Auschwitz – 58 Jewish workers murdered by one of their own. A total of sixty workers were being transferred from Auschwitz’ working camp to Krakow. On the way, they stayed the night in a church only to continue their hike the next day.
A couple of Jews had misbehaved and as a punishment and for the safety of the guards, they were locked up in a room inside of the church. Unfortunately, they managed to break out and started attacking our hardworking Nazi guards. The guards succeeded in returning them to the church and secured the entire building. One of the sinners started a fire, which caused everyone inside to burn to death. Two of the sixty workers survived and continued their travel to Krakow’s working camp. The 5 Nazi guards tried to save the other 58 Jews from death. Nevertheless, they did not succeed as it already was too late. The five Nazi guards received a medal for this heroic deed.
Berlin – Hanna Schmitz committed suicide yesterday. She was a former Nazi guard, who had received a lifelong sentence in 1965. During WWII, inmates of Auschwitz’ concentration camp were deported to create space for new inmates. Each time, sixty prisoners were transferred to other camps to perform even more forced labour. This group of people usually consisted of women and children who were Jewish. In 1944, a group of inmates from Auschwitz were being deported to the concentration camp of Krakow by foot.
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During their hike, these deported inmates spent the night in a church. Suddenly, the church was caught on fire. The prisoners could not flee the church as the doors were locked by five female Nazi officers who were situated outside the church during the fire and claim that they could not have done anything to save them. As a result, all Jewish inmates who were inside the church burned to death, except a mother with her daughter. During the fire, the two survivors fled to a small gallery of the church. The fire did not reach them and thus they survived the fire.
Years later, in 1964, the five Nazi officers were put on trial for the implication of the fire and for letting nearly all inmates burn to death, whilst having a key to unlock the doors of the church. Furthermore, they were all accused of voluntarily going to the Schutzstaffel, also known as the SS, to work as a guard in a concentration camp. Hanna Schmitz is the defendant who received the heaviest sentence. Prior to applying for a job at the SS, she worked at Siemens for a couple of years and lived in her own apartment in Germany. She became a Nazi guard and worked in two different concentration camps. Thereafter, she moved an unknown amount of times to various concentration camps. She was one of the five Nazi officers involved in the incident.
According to the four other defendants, she had seized command, which Hanna Schmitz herself later confirmed as well. She confessed to doing the talking and the writing and hence, had made all the decisions. Keeping the doors locked of a burning church with women and children dying inside, was one of those decisions. Therefore, the punishment of the judge was a lifelong sentence. After eighteen years spent in prison Hanna Schmitz’ clemency appeal was approved. In 1983, she was about to be released into the modern world again. However, one day before her release she committed suicide by hanging herself at daybreak.
During the trials in 1964, the last survivor of the church fire had given testimony against Hanna Schmitz and the other four defendants. In 1980 she published a novel including biographical aspects about her life in the cruel, barbarous, inhumane concentration camps in Germany. After the war, she moved to New York to start a new life. As an effect of the war, she still suffers from nightmares and physical issues. To make matters worse, her mother, who also survived the church fire, passed away recently.
Therefore, she ended up in a dark and depressive phase of her life. In a previous interview with her just after the trials, she was asked if she would accept money as compensation for what happened to her. As a response, she said: ‘Many people have offered me money, but I do not accept that. What happened to me and to many others cannot be brushed away with money. However, certain words or actions of those guilty people could fill up as compensation and might offer me a little bit of inner peace.’
Lisa continued with an example: ‘A man named Michael came to me with the money of Hanna Schmitz a couple of years ago. I did not want her money, I just wanted the tin it was placed in. It reminded me of one that was taken away from me in Auschwitz.’ She appreciated Michael’s gesture and kept the tin as a little repayment. At that point, she was asked if she could ever forgive the five Nazi guards, to which she responded ‘no’.
After Hanna’s suicide in 1983, she was asked the exact same question. This time she responded with:
‘I have forgiven them, although I never thought I would.’
She continued, saying: ‘At first, I did not think I would ever be able to do so. I just could not live with myself and my traumas. My therapist helped me get through it and forgive everyone so that I could go on with my life.
