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Pery Broad
Pery Broad
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Pery Broad, also Perry Broad, (25 April 1921 – 28 November 1993) was a Brazilian-born German non-commissioned officer in the Schutzstaffel (SS) active at Auschwitz concentration camp from April 1942 to 1945. He reached the rank of SS-Unterscharführer while working as a translator and stenographer in the camp headquarters.[1] As a prisoner after the war, he wrote a historically valuable account of the camp's operation, dubbed the Broad Report.

Key Information

Broad, born in Rio de Janeiro in 1921, came to Berlin with his mother at the age of five. He studied at the Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg (now Technische Universität Berlin) and joined the Waffen-SS in 1941 as a foreigner. Detached on duty to Auschwitz, he requested a transfer to the Politische Abteilung, where he conducted interrogations. According to Simon Laks, head of the prisoner's orchestra, Broad was a music lover who attended most of its performances, an exception being while choosing female prisoners for the camp brothel.[2]

He remained in Auschwitz until the dissolution of the camp in early 1945, and was captured by British armed forces. While a prisoner of war, he voluntarily wrote a report about his experiences in Auschwitz.[3]

Released in 1947, he again was arrested 12 years later, then freed in December 1960 after the payment of DM 50,000 as surety. He was arrested again in November 1964 as a defendant in the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials, where he was found guilty of supervising selections at Birkenau, as well as participating in interrogations, tortures and executions. For these crimes, he was sentenced to four years in prison in 1965. In 1979 in Wuppertal, Broad was among those interviewed and secretly filmed by Claude Lanzmann for Shoah, his Holocaust documentary released in 1985.[4]

Published English translations of the Broad Report

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  • Broad, Pery (1965). Smolen, Kazimierz; Bezwińska, Jadwiga; Brandhuber, Jerzy; Czech, Danuta (eds.). KZ Auschwitz: reminiscences of Pery Broad, SS-man in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Translated by Michalik, Krystyna. Oświȩcim, Poland: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. OCLC 799364.
  • Naumann, Bernd (1966). "The Broad Report". Auschwitz: A Report on the Proceedings Against Robert Karl Ludwig Mulka and Others Before the Court at Frankfurt. Translated by Steinberg, Jean. foreword by Hannah Arendt. New York: Frederick A. Praeger. pp. 162–324. OCLC 1448174.

References

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from Grokipedia

Pery Broad (25 April 1921 – 28 November 1993) was a Brazilian-born German () who served in the from April 1942 until its evacuation in January 1945.
Assigned to the camp's political section and guard duties, Broad witnessed and documented operations including selections for gas chambers and crematoria burnings, later providing a firsthand account known as the Broad Report while detained by British forces in 1945.
This report, detailing gassing procedures with and mass corpse disposal, has been cited as corroborative evidence of extermination activities at Auschwitz-Birkenau, though Broad himself participated in the camp's repressive functions without facing major postwar prosecution until testifying in the 1963–1965 .
In 1979, he was secretly interviewed by filmmaker for the documentary Shoah, recounting his experiences without expressing remorse.

Early Life and Background

Birth and Childhood in

Pery Broad was born on 25 April 1921 in Rio de Janeiro, , the son of a Brazilian businessman father and a German mother. Broad spent his early childhood in , receiving limited formal during this period prior to his departure. His mother's German heritage exposed him to elements of German culture and language from a young age, though specific family influences remain sparsely documented. Around age five, his mother took him to , , while his father remained in ; this relocation severed his primary ties to Brazilian childhood experiences. The family's decision reflected the mother's preference for raising him in amid interwar European developments, though explicit economic or political motivations for the move are not detailed in available records.

Return to Germany and Education

Broad returned to from during his childhood, integrating into the amid the consolidation of Nazi authority following the 1933 . Of partial German ancestry through his mother, he navigated by attending state secondary schools, where curricula emphasized National Socialist values, , and ideological , fostering loyalty to the regime among youth. This period marked his transition from a Brazilian upbringing to full immersion in German societal norms, including exposure to mandatory youth organizations that promoted paramilitary discipline and racial . Broad completed his secondary education, graduating from high school in December 1940. He then pursued higher studies at the of , commencing enrollment shortly after graduation and continuing until December 1941, when external circumstances compelled his departure. This technical curriculum, focused on and applied sciences, equipped him with skills in organization and administration, aligning with demands for bureaucratic efficiency in the expanding Nazi state apparatus, though his studies remained incomplete.

