Saturday, January 27, 2024

A review of “Auschwitz: The Nazis and the ‘Final Solution’” (BBC)



Warning: This blog post contains some disturbing pictures, which I simply cannot omit.

By far the most infamous episode of the twentieth century …

The Holocaust is, by far, the most infamous episode of the twentieth century. It was a crucible for Jewish history, claiming the lives of six million Jews in all. But when you add in the other victims of the Holocaust, the death toll goes up even further to ten million. The other victims include Poles, homosexuals, the Romani people, and anyone else that the Nazis disliked. Both numbers are so large as to seem incomprehensible, but they come from the figures of the Nazis themselves. Indeed, the Nazis seemed almost to be proud of the enormity of these numbers. Anti-Semitism, of course, has roots going back far before the twentieth century, and so do pogroms and other violence against Jews. But the Nazi manifestation of it is the most infamous example of this phenomenon, and it is the most widely-known (and widely-condemned) genocide in history. Sadly, there have been other genocides as well, but it would be beyond the scope of this blog post to attempt to list them here. Suffice it to say that the Holocaust is still an important topic, and that the BBC was right to cover it in this series.


An aerial reconnaissance photograph of the Auschwitz concentration camp, 1944

There were several Nazi concentration camps, of which Auschwitz was the biggest

The series is usually called “Auschwitz: The Nazis and the ‘Final Solution.’” This is because the Nazis chillingly referred to this genocide as the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.” But this documentary has also been titled “Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State.” It is six episodes long, and may be the most in-depth documentary on this tragic episode. You might already know that there were many Nazi concentration camps, of which Auschwitz was the biggest. This series is focused specifically on Auschwitz, mentioning other camps (such as Treblinka) only as context for what happened at Auschwitz. Nonetheless, one could see Auschwitz as the Holocaust in microcosm, even though it was a disproportionately large number of the deaths. In the Nuremberg trials, the longest-reigning commandant of Auschwitz (Rudolf Höss) was accused of murdering three and a half million people. He replied: “No. Only two and one half million—the rest died from disease and starvation.” This confession, along with the callous (and flippant) way in which it was delivered, led to his later execution in 1947 – one of the healing positives of the Nuremberg verdicts. But that’s a subject for another post. Here, let me dive into the story of the Holocaust itself, and how this disturbing episode began.



Episode 1: “Surprising Beginnings” (a.k.a. “Surprise Beginnings”)

The first episode is called “Surprising Beginnings” – or, alternatively, “Surprise Beginnings.” It talks about the origins of the camp. They interview surviving inmates from Auschwitz, but they also interview SS officers involved in administering the “Final Solution.” One of them admits to participating in murders of inmates by firing squad. He says that he felt “nothing” when he shot people, except for a desire to hit his target “properly.” He talks of extreme hatred of the Jews, fueled by blaming some of the Jews that he had encountered in his youth. There are also quotations from the memoirs of Rudolf Höss, dramatized by a voice actor. Given that Höss was executed in 1947, I was surprised that he had written any kind of memoir before he died, but have now verified that he did write one. They also quote from the appointment diary of Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS – who later committed suicide, to avoid being captured and tried for his various crimes. These things help to show the mentality of the war criminals.


Public execution of Masha Bruskina, a Belarusian Jew who helped Soviet prisoners escape, 1941

This film uses newsreels, photographs, and real footage wherever possible. Some of the Nazi newsreel narrations are shockingly cold – for example, mandating the killing of disabled people who were considered a “burden.” But this film also makes extensive use of re-enactments. In part, this is because little of the Holocaust itself was ever filmed while it was still going on. Most of the visual record comes from the later liberation of the camps at the war’s end. Thus, my own estimate is that they re-enact more than 80% of what they show on-screen here. Originally, the Nazis used Auschwitz for killing these disabled people, and for killing captured Soviets from the Eastern Front. They also killed many Polish political prisoners as well. The film shows how they moved from killings by firing squad to killings by poison gas. Initially, it was carbon monoxide that they used, but they later moved to the gas that became their infamous signature: “Zyklon B.” After the episode, one feels as horrified and creeped out as any other emotion, although the scenes involving the killing of children definitely leave a fair measure of sorrow as well.


