The Most Incredible Auschwitz Story - How Brutal NAZI Guard Franz Wunsch Fell in Love with a Jew
The Most Incredible Auschwitz Story - How Brutal NAZI Guard Franz Wunsch Fell in Love with a Jew
The Most Incredible Auschwitz Story - How Brutal NAZI Guard Franz Wunsch Fell in Love with a Jew. The 15th of September 1935, Nuremberg, Germany. Franz Wunsch was born on the 21st of March 1922 in Drasenhofen in Austria. He held a deep and virulent hatred for Jews and in 1940, 2 years after the Annexation of Austria to the German Reich, he joined the SS. The Second World War began on the 1st of September 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. The last operational Polish unit surrendered on the 6th of October. The German occupation of Poland was exceptionally brutal. The Nazis considered Poles to be racially inferior and they launched a campaign of terror intended to destroy the Polish nation and culture and to reduce the Poles to a leaderless population of peasants and workers laboring for German masters.
In May 1940, around 60 km west of Krakow, the Germans established Auschwitz concentration camp. The direct reason for the establishment of the camp was the fact that mass arrests of Poles were increasing beyond the capacity of existing “local” prisons.
When Germany attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Franz Wunsch was sent to fight on the Eastern Front. Due to harsh weather and fierce resistance, fighting on the eastern Front was an incredibly challenging and brutal experience for German soldiers. Whilst on the front, Wunsch suffered a knee injury and afterwards was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp where he worked as a guard.
A center for the extermination of the Jews became Birkenau which was the largest of the more than 40 camps and sub-camps which made up the Auschwitz complex. It was divided into ten sections separated by electrified barbed-wire fences and was patrolled by SS guards, including—after 1942—SS dog handlers. During its three years of operation, it had a range of functions. When construction began in October 1941, it was supposed to be a camp for 125 thousand prisoners of war. It opened as a branch of Auschwitz in March 1942, and served at the same time as a center for the extermination of the Jews. In its final phase, from 1944, it also became a place where prisoners were concentrated before being transferred to labor in German industry in the depths of the Third Reich.
At Auschwitz, the process of selection and murder was carefully planned and organized. When a train stopped at the platform, the arrivals were lined up into two columns – men and boys in one, women and girls in the other. The SS physicians such as Josef Mengele performed the selection. The only criterion was the appearance of the prisoners, whose fate, for labor or for death, was determined at will. The SS personnel – when supervising the loading of prisoners who were to be transported in cars to the gas chambers – often behaved inhumanly, and tortured the incoming prisoners in a cruel way, beating the women, the men and the children with a stick or with a cane while forcing them into the cars. The SS men kept the people fated to die unaware of what awaited them. They were told that they were being sent to the camp where work was waiting for them, but first they had to undergo disinfection and bathe. They were then told politely to hang their clothes on the hooks, take a shower and were even promised they would be provided with soup and tea or coffee. However, they were taken into the gas chambers and after the doors were shut, SS men dropped Zyklon B pellets through vents in the roof or holes in the side of the chamber. The victims were dead within 20 minutes. Johann Kremer, an SS doctor who oversaw gassings, testified that the shouting and screaming of the victims could be heard through the opening and it was clear that they fought for their lives. After the victims were murdered, their gold teeth were extracted, and women’s hair was shorn by the Sonderkommando which were groups of Jews forced to work in the crematorium. The bodies were hauled to the crematorium furnaces for incineration, the bones were pulverized, and the ashes were scattered in the fields…
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Content
0.36 -> The 15th of September 1935, Nuremberg, Germany.
The Nazi regime announces the so-called Nuremberg
8.7 -> Laws, which among other things ban future
intermarriages and sexual relations between
13.26 -> Jews and people “of German or related blood”
as the Nazis believe that such relationships
17.88 -> are dangerous because they lead to “mixed
race” children. According to the Nazi regime,
22.74 -> these children and their descendants undermine
the purity of the German race and the individuals
27.72 -> caught breaching these laws are to be
arrested and sent to concentration camps.
32.46 -> 7 years later in 1942, there is a Nazi officer
at Auschwitz who violates the Nuremberg
38.52 -> Laws by falling in love with a Slovak Jewish
prisoner. This officer’s name is Franz Wunsch.
44.04 -> Franz Wunsch was born on the 21st of March 1922
in Drasenhofen in Austria. He held a deep and
52.38 -> virulent hatred for Jews and in 1940,
2 years after the Annexation of Austria
57.24 -> to the German Reich, he joined the SS.
