Langbein Hermann. People in Auschwitz

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were vented now that conditions in the camp were favorable to them. Perhaps

a bad childhood had borne such bitter fruit. Or was this his way of trying to

ease the worry about his own fate that was consuming him?’’ Even though Mi-

tas had the function and privileges of a dormitoryelder, hewas also a member

of the penal company, from which inmates could be called to the Political De-

partment at any time, never to return. ‘‘Mitas did not want to kill people, but

when his rage overcame him and he beat harder on a weak spot, he simply

regarded this as the tough luck of the man he had beaten to death.’’

It was not just Poles who acted like Mitas, though they had the best chance

of moving up in the hierarchy. Igor Bistric reports about a Russian dormitory

orderly named Ivan who treated new arrivals in Birkenau so brutally that two

and a half decades later Bistric could only call him a murderer. This Ivan was

one of the handful of survivors out of the thousands of Russian prisoners of

war who had been deported to Auschwitz in the winter of 1941–42.

n Conditionsin thewomen’scampwere not much diﬀerent. However, among

the women the Blacks rather than the Greens dominated—that is, the ‘‘anti-

socials,’’ mostly prostitutes. Only ‘‘German women with black triangles’’ were

dominant among the inmate functionaries encountered by Wanda Koprowska

in thesatellite camp Budy in the springof 1943. Shedescribed Sonja, theblock

elder, as ‘‘a horrible beast with a rather pretty body. She had been a street-

walker when she was free. She was never without her riding crop with which

she would whip us for no reason at all.’’ Her successor was named Eva and

also wore a black triangle. She did not rage like her predecessor but preferred

to lift a glass. ‘‘We don’t know where she got her schnapps.’’ When she was

drunk, she maltreated the inmates of her block. The capo was Trude Richter,

an ‘‘utterly illiterate’’ Upper Silesian. ‘‘Her cudgel helped us drag heavy rocks

and beams,’’ writes Koprowska.

Krystyna Zywulska mentions a Polish prostitute from Kielce who held the

position of a camp capo in thewomen’s camp.The Pole Stanislawa Starostka,

generally called Stenia, who had been deported at the age of twenty-ﬁve and

had initially impressed the camp administration as a block elder, was pro-

moted to camp elder in thewomen’s camp. At the Bergen-Belsen trial she was

a defendant together with members of the ss. ‘‘If I wanted to help the inmates

as camp elder,’’ she said in her defense, ‘‘I had to gain the trust of the German

authorities. I had to ﬁght for every compromise.’’ She claimed that this was

harder for her than for German top functionaries.

Manca Svalbova, who experienced the women’s camp from the beginning,

writes that the majority of the vips lived well at the expense of their starving

comrades. And more than that: the camp capos and block elders had more

than once encouraged selections on the part of the ss with questions like

164 n the prisoners

‘‘What shall I do with all those Muselmänner?’’ If a selectee implored a block

elder to help her, the answer shewas likely to get was ‘‘Am I perhaps supposed

to be gassed in your place?’’

It goes without saying that there were also other kinds of functionaries

among the women, as there were among the men.

In a story thatwas recorded by Meyer Levin,an inmatenamedEva described

her block elder, Lotta, evidently a Slovak Jew, though she is referred to as a

Slovenian. ‘‘No matter how forbearing a block elder may have been, therewere

times when she had to strike, for many prisoners were in such a state that

they no longer understood anything else. There were crafty women and evil

women, thieves who stole bread, a spoon, or a comb, the half-crazed as well

as those who had lost all human qualities and were ﬁlthy like babies in dia-

pers. If there was a brawl, Lotta came out of hercorner, dealt a few blows, and

took things away. But she was not a sadist. When she did strike, it was hard

and quick.’’