Execution of Soviet civilians by firing squad, 1941

Episode 2: “Orders & Initiatives”

The second episode is called “Orders & Initiatives.” It begins by talking about the deportation of German Jews to Polish ghettos. The already-crowded ghettos became even worse. The Nazis forced some of the leaders of the Jewish community to make life-and-death decisions about fellow prisoners. Betrayals and backstabbings among prisoners of the ghetto were commonplace, because they could make the difference between life and death for the betrayer. One woman talks of being … molested by one of her fellow prisoners, for a period of several months. She was powerless to stop him, because of his power to deport her even further. The true horrors of these ghettos thus start to become clear here. Elsewhere, other concentration camps were improvising methods that would later be used at Auschwitz. Camps originally built for Polish political prisoners – and, later, for Soviet prisoners of war – were now being used to exterminate the Jews.


A body lying in the street of the Warsaw Ghetto in the General Governorate, 1941

There are re-enactments of Nazi planning meetings, in which they decided how to implement the “Final Solution.” These are taken from surviving documents recording the minutes of these meetings. They also depict meetings between the Nazis and their Slovakian allies. In these meetings, the Slovakians agreed to pay the Germans to deport women and children to these camps, rather than just those that were deemed “able to work.” One is constantly creeped out by the events described. Again, eyewitness testimony from the prisoners sheds light on what happened. Some testify of how they saw canisters of powdered gas dropped into the crammed buildings full of unsuspecting prisoners, whose fates were thus sealed in this way. Others testify as to how they were forced to bury the victims in mass graves, who steadily streamed in from the nearby gas chambers. A surviving inmate talks of how his father and brother were among those buried in these mass graves.


Heinrich Himmler (second left) visits the IG Farben plant in Auschwitz, 1942

Episode 3: “Factories of Death”

The third episode is called “Factories of Death.” More than any previous episode, it dramatizes the experiences of those individual victims who survived. Some of them were only children when separated from their parents, and sent to separate camps. Some of these were French Jews, while others were local Jews from the nearby British Channel Islands. In all of these stories, the essential element is the same: the collaborationists in the occupied governments helped the Nazis by deporting their Jewish populations to distant camps. In fairness, not all of them knew that the Jews were already scheduled to be murdered, but they must have known of the Nazis’ intense dislike of the Jews. Some officials bargained with the Nazis to deport only those Jews who were foreigners – thus sparing some local Jews, for the time being at least. Jewish adults at the camps tried their best to help care for the Jewish children who were there, temporarily taking the place of their parents in this regard. One Polish political prisoner talks of how he actually escaped from Auschwitz. He was one of the few ever to do so successfully.


Jews being killed during the 1941 Lviv pogroms, mainly by local Ukrainians

On the other side, they interview an SS officer who did not participate in the killings of Jews, although he admits that he did buy into the Nazis’ anti-Semitic propaganda. Documents show that he asked to be transferred elsewhere to fight on the Eastern Front, rather than remain there at Auschwitz. But this request was denied, and so he remained there as a Nazi soldier – sorting out the belongings that were constantly being stolen from the new arrivals. That was his alternative duty, which was at least better than killing people. Another SS officer actually risked his life to shelter Jews, and so to keep them alive – cleverly pleading that they were “useful” for slave labor, in his efforts to spare them. The Nazi records show that Heinrich Himmler planned to retaliate against this man after the war, by expelling him from the Nazi Party. But this man lived for some years after the war, and was honored posthumously as a hero in postwar Israel. He is a reminder that not all Germans were willing to participate in the infamous “Final Solution.” But for every person who did this, there are many others who enthusiastically supported (and even participated in) the Holocaust, allowing it to claim many victims by the time that it ended in 1945.


