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In my opinion, the SS and not Farben was responsible for conditions
in the buna camp, for the administration and the supervision in the buna camp
was the exclusive responsibility of the SS. Farben had no influence on the camp
administration and the Farben people had no right to enter the camp as they
wanted to.
I am informed of the charges against the former Farben
Vorstand members in regard to the Auschwitz matter. However, I must refute the
statements of the prosecution in many points. For instance, the assertion that
there were torture places and torture instruments available in the buna camp
does not correspond with the facts. In any case, I have never seen any. It is
also not true that children were employed in the IG works Auschwitz. Neither
were there any children in camp IV. Among the juvenile inmates there were a few
14-year-old Jewish inmates; however, they were not asked to do much work,
because they acted mostly as servants or look-outs for prominent inmates, were
treated with consideration, and did not have to suffer or fear anything.
It is furthermore not true that the IG or its organs had caused the
inmates to be mistreated for insufficient performance. Indeed, it happened that
Kapos mistreated inmates on orders of the SS, but the IG Management intervened
at once if such cases became known.
I have never witnessed that inmates
had been punished for insufficient work. In most cases, punishment resulted
from the fact that they had established contact with civilians present in the
works, in direct violation of orders issued by the SS. I, myself was punished
for this offense. As a punishment for talking with civilians and for leaving my
place of work, the SS sent me to the penal company in Birkenau for 12 months.
The IG management had no part whatsoever in it, nor would they have been able
to prevent it. I and the other camp inmates whom I met in the penal company in
Birkenau are proof of the fact that a transfer to the penal company in Birkenau
did not necessarily mean death. In my opinion, the IG administration did not
know at all where the inmates had to serve their time nor what would become of
them. The opinion held today that inmates transferred to a penal company were
eventually all killed perhaps has its source in the fact that inmates sent to a
penal company were — as a matter of principle — not returned to their
former place of work, because employment in the buna camp was considered a
privilege, so to speak.
On the average, the working day for inmates in
the IG works was fixed at 10 hours. However, in practice, the working time was
shorter, particularly in winter, on account of the daylight. I was mostly
employed as a mechanic in the telephone exchange and before this as a transport
worker. I could not truthfully assert that I was forced to maintain a killing
pace. I took it as easy as I possibly could.
I had hardly any contact
with IG organs. The IG superintendents |
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