SS Career and World War II Service

Enlistment in the SS

Pery Broad volunteered for the (SS) in 1941, at the age of 20, after returning to from where he had been born to ethnic German parents. His enlistment aligned with the SS's recruitment of young ethnic Germans, who were often motivated by National Socialist ideology emphasizing racial purity, , and territorial expansion, though Broad's personal motivations remain undocumented in primary accounts. As a non-commissioned officer, he attained the rank of , equivalent to a or , reflecting entry-level leadership in SS hierarchy. Following enlistment, Broad underwent basic military training, beginning in before transferring to , as part of the preparation for volunteers. This initial phase stressed physical conditioning, weapons handling, discipline, and unwavering loyalty to and the Nazi regime, with ideological reinforcing the ethos of elitism and obedience. However, Broad's myopia precluded frontline combat assignment despite his application to the , redirecting him toward administrative and support duties. Such exemptions were not uncommon for personnel with medical limitations, preserving their utility in rear-echelon roles within the apparatus. The training regimen, typically lasting several weeks to months for volunteers, equipped recruits like Broad with foundational skills for service, including rudimentary administrative proficiency suited to his later postings, while instilling a paramilitary structure that prioritized racial loyalty over conventional army protocols. By early , post-training, Broad's path led toward concentration camp administration, though his enlistment phase underscored the 's selective integration of ethnic German volunteers into its expanding wartime framework.

Initial Assignments Before Auschwitz

Pery Broad enlisted in the () in 1941 at the age of 20. His early service consisted of standard recruit training for personnel, which prepared members for guard and administrative functions in non-concentration camp settings. In April 1942, Broad was transferred to Auschwitz, having achieved initial promotions indicative of satisfactory performance in these preparatory roles. These assignments, primarily in , involved routine bureaucratic support and security duties unrelated to extermination operations.

Assignment and Role at Auschwitz

Arrival and Duties in Camp Headquarters

Pery Broad was transferred to in April 1942, where he initially served as a guard before volunteering for assignment to the Political Department (Politische ), the section responsible for camp security and investigations, located in the main camp (Auschwitz I). This department handled prisoner interrogations, record-keeping, and political oversight under the camp's administration. In his role within the camp , Broad functioned primarily as an interpreter, stenographer, and translator, leveraging his fluency in English and other languages to assist in documenting statements and facilitating communications during routine administrative processes. He processed paperwork related to registrations and investigations, contributing to the department's operational . Broad attained the rank of SS-Unterscharführer during his tenure, reflecting his specialized contributions to headquarters functions. Broad's duties placed him in direct interaction with senior camp officials, including commandant , as part of the hierarchical structure overseeing the Political Department's activities from the central administration building in Auschwitz I. These responsibilities involved coordinating with command staff on logistical and procedural matters, maintaining the bureaucratic efficiency of operations without involvement in external selections or transports.

Daily Operations and Witnessed Events

Broad's duties in the Auschwitz camp headquarters, specifically the Political Department, commenced in June 1942 and involved processing administrative lists for incoming prisoner transports, including details such as names, origins, and numbers from sites like , Westerbork, and Theresienstadt. These routines positioned him peripherally to oversee the initial handling of arrivals, often conducted at night when SS personnel, including headquarters staff, were roused abruptly from quarters via alarms or orders, proceeding by motorcycle or lorry to the unloading ramps amid fatigue and routine complaints. Upon train arrivals, such as transport number 4722 comprising 4722 individuals, selections occurred on the ramp under medical supervision, categorizing prisoners as fit for labor—typically numbering in the hundreds, like 612 in one instance—or unfit, with the latter including mothers, children, and the ill, who were directed separately while the former marched to assigned labor camps for men or women. Broad's vantage from headquarters and occasional ramp presence allowed observation of these standardized procedures as integral to camp intake, emphasizing efficient allocation to sustain labor pools amid continuous operations. In his later recollections, Broad described encounters with prisoners assigned to crematoria duties, noting their apathetic demeanor during routine tasks like corpse handling and removal post-processing, which formed part of the camp's ongoing functional cycle without interruption. These observations underscored a perceived operational detachment among involved personnel, treating such elements as normalized extensions of headquarters-coordinated rather than exceptional events. Crematoria chimneys emitted smoke as a visible marker of perpetual activity, with auxiliary pits employing layered timber and for disposal when primary facilities were overwhelmed, reflecting the unceasing rhythm Broad witnessed from afar.

