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| Opening Speech for the
Prosecution |
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| Colonel Backhouse
(cont.) |
disgrace, but,
of course, were caused by everybody other than herself. No. 9, Grese, was the
Kommandant of working parties, and for a time was in command of the
women’s punishment quarter at Auschwitz. She has been described as the
worst woman in the camp, and there is not one type of cruelty which took place
in that camp for which she has not been known as being responsible. She
regularly took part in the selections for the gas chamber, made up punishments
of her own, and when she came to Belsen she carried on in precisely the same
way. She, too, specialized in setting dogs on people.
No. 17, Gura, was
a Blockführer, and you will hear of at least two murders by him there. No.
26, Schreirer, was a Blockführer, and you will hear of his regular
cruelty. These are the S.S. members who were in Auschwitz. The remaining three
persons charged in respect of Auschwitz are No. 10, Lothe; No. 11, Lobauer; No.
48, Starostka. Who were these persons? They are referred to as Kapos, which is
a universal, term applied to prisoners placed in authority, or as
Blockältesten or Lagerältesten. Lobauer was in charge of the
women’s working parties and she was just as cruel as any of the S.S.
women, and encouraged them to turn dogs on internees. Lobauer was Lager-Kapo
and took an active part in the selection of victims for the gas chamber, and in
many other cruelties. Starostka was first a Blockälteste and later a
Lagerälteste, and took an equal part in the cruelties. These are the
prisoners concerned with Auschwitz.
With regard to the others. At
Belsen No. 12, Klippel; No. 16, Francioh; No 18, Mathes; No. 22, Pichen; No,
28, Barsch; No. 33, Ilse Forster; No. 34, Ida Forster; No. 39, Haschke; No. 42,
Lisiewitz; and No. 44, Hempel — all worked in the kitchens and you will
hear how each and every one of those people behaved to the internees. When you
have considered the way in which they behaved a each of these kitchens I will
suggest that the Court can no longer have the slightest doubt that there was
concerted action, because it could not be coincidence that each of them should
behave in the same callous way.
Of the remainder, two are
Blockführer, No. 23, Otto, and No. 47, Polanski; and there are a number of
what I might call miscellaneous administrative staff. No. 14, Schmitz; No. 21,
Egersdorf, who was in charge of the bread store; No. 35, Opitz, who was in
charge of a working party; No. 36, Charlotte Klein; No. 37, Bothe; No 38,
Walter, who was in charge of the garden; No. 40, Fiest; No. 41, Sauer; No. 45,
Hahnel, who was in charge of the bath-house. There are two persons who came
with the transport from Dora, an S.S. man, No. 19, Kulessa, and No. 31,
Ostrowski, one of his Kapos. Two more came with the transport from Nordhausen,
No. 25, Stofel, who was in charge, and No. 27, Dorr, his second in command. The
remainder may all be |
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| Page 29 |
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