Chapter 27 Chapter Twenty Six

In June, flowers bloom everywhere in Auschwitz.Even in the muddy, heavily trodden camps of the concentration camps, in the corners of the barracks where the clogs of the prisoners could not go, flowers sprouted. The Auschwitz concentration camp controlled by the SS covers an area of ​​about forty square kilometers. It consists of green open spaces and woods. It begins a long, meandering northward flow through Warsaw and into the Baltic Sea.Tall barbed wire fences surround this vast enclave.Behind the barbed wire, warning signs in German and Polish were erected at intervals: Trespassing, Immediate Death: The camp was dotted with brightly colored wildflowers, where only teams of construction workers worked Except, they were building camps in the mud that had turned the grassy marshes to brown.Barrell.Jastrow worked among such a gang of construction workers.

The peasants from the villages that had lived in the enclave had all left.Several of the thatched huts they vacated still stand.Most have been leveled.Broken bricks and rubble were used to build the barracks of the concentration camp.Near the places where houses had once been built and were now muddy ponds, there were orchards full of flowers, which scented the warm June winds.The scent evaporates in the row upon row of prisoner camp rooms because the toilets there are abysmal.But in the fields where Ban Real worked, the air was still filled with the fragrance from the orchard.Over the past six months, Barrell has regained a bit of his formerly bulging muscles.He is Sammy.Mutterpur's deputy foreman wore the armband of a "foreman," a foreman who, while miserable enough, ate and slept better than most Auschwitz prisoners.

Mutterpur wears the "little prisoner's head" armband.But his identity is more than that.SS Sergeant Major Ernst.Kringle's labor detachment, which was actually a team of construction workers under Mutterpur's command, was six hundred prisoners in two cells in Camp B-1.The task here was to rush to build Birkenau B-11-d, one of six sub-camps, each with thirty-two cells.Once complete, the camp will have a total of 150 cells, which the Central Building Committee plans to build north of the main road.In addition to B-11, there are two camps: B-Ill, which has not yet started construction, and B-1, which has been completed; in the planning of the Central Construction Committee, Birkenau will become the largest detention center in the world.More than 100,000 working prisoners will be held in Birkenau as slave labor in SS factories.

Sammy.What Mutterpur is doing now in Auschwitz, he did when he was a free man in Auschwitz.He was a contractor there; he was a contractor of a special kind here too.His client was now the commander of Auschwitz, and Sergeant Klinger was the commander's field representative.Theoretically, SS Reichstag Himmler was the supreme patron, but in Auschwitz Himmler was a faceless god.Even the SS personnel rarely mentioned his name, and when he was mentioned, they all showed awe.However, the manned black Mercedes of the headquarters is often seen in this area, with the SS double lightning flag flying on the front, which is frightening.Ben Real caught glimpses of the car every so often.The commander believed that the superior should be present at the scene and conduct supervision—according to him, it was called "the master's surveillance".

Kringle's labor detachment had been doing a fine job for many months, working quickly, silently, and obediently, no matter what the weather.The laborers were daily cursed and beaten by SS officers and prisoner heads.Due to their weakness, the prisoners fainted and fell to the ground, and were beaten to death by the prisoner's head as pretending to be lazy.If they really look useless, the prisoner will use a shovel or a wooden stick to send them back to their hometown, and other laborers will drag their bodies back, so that it will be easy to deal with during the roll call at night.When the next shift we have new prisoners to replace them, anyway, the supply of prisoners is endless.

As far as Auschwitz is concerned, Mutterpur thinks that working in Kringle's labor detachment is not bad.He had been in Auschwitz for a year and a half.In 1941, the commander was cornered by the frenzied order from Berlin to expand the concentration camp. He desperately searched for construction workers and technicians in the four towns, and immediately sent them to work—Jews, Poles, Czechs, Croats, Romanians, they are all the same anyway, no distinction is made, and Mutterpur is among them - by outside standards, the conditions of housing and nutrition, and the harshness of discipline, It was all unimaginable, but in Auschwitz, it was very comfortable.

