[p 10] Main Division II comprised political affairs, with such subdivisions as illegal parties and organizations; associations and industrial groups; the church and reaction; freemasonry; sects; the Nazi party; homosexuality. It ordered arrests and made out the notorious Protective Custody Warrants. Its section chiefs reported directly to the chief of the Gestapo.
[p. 25] The Main Economic and Administrative Office designated three progressive classes of concentration camps. Class I (labor camps) represented the mildest form. Class II meant that living and working conditions \vere more rigorous. Class III stood for the "mills of death" \vhich the prisoners seldom left alive. The Gestapo never fully achieved its goal-to place all criminals, homosexuals, Jews and political prisoners deemed especially dangerous in Class III camps. The regional Gestapo offices differed in their evaluation of cases. The camps themselves often refused to surrender prisoners \vhose work they had found useful. It \vas also held to be advisable to keep the prisoner categories in all the camps unsegregated, to deprive the political prisoners of any chance for entrenching themselves.
[p. 34] In addition to these main categories of prisoners, the SS made a number of other distinctions. Of these the homosexuals deserve special mention. This group had a very heterogeneous composition. It included individuals of real value, in addition to large numbers of criminals and especially blackmailers. This made the position of the group as a whole very precarious. Hostility toward them may have been partly rooted in the fact that homosexuality was at one time widespread in Prussian military circles, as well as among the SA and the SS, and was to be mercilessly outlawed and erased. The Gestapo readily had recourse to the charge of homosexuality, if it was unable to find any other pretext for proceeding against Catholic priests or irksome critics. The mere suspicion wasvas sufficient. Homosexual practices were actally very widespread in 1he camps. The prisoners, however, ostracized only those whom the SS marked with the pink triangle.
The fate of the homosexuals in the concentration camps can only be described as ghastly. They were often segregated in special barracks and work details. Such segregation offered ample opportunity to unscrupulous elements in positions of power to engage in extortion and maltreatment. Until the fall of 1938 the homosexuals at Buchenwald were divided up among the barracks occupied by political prisoners, where they led a rather inconspicuous life. In October 1938, they were transferred to the penal company in a body and had to slave in the quarry. This consigned them to lowest caste in camp during the most difficut years. In shipments to extermination camps, such as Nordhausen, Natzweiler and Gross-Rosen, they furnished the highest proponionate share, for the camp had an understandable tendency to slough off all elements considered least valuable or worthless. If anything could save them at all. it wvas to enter into sordid relationships [p. 35] within the camp, but this was as likely to endanger their lives as to save them. Theirs was an insoluble predicament and virtually all of them perished.
All prisoner categories in the concentration camps had to wear prescribed markings sewn to their clothing-a serial number and colored triangles, affixed to the left breast and the right trouser leg. At Auschwitz the serial number was tattooed on the left forearm of the prisoners. Red was the color denoting political prisoners. Second offenders, so-called recidivists, wore a stripe of the same color above the upper edge of the triangle. Criminals wore a green triangle, with a surprinted S for the SY category. Jehovah's Witnesses woree purple; "shiftless elements," black; homosexuals, pink. During certain periods, the Gypsies and the shiftless picked up in certain special campaigns wore a brown triangle.
***
[p 37] The first group of children arrived in Buchenwald in 1939, together with the Polish prisoners. The youngsters were quartered in a special building and in the beginning did not have co work. In the course of time a large proportion of them grew [p. 38]abominably spoiled in camp-as did many of the youthful Russians and Ukrainians admitted later on. Enough has been published on the subject to show that sexual starvation among men who are sequestered for years on end is a familiar phenomenon. The brothel by no means satisfied this hunger. Unprincipled prisoners, including many confined for political reasons, created a cesspool of depravity, first by means of homosexuality, and later on, when the boys had arrived, by pederasty. The so-called "Doll Boys," unable to resist such temptation as good food, sometimes forcibly seduced by immoral Senior Block Inmates and Prisoner Foremen, soon played a vicious role everywhere. In Buchenwald this reached its climax in 1943 under Senior Camp Inmate Wolff, a former cavalry captain and German nationalist, who outrageously misused his position. More and more he took the part o f the SS against his own comrades, until he was finally deposed by the camp itself. By dint of such conditions the ranks of the Polish youngsters who had come into camp in 1939 gave rise to the most insolent ruffians and rowdies-regular hooligans such as ravaged the Soviet Union in the terrible years from 1919 to 1923.
