Sonderkommandos

Greek Jews and the Sonderkommandos:
Bearing Witness at Auschwitz by Documenting Nazi Atrocities

Before World War II, Greece had a small but thriving Jewish population of around 77,000 people. Centered in Thessaloniki where 50,000 Jews lived, Greek Jews had flourished for centuries. However, in 1941, the German Nazis supported their Italian allies against Greek forces as part of the Balkan Campaign. On April 27, 1941, Athens fell in the Operation Marita invasion, and the Nazis occupied Greece.

Beginning in March 1943 and continuing through April 1944, the Nazis deported Greek Jews to Auschwitz. Greek Jews faced transports of up to 18 days packed into overcrowded cattle cars with little food or water. Many died before reaching the camp, and those who survived the journey suffered from severe exhaustion and dehydration. At Auschwitz, Nazi SS doctors/selectors immediately sent 90% of the arriving Greek Jews to the gas chambers. The Nazis assigned the remaining 10% to hard labor, and these individuals faced additional difficulties. The language barrier limited their ability to communicate with other prisoners and guards, making bartering for food to survive and integrating into the camp hierarchy challenging. They were also unaccustomed to the harsh Polish winters.

Role of the Sonderkommando

Across the Nazi death camps—Auschwitz, Treblinka, Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, and Sobibor—the Nazis established the Sonderkommando (special work units), often composed of Jewish prisoners, whose job was to escort new arrivals to the gas chambers, encouraging them to undress under the pretense that they were going to a shower to be deloused. The Nazis packed hundreds to thousands of Jews into the chambers each time. An SS officer would then seal the large metal door and another SS officer would drop a can of Zyklon B gas, a toxic pesticide, into the chamber, suffocating all those inside. Within thirty minutes, the gassing was complete, and the SS officers opened the doors. The Sonderkommando were then compelled to complete their gruesome job of removing the corpses from the chamber, processing them to remove any valuables such as gold tooth fillings, transporting the bodies to the crematorium, loading them into the ovens, and then removing the ashes and disposing of them in nearby ponds and rivers. At Auschwitz there were 5 crematoria, and the Nazis divided the Sonderkommandos into teams to carry out these heinous tasks at each of them.

Of the Greek prisoners spared immediate execution, many were young men who the Nazis picked to work in the Sonderkommando. SS officers disproportionately assigned Greek Jews to this tragic and horrifying role because they were physically strong and less likely to interact with other prisoners or spread information due to the language barrier. The work of Sonderkommando was physically grueling and psychologically devastating. These men were not only forced to witness and participate in the mass murder of their fellow Jews, sometimes even friends and family members, but since the Nazis intended to erase all witnesses, they lived in constant fear of execution. The Nazis typically killed Sonderkommando every three to four months and replaced them with new arrivals. Despite their grim fate, Sonderkommandos had better physical living conditions than other prisoners, including decent food, clothing, and straw mattresses.

Resistance

Historically, many Holocaust survivors and others in the Jewish community have negatively regarded the Sonderkommandos as collaborators, unable to comprehend how these men could have aided in the genocide of other Jews. However, members of the Sonderkommando who survived have explained they had no choice as the alternatives were death in the gas chambers or being shot by the SS. Some hoped to be able to save friends and family, or at least handle their remains in a more respectful manner, while others claimed to have been determined to do what was necessary to stay alive in order to avenge the deaths of their loved ones. Far from merely compliant conspirators, the Sonderkommando did what they could to resist both in outright and lesser-known ways, and the Greek Jews played a crucial role in these efforts.

Although the Nazis attempted to conceal their genocidal activities, the Sonderkommando were first hand witnesses to the atrocities that the Nazis committed on an industrial scale. They used their position – even risking their lives – to acquire smuggled goods including paper, bottles, and cans. Post-liberation excavations of the area around the crematoria uncovered dozens of cans of ashes, testament to the Sonderkommando’s efforts to give their friends and family respectful burials even if they could not stop their murders. Surviving Sonderkommando have explained that whenever possible they would cremate individuals separately and place their ashes in a can; they would record the victim’s name, date of birth, and date of death before burying the container and saying Kaddish, the Jewish prayer of mourning.

During their time in the Sonderkommando, many wrote what was happening in letters to their families and as detailed accounts of the horrors they witnessed. They buried these records in the ground near the crematoria in hopes that they would one day be discovered so that the world would know of the Nazis’ crimes. These secret writings, known as the “Sonderkommando Scrolls,” were written in Yiddish, Hebrew, Greek, and other languages. The Sonderkommandos documented the number of people killed in the gas chambers and the process of mass extermination, as well as the psychological torment the Sonderkommando experienced and their attempts to resist. The Soviet Red Army discovered hundreds of these notes which ultimately ended up in the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. These manuscripts provided invaluable evidence during the Nuremberg Trials and in Holocaust research today.

Marcel Nadjari's Manuscript

Marcel Nadjari is a Jewish-Greek survivor who participated in the efforts to document the horrors of the Nazis. His parents and younger sister were murdered in the camps. Deported from Athens in April 1944, he was a member of the Sonderkommando in Auschwitz-Birkenau from May to November 1944. During this time, he authored a twelve-page manuscript in Greek which he buried in a thermos bottle near Crematorium III, two months prior to the liberation of the camp. In January 1945, fearing the approaching American forces, the Nazis ordered the demolition of the crematoria. Ignoring orders to remain in the camp during the SS evacuation of Auschwitz, Nadjari mingled with a crowd of prisoners and joined the death march. He survived, arriving in the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria; the Nazis transferred him twice more before the U.S. army liberated him on May 5, 1945.