The type of ‘‘petriﬁed’’ old inmate was represented in the women’s camp

as well. Kitty Hart describes a representative of this type, evidently a succes-

sor of Stenia. ‘‘At the head of the inmates of the entire women’s camp was a

camp elder, a German woman who had been interned in various camps for

eight years as a political prisoner. She was known as a decent person, but the

inmates still were afraid of her and tried to conceal themselves when she ap-

peared. She had some helpers, and it was better not to cross their paths. They

carried whips and used them abundantly and often unrestrainedly even when

no German uniform was in sight.’’ Kitty Hart knew that many an inmate func-

tionary roared and occasionally ﬂogged in the presence of ss meninorderto

forestall punitive measures on the part of the ss.

n That an inmate functionary sometimes had to be strict even when no ss

member was observing him may be illustrated by the following words of Her-

bert Buchhold, a former elder of Block 13. ‘‘During my time in Monowitz no

epidemicsbroke out there,and this was largely to the credit of the camp elders

andthe block elders,who sometimeshad to useviolence toenforcecleanliness

on the part of the inmates.’’

Lena Zoltanova reports an incident that clearly indicates how prisoners

could form an erroneous opinion of their inmate overseers. In 1944 an ac-

quaintance of hers was installed as block elder in the section of Birkenau that

housed the recently arrived Jewish women from Hungary who had been found

ﬁt for work at the selection and had to await transportation to a labor camp.

The roll calls there often lasted for hours, and many women were utterly ex-

hausted from all that standing. Members of the ss made the friendly sugges-

tion that those who felt tired or sick sit down on the side of the roll call area.

The vips n 165

The block elder knew that with this invitation the ss wanted to save itself the

bother of a selection, and the women who accepted it were later taken to the

gas chamber. For this reason she warned the women who often were alarm-

ingly naive, against sitting down, but of course she could not even hint at the

reason for this warning if she did not want to risk her life. A few Hungarian

women said, ‘‘But the ss has permitted us to sit down.’’ No wonder that this

made the block elder lose hercomposure and that she screamedat thewomen:

‘‘You stupid cows, remain standing! I forbid you to sit down!’’ Thus the un-

suspecting Hungarian women got the impression that the ss was not so bad

but the block elders were cruel. If they were transferred to a labor camp after

a short time without having ﬁgured out what was up, they may never have

suspected that the scolding block elder—who perhaps also beat people—had

saved their lives.

Since Iris Langer had been deported with one of the ﬁrst transports from

Slovakiaand thuswas oneof the ‘‘oldhands’’ by1944,shewasappointed block

elder in the same section of the camp. One day the ss physician Klein invited

sick women to come forward so they could be sent to a sanatorium. Langer

whispered in Hungarian to all inmates she could reach that no one should

come forward, for of course she knew what Klein meant by sanatorium. Later

she overheard Hungarian women say that the ss physician was better than the

block elder, who had to wear a Star of David herself.

Once I mentioned to my friend Ernst Burger that I could not understand

how inmates were capable of ﬂogging their fellow suﬀerers and boasted that,

eventhough I might be numbered among the vips, I never so much as touched

anyone. Ernst responded, ‘‘It’s easy for you to talk. As a clerk you bear no re-

sponsibility for others.’’ He also told me how he had recently been forced to

give a beating. Ernst, the clerk of Block 4, was well known and popular in

the camp and always strove to use his popularity to provide relief for the in-

mates of his block. One day he once again managed to get an additional kettle

of soup from the kitchen. When the inmates noticed that unexpected second

helpings were in the oﬃng, they wildly rushed at the men who were carrying

the kettle to the block with their bowls, which inmates always kept handy by

attaching them to their belts. If the pushing and shoving inmates had reached

the kettle, it would certainly have been upset and the soup would have been

spilled. Ernst screamed at the onrushing men to stop—then everybody would

get something.There was no reaction. ‘‘What choice did I have?’’ Ernst asked.

‘‘I took one of the poles used for carrying the kettle and beat the inmates in

the vanguard with it. Only then did they stop running. I shouted at the top of

my voice that everyone should form a line, and now the soup could be distrib-

uted.’’ An observer of this scene who did not know Ernst and the camp might

have regarded him as a ﬂogger.

166 n the prisoners

n Inmate functionaries had other problems to solve as well. Forexample, how

was a block elder supposed to deal with an inmate caught stealing bread? If

he reported him to the ss, the thief’s life was as good as forfeited and collec-

tive punishment could also be expected. If he let the thief get away unscathed,

he would be encouraging others to help themselves to their neighbors’ bread.