Sammy finally became very familiar with Auschwitz.It can be said that he was in a very favorable position, so he conveniently saved his life.Because of the rush to start building, he was not sent to live in an isolation camp, where he was not horribly isolated for weeks, tortured and starved, many prisoners were treated to skin and bones in the isolation camp, like robots, what thought No, I just want to survive.Klinger is the SS supervisor, and Mutterpur is the Jewish foreman. They have worked together since they took up the job of building the SS barracks a year ago. Tough fellows, in their late sixties, eager to do something: Kringle to please his superiors; Mutterpur, to save his life.Kringle gradually placed the Jew in an unofficial protected position for his own benefit, making him a construction foreman.In this capacity, Sammy was able to recruit prisoners for the labor detachment.He took advantage of this to rescue Baen Riel.It was not formality to bring in a Soviet prisoner of war, but the rules and regulations of Auschwitz were not consistent and coherent.SS sergeants and officers often courted each other, corrupted the law, and twisted the regulations to their own liking.In this line of work, no one is better than Ernst, the first-level squad leader.Kringle got better.

Klinger was an old concentration camp fox, a stocky Bavarian with graying blond hair.Like the Commander, he was a veteran of Dachau and Sachsenhausen; in fact, it was the Commander who applied for his transfer to Auschwitz.Kringle, a former policeman in Munich, lost his job during the Depression, became a Nazi, and found a place in the SS.Now that work requires him to be ruthless, this family-loving person is no longer as easy-going as before, and has become ruthless.Kringle beat the prisoner's back to pieces while performing his task, and when the tortured man fell down bloodied and unconscious, he wiped off the dripping from the whip with a nonchalant smile. of blood.He personally lined the firing squad to execute prisoners sentenced to death.The usual tone of his conversations with prisoners was a threatening growl.He took a hard blow with a stick and could knock a man down like a scarecrow.Still, Sammy.Mutterpur thought he was "pretty good".Unlike many SS men and prisoner heads, Kringle took no pleasure in torturing the terrified, skeleton-thin prisoners with fear, pain, and death.Besides, he's corrupt, which helps a lot.You can do business with Kringle.

Kringle agreed that the Jew was "not bad" for a Jew.When he was getting drunk with his SS buddies, he would even compliment "my good Jew Sammy."Because in the offices of the Central Building Committee at camp headquarters, where hundreds of German architects, engineers and draftsmen were comfortably working on the never-ending plans for the expansion of Auschwitz, they encountered a need The task of achieving quick and immediate results always says: "Give it to Kringle." Evaluations of Kringle's productivity have improved by leaps and bounds since he left Sachsenhausen.He was about to be promoted to Second Lieutenant 3 Commando Squadron Commander.At his age, from having no rank to having a rank.This is a huge rise, with big gains in prestige and income.How happy his wife and children would be if this came true!He knew he owed it all to Sammy.So he cared about this Jew entirely out of his own interests.

Kringle was now undertaking a huge and urgent task: the rapid erection of the roofs of the thirty-two cells of Battalion B-11-d in Birkenau.Forget walls and roofs, said the committee—just put up trusses, trusses, trusses, wherever you can see.There's a big guy coming to check.Kringle's labor detachment on the edge of Birkenau's new extension.Farther to the west, a large group of prisoners with shaved heads and striped clothes cleared stones, pulled up roots, and leveled the land with shovels and hoes in the marsh where knee-high weeds were growing, preparing to build more barracks, But those barracks were only sketches on the drawing board. B-11-d has already been built, and the more buildings that can actually be seen, the better for the Commander.

