English version published as Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers. Literary collaboration by Helmut Freitag. Edited and translated by Susanne Flatauer. New York: Stein and Day, 1979.

The German original edition was published by Verlag Steinhausen, München, 1979.

Filip Müller, a Jewish Slovak, was born on 3 January 1922. He died on 9 November 2013. The title of his book translates as “special treatment.” In the euphemistic language of Nazi bureaucratic, this expression denoted the mass murder of, especially, the European Jews, mainly committed in the gas chambers of the extermination camps, such as Auschwitz. The English-language title refers to the time Müller spent in that camp, after his deportation on 13 April 1942, forced to work as a member of the Jewish “Sonderkommandos,” which had the task of preparing the deported Jews for their death in the gas chambers, to empty the chambers after all had been killed, and then incinerate them in the crematoria. Müller’s report is the only one of a surviving member of such a “Sonderkommando,” because most members would eventually be killed by the guards to prevent the existence of any eyewitnesses. This was one of Müller’s main fears during all the time he spent at Auschwitz. His report covers the time between May 1942 and January 1945 (thus, he was there when the Rabinovitch family was killed; see the text on Anne Berest’s book The Postcard), when the extermination camp was evacuated.

Here is a brief extract from the English-language version of Müller’s account. This extract is about the very beginning of his work at the gas chambers (pp. 15-15).

Source: https://archive.org/

The words “undressing corpses” does not appear in the German-language text. It would also not make sense, because the victims had to undress before they were led into the gas chambers.

MHN

Nonthaburi, Thailand,

12 November 2023