The so-called “Death March” from Auschwitz

[Friedrich Paul Berg]

In a separate blog, Robert Bystanders (Jewish, by his own admission) recently wrote the following nonsensical piece of typical holocaust mytho-mania: “The death marches were to stop the prisoners appearing in newsreels and recounting their horrific experiences.”

If there were any truth to that statement, why were thousands of Jews and others left in Auschwitz by the retreating Nazis and SS for the Russians to “liberate” and use for their propaganda? The number of such prisoners, including child twins, left for the Russians that I have seen recently is “7,000.”

The fact is that the holocaust theory is rubbish. The so-called “death march” was NOT at all to kill the tens of thousands of Jews and others who had all “chosen” to go west. It could only have been a rather humane attempt to help these people avoid the inevitable horrors of the Soviets. No doubt, many deaths occurred along the “march” to the west from the misery of the ordeal--–but, the worst killers were the Allied bombers and fighter planes, piloted by depraved cowards, who found it so much safer to murder refugees, even Jews, on the ground in trains or on foot rather than attack armed German soldiers who tended to shoot back and perhaps even kill them instead.

Ironically, by their HUMANE measures to bring Jews to the west safely, (for the benefit of those Jews who I suspect were at least in some cases still under quarantine against typhus) the Germans and SS inadvertently helped bring about the typhus epidemics and catastrophe in the west in places like Bergen-Belsen during the last chaotic months of the war. It was those horrors that are the seemingly "real" and even "overwhelming" but false basis for most people for the holocaust claims, including the gassing claims. So, by their humanity toward the Jews, the Nazis and SS inadvertently brought about their own vilification. The real mass murderers were the western Allies. The Nazis and the SS were heroes! If they had merely wanted to hide evidence of some alleged “fiendishness,” they could have done that so easily and simply lied about it afterward as the Allies had done throughout the war and continue to do to this very day.

The Jewish portrayal of the evacuation of Auschwitz as a "death march" merely shows, once again, how something that was humane and decent on the part of the Nazis and SS has been turned on its head and portrayed as the complete opposite. This is typical of the Jewish propaganda. Other examples of such gross distortion are the use of Zyklon-B and crematoria--but there so many more examples as well.

Friedrich Paul Berg
Learn everything at http://www.nazigassings.com
Nazi Gassings Never Happened! Niemand wurde vergast!

[trevor]

Even Wikipedia sometimes allows a piece of truth to slip out:

"The main complaints of western Allied prisoners of war in German Army POW camps—especially during the last two years of the war—concerned shortages of food, although this fate was shared by German personnel and civilians, due to blockade conditions. Food packages provided by the International Red Cross supplemented the food rations, until the last few months when Allied air raids prevented shipments from arriving."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner_of_war

[Petschau]

This page https://web.archive.org/web/20050305050 ... enial.html from John Ball's Air-Photo Evidence site, provides extensive information in support of Berg's claims in his post.
Some of the highlights include:

1. U.S. and German top-level government officials talked with each other through Swiss and Irish consuls in 1944 and '45 about the condition of inmates in German-operated camps,

2. In 1944 German officials denied any intention to mass-murder inmates,

3. Germany guaranteed to evacuate inmates ahead of Soviet advance,

4. Former camp inmates confirmed inmates were being safely evacuated.

In addition there are scans of two letters between the Allies and Germany regarding the disposition of the inmates at Auschwitz/Birkenau

[Friedrich Paul Berg]

Thank you Petschau and John C. Ball for that valuable information about communications between the US and Germany. I will add it to my website shortly.

Friedrich Paul Berg
Learn everything at http://www.nazigassings.com
Nazi Gassings Never Happened! Niemand wurde vergast!

[Friedrich Paul Berg]

The following is all from someone who calls himself "Furtherglory." It is well worth looking at:

I have unwittingly opened up a can of worms
Filed under: Holocaust — Tags: Anne Frank, Auschwitz, death march — furtherglory @ 12:16 am

Until just recently, I was not aware of the significance of the evacuation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp and the so-called “death march” out of the camp. When I previously blogged about the “death march” out of Auschwitz, this generated a lot of comments with strong opinions.

