Telephonist duties at Auschwitz

[Hieldner]

At the Belsen military tribunal, Helena Koper, a Polish block elder at Auschwitz and also defendant at the trial, accused Irma Grese, a guard 22 years of age, sentenced to death at this sham trial, of having been in charge of a punishment brigade either from 1942 to 1944 or for seven months or for six months starting in 1942 (she contradicted herself, as on many other occasions, but that was never cleared up) and killing 30 prisoners a day at Auschwitz (see also this thread viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14902). Grese stated on the contrary, that she was in Auschwitz from March 1943 and worked as a telephonist at first, during the time when she was allegedly shooting prisoners. Koper instead claimed, that only males were allowed to work at the telephone office. Grese identified multiple female Auschwitz telephonists in her deposition, about whom little is known, however. I don’t doubt that Koper lied, as she did repeatedly during the trial without being tried for perjury, but it would be interesting to definitively prove another perjurious statement by simply having some staff list or another document proving Koper’s claim about exclusively male telephonists wrong.

In short: were there female telephonists at Auschwitz?

The following is the relevant trial material I could find:

She [Irma Grese] was Blockführerin in Auschwitz and subsequently in charge of the punishment company in Auschwitz from 1942 to 1944. She was in charge of the punishment company when working outside the camp for six months in 1943. The remainder of the time she did not go outside. I was also in the punishment company and during the time that Grese was in charge when working outside we were employed outside the camp in a sandpit. There were 700-800 women working in this company some of whom were detailed to dig sand and fill iron trucks with the sand and others had to push these trucks along a narrow gauge railway.
[…]
She [Irma Grese] was responsible for at least 30 deaths a day resulting from her orders to cross the wire but many more on occasions. It was always my job, ordered by Grese, to count the dead and I, together with some other women, used to load the bodies into one of the railway wagons after working hours. The bodies were subsequently removed by ambulance. I know two of the women who helped me on these occasions. Their names are Canina Stasicka and Karola Mikot. I saw them last on 6th June 1945 in Belsen Camp. Both are Polish Aryans. Their Auschwitz numbers tattooed on their arms are 18565 [18565 belonged in KL Auschwitz to Wanda Kalisz, who was liberated in Auschwitz in 1945] and 18566 [18566 belonged in Auschwitz to Kubasiak, Zofia born 03 June 1900 in Zalas] I do not know which of them had which number.

Deposition of Helena Koper, The Trial Of Josef Kramer and Fourty Four Others - Seventeenth Day Friday, 5th October, 1945, http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/TrialTranscript/Trial_Day_017.html#Day017_Kopper2

Then you say Grese was in charge of a punishment company from Auschwitz from 1942 to 1944. Do you still say that that is not true? - She was for seven months the leader of the Kommando S. K, that is Strafkommando, punishment kommando.

Now seven months is not the same thing as two years. Do you still say that Grese was in charge of the punishment company at Auschwitz from 1942 to 1944? - Yes, I do.

What is the difference between the punishment company and the Kommando S.K.?

THE INTERPRETER: That is the same thing. When I translate it it will be the same thing.

MAJOR CRANFIELD: Just ask her the question.

COLONEL BACKHOUSE: Well, it is the same words for both.

MAJOR CRANFIELD: Is it the same word that she has used?

THE INTERPRETER: Yes.

MAJOR CRANFIELD: (To the witness) I suggest to you that Grese did not come to Ravensbrück until the summer of 1942, and did not come to Auschwitz until March, 1943? - And I still maintain that I remember Grese in Ravensbrück from 1940, when she was walking with her riding-whip and carrying out parades in front of Block No. 10. [Koper had just previously answered she knew Grese in Ravensbrück from 1941]

I suggest to you that at the time you say she was a Blockführerin in Camp A and Camp B, she was in fact on telephone duty in the Blockführerstube? - In Auschwitz no female personnel were employed on telephone duties, only male personnel. For instance Kasainitzky, Weingartner, Rhatus and Herschel.

