Filip Müller
Encyclopedia
Filip Müller was one of very few Sonderkommando
s to have survived Auschwitz, the largest Nazi German extermination camp.
He witnessed the exterminations and gassings of a million Jews and lived to write one of the key documents of the Holocaust; his 1979 book Eyewitness Auschwitz - Three Years in the Gas Chambers was his first-hand account of the events behind the walls in the Auschwitz camps.
. In April 1942, Filip Müller, who was only twenty years old, came with one of the earliest transports to Auschwitz and was given "Prisoner Number 29236". Assigned to work in the construction of crematoriums and installation of gas chambers
, Müller witnessed "the families, the townships and the cities of Jewish people come", and was ordered to burn the dead bodies in crematories. His extraordinary situation of cremating corpses was the only reason the Nazis kept him alive.
The arrivals of innocent men, women and children who entered Auschwitz each day was something that Müller could not have avoided, and yet he continued to pretend to them that they were somewhere safe as he led them to the gas chambers. After the Jews had removed their clothes in a side room, Filip Müller's role after the mass gassings was to enter the gas chambers with other workers and to search and sort the bodies by size and fat content--to further maximize how many bodies could be burned per hour--then move and load the bodies into the crematorium chamber and to "stoke" the bodies as they burned so they burned efficiently. Their clothes were also collected and disinfected and any valuables found in them were either taken by SS officials or used by prisoners who had "organized" (stolen) them to barter with the SS officials for food, tobacco or other supplies.
Muller describes once eating cheese and cake he found in the gas chamber after a gassing.
After realizing what he was doing to the thousands of Jews
each and every day for nearly three years, Müller admitted in his book that he did try to commit suicide by trying to enter the gas chambers himself. In his book, he recounted a story of how he saw a group of countrymen singing the Hatikvah
and the Czech national anthem
before they entered the gas chamber. He decided to join the group but before he entered the gas chamber, a woman said to him: "So you want to die? But that's senseless. Your death won't give us back our lives. That's no way. You must get out of here alive, you must bear witness to our suffering and to the injustice done to us." Despite the horrific actions that he had no alternative but to participate in, Müller realized that he had to stay alive because he and other workers were the only survivors that had to live and tell the real story behind the Holocaust.
Until January 1945, Müller worked as a prisoner in the Sonderkommando
and was liberated in May 1945.
Muller then testified at the Second Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials
in 1964.
Müller is also one of the primary witnesses in Claude Lanzmann
's Shoah
.
Since 1969, Müller has lived in Western Europe.
Sonderkommando
Sonderkommandos were work units of Nazi death camp prisoners, composed almost entirely of Jews, who were forced, on threat of their own deaths, to aid with the disposal of gas chamber victims during The Holocaust...
s to have survived Auschwitz, the largest Nazi German extermination camp.
He witnessed the exterminations and gassings of a million Jews and lived to write one of the key documents of the Holocaust; his 1979 book Eyewitness Auschwitz - Three Years in the Gas Chambers was his first-hand account of the events behind the walls in the Auschwitz camps.
Auschwitz
He was brought up into a country with increasing Nazi propaganda, where it was not long until tens of thousands of Jews were deported out of Czechoslovakia into the Auschwitz camps in PolandPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. In April 1942, Filip Müller, who was only twenty years old, came with one of the earliest transports to Auschwitz and was given "Prisoner Number 29236". Assigned to work in the construction of crematoriums and installation of gas chambers
Gas Chambers
Gas Chambers is a fast, hollow and shallow point break type of wave. Being that it is a high performance wave it is well suited for the average to pro level surfer. Gas Chambers is located on the North Shore of Oahu about a 1/4 of a mile north of Ehukai Beach Park and 1/2 a mile west of Sunset...
, Müller witnessed "the families, the townships and the cities of Jewish people come", and was ordered to burn the dead bodies in crematories. His extraordinary situation of cremating corpses was the only reason the Nazis kept him alive.
The arrivals of innocent men, women and children who entered Auschwitz each day was something that Müller could not have avoided, and yet he continued to pretend to them that they were somewhere safe as he led them to the gas chambers. After the Jews had removed their clothes in a side room, Filip Müller's role after the mass gassings was to enter the gas chambers with other workers and to search and sort the bodies by size and fat content--to further maximize how many bodies could be burned per hour--then move and load the bodies into the crematorium chamber and to "stoke" the bodies as they burned so they burned efficiently. Their clothes were also collected and disinfected and any valuables found in them were either taken by SS officials or used by prisoners who had "organized" (stolen) them to barter with the SS officials for food, tobacco or other supplies.
Muller describes once eating cheese and cake he found in the gas chamber after a gassing.
After realizing what he was doing to the thousands of Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
each and every day for nearly three years, Müller admitted in his book that he did try to commit suicide by trying to enter the gas chambers himself. In his book, he recounted a story of how he saw a group of countrymen singing the Hatikvah
Hatikvah
"Hatikvah" is the national anthem of Israel. The anthem was written by Naphtali Herz Imber, a secular Galician Jew from Zolochiv , who moved to the Land of Israel in the early 1880s....
and the Czech national anthem
Kde domov muj
Kde domov můj? is a piece of music written by the composer František Škroup and the playwright Josef Kajetán Tyl.The piece was written as a part of the incidental music to the comedy Fidlovačka aneb Žádný hněv a žádná rvačka . It was first performed by Karel Strakatý at the Estates Theatre in...
before they entered the gas chamber. He decided to join the group but before he entered the gas chamber, a woman said to him: "So you want to die? But that's senseless. Your death won't give us back our lives. That's no way. You must get out of here alive, you must bear witness to our suffering and to the injustice done to us." Despite the horrific actions that he had no alternative but to participate in, Müller realized that he had to stay alive because he and other workers were the only survivors that had to live and tell the real story behind the Holocaust.
Until January 1945, Müller worked as a prisoner in the Sonderkommando
Sonderkommando
Sonderkommandos were work units of Nazi death camp prisoners, composed almost entirely of Jews, who were forced, on threat of their own deaths, to aid with the disposal of gas chamber victims during The Holocaust...
and was liberated in May 1945.
After the war
Müller first testified during his recovery in a post liberation hospital. This was published in an obscure Czech collection. it would be this testimony that would be reprinted in the 1966 'The Death Factory.'Muller then testified at the Second Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials
Frankfurt Auschwitz trials
The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials, known in German as der Auschwitz-Prozess or der zweite Auschwitz-Prozess, was a series of trials running from December 20, 1963 to August 10, 1965, charging 22 defendants under German penal law for their roles in the Holocaust as mid- to lower-level officials in the...
in 1964.
Müller is also one of the primary witnesses in Claude Lanzmann
Claude Lanzmann
Claude Lanzmann is a French filmmaker and professor at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.-Biography:Lanzmann attended the Lycée Blaise-Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand. He joined the French resistance at the age of 18 and fought in Auvergne...
's Shoah
Shoah (film)
This page is about the film by the name of Shoah. For other uses, see Shoah Shoah is a 1985 French documentary film directed by Claude Lanzmann about the Holocaust...
.
Since 1969, Müller has lived in Western Europe.