Day 13 of the trial, 25 March 1947.
Chairperson: Ask the French witnesses in, please.
(The witnesses enter: Claudette Bloch, Jakub Lewin, Jakub Klinger, Heni Gorgue, Simon Jutman).
Chairperson: The witnesses are advised of the obligation tell the truth in all honesty, and of the criminal liability for making false statements.
The witness Claudette Bloch will remain in the courtroom, other witnesses will wait in the waiting room.
The witness has provided information about herself as follows: Claudette Bloch, 36 years old, Doctor of Biology, widow, nonbeliever. No relationship to the parties.
Chairperson: What are the motions of the parties as to the mode of the questioning of the witness?
Prosecutor Cyprian: We discharge the witness from the oath.
Defender Ostaszewski: We discharge the witness from the oath.
Chairperson: By mutual agreement of the parties, the Tribunal has decided to question the witness without an oath. Would the witness tell the Tribunal in what circumstances you found yourself in Auschwitz and what, in general, can you tell us about the accused Höß.
Witness: I arrived in Auschwitz on 25 June 1942. There were 70 of us women. We were received by guards with dogs, who then took us to the Auschwitz camp. There we were stripped naked and our hair was cut. The camp commandant himself showed up because it was the first time that Parisian women had come to the Auschwitz camp. We joined our companions, who were generally Slovak or Polish. I had the number 7963. But only five women remained in the camp.
We were subjected to the ordinary camp routine; that is, we had to stand for long hours at assemblies, and in the morning we would set off to work. To do that, we had to take our shoes off, no matter how bad they were, and go barefoot to the place of work, where we worked with hoes and shovels. In hot sun or in rain – it didn’t matter. Only our guards hitting us with rifle butts and our warders – who were usually prostitutes – slapping us across the face, would interrupt this exhausting work. Slowly, we were losing our strength. Fortunately, I was assigned to a less heavy kommando, and this way, keeping in touch with my companions, I could observe more objectively what was going on in the camp.
Already in July of 1942, in Auschwitz, convoys of women were going from the sick ward to the gas chamber twice a week. One day Himmler visited us: together with Höß, he was watching over the inspection of the camp. For this occasion, Höß came up with various kinds of entertainment, to honor Himmler’s visit. And so 27 naked women, including a French woman I knew, were awaiting Himmler’s visit in case he wanted them to be beaten before him. We knew that hangings were taking place. All day long the kommandos that usually remained in the camp had to remain standing, while the kommandos that went off to work, once back in camp, took their place among their companions. We didn’t immediately know what that visit meant, but a few days later, on the direct orders of Höß, when we got back from work we went to Birkenau.
There, Jewish women were gathered in large numbers and put into rooms similar to pigsties. On account of the kommando I belonged to, I was granted the privilege of sharing my lot with the Aryan women. We lived in wooden barracks that we had to furnish ourselves. There was no water in Birkenau. There were days when it was very hot and the thirst wore the women out. Because we couldn’t wash ourselves, extraordinary epidemics were developing quickly, typhus was spreading at a frightening pace, lice were multiplying. There was no sick ward for Jewish women, so they had to go to work regardless of their health condition. On the roads we would see women with bulging eyes who couldn’t keep up with their marching kommando. That’s also when selections began.
The first Sunday after we came to Birkenau, we were told to exit the camp and, to our great surprise, women who were sick or who had slightly swollen legs were separated off to one side. That assembly lasted almost the entire day. After we returned from the assembly, the women who had been separated from us did not come back to the blocks, but were grouped together in block 25. I forgot to say that while were standing at the assembly, Höß was passing by on horseback. This block 25 was the antechamber to the entrance hall of death. The women gathered there weren’t getting anything to eat or drink while they were waiting for a larger number of women to assemble so all of them could be taken to the gas chambers together.
