Selection in the Auschwitz hospitals Piotr Setkiewicz
O
ne of the Polish words most frequently used in Auschwitz and familiar to the multilingual crowd of prisoners, was selekcja (“selection”) readily understood in its similar‑sounding analogues in many languages
(German die Selektion, French la sélection, Czech selekce etc.). It was a word which engendered terror and apprehension. In his recollections Primo Levi described the atmosphere and mood prevalent in the camp prior to a grand selection of sick inmates for the gas chambers: “One feels the selections arriving. ‘Selekcja’: the hybrid Latin and Polish word is heard once, twice, many times, interpolated in foreign conversations. … In the latrines, in the washroom, we show each other our chests, our buttocks, our thighs, and our comrades reassure us: ‘You are all right, it will certainly not be your turn this time, … du bist kein Muselmann. …’”1 However, in the initial phase of Auschwitz selections were not conducted in the camp’s hospitals. Sick and starving prisoners too feeble to work were sent to the outpatient unit in Block 28. In practice they could hardly count on getting any real help there, because the medical staff only had the most rudimentary medica
About the author: Piotr Setkiewicz is a graduate of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and holds a PhD from the Silesian University, earned in 1999 for a dissertation on IG Farben‑Werk Auschwitz 1941–1945. Since 1988 he has been employed in the research department of the Auschwitz ‑Birkenau State Museum. He was head of the archives from 2001 to 2007, and in 2008 he became head of the research department.
1
Levi, 145–146 (English edition). msmulhollandonline.weebly.com/uploads/7/9/3/4/…/primo_levi_ if_this_is_a_man.pdf (Accessed 3 Sept. 2018).