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M.
Dubost: What do you know about the Jewish transport that
arrived from Romainville about the same time as you?
Vaillant-Couturier:
When we left Romainville the Jewish women who were together
with us remained behind. They were sent to Drancy, and finally
arrived in Auschwitz, where we saw them again three weeks
later. Of 1,200 who left, only 125 arrived in the camp. The
rest were taken to the gas chambers immediately, and of the
125 not a single one was left by the end of a month.
The
transports were carried out as follows: at the beginning, when
we arrived, when a Jewish transport came there was a
"selection." First the old women, the mothers and
the children. They were told to get on trucks, together with
the sick and people who looked weak. They kept only young
girls, young women and young men; the latter were sent to the
men's camp.
In
general, it was rare for more than 250 out of a transport of
1,000 to 1,500 to reach the camp, and that was the maximum;
the others were sent to the gas chambers straight away.
At
this "selection" healthy women between 20 and 30
years old were also chosen, and sent to the Experimental
Block. Girls and women, who were a little older or not chosen
for this purpose, were sent to the camp and, like us, had
their heads shaved and they were tattooed.
In
the spring of 1944 there was also a block for twins. That was
at the time of the immense transport of Hungarian Jews, about
700,000** persons. Dr. Mengele, who was carrying out the
experiments, kept back the twin children from all transports,
as well as twins of any age, so long as both twins were there.
Both children and adults slept on the floor in this block. I
don't know what experiments were made apart from blood tests
and measurements.
M.
Dubost: Did you actually see the "selection" when
transports arrived?
Vaillant-Couturier:
Yes, because when we were working in the Sewing Block in 1944,
the block in which we lived was situated just opposite the
place where the trains arrived. The whole process had been
improved: Instead of carrying out the "selection"
where the trains arrived, a siding took the carriages
practically to the gas chamber, and the train stopped about
100 m. from the gas chamber. That was right in front of our
block, but of course there were two rows of barbed wire
between. Then we saw how the seals were taken off the trucks
and how women, men and children were pulled out of the trucks
by soldiers. We were present at the most terrible scenes when
old couples were separated. Mothers had to leave their
daughters, because they were taken to the camp, while the
mothers and children went to the gas chambers. All these
people knew nothing of the fate that awaited them. They were
only confused because they were being separated from each
other, but they did not know that they were going to their
death.
To
make the reception more pleasant, there was then - in
June and July 1944, that is - an orchestra made up of
prisoners, girls in white blouses and dark blue skirts, all of
them pretty and young, who played gay tunes when the trains
arrived, the "Merry Widow," the Barcarolle from the
"Tales of Hoffmann," etc. They were told it was a
labor camp, and as they never entered the camp they saw
nothing but the small platform decorated with greenery, where
the orchestra played. They could not know what awaited them.
Those
who were taken to the gas chambers - that is, the old
people, children and others - were taken to a red brick
building.
M.
Dubost: Then they were not registered?
Vaillant-Couturier:
No.
Dubost:
They were not tattooed?
Vaillant-Couturier:
No, they were not even counted.
Dubost:
Were you yourself tattooed?
Vaillant-Couturier:
Yes.
(The
witness shows her arm)
They
were taken to a red brick building with a sign that said
"Baths." There they were told to get undressed and
given a towel before they were taken to the so-called shower
room. Later, at the time of the large transports from Hungary,
there was no time left for any degree of concealment. They
were undressed brutally. I know of these particulars because I
was acquainted with a little Jewess from France, who had lived
on the Place de la Republique....
Dubost:
In Paris?
Vaillant-Couturier:
In Paris; she was known as "little Marie" and was
the only survivor of a family of nine. Her mother and her
seven sisters and brothers had been taken to the gas chambers
as soon as they arrived. When I got to know her she worked on
undressing the small children before they were taken into the
gas chamber.
After
the people were undressed they were taken into a room that
looked like a shower room, and the capsules were thrown down
into the room through a hole in the ceiling. An SS man
observed the effect through a spy hole. After about 5 to 7
minutes, when the gas had done its job, he gave a signal for
the opening of the doors. Men with gas-masks, these were
prisoners too, came in and took the bodies out. They told us
that the prisoners must have suffered before they died,
because they clung together in bunches like grapes so that it
was difficult to separate them....
Trial
of the Major War Criminals before the International Military
Tribunal, Nuremberg, 14 November 1945-1 October 1946, VI,
Nuremberg, 1947, pp. 214-216.
*
From the evidence of a Frenchwoman, Marie-Claude
Vaillant-Couturier, who was a prisoner in the Auschwitz
concentration camp, where she arrived on January 1, 1943.
**
The correct number of Hungarian Jews sent to Auschwitz was
about 430,000. |
