The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945

by Nicholas Stargardt

ec, Sobibor and Treblinka. One of those who did leave a record was an SS officer and disinfection expert, Kurt Gerstein, who visited Bełec on 20 August 1942. There he witnessed the arrival and gassing of a transport of Jews from Lwów. The diesel engine would not start and the Jews were kept locked in the gas chambers for two and a half hours while it was repaired. The gassing itself took a further thirty-two minutes. Gerstein’s task was to advise on how to disinfect the clothing and he was accompanied to Bełec by a part-time SS consultant, the Professor of Hygiene at the University of Marburg, Dr Wilhelm Pfannenstiel. The professor was fascinated by what was taking place and stood by the door with his eye glued to the glass peephole until it misted over. He commented that the wailing of the naked Jews crammed inside sounded ‘like in a synagogue’. The two men went to view the much bigger facility at Treblinka the next day, where Pfannenstiel complimented their hosts in an after-dinner speech on ‘the greatness of the work’ they were doing.35 Gerstein returned to Berlin by night train, where he found himself sharing a compartment with the Swedish attaché at the embassy in Berlin, Göran von Otter. Profoundly disturbed by his experience, Gerstein took the risk of disclosing what he knew to Otter, and urged him to tell the outside world. He even revealed his own identity and, as a devout Protestant, named the liberal Protestant Bishop of Berlin, Otto Dibelius, as a character ref...