All the more praise,vorthy was the example of those prisoners who unselfishly helped the lads in camps whenever they could, keeping them from slipping into the clutches of the pederasts. A number of the juveniles had the advantage of instruction under the supervision and direction of prisoners, were assigned to appropriate light work, and were trained in the spirit of true fellowship. Their stories show that they fully grasped the sinister and terrible character of their fate, which they had faced with perplexity and bafflement until they were put on the right path under the care of older comrades. Despite the Wild West atmosphere of the concentration camp, not a few of them proved themselves, bringing much joy into individual labor details. Even hardboiled prisoners were deeply moved when the SS in the fall of 1944 suddenly singled out and herded together all Jewish and Gypsy you ngsters. the screaming, sobbing children, frantically trying to get to their fathers or protectors among the prisoners, were surrounded by a wall of carbines and machine pistols and taken away to be shipped to Auschwit for gassing.
***
[p. 87] Every concentration camp without exception had its own penal conmpanies or special labor details in which prisoners were treated with intensified harshness. They were isolated in a special building, which they could not leave even during their sparse leisure time. The penal companies generally slaved in the quarries, usually much longer hours than other details and including Sundays. Their lunch period was curtailed so that many of them hardly had time to eat, provided rations were not withdrawn altogether, which happened often. They were used for the hardest and most menial labor, and were not permitted to receive mo ney. They could not write letters at all, or at best one letter every three months. They were often compelled to do fatigue drill. For them life was literally hell on earth.
Many of the prisoners helped members of the penal company whenever they could, otherwise none would have ever survived the treatment. What made life in the penal companies even more unbearable was their motley composition. They consisted of prisoners of every color designationJehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, convicts with special records. Newcomers were often assigned to them, as were prisoners whose files carried special instructions, whether from the Gestapo or from camp headquarters. Some were assigned permanently, others for only six to twelve weeks. It was all a matter of whim. Political prisoners were not the dominant group in the penal companies, a fact which merely emphasized their lack of cohesion.
Early in 1944 the penal companies were officially dissolved on orders from Berlin. It is a matter of some doubt whether the order was actually carried out in all the camps.
Some of the work in camp was useful but some of it was utterly senseless, intended only as a form of torture, a diversion engaged in by the SS "for fun." The Jews, especially, often had to build walls, only to tear them down the next day, rebuild them again, and so on. Often much of the labor was unnecessary or poorly planned and had to be done over two or [p.88] three times. Whole buildings had to be reconstructed, since their foundations sometimes collapsed, for lack of proper planning.
***
[p. 95] The penal companies, especially, were assigned to rhe q uarries, as were cert ain selected victims. These pits \vere the hunting preserves of notorious SS sergeants and Prisoner Foremen. On May 1, 1943-a date already mentioned- the SS men at Buchen,vald bet each other six cigarettes or two [p. 96] glasses of beer apiece as to who could kill a prisoner in a given group by throwing stones from above. When their throv;ing marksmanship grew poor, they lost patience and simply started shooting. The result of this "pastime" was seventeen dead and wunded. "Shot while attempting to escape,'' as the official reports read. In every camp the number of such mass murders was legion.
At the Buchenwald quarry Master Sergeant Hinkelmann was inexhaustible in devising new tortures. He forced older men to climb trees, which he then had shaken-to his satanic glee-until the poor wretches fell off and broke their necks or were mortally injured, to die miserably in the hospital. Most of the quarry foremen were no better, and sometimes they were worse. Vogel, a homosexual sadist, sought sexual gratification in mistreating his fellow prisoners. It was to him that Roll Call Officers Kent, Petrick and Stribbel handed over for "liquidation" at least fifty political prisoners who seemed dangerous to them.
