Selections upon arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau
After arriving at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the men and women were separated and the people from the Secret Annex were selected for the camp. The women stayed in Auschwitz-Birkenau, while the men later went to Auschwitz I.
After the arrival of the eight people from the Secret Annex at Auschwitz-Birkenau on the night of Tuesday 5 to Wednesday 6 September 1944, the first selection took place on the Rampe (loading platform) where men and women were separated. Anne last saw her father there.[1]
This was followed by a selection in which the camp doctor determined who was fit to work and who would be sent straight to the gas chambers.[2] According to the applicable selection criteria, men and women roughly between the ages of 15 and 50 were selected for labour.[3] Regardless of their age, mothers with children under 15 were also sent to the gas chamber. Yet even the good physical impression of an older person could be decisive for not being sent to the gas chamber. The selection was done hastily, in the dark, without any proper inspection and with great randomness. Because of the transport, prisoners were often in poor physical and/or visible condition (regardless of their age).[4]
Some 370 persons from this transport were gassed immediately upon arrival. On the basis of the camp numbers used, it can be deduced that 648 (399 men and 249 women) of the 1019 persons on the transport list entered the camp administration. This means that after the initial selection, 371 persons were directly killed: 231 women and 140 men. That is about 36.5% of the entire transport.[5] All eight people from the Secret Annex survived this selection for the gas chamber.
From here, the men were sent to a men's camp at Auschwitz I, while the women remained in Birkenau and ended up in a women's camp.
Footnotes
- ^ Familiearchief Anne Frank-Fonds (AFF), Bazel, Alice Frank, AFF_AlF_corr_10: Otto Frank aan Alice Frank-Stern, 8 juni 1945. Zie ook: Anne Frank Stichting, Anne Frank Collectie, Otto Frank Archief, reg.code OFA_071: Otto Frank aan Alice Frank-Stern, 23 februari 1945 (‘Wir sind seit 5. Sept. 44 getrennt’).
- ^ Enkele getuigen van het transport van 3 september noemen de aanwezigheid van Mengele bij de tweede selectie: Ronnie Goldstein-van Kleef, Lenie de Jong-van Naarden, Anita Mayer-Roos, Rachel van Amerongen-Frankfoorder, in: Willy Lindwer, De laatste zeven maanden. Vrouwen in het spoor van Anne Frank, Hilversuim: Gooi & Sticht, 1988.
- ^ De bewering in de brochure van het Nederlandse Rode Kruis, dat standaard iedereen boven de vijftig en onder de vijftien jaar voor de gaskamer werd geselecteerd, klopt niet. Otto Frank was ten tijde van deze selectie 55 jaar.
- ^ Wacław Długoborski, Franciscek Piper (eds.), Auschwitz 1940-1945. Central issues in the history of the camp, Oświecim: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, 2000, deel II, p. 18-19.
- ^ Berekeningen zijn gebaseerd op de transportlijst van het Nederlandse Rode Kruis en tatoeagenummers zoals vermeld in: Danuta Czech, Kalendarium der Ereignisse im Konzentrationslager Auschwitz-Birkenau 1939-1945, Reinbek bei Hamburg: Roohlt, 1989.