Every day the unexpected can happen in Auschwitz: on this day, a terrible and shocking event occurred at Klinger's construction site.Seven gray trucks with canvas tops pulled up on the main road.Kringle ordered seventy men from the labor unit in Banriel—SS guards, prison heads, all of them—to get on the truck and go to the lumberyard to install the posts and rafters.This is a very strange thing.In Auschwitz, man-hours and manpower were in unlimited supply and cost nothing.Prisoners carried lumber to the construction site, even miles if need be.The Germans are reluctant to waste gasoline and tires on this kind of thing.So, what is it?When the prisoners got into the truck.Their faces were disfigured with terror; a few shuffled and swearing prisoners headed them into the wagon with sticks. But the truck did go to the lumberyard.Under the yelling and beatings of the prison leaders.The prisoners loaded hastily, then piled into the wagons in a haphazard manner, and drove back to Camp B-11-d with a rumble.Ben Riel guessed that the stipulated deadline was approaching, so this time an exception had to be taken to act quickly.In general, Auschwitz was a slow-paced, machine-free world where everything happened at the speed of humans.The high-level slaves beat the low-level slaves, while the official overseers beat both the high-level and low-level slaves, which reminded him from time to time that this was simply going back to Egypt under the rule of Pharaoh as written in the Jewish scriptures.It's just that in this Egypt sometimes twentieth-century trucks creak by, overseers have twentieth-century machine guns, and it's not just Jewish boys who are executed. When the truck arrived, another unexpected thing happened.The commander himself was seen standing there with two adjutants in green uniforms, frowning in the sunlight at the strange sight of slaves in cars.His Mercedes was parked by the side of the road.Kringle fawns and flatters in front of him.The head of the prisoner and the guards kept beating and cursing while the prisoners were unloading logs.The prisoners carried the logs and ran desperately to the northernmost building site a few hundred yards away, then hurried back to move again.The head of an old prisoner with a frog face, he had long wanted to make things difficult for Ban Ruier. He turned out to be a bank robber in Vienna, wearing a high-level green triangle armband that indicated his status as a professional criminal. Riel was hit on the skull with a wooden stick, which made Ban Riel's eyes black. "You lazy old bastard, you have a stinky armband, do you think you are great? Go and move the planks, run!" Baen Real staggered, almost fell, and managed to grab a pillar , carried it on his shoulders and ran, thinking dizzily, this prisoner's head is at the right time.In Auschwitz no one could hope for protection in the presence of the commanding officer.But luckily the commander never stayed too long. The Commander himself was having a hard time, though his square, composed face showed no signs of it.He hadn't had such severe stomach cramps since he had been locked up in an isolation cell in Brandenburg for a political murder during the Weimar Republic.No amount of whiskey, painkillers, or anything else I've ever tried, but it still hurts.He had to bite the bullet and endure it, and continue working. He was busy talking in low tones with an adjutant.After a while, the adjutant called Kringle aside.New Order: Dry All Night Under Floodlights!The commander didn't even care about air defense regulations.Stop building trusses.Siding and roofing instead.It was only necessary to put up siding on the side along the road, and only every other cell. The commander gets into his Mercedes.He said to the driver, go back to the mansion to have lunch.lunch!It is considered lucky to be able to store something in the stomach.All morning he had been driving on the route they would take tomorrow.He personally inspected each construction site, estimated possible questions, and raised them with the SS supervisors first, so that they were prepared.The dam site is the worst problem.Berlin did not provide labor, materials and supervisors. IG Farben used everything for its rubber factory in Monowitz.No one can beat starving, unskilled Poles and Jews into a dam.Beat them