Helena Koper examined by Major Cranfield (defense), The Trial Of Josef Kramer and Fourty Four Others - Forty First Day, Friday, 2nd November, 1945, http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/TrialTranscript/Trial_Day_041.html#Day040_Kopper

… I stayed [it Ravensbrück] until March, 1943, when I went to Birkenau Camp in Auschwitz. I remained in Auschwitz until January, 1945.

Will you tell the Court the various duties you did during the period you were at Auschwitz? - At first I did telephone duties in the Blockführer's room. For two days I was transferred as a sort of light punishment to be in charge of the Strafkommando which carried stones from outside into the camp. During 1943 I had the Strassenbaukommando, and I also had the gardening working party for about two months in the autumn. In December, 1943, I was in the parcels office censoring mail in place of Volkenrath, and from May until December, 1944, I was in Compound "C."

Irma Grese examined by Major Cranfield (defense), The Trial Of Josef Kramer and Fourty Four Others - Twenty-sixth Day, Tuesday, 16th October, 1945, http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/trial/trial/trialdefencecase/trial_036_grese.html

At Auschwitz when you were a telephone operator did you have to take your turn in looking after the prisoners before they went out in the morning and when they came back in the evening ?-Yes.

Were you not in charge of a Strafkommando out of the camp for a great deal longer than you have told us? - No.

You know Koper quite well. Was she not at Auschwitz whilst you were there for a long time, and with you all the time you were at Belsen? - Yes.

She would hardly mistake you for somebody else, would she? - I do not know.

Were you not in charge of a Strafkommando employed on working at a sand-pit? - I explained already that I was in charge for two days of a Strafkommando which was working in bringing in stones from outside the camp, and that was a punishment for myself.

[…]

It would be very unusual to have a selection without an Aufseherin, would it not ? - No, on the contrary.

Who would do all these duties on the selections if there were no Aufseherinnen present? - As I was not interested in it I do not know.

Then why do you say it would be unusual for an Aufseherin to be present if you were not interested? - Because all the Aufseherinnen had their jobs with outside Kommandos or in the administration office.

Is that not just why you had to be brought in on occasions? - No.

You would be the handiest person, of course, when you were in the Blockführerin's room? - I had my duties; I was not allowed to leave the telephone.

I suggest to you that on selection in Block 9, Camp "A," two girls jumped out of the window and that you went up to them and shot them whilst they lay on the ground? - No.

Irma Grese cross-examined by Colonel Backhouse (prosecution), The Trial Of Josef Kramer and Fourty Four Others - Twenty-seventh Day, Wednesday, 17th October, 1945, http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/trial/Trial/TrialDefenceCase/Trial_036_Grese.html#027

On photograph 22 No. 6 [Elisabeth Volkenrath] was in charge of all SS women guards,. No. 5 [Herta Ehlert] was No. 6’s second in command, No. 3 [Rosina/Rosira Scheiber] was a telephonist, No. 1 [Charlotte Klein] was in charge of the bread store.

On photograph 19 No. 6 [Ida Förster] was in the kitchen for a little while, No. 5 [Gertrud(e) Sauer] and No. 4 [Gertrude Feist/Fiest] were Aufseherinnen, No. 3 [Johanna Bormann] looked after the pigs, No. 2 [Ruth Astrosini] was a telephonist. […]

On photograph 35 No. 1 [Marta Löbelt] was a telephonist, No. 2 [Gertrud(e) Reinhold/Rheinholt] was sick while I was there, No. 3 [Irene Haschke] worked in the kitchen.

Deposition of Irma Grese, The Trial Of Josef Kramer and Fourty Four Others - Seventeenth Day Friday, 5th October, 1945, http://www.bergenbelsen.co.uk/pages/trialtranscript/Trial_Day_017.html#Day017_Grese2.

[Hieldner]

Nevermind, I just found it out. Koper clearly lied in this case as well. There may have been a time before 1943 when only males worked as telephone operators, but this changed. From August 1943 women who were SS Helferinnen (auxiliaries) and who were especially trained for this task began working as telephone operators in Auschwitz. Grese was the youngest SS Aufseherin at Auschwitz who looked after prisoners before and after her work in the telephone office was finished. It could be that those female guards worked at the telephone office even earlier.

