MME. VAILLANT-COUTURIER: Because during the disinfection the women were
naked.
M. DUBOST: This system of demoralization and corruption—was it
exceptional?
MME. VAILLANT-COUTURIER: No, the system was identical in all the camps
where I have been, and I have spoken to internees coming from camps
where I myself had never been; it was the same thing everywhere. The
system was identical no matter what the camp was. There were, however,
certain variations. I believe that Auschwitz was one of the harshest;
but later I went to Ravensbrück, where there also was a house of ill
fame and where recruiting was also carried out among the internees.
M. DUBOST: Then, according to you, everything was done to degrade those
women in their own sight?
MME. VAILLANT-COUTURIER: Yes.
M. DUBOST: What do you know about the convoy of Jews which arrived from
Romainville about the same time as yourself?
MME. VAILLANT-COUTURIER: When we left Romainville the Jewesses who were
there at the same time as ourselves were left behind. They were sent to
Drancy and subsequently arrived at Auschwitz, where we found them again
3 weeks later, 3 weeks after our arrival. Of the original 1,200 only 125
actually came to the camp; the others were immediately sent to the gas
chambers. Of these 125 not one was left alive at the end of 1 month.
The transports operated as follows:
When we first arrived, whenever a convoy of Jews came, a selection was
made; first the old men and women, then the mothers and the children
were put into trucks together with the sick or those whose constitution
appeared to be delicate. They took in only the young women and girls as
well as the young men who were sent to the men’s camp.
Generally speaking, of a convoy of about 1,000 to 1,500, seldom more
than 250—and this figure really was the maximum—actually reached the
camp. The rest were immediately sent to the gas chamber.
At this selection also, they picked out women in good health between the
ages of 20 and 30, who were sent to the experimental block; and young
girls and slightly older women, or those who had not been selected for
that purpose, were sent to the camp where, like ourselves, they were
tattooed and shaved.
There was also, in the spring of 1944, a special block for twins. It was
during the time when large convoys of Hungarian Jews—about
700,000—arrived. Dr. Mengele, who was carrying out the experiments,
kept back from each convoy twin children and twins in general,
regardless of their age, so long as both were present. So we had both
babies and adults on the floor at that block. Apart from blood tests and
measuring I do not know what was done to them.
M. DUBOST: Were you an eye witness of the selections on the arrival of
the convoys?
MME. VAILLANT-COUTURIER: Yes, because when we worked at the sewing block
in 1944, the block where we lived directly faced the stopping place of
the trains. The system had been improved. Instead of making the
selection at the place where they arrived, a side line now took the
train practically right up to the gas chamber; and the stopping place,
about 100 meters from the gas chamber, was right opposite our block
though, of course, separated from us by two rows of barbed wire.
Consequently, we saw the unsealing of the cars and the soldiers letting
men, women, and children out of them. We then witnessed heart-rending
scenes; old couples forced to part from each other, mothers made to
abandon their young daughters, since the latter were sent to the camp,
whereas mothers and children were sent to the gas chambers. All these
people were unaware of the fate awaiting them. They were merely upset at
being separated, but they did not know that they were going to their
death. To render their welcome more pleasant at this time—June-July
1944—an orchestra composed of internees, all young and pretty girls
dressed in little white blouses and navy blue skirts, played during the
selection, at the arrival of the trains, gay tunes such as “The Merry
Widow,” the “Barcarolle” from “The Tales of Hoffman,” and so forth. They
were then informed that this was a labor camp and since they were not
brought into the camp they saw only the small platform surrounded by
flowering plants. Naturally, they could not realize what was in store
for them. Those selected for the gas chamber, that is, the old people,
mothers, and children, were escorted to a red-brick building.