A “death march” is usually defined as a long hike from one place to another with the stragglers being shot. The most famous “death march” during World War II was the Bataan Death March which you can read about here.

It seems that the story of the infamous “death march” out of Auschwitz is quite controversial because it contradicts the official story that the Nazis had a plan for the genocide of the Jews. If the plan was to kill all the Jews, why were 60,000 Jews marched out of the camp, instead of killing them? Holocaust deniers use the death march as evidence that there was no plan to kill all the Jews. Holocaust believers say that the purpose of the march was to kill the prisoners.

The “death march” out of Auschwitz was nothing like the Bataan Death March. I heard one survivor at the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance say that she was on the march and there was a “sag wagon” to pick up stragglers and allow them to ride for awhile. She said that a German soldier on the march allowed her to escape; he gave her the home address of his wife and told her to go there and his wife would employ her as a servant.

I heard another survivor at the Museum of Tolerance say that German SS men who couldn’t keep up with the march were shot because they would have had a fate worse than death if they had been left behind and were captured by the Soviet soldiers.

There is also some controversy about whether or not the prisoners went on the march because they were afraid they would be killed if they didn’t. Did they really have a choice between going or staying behind? In a biography of Anne Frank, author Melissa Mueller wrote that Otto Frank had begged Peter van Pels, the boy who had hidden in Amsterdam with the Franks, not to go on the march, but Peter was determined to go.

Otto Frank was unable to stop Peter from joining the march. Peter was persuaded to go by a man named Max Stoppelman who had been in the main Auschwitz camp since May 1944. Melissa Mueller wrote that Max “was thoroughly familiar with the rules of survival” and that Max “took Peter under his wing.” So a prisoner who knew the “rules of survival” advised Peter to join the march.

There were several different groups that marched out. Peter and Max were in the group that marched 65 miles to Wodzislaw. Otto Frank stayed behind; he was a patient in a hospital in the main camp.

Peter survived the march and the subsequent train ride to Mauthausen in Austria. Otto Frank also survived. This seems to contradict the official story of genocide. But in a letter to his mother, Otto Frank was able to explain away this contradiction.

Quote from a letter that Otto Frank wrote to his mother after the war:

“On the 26th (of January 1945), the SS took us outside to murder us, but they were ordered away before they could do so — we were saved by a miracle.”

There was no mention of who “ordered the SS away” so we don’t know who stopped the SS from murdering the prisoners who had stayed behind. I always thought that all the SS men left on Jan. 18th, leading the way on the death marches, but according to Otto Frank, they were still there on Jan. 26th and were on the verge of murdering those who had stayed behind.

Meanwhile, Anne Frank and her sister Margo had been among the 8,000 women who were transferred from Auschwitz-Birkenau to Bergen-Belsen in late October and early Noveber 1944, according to Mueller’s book. The Dutch Red Cross was asked to monitor the trains and according to their report, these women were “ill but potentially capable of recovering.” Mueller wrote that the women on the trains “were apparently even given some minimal amounts of bread, cheese, margarine and water for the trip.”

Then on page 255 of Mueller’s book, there is this startling information:
Between December 1, 1944, and mid-January 1945, more than half a million people were evacuated from Auschwitz.

Could this possibly be correct? Half a million people? This number must include the three Auschwitz camps and all the sub-camps for miles around. Even then, it is unbelievable.

According to Carlo Mattogno, Peiper from the Auschwitz Museum has admitted the same number also. How could all those Jews have been taken in by those nasty Nazis after so many Jews, more than a million, had been gassed to death practically in front of their eyes? Such a riddle!

Gee whiz, folks--I guess the "Holocaust" really is just another dirty Jewish hoax after all. Will those dirty Jews give the money back?. Will those dirty Poles give back the land they stole from the Germans? Will those insane Russians do something to makeup for their heinous crimes?

Friedrich Paul Berg
Learn everything at http://www.nazigassings.com
Nazi Gassings Never Happened! Niemand wurde vergast!

[Friedrich Paul Berg]

There are so many layers to the story about the "evacuation" of the Jews from Auschwitz.