From the Standort- Und Kommandanturbefehle des KL Auschwitz 1939 - 1945, https://archive.org/details/Kommandanturbefehle194045OhneIfZBemerkungen530S:

Field Order No. 31/43 Auschwitz, August 6, 1943

[…]

4. SS Message Maids

For the telephone and teletype service, 4 SS message maids were provisionally assigned to the Kommandantur by the SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt, namely:

for the telephone service:

SS message maid Anneliese Rüber,
SS message maid Luzia Arndt,
for the telex service:

SS message maid Lotte Gramattke,
SS message maid Hildegard Ohmes.

I expect all SS members to show due respect to the SS message maids.

Standortbefehl Nr. 31/43 Auschwitz, 6. August 1943

4. SS-Nachrichtenmaiden

Für das Fernsprech- und Fernschreibwesen wurden der Kommandantur vom SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt vorläufig 4 SS-Nachrichtenmaiden zugeteilt und zwar:

für den Fernsprechdienst:

die SS-Nachrichtenmaid Anneliese Rüber,
die SS-Nachrichtenmaid Luzia Arndt,
für den Fernschreibdienst:

die SS-Nachrichtenmaid Lotte Gramattke,
die SS-Nachrichtenmaid Hildegard Ohmes.

Ich erwarte von allen SS-Angehörigen, daß den SS-Nachrichtenmaiden gebührende Achtung entgegengebracht wird.

The first SS-Helferinnen, two phone operators and two telegraph operators, arrived in Auschwitz on August 6, 1943. They were joined on November 24, 1943 by three phone operators and two telegraph operators. More phone operators arrived throughout 1944; they had a high turnover rate, remaining in Auschwitz for less than five months on average. The first female radio operator arrived in March 1944. Sarah Cushman estimates that no more than 50 SS-Helferinnen were used in concentration camps. However, Jutta Mühlenberg believes this figure was 190 women. Given that at any one time, up to 20 of these women worked as communication auxiliaries at Birkenau, and 27 women spent time working at Auschwitz between 1943 and 1945, and women worked in other concentration camps, Mühlenberg is likely to be closer to the mark.

Rachel Century, Dictating the Holocaust:
Female administrators of the Third Reich, PhD thesis, Royal Holloway University of London (2012), https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/16138925/2013CenturyRphd.pdf.

Women also served in Auschwitz as radio operators in the camp communications office. They were referred to as “SS auxiliaries” (SS-Helferinnen). This was a relatively small group.

https://www.auschwitz.org/en/history/the-ss-garrison/

[Wilbur]

There's a chapter contribution by Aleksander Lasik called "The Auschwitz SS Garrison" (pp. 281-337) in: Auschwitz, 1940-1945: Central Issues in the History of the Camp, Vol. 1 (2000). Its first part deals with "Women in the SS." Says staff expansion in 1942 prompted the assignment of women, principally SS-Aufserherinnen (supervisors) associated with Abt. III and IIIa, SS-Nachrichtenmaiden (comms tehnicians) associated with Abt. I and Schwestern des Deutsches Rotes Kreuzes employed in medical units in camp or environs. Supervisors first appeared in March 1942.

Per text, Irma Grese became SS-Aufserherin at FKL Ravensbruck and was transferred to Birkenau in March 1943. The biography that follows is sparse and based mostly on the trial or other testimonies: "At first, she supervised a detail of women prisoners laboring at building roads or working in the gardens at Rajsko. Next, she served as the director of various blocks in Sectors BIa, BIb, BIIb and BIIc. In December, 1944. she was named SS Rapportführerin, and held this post until the evacuation of the camp." (p.286)

Radio operators are briefly discussed on p. 291. Appeared mid 1942, designated SS-Hilferinnen (auxiliaries), distinct hierarchy, answering to male rather than mixed male/female bosses: "These women were employed in conditions similar to those for the female SS supervisors. They were subject to SS legal jurisdiction and obtained monthly salaries. The only difference was that these auxiliaries had no direct contact with the prisoners. They were employed by the camp commandant’s office. There were no official connections between the female SS radio-telegraph operators and the supervisors."