Women on their way to the gas chamber – Auschwitz, 1944

Episode 4: “Corruption”

The fourth episode is simply entitled “Corruption.” It gets its name from the corruption that was so rampant among the SS officers in the camp. When belongings and money were stolen from the incoming prisoners, the government expected the proceeds to be sent to the state. But SS officers often pocketed the items for themselves. This is why Auschwitz was considered a surprisingly “attractive” duty for many German officers – better than fighting on the Eastern Front. The guards felt that they could do whatever they wanted at Auschwitz. One describes how he found his life there to be “good.” Another says that he felt no remorse about stealing these things for himself, and only cared about avoiding being caught by his superiors. But there are other things covered in this episode, too. On orders from the very top of the SS, a brothel was opened there. It was meant to reward the most productive male prisoners for their labor, provided that they were not of Jewish extraction. One of the prisoners admits to using the services of the women there. Very little is known about the women who worked there, because few care to talk about it. But it seems safe to presume that their living conditions were, in some ways, the worst in the camp. Women who were free from hard labor were often vulnerable to … other hazards.


Women in Auschwitz, 1944

But there is one other subject that I should note here. That is to say, there was an escape from the Sobibor concentration camp. At the time, there were 600 people at the camp. 300 of them escaped. Of those who escaped, only 50 survived the war, since many were re-captured and executed. They also go into another successful fleeing in occupied Denmark. One German official warned the Danish government of the coming deportations of the Jews, perhaps to avoid the logistical trouble of having to deport them himself. Thus, the Danish government warned its Jewish population of what was soon coming. The result was that many of them were able to flee to safety in Sweden. The episode also discusses the Nazi medical experiments at Auschwitz, many of which were performed on children. I will spare the reader the horrifying details of these experiments.


Aerial view of Auschwitz-Birkenau, taken by the RAF in 1944

Episode 5: “Frenzied Killing” (a.k.a. “Murder and Intrigue”)

The fifth episode is called “Frenzied Killing” – or, alternatively, “Murder and Intrigue.” It describes the most notorious period in the history of Auschwitz, which is really saying something. Obviously, this involved a lot of people being murdered in cold blood. But other parts of the episode are about negotiations with the Allies. By this point, the Allies were somewhat more aware of what was going on in these camps. The Germans offered to sell some of these Jews to the Allies, in exchange for trucks. But the British, Americans, and Soviets were all agreed on one point: no negotiations with the Nazis. There is evidence that some American officials did not want their country to be inundated with Jewish refugees from Europe. But mixed in with these were some more understandable motives. For example, the Allies were reluctant to provide the Nazis with any equipment that could be used against the Allies, such as the trucks. They also were reluctant to bomb the railway lines leading to the camps, because they felt that the Allied bombers should instead be used to support the Allied ground troops in their own mission.


Jews arriving at Auschwitz in German-occupied Poland, 1944

Since the Nazi-controlled train system had been bombed and deprived of fuel, the Germans forced many Hungarian Jews into death marches across the wilderness. Some of them were brought to neutral Switzerland and freed, as a so-called “gesture of good faith” – meant to convince the Allies to negotiate. Other deportees poured into Auschwitz, where they were subsequently murdered. SS officers continued to be the ones who dropped “Zyklon B” into the gas chambers, but they outsourced some of the burning of the bodies to the inmates. Some of the inmates testify to doing this, because they were being forced at gunpoint to do so. (Understandable, given this threat.) As the war’s end drew near, it became clear to many of the SS officers that Germany was going to lose the war. Thus, many of them tried to destroy the incriminating evidence that they had left behind. Many of the documents, gas chambers, and crematoria were burned, to hide the evidence of what had happened there. Prisoners were transported in subzero temperatures to places outside of Auschwitz. For me, this may have been the saddest episode of the series – which, again, is really saying something.