According to the documents presented by John Ball, there was a deal with the US to remove the Jews before the Russians got to Auschwitz--and what a deal! Apparently it was OK for the Soviets to enslave the Poles, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Hungarians and Czechs, and half of all Germans--but the Jews had to brought to safety in the West. That tells us lots about the US priorities. The Jews were far more important than anyone else. Such a shock!

I strongly suspect that the Germans realized this. When the Jews were given a "choice" to stay or evacuate, I suspect the Germans took written statements from all those who wanted to stay, perhaps merely signed notes in a common logbook. Those recorded choices to stay, or evacuate might be available in a file somewhere.

In any event, the hoax is unraveling big time in front of our eyes here. That more than 1/4 million Jews "chose" to go west with the greatest mass murderers of Jews in all of human history seems too preposterous a theory to sustain much longer.

Friedrich Paul Berg
Learn everything at http://www.nazigassings.com
Nazi Gassings Never Happened! Niemand wurde vergast!

[Petschau]

Primo Levi touches on the subject of the Auschwitz evacuation in his book "Survival In Auschwitz". If I recall, the departure of the guards and prisoners was chaotic and hurried. Levi also said that they could hear the Soviet cannons rumbling on a daily basis prior to the evacuation. Levi himself stayed behind in the infirmary due to illness. He must have been there at the same time as Otto Frank (Anne's father).

After the German's left the camp it was only a matter of hours until the remaining prisoners saw the first of the Red Army arrive.

[Friedrich Paul Berg]

According to Night, it was in January 1945, just before the first Auschwitz “liberation” event, that both Elie and his dad trekked west with the Nazis in a terrible winter on foot by their own choice and assisted the Nazis during the last months of the war. They had both, just as many tens of thousands of other Jews, chosen in effect to co-l-l-a-b-o-r-a-t-e with the Nazis and work (no free ride waiting in a Gasthaus) to defend the Reich. Some of Wiesel's exact words in Night, paperback edition (Bantam Books, 1960) page 78 are:

“The choice was in our hands. For once we could decide our fate for ourselves. We could both stay in the hospital, where I could, thanks to my doctor, get him [the father] entered as a patient or nurse. Or else we could follow the others. ‘Well, what shall we do, father?’ He was silent. ‘Let's be evacuated with the others,’ I told him.”

Elie's tale in this regard is corroborated by other “survivor” accounts including that of PRIMO LEVI. In Levi's book Survival in Auschwitz, we have his words for January 17th, 1945:

“It was not a question of reasoning: I would probably also have followed the instinct of the flock if I had not felt so weak: fear is supremely contagious, and its immediate reaction is to make one try to run away.”

The Jews on “Schindler's List,” just thirty miles to the east of Auschwitz, also chose to collaborate and went west eagerly also rather than hang back, or hide, or go east to be “liberated” by the Soviets. Their last months of the war were spent in what is now the Czech Republic making ammunition (all supposedly “defective and useless” by their postwar accounts) for the Nazis until they were “liberated” by Soviet troops in May of 1945. Of course, they could have been “liberated” six months earlier and put to work making ammunition for the Allies–but they had all chosen to collaborate with the Nazis instead.

The vast majority of the people who entered Auschwitz “survived” because there was absolutely NO extermination program. No one had even tried to kill them. Clearly, the Nazis could NOT possibly have been mass murderers as many of those same Jews alleged, WIESEL especially, after the war.

Friedrich Paul Berg
Learn everything at http://www.nazigassings.com
Nazi Gassings Never Happened! Niemand wurde vergast!

[bridgebuilder]

To Friedrich Paul Berg:

An interesting post. Do you know of anything in the literature concerning the fate of the 7,000 Auschwitz internees "liberated" by the Red Army? In the West, we are awash with memoirs, but I know of no Russian equivalent.

[Petschau]

According to Night, it was in January 1945, just before the first Auschwitz “liberation” event, that both Elie and his dad trekked west with the Nazis in a terrible winter on foot by their own choice and assisted the Nazis during the last months of the war. They had both, just as many tens of thousands of other Jews, chosen in effect to co-l-l-a-b-o-r-a-t-e with the Nazis and work (no free ride waiting in a Gasthaus) to defend the Reich. Some of Wiesel's exact words in Night, paperback edition (Bantam Books, 1960) page 78 are:

“The choice was in our hands. For once we could decide our fate for ourselves. We could both stay in the hospital, where I could, thanks to my doctor, get him [the father] entered as a patient or nurse. Or else we could follow the others. ‘Well, what shall we do, father?’ He was silent. ‘Let's be evacuated with the others,’ I told him.”

