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Tuesday, July 21, 2015

The Interrogation of the Auschwitz Garrisson Doctor Eduard Wirths by the British

Author: Hans Metzner

On 15 September 1945, the former Auschwitz Garrison doctor Eduard Wirths - previously arrested and questioned on 20 July 1945 by the German criminal police in Hamburg - was interrogated by the British. Here I reproduce extracts from the interrogation transcript, which was first published in 2001 by Ulrich Völklein, Der Judenacker - eine Erbschaft. According to Völklein, the document was called to his attention in 1985 and supplied to him by the British interrogator named Ian McBallister (see Christian Dirks in: Kramer, NS-Täter aus interdisziplinärer Perspektive, p. 150). Dirks notes that a comparison of content and style with Wirths' apology written earlier the year suggests that the document is authentic. Wirthsattempted to hang himself few days later (likely triggered by the prospect of getting turned over to the Poles or Czechs revealed by the interrogator at the end) and died on 20 September 1945.

When have youperceivedthatAuschwitz was no labour, but an extermination camp?

Auschwitzwasvery much alabour camp. There wasin the camp itselfandin its complex thousands, eventens of thousandsof jobs. There were coal mines,chemicalfactories, factories for the productionof electrical devices, agriculturalworks, nurseries...

These existed indeed. It was about separating the able bodiedfrom those unfit for work. Andso thatthere were noblunders and that the number of those able to work was as largeas possible, I have repeatedlyordered andalsoinsisted thattheseselections arecarried out bymedical staff.

So doctors determined the way to death?

They determined in particular the way into life, so to employment in labour. Only