He was forced to set himself up as a judge and was easily tempted to wield

judicial power even when it was not absolutely necessary.

Ella Lingens has described a case of arbitrary justice that she regarded as

typical of the conduct of many communist functionaries. Two patients were

lying on the same bunk bed in the inﬁrmary. One of them had just received

a parcel, but she was dying. The other woman, who, like many patients re-

covering from typhus, was ravenous, had appropriated the package while her

neighbor was still alive. Others reported this incident, probably out of envy.

Camp elder Schneider, a German communist whom long imprisonment had

hardened, did not scream or hit, but instead said: ‘‘We shall take care of this

matter ourselves. By stealing this parcel you have transgressed against the

community, and now you shall work for this community.’’ The convalescent

woman was ordered to clean the room from now on. As a physician Lingens

knew that the heart of the punished woman, which was still weak from her

illness, would not stand the strain, and so she intervened. However, the camp

elder, who like many other laypersons had gained her experience in inmate

inﬁrmaries, did not trust the judgment of physicians, and so she rejected this

intervention. The patient died of heart failure a few days later.

Another case of arbitrary justice was reported by Franciszek Znamirowski

during the proceedings against Emil Bednarek:

I was assigned to the penal company in which Bednarek served as block

elder. One time Bednarek beat a block elder named Franek, a Polish beast.

When Franek was committed to the penal company, Bednarek ﬁrst slapped

his face, then forced him to put his head in the ﬂue and gave him twenty-

ﬁve whacks on his buttocks with a thick stick. This beating was adminis-

tered because Franek pilfered things from inmate parcels. All inmates in

Franek’s block considered this fair punishment. I have heard it said that

later, when Franek was transported to another camp, he was strangled by

his fellow inmates.

Franek was well nourished and vigorous when this punishment befell him.

Bednarek administered similar punishments to others who did not have a

block elder’s reserves of strength, and such cases could have a lethal result.

n Should a prisoner whose sense of responsibility had not been destroyed by

life in the camp have evaded the dangers connected with a function, or should

The vips n 167

he have incurred such risks to act in the interest of his fellow inmates? Eugen

Kogon writes that in critical situations an inmate functionary’s ‘‘only choice

was between active help and a supposed retreat from responsibility, and ex-

perience showed that the latter caused far worse things.’’

With full knowledge of the dilemma frequently faced by a capo or block

elder, I nevertheless repeatedly sought to convince responsible comrades to

accept an armband. It would certainly have been easier for an individual to

avoid accepting a position and to keep his conscience free from any burden,

but in that case, how could the improvements that were eﬀected in many

camps have been achieved? How could the ﬂoggers and tricksters have been

removed from their key positions? What would the camps have been like if all

those whose morality had not been broken had refused to accept a responsi-

bility? It was very diﬃcult for someone who had agreed to wear an armband

to ﬁnd the right balance between what had to be done to keep a job and the

inﬂuence connected with it and what already constituted an abuse of power.

However, if a person considered the responsibility he incurred by refusing to

assume a function, he did not shrink from this diﬃculty. Within the frame-

work established by the ss,thevips in the camp could do a great deal, for

good as well as for evil.

168 n the prisoners

jewish vips

nnn

In the course of time the camp administration found itself obliged to entrust

functions to Jewish inmates as well, for the percentage of ‘‘Aryans’’ kept de-

clining. In a report compiled by Wetzler and Vrba after their successful escape

in early April 1944,we read that in Februaryof that year about half of the block

elders in the Birkenau men’s camp were Jews but that the central adminis-

tration later ordered all Jews, with the exception of three from Slovakia, to

relinquish their armbands. Because Wetzler and Vrba were block clerks and

had used the greater freedom of movement aﬀorded by their status to prepare

their escape, all Jewish block clerks were also relieved of their duties. Czes-

law Mordowicz, who lost his position at that time, remembers that there were

eight or ten Jewish block clerks, most of them from Germany.