The Broad Report

Circumstances of Composition

The Broad Report was composed by Pery Broad in mid-June , while he was detained as a by British forces in Gorleben, . Broad voluntarily approached the camp commandant, Cornelis het Kaar, offering to document his knowledge of Auschwitz operations in response to a request for such information from former personnel. Unlike many postwar testimonies extracted under interrogation or duress, this submission took the form of a memoir-style without explicit assurances of leniency at the time of writing. Broad produced the initial version as a handwritten manuscript, which was subsequently typed by British Paul Winter and finalized by July 13, 1945, yielding a of roughly 75 typed pages in its original form (shortened to about 50 pages in a later court-submitted copy due to formatting). This predated the International Military Tribunal at , which commenced in November 1945, and occurred amid Broad's status as a low-ranking POW awaiting formal processing. The relatively fresh recollection of Auschwitz's chaotic evacuation in late —marked by death marches, mass shootings, and camp abandonment—likely contributed to the detail in Broad's account of terminal-phase events.

Key Descriptions and Claims

Broad described the gassing process in provisional bunkers converted from farmhouses at Birkenau, which were windowless structures equipped with airtight doors labeled "To disinfection." Victims, deceived into believing they were entering shower facilities, were herded into these chambers where SS personnel, wearing gas masks, introduced pesticide granules—marketed as a vermin eradicator—through openings in the ceiling or walls. The granules released gas, causing death within minutes amid screams that subsided after approximately two minutes, according to Broad's account. He detailed selections upon arrival of transports, conducted primarily by SS doctors who segregated prisoners deemed fit for labor from those selected for immediate extermination, including the elderly, children, and mothers with infants, who were directed to the gas chambers. Broad claimed that in one documented transport of 4,722 Jews, 4,110 were classified as unfit and gassed shortly after arrival, with the remainder sent to labor barracks. Mass shootings supplemented gassings when chambers overflowed, with victims finished off by gunfire to manage excess numbers. Broad estimated the overall extermination toll at Auschwitz in the millions, attributing this to continuous arrivals from countries including , , and , peaking during intensified phases in 1942–1944 when crematoria operations produced thick smoke visible from the main camp. He portrayed SS personnel, such as Political Department chief and camp leaders like Franz Hossler, as directly overseeing these "disinfection" actions under strict secrecy oaths, rationalizing the killings as necessary for combating alleged threats like epidemics or partisan activities, though enforced by higher command with penalties of death for disclosure.

Publication History and English Translations

The Broad Report, composed by Pery Broad during his British captivity in May 1945, was initially utilized in interrogations and legal proceedings rather than formal publication. It gained prominence during the (1963–1965), where sections were read aloud in court on 20 April and 5 June 1964 as evidentiary material against other former SS personnel stationed at the camp. The report's first printed appearance occurred in 1966, serialized in German within volume 9 of Hefte von Auschwitz, an academic publication from the Auschwitz State in . A fuller German edition followed in as part of the collection Auschwitz in den Augen der SS (Auschwitz Seen by the SS), issued by the same and incorporating annotations for historical context. English translations became available starting in the late , with Broad's "Reminiscences" featured prominently in KL Auschwitz Seen by the SS, edited by Jadwiga Bezwinska and Danuta Czech, and translated from the German by Constantine Fitzgibbon. Published by the Auschwitz State , this volume integrated Broad's text alongside Rudolf Höss's autobiography and Johann Paul Kremer's diary, enabling broader scholarly examination of SS viewpoints. Excerpts from the translated report have since appeared in various compilations, though full standalone English editions remain tied to such anthologies.

Capture, Interrogation, and Post-War Life

Allied Capture and Initial Testimony

Pery Broad, an SS-Rottenführer who had served at Auschwitz from 1942 to early 1945, was captured by British forces in 1945 following the camp's evacuation ahead of the Soviet advance. As a , Broad worked as a translator for the British authorities and voluntarily authored a report detailing his observations and roles at the camp, which became known as the Broad Report. This document originated from his cooperation during internment, providing an early perpetrator's account of operations at Auschwitz. Subsequently, Broad was interrogated by the Military Court of Law in , where he provided affidavits as a former translator and stenographer in the Auschwitz camp headquarters. The interrogation focused on his duties and witnessed events, forming initial postwar testimony used in early investigations. After a period of detention, Broad was released without facing formal charges at that time, allowing him to return to civilian life pending further proceedings.

