| Selections on the Ramp |
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[Sonderstell…] ung; here
suggesting “special function”] .... And the extraordinary [nature] of
those ... actions [the killing], ... that was not a matter of debate ... but
had been accepted. For instance, the problem of the crematorium and its
capacity, etc. — that was equal to the ordinary problem of sewerage or the
like elsewhere. |
One was getting rid of the waste material of a routinized
communal enterprise.
For the most part, doctors raised objections not
to the project but to being themselves victimized by violations of what they
considered fair play: “For instance .... one had to be on duty three
nights in a row ... because another ... was shirking and organized for himself
an outer camp inspection [assignment] with which he made himself a better
life.” Yet communal spirit could be mobilized: “If, for instance,
doctors were off duty and another [doctor who was on duty] wasn't able to
handle it, ... they would have helped him, according to their [technical
ability to give advice on how to get the crematoria going again].”
The use of a vehicle marked with a red cross seemed perfectly natural:
“That was a military vehicle. What else should they have used? Gassing was
the physicians’ responsibility. Physicians had only cars marked with Red
Cross markings. So what should [one expect them to use]?”
Ernst
B.’s accurate description leaves out the sense of filth and evil retained
by SS doctors at some level of awareness. Thus, in his diary (see page 147),
Kremer commented, “In comparison ... Dante’s inferno is almost a
comedy. It is not in vain that they call Auschwitz an extermination
Camp!”16 True, this and his anus
mundi comments came after his first and second selections; thereafter,
Kremer’s diary, detached even then, became still more so over the few
months he was in Auschwitz. But Dr. B. himself, referring to ramp duty more
than thirty-five years later, acknowledged, “There is no way to describe
selections in Auschwitz.” |
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