The Second World War began on the 1st of
62.22 -> September 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded
Poland. The last operational Polish unit
68.22 -> surrendered on the 6th of October.
The German occupation of Poland was
72.66 -> exceptionally brutal. The Nazis considered
Poles to be racially inferior and they
77.1 -> launched a campaign of terror intended to
destroy the Polish nation and culture and
81.3 -> to reduce the Poles to a leaderless population of
peasants and workers laboring for German masters.
86.46 -> In May 1940, around 60 km west of Krakow, the
Germans established Auschwitz concentration
93.18 -> camp. The direct reason for the establishment
of the camp was the fact that mass arrests
97.86 -> of Poles were increasing beyond the
capacity of existing "local" prisons.
101.4 -> When Germany attacked the Soviet Union
on June 22, 1941, Franz Wunsch was sent
107.88 -> to fight on the Eastern Front. Due to
harsh weather and fierce resistance,
111.78 -> fighting on the eastern Front was
an incredibly challenging and brutal
115.26 -> experience for German soldiers. Whilst
on the front, Wunsch suffered a knee
119.7 -> injury and afterwards was sent to the Auschwitz
concentration camp where he worked as a guard.
124.5 -> A center for the extermination of the Jews became
Birkenau which was the largest of the more than
128.88 -> 40 camps and sub-camps which made up the
Auschwitz complex. It was divided into ten
133.86 -> sections separated by electrified barbed-wire
fences and was patrolled by SS guards,
138.72 -> including—after 1942—SS dog handlers.
During its three years of operation,
144.06 -> it had a range of functions. When construction
began in October 1941, it was supposed to be
149.7 -> a camp for 125 thousand prisoners of war. It
opened as a branch of Auschwitz in March 1942,
156 -> and served at the same time as a center for the
extermination of the Jews. In its final phase,
160.98 -> from 1944, it also became a place
where prisoners were concentrated
164.88 -> before being transferred to labor in German
industry in the depths of the Third Reich.
170.4 -> At Auschwitz, the process of selection and murder
was carefully planned and organized. When a
175.98 -> train stopped at the platform, the arrivals were
lined up into two columns – men and boys in one,
180.54 -> women and girls in the other. The SS physicians
such as Josef Mengele performed the selection.
186.24 -> The only criterion was the appearance of the
prisoners, whose fate, for labor or for death,
192.18 -> was determined at will. The SS personnel – when
supervising the loading of prisoners who were
198.06 -> to be transported in cars to the gas chambers –
often behaved inhumanly, and tortured the incoming
203.1 -> prisoners in a cruel way, beating the women, the
men and the children with a stick or with a cane
208.32 -> while forcing them into the cars. The SS men
kept the people fated to die unaware of what
214.2 -> awaited them. They were told that they were being
sent to the camp where work was waiting for them,
218.28 -> but first they had to undergo disinfection and
bathe. They were then told politely to hang their
223.86 -> clothes on the hooks, take a shower and were
even promised they would be provided with soup
228.24 -> and tea or coffee. However, they were taken into
the gas chambers and after the doors were shut,
233.82 -> SS men dropped Zyklon B pellets through vents
in the roof or holes in the side of the chamber.
239.52 -> The victims were dead within 20 minutes. Johann
Kremer, an SS doctor who oversaw gassings,
245.82 -> testified that the shouting and screaming
of the victims could be heard through the
249.48 -> opening and it was clear that they fought for
their lives. After the victims were murdered,
254.1 -> their gold teeth were extracted, and women’s hair
was shorn by the Sonderkommando which were groups
258.84 -> of Jews forced to work in the crematorium. The
bodies were hauled to the crematorium furnaces
263.4 -> for incineration, the bones were pulverized,
and the ashes were scattered in the fields.
268.86 -> Franz Wunsch took part in the selections thus
deciding which Jews would go to the gas chambers
273.84 -> to die and which would live to work as slave
laborers. He accompanied them to their death,
278.76 -> deceived them as to their true fate and forced
them into the gas chambers, viciously beating
283.92 -> them if necessary. He would also drop in the
Zyklon B pellets that murdered the victims
288.72 -> once the gas chamber’s door was closed.
On 21 March 1942 at noon there was a
294.78 -> birthday party on behalf of Franz Wunsch, who was
celebrating his 20th birthday, and Rita, a Kapo,
300.36 -> walked round the barracks looking for a performer
to sing. A certain Helena Citrónová, a young
305.58 -> Jewish female prisoner from Slovakia, volunteered
to sing because she hoped it would save her life.