Elie's tale in this regard is corroborated by other “survivor” accounts including that of PRIMO LEVI. In Levi's book Survival in Auschwitz, we have his words for January 17th, 1945:

“It was not a question of reasoning: I would probably also have followed the instinct of the flock if I had not felt so weak: fear is supremely contagious, and its immediate reaction is to make one try to run away.”

The Jews on “Schindler's List,” just thirty miles to the east of Auschwitz, also chose to collaborate and went west eagerly also rather than hang back, or hide, or go east to be “liberated” by the Soviets. Their last months of the war were spent in what is now the Czech Republic making ammunition (all supposedly “defective and useless” by their postwar accounts) for the Nazis until they were “liberated” by Soviet troops in May of 1945. Of course, they could have been “liberated” six months earlier and put to work making ammunition for the Allies–but they had all chosen to collaborate with the Nazis instead.

The vast majority of the people who entered Auschwitz “survived” because there was absolutely NO extermination program. No one had even tried to kill them. Clearly, the Nazis could NOT possibly have been mass murderers as many of those same Jews alleged, WIESEL especially, after the war.

Friedrich Paul Berg
Learn everything at http://www.nazigassings.com
Nazi Gassings Never Happened! Niemand wurde vergast!

What strikes me as odd about the Wiesel affair is that Elie was allegedly recovering from foot surgery in the Auschwitz Infirmary at the time of the evacuation.

Why would he risk further injury or infection to his foot in the dead of winter by going with the Germans?
Other tales tell us that the prisoners who could not keep up were shot on the spot...how is it that Elie, with a bandaged foot and his elderly father were able to keep up?
What was it that compelled them to leave with the Germans under such terrible circumstances?
Unless of course he was never really there.

[Hannover]

The thousands of Jews who chose to stay are generally ignored by Jewish Supremacists since that fact alone refutes the absurd claims associated with the so called 'holocaust'. If the claims were true it wouldn't have made sense for the SS to leave utterly thousands of 'witnesses' behind who would then talk.

See photos and text below, from a previous post:

Was Auschwitz Liberated or Merely Occupied by the Red Army?
by Germar Rudolf
[email protected]

Jan. 26, 2005

In the book for which Elie Wiesel is most famous, namely "Night" (Bantam paperback edition, 1960), which is required reading in many public schools across
the globe, Wiesel paints a horrendous picture of life in Auschwitz from April 1944 to January 1945 when he was there. Although many hundreds of thousands of Jews were supposedly gassed there during this time, Wiesel makes no mention of gassings or gas chambers anywhere in his book, as Jürgen Graf and Robert Faurisson have pointed out to us.

(Cf. the table compiled by J. Graf at the end of R. Faurisson, "Witnesses to
the Gas Chambers of Auschwitz," in: G. Rudolf (ed.), "Dissecting the
Holocaust," 2nd. ed., Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago, IL, 2003, p. 144, http://www.vho.org/GB/Books/dth/fndwitness.html.)

He does however claim to have seen flames from the crematory chimneys and Dr. Mengele wearing a monocle. Both claims are clearly lies, since the Auschwitz crematories, fired with coke, could not produce flames that could travel trough 15 m of flue and 30 m of chimney (see Carlo Mattogno, "Flames and Smoke from the Chimneys of Crematoria," "The Revisionist" 2(1) (2004), pp. 73-78, http://www.vho.org/tr/2004/1/Mattogno73-78.html.).

When the Russians were about to overrun Auschwitz in January 1945, both Elie and his father "chose" to go west with the retreating 'Nazis' and SS rather than be "liberated" by America's greatest ally. They could have told the whole world about Auschwitz within days--but, both Elie and his father as well as countless thousands of other Jews chose instead to trek west with the 'Nazis' on foot at night in the middle of one of the coldest winters and continue working for the defense of the Reich thereafter. In effect, they chose to collaborate.

