SS concentration camp officer testimony
Extent and Medium
folder
1
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Hanna Marx
Hanna Marx donated the letter received by her father-in-law to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2013.
Scope and Content
Consists of one typed testimony, eight pages with some additional pieces, written by an unknown author, about the testimony of an SS officer regarding his work in concentration camps, including Treblinka. The author describes begins the essay by describing his surprise when one day in 1943, he ran into an old acquaintance on a street in Berlin. The friend, who had previously been imprisoned on account of his activities with the Confessing Church, was wearing an SS officer's uniform, much to the author's surprise. The friend confided in the author that he was using this position to record information about German war crimes, includling those he witnessed at Treblinka, and was trying to get a report out to either a Lutheran bishop in Sweden, or to the theologian Karl Barth, who had fled to Switzerland. The author does not know what became of his friend, but he set down his account of this meeting from memorya at a later date, and described in detail his friend's testimony about Treblinka. The exact date of the testimony is unknown, but is circa 1945. The testimony was given to Elias Marx, a former Theresienstadt inmate. Due to the fragile nature of the letter, several pieces appear to be missing.
Corporate Bodies
Subjects
- Waffen SS--Personal testimonies.
Genre
- Document