A possibly incomplete list is given: Ruth Astrosini, Luise Arndt, Gisela Drews, Lotte Grammatke, Rosemarie Katzmann, Aniana Lässig, Annelise Rüber, Hermine Schachtner, Charlotte Schunzel and Therese Stieff.

[Hektor]

While we are at it. Can we also talk about camp inmates with administrative jobs in Auschwitz.
I recall one Jewess that was even interpreter for the "Politische Abteilung" in Auschwitz T(hat is the Lager Gestapo).

Very strange to give people with an ethnicity you want to 'exterminate' such positions of trust.
There are lots of hints on this in the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial recordings.

[Waldgänger]

While we are at it. Can we also talk about camp inmates with administrative jobs in Auschwitz.
I recall one Jewess that was even interpreter for the "Politische Abteilung" in Auschwitz T(hat is the Lager Gestapo).

Very strange to give people with an ethnicity you want to 'exterminate' such positions of trust.
There are lots of hints on this in the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial recordings.

Never heard of this, but it makes sense. They utilised all inmates depending on their talents or potential. Because they were actually efficient at bureaucracy and delegation, unlike their fake villain alter-egos from the twilight zone who made farmhouses into gas chambers.

Reminds me of Mattogno's demonstration of the Einsatzgruppen containing cultural attachés, researchers, secretaries, phone operators, and many others that had nothing to do with "mass murder".

[curioussoul]

While we are at it. Can we also talk about camp inmates with administrative jobs in Auschwitz.
I recall one Jewess that was even interpreter for the "Politische Abteilung" in Auschwitz T(hat is the Lager Gestapo).

Very strange to give people with an ethnicity you want to 'exterminate' such positions of trust.
There are lots of hints on this in the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial recordings.

Yes, it's a problem. But it is typically brushed aside with some lame excuse about "privileged" Jews not being exterminated.

To my knowledge, however, almost all of the administrative tasks given to prisoners went to Poles and Germans. This was the reason that the Polish underground movement knew everything that went on in the camp and smuggled out reams of documents under the noses of the Germans - yet were never able to describe a plausible extermination machinery until the Wetzler-Vrba report. But there are numerous examples of Jews in key positions of "power" within the Auschwitz administration, which makes little to no sense from an exterminationist point of view.

[Hektor]

.....
Never heard of this, but it makes sense. They utilised all inmates depending on their talents or potential. Because they were actually efficient at bureaucracy and delegation, unlike their fake villain alter-egos from the twilight zone who made farmhouses into gas chambers.

Reminds me of Mattogno's demonstration of the Einsatzgruppen containing cultural attachés, researchers, secretaries, phone operators, and many others that had nothing to do with "mass murder".

Her name was Raya Kagan, she was fluent in German, but also in Russian. She was also a witness at the Eichmann Trial.

On a side note. From what I heard, soc. "Holocaust Survivors" were treated very badly in Israel during the early period of Israel. They were essentially seen as 'helping Nazis (Amalek) to destroy the Jews'. So she may have embellished her testimony to get recognition from fellow Jews.
Here's her Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial narrative:




Obviously there is a lot of hear-say and camp rumor mixed into it. Bear in mind that testimony was given ~20 years later.

[Wilbur]

I forgot to mention in my post above: many of the women featured in the Karl Höcker album are precisely those telephonists.



https://collections.ushmm.org/search/?u ... all_fields

[Hektor]

I forgot to mention in my post above: many of the women featured in the Karl Höcker album are precisely those telephonists.



https://collections.ushmm.org/search/?u ... all_fields

But those photos are only proof of 'how ice-cold and indifferent the Nazis' were, being happy on a recreational trip, "while millions were gassed in Birkenau at the same time".

I think that was the media spin in response to that album at the time.

Female Telephonists in Auschwitz are completely plausible. Men were required for other tasks at the time.

And as shown, the SS had even female inmates working for the camp Gestapo. Which actually demonstrates the narrative to be a charade. But I guess they didn't think of during the Auschwitz Trial. In fact I think Raya Kagan may have been pressed towards her testimony, simply because she was 'working for Amalek'. At that stage, this could mean being a social outcast in Israel. If she wanted to be 'in good standing' as a Jew again, she had to cooperate.