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I am dedicating my English translation of Mützen ab . . . to its author, Zenon Rozanski. This Report, describing his experiences of the horrors of the Punishment Company (SK) of the KZ Auschwitz, emerges as the voice of the innumerable unrecorded victims of the diabolically organized atrocities in the death chambers of National Socialism. This narrative, however, also gives testimony to an undaunted human spirit that was able to endure und overcome the most inhumane and heinous conditions of the infamous enterprise of National Socialism. Because of his survival in the hell of the KZ Auschwitz, this individual voice of Zenon Rozanski should be heard by the members of the international community. Among the immense volumes of the publications and translations of the works about Nazi—and SS—concentration and death camps, Zenon Rozanski’s Report and its translation into English merit a worthy place in the context of the search for the historical truth about the dominance of National Socialism in Germany. With his talent—and perhaps his calling—as a journalist, the prisoner Rozanski was able to observe and document the darkness of the most gruesome details, yet he was also able to get a glimpse of some miraculous glimmers of light and love—in the hellish conditions of Auschwitz. Thus, he has preserved them for all times to come.

I would like to thank Wipf and Stock for their willingness to publish this translation of Rozanski’s Report—which is long overdue—thus making it available to the wider English-speaking world. I wish to acknowledge the valuable fascilitating help of Christian Amondson. The free-lance copyeditor, Rochelle Zappia, deserves my appreciation for her good work.

The competent staff of the ITServices of the University of Chicago Regenstein Library deserve my special gratitude because they efficiently assisted me in the navigation of the ever changing Internet cosmos.

Special recognition and gratitude are due to the initiative of the guardians of the Fritz Küster Series–Archive of the University of Oldenburg for having preserved and republished this Report by Zenon Rozanski. I am humbly grateful to Professor Dr. Gerhard Kraiker for permitting me to translate this work into English and for transferring the copyright to me. I also wish to commend Frau Barbara Sip of the bis–Verlag of the University of Oldenburg for her efficiency, kindness, and helpfulness in facilitating the various aspects of this translation project.

In addition to the work itself by Rozanski, the introductions by Professor Dr. Hermann Langbein and Dr. med. Winfried Oster are very important contributions because they provide additional information about the unfathomable creation of the KZ Auschwitz and the incomprehensible actions of extermination by the SS in that death camp with the introduction of poisonous gas Zyklon B. Through their portrait of this dauntless and imaginative Polish journalist and KZ prisoner, Zenon Rozanski, and with their reference to and praise of his invaluable contribution of Mützen ab . . . for posterity, Professor Langbein and Dr. Oster have supplied a broader context and background in which to search for the historical truth in the grim reality of National Socialism. They have also given a most valuable description of the situation and mood prevailing in post-war Germany regarding the initial repression of the reality of the existence of concentration and death camps in Germany, and the gradual acceptance and courage to confront these horrible historical facts, after the Auschwitz Trial in Frankfurt from 1963 to 1965.

The translation itself was a daunting task for me. It was emotionally exhausting because I found myself exposed to the gates of hell, a world of incomprehensible, diabolic bestiality in the death chambers of the KZ Auschwitz. In addition, it was often very difficult, if not impossible, to render the Nazi-SS terminology in a somewhat intelligible, fluent, idiomatic English. This difficulty arose mainly from the fact that in addition to its idiosyncrasies, the Nazi-SS terminology was a “coded language”1 intended to mislead and obfuscate its real meaning and purpose. For instance, in Germany the “code word” Sonderaktion was generally understood as a common special treatment for special groups; for the SS in Poland and in Auschwitz, however, it masked the act of execution, especially of Jews. In the translation of regular German, the code term Sonderbehandlung could mean “special treatment”; in Auschwitz it was the “legal code word” for “extermination and gassing.” The Nazi-SS term Sonderkommando would mean “special work detachment” in the translation of regular German, but in Auschwitz it referred to groups of Jewish prisoners who were required to unload the murdered corpses from the gas chambers. The regular translation of Kapo or Vorarbeiter would be “foreman” or “overseer.” But in Auschwitz they were the most brutal henchmen and murderers. Therefore, I have tried to give, after the first citation, an approximate English equivalent for most of the specialized Nazi-SS and KZ terminology. After that I have retained the German expressions throughout the text of the translation in order to maintain unambiguously the SS-KZ context. However, at the end I have provided glossary appendices listing the most common Nazi-SS terms and their approximate English equivalents.

I have retained Rozanski’s temporal expressions, most of which are in the present tense. This use gives his narrative an immediacy which the author must still have experienced while he was writing down his Report Mützen ab. . . . I have also retained the ellipses which he used after many sentences; these indicate a situation still in progress—either of fear and desperation or of anticipation and hope. He was liberated in 1945; his foreword at the completion of Mützen ab. . . is dated 1947. (This explains the immediacy of his recollections.) The first publication followed in 1948. I also have retained the original format of his Report in order to avoid distorting its author’s voice and frame of mind. I will also preserve the imprint of the Fritz Küster Series–Archive of the University of Oldenburg because of its important role in Germany during National Socialism and the post-war years. They deserve our gratitude for securing and publishing the work of Zenon Rozanski, Mützen ab . . . Eine Reportage aus der Strafkompanie des KZ Auschwitz. That work is now before us in English translation as: Caps off . . . A Report from the Punishment Company (SK) of the KZ Auschwitz, published by Wipf and Stock.

Christine C. Schnusenberg, PhD

Translator

University of Chicago

August, 2012

1. Kogon, Nazi Mass Murder, 1, 5-12. 159-161; see also, “Euthanasia,” 13-51.