 October 1944, at noon at the cincinnaches no. 1 (II) and the no. 3 (IV) crematorium in Birkenau. This was the third uprising of Jewish prisoners in nazi extermination camps. It was also the only armed resistance in the history of Auschwitz.
The intifada of the Task Force was made possible by their cooperation with the resistance group Auschwitz Struggle Corps and its Jewish detachment. During the preparations, Jews working in the arsenal that produced artillery charges were responsible for smuggling out the explosives. The prisoners who smuggled the explosives out of the factory paid with their lives. On the day of the uprising, the members of the Task Force used everything they could get their hands on as temporary weapons, including stones, iron rods, short axes and hammers. They detonated several prepared grenades and then tried to escape from the crematorium. Three SS officers were also killed during the battle.
The uprising ended in failure. The prisoners who rose to the occasion were not supported by outside forces, and the large number of prisoners in the camps did not join the struggle. One surviving prisoner later wrote:
"Three of them stayed in the crematorium and wanted to blow it up,...... Isn't this a deliberate sacrifice of one's own life? They were bent on death and chose self-sacrifice, and no one forced them to do so. They could have fled with others, but they didn't. ...... The best of us fell there, the best, the most precious, the chosen ones... They are full of dignity, whether they are alive or dead. ”
The most reliable material on the inner lives of the members of the Task Force is the material known as the "Secret Writing of the Task Force".
? The badly damaged Auschwitz secretly wrote historical materials
"The man who found these diaries! I have a request to you. My real purpose in writing these things is actually because my life is destined to end, and I hope that it will at least have some weight, and I hope that my days in hell on earth, those desperate mornings, will provide a little meaning for the future. ...... Although the evidence of these atrocities is in our hands, who knows if we will be lucky enough to live to the day we regain our freedom? Therefore, I hope that what I have written will arouse your emotions, ignite in your hearts the flame of vengeance, which will ignite the anger in the hearts of all people, unite them, and make those who make us bleed bloody debts. ”
"Dear discoverer, look for every inch of land here. There are dozens of documents buried here, all written by me and others, revealing what is happening here. There are also a lot of teeth buried here. We, the members of the Task Force, have scattered them in this place and buried them in every corner of our reach, so that traces of the countless unjust souls who have been brutally killed can one day be discovered. As for us, we have given up hope from a long time ago and do not expect to live to the day of regaining our freedom. ”
More than anyone else, the prisoners of the Task Force feared that future generations would not be able to learn about the tragedy that had taken place in Auschwitz.
? Three Jewish prisoners working on the "task force" at Janovska concentration camp in Poland, photographs may have been posed by Soviet troops after the war, quoted from Wiki.
The tragedy of the "Task Force"
The "Task Force" is the heaviest tragedy in human history. It consists of several interrelated factors.
First, the worst catastrophes that have befallen the Jews have occurred before their eyes. Whether they wanted to or not, they could only watch in anguish as groups of Jews walked on the road of no return to the gas chambers, while they could do nothing themselves. Scenes of extinction and massacres kept playing out before them, wave after wave, never fading, which made them feel infinite despair.
Second, the Nazis forced the prisoners of the Task Force to assist them in committing atrocious crimes. The victims ranged from young to old, men and women, and even children and babies. Any task like this would completely break a person's inner peace. Not only that, but they were forced to erase the traces of these crimes one by one.
Thirdly, the prisoners of the Task Force could not mourn the loss of their companions and loved ones, and they had to stuff their bodies into the furnace with their own hands. They can neither stop for a moment while they are at work to mourn the dead, nor can they have a moment of solitude with them as a final farewell. They can only remain indifferent and indifferent to the holiness of the body and soul. The Nazis deprived them of many of their natural human rights: they could not weep, they could not mourn the destruction of their nation and the loss of their families. As Jews, they also could not recite the Kaddish and pray for the souls of their loved ones to ascend to heaven.
Fourthly, every member of the "Special Task Force" is well aware that his fate is predestined from the moment he is selected for the Task Force. As a "secret knower", he was doomed to not live. So, these prisoners have been living in the "death row room", waiting for the axe to fall. During this time, they had to continue to do the most terrifying work in human history.
Fifth, in addition to having to participate in mass killings, the members of the Task Force were caught in a sad paradox. Subconsciously, they wanted as many Jews as possible, because, leaving aside the termination of the "Death Factory", as long as fewer people were sent, they would be in danger of being killed. Whether they survive depends entirely on whether there are prisoners who are constantly being sent over.
(Source: Tencent News)
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