Sonderkommando
Encyclopedia
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
. The death-camp Sonderkommando, who were always inmates, should not be confused with the SS-Sonderkommandos which were ad hoc
units formed from various SS offices between 1938 through 1945.
The term itself in German means "special unit", and was part of the vague and euphemistic
language which the Nazis used to refer to aspects of the Final Solution
(cf. Einsatzgruppen
).
Sonderkommando members did not participate directly in killing; that responsibility was reserved for the guards, while the Sonderkommandos' primary responsibility was disposing of the corpses. They were forced into the position; in most cases they were inducted immediately upon arrival at the camp, and were not given any advance notice of the tasks they would have to perform. They had no way to refuse or resign other than by committing suicide. Because the Germans needed the Sonderkommandos to remain physically able, they were granted moderately less disastrous living conditions than other inmates: they slept in their own barracks, which more than any other in the camp resembled normal human dwellings; they were allowed to keep and use various goods such as food, medicines and cigarettes brought by those who were sent to the gas chambers; and, unlike ordinary inmates, they were not subject to arbitrary, random killing by guards. As a result, Sonderkommando members tended to survive longer than other inmates of the death camps—but very few survived the war.
Because of their intimate knowledge of the process of Nazi mass murder, the Sonderkommando were considered Geheimnisträger—bearers of secrets—and as such, they were kept in isolation from other camp inmates, except, of course, for those about to enter the gas chambers. Because the Nazis did not wish the Sonderkommandos' knowledge to reach the outside world, they initially followed a policy of regularly gassing almost all the Sonderkommando and replacing them with new arrivals; the first task of the new Sonderkommandos would be to dispose of their predecessors' corpses. At least at Auschwitz-Birkenau, this system was discontinued as the volume of killing increased, and some members of the Sonderkommando there managed to survive several years.
There was a revolt by Sonderkommandos at Auschwitz
in which one of the crematoria was partly destroyed. For months, young Jewish women, like Ester Wajcblum, Ella Gärtner, and Regina Safirsztain, had been smuggling small amounts of gunpowder
from the Weichsel-Union-Metallwerke, a munitions factory within the Auschwitz complex, to men and women in the camp’s resistance movement, like Róza Robota, a young Jewish woman who worked in the clothing detail at Birkenau. Under constant guard, the women in the factory took small amounts of the gunpowder, wrapped it in bits of cloth or paper, hid it on their bodies, and then passed it along the smuggling chain. Once she received the gunpowder, Róza Robota then passed it to her co-conspirators in the Sonderkommando. Using this gunpowder, the leaders of the Sonderkommando planned to destroy the gas chambers and crematoria, and launch the uprising. When the camp resistance warned the Sonderkommando that they were due to be murdered on the morning of October 7, 1944, they attacked the SS and Kapos
with axes, knives, and home-made grenades. Three SS men were killed, including one who was pushed alive into a crematorium oven; and some prisoners escaped from the camp for a period. They were recaptured later the same day. Of those who did not die in the uprising itself, 200 were forced to strip, lie face down, and then were shot in the back of the head. A total of 451 Sonderkommandos were killed on this day.
There was also an uprising in Treblinka
on August 2, 1943, in which around 100 prisoners succeeded in breaking out of the camp, and a similar uprising in Sobibor
on October 14, 1943. About 50–64 of the prisoners from each camp survived the war. The uprising in Sobibor was dramatized in the film, "Escape from Sobibor
", starring Rutger Hauer, amongst others.
The Sonderkommandos in Sobibor
camp III did not take part in the uprising in camp I, and were murdered the following day. Both Sobibor and Treblinka were closed shortly afterwards.
Fewer than twenty out of several thousand members of the special squads are documented to have survived until liberation and were able to testify to the events (though some sources claim more), among them: Henryk Tauber, Filip Müller
, Daniel Behnnamias, Dario Gabbai
, Morris Venezia, Shlomo Venezia, Alter Fajnzylberg, Abram Dragon, David Olère
, Henryk Mandelbaum
, Martin Gray
. There have been at most another six or seven confirmed to have survived, but who have not given witness (or at least, such testimony is not documented). Buried and hidden accounts by members of the Sonderkommando were also later found at some camps.
, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, Israel, there are notes from members of the Sonderkommando. The following note was found buried in the Auschwitz crematoria and was written by Zalmen Gradowski, a member of the Sonderkommando who was killed in the Sonderkommando Revolt in October 1944:
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
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
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
. The death-camp Sonderkommando, who were always inmates, should not be confused with the SS-Sonderkommandos which were ad hoc
Ad hoc
Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning "for this". It generally signifies a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalizable, and not intended to be able to be adapted to other purposes. Compare A priori....
units formed from various SS offices between 1938 through 1945.
The term itself in German means "special unit", and was part of the vague and euphemistic
Euphemism
A euphemism is the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwise suggest something unpleasant to the audience...
language which the Nazis used to refer to aspects of the Final Solution
Final Solution
The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
(cf. Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting, of Jews in particular, but also significant numbers of other population groups and political categories...
).
Work and death
Because of their intimate knowledge of the process of Nazi mass murder, the Sonderkommando were considered Geheimnisträger—bearers of secrets—and as such, they were kept in isolation from other camp inmates, except, of course, for those about to enter the gas chambers. Because the Nazis did not wish the Sonderkommandos' knowledge to reach the outside world, they initially followed a policy of regularly gassing almost all the Sonderkommando and replacing them with new arrivals; the first task of the new Sonderkommandos would be to dispose of their predecessors' corpses. At least at Auschwitz-Birkenau, this system was discontinued as the volume of killing increased, and some members of the Sonderkommando there managed to survive several years.
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
in which one of the crematoria was partly destroyed. For months, young Jewish women, like Ester Wajcblum, Ella Gärtner, and Regina Safirsztain, had been smuggling small amounts of gunpowder
Gunpowder
Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...
from the Weichsel-Union-Metallwerke, a munitions factory within the Auschwitz complex, to men and women in the camp’s resistance movement, like Róza Robota, a young Jewish woman who worked in the clothing detail at Birkenau. Under constant guard, the women in the factory took small amounts of the gunpowder, wrapped it in bits of cloth or paper, hid it on their bodies, and then passed it along the smuggling chain. Once she received the gunpowder, Róza Robota then passed it to her co-conspirators in the Sonderkommando. Using this gunpowder, the leaders of the Sonderkommando planned to destroy the gas chambers and crematoria, and launch the uprising. When the camp resistance warned the Sonderkommando that they were due to be murdered on the morning of October 7, 1944, they attacked the SS and Kapos
Kapo (concentration camp)
A kapo was a prisoner who worked inside German Nazi concentration camps during World War II in any of certain lower administrative positions. The official Nazi word was Funktionshäftling, or "prisoner functionary", but the Nazis commonly referred to them as kapos.- Etymology :The origin of "kapo"...
with axes, knives, and home-made grenades. Three SS men were killed, including one who was pushed alive into a crematorium oven; and some prisoners escaped from the camp for a period. They were recaptured later the same day. Of those who did not die in the uprising itself, 200 were forced to strip, lie face down, and then were shot in the back of the head. A total of 451 Sonderkommandos were killed on this day.
There was also an uprising in Treblinka
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka was a Nazi extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II near the village of Treblinka in the modern-day Masovian Voivodeship of Poland. The camp, which was constructed as part of Operation Reinhard, operated between and ,. During this time, approximately 850,000 men, women...
on August 2, 1943, in which around 100 prisoners succeeded in breaking out of the camp, and a similar uprising in Sobibor
Sobibór extermination camp
Sobibor was a Nazi German extermination camp located on the outskirts of the town of Sobibór, Lublin Voivodeship of occupied Poland as part of Operation Reinhard; the official German name was SS-Sonderkommando Sobibor...
on October 14, 1943. About 50–64 of the prisoners from each camp survived the war. The uprising in Sobibor was dramatized in the film, "Escape from Sobibor
Escape from Sobibor
Escape from Sobibor is a 1987 British made-for-TV film which aired on CBS. It deals with the extermination camp at Sobibor, the site of the most successful uprising by Jewish prisoners of German extermination camps...
