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A. May I add one more thing, please. The SS spread again and again
the news that the trains that came out of Auschwitz were loaded with inmates
that were being transferred to other camps, and it happened frequently that
transports were transferred to other camps so that one could see this actually
to be true.
Q. Mr. Witness, did you personally ever witness the gassing
of human beings?
A. Yes, I saw one gassing at one time.
Q. And
before you actually — personally — saw this gassing, is it your
testimony that all your knowledge of gassings was just rumor?
A. No.
Not my knowledge. And as far as the SS in Auschwitz is concerned, one can
assume that all of them knew about details even if they didn't all of them see
it themselves.
Q. Now, Mr. Witness, did you know that there were
thousands of I. G. Farben employees living right in the city of Auschwitz?
A. Yes.
Q. And
did these I. G. Farben employees have the same access to the knowledge of the
gassings in Birkenau that the civilian Poles had who lived in the city of
Auschwitz?
A. Access to what facilities — to the camp you mean?
Q. No. I will withdraw that question. Mr. Witness, on the I. G. Farben
construction site in Auschwitz, there were some 7,000 inmates of the
concentration camp Monowitz working. Now, these 7,000 inmates; would they know
about the gassings that took place at Birkenau?
A. All of the inmates
who were in Auschwitz knew about it. They were informed to the fullest extent.
Q. Now, Mr. Witness, isn't it a fact that, during the time you were at
Auschwitz, Allied planes dropped leaflets over Kattowitz and Auschwitz
informing the population what was going on in Birkenau?
A. No, I don't
know that.
Q. Mr. Witness, you testified a little earlier that those
who were sick in the camps, like in concentration camp Monowitz, would be sent
to Auschwitz-Birkenau, but I wasn't quite clear as to why they were sent to
Auschwitz-Birkenau. I'd like to put just a question or two to you on that. Mr.
Witness, those persons who were in the hospital at Monowitz and were shipped to
Auschwitz-Birkenau because of an edema or phlegmon, for what purpose were they
shipped to Birkenau?
A. As far as these people were Jews, I must state
that most of them were gassed.
Q. And, Mr. Witness, if they were sent
from the hospital in Monowitz to Auschwitz-Birkenau, and they were Jews; and
they were sent because of weakness and collapse, why were they sent to
Birkenau?
A. Also to be gassed. |
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