Lot 895
AUSCHWITZ NARRATIVE OF KATHARINA LORBEER
Unsettling retained carbon of a typed document, 8pp. 4to., Bucharest, July 13, 1945, an immediately post-war narrative given in German by a Slovakian girl named Katharina Lorbeer to the Hungarian National Committee for Attending Deportees, describing her deportation to Auschwitz, her experiences there, and her eventual liberation. The narrative begins in April of 1942, while Lorbeer is hospitalized in her hometown of Kezmark. Due to her illness, she is able to escape deportation for two weeks, but eventually volunteers for transport with three other girls. They are taken first to the town of Poprad by local police, where they are housed in barracks with 600 other girls. On April 15, the group is transported in railcars to the Polish border, where SS guards take control of the prisoners, and then on to Auschwitz. Arriving at the camp in the middle of the day, all belongings are confiscated apart from one dress and underwear. The girls are beaten by SS guards as they exit the train, and are marched across the men''s section of the camp to the women''s barracks. She describes the layout of this section of the camp, comprised of ten barracks blocks, which at the time are nearly empty. She further explains that girls from Slovakia received tattooed identification numbers from 1001 to 5000, had their hair shorn, and their remaining clothes confiscated. In return, they receive lice-ridden uniforms taken from executed Russian soldiers and wooden shoes. They are taken out to the central yard for roll call, which lasts until past midnight. Lorbeer and her fellow inmates are put to work loading sand onto railcars for six months, under guard by fellow Jewish "kapos" from the Ravensbruck concentration camp, although rumors persists that they will soon be sent to brothels at the front for German soldiers. In December, they are tasked with carrying bricks for the construction of a new crematorium. She relates a visit by SS chief Heinrich Himmler in December of 1942, stating that while the camp commander had allowed the prisoners to wear shoes to protect against the bitter cold, Himmler stated that "there is no good or bad weather for inmates", and decreed that prisoners are to always work shoeless regardless of weather conditions. Lorbeer also states that 50 randomly-selected male prisoners are hanged in honor of Himmler''s visit. Soon after, Lorbeer and her fellow inmates are moved to the subcamp of Birkenau, where they find no latrines, dirt floors in the barracks, and generally terrible conditions. They are put to work as a "sumpfkommand" ("swamp commando"), tasked with draining the surrounding marshlands. They have no access to drinking water, forcing them to rely on water from the swamp, into which the SS guards regularly dump truckloads of ashes from the crematorium. These deplorable conditions make diseases such as Typhus common. Lorbeer goes on to describe the first selection of prisoners to be executed in the gas chambers, early in 1943. She describes the 35,000 women in the camp being gathered in the courtyard at two in the morning, as SS doctors Josef Mengele, Hans Wilhelm Konig, and Heinz Thilo, subcamp director, Johann Schwarzhuber, and others gather by the gate. The prisoners are made to pass through the gate with their hands outstretched, and any prisoner with reddened palms or demonstrating any kind of limp is selected for immediate execution. In this manner, the original group of 35,000 women is reduced to only 5,000. After this, selections continue daily, although the Birkenau subcamp is slowly expanded and gains a proper sewer system, leading to improved hygiene. By this point, though, Lorbeer states that the old inmates like herself have become sluggish and apathetic, and would be happy to be selected to put an end to their suffering. By the end of 1943, rumors begin to circulate of horrific medical experiments being performed in Block 10 of Auschwitz, although she states that most of those selected for these experiments are new arrivals to the camp. By January of 1945, the Soviet Army has advanced close enough to the camp to cause the prisoners to be evacuated on the 18th. They are marched 180 kilometers to Ravensbruck, during which hundreds of prisoners starve to death or are shot by their guards. From Ravensbruck, they are transported to the subcamp of Retzow, where they "magically" receive American and Swedish Red Cross care packages containing chocolate, cigarettes and canned food, although the cigarettes are largely confiscated by the SS. Lorbeer and her companions hide from a further transport from Retzow, and are liberated by Red Army soldier on May 1, 1945. She finishes by stating that of the 15,000 Slovakian girls transported in 1942, only 300 survived, and lists the names of eighteen fellow survivors and their hometowns. The account is housed in an original file floder, and is in fine condition. A truly chilling account.
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