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Benedikt Kautsky’s Description of the Concentration Camp Hierarchy (Retrospective Account, 1961)

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All this depended on the top people performing their duty of supervision. In this connection one can give the Buchenwald prisoners in the camp leadership the highest praise. The laundry, for example, can be described as a model operation, which performed its responsible task right to the end, despite apparently insuperable difficulties. Also the development of the sick bay in Buchenwald was remarkable, as indeed was the Auschwitz sick bay, which, in the most difficult times, was turned from nothing into something very respectable. In both cases this was entirely the work of the prisoners.

The Great Mass

The large number of remaining prisoners lived under the “normal conditions” of the camp. This meant in general: normal rations, work in the open air, and continual supervision by higher-ranking prisoners and SS. In the course of time, however, marked differences emerged in that workers were selected for armaments plants.

There were major differences in the types of work. These existed even before the war. The question of whether one worked in the quarry or in a building detail could in certain circumstances be a matter of life and death. It was not only the question of how heavy the work was but also its social status. There were heavy types of work, such as, for example, working in the Buchenwald haulage column, which were highly regarded socially, and there were much heavier ones, such as carrying rocks or pulling carts in the quarry, which were considered low-status.

In general the law of the camp was: to him that hath shall be given and from him that hath not shall be taken. The heaviest and dirtiest jobs were given to the weakest, who, as compensation, got the least rest and the smallest number of perks. The lightest and socially most highly regarded jobs were done by the strongest prisoners who, in addition, had bonuses and the opportunity of getting extra rations by the back door. We should also bear in mind that youth was considered a definite advantage and age was mostly regarded as a crime [ . . . ] then we can see the “master morality” [Herrenmoral] in its pure form.

However strange it may sound, there was a justification for this morality. Nietzsche's motto: “whatever falls one should kick” contains a truth for normal circumstances. In the camp it was almost entirely valid. When applied to conditions there it meant that in the camp only a few have a chance of coming out alive and those are the strongest ones. Everybody who is old, weak and sick is condemned to death. The possibilities of helping anyone are minimal; whatever I give to anyone I am taking away from someone else. If I give to the weak then I will be keeping them alive for a bit longer, but in the end I can't save him; at the same time, I am taking that away from a strong person and thereby weakening him so that he too will become weak and ill. The upshot is that I will plunge both into misfortune.

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