Amidst a Nightmare of Crime: Manuscripts of the Sonderkommando, Editors: Bezwinska, Jadwiga and Czech, Danuta
Publisher: H. Fertig, New York, 1992 (originally published by Oswiecim State Museum, 1973.)

Book Overview by Rachel Young

The book Amidst a Nightmare of Crime: Manuscripts of the Sonderkommando, is a chilling glimpse of the extermination process at Auschwitz-Birkenau, as seen through the eyes of four prisoners who were members of the Sonderkommando worksquad. Although the killing operation at the camp was kept shrouded in secrecy by the Nazi commanders, the Sonderkommando were an exception. This select group of male prisoners were chosen to work in the crematoriums - the hub of the massive genocide activity at the death camp. Their principal duty was to remove bodies from the gas chambers and load them into the ovens or onto pyres for burning. Because these men were firsthand witnesses to thousands of deaths, they were kept isolated from the rest of the camp and were routinely "liquidated" for the knowledge they held. However, some of the men (the number is unknown) wrote notes and diaries in secret and buried them on the grounds of the death camp. It seems that most were never found, or possibly just never made it into the hands of the publishing museum, but several were, and those were published together in 1973 in this remarkable collection. (According to the editors, an additional manuscript written by a member of the Sonderkommando was brought to the attention of the publishing museum in 1970, after the book had gone to press. This manuscript was to be published separately after being translated.)

The four manuscripts contained in this book were found in the years following the end of World War II, rolled in canteens and glass jars and buried on the grounds of Birkenau (the sister-camp of Auschwitz) near crematoriums II and III. Although none of the authors survived - Salmen Lewental, Salmen Gradowski, Chaim Herman and the "unknown author" - their written words permanently document their eyewitness accounts of the crimes committed by the Nazis. All were written in Yiddish except one letter written in French. All were well-preserved except the manuscript of Salmen Lewental, discovered in1962 in considerable decay.

Because of the fragmentary character of some of the notes contained in this book, the editors include an introduction detailing the course of the extermination process at Auschwitz-Birkenau and the role of the Sonderkommando in that process. They also include extensive footnotes throughout the manuscripts that aid in clarifying the people, places, or events to which the prisoners refer.

Deposition of Stanislaw Janowski

In addition to the manuscripts, the deposition of a former Auschwitz prisoner Stanislaw Janowski was also included, providing valuable information about the history of the Sonderkommando. Janowski, one of the few members of the Sonderkommando to survive the war, escaped in January, 1945. His deposition was given immediately after the war to the Commission for Investigating German-Nazi Crimes at Auschwitz. In his testimony, he tells of his time at Auschwitz, from his arrival in March, 1942 to his escape in January, 1945. Much of his testimony focuses on his experiences working in the Sonderkommando, including a graphic description of the crematorium ovens and gas chambers:

"The crematorium at Auschwitz - a one-storied building some 50 metres long, 12-15 metres wide), in which there were five smaller rooms and one big hall, dark, 30 by 5 metres. This big hall had no windows, only two vents in the ceiling, electric light and one door leading from the corridor, the other door leading to the ovens. This hall was called Leichenhalle (hall of corpses). It served as mortuary and at the same time for so-called "shambles," that is, for shooting prisoners. Directly adjoining was another hall where the cremating ovens for burning corpses were....The corpses lay on grates under which coke was burning. The crematorium, moreover, possessed a coke store where coke was kept, then a special room for the ashes from the corpses and still another room which was a clothes store. A wall, several metres high, surrounded the small yard around the crematorium which was thus separated from the rest of the camp. The yard was full of flowers and looked like a garden..." (p.40-42)

The first manuscript discovered was that of Salmen Gradowski. Gradowski wrote a letter that he dedicated to his wife and daughters who were selected for death at the entrance of Auschwitz. He begins his letter by describing his stay at the transit camp Kielbasin, which is left out of this book as it was the editors' intent to focus primarily on the experiences of the Sonderkommando. However, the majority of the manuscript describes his journey by train to Auschwitz and his time at Auschwitz up until the moment of his selection for the Sonderkommando. At this point, his notes break off - it is the editors' belief that later events are the subject of other notes which have never been discovered.

Most of Gradowski's manuscript describes the journey to the death camp, his emotions, fears, hunger, and fatigue. Because he wrote the letter from from the camp, his description of the train is written from the perspective of one who knows what awaits him at the end of the journey. In his letter he remembers the thoughts that went through his mind as he traveled:

"The train starts again and continues its eternal, monotonous journey. We are approaching the next station. Inquisitive people are standing and looking at our train. And again something has made our depression deeper. We see two women standing between two trees and as they look at us they wipe tears from their eyes with handkerchiefs. We do not see anybody beside them. We cannot grasp why they should cry. Why our arrival [...] Perhaps these tears were evoked by their personal experiences and perhaps they signify their commiseration with those at whom they are now looking. Why does the sight of us cause these women to weep?"

