EARLY EPISODE: The Auschwitz Sonderkommando Revolt
USE CODE DEC25 FOR OUR HOLIDAY SALE
A group of people, forced into one of the worst jobs in human history, decide to launch a suicidal revolt to destroy the tools of the Holocaust.
Sources:
Lawerence Langer. Versions of Survival: The Holocaust and the Human Spirit
Primo Levi. The Drowned and the Saved.
Nathan Cohen. Diaries of the Sonderkommando - Confronting Fate and Reality.
Tzipora Hager Halivni. Preparation for Revolt in Auschwitz-Birkenau: Heroes and Martyrs.
Filip Muller. Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers.
Henryk Tauber. Deposition made on May 24, 1945. Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the gas chambers.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/sonderkommando-uprising-auschwitz-birkenau
Comments (39)
I work pest control in the states. A handful of chemical product we use is still manufactures by Bayer.
I came here after listening to LPOTL’s godawful Heinrich Himmler series. In case anyone’s not aware, Marcus Parks (one of the hosts) called the Sonderkommandos “pieces of shit”, propagated the Clean Wehrmacht theory, and then acted like a huge asshole when people called him out for his many historical inaccuracies. Thank you guys for setting the record straight and for indirectly calling them out here.
Joe in Christ Church NZ there is a venue called the underpass located... You guessed it under an overpass
Yall this is a frankly wild way to put up Christmas lights this year
Watch Son of Saul.
Man, I wish more nazis had died.
Oh jeez. That one hurt. Transitioning to questions from the legion felt jarring. I half expected y'all to be like "yeah we're not answering questions today"
yall’ve certainly picked an awfully horribly prescient topic, given the way the wind seems to be blowing of late… thanks for taking one for historical remembrance, seriously.
oh shit… welcome to hell ig…
Question from the legion: what's the most memorable concert you have ever been to and what crazy shit went down there?
This was the darkest shit I’ve listened to in quite a while. I think it was even darker than the Khmer Rouge series which is saying a lot. As an aside, I found myself wondering how in the hell there are holocaust deniers. Like not only is there documented evidence of it by the perpetrators, but there’s even more damning and disturbing evidence of it that they did their damndest to conceal. Definitely felt a new level of disgust for those people. Gonna send em this episode next time I run into one just so they understand how abhorrent their “but what if?” arguments are. Thanks Joe!
This is honestly so fucking dark. The sheer horror and at the same time apathy these people must've felt. I feels so disheartened that people are capable of putting others through suffering like this.
I haven't needed a Question segment this bad since the Nanking series. Fuckin' hell
I rarely hear something about history and feel horrible afterwards. This was absolutely gut wrenching to me. Thank you for not shying away from history.
That some of these men, knowing their lives to be forfeit, sought to raise the hue & cry on that evil. It is a shame a slander to paint them with the brush of cocolaborationist Chanel
I am a mess of tears but this is the sort of thing people cannot look away from, cannot let it be forgotten
Joe, as the descendant of someone who escaped the Holocaust and lost the entire rest of his family at Auschwitz- I thank you for this episode.
“Look evil in the eye and learn about it” may be one of the hardest things ever said on this show. Damn. Joe out here doing the hard shit to keep us all informed. Bravo.
And also, if you want to know more about the mental health breakdown that comes from murdering innocent people, you only have to look at the suicides and PTSD sweeping the IOF. Also check out Cian Westmoreland, a former US drone pilot and whistle-blower.
The I.G. Farben plant that drew its workforce from Auschwitz III barely turned a profit during its operation. The slaves who laboured there turned work resistance into an art form. If you read a lot about bombing raids, there are accounts of squadrons flying through heavy flak with no hits. Sometimes a flak shell would be found embedded in the fuselage, and when examined the shell had been tampered with to prevent it going off. I'm aware of one shell where there was even a note inside saying the factory slaves were sabotaging as much as they could. "They are killing us, but we do not wish to kill you." Never let it be said there was no resistance. That was a myth crafted by the likes of David Grün.
I think the very idea of profit is ridiculous when Soviets are marching into Berlin. What are you going to spend the money on?
This was a tough one, but good to go through.
I think this story is important also to combat the incredibly painful "lambs to slaughter" narrative. It almost infantalizes the victims and ignores the real heroism of the resistors. Even the act of sharing a bit of food or soap (which as Joe said was a death sentence if caught) should be respected to the upmost.
The "lambs to slaughter" was coined by David Grün, and I think he came up with this justification to wave away his own complicity in the Holocaust. See - they just went quietly off to their own deaths without a struggle, so it's good for the Jews that they died. They were weak. They deserved it. David Grün was an absolute psychopathic monster.
In all sincerity, thank you
I listened to this right after listening to the Kill James Bond episode on Zone Of Interest. I can't imagine what Nate was feeling having to edit those in close proximity.
I had to do a second listen directly after the first. This time I did it with the question of "what would you do". I honestly do not know. You can make the argument that most sonnderkommando where just trying to hold on for one more day. That evil had to end right? RIGHT!?!? I am not even sure if I could lie to someone knowing they are about to die. I understand why people do, I really do. This whole time period is just different from today. Don't get me wrong it helped shaped our future (no, I am not talking maga but we finally have a true evil bar to measure with). I honestly have no idea what my life would be in Europe during this.
This comes right on the tail of listening to Kill James Bond where they covered Zone of Interest and before that Judgement At Nuremberg. This will be the perfect one two punch to get me in the festive mood for coming holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving? To my fellow America Corvids. If you want to use that as a term for members of the Legion.
Solidarity!
In high school I got the double whammy of genocide for modern history and holocaust literature for English. One question I'd had ever since is why the uprisings were not more common? Surely everyone would be plotting together as soon as they realise what kind of camp you're in. Today I got my answer from hearing the full story of the Auschwitz uprising. And how many things had to go right, how much ingenuity, courage, and luck was required to even make it possible.
There are two parts to this. 1.) Resistance was common but uprisings were not. By the nature of the ghettos and death camps, organization was incredibly difficult. Not to spoil this episode but the only way this uprising succeeded was because the sonderkommando had access to items the average victim wouldn't have. 2.) There is a concept that Joe has discussed before called "Failure of imagination" where humans will remain almost catastrophically optimistic even in the worst circumstances. We saw this in Covid, we all knew someone who wasn't gonna get sick because they were different, there was minimal Resistance to the deportation to ghettos since many people just assumed this was gonna be a passing fad. I mean fuck prior to Trumps election even with him constantly saying he was gonna ramp up deportations people said "Yeah but he isn't really gonna do it"
Man this is my favorite holiday story
Ah, time to get depressed. Thanks boys.
God damn Tom you got a really good voice for professional advertisement bro.
This is interesting timing after the Last Podcast on the Left Himmler series where they slandered the sonderkommamdos
The way Joe went out of his way on a few occasions to call out anyone who confuses the SS version with the camp version seemed intentional
Nate: trying to solve the ass/downstairs problems with cycling are so real. So many combinations of bibs/chamois and saddle possibilities. And if it was wrong, any ride longer than 20 miles would feel like I was taking a cheese grater directly to my crotch. My boyfriend is a bike fitter and he tried to get it right like he was trying to find the cure for cancer. As he said "I have a vested interest in keeping your downstairs happy." This has been "TMI with Page."
Okay Tom, solid opening and theme drop.
Omg. I’m deep in research the various Auschwitz trials and reading Philip Müllers book rn. Such great timing