Introduction
Selection in hospitals of the Auschwitz complex and the subsequent gassing of sick inmates who had become unfit for work is notoriously one of the cornerstones of Holocaust historiography relating to this camp.
Although the German term “Selektion” is not part of the terminology used by the SS, who employed the terms “Auswahl” or “Ausmusterung,” for practical reasons I will continue to use the term “selection.”
Such selections form part of the program of extermination of “useless mouths,” i.e. inmates so worn out that they were no longer able to work profitably for the SS and were therefore, economically, dead weight, first among these the invalids and the inpatients.
The sentencing grounds of the Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt, in the section “The Auschwitz Concentration Camp as an extermination center of sick and debilitated inmates,” states in this regard (Rüter 1981, pp. 416f.): (...)
defendants.”The historical framework sketched out here was evidently built on the basis not of documents, but of simple testimonies. However, there is considerable documentation that categorically refutes this historical framework, as I will show in the present study. Precisely for this reason, orthodox Holocaust historiography has so far been unable to produce a scientific work on the fate of those registered inmates who became unfit for work and were admitted to hospitals in the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex.
The study here presented seeks to overcome this serious historiographical lacuna by outlining on the one hand, on the basis of documentary evidence largely unknown or ignored, the real picture of events, in particular the medical treatment of sick inmates, which went as far as to surgical operations, and by refuting on the other hand, by means of a well-documented critical analysis, the Holocaust narrative as created by orthodox Holocaust historian. In this second part of the present book, I address the issue of the “special treatment” of registered inmates. As such, this study is a supplement to my earlier work Special Treatment in Auschwitz: Origin and Meaning of a Term (Mattogno 2016c).Nota Bene
This books contains many quotations, translated into the English language, from original German wartime documents. The original German text of them can be found in the German edition of this book, which is available as a free PDF download at
http://holocausthandbuecher.com/index.php?page_id=33
Conclusion
The hypothesis that the registered prisoners who had become sick and therefore unable to work were subjected to a selection in the hospitals of the Auschwitz camp complex and thus consigned to the “gas chambers” lacks all documentary support. Quite to the contrary: from the surviving documents, it emerges that the SS, within the narrow framework of what was possible, exerted itself to improve the living conditions of the prisoners as well as the hygienic conditions in the camp, and that they established hospitals in which, among other things, thousands of surgical interventions were carried out. Other sick prisoners were even transferred to other camps where better facilities for treatment were available.
The project to establish a huge medical facility in Camp Sector III of Birkenau was thoroughly planned, but could be realized only partly because of lack of material and labor support. Yet this project demolishes—as Pressac has already emphasized—the claims according to which a mass extermination was carried out in Birkenau, and it establishes that the policy of the SS regarding prisoners who had become incapable of working consisted not in their murder, but in their medical treatment.
An analysis of the supposed selections of registered prisoners for the gas chambers, as reported by Czech, reveals that none of them has any historical documentary basis. Quite to the contrary, the surviving documents frequently consign all such notions to the realm of fairy tales. Bases for such assertions are not only mere witness statements, but also outrageous manipulations that disclose what the Chronicle is really about: far from being an instrument of historiography to determine real events, it is rather a work of propaganda meant to systematically falsify history.
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The famous Italian Holocaust survivor Primo Levi informed us in his eyewitness account Survival in Auschwitz that a number of sickbays and infirmaries etc. existed in the area of the Auschwitz camp. The present book gives an overview of the camp’s organizational and historical development in this regard. For example, there was a change of policy among Himmler and his entourage toward the end of 1942 regarding the main function of Germany’s concentration camps. While initially reeducation and punishment were their main focus, exploiting the inmates’ productive potential became increasingly important later on. The main reason for this was the ever-increasing needs of the German armed forces for manpower. Another reason for the installation of sanitary facilities were epidemics which emerged repeatedly for a number of reasons and which had to be combated.
In the first part of this book, the author analyzes the inmates’ living conditions as well as the various sanitary and medical measures implemented to maintain or restore the inmates’ health.
The second part explores what happened in particular to those inmates registered at Auschwitz who were “selected” or subject to “special treatment” while disabled or sick. The comprehensive documentation presented shows clearly that everything was tried to cure these inmates, especially under the aegis of Garrison Physician Dr. Wirths.
The last part of this book is dedicated to the remarkable personality of Dr. Wirths, the Auschwitz garrison physician since 1942. His reality refutes the current stereotype of SS officers. In this context, the statements by the former communist concentration camp survivor Hermann Langbein are particularly revealing.
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