A couple things to be said here. Our revisionist friends have tried purveying a “no true Christian” version of the usual denier fallacy about the SKs and Kapos in the camps, which goes like this: the Jews were not exterminated, Jews are immoral for having participated in the crimes against other Jews. No true Christian, we now here, would behave like this infamous Jews.
Taking a bit of a look at Majdanek, and considering three testimonies I just happened to read today, let’s see how the revisionist argument works out. In the following testimonies we will see descriptions of Polish (Christian) prisoners and German (presumably Christan) staff at Majdanek participating in crimes against Polish, Jewish, and other prisoners. Which goes to show that, as we can show that crimes were committed in the camp against Polish, Jewish, and other prisoners, Poles and Germans participated in them in varying ways and under different pressures - the Poles, like Jews in other camps, were forced and participated under duress, the Germans as part of their jobs or out of ideological or other commitment to the goals of the Third Reich.
Romauld Sztaba, physician, political prisoner, entered Majdanek in February 1943, testified in Düsseldorf Majdanek trial, discussing a selection in the hospital (Banach, Grudzińska, & Lenarczyck, The Prisoners of Majdanek, p 83):
Actually there was not much we could do to help people with typhoid. A patient stayed in hospital for 12-14 days. . . . None of the Polish doctors selected people for gas chambers or decided about that. What we had to do was just present the ill and their febrile cards. The selection was always conducted by German doctors, and sometimes non-commissioned officers. The emaciated skeletons were arranged in a line, trembling with weakness and temperature. . . . They walked unsteadily one by one on their thin legs, big shaved heads, terrified eyes, not really aware of what was happening. An SS man stood in the middle, then a kapo or two non-commissioned officers, and then me. One of them decided: to the left – gas; to the right – still can live a little. And that’s it. He took the medical cards of the people who were going to the left, and gave all the others to me. The sick were to be prepared for the ‘transport’ within four hours.
Polish prisoner Stzaba’s participation was “restricted” to supplying medical information that helped Germans determine which prisoners to gas.
Eugenia Piwińska, political prisoner from Pawiak, entered Majdanek January 1943, discussing camp functionaries (Banach, Grudzińska, & Lenarczyck, The Prisoners of Majdanek, p 44):
There appeared a tiny group of ‘prominent camp women’ in the worst sense of the word. They were appointed by the SS to high functions and decided to cooperate with the torturers. They were the ones with whips, planks, riding crops in hand, who chased prisoners around the field, distributing frequent lashes and curses, kicks and slaps. . . . We hated and despised them as much as we hated the Germans, perhaps even more, because they were traitors. . . .
Here a Polish political prisoner describes the actions of prisoners elevated to “prominent” functionary positions and the hatred most prisoners had for such “traitors.” It seems that our rev friends are unaware of the concept of treachery or believe that it is a specifically Jewish characteristic.
Mordechai Sztrygler, Zamość, Yiddish writer, entered Majdanek end of May 1943 (Banach, Grudzińska, & Lenarczyck, The Prisoners of Majdanek, p 61):
Apart from the factories . . . the largest workplace was road construction company Polstefan along with its subsidiary – the headquarters. It was the worst place to work at Majdanek. . . . The main perpetrator responsible for these criminal deeds [tormenting of prisoners] in this square was a tall kapo, Viennese Take, who supervised work at the headquarters. . . . Mere beating would not satisfy him. . . . He often . . . strangled his victim to death. Another one of his pleasures was drowning people.
In this case a Jewish prisoner describes the sometimes lethal treatment meted out to other prisoners by an Austrian Kapo.
These testimonies are typical of what happened at Majdanek, where the core of the prisoner functionaries - those who assisted the Germans in keeping order in the camp and even in carrying out crimes against the prisoners, up to and including murder - were Germans transferred from KLs in the Reich and then Poles who entered the camp later. Our rev pals are mistaken to think that Jews only were enlisted by force to serve in the camps and help the Germans run them. The role was filled with ambiguity: perhaps by serving, a prisoner could try to ameliorate the intended treatment of fellow prisoners or assist the underground. Or even find a way to survive. Some Kapos, to be sure, used their positions to gain privileges and lord their power over prisoners, in accord with German aims, whilst others either behaved differently in different circumstances - and some functionaries were recalled as benevolent and helpful to the prisoners in their charge, taking risks in disobeying their German masters. These considerations, and decisions, were characteristic of all kinds of prisoners in Nazi custody: POWs, political prisoners, asocials and criminal inmates, Jewish prisoners, and so on.