", starring Rutger Hauer, amongst others.
The Sonderkommandos in Sobibor
Sobibór extermination camp
Sobibor was a Nazi German extermination camp located on the outskirts of the town of Sobibór, Lublin Voivodeship of occupied Poland as part of Operation Reinhard; the official German name was SS-Sonderkommando Sobibor...
camp III did not take part in the uprising in camp I, and were murdered the following day. Both Sobibor and Treblinka were closed shortly afterwards.
Fewer than twenty out of several thousand members of the special squads are documented to have survived until liberation and were able to testify to the events (though some sources claim more), among them: Henryk Tauber, Filip Müller
Filip Müller
Filip Müller was one of very few Sonderkommandos to have survived Auschwitz, the largest Nazi German extermination camp....
, Daniel Behnnamias, Dario Gabbai
Dario Gabbai
David Dario Gabbai is a Greek Sephardi Jew and Holocaust survivor, notable for his role as a member of the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz...
, Morris Venezia, Shlomo Venezia, Alter Fajnzylberg, Abram Dragon, David Olère
David Olère
David Olère was a Polish-born French painter and sculptor best known for his explicit drawings and paintings based on his experiences as a Jewish Sonderkommando inmate at Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.- Life :Olère studied at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, and upon completion...
, Henryk Mandelbaum
Henryk Mandelbaum
Henryk Mandelbaum was a survivor of the Holocaust. He was one of the prisoners in the Sonderkommando KL Auschwitz-Birkenau in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp who had to work in the crematory...
, Martin Gray
Martin Gray (Holocaust survivor)
Martin Gray, born as Mieczysław Grajewski is a Holocaust survivor and author.thumb|"Make that the wounds, if hope wins on sufferings, become the veins in which life's blood flows." Monument erected close to M-G former [[Brussels]] residence in Uccle district.In 1946 Gray emigrated to the United...
. There have been at most another six or seven confirmed to have survived, but who have not given witness (or at least, such testimony is not documented). Buried and hidden accounts by members of the Sonderkommando were also later found at some camps.
Testimonies
In the collection at Yad VashemYad Vashem
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, Israel, there are notes from members of the Sonderkommando. The following note was found buried in the Auschwitz crematoria and was written by Zalmen Gradowski, a member of the Sonderkommando who was killed in the Sonderkommando Revolt in October 1944:
"Dear finder of these notes,
I have one request of you, which is, in fact, the practical objective for my writing... that my days of Hell, that my hopeless tomorrow will find a purpose in the future. I am transmitting only a part of what happened in the Birkenau-Auschwitz Hell. You will realize what reality looked like... From all this you will have a picture of how our people perished."
Gallery
See also
- KommandoKommandoKommando is a generic German word meaning unit or command. During World War II it was also the basic unit of organisation of slave labourers in German concentration camps....
- Ala GertnerAla GertnerAla Gertner , referred to in other sources as Alla, Alina, Ella, and Ela, was one of four women hanged in the Auschwitz concentration camp for her role in the Sonderkommando revolt of October 7, 1944.-Early life:Gertner was born in Będzin, Poland, one of three children in a prosperous Jewish family...
- David OlèreDavid OlèreDavid Olère was a Polish-born French painter and sculptor best known for his explicit drawings and paintings based on his experiences as a Jewish Sonderkommando inmate at Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II.- Life :Olère studied at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, and upon completion...
- Filip MüllerFilip MüllerFilip Müller was one of very few Sonderkommandos to have survived Auschwitz, the largest Nazi German extermination camp....
- Roza RobotaRoza RobotaRoza Robota , referred to in other sources as Rojza, Rozia, or Rosa, was the leader and one of four women hanged in the Auschwitz concentration camp for their role in the Sonderkommando revolt of October 7, 1944.-Biography:Born in Ciechanów, Poland, to a middle class family, Rosa had one brother...