to death, that's all right, but the Vistula will still flow merrily on its course!If Himmler, the state leader of the SS, really wants to build a dam on the Vistula, let him see how far behind this plan is, so that he can provide the necessary manpower and material resources.Dr. Kammler, the chief architect of Auschwitz, was an SS major general, not just a lowly major like the commander.Berlin could issue these impossible orders, but Dr. Kamler's representatives in Auschwitz had to carry out their tasks.Himmler would listen to Kamler.The commander felt he was quite safe with respect to that dam. His only concern during this whole inspection was the problem of transporting the Jews.Himmler wanted to watch the whole process from beginning to end.The commander tried to estimate everything that could go wrong, and it went wrong months earlier: some people made trouble, screamed, caused panic in others; , so the person is not dead, etc.Now that all obstacles have been cleared, the process is usually smooth.But if something went wrong, it would be no one but himself to be blamed. Besides, there is the problem of disposing of corpses.It won't be long before this technique of mass graves doesn't work; it won't work in Auschwitz.There was no small-scale extermination of Jews like in Chernoborg or Sobibor.Those pen-wielding people in Berlin could never have imagined what a problem it would be to dispose of tens of thousands of corpses.They don't care.They just blindly pursue impressive numbers to show their bosses.But these tons, many tons of organic matter piling up on the grounds of Auschwitz week after week is a fucking headache and a health hazard.Besides, this is still the beginning!Let the leaders of the country see it for themselves! Those mother-in-law guys in Berlin were extremely nervous that the big guy didn't visit this time.They kept presenting him with excellent reports, brushing aside and ignoring the commandant's urgent requests for manpower and material, and complaints about impossible plans.Now they have to beg the Commander to protect their asses.They don't want to get their polished leather boots stained with the mud of Auschwitz; they, the flag captains and first-level brigade captains who lie on their desks all day, live a comfortable life in China, I don't want to come here!And he, just a major, runs an institution bigger than any barracks, probably bigger than any military installation in the world, and growing!Berlin kept telling him to stop complaining and emphasize the positive.To hell with them all. The Mercedes drove up to the beautiful blooming garden in front of the mansion.The commandant's wife was trimming the plants in a wide-brimmed sun hat when he writhed in pain.He knew very well why his stomach hurt so badly.His future will depend on the next seventy-two hours.He could be ignominiously dismissed, thrown out of the SS; or he could be promoted on the spot to lieutenant colonel—a Commando Commander 1st—which, irritatingly, was long overdue.Those are two extremes, and there are many, many possibilities in between.Himmler, the state leader of the SS, doesn't drive there every day in person! His wife asked him to see how the roses were in full bloom, but he rudely walked past her and ignored her.His adjutant was standing behind Tufu waiting.She saw them talking in the house.Her husband looked intently at a document handed to him by the adjutant.He looked quite happy, but suddenly he stared and became angry.He lost his temper.Throwing the document in the adjutant's face and shaking both fists, she could hear his scolding outside the closed window.He made a familiar furious gesture: Go upstairs!That meant top-secret conversations in that little back room off the bedroom.She hurried into the house and reminded the younger son not to dry the barbecue. In fact, the commander was satisfied when he first saw this fine paper and beautiful printing.This timeline starts out well: A Timeline of National Leaders Visiting Auschwitz 8:00-8:30 Airport.Arrival and Greeting.The convoy went to the battalion headquarters. 8:30-8:45 training ground.The marching flag salute is divided into columns.play music.Review the guard of honor. 