DAW: Can you introduce yourselves,
please ?!
Harald: My Name is Harald [3]. I am 25 years and a waiter.
Jochen: I am Jochen. Also 25 and a student
...
DAW: You have been going through the archives
of the former concentration camp at Sachsenhausen for evidence about
§ 175 prisoners. How did that come about?
Harald: The idea wasn’t ours but that of
a group from Leipzig working in Buchenwald KZ on the theme of coming
to terms with the past in the GDR. With this idea we discussed in
the AG “Courage“ [4]
what were the possibilities of doing something similar in the Berlin
area. … So we started going through the files in the Sachsenhausen
archive. The historical assessment of these times has been very
one-sided so far. The activities of communists was very much stressed.
We want to include the § 175-ers as well.
DAW: Did you have problems getting permission
to look through the files in the archive ?
Harald:
At that time – September 1989 – it was quite difficult. Our
first attempts were blocked at a certain (administrative C.M-S)
level. We were also denied full access to the archive. But in the
course of the “Changes” we have gained access to all materials.
[5]
DAW: The Paragraph 175 prisoners were
often called pink triangle prisoners. Why ?
Jochen: The fascists catalogued the prisoners
in the camps. This means that for each guard it was obvious
the reason why the prisoner was in the camp. So there was a yellow
triangle for Jews, a green triangle for professional criminals and
for the § 175 prisoners there was the pink triangle and they had
to be sown onto the clothing.
DAW: Various sources speak of 50,000 victims
of the Nazis. Can you speak about that?
Harald: It is difficult to talk about numbers
because there are no reliable numbers. People have relied on reports
from former prisoners; there was a myth that 100,000 homosexuals
had been murdered in the camps. From what I have learned so far
from the Sachsenhausen archive this is wrong.
....
DAW: How is the work going?
Jochen: In the meantime we have access
to the whole archive which is stored in Sachsenhausen. This is however,
only 10 to 12 per cent of that part of the archive which survived
the war. Most of it is copies of files in Russia. – around 13,000
papers. The greater part is still in Moscow. The part in Sachsenhausen
is for the most part statistics about the inmates of the camp, files
from the sick bay, registration of prisoners and departures including
the death of prisoners.
DAW: Are there any first results?
Harald: We have established by simply reading
the files that ... the § 175-ers´from the middle of 1941 were isolated
in an extra barrack – No. 14 . We also know that medical experiments
were carried out on the pink triangle prisoners. The number of prisoners
(in Sachsenhausen) ranges from 40 in 1939 to “hundreds”. We don’t
have any more exact numbers – so many of the files are still in
Moscow.
DAW: Could you say something about the
brickworks (Klinkerwerk)?
Jochen: Near the camp at Sachsenhausen
which is close to Oranienburg – is a “sub-camp” called Klinkerwerk
in German. At first a harbour was built (on a canal C.M-S) and then
elsewhere clay was dug. This clay was moved by prisoners pushing
dumper-wagons along a small “railway”. It was very hard work. The
“frontier” of the area was marked by a low level chain linking posts.
The rails were very close to the “frontier” of the sub-camp. During
a special murder campaign in 1942 the following method was repeatedly
used. An overseer from the SS pushed a prisoner so hard that he
fell against another prisoner. In order to keep his balance the
second prisoner had to step over the chain. Since that was along
the side of the railway. This was at once regarded as an “attempted
escape” and the result was usually to be shot dead by one of the
SS men It is possible for some this was a form of suicide.
DAW: You mentioned 1942. Was that a special
year ?
Harald: We can show that there was a “elimination
campaign“ in the Klinkerwerk in this year. How far this was “orders
from above” or a decision of the camp administration is not clear.
We know that at this point in time there were not only German §175-ers,
but Polish and Dutch citizens and even a Chinese. … In our preparations
we must say some of the “results” are only indications and have
to be checked. Personally I hope that we will be able to hang a
memorial on the site of the former Block 14, so that it will be
clear to visitors that it was not only communists and social. democrats,
but also pink triangle prisoners who suffered under the Nazi terror.
Jochen: We would like to stress that the
fate of the pink triangle prisoners should not be isolated. It
was not only they who were victims, but their deaths should not
have been in vain. Silence means death and we have been silent
for much too long.
Endnotes
[1] The original says „and lesbians” – but although
this is an attempt to be politically correct. It is not true.
[2] Originally 1934 but this is a slip of the tongue.
[3] Since it has not yet been possible to ask for permission
to publish them, the names have been changed or removed.
[4] AG Courage was a split from von the Sonntags-Club.
“Courage“ only survived about 18 Months, after the „Changes“ but
its spiritual „offspring“ Die Andere Welt is still being
published..
[5] Joachim Muller, (from West Berlin) began research
into the theme earlier. Attempts to lay wreaths in the mid 1980s
were prevented by the Stasi or its supporters.
Colin de la Motte-Sherman
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