Under Two Dictators: Prisoner of Stalin and Hitler: With an Introduction by Nikolaus Wachsmann by Margarete Buber-Neumann & Nikolaus Wachsmann

Author:Margarete Buber-Neumann & Nikolaus Wachsmann [Buber-Neumann, Margarete & Wachsmann, Nikolaus]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biographies & Memoirs, History, Europe, Germany, Modern (16th-21st Centuries), 20th Century, Russia, World, Politics & Social Sciences, Politics & Government, International & World Politics, European, Russian & Former Soviet Union, Specific Topics, Human Rights
ISBN: 9781407018362
Amazon: B00CP5UAMQ
Publisher: Vintage Digital
Published: 2013-07-29T23:00:00+00:00

Among Prostitutes and Criminals

As I have already mentioned, I was on very good terms with the Poles, and in the second week the friendly music teacher came to me with another Pole and declared in the name of all the Polish prisoners that they wanted to propose me as Block Senior. They were sick and tired of the brutal and stupid tyranny of Minna Rupp. I was a Political and a German and I had had camp experience.

I refused in horror. ‘Whatever do you think of me?’ I asked. ‘I couldn’t be a Block Senior. “Quiet. Hold your tongue. Attention! Hands to your sides.” And shouting Achtung! when the SS comes. That wouldn’t suit me at all. I’m only too glad if I’m left in peace, and I certainly don’t want to bully and chivvy others around.’

But they were prepared for my objections. ‘You’d be with us,’ they said, ‘and you wouldn’t have to bully us. We’re all intelligent women, and we’d help you. You certainly wouldn’t have any trouble with us, and you’d do us a favour because we wouldn’t have any trouble with you. This other woman’s impossible.’

I went hot at the thought of being a Block Senior and I used every argument I could think of, particularly that a Block Senior had to make ‘reports’, but they replied patiently to them all, pointing out that it was primarily in their interests; Minna Rupp was driving them mad. Gradually I let myself be convinced and at last I consented. I don’t know what channels the Poles used, but they were supreme in the camp in their ability to use ‘connections’ and obtain ‘positions’.

In any case, shortly after this discussion I was called out to see the Senior SS Overseer. I was taken out by the Hut Senior and lined up with half a dozen other women in the square, and there we waited, standing to attention. Waiting is one of the chief occupations of the concentration camp inmate. After we had waited there for a very long time and were already very tired, the Senior SS Overseer Langefeld came along and subjected us to a detailed inspection, asking one after the other where, when and why they had been arrested, and how long they had been in the camp. And then she picked out a number of us, including me.

‘Take your things and go to Block 2,’ she said to me. ‘You are Hut Senior there.’

I went back to my waiting Poles. They had arranged it all and it was therefore presumably all right, but their faces when I told them that I was now Hut Senior in Block 2 showed me that something must have gone wrong. ‘Great God!’ they ejaculated. ‘Block 2. But that’s the Asocials’ Block! That’s not what we wanted at all.’

However, there was nothing further to be done about it, and so, filled with anxiety, I went off carrying my belongings to Block 2, where I reported to the Block Senior, Liesl Müller.

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