Gradowski refers to numerous notes written and buried by he and other members of his work squad. "Dear finder, search everywhere, in every inch of soil. Tens of documents are buried under it, mine and those of other persons, which will throw light on everything that was happening here." (p.76).

Manuscript of the Unknown Author

The second manuscript uncovered from the earth was signed only with the initials J.A.R.A. Attempts to determine what J.A.R.A. stand for proved unsuccessful, hence, the editors refer to him as the "unknown author." It was at the request of this man that the editors named this book - he asked that whoever find his notes collect them and publish them under the title "Amidst a Nightmare of Crime."

The focus of the writings of the unknown author are the groups of prisoners who are brought to the gas chambers to die. He often writes about the strength of these people, describing many who stood out to him for their strength of character in the face of death. For example, he writes about the "rabbi of advanced years" from the ghettos Bedzin and Sosnowiec, (p.113) the young Polish woman, dying for being a member of a secret organization, who made a short but fiery speech in the gas chamber, (p.114) the Polish Jews who knelt on the ground of the gas chamber to say prayer, then rose together to sing the Hatikva (the Jewish National Anthem) (p115), and the transport of children taken from their homes in Lithuania (p118).

The unknown author also writes about his last days at Auschwitz, immediately before the end of the war. He writes about the destruction of the crematoria, an action taken by the Nazis to obliterate traces of SS crimes. In the author's words:

"On October 14, 1944 the demolition of the walls of crematorium IV was begun. The work is done by members of Sonderkommando.
On October 20, two small taxis and one prison car brought the documents of prisoners, such as files, death certificates, indictments, etc., to be burnt.
Today, November 25, the demolition of crematorium II was begun, the next to be demolished will be crematorium III. It is interesting that first of all the ventilating motor and pipes were dismantled and sent to camps - some to Mauthausen, others to Gross-Rosen. Since they serve to gas people on a larger scale,as there were no mechanical appliances of that kind at all in crematoria IV and V, suspicion is aroused that on the terrain of those camps identical points for the extermination of Jews will be established." (p.120)

The manuscript of Salmen Lewental

Lewental's manuscript was discovered near the ruins of Crematorium III almost twenty years after it was buried. Although his writings covered sixty-five pages of a notebook, forty percent of it was illegible due to the damp conditions in which it had lain for twenty years. In parts, only single words here and there are deciphered. Although it is sometimes difficult to understand what Lewental refers to, one is able to get a sense of his experiences. Throughout his writings he reflects on the tragedy and inhumanity of what is occurring, particularly in reference to the position of the Sonderkommando. In the following section, he questions the actions of the Sonderkommando:

"Why do you do such ignoble work, what do you live for, what is your aim in life, what do you desire [...]. And here is the crux [...] of our Kommando, which I have no intention to defend as a whole. I must speak the truth here, that some of that group have in the course of time so entirely lost themselves that we ourselves were simply ashamed. They simply forget what they were doing [...] and with time [...] they got so used to it that it was even strange [that one wanted] to weep and to complain; that [...] such normal, average [...] simple and unassuming men [...] of necessity get used to everything so that these happenings make no more any impression on them. Day after day they stand and look on how tens of thousands of people are perishing and [do] nothing." (p.139)

"Man...makes himself believe he does not care for his own life or for his own person but for the public welfare only. He would like to survive for the one or other reason and for the sake of this or that and he finds hundreds of quibbles. But the truth is that one wants to live at any cost, one wants to live because the whole world lives." (p.139)

Manuscript of Chaim Herman

The final manuscript is a letter written in French by a man named Chaim Herman to his wife and daughter. In his description of his experiences at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Herman wonders with amazement at the fact that he is still alive. Although the letter expresses Herman's resignation with his inevitable death, it also conveys a sense of hope that he might survive:

"Ever since I have been here I have never believed in the possibility of returning, I knew, just like all of us, that all connection with the other world was broken, this is an entirely different world, this one here, if you like, it simply is hell, but Dante's hell is incomparably ridiculous in comparison with this real one here and we are its eyewitnesses and we cannot leave it alive, but in spite of everything I keep up from time to time a tiny spark of hope that perhaps by some miracle I, who have had so many chances, one of the oldest here, who have surmounted so many obstacles, being left one of the two out of a whole hundred, perhaps this final miracle will come to pass, perhaps I shall come before this buried letter is found." (p. 185)

Amidst A Nightmare of Crime: Commentary

The importance of this work is not simply in its value as a historical resource on the Holocaust. The book is unique for the testimony it provides from men who were in the midst of experiencing tragedy on a daily basis. Through their writings, as well as the analyses postulated by the editors, readers may come to a better understanding of the influence of war and trauma on human psyche and behavior. The men who wrote these manuscripts died over fifty-five years ago. The situation in which they were forced to exist for the last years of their lives was one of suffering, sadness, and shame. But despite this, and the ultimate desensitization they experienced, they managed to document occurrences that only they and the Nazis were witness to. Finally, this book is about the experiences of individuals. While the Holocaust was about dehumanizing people, these writings are very personal, and give the reader the sense of knowing the human beings that wrote them.