Auschwitz Concentration Camp

Pery Broad – SS Man

The following pages are extracts from the reminiscences of Pery Broad

Member of the SS personnel in Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

Gas

One day corpses of Russian prisoners of war were dragged out of a dark cell. As they lay in the yard they looked strangely bloated and had a bluish tinge, though they were relatively fresh. Several older prisoners who had been through World War One remembered seeing corpses like that. Suddenly they understood …. Gas.

The first attempt at the greatest crime, which Hitler and his helpers planned and committed in a frightening way, never to be expiated was successful. The greatest tragedy could then begin, a tragedy to which millions of happy people, innocently enjoying their lives, finally succumbed.

From the first company of the SS Totenkopfsturmbann, stationed in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, SS Hauptscharfuhrer Vaupel selected six particularly trustworthy men. Among them were those who had been members of the Black General SS for years. They had to report to SS-Hauptscharfuhrer Hossler.

After their arrival Hossler cautioned them to preserve the utmost secrecy as to what they would see in the next few minutes. Otherwise death would be their lot. The task of the six men was to keep all roads and streets completely closed around an area near the Auschwitz crematorium.

Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/perybroad.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org