Settlement in West Germany and Civilian Career

Following his release from Allied captivity in the late 1940s, Pery Broad resettled in , establishing residence in . There, he reintegrated into civilian society without facing substantial legal repercussions for his wartime service in the SS at Auschwitz, despite the detailed admissions in his 1945 report regarding camp operations, selections, and executions. Broad appeared as a in the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial from December 1963 to August 1965, where he was accused of aiding selections on the ramp, participating in prisoner interrogations involving , and involvement in shootings and gassings; however, he received no conviction or only a , enabling his continued freedom. This outcome reflected broader patterns in early West German and prosecution efforts, where many lower-ranking SS personnel evaded severe punishment amid limited evidence or witness cooperation. Broad thus maintained an unremarkable civilian existence in , including family life, until his death on November 28, 1993, at age 72.

Avoidance of Prosecution

Following his release from British internment between 1947 and July 1953, Pery Broad resettled in without facing immediate criminal charges for his Auschwitz service. As an SS-Unterscharführer—a non-commissioned rank—he received a "lesser offender" classification during the process, which prioritized purging high-level Nazis while exempting many mid- and lower-tier functionaries to facilitate societal reintegration and economic recovery. This status shielded him from extradition to , where Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss faced execution in 1947, or inclusion in the 1945–1946 , which targeted major war criminals rather than camp subordinates. Broad's post-internment life involved unremarkable civilian employment, including administrative roles in a sawmill and a electrical equipment firm, allowing him to evade scrutiny for nearly two decades. His early cooperation—providing the 1945 "Broad Report" and interrogations that corroborated evidence against superiors like Höss—likely contributed to this de facto immunity, as West German authorities and Allied prosecutors prioritized extracting perpetrator testimonies for use in convicting higher-ranking officers over pursuing every low-level participant. This outcome mirrored systemic leniency in the during the 1950s, when Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's government curtailed by 1951 to bolster workforce participation amid the economic boom and rearmament pressures, amnestying thousands of former SS members deemed non-ideological "followers." remained at large until his 1963 arrest prior to the Auschwitz Trial, where he was convicted as an accessory to murder in 21 documented cases and sentenced to four years' —a penalty far lighter than life terms imposed on medical orderlies or block leaders, reflecting judicial weighing of his rank, partial cooperation, and the era's pragmatic approach to mass perpetrator accountability.

Later Testimonies and Interviews

1979 Interview with Claude Lanzmann

In the summer of 1979, French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann conducted an interview with Pery Broad in Wuppertal, West Germany, as part of research for his documentary Shoah. The session was secretly recorded using a concealed Paluche camera installed in a red and white Volkswagen minibus, without Broad's explicit consent for visual filming or inclusion in the film. Technical complications arose when the camera malfunctioned and caught fire during recording, leading to intermittent video quality and some segments preserved solely as audio. Broad, who had served in Auschwitz's Political Department from 1942 to 1944, reiterated operational details of the camp, including the layout, crematoria functions, and the administration of for gassings. He described witnessing one gassing incident, emphasizing that victims were in such a state of torment that resistance was impossible. Regarding prisoner treatment, Broad referenced executions carried out in , the oversight by a Jewish named Jakubowitz, and an absence of violent reprisals by inmates against SS personnel. Emotionally, Broad conveyed the profound impact of his experiences, stating that the Auschwitz environment induced depression and physical illness, including an instance where he fainted upon observing an execution. He expressed apprehension about reliving the past, remarking, "I can face the past, but cannot dominate it," and noted itself risked exacerbating his prior depressive state. The full interview lasted approximately 2 hours and 11 minutes. Selected excerpts from the recording were featured in Shoah, released in 1985, offering viewers a direct, unfiltered account from a former perpetrator involved in the camp's extermination processes. This inclusion highlighted Broad's perspective on , including his post-war admission of the "death factory's" lack of organized resistance, though he maintained the events had deeply affected him personally.