8:45-9:30 officers' canteen.After breakfast, watch a diagram of the layout of the concentration camp. 9:30-10:00 Architect's Office, Central Planning Commission.SS state leaders visit the model.Vistula river dam, new sewer system, livestock center, Birkenau camp. 10:30-11:00 Take a car tour.Monowitz, Reisko, Buddy.General inspection: 1.G. Farben factory building, river dam construction site, agricultural area, reclamation area, plant research room, tree nursery, livestock farm. 11:00-13:00O special projects. 13:30-15:00 Lunch. It was seeing these last two items that the commander threw the timetable in his adjutant's face and ordered him to go upstairs. The commander yelled.Demanding an explanation, so loudly that it could be heard throughout the house despite the closed door, making his children shiver in their rooms, his wife and cook exchanging apprehensive glances in the kitchen.The adjutant, trembling all over, stammered that the Opelen Railway Administration had ordered the transport cars to arrive before lunch and had instructed the empty cars to turn around quickly.If the commandant himself had called up to Opelen and asked if the train could stop a few hours longer at the Auschwitz freight yard, the Jews might have been able to wait on the train until after lunch. Next, the commandant flew into a fit of rage, something his wife had never seen before.She thought that Himmler was coming to show up, and everyone was going crazy.How glad she would be to weather this storm!For a week, he got drunk every night and took strong sedatives, but he still couldn't sleep.The errand was unbearable.Taking the children and herself as an example, the sooner you leave here, the better.The many new toys and picture books every day for the little ones, the good clothes for the older one, the wonderful servants, the skilled gardener, her own lovely stacks of expensive underclothes and nightgowns, it all made a difference. That's fine, but normal family life is better than all this. Upstairs, the Commander was yelling that the entire timetable had to be reprinted at once.That special project had to be scheduled after lunch, as he had previously ordered.He, the Commander, ordered it himself.The train has to stop as long as it needs to in the freight yard!If the heads of the Opelen Railway Bureau couldn't figure it out, they could spend a few months in the isolation camp in Auschwitz and think it through.This is an errand for the SS state leader!Understand?Any, any interference is not tolerated.What brainless idiot wants the head of state to watch a special operation before lunch?After seeing this kind of thing, how could he have any appetite to eat? That was the gist of the ten-minute invective; the adjutant himself was a ruthless SS captain who had served in Sachsenhausen, and was turned pale and trembling like a Jew about to be beaten in an isolation camp. .The commander had never lost his temper so much.He himself trembled as he sent the adjutant away.The adjutant ran out in a hurry, and as soon as he reached the garden, he vomited out the contents of his stomach, and the filth was still bloodshot. The commander downed half a glass of brandy.The wine calmed him down.When he came down to lunch, the cramping in his stomach was gone.He ate well and was kinder to his wife and children than he had been in a month.Having said that, the rest of the schedule looks pretty good.God forbid, though, if he didn't insist on looking at that printed timetable, it would be a mess!His old rules can never be wrong-"Master's surveillance!" The train stopped out of sight on the other side of the curve.At five minutes to three, its screaming whistle sounded. The SS state leader and his top aides waited on a long wooden platform with the commanding officer.Fortunately, it was sunny again.Near the siding, the lovely shade of the leafy trees kept out the hot afternoon sun.They all had a good meal in the officers' mess; so far the inspection process had gone smoothly.Himmler showed a very reasonable attitude towards the dormant dam.He was obviously impressed by the rapid expansion of the concentration camp.He seemed genuinely happy with the agricultural facility, which had always been his favorite project in Auschwitz, and he was originally in the farming business.He also admired the impressive IG Farben's unfinished factory in Monowitz.The commander was on pins and needles in a hurry.If this