Jewish women and children from Hungary walking toward the gas chamber – Auschwitz, 1944

Episode 6: “Liberation & Revenge”

The last episode is called “Liberation & Revenge.” It talks about a number of different topics. As the title implies, one of these topics is simply: the liberation of the camps. They show footage from the liberation of Bergen-Belsen by the British. Even by Holocaust standards, this footage has become infamous, because of the piles of dead bodies. For sanitary reasons, they were moved by a British bulldozer. This was to allow soldiers to avoid any direct contact with the dead, which could have contaminated the living. The inmates liberated by the Western Allies, such as the British and Americans, fared somewhat better. But Auschwitz was in Poland, well into Soviet-controlled territory. Thus, its fate was somewhat different. You might already know that many German women were raped by Russian soldiers. Sadly, many of the female inmates suffered the same fate when they were “liberated” by the Russians. (Some “liberation.”) Thus, their ordeal continued afterwards. The Soviet authorities refused to respect pre-war private property rights. Thus, many of the Jewish survivors went to their pre-war homes, only to find that other people were now living there instead. The Soviets didn’t care to evict the new owners, so many inmates lived in even worse poverty than everyone else in the Soviet Empire.


A mass grave at Bergen-Belsen after the camp’s liberation – Germany, 1945

Moreover, Joseph Stalin was suspicious of every Soviet soldier who had been taken captive. Thus, Stalin decreed that they should all be treated as “suspected traitors,” and some were even sent to the gulag because of this. Thus, many of the Russian soldiers who had endured the ordeal of Auschwitz now had to endure the ordeal of the gulag on top of it. But this episode also talks about the war crimes trials conducted by the Allies. Sadly, nearly 90% of those involved were never tried, although some were. Some of them were even executed for their crimes. Despite the aforementioned SS attempts to destroy the evidence of these crimes, plenty of it survived, and fell into Allied hands to boot. Other SS officers escaped to South America, or tried to blend in among the German populace. But there were Jews who sought to find and punish those who had escaped. Some of the perpetrators were thus killed in improvised vigilante executions. Others, such as Adolf Eichmann, were brought to trial and executed with more due process. The inmates who had been forced at gunpoint to bury and cremate the fallen victims were usually spared from prosecution. The Nazis had always committed the actual murders, so few wanted to prosecute the inmates who had forcibly helped them to dispose of the bodies.


Young survivors at the camp, “liberated” by the Red Army – Auschwitz, Poland 1945

Conclusion: The BBC gives a well-researched presentation of a grim, even horrid, topic

I seldom cover genocide on this blog, because it is a depressing topic – and because there are many other important historical topics to blog about. But unfortunately, there are still some today who deny that the Holocaust happened. Their numbers are few, but they include a former president of Muslim Iran, who shared the Antisemitism of the Nazis. Holocaust deniers seem to range from Anti-Semitic Nazi sympathizers to people who just need to have their meds adjusted. But one thing is shared by all of them: a willingness to ignore mountains of evidence against their point of view. I do not claim to offer the definitive evidence here, since I can only scratch the surface of this topic in a brief blog post. But this documentary’s coverage is among the best out there. It is well-researched, and well-supported by evidence – with every claim backed up by multiple sources, just as the filmmakers say. These episodes still make for horrid viewing (no surprise there), but I can well understand the need for such films, and for our secondary school students to see things like this in the classroom. I wouldn’t recommend this series to the faint of heart, unless someone has their head in the sand about whether or not the Holocaust really happened. But this series will remain a valuable historical record of one of history’s most tragic episodes. It will give a much-needed testimony about what horrible things happened in areas controlled by Nazi Germany, and what people were able to “justify” in their own minds.

Footnote to this blog post:

I link below to a DVD that has this program about the Holocaust. But this program is also sold as part of the “BBC History of World War II.” If viewers are interested in the other documentaries in this series, I presume that it’s probably cheaper to get them all at once. However, I link to both versions below, so that viewers may be presented with multiple options. Viewers may do as they please.


Also available as part of the “BBC History of World War II”

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