![]() The SS man said that they had been ordered from above to kill the Jews. Schalling says that he spoke about the extermination with an SS man who gave him a ride to Łódź. Schalling says that Polish women cleaned their accommodations and they saw everything and they were afraid. Lanzmann questions Schalling's story about being sworn to secrecy about what he saw (which appears in final film), because the Poles Lanzmann interviewed said they knew what was going on. They sometimes rode in open trucks in winter, without anything to eat. He begins to describe old people and children, arriving half-dead from the journey. Lanzmann, with the help of his interpreter, asks Schalling to describe these images. Lanzmann says that Schalling has said he still sees pictures of Chelmno before his eyes. Lanzmann asks how long it took the people to die and Schalling says it could have been five, ten, or fifteen minutes. The camera is now focused more tightly on Schalling. Picture resumes at 01:17:26 with a slate that reads 40 B (CR 3?). He's not sure how long it took for the Jews to die. They would drive the vans out into the woods. Lanzmann asks whether the trucks made a loud noise. ![]() A Pole would shout "Gas" and the driver would crawl under the van and hook up the exhaust pipe to the van. They only used exhaust from the engines to kill. Audio resumes but picture cuts out from 01:14:55 to 01:17:30. Lanzmann asks Schalling to draw a diagram of the basement, ramp and gas vans. Brand, gets off the couch to go answer it. The doorbell rings and another woman, who we learn later in the interview is Schalling's friend, Mrs. ![]() Lanzmann's intrepreter gets up and goes to sit on the other side of Lanzmann. They undressed in the top part of the castle, and then went downstairs to the basement where a ramp led to the gas vans. They had to undress and surrender their valuables to a Polish worker. Schalling describes the castle or manor house (Schloss) and how the Jews were processed. These men were told that they would be given German citizenship after the war was over and for this reason they worked for the Germans forcing the Jews into the gas vans. Audio cuts out last few seconds.Ġ1:09:55 CR2 Schalling continues talking about the five Polish criminals. Schalling begins talking about five Polish criminals who came to the camp. He heard the SS speak to the Jews, telling them that they would be put to work but that they would need to bathe before coming into the camp. ![]() He doesn't know if they were afraid, but it was clear that they didn't trust anyone after the experience of the ghetto. He tells of the Jews arriving on trucks, freezing, hungry, and dirty. Lanzmann asks him to describe what he saw, and Schalling says that he was able to see what went on, because he guarded the gate. He himself was part of these patrols once or twice. He mentions that the younger policemen were placed in the forest patrols (Waldkommando). He was assigned to a small house that served as a guardroom near the castle he and his fellow policemen patrolled the fenced area around the castle (Schlosskommando). Schalling says that Chelmno was a small farming village and that he arrived in the winter of 1941/1942. He asked the SS at the camp what Chelmno was and they told him that he would soon find out. He was part of the Schutzpolizei stationed in Litzmannstadt (Łódź) and had no idea what Chelmno was when he got there. Schalling tells of how he came to be in Chelmno. Schalling sits at a table in front of a window and Lanzmann sits on a couch next to him, with his female interpreter/assistant next to him. Franz Schalling describes the process of execution by gas vans at Chelmno.įILM ID 3355 - Camera Rolls #1-3 - 01:00:00 to 01:29:05ĬR 1 The image is black and white and not very clear, and also somewhat tilted. Film | Accession Number: 1996.166 | RG Number: RG-60.5034 | Film ID: 3355, 3356Ī hidden camera interview with a member of Ordnungspolizei in Chelmno.
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