The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World

This ramp was newly constructed. Located between Auschwitz I, the mother camp, and a subcamp, Birkenau, the SS officers called it “the old Jewish ramp,” or Alte Judenrampe (94). Mass transports of Jewish people arrived by night to this ramp in cattle trucks. Due to savage treatment from SS officers, mortality rates were high on the ramp for Jewish prisoners who were part of the rolling group (Rollkommando).

Once the train arrived, SS officers told the arrivals to leave their luggage in the cattle trucks. They then forced the Jewish people into columns: one for women with children, one for single women, and one for men. Walter’s task, alongside the other prisoners, was to first remove belongings and then clean the cattle trucks, including removing the dead and dying. Walter learned to steal and consume food quickly and discretely from luggage since he and the other men no longer had access to Kanada.

Elite SS officers then reviewed all arrivals:

They did not know it, but the new arrivals were about to face selection. If they were sent to the right, they would be marched off first, registered as prisoners and given a chance to work and therefore to live, if only for a while.