In the main camp Jews had hardly anychance of getting an armband; there,

the percentage of ‘‘Aryans’’ remained the highest.

In the labor camps that constituted Auschwitz III, Jewish prisoners were in

the overwhelming majority. In these camps the inmates working in army fac-

tories had contact with civilians, and to prevent the spreading of contagious

diseases the ss preferred to send newarrivals to these camps directly from the

ramp. However, rsha transports rolled to the ramp every day, and for that

reason Jewish prisoners were for once able to reach even the highest rungs of

the inmate hierarchy. Max Schmidt, the camp leader of Fürstengrube, testi-

ﬁed: ‘‘At ﬁrst a Jew was the camp elder, but after a certain point he was not

permitted to perform that function any more.’’

Primo Levi reports what Monowitz, the central camp of Auschwitz III, was

like in his time:

In 1944 onlya few hundred of the old Jewish inmates of Auschwitz with the

low numbers under 130,000were still alive. (The number 150,000 was given

out on September 1943, and men were considered ‘‘old’’ inmates aftera few

months). None of those survivors was an ordinary inmate on an ordinary

detail and with ordinary rations. Those left were physicians, tailors, cob-

blers, musicians, cooks, attractiveyoung homosexuals, and friends orcom-

patriots of some camp authorities; also, especially ruthless, vigorous, and

inhumane individuals who maintained themselves as capos, block elders,

and in other positions (having been chosen by the ss, which in this regard

displayed a satanic knowledge of human nature); and ﬁnally those who did

not hold speciﬁc positions but by virtue of their craftiness and drive were

always ableto ‘‘organize’’ successfullyand consequentlycould reap not only

material beneﬁts and prestige but also the forbearance and esteem of the

camp administration.

Levi’s description of the Jewish vips is just as unsparing as his character-

ization of the inmate functionaries who did not have to wear a Star of David:

TheJewishvips constitutea remarkable and sad humanphenomenon.They

are the typical result of the structure of the German camps. If you oﬀer

some individuals who live like slaves a privileged position, certain com-

forts, and the prospect of survival in return for a betrayal of the natural

solidarity with their comrades, one of them will surely accept this oﬀer.

If he gets dominion over a handful of wretches and the power to decide

their life or death, he will become cruel and tyrannical, for he knows that

otherwise someone elsewho is consideredmore suitablewill take his place.

Furthermore, the entire force of his hatred, which could not be vented on

his oppressors, will now come down senselessly on the oppressed. And he

will not be satisﬁed until he has heaped the abuse that he suﬀered from

those above him on those below him.

Manyof those acquainted with conditions in Monowitz will reject sweeping

statements of this kind as unfair. Levi himself realizes that he is generalizing

when he writes: ‘‘During the entire endless year in the camp, I had neither the

curiosity nor the opportunity to investigate the complex structure of the camp

hierarchy. The gloomy structure of evil powers weighed on us as a totality,

and our eyes were ﬁxed on the ground.’’ Levi is referring to a source of error

that some commentators who have also made snap judgments may not have

noticed. He is aware that a Jewish capo was under a stronger compulsion than

an ‘‘Aryan’’ one and has this to say about his ‘‘Aryan’’ superior: ‘‘This capo is

not giving us any trouble because he is not a Jew and hence is not worried

about his position.’’

Some Jewish functionaries are remembered by survivors. Thus Henry Bo-

lawko has described a foreman in Jaworzno, a young Lithuanian named

Mosche. He always carried in his right hand the symbol of his rank, a stick,

and he administered beatingswith it.One day he opened his heart toBulawko.

His wife and three children were murdered in front of his eyes, and his house

was destroyed. Mosche was religious and said his prayers every day. And every

day he gave beatings.

Carl Laszlo reports about a Hungarian parliamentarian by the name of Fa-

bian, who claimed to be a former government minister; he ‘‘gained an impor-

170 n the prisoners

tant position in the camp through dubious machinations and became one of

the most disagreeable and meanest functionaries.’’