From that day onwards, the selections were done under various conditions, upon entering and exiting the camp, when the kommando was going to work or coming back. Some superintendents were there, gathered together with a few SS men; sometimes Höß was present. While we were going through the gate, the superintendents beat us with sticks or rods, which caused the women to stumble and fall. From the 25 thousand women who were in the camp, no more than 2700 were still alive after 1 or 2 October. Since our transfer to Birkenau, selections at train arrivals also began. On account of the fast speed at which the selections were conducted, my companions, whose situation was less favorable than mine, were quickly disappearing from the face of the earth. Soon, there were only 70 of us, and then 7.
A month later, there were only three of us.
I was almost the only Frenchwoman left in the camp, in spite of the transports that continued to come after us at a rapid pace.
In February 1943, 350 French women who had been arrested solely for their patriotic convictions, came to Birkenau, singing the Marseillaise. They were were full of courage, accustomed to fighting, well-organized, the stronger supporting the weaker ones. Yet, from the 350 women only 36 came back to work. They shared the fate of the others. Professor Longevein’s daughter worked all day in the marshes. Marie Politzer died of typhus, which she caught while nursing her companions. Danielle Casanova, a great Frenchwoman, suffered the same fate.
It was not possible to live in that camp for the whole time that Höß was the commandant, unless you had the kind of exceptional luck that I, for example, happened to have. In this case, it wasn’t just about a certificate. I know a great many of my companions who had the same certificate as I did, but who weren’t lucky enough to be needed by the SS on the exact day when they were on their last legs.
Methods used when it came to annihilation were, among others: gas chambers, exhaustion, fatigue, and hunger. But my terror reached its peak when I saw newborn babies being drowned in a small wooden laundry pail. I’m always going to remember those tiny hands clutching the rim of the bucket.
I feel I have said enough to explain that, despite the greatest moral strength of the prisoners, it was not possible to live in Birkenau.
Chairperson: You mentioned that you saw Höß. Have you seen Höß in action?
Witness: No. Höß came on horseback and didn’t have any direct contact with us. He only gave orders and made sure that the orders were properly followed.
Chairperson: Are there any questions for the witness?
Prosecutor Cyprian: You have mentioned you were present during Himmler’s visit.
Witness: Yes.
Prosecutor Cyprian: Was Himmler also in Birkenau?
Witness: At that time the women’s camp in Birkenau didn’t exist yet. It was only established in accordance with the plan that Himmler was studying during that visit.
Prosecutor Cyprian: Did the witness see Himmler up close?
Witness: Yes. He was passing amongst the ranks in Höß’s company.
Prosecutor Cyprian: Were the weaker prisoners hidden at the time, so that Himmler wouldn’t see them?
Witness: No. He also visited the sick wards.
Prosecutor Cyprian: I have no further questions.
Defender Ostaszewski: You were talking about Himmler’s visit that the Prosecutor mentioned. What was the purpose of displaying naked women in front of Himmler? Was any selection carried out then?
Witness: No. Those 25 naked women were only at the disposal of Himmler’s fantasy, on the occasion of his visit.
Defender Ostaszewski: As to the drowning of children – did the witness see children being drowned?
Witness: Yes, I did. Once.
Defender Ostaszewski: For what reason was this done, and on what occasion?
Witness: Because pregnant women weren’t being selected then. They gave birth in the camp and no one knew what to do with the babies.
Defender Ostaszewski: What was the purpose of drowning those children? Was it to save the mothers?
Witness: Only because no one knew what to do with them.
Defender Umbreit: Do you know that there were a few commandants at the camp?
Witness: Yes.
Defender Umbreit: Do you differentiate between a Lagerskomendant, a Schutzhaftlagerkomendant, and Vernichutngslagerkomendant?
Witness: In 1942, Höß was everyone’s boss.
Defender Umbreit: Were you present at the display of the naked women? Why do you claim it was on Höß’s orders? Were these not orders from Vernichtungskomendant Moll, who was known for his cruelty?
Witness: I don’t know whose orders they were. But I do know that all orders came from above.
Chairperson: There are no further questions. The witness is free to go.