War Crimes Trials - Vol. II The Belsen Trial. 'The Trial of Josef Kramer and Forty Four Others'

Appendices (Affidavits & Statements - Diament, Gertrud)
 

(22) DEPOSITION OF GERTRUD DIAMENT (Czech, aged 21)

2. I recognise Elisabeth Volkenrath, No. 6 on photograph 22, as an S.S. woman who was at Auschwitz. Her maiden name was Milan and she was married to an S.S. man named Volkenrath. During 1942 I have seen her make selections from women as they returned to the camp from working places. Those selected would have to go to Block 25, which was the block that held those women we understood were selected for the gas chamber. They would be kept in this block for several days until there was a total of about a thousand people there. Volkenrath would then give orders that the prisoners be loaded into lorries and transported to the gas chamber. It was common knowledge at Auschwitz that prisoners sent to Block 25 went ultimately to the gas chamber. The S.S. threatened prisoners with this if they did anything wrong.

(23) FURTHER DEPOSITION OF GERTRUG DIAMENT

1. I identify from six photographs handed to me Heinrich Schreier [Schreirer], No. 1 on photograph Q/4/1. He was an S.S. man at Auschwitz. I know nothing about him myself but I was told by other male prisoners that he was extremely cruel and that they were all afraid of him. I saw him a number of times whilst I was at Auschwitz. I have no doubt as to his identity.

2. I recognise from a batch of photographs shown to me Nos. 22 and 23 on photograph Q/4/8. No. 22 is Anna Hempel and No. 23 is Giselle Koblischek. I knew both of these women at Belsen. They were both S.S. women employed in the kitchen. I have seen Hempel beating prisoners with a rubber stick for stealing or attempting to steal from the kitchen. On one occasion I saw her beat a very sick man and he collapsed in a heap on the ground. I do not know whether he died of his injuries. In regard to Koblischek, she was at times in charge of cleaning parties in the camp. I have seen her beating prisoners with a wooden stick.

3. I recognise from a batch of photographs Nos. 2 and 3 on photograph Z/4/2. No. 2 is Irma Grese and No. 3 is Hilde Lohbauer. Grese was the S.S. woman Kommandant of the working parties both at Auschwitz and at Belsen. I have seen her at both camps, when in charge of working parties, beating women and girls with a stick. Her favourite habit was to beat them until they fell to the ground and then she kicked them as hard as she could with her heavy boots. She frequently caused blood to flow and, in my opinion, many of the people she injured were likely to die from such injuries, but I have no direct evidence of such deaths. Grese was also responsible for selecting victims for the gas chamber at Auschwitz. I was present on such occasions. Lohbauer was not S.S. at all, and she was a prisoner at Belsen. She acted for the S.S. and was in charge of working parties under Grese. I have seen her savagely beat women and girls with a stick. In many ways her ill-treatment of prisoners was worse even than the S.S. women. Many of the victims that she has beaten have collapsed and, in my opinion, were likely die of their injuries, but I have no direct evidence of such deaths.

4. Everything I have said herein, except in regard to the alleged ill-treatment by S.S. man Schreier [Schreirer], is from what I have personally seen.

 
Appendices (Affidavits & Statements - Diament, Gertrud)