Allies in Auschwitz: The untold story of British POWs held captive in the Nazis' most infamous death camp by Duncan Little

Author:Duncan Little [Little, Duncan]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Education
ISBN: 9781905570409
Publisher: Booksource
Published: 2012-07-09T00:00:00+00:00

4

The Long Walk to Freedom and Recovery

By the start of 1945, it was clear that the Germans had a matter of weeks before their ‘1000-year Reich’ was to come to an end. Their horrendous crimes would result in the Nuremburg tribunals where Nazi war criminals would face justice.

Walter Duerrfeld is a little known wartime figure. He was a senior official at IG Farben and his use of slave labour led to his trial in 1947. He stood accused of crimes against humanity alongside other members of the same company. Former British POWs testified against them. At the end of the hearing, Duerrfeld was sentenced to eight years in prison.

He kept a diary documenting the end of the war. These notes were entered as evidence at his trial and the ten-page document provides an in-depth insight into Nazi thinking during the Soviet advance. He noted that, by the summer of 1944, preparations were already being made ‘for a possible evacuation order’.1 By the start of 1945, the Nazis had detailed plans on how to destroy the factory and quickly move their staff to safety.

In the middle of January 1945, Duerrfeld noted how the ‘atmosphere in the plant became more serious’. By then, the Soviets were a mere 40 kilometres away and ‘Russian reconnaissance planes were constantly in the air above the plant’.

Despite the ‘alarming news’ from the front, the Nazis continued to try to carry out repair work on bomb damage sustained in the IG Farben factory. On Tuesday 16 January 1945, Duerrfeld wrote about the first aerial attack at night and says the experience was ‘very unpleasant’. During the Wednesday morning, IG Farben’s managers ordered their staff to prepare their families for a rapid departure. Duerrfeld recalled that it was a bitterly cold night when the ‘evacuation trains’ finally left Auschwitz.2

‘Haversack rations’ were supplied for the families to help ease the discomfort of the long journey ahead of them. By then, many of the civilian employees were refusing to work and looting was becoming a major concern. The police were called to try to protect tools and the factory. The Nazis showed greater concern for their equipment than they did for the Jews.

Slave labourers were increasingly being kept in their camps during the mornings. The lack of a workforce, however, cost the Nazis money and so they tended to force these people into work during the latter part of the day.

There was little ‘food’ for the workers in IG Farben as the cooks were no longer being employed and the camp was besieged by the Russians. There were also growing fears that the water supply would stop. Despite this lack of basic facilities, the Nazis were determined to keep the British soldiers working for as long as possible.3

The SS became more and more agitated as the situation continued to deteriorate. They were expecting their own marching orders and were, therefore, increasingly reluctant to release the Jews from their huts to go to work.

With the Soviets closing in on the camp, it was decided that the Jews would be forced to walk back to Germany.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.