I’ve been looking at some documents and film footage today
about this rather disturbing group who played a significant role in the Holocaust.
At first they were mistaken as Nazi collaborators. They did indeed work with the
Nazis. They would show other Jews into the gas chambers, pull them out
afterwards, help with the burning of the corpses, cut off women’s hair, and
sort clothing and jewellery. However, they did not volunteer for these duties.
They were forced to do them. If they refused, they would be killed in a particular
nasty way.
Many Jews realised what was happening. Able-bodied young men
were picked for this job and though many of them would rather die than do this
work, if they refused, they would not die comfortably.
The SS actually did the killing and it was the
Sonderkommando’s duty to help cover up the Nazi crimes and recoup as much material
wealth form the Jews as possible.
One group did rebel and there was an uprising at Auschwitz
where one of the crematoria was destroyed. They had been helped in this by a
young woman who had managed to smuggle small quantities of gunpowder form a
munitions plant.
No comments:
Post a Comment