A Dr. Gerdes, a high government official, had in civilian life been engaged to marry a daughter of the Austrian President, Miklas-reason for him to draw odium in camp as "Miklas' son-in-law." Vogel demanded three hundred marks of Gerdes. Gerdes was unable to raise the money quickly enough, whereupon the foreman, with his assistant Wittvogel, ordered the "black dog" (a reference to the prisoner's clerical affiliations) to be driven into the guard line-which was promptly done.
During 1942 the quarry was in charge of a Prisoner Foreman named Mueller who became the tool of Second Officer-in-Charge Gust. Gust visited Muelller almost every day, bringing him cigarettes and stolen packages and ordering him to do away with certai n prisoners. Power completely corrupted Muelller. A man without character, he developed into a terrifying sadist. Later on he and several others volunteered for a Buchenwald outside labor detail in the Rhineland, where he was strung up by his own comrades.
***
[p. 172] I believe it will be sufficient to give a mere enumeration of other "scientific experiments" conducted by the SS on defenseless prisoners.
In Buchenwald and Neuengamme, "Experimental Section V" conducted work in counteracting homosexuality by gland implants and synthetic hormones. These experiments were suggested and executed by the Danish SS Major Dr. Vaernet, who was stationed at Prague. The report went to SS Colonel Poppendick. In Buchenwald a total of fifteen inmates were treated, of whom two died. Vaernet also tried his hand with men who had been castrated. The matter became the butt of many jokes on the part of the SS Medical Officers as well as the prisoners. No positive results were obtained.
***
[p. 243] An autopsy was supposed to be conducted on every body before cremation, the findings to be embodied in a report. The prisoners charged with this job were anything but anatomists. For years Buchenwald autopsies were in charge of a former baker, pimp and homosexual, a man with a long prison record. The fellow's name was Stoeckel and he was later killed by other prisoners. His successor had once been a carpenter. During the final year, until the fall of 1944, the Buchen\vald autopsy room was under the supervision of a Czech Premonstratesian monk by the name of Thyl who time and again was saved from Dachau transports because of his extraordinarily humane character and his shining spirit of fellowship.
[p 268] From mere self-defense the concentration-camp prisoners occasionally proceeded to active resistance against SS measures. The most notable instance was occasioned by the attempt to impress into army service those inmates who were German citizens. A certain Dirlewanger, a fellow with a long criminal record who had fought on the Fascist side in Spain, offered his services to Himmler during the war for the purpose of "indoctrinating" concentration-camp prisoners with a view toward their "volunteering for front-line service." Dirlewanger was later invested with the Knight's Cross and the rank of SS major-general. He wasas one of the worst bloodhounds in the Lublin district, and personally committed atrocities which cannot be described here because of their bottomless depravity.
In some concentration camps, such as Sachsenhausen, political prisoners were simply detailed to the Dirlewanger program against their will. In other camps, such as Buchenwald, the campaign went no further than an appeal for volunteers. Only an infinitesimally small number of prisoners wearing the red triangle responded, in contrast to quite a fev.• greens and blacks. The last campaign of this nature was directed at the homosexuals in 1945, but they never got to share the honor intended for them.
The convicts who evinced this solidarity with the Waffen SS-there were as many as five hundred at Buchenwald-contributed their share to enhancing the reputation of the SS as butchers. They were used in the fight against the partisans in the eastern regions, and in 1944 to help put down the Polish uprising in Warsaw. Some of the survivors, after extended periods of such "front-line parole," were sent back to the concentration camps where their fate was not a happy one.
Source.
From: Eugen Kogon: Homosexuals in the Nazi Camps, from The Theory and Practice of Hell (1950) https://ia800107.us.archive.org/26/items/EugenKogonTheTheoryAndPracticeOfHell/Eugen_Kogon_The_Theory_and_Practice_of_Hell.pdf
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