Tag Archives: Auschwitz

Former Auschwitz Guard Describes Camp In Detail

A former SS guard on trial in Germany has provided chilling details about the operations of the camp and the lives of those who were imprisoned there.

Oskar Groening is facing 300,000 counts of accessory to murder in connection with his service at the camp from May to July 1944 when Jews from Hungary were brought to the camp and almost immediately murdered.

Groening testified that during the time so many trains full of Jews were coming to the camp that they sometimes had to wait with doors closed while other trains were emptied and processed into the camp.  He testified about one night where he worked 24 hours straight on the ramp at Birkenau where the Jews were brought into the camp and it was “a busy shift”indicating there was non-stop arrivals of victims.

“The capacity of the gas chambers and the capacity of the crematoria were quite limited. Someone said that 5,000 people were processed in 24 hours but I didn’t verify this. I didn’t know,” he said. “For the sake of order we waited until train 1 was entirely processed and finished.”

A surprising part of the testimony was Groening contracting many survivors claims that the process was chaotic, saying it was “very orderly”.

“The process was the same as Auschwitz I. The only difference was that there were no trucks,” he said during the second day of his trial. “They all walked —some in one direction some, in another direction … to where the crematoria and gas chambers were.”

Survivors and their families said they would be satisfied with any confessions given by Groening.

“I’m going to take whatever confession he gives —it’s better than no confession,” survivor Eva Kor, 81, told reporters. “Maybe this is the best thing he has ever done in his life. Isn’t that sad?”

Auschwitz Survivors Warn Of Rising Anti-Semitism

The 70th year since the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp was marked with a solemn memorial by almost 300 survivors of the camp.

A million people were killed during the Holocaust at Auschwitz.

The event was an uneasy gathering for the survivors who say they see similar anti-Semitic violence in Europe and warn that it is still on the rise.

“We survivors do not want our past to be our children’s future,” survivor Roman Kent told the BBC.

“Once again young Jewish boys are afraid to wear yarmulkes [skullcaps] on the streets of Paris, Budapest, London and even Berlin,” added Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress.

Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, who directed the Academy Award winning Schindler’s List, spoke at the event about how making that film and speaking to survivors changed his life and made him understand his Jewish heritage.  He also spoke about the rising anti-Semitism around the world.

“The most effective way we can combat this intolerance and honor those who survived and those who perished is to call on each other to do what the survivors have already done, to remember and to never forget,” Spielberg said.

The survivors said they will keep speaking out about the horrors of Auschwitz and the Holocaust until the day they die.

“I’ll do it for as long as I can. Why? There are still a lot of Holocaust-deniers the world over and if we don’t speak out, the world won’t know what happened,” said 85-year-old Renee Salt.