thing is done successfully.If nothing goes wrong, the positive consequences of this inspection may be in sight. Smoke from the locomotive appeared over the treetops.I saw the train coming.It was a train of small-scale transport vehicles, arranged by the commander on purpose, ten trucks, about 800 people.The police station in Katowice has been arresting them for several days.The secret room was so densely packed that it could only accommodate 800 people at most.Himmler's personal letter to the commandant was plain: "The whole process at once, from beginning to end." Doing it in two batches would drag out time and disappoint the SS state leader.It's bad enough now! The Commander had seen this process many times—"master's surveillance"—but he hadn't quite gotten used to it.He is ruthless.He knew that the leader of the country was also ruthless.He had heard that Himmler had once been in Russia to watch the execution of a large number of Jews by special operations teams.According to others, it was really rough: order them to dig up thousands of homes for themselves, and then use machine guns to sweep them to death, and just bury their clothes and so on.Auschwitz was handled in a far more benevolent, practical and German way.But, in itself, it is unpleasant.The commander knew how hard this incident was for his own officers.He was very curious and wanted to see Heinrich.How would Himmler react.At the end of the day, it's a fucking bad idea.What if the Germans were defeated?Of course the Commander would never confide in such concerns.At the slightest hint from his subordinates, he suppressed the idea.Still, these thoughts disturbed him from time to time. The train stopped.The Jews started to get out of the car.The SS guards standing along the siding drew back so as not to give any impression of intimidation or threat.It was a group of Jews from the big cities, and they looked well-to-do.They clumsily and staggered out of the cattle cars, blinking in the sun.They helped the elderly, the lame and the children get out of the car.They looked around anxiously, and the mother held the child tightly.But they didn't look panic-stricken, listening intently to Hessler, the commander of the third commando squadron, fluently announce where they would set up their homes, which technology was most needed, and so on.These words are so unbelievable that Hessler and his assistant Omar are constantly embellishing and improving this set of soft nonsense. Then the Jews lined up without difficulty to be chosen.After a while, a few were singled out and sent to the labor camps, and they started walking through some big trees towards Birkenau.The rest silently climbed into the waiting truck.The empty platforms were piled high with their luggage; beautiful objects, many of them leather.Waiting for the cleanup crew to sort them out would be a pretty big extra buck.The Jews seemed to believe Hessler's lines, including the details that all the luggage would be delivered to their residences.residence!Their credulity is very human.No one would believe that his death was imminent, especially on such a beautiful day in June, when the sun was shining and the birds were singing in the trees.A few Jews glanced fearfully at the group of SS officers who were watching the process, but to the Commander none of them seemed to recognize the great SS State Leader Hope. mlay.Maybe they are too focused. The truck full of people didn't start immediately, and the SS officers who came to check were asked to rush to take a quick look at the location of the secret room.What the commander is proud of is that its appearance does not show any flaws at all.There is a big wooden sign beside the road, which reads: disinfection and sterilization.One sees only a peasant's cottage with a thatched roof in an apple orchard—there are thousands of similar cottages in the Polish countryside.There is a neat arrow-shaped wooden sign on the wooden door, which states: Disinfection and sterilization enter here.A few meters away, there are several small wooden houses for undressing. They are newly built with recently ground wood, and they don't look scary at all.The inspecting SS officers went into the cabins marked with women and children.There are numbered clothes hooks on the wall, and below them are benches along the