311.34 -> Helena was one of the first 1,000 women and girls
from Slovakia who arrived at Auschwitz in 1942,
317.76 -> during the construction of the extermination camp.
According to a census of the 15th of December
323.16 -> 1940, there were 89,000 Jews in Slovakia at
that time. In March 1942, the Slovak State
330.54 -> signed an agreement with Germany that permitted
the deportation of the Slovak Jews and between
335.16 -> March and October 1942, some 58,000 Slovak Jews
were concentrated in indigenously established
341.58 -> labor and concentration camps—mainly in the camps
Sereď, Nováky, and Vyhne. The Slovak authorities
348.06 -> then transported the Jews to the border of the
Government General or the German Reich and turned
352.5 -> them over to German SS and police. One of the
main forces behind the deportation of Slovak Jews
357.66 -> to Nazi concentration camps in German occupied
Poland was the Slovak Prime Minister Vojtech Tuka.
363.24 -> Virtually all the deported Slovak Jews were
killed in Auschwitz, Majdanek, Sobibor,
368.64 -> and other locations in German-occupied Poland.
Only 300 of them survived. Among them were
374.52 -> Alfred Wetzler and Rudolf Vrba who escaped from
Auschwitz in the spring of 1944 and compiled the
380.28 -> first detailed report on operations there
for general dissemination in the west.
384.72 -> Jews who were not deported were granted
a presidential exception as they were
388.86 -> crucial for the war economy. During Jozef Tiso’s
presidency, the Slovak State paid Germany 500
394.44 -> Reichsmarks for every deported Jew for, what
they called "retraining and accommodation".
399.84 -> In total the Slovak State paid Nazi Germany
10 million Reichsmarks for murdering its
404.88 -> citizens - the Slovak Jews - in Nazi death camps.
Among them were Helena Citrónová’s parents who
411.18 -> died in Auschwitz gas chamber and her brother who
while attempting to escape the camp, was killed on
416.28 -> an electrified fence, his face and hands pressed
up and immobilized against the barbed wire.
420.96 -> On 21 March 1942 at Auschwitz, Helena sang the
birthday song for Wunsch with passion as she
428.22 -> believed it might be the last time she would
ever get to sing. When Helena was done singing
432.54 -> Wunsch came up to her and asked her: ”please,
sing the song again”. Helena later recalled she
439.14 -> would look up with tears in her eyes and see a
uniform and think “God where are the eyes of a
444.78 -> murderer? These are the eyes of a human being.”
Helena returned to work in the “Canada” warehouse,
450.42 -> sorting the possessions of murdered Jews. It
was so named because Canada was thought to be a
455.76 -> country of great riches. Inmates’ possessions were
taken from them upon arrival and brought there.
460.8 -> The items were sorted and sent back to Germany,
although some were stolen by SS guards. Working at
466.86 -> Canada warehouse was one of the few sought-after
jobs at Auschwitz because the prisoners received
471.36 -> food and got water and they could grow
their hair out and they were not beaten.
475.2 -> As one of the SS personnel responsible for
overseeing the sorting tasks in Canada warehouses,
480.42 -> Wunsch would visit Helena often and
he was gentle, kind and protective.
485.16 -> He would bring her extra food and clothing
and turned over his own food rations to her.
489.24 -> When Helena was infected with typhus, he would
hide her and nurse her back to health. He made
495.18 -> sure she was well-fed and would even give her the
gifts of food that his mother had sent him. Wunsch
500.64 -> would help save the lives of her fellow prisoners
risking his own life with his superiors in the SS.
506.1 -> Sometimes he passed her notes
saying 'I fell in love with you'.
510.06 -> Helena later recalled “ I thought I'd rather
be dead than be involved with an SS man.”
514.68 -> Helena despised the Nazis not
only because of what they did to
518.88 -> Jews but also because she lost her
parents and brother at Auschwitz.
522.6 -> However, overtime Helena started to develop
some affection for Wunsch in return. A
527.94 -> turning point came when Wunsch was able to
help Helena’s sister Róžika, a mom-of-two,
532.32 -> who was transported to Auschwitz from Slovakia
with her nine-year-old daughter and newborn son.
537.9 -> Helena heard about their arrival and ran to the
crematorium where she feared they would be killed.
