- published: 23 Jan 2009
- views: 62713
Sonderkommandos were work units of Nazi death camp prisoners, composed almost entirely of Jews, who were forced, on threat of their own deaths, to aid with the disposal of gas chamber victims during The Holocaust. The death-camp Sonderkommando, who were always inmates, should not be confused with the SS-Sonderkommandos which were ad hoc units formed from various SS offices between 1938 through 1945.
The term itself in German means "special unit", and was part of the vague and euphemistic language which the Nazis used to refer to aspects of the Final Solution (cf. Einsatzgruppen).
Sonderkommando members did not participate directly in killing; that responsibility was reserved for the guards, while the Sonderkommandos' primary responsibility was disposing of the corpses. They were forced into the position; in most cases they were inducted immediately upon arrival at the camp, and were not given any advance notice of the tasks they would have to perform. They had no way to refuse or resign other than by committing suicide. Because the Germans needed the Sonderkommandos to remain physically able, they were granted moderately less squalid living conditions than other inmates: they slept in their own barracks, which more than any other in the camp resembled normal human dwellings; they were allowed to keep and use various goods such as food, medicines and cigarettes brought by those who were sent to the gas chambers; and, unlike ordinary inmates, they were not subject to arbitrary, random killing by guards. As a result, Sonderkommando members tended to survive longer than other inmates of the death camps—but very few survived the war.
Actors: Costas Mandylor (actor), Adolf Hitler (actor), Robert Loggia (actor), Arnold Kopelson (producer), Andrzej Krakowski (writer), Roman Klosowski (actor), Willem Dafoe (actor), Edward James Olmos (actor), Edward Zentara (actor), Hartmut Becker (actor), Robert M. Young (director), Lew Rywin (actor), Kario Salem (actor), Maria Probosz (actress), Cliff Eidelman (composer),
Plot: Fact based story about a former Greek Olympic boxer who was taken as a prisoner during World war II and placed in the Auschwitz prison camp. There he was permitted to survive as long as he fought for the amusement of his captors. His father and brother were also held as insurance that he would continue to fight.
Keywords: 1930s, 1940s, accordion, accordion-player, apricot, ashes, auschwitz, bare-breasts, barracks, beachIn streams of anxiety I catch a breath of present time
And open a hidden door in a floor with the imprinted hand
Once again I begin a night descent toward my cellar worlds
Where the past of milion shadows plays with silent calmness
I dive strenously in an element of unwanted visions
Painted with pangs of conscience, fed with sadness
And helpless I stand among demons from the former life
The one tragically led ina treadmill of inhuman cruelty
Detested by the enemy, condemned by my co-brothers
I carry my burden of loneliness through the striped crowd
I pass dreams, hopes, I proceed among bitterness and tears
Unceasingly closing eyes of those who desire the sunrise
I silence my heart, forget the prayers, reject all thoughts
As I live in the irreversibleness of stupor just to last
I welcome trust, surprise, I say goodbye to faith and pride
And I write down the tragedy of humankind turned to dust
Being dead alive I await stepping out of the row
A moment of last crossing the hellish threshold
Eternal chimneys don't forgive their foster sons
Ant they consume the testimony of extermination system
Devastated by the claims of abstract past
I am awaking to reality created in shade
Where from a victim of humanity burying times
I become an executioner in eyes of justice
Weary of life I examine myself in a mirror of sorrow
And my senile reflection is flowing with the last tear
Ready for meeting faces faded long ago by time
I join the rest of the damned from Sonderkommando