Archive/File: camps/auschwitz gricksch.rpt
Last-modified: 1993/02/21     

   In a report entitled "Resettlement of Jews," SS Sturmbannfu"hrer
   Gricksch briefly described the selection process for SS-Col.  von
   Herff and Reichsfu"hrer-SS Himmler, after an inspection of Auschwitz
   on 14-16 May 1943. (Fleming, 142)

      The Auschwitz camp plays a special role in the resolution of the
      Jewish question.  The most advance methods permit the execution
      of the Fuehrer-order in the shortest possible time and without
      arousing much attention.  The so-called "resettlement action"
      runs the following course: The Jews arrive in special trains
      (freight cars) toward evening and are driven on special tracks
      to areas of the camp specifically set aside for this purpose.
      There the Jews are unloaded and examined for their fitness to
      work by a team of doctors, in the presence of the camp
      commandant and several SS officers.  At this point anyone who
      can somehow be incorporated into the work program is put in a
      special camp.  The curably ill are sent straight to a medical
      camp and are restored to health through a special diet.  The
      basic principle behind everything is: conserve all manpower for
      work.  The previous type of "resettlement action" has been
      thoroughly rejected, since it is too costly to destroy precious
      work energy on a continual basis.

      The unfit go to cellars in a large house which are entered from
      outside.  They go down five or six steps into a fairly long,
      well-constructed and well-ventilated cellar area, which is lined
      with benches to the left and right.  It is brightly lit, and the
      benches are numbered.  The prisoners are told that they are to
      be cleansed and disinfected for their new assignments.  They
      must therefore completely undress to be bathed.  To avoid panic
      and to prevent disturbances of any kind, they are instructed to
      arrange their clothing neatly under their respective numbers, so
      that they will be able to find their things again after their
      bath.  Everything proceeds in a perfectly orderly fashion.  Then
      they pass through a small corridor and enter a large cellar room
      which resembles a shower bath.  In this room are three large
      pillars, into which certain materials can be lowered from
      outside the cellar room.  When three- to four-hundred people
      have been herded into this room, the doors are shut, and
      containers filled with the substances are dropped down into the
      pillars.  As soon as the containers touch the base of the
      pillars, they release particular substances that put the people
      to sleep in one minute.  A few minutes later, the door opens on
      the other side, where the elevator is located.  The hair of the
      corpses is cut off, and their teeth are extracted (gold-filled
      teeth) by specialists (Jews).  It has been discovered that Jews
      were hiding pieces of Jewelry, gold, platinum etc., in hollow
      teeth.  Then the corpses are loaded into elevators and brought
      up to the first floor, where ten large crematoria are located.
      (Because fresh corpses burn particularly well, only 50-100 lbs.
      of coke are needed for the whole process.) The job itself is
      performed by Jewish prisoners, who never step outside this camp
      again.

      The results of this "resettlement action" to date: 500,000 Jews.
      Current capacity of the "resettlement action" ovens: 10,000 in
      24 hours.

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