Karl Dubsky, who was sent to Birkenau in July 1942 because of his Jew-

ish descent, has called his ﬁrst block elder, a Polish Jew, a ‘‘beast.’’ Tadeusz

Joachimowski may have had the same man in mind when he wrote that the

elder of Block 22 gave whippings and beat some inmates to death. His name

was Pinkus, and he was originally from France.

Elie Wiesel remembers the elder of Block 57 in Monowitz who ‘‘beat an old

man for lifting his cap too slowly’’ and ﬂogged another man because he did

not like his face. This wearer of the Star of David took another man’s shirt

because it was warm and also stole another man’s shoes. Wiesel sums up his

account by writing: ‘‘Yes, I knew the sadistic capos, and I have seen Jews who

beat their brethren with a wild gleam in their eyes....Whentheseimages

come to life again, I am surprised that there were so few lost souls and poi-

soned hearts in this kingdom of the night where one breathed only hatred,

contempt, and loathing of one’s own self. What would have become of me if

I had stayed in the camps longer—say, ﬁve, seven, or twelve years?’’

n In the women’s camp, inmates from Slovakia with low numbers rose to the

status of a kind of aristocracy. The ﬁrst rsha transports from that country in

March 1942 contained primarily young girls; married Jewish women from Slo-

vakia were not deported until a bit later. According to Aranka Krausz,whowas

deported at that time, those able to survive the hard early period usually left

Auschwitz alive because aftera year the Slovaks with low numbers already had

better positions. Katarina Princz conﬁrms that from the summer of 1943 on-

ward every girl from the ﬁrst Slovak transports who had survived had a good

position. Princz came to Auschwitz with the same transport as Krausz.When

Krystyna Zywulska was deported to Auschwitz in late August 1944, most of

the block elders were Slovakian Jews.

The survivors of the ﬁrst Slovakian transports are generally described as

young girls. Anna Palarczyk remembers that the Slovakian Jews who were ap-

pointed block elders were nineteen, eighteen, or as young as seventeen years

of age. Kitty Hart,whowas sent to the camp in April 1943,has thisto say about

the Jewish block and dormitory elders from Slovakia: ‘‘They literally built the

women’s campwith their own hands. In the beginning there were many thou-

sands of them; but only a few are alive today, and they occupy the best posi-

tions.’’ Krystyna Zywulska believes that the early years in Auschwitz made the

girls forget how things were then, and she asks herself: ‘‘What did we know

about their suﬀering? Nothing.’’ Lucie Begow,who arrived in Auschwitz in the

spring of 1944 describes the Slovak women with low inmate numbers who

had positions as the ‘‘camp generation,’’ and she estimates that many of them

Jewish vips n 171

were only sixteen to eighteen at the time. ‘‘With one exception their behavior

was more German than that of the Germans.’’

Sura Zoﬁa Herson-Nowak once overheard her block elder Sara Meisels, a

young, tall, blonde Jew from Slovakia, say, ‘‘I have lost so many relatives here

that I know no pity.’’ Meisels gave beatings even when no guard was around.

MiriamBlits,aDutchwoman whocame toAuschwitz in 1944,has described

her block elder Laura, a Polish Jew around twenty-two, as follows: ‘‘She gave

beatings, got attacks of hysteria, and made us kneel for hours with our hands

raised.’’ Blits has also given this concise characterization of the Polish capo

of the ‘‘shit detail’’: ‘‘I haven’t seen a more evil creature in my life.’’

In January 1944 Hertha Ligeti was greeted by a block elder whom she de-

scribes as a very young and strikingly dressed Slovak woman: ‘‘She was wear-

ing a ﬂowered silk dressing gown and fur-lined slippers; her long blue-black

hair was held together on her neck by an enormous sky-blue silk bow; her

cheeks and lips were a vivid pink, her small hands were well-padded, and

under her dressing gown her breasts were round and full. Next to her stood,

like body guards, ﬁve girls who were not as splendidly dressed as she but who

also seemed to be brimming with health. They were the dormitory orderlies

(Stubendienste), called Stubowas, also Slovaks.’’

Wanda Koprowska says of her dormitory elder in the satellite camp Budy, a

Jew named Henryka, that she demanded complete subordination; ‘‘otherwise,

she would send us to a place we would not leave alive.’’

