Archive/File: camps/auschwitz auschwitz.013
Last-Modified: 1994/01/12

Subject: Testimony of SS private Boeck

[Extracted from "Der Auschwitz Prozess", by Hermann Langbein,
Vol. I, quoted in "Auschwitz: Technique and operation of the gas 
chambers - J.C Pressac, the Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, NY, 1989,
p. 181].

"Q: were you present at a gassing operation one day?

A: Yes, it was one evening. I accompanied the driver Hoeblinger. A
   transport had arrived from Holland and the prisoners had to
   jump from the wagons. They were well-off Jews. There were
   women with Persian furs. They arrived by express train. The
   trucks were already there, with wooden steps before them, and
   the people climbed aboard. Then they all started off. In the
   place Birkenau once stood, there was only a long farmhouse
   (Bunker 2) and beside it four or five big huts. Inside, the
   people were standing on clothes which were building up on
   the floor. The block leader and the sergeant, carrying a cane,
   were there. Hoeblinger said to me 'lets go over there now'. There
   was a sign 'to disinfection'. He said 'you see, they are bringing
   children now'. They opened the door, threw the children in
   and closed the door. There was a terrible cry. A member of the
   SS climbed on the roof. The people went on crying for about
   ten minutes. Then the prisoners opened the doors. Everything
   was in disorder and contorted. Heat was given off. the bodies
   were loaded on a rough wagon and taken to a ditch. The next 
   batch were already undressing in the huts. After that I didn't
   look at my wife for four weeks." (Langbein, "Der Auschwitz
   Prozess," as quoted in Pressac, p. 181) 

                            Work Cited

Pressac, J.C. Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers,
New York: Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, NY, 1989.

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