wall, which are used by Jews to hang and fold clothes.There is a sign on the wall with several words: Remember the clothes hook number so that you can find your own items after sterilization! Clothes must be neatly folded! No cluttering! No small talk! The hot sun gave off a strong smell of freshly cut timber in the cabin, which mingled with the scent of apple blossoms that wafted in from the open door.Himmler made no comment.He nodded quickly, short and violently, to show that he had seen enough: on to the next one! The SS officers walked through the apple orchard and into the big wooden house.Here, there were four large, hollow rooms with whitewashed walls that looked odd with their very thick wooden doors and a back door with a large sign leading to the bathroom.An SS man in a white coat stood at a table piled with towels and soap in the corridor.There is a strong smell of disinfectant here.The doors were all open and hooked.The commander unhooked a hook and closed the door, showing Himmler that the heavy iron rod was tightened and the door was closed airtight.He pointed silently to the little vent holes in the wall through which the gas had been thrown.The SS state leader nodded.He pointed with his finger, kind of asking what was going on with the sign about the bathroom. "Go outside," said the commander, "and deal with it." A short but sharp nod. Those trucks are coming.The inspectors left the secret room and gathered under several apple trees, keeping a proper distance, watching the operation. As usual, the first truck contained a dozen or so members of the Special Unit, a group of Jewish prisoners who had been exploited for the operation.This small team speaks several languages.They jumped off the truck and ran to help their fellow Jews get off other trucks.They were decently dressed in civilian clothes; good shirts, trousers, and leather shoes in this warm weather.These special detachment personnel did not wear striped clothes, and of course no wooden shoes, but only the mandatory stripped concentration camp hats.They helped women and children out of the vehicles, and spoke in Yiddish or Polish about the procedures for sterilization, about boarding and working conditions in the camps.At this point, the newly transported Jews have only nine minutes to live, so measures must be taken just in case.SS guards with dogs on leads, armed with guns and wooden sticks, lined up in two cordons, from the front of the truck to the small wooden house where they were undressed.The Jews had no other choice but to go all the way to the wooden house, accompanied by members of the special unit.Squad members were still talking about meals, postal service, and visiting privileges.The commander explained to the silent Himmler that the gang had been going to accompany them into the back room, and had been going to keep this humanitarian deception until the last second.They could not escape until the SS guards went in and closed the doors, which were impenetrable to poison gas. When the commander explained, he did not give Hessler and Aumair the credit for the really ingenious arrangement of using the special detachment, which were the two SS officers.After all, if something went wrong, it wasn't them but he who was to blame!But this system was exactly what the two officers had conceived.They trained batches of special units.Periodically they gas kill a batch and train another batch.The special unit was recruited from among the new arrivals in the isolation camp.The weak, the easily frightened, the unpromising, easily terrified by the brutality of Auschwitz, that's what they're looking for.Hessler and Omar singled them out to live alone in a special barracks and explained the mission to them in straightforward terms.If they could do what they were told, they would live; otherwise, they would be shot on the spot.They can choose.Many people, terrified as they are, would rather take a bullet, a bullet in the neck.Despite this, there are still special team members.Their needs have been met.But even then there were some who couldn't stand the job; tried to remind the newcomers, and even undressed with them and killed themselves.The SS was on the lookout for such people and was often able to catch them.As an example to others, they were severely punished; they were burned