543.36 -> She hysterically told the guards that she wanted
to die with them. But a friend had alerted Wunsch,
548.1 -> who rushed to the scene just as Josef Mengele,
the notorious SS physician known as “The Angel
553.02 -> of Death,” decided which of the prisoners would
live or die. When Wunsch came to the crematorium,
558.78 -> he began to violently beat Helena for the crime
of violating curfew. While he was beating her,
564.3 -> he secretly whispered to her: "Tell me
quickly what your sister's name is before
568.38 -> I'm too late." Helena replied, "You won't be
able to. She came with two little children."
573.6 -> Wunsch ten told her: "Children, that's
different. Children can't live here."
579.36 -> Immediately after he ran to the
crematorium to find Helena’s sister Róžika.
583.86 -> While Wunsch was able to save Róžika by saying
that she worked for him in Canada warehouse,
588.18 -> he could do nothing for her children.
They were murdered in the gas chamber.
592.92 -> The romance between Helena and Franz secretly
continued and Helena was once interrogated and
598.14 -> tortured about their relationship. However,
she refused to confirm its existence. She
603.24 -> knew that if she revealed the existence
of the relationship, they both would be
606.54 -> executed. She would later say: “ There were
moments where I forgot that I was a Jew and
611.4 -> that he was not a Jew and, honestly, in the end
I loved him. But it could not be realistic.”
618 -> The precise nature of their romance that
lasted until the final evacuation of Auschwitz
622.32 -> in January 1945 has never been made clear but
according to some witnesses it was not sexual.
628.14 -> According to Bat-Sheva Daga, a Holocaust survivor,
631.74 -> the couple never had sex. As Daga later
recalled, inmates slept in bunks stacked
637.44 -> on top of each other in rows of three and it
would have been impossible. Equally out of the
641.88 -> question was the chance of Citrónová visiting
the officers’ quarters without being caught.
647.04 -> After the war, a former Auschwitz female prisoner
said about Wunsch: “He didn't do anything bad to
652.56 -> us, but he was sadistic towards men. Until he
met Helena, he hit and kicked women too but
658.68 -> afterwards it was enough for him to beat only men.
He often beat them with a stick that he carried
663.9 -> with him. Helena had a positive influence on him
and she tried to make him behave not so cruelly”.
682.5 -> However, after the war one Holocaust
survivor testified that during the
686.94 -> Jewish revolt in Auschwitz, that
occurred on October 7, 1944, Wunsch,
691.74 -> without mercy, shot a 20-year-old Greek Jew.
695.46 -> The relationship ended in January 1945 as the
Soviet Army was approaching Auschwitz. During
701.64 -> their last conversation, Franz told her: ‘Take
care, Helena, you’ll make it. I’ve loved you so
707.52 -> much’. Then they kissed long and intimately.
On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army entered
715.26 -> Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Monowitz and liberated
about seven thousand prisoners, most of whom were
720.6 -> ill and dying. One of the prisoners liberated by
the Red Army from the camp was Helena Citrónová.
726.72 -> However, for the next 27 years she and
Franz Wunsch did not see each other.
730.98 -> After the war Helena married a Zionist
activist, moved together to Israel and had two
736.38 -> children. Wunsch searched for Helena for years,
but Helena avoided the letters that he wrote her.
742.44 -> Wunsch then settled in Austria, got
married and started his own family.
746.82 -> In 1972, Franz Wunsch, then 50 years old, was put
on trial for war crimes and Helena, then a married
753.54 -> woman and mother of two, came to testify on his
behalf after having received a desperately written
758.58 -> request from his wife. She travelled to Vienna
despite threats from Jewish rights activists
763.56 -> because she considered it her duty to outline
the good things that he had done at Auschwitz
768.12 -> but she also confirmed that she had witnessed
him committing crimes against other prisoners.
772.32 -> In court, Helena spoke slowly, without
emotion and she did not even look at Wunsch.
778.14 -> However, when it came to her
sister Róžika's children,
780.84 -> she could not continue - the words caught in
her throat. At that moment Wunsch started to
787.14 -> cry and later repented. He said he had not killed
anyone and regretted having beaten the prisoners.
793.2 -> Despite what the judge called “overwhelming
evidence of guilt” in the participation of mass
797.94 -> murder, Wunsch was acquitted on all counts.
He and Helena never saw each other again.
805.26 -> Helena Citrónová was 84 years old when she
died on 4 June 2007 in Tel Aviv in Israel.
812.94 -> Franz Wunsch died of natural causes on 23
February 2009. He was 86 years years old.
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