An example of false resistance
Rudolf Vrba: The Resistance leadership in Auschwitz was concentrated in the hands of ... German-speaking anti-Nazis, who were German by birth, were considered racially pure by the Nazi hierarchy. They got a bit better treatment than the rest of the camp. I don't say that they were treated with gloves. But they managed, with time, to gain influence over various Nazi dignitaries from the SS and to use it in a way which led systematically to an improvement of conditions within the concentration camp itself.
Whereas, in 1943... '42... in Birkenau, in December and January, a death rate of 400 prisoners per day was common. By May 1943 - not only because of the weather improvement, but due to the activities of the Resistance movement - the improvement was so marked that the mortality grossly decreased in the concentration camp.
And they considered it a great victory on their side.
[...]
Vrba: I once overheard...A transport came from...I think it was from Holland or from Belgium.I do not guarantee which one it was. And the SS doctor selected a group of well-looking Jewish prisoners, newcomers, from the whole transport, which would be gassed - which was gassed. But the representative SS from the concentration camp said he doesn't want them.
And there was a discussion between them which I could overhear, in which the doctor was saying,
"Why don't you take them? They are'ausgefressene Juden auf der holländischen Käse'".This mean, uh, Jews full of...very, very nourished on Dutch cheese. They would be good for the camp.
And Fries, it was, Hauptscharführer Fries, answered him.
"Ich kann sie nicht nehmen, heutzutage krepieren die Eingelagerten zu langsam." I can't take those people, because nowadays they don't kick the bucket so fast in the camp.
Claude Lanzmann: This means they don't die fast enough?
Vrba: That's right. In other words, he explained that the stand of the camp was, say, 30,000. If 500 or 5,000 died, they were replaced by a new force from the Jewish transport which came in. But, if only a thousand died, well, only a thousand were replaced, and more went into the gas chamber. So, the improvement of the conditions within the concentration camp itself made a higher death rate in the gas chamber, straight into the gas chamber. It decreased the death rate among the prisoners in concentration camp.
So, it was clear to me that the improvement of the situation of the concentration camp does not impede the process of mass executions of those people who were brought in into the camp. Consequently, my idea, then, of the Resistance movement, of the sense of the Resistance movement, was...
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