MME. VAILLANT-COUTURIER: Yes, and moreover, I also knew the men who
worked in the gas kommando.
M. DUBOST: You have told us about the Jewish mothers. Were there other
mothers in your camp?
MME. VAILLANT-COUTURIER: Yes, in principle, non-Jewish women were
allowed to have their babies, and the babies were not taken away from
them; but conditions in the camp being so horrible, the babies rarely
lived for more than 4 or 5 weeks.
There was one block where the Polish and Russian mothers were. One day
the Russian mothers, having been accused of making too much noise, had
to stand for roll call all day long in front of the block, naked, with
their babies in their arms.
M. DUBOST: What was the disciplinary system of the camp? Who kept order
and discipline? What were the punishments?
MME. VAILLANT-COUTURIER: Generally speaking, the SS economized on many
of their own personnel by employing internees for watching the camp; SS
only supervised. These internees were chosen from German common-law
criminals and prostitutes, and sometimes those of other nationalities,
but most of them were Germans. By corruption, accusation, and terror
they succeeded in making veritable human beasts of them; and the
internees had as much cause to complain about them as about the SS
themselves. They beat us just as hard as the SS; and as to the SS, the
men behaved like the women and the women were as savage as the men.
There was no difference.
The system employed by the SS of degrading human beings to the utmost by
terrorizing them and causing them through fear to commit acts which made
them ashamed of themselves, resulted in their being no longer human.
This was what they wanted. It took a great deal of courage to resist
this atmosphere of terror and corruption.