Hanna Hoﬀmannhas given the following description of her ﬁrst encounter

with inmate functionariesinthe sauna of Birkenau,whereallnewarrivalswere

taken: ‘‘From time to time one of the robust girls who work in the sauna—

as we later learn, Slovak Jews who have been in the kz for quite some time—

comes and straightens out the rows of ﬁve (which new arrivals had to form)

with the aid of a rubber hose. One of the Slovaks wants my jacket. Because I

don’t take it oﬀ quickly enough, she gives me a hefty slap in the face.’’ Later

Hoﬀmann struck up a conversation with that woman, who told her this: ‘‘My

parents were immediately sent to the gas. I soon understood what matters.

We’ve all become whores. You, too, will notice that this brings the greatest

advantages.’’ Hoﬀmann describes her in thesewords: ‘‘The girl looks quite in-

diﬀerent. Empty eyes in a broad, bloated face. A sturdy, muscular ﬁgure. She

is nineteen, but I would have guessed thirty.’’

Young Szuszi Gross quickly learned how one could get ahead in Auschwitz.

Since the ss attached the greatest importance to military precision when the

labor details marched out and in, the capos shouted rhythmically, ‘‘Left, two,

three, four, left two, three, four,’’ in order to keep everyone in step. When the

newcomers had to march out on the ﬁrst day, Szuszi Gross immediately seized

172 n the prisoners

the initiative and commandedloudly, ‘‘Left, two,three, four!’’ After fourweeks

she had already been made a dormitory orderly.

Eva Gabanyi, one of the women who heard bad things about Gross’s con-

duct, remembers that in the hard early period Szuszi helped to keep up the

inmates’ morale. Katarina Princz, a childhood friend of Szuszi’s, has told a

story that illuminates this young girl’s development as a block elder more

vividly than descriptions of cruelties. One time Katarina became the victim of

a selection, and inmates who knew her desperately appealed to block elder

Gross to help her friend. ‘‘What am I supposed to do for her? Can she shine my

shoes?’’ In her eyes, saving the life of her childhood friend would have made

sense only then.

Ana Novac, who was deported with a transport of Hungarians in 1944, has

given this portrait of her Slovak block elder: ‘‘Come to think of it, she is alive

only when she is giving a beating. Then she comes to life like a tennis player

who fell asleep during his training and ﬁnally starts a match. Her chin juts out

and her beautiful, languid lips are pinched. For an instant she motionlessly

eyes her victim.Then there ﬂashes around her mouth that peculiar, somewhat

evil, and a bit intoxicated smile that brightens her in the truest sense of the

word. She swings her whip backward, only to make it whiz down with all her

strength the next moment.’’ Novac believes that the Slovak women could not

forgive the newcomers for peacefully eating bread and butter in their homes

when the Slovaks had to endure their worst years in Auschwitz.

Suzanne Birnbaum calls her dormitory elder, a young Slovak Jew named

Elsa, a real panther. ‘‘She can’t watch us laugh,’’ she writes.The ss also found

female sadists. Meyer Levin reports about a seventeen-year-old Jew, the assis-

tant of her capo. ‘‘When she was administering a beating, she got excited and

ﬂogged until blood ﬂowed.’’

Particularly well known in the camp was a woman named Cylka, who, ac-

cording to Anna Palarczyk, was perhaps sixteen when she was deported from

Slovakia. She received the armband of a block elder for Block 25, where the

Muselmänner had to wait for their transport to the gas chambers. Cylka, who

was pretty and very quick-witted, enjoyed the favor of the notorious ss roll

call leader Anton Tauber, and this went to her head to such an extent that she

raged unrestrainedly against her companions in misfortune. It was probably

for this reason that she was later made camp elder in Mexico, where her con-

duct did not improve. To be sure, a few Slovak women have not forgotten that

Cylka helped them. Anna Palarczyk explains the deep demoralization of this

young creature by saying, ‘‘She had to put her mother on a truck that drove to

the gas chamber.’’ Other reports indicate that she tried very hard to get some

water to the Mexico section that she headed.

Jewish vips n 173