- Rose MethRose MethRose Grunapfel Meth , born as Ruzia Grunapfel, also known as Reisel Grunapfel Meth, is a surviving participant in the October 7, 1944 "Sonderkommando uprising" of inmates in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp....
- Henryk MandelbaumHenryk MandelbaumHenryk Mandelbaum was a survivor of the Holocaust. He was one of the prisoners in the Sonderkommando KL Auschwitz-Birkenau in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp who had to work in the crematory...
- The Grey ZoneThe Grey ZoneThe Grey Zone is a 2001 film directed by Tim Blake Nelson and starring David Arquette, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino and Daniel Benzali. It is based on the book Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account written by Dr. Miklós Nyiszli....
- Ypatingasis būrysYpatingasis burysYpatingasis būrys or Special SD and German Security Police Squad was a Nazi killing squad of approximately 50 men, also called the "Lithuanian equivalent of Sonderkommando", operating in the Vilnius Region...
- Shoah (film)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...
Further reading
There are several eyewitness accounts from members of the Sonderkommando. Publications include:- Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers, deposition by Henryk Tauber in the Polish Courts, May 24, 1945, p. 481–502, Jean-Claude PressacJean-Claude PressacJean-Claude Pressac was a French chemist and pharmacist who later became a published authority on the Holocaust of World War II....
, Pressac-Klarsfeld, 1989, The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, New York, Library of Congress 89-81305 - Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers by Filip MüllerFilip MüllerFilip Müller was one of very few Sonderkommandos to have survived Auschwitz, the largest Nazi German extermination camp....
, Ivan R. Dee, 1979, ISBN 1-56663-271-4 - We Wept Without Tears: Testimonies of the Jewish Sonderkommando from Auschwitz by Gideon GreifGideon GreifGideon Greif is an Israeli historian.-Education:From 1965 until 1969 Gideon Greif attended Municipal High School in Tel Aviv. Later, from 1974 to 1976 he attended Tel Aviv University where he got his Bachelor's degree in Jewish History, studying the History of the Land of Israel...
, Yale University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-300-10651-3. - The Holocaust Odyssey of Daniel Bennahmias, Sonderkommando by Rebecca Fromer, University Alabama Press, 2003, ISBN 0-8173-5041-1.
- Auschwitz : A Doctor's Eyewitness Account by Miklos NyiszliMiklos NyiszliMiklós Nyiszli was a Jewish prisoner at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Nyiszli, along with his wife and young daughter, were transported to Auschwitz in June 1944...
(translated from the original Hungarian), Arcade Publishing, 1993, ISBN 1-55970-202-8. A play and subsequent film about the Sonderkommandos, The Grey ZoneThe Grey ZoneThe Grey Zone is a 2001 film directed by Tim Blake Nelson and starring David Arquette, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino and Daniel Benzali. It is based on the book Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account written by Dr. Miklós Nyiszli....
(2001) directed by Tim Blake NelsonTim Blake NelsonTim Blake Nelson is an American director, writer, singer, and actor.-Early life:Nelson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Ruth Kaiser Nelson, who is a noted social activist and philanthropist in Tulsa, and a geologist father...
, was based on this book. - Dario Gabbai (Interview Code 142, conducted in English) video testimony, interview conducted in November 1996, Survivors of the Shoah Visual History FoundationUSC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and EducationThe USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, formerly Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, is a nonprofit organization established by Steven Spielberg in 1994, one year after completing the Academy Award-winning film Schindler's List...
, USC Shoah Foundation Institute, University of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Southern CaliforniaThe University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
. - Sonderkommando Auschwitz. La verità sulle camere a gas. Una testimonianza unica, Shlomo Venezia, Rizzoli, 2007, ISBN 8817017787
External links
short history of the jüdische Sonderkommando – www.sonderkommando-studien.de/ (further content: Zum Begriff Sonderkommando und verwandten Bezeichnungen • „Handlungsräume“ im Sonderkommando Auschwitz. • Der „Sonderkommando-Aufstand“ in Auschwitz-Birkenau – Photos )- Informations about Auschwitz Sonderkommandos members on the French site Sonderkommando.info