Some of Wiesel's exact words in "Night" are (p. 78 ):
"The choice was in our hands. For once we could decide our fate for
ourselves. We could both stay in the hospital, where I could, thanks to my doctor, get him [the father] entered as a patient or nurse. Or else we could follow the others. 'Well, what shall we do, father?' He was silent. 'Let's be evacuated with the others,' I told him."

Elie's tale in this regard is corroborated by other "survivor" accounts
including that of Primo Levi. In Levi's book "Survival in Auschwitz," we have his words for January 17th, 1945:

"It was not a question of reasoning: I would probably also have followed the instinct of the flock if I had not felt so weak: fear is supremely contagious, and its immediate reaction is to make one try to run away."

But he's talking here about running away with the 'Nazis'--and not 'Nazis'
who were mere rank and file party members but supposedly the worst of the worst. He's talking here about running away with the same 'Nazis' and SS who had supposedly carried out the greatest imaginable mass murders of Jews and others in the entire history of the universe. He's talking about running away with the people who supposedly did the actual killings of thousands daily for several years. But, according to his own words he would probably have gone with them nonetheless, except that he was not feeling good that day; he was feeling weak.
The "fear" that he overcame was clearly fear of the Russians and not the
'Nazis;' there is no mention of fear of what the 'Nazis' and SS might do when the evacuees entered the forest or sometime later.

The choices that were made here in January 1945 are enormously important. In the entire history of Jewish suffering at the hands of gentiles what moment in time could possibly be more dramatic than this precious moment when Jews could choose between, on the one hand, liberation by the Soviets with the chances to tell the whole world about the evil 'Nazis' and to help bring about their defeat--and the other choice of going with the 'Nazi' mass murderers and to con tinue working for them and to help preserve their evil regime. In the vast majority of cases, they chose to go with the 'Nazis'.

The momentous choice brings Shakespeare's Hamlet to mind:

"To remain, or not to remain; that is the question:" to remain and be liberated by Soviet troops and risk their slings and rifles in order to tell the whole world about the outrageous 'Nazis'--or, take arms and feet against a sea of cold and darkness in order to collaborate with the very same outrageous 'Nazis'. Oh what heartache--ay there's the rub! Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.

see:
''holocaust' Memorial Day / Auschwitz 'Liberation' debunked'
http://forum.codoh.com/viewtopic.php?t=1716

more on the fact that inmates were given a choice to leave with the SS or stay an await the Soviets:
'Did inmates of Auschwitz choose to be evacuated?'
http://forum.codoh.com/viewtopic.php?t=1372
also, some damning photos:

Healthy Jews of Auschwitz greet the Soviets.

Healthy Jewish children alive in the Auschwitz II (Birkenau) upon Soviet arrival. Still from a postwar Soviet film.


According to the unsupportable 'holocaust' story line these people would all be dead ... if the lies were true.

This is too easy.

- Hannover

[Hannover]

Then we have this Auschwitz clinic for sick Jews. But According to the lies all those too old, too young, or sick were gassed.



Of course, those that did remain behind at Auschwitz were given a choice to leave with the retreating Germans or stay and await the Soviets, the vast majority chose to leave with the 'oh so evil' Germans.

Revisionists are just the messengers, the absurdity and impossibility of the 'holocaust' story line is the message.

- Hannover

[ovd1965]

a intereting report can be found in :

(Quelle: Auszüge aus dem Bericht des ehemaligen Auschwitz Häftlings Bernard Klieger “LE CHEMIN QUE NOUS AVONS FAIT…” (1946) und “Der Weg, den wir gingen – Reportage einer höllischen Reise”, 1960, Verlag Codac Juifs, Bruxelles-Ixelles) – 1, B.P. 48. [Anmerkungen in Klammern frei nach H. Langbein, Menschen in Auschwitz])

do not know if there is a english edition

example :

Dann fiel die Entscheidung – nicht unerwartet und doch plötzlich. In der Nacht vom 17. auf den 18. Januar wurden gegen 1 Uhr die Capos (Häftlingsvorarbeiter) und die Blockschreiber (Häftlingsfunktionäre) von den Blockführern (SS-Lageraufsicht) aus den Betten geholt und nach der Häftlingsschreibstube beschieden. Dort waren bereits die SS-Dirigenten des Lagers anwesend, und es wurde eine Liste derjenigen angefertigt, die nach Meinung der Blockschreiber und Capos nicht marschfähig waren. Ungefähr fünfzehnhundert Personen standen auf dieser Liste. Um 4 Uhr wurden wir alle geweckt, und man sagte uns, daß wir uns für den Abmarsch aus dem Lager bereithalten müßten.