Thirty-six years later, a Polish forestry student by chance unearthed the thermos that Nadjari had buried years before. His letter was badly preserved and only 10% of the message was legible. While discovered in 1980, it wasn’t until 2017 that Russian historian Pavel Polian and Russian IT expert Alexander Nitkiyaev were able to successfully restore 85-90% of the document’s legibility using modern technology, including multispectral analysis and Adobe Photoshop. Mr. Polian believed the effort was worthwhile as such direct evidence was rare but critical in documenting the Holocaust. Nadjari’s account offers tremendous insight into the experience of and psychological toll on the Sonderkommando prisoners who were forced to perform unthinkable tasks but still managed to resist.

Photographs as Resistance

One of the most extraordinary acts of resistance came in August 1944, when members of the Sonderkommando, with the help of Polish resistance members, managed to smuggle a camera and film into Auschwitz to take photographs inside the camp. The four historic Sonderkommando Photographs show women forced to undress before entering the gas chamber, bodies of victims lying outside the gas chambers, prisoners dragging corpses toward the crematoria, and the fire pits in the wooded area near Crematorium V where the Nazis burned bodies when the crematorium was at capacity. Hidden inside of a metal container and smuggled out of the camp to the Polish underground, these photographs showed people what was happening at Auschwitz. Since the Nazis refrained from filming or photographing gas chamber operations, the Sonderkommando Photographs remain some of the only visual evidence of the mass killings that took place at Auschwitz. They serve to bear witness to the horror, leaving testimony for future generations.

The photographs represent a collective act of resistance involving the coordinated efforts of numerous brave individuals — the person who smuggled the camera into the camp, the person who secretly took the pictures, the people who guarded him while he photographed, and those who smuggled the photographs out of the camp and into the hands of those who could disseminate them. Through subsequent testimony from survivor Alter Fajnzylberg, it was revealed that the photographer was Sonderkommando member Alberto Errera from Larissa, Greece, who went by the nickname Alex.  He served as a soldier first in the Hellenic Army and then in the Greek People’s Liberation Army during the German occupation of Greece. The Nazis arrested Errera for his leftist activity, and deported him and several hundred other Jews to Auschwitz in April 1944. Errera is believed to have been the leader of the Greek resistance group in Crematorium V.

Shortly after taking the pictures, 31-year-old Errera attempted to escape from Auschwitz. During a transport of ash from the crematoria to the Vistula river for disposal, Errera attacked the two “Schupos” who guarded the prisoners using a shovel, and then dove into the river. After several days on the run, the Nazis ultimately captured, tortured, and shot him. They then displayed his dead body at the men’s camp entrance as a deterrent for other inmates who may have had similar ideas of escape. In the 1980s, the Greek government recognized Errera for his contribution to the Greek resistance during World War II. Copies of his photographs can be found today in the Gerhard Richter Birkenau Exhibition Hall near the International Youth Meeting Center in Oświęcim.

Uprising

Beyond documenting the atrocities, the Sonderkommando also took direct action in resisting their Nazi captors. Prior to his death, Errera is credited for actively participating with other resistance leaders in the preparations for the Sonderkommando Uprising. For months, with the help of the Polish underground and female prisoners who had access to gunpowder through their work assignments, members of the Sonderkommando smuggled explosives into the camp and crafted crude weapons. Their plan was to destroy Crematorium IV and cut power to the plant, thereby sparking a larger rebellion that would allow thousands of prisoners to escape. They spent over a year planning, continuously delaying as they sought to coordinate with a general camp revolt. In September 1944, the SS announced that they would transfer 200 Sonderkommando prisoners to another camp but instead took them to an execution site. Fearing more executions, the Sonderkommando decided that on October 7, 1944, they would stage an armed revolt, one of the only and most significant acts of armed resistance in Auschwitz.

Unfortunately, the SS had grown suspicious and began interrogating prisoners, forcing the Sonderkommando to act hastily. They attacked SS guards, killing several, and set fire to Crematorium IV, partially destroying it. Some managed to escape the camp’s perimeter, though most were quickly captured and executed. Approximately 250 Sonderkommando were killed in the uprising, including the resistance leaders. Nazi investigation, interrogation and torture led to more deaths, including those of the women who helped smuggle the explosives. Only 105 Sonderkommando members remained to operate Crematorium V, the last left in operation, and to dismantle the others, removing evidence of war crimes. While the uprising ultimately failed, it remains a powerful example of defiance against Nazi oppression.

Conclusion

Despite the staggering death toll, a small number of Greek Jews survived Auschwitz and were liberated. Survivors from the Greek Jewish community provided vital testimony in war crimes trials that were instrumental in convicting several SS officers and Nazi officials. Unfortunately, however, the destruction of Greek Jewry during the Holocaust was near total—more than 87% of Greek Jews perished. Those who survived found their communities devastated, their homes and businesses confiscated, and their families gone. Additionally, many faced hostility upon their return to Greece. With few opportunities to rebuild their lives, a large number emigrated to Israel, the United States, or Western Europe. Today, memorials and an annual march in Thessaloniki honor the Greek Jewish victims and the bravery of those who resisted, ensuring that their stories are never forgotten.

The story of Greek Jews at Auschwitz is one of immense suffering, resilience, and resistance. Forced into nightmarish roles, Greek Jews within the Sonderkommando bore witness to the Holocaust’s horrors. Through smuggled photographs, buried manuscripts, and acts of armed rebellion, they fought to preserve the truth. Although most did not survive, their efforts ensured that the crimes of Auschwitz would never be erased. Their courage in documenting the Nazi genocide remains one of the most powerful acts of defiance in Holocaust history and is a reminder of the perseverance of the human spirit.