alive.What a wise move. The commandant, watching these wretches urging women and children to their deaths, wondered, as usual, what was the matter with them.How can they be so unresponsive to all natural affections, especially to people of their own religious beliefs?The Jew is such an enigma, that's all.He sneaked to Heinrich.Himmler glanced at it, almost dying of fright.Himmler stared blankly at where he was looking.The commander shivered, realizing that this might be the defining moment of the entire inspection, and that it was the only real point.The head of state came to see for himself—"the master's watch"—that the commander of Auschwitz was up to the task.If he flinched now, showed an iota of nervousness or guilt, he would ruin his career, maybe his own life.How long would they allow him to live if he didn't meet the requirements and he knew those things?He'd seen SS men - high ranking ones too - take a bullet. The Jews now hurried together to the hut where they were undressing.He beheld an unexpected sight which overwhelmed his tense nerves.一条狗向一个顶多四五岁的孩子扑过去，对她乱叫，那是个穿着蓝色短连衫裙的小女孩，跟他自己最小的女儿长得很象：黄头发、蓝眼睛、圆滚滚的德国人的脸蛋，一点也不象“犹太人”。这个漂亮的小妞儿紧紧地缩在她母亲的身旁尖叫。做妈妈的把她抱起来，为了哄她。折了一根长着苹果花的细枝，送到小女孩的鼻子前。她们就这样挤在那群犹太人中间走进木房，不见了。司令官在这里看到过几十次叫人心酸的事件，但是这个小女孩的神情月p 个做妈妈的冲动地一把折断那长着花朵的树枝的动作，却叫人受不了——那个母亲看上去也不象犹太人。宣传漫画全是胡闹；第三帝国的这些不共戴天的敌人看上去同其他欧洲人没有什么不一样，大多数都是这样。他早就发现这个情况了。司令官感到肚子痛；绞痛又发作了。他紧绷着脸，不露出一丝表情。 如今至少事情会迅速进行了。 党卫军又排成两道警戒线，从小木房排到那所大木房，中间是一条狭窄的小道。赤身露体的男人先走出来，同往常一样，可怜巴巴的一群——矮胖的、瘦得只剩一把骨头的、瘸腿的、头发灰白的或者秃头的——他们因为害怕，割过包皮的可怜巴巴的生殖器都缩了起来，那不用说。他难得在这里看到一个犹太人有真正的大生殖器。也许身强力壮的人才更富有男性气概。穿得整整齐齐的特别分队人员还混在他们中间讲着，想方设法使他们高兴起来。但是现在这些犹太人死到临头了，脸上免不了有些流露。特别分队人员们的脸色也很难看。司令官是个狠心人，但是他始终不喜欢看走到密室去的犹太人的脸，尤其是男人。 不知什么原因，女人的勇气倒比较大。也许是因为她们的羞耻心分散了注意力，除此以外，还有对孩子们的担心。她们跟在后面走出来，在两排穿军服的年轻德国人中间赤身露体地穿过，脸色倒并不怎么可怕。这些党卫军人员接到严格的命令，必须一言不发，态度严肃，不过他们还是忍不住对有几个长得可爱的女人咧开了嘴傻笑。她们中间总是有相貌漂亮的，而且说到头来，世界上再也没有什么比＿个赤身露体的女人更迷人了；当她抱着或是带着一个赤身露体的孩子的时候，说也奇怪，她就越发美丽了。 对司令官来说，在整个过程中，赤身露体的女人同她们的孩子们走进密室，始终是一个最重要的时刻，美丽、悲伤而恐怖。他想要望望希姆莱，但是他害怕。他一直铁板着脸，但是在最后一批从小木房里走出来的女人中间，他看到了那个折树枝的母亲，那时候他差一点没法保持他沉着安详的态度。她有一个可爱的身段，可怜的人儿。象其他许多女人一样，她一条胳膊抱着孩子，另一只手遮住下身，只得让奶头露着。如果她们抱着一个孩子，她们总是毫无例外地遮住阴毛，露出奶头。这是一个反映妇女天性的奇怪事实。但是使司令官震动的却是那个赤身露体的小女孩。她还拿着那根开着苹果花的树枝呢。 最后一个女人的粉红色背脊消失在大木房里了。党卫军人员冲进去，接着特别分队人员们和那站在肥皂和毛巾旁的穿白大褂的人一起走出来。那一帮来检查的人听到响亮的砰砰关门的声音和吱吱嘎嘎地把门闩紧的声音。一辆漆着红十字的救护车在犹太人脱衣服的时候已经开来，现在党卫军的卫生队人员在车上走下来，戴着防毒面具，提着装氰化物结晶体的罐。刚才看了赤身露体的女人，这个场面可不太好看！话得说回来，他们摆弄的是性命交关的东西。预防措施规定严格。他们打开罐子，从墙上的窄孔里倒进去，一转眼就把活儿干完了。他们重新跨进救护车，车就开走了。 司令官用绝对平稳的声调问党卫军国家领袖，他是不是高兴到密室门外去听听，看看里面。希姆莱就同指挥官一起走去。一帮犹太人的叫声听起来不一样；他们的哀号和呻吟是痛苦而听天由命的，几乎象在祷告，不象俄国俘虏或者波兰人发出野兽似的尖叫和咆哮。当希姆莱把眼睛凑到窥视孔上去的时候，他的脸变样了；到底是扮了个厌恶的鬼脸，还是浮出高兴的微笑，司令官可拿不准。 希姆莱干了一件叫人惊奇的事情。他向一个副官要了一支香烟。同元首一样，希姆莱是不抽烟的，或者说他是被认为不抽烟的。但是现在，当司令官带他转到密室的后面，等待毒气发挥作用的时候，他点起了香烟，安详地抽着。司令官指给希姆莱看那一大片不断扩展的万人家区域，把碰到的越来越多的问题向他说明。只见周围几百米草地上处处都是一个个高大的土堆。一条铁轨在这些土堆中穿过，直通到一个大坑边，坑旁高高堆着泥土，特别分队人员还在那里挖掘呢。希姆莱脸上的表情变得严厉起来。他以古怪的方式鼓起嘴唇周围的皮肤，使得嘴唇也看不见；这分明是表示他非常关心这个问题。 他们来到密室前以来，他头一回开口了；他用平静的声音说得很轻，不是对司令官，而是对一个副官，一个漂亮的高个子上校；上校脱掉一只黑手套，在本子上迅速记录。 后栅栏门一下子开了。从开着的密室门后面，一辆高高堆满赤裸裸尸体的手推车，由另一批特别分队人员，埋葬队人员，前拉后推地顺着铁轨向那帮来检查的人过来。车从党卫军军官们身旁经过的时候，散发出一股消毒剂的气味，有点象石炭酸。那些赤身露体的人看上去同不到半小时以前没多大不同。只是他们现在都一动也不动，身上沾着一道道粪便，乱七八糟地堆在一起，有的张着嘴，有的呆呆地瞪着眼——老人、小孩、漂亮的女人，一堆没有生命的肉体。那些女人的容貌和孩子的妩媚仍然可能被人喜爱。 这帮犹太特别分队人员从头到尾真是干得有条有理极了。在铁轨尽头，他们把手推车的柄抬起来，这样尸体就知到地面上湖乱堆成一堆。有几个人把车推回密室去。其他的人留下来同正从坑里爬出来的挖土人一起，抓住一条胳膊或是大腿把尸体拉到坑边——有几个人用大肉钩，司令官本人对这种做法感到厌恶——把死人一个个扔下去，尸体就看不见了。国家领袖希姆莱感到兴趣。他走到坑边，看队员们在把赤身露体的温暖尸体一排排摆好，在他们身上撒一层白粉。司令官解释，这是生石灰。一定要采取某种措施，因为整个地区的地下水正在遭到污染。甚至党卫军营房里的饮水含菌量已经上升到危险标准。他几次向柏林反映困难，从长远的观点看来，埋葬可不是个办法；艾克曼中校建议的每隔几个星期消灭几十万犹太人的大规模行动一旦开始，埋葬当然不是个办法。 如果不马上采取果断的措施，他坚持说，整个体系就会垮台。什么都不对头。农舍型的密室是凑合着使用的。另一座在附近即将完工，但是这也只能应付一下眼前。焚化场仍然只是中央建筑委员会办公室里漂亮的模型，而柏林根本不管处理尸体的问题。那些特别分队人员继续不断地在把尸体一车车运出来，扔进坑去，一排排堆好，这时候，司令官开诚布公、全神贯注地向党卫军国家领袖谈着他对这个严重问题的看法。他是这么专心在提出要求，所以看到那个还握着断树枝的小女孩的尸体从车里滚下来也不觉难受。 他的一片诚心没有白费。他看得出对方被打动了。希姆莱猛地使劲点点头。他撅起了嘴，使嘴唇也看不见了，接着他向副官们膘了一眼。 “好了吗？”国家领袖说，“下一项是什么？” “焚化场得盖起来，”他第二天到飞机场去以前，秘密接见司令官的时候说。 接见快要结束了。司令官有点慌张地提出最后一个重大的要求，要求准许用犹太人作灭菌试验，这个要求被愉快地同意了。他们在中央建筑委员会办公室的一个内室里。只有掌管整个波兰南部因此也是掌管奥斯威辛集中营的党卫军将军施摩泽尔在场。 “建设焚化场甚至要排在建造IG法本的工厂前面，”希姆莱说，“年底以前要完成。施摩泽尔要把本省其他一切计划搁在一边，优先提供劳动力和材料。”希姆莱对那个将军挥挥他那黑色的短手杖，将军急忙点头。“你以后还会听到我关于处理尸体问题的指示。你把一切困难告诉了我，让我看到了奥斯威辛的真实情况。我对你在非常困难的条件下尽了最大的努力感到满意。眼下是战争期间，我们不得不按照战争的要求来考虑问题。把你最好的建筑人员派去盖焚化场。等他们一盖好肥他们全干掉，懂吗？” “懂，国家领袖先生。” “我提升你为一级突击队大队长。恭喜你。现在我要动身了。” 中校！当场提升！ 一星期以后，恩斯特。克林格尔也被提升为三级突击队中队长。同时，他接到他的建筑人员另有任务的命令。他们有一个新的职称：第二号焚化场劳工分队。