Die Würfel waren gefallen. Wir wurden also nicht umgelegt, sollten das Lager verlassen. Eitel Freude herrschte darob bei uns. [...]


Wir rüsteten fieberhaft für die Reise. Schlafdecken wurden zerschnitten und Rucksäcke daraus angefertigt. Jeder suchte seinen persönlichen Kram zusammen, um ihn mitzunehmen. Decken wurden zusammengerollt und so geknotet, daß man sie um den Hals tragen konnte. Wir mußten vorsorgen für den Fall, daß wir unterwegs in irgend einer Scheune übernachten würden. Es war ja Winter, und die Temperatur betrug ca. 15° unter Null.
Gegen sieben Uhr wurden die fünfzehnhundert Häftlinge gerufen, die auf der angefertigten Liste standen.

Jeder von ihnen bekam soviel Wäsche, als er nur wollte. Neue Anzüge, Pullover, Mäntel gab man ihnen. Nun schwand bei uns die zuerst aufgekommene Meinung, daß man sie, als marschunfähig, beseitigen würde, und mancher ärgerte sich sogar, daß er nicht bei dieser Gruppe dabei war, denn jetzt waren wir überzeugt, daß die Marschunfähigen auf irgendeine Art – Bahn, Lastkraftwagen oder sonstige Fuhrwerke – nach dem Marschziel gefahren werden würden, während wir zu Fuß nach dort latschen mußten. [...]

Gegen zehn Uhr marschierten die fünzehnhundert ab. Nachmittag gegen zwei Uhr mußten die andern antreten. Zurück blieben nur noch die Blockältesten, Blockschreiber und verschiedene andere Personen, die man im Lager noch notwendig hatte.

Auch an uns verteilte man neue Kleidungsstücke, und in der Kantine konnten wir soviel Zigaretten kaufen, als wir Prämienscheine hatten.

Die Magazine von Auschwitz wurden geleert. Man gab die Sachen lieber uns, als daß man sie den Russen überließ. [...]

In dem Lager, in das wir kommen sollten – man sprach von Groß-Rosen bei Liegnitz – würde man uns bestimmt wieder alles abnehmen. Man gab uns Seife, die wir schon lange nicht mehr gesehen hatten, gute, 72 %ige Kernseife, und wir stopften uns die Taschen damit voll. Streichhölzer wurden ausgeteilt, neue Schuhe, Pullover in den feinsten Qualitäten. All das, was in Deutschland und sonstwo zu den größten Raritäten gehörte, war in den Magazinen von Auschwitz in Hülle und Fülle aufgestapelt.


* * *
Die Blöcke 22 und 23 waren seit einigen Wochen von einem Stacheldrahtzaun umgeben. Man hatte in ihnen Frauen aus Birkenau untergebracht, die man durch den Zaun von uns isolierte. In den dadurch entstandenen geräumigen Höfen wurden wir nun zusammengepfercht. Die Frauen waren schon am Vormittag abtransportiert worden. Abends um sechs Uhr ließ man uns heraus. In langer Reihe, einer hinter dem andern, mußten wir uns aufstellen. Unübersehbar war die Reihe, alle Straßen hatten wir besetzt. Gegen 10.000 Menschen standen da, einer hinter dem andern. Der Sinn dieser Anordnung wurde uns bald klar; es wurde die Marschverpflegung ausgeteilt. Erst marschierten wir durch das Brotmagazin, und dann, nachdem jeder zwei ganze Brote erhalten hatte, kamen wir ans Tor, wo mit Kisten beladene Wagen standen, und empfingen dort eine Kilobüchse mit Fleischkonserven und einen Würfel Margarine. Dann schritten wir durch das Tor und wurden bei dieser Gelegenheit abgezählt. Vor dem Tor stellten wir uns in Marschkolonnen – in Fünferreihen – auf. Der Moment war gekommen, auf den wir so lange gewartet: wir verließen das Tor von Auschwitz, um nie wieder zurückzukehren.
Wir hatten uns diesen Vorgang zwar etwas anders vorgestellt. Glaubten, als freie Männer einst das Tor durchschreiten zu können, aber wir waren auch so ganz zufrieden. [...]

