Thousands of human beings -- often whole families, men, women, children -- were brought there by train from all over Europe, most of them in cattle cars.
When they arrived, they saw piles of luggage by other empty trains, and they were horrified. But they had no idea why they were brought there or what was going to happen to them. They carried their own suitcases full of clothing and valuables, which were later sorted by the Nazis and sent to Berlin and other German centers. The victims' homes had been taken from them, and their businesses, and their bank accounts.
The victims were Jews and gypsies and intellectuals and people who had resisted the German occupation of Poland and other European countries. Some were doctors who had helped Jews escape or had treated Jews or otherwise helped them.
The German soldiers -- some 6,000 were stationed there -- herded these poor innocent victims off the trains, and separated the men from the women, in effect separating families, so they could send them to the "showers." The soldiers told the men, Don't worry about your families. They are just going to bathe. You'll see them in an hour.
Of course, the men never saw their families again. Little girls in lovely dresses, their hair done up nice, were herded into the gas chambers and killed, along with their mothers and aunts and cousins. So were men and boys, old and young. By the thousands. By the train load. Those who tried to escape were shot.
The Nazis didn't want word to get out. When word did get out, the Allies didn't believe the reports, not for three years. They thought this could not be happening, not on such a scale.
Most of the killing took place at night. Sometimes 20,000 in one night. In huge concrete "shower" rooms. Then the bodies were loaded by other prisoners into huge wood-fired ovens and burned. The stench must have been horrible.
Now, my questions are these: How were people able to do this? Where do you find 6,000 soldiers willing to murder thousands of normal, decent people every night? How could you send an innocent child to the gas chamber? How could you look in a child's eyes and do that?
How could you manufacture tons of lethal gas, knowing it would be used to kill innocent people? How you could climb up on the roof of the "showers" and open the trap door and pour the gas in and listen to the screams of dying human beings, people just like you?
Of course, the Nazis didn't think they were killing people just like them. They thought they were killing "subhumans."
I don't understand how anyone could do these things. Were these Nazis monsters? Rudolf Hoess, the first commandant, testified that 1.5 million people were exterminated there in two and one-half years. Those Nazis were fast and efficient.
In the film, we see the 24 defendants at the Frankfurt Trials, which took place in 1963-65, almost 20 years after the war. Men in suits who seem perfectly normal. Men who had been free all that time. It's very weird. Almost like it took German society 20 years to decide that what the Nazis did was wrong.
BTW, those trials almost didn't happen. If it hadn't been for one reporter who found some charred records of the killings, those particular Auschwitz Nazis would likely never have been brought to justice.
Another thing, the Germans were a highly civilized society. They had opera and classical music, fine art, museums, philosophers, universities, renowned poets and novelists. Of course, many of these intellectuals were Jews or Jewish sympathizers.
My biggest question: Are we modern Americans any different? I believe that what any man is capable of, all men are capable of. Is that true? Could any of us commit such unspeakable acts? Are we all monsters inside? Or not? I can understand a few psychopaths out there, people who have no empathy, who kill easily for personal gain. But 6,000? In one place?
The Holocaust seems to have been a triumph of ideology over empathy, politics over humanity, and good German discipline over common decency.
The Nazis apparently believed they were doing the right thing. The German officers lived nearby with their wives and children. Some of the wives testified at the trial that these officers were good husbands and good fathers. Good men. Good Germans.
How is that possible? How can you kiss your wife goodbye and hug your children, and then go off to butcher thousands of innocent people?
It's a frightening thought. Even more frightening: I'll bet some of us are capable of this, too.
Copyright 2011, Roger R. Angle
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