Wir von der Schädlingsbekämpfung blieben also zusammen und marschierten hintereinander zum Tor hinaus. Als wir dann Fünferreihen formierten, stellten wir uns nebeneinander, und so wollten wir bleiben, bis wir am Ziele angelangt waren. In langen Kolonnen standen wir auf den Straßen, die zum Lager führten, und warteten, bis die Letzten ihre Marschverpflegung bekommen hatten.
Es mag acht Uhr abends gewesen sein, als sich die Kolonnen endlich in Marsch setzten. Einen letzten Blick warfen wir noch zurück zum Lager.
Am 18. Januar 1945 verlassen die letzten marschfähigen Häftlinge, zusammen mit ihrer SS-Bewachung, den Auschwitzer Lagerkomplex in Richtung Altreich und Österreich: 31894 Häftlinge aus den KLs Auschwitz und Birkenau und ihren Versorgungslagern und 35118 Häftlinge aus dem Industriekombinat Monowitz mit seinen oberschlesischen Nebenlagern. Zurück bleiben in den Krankenhäusern, Lazarettbaracken und Schonungsblocks nur schwerkranke und marschunfähige Häftlinge mit ein paar Häftlingsärzten.

In der Nacht vom 18. zum 19. Januar 45 bombardieren amerikanische oder russische Kampfflugzeuge die Stadt Auschwitz und teilweise die Lager. Der Strom und die Wasserversorgung fallen aus.

Gefüllte Magazine mit Lebensmitteln, warmer Bekleidung und Decken werden ein Raub der Flammen. Die Versorgung der zurückgelassenen Kranken wird dadurch katastrophal.

Zahlreiche Häftlinge sterben daher noch bis zum Eintreffen der Sowjets und können wegen dem tiefgefrorenen Boden nicht beerdigt werden.
Am 27. Januar 1945 erobern die Sowjets das Gebiet von Auschwitz mit den KL-Krankenlagern. In der sowjetischen Propaganda wird dieser Tag als “Befreiung der Auschwitz-Häftlinge durch die Rote Armee” gefeiert.

(Quelle: Auszüge aus dem Bericht des ehemaligen Auschwitz Häftlings Bernard Klieger “LE CHEMIN QUE NOUS AVONS FAIT…” (1946) und “Der Weg, den wir gingen – Reportage einer höllischen Reise”, 1960, Verlag Codac Juifs, Bruxelles-Ixelles) – 1, B.P. 48. [Anmerkungen in Klammern frei nach H. Langbein, Menschen in Auschwitz])

[trevor]

I do not speak German but Google Translate did a good translation into English. It was very interesting. Thank you.

[bridgebuilder]

Look, this stuff might focus the attention of newbies, but it ought to be a point of departure for the rest of us. It is OBVIOUS that if 60,000 Auschwitz prisoners chose to flee West and 7,000 stayed for the Red Army, whom the inmates most feared and this despite the fact that at this stage of the war it must have been obvious which side was going to win. For me, who believes the Holocaust was a Katyn style setup and fobbing off of Soviet crimes onto Germans, the critical issue is the fate of the nincompoop prisoners who waited for the Red Army. Surely, someone, somewhere, has some information on what happened to them? My bet is that Stalin murdered the lot. Any lack of memoirs could be reasonably interpreted (given what we know of Stalin's policies) as due to a lack of memoirists. It is as with the camps on Novaya Zemlya and Wrangel Island, of which we know next to nothing because the Zeks died to a man. They were the REAL extermination camps! They worked for the nearly million strong surrendered Waffen SS. Again, then, does anyone know the ultimate fate of the Auschwitz 7,000 or has knowledge of any literature concerning them?