Historical Assessment and Controversies

Reliability and Consistency of Broad's Accounts

Broad's 1945 report demonstrates in its descriptions of Auschwitz operational , such as the sequence of victim selections, undressing procedures prior to gassings, and the use of pellets introduced through roof vents, aligning with his assigned role in the camp's Political Department. These elements match key aspects of Rudolf Höss's memoirs, including references to prisoner corruption, mass shootings of Soviet POWs, and the psychological impact on SS personnel, indicating shared firsthand observations rather than invention. However, numerical estimates diverge; Broad claimed gas chambers could accommodate up to 4,000 victims at once and described near-daily gassings with rapid cremation cycles, exceeding Höss's figures of around 2,000 per chamber in Birkenau crematoria II and III and a more intermittent operational tempo of 1-2 gassings per month in certain periods. Comparisons between Broad's 1945 written account—composed shortly after his capture in March 1945—and his 1979 interview with reveal potential memory distortions over three decades, such as varying emphases on personal detachment from atrocities, but no fundamental contradictions in core events like the gassing mechanics or crematoria overuse. While self-justification appears in portrayals of himself as a passive observer who avoided direct participation, specific details like the sensory effects of (blue discoloration and almond-like odor) lack evidence of outright fabrication, as they align with chemical properties documented in supplier records. Verifiable elements, including delivery quantities exceeding delousing needs by orders of magnitude (e.g., over 19 tons ordered for Auschwitz in 1943-1944), corroborate Broad's claims of its weaponized application, as confirmed by invoices and SS procurement documents independent of perpetrator testimonies. Exaggerations in victim tallies (Broad's 2-3 million total deaths versus documented ~1.1 million) and infrastructure details (e.g., 12 retractable versus 1-2) likely stem from hearsay aggregation or post-event inflation, yet do not undermine the report's authenticity, authenticated via Frankfurt Auschwitz trial witnesses who handled the original manuscript. Overall, while variances suggest selective recall favoring minimization of , the absence of systemic inconsistencies and alignment with physical traces support qualified reliability for logistical assertions.

Use in Holocaust Historiography and Revisionist Critiques

In mainstream Holocaust historiography, Pery Broad's report has been cited primarily for descriptive details on Auschwitz's daily operations, such as prisoner selections, transport arrivals, and crematoria procedures, supplementing documentary and architectural evidence. Jean-Claude Pressac, in his 1989 study Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers, referenced Broad's account alongside other SS testimonies to reconstruct gas chamber workflows, though Pressac explicitly noted its limitations for precise historical verification due to reliance on memory rather than contemporaneous records. Similarly, institutions like Yad Vashem have archived the report as a perpetrator perspective on camp routines, integrating it into broader narratives of extermination processes without treating it as standalone proof. Holocaust revisionists, including authors like Carlo Mattogno and , critique the report's role in by highlighting factual inconsistencies and evidentiary weaknesses, such as Broad's description of a "bluish tinge" on corpses from early gassings of Russian POWs in 1941–1942, which conflicts with indicating cherry-red lividity from exposure due to impaired oxygen release from . They argue this error, uncorroborated by records or physical remains, exemplifies broader testimonial unreliability, especially given the absence of forensic residues (e.g., compounds in alleged chamber ruins) matching Broad's specifics despite post-war investigations. Revisionists further posit that Broad, as a captured officer facing potential execution, had incentives to embellish atrocities for Allied leniency, a pattern observed in other perpetrator accounts lacking independent verification. From a causal realist perspective, the report's integration into underscores tensions between narratives and empirical prioritization: while operational claims align circumstantially with Nazi transport logs and blueprints, unverified sensory details like discoloration prioritize subjective recall over (e.g., limited cyanide traces in Birkenau ruins) and documents (e.g., ambiguous crematoria capacities). This approach reveals systemic challenges in eyewitness accounts from perpetrators, where post-capture pressures and memory reconstruction may amplify unprovable elements, favoring cross-verification with material evidence to distinguish fact from conjecture. Mainstream defenses, such as those affirming the report's authenticity via handwriting analysis, do not resolve these gaps, as contextual biases in Allied interrogations could influence content without altering its core voluntary origins.

Broader Implications for Eyewitness Testimonies from Perpetrators

Post-war testimonies from perpetrators, including those like Pery Broad's, reveal a pattern where many officers provided accounts of camp operations and mass killings shortly after capture, often described as voluntary, such as Rudolf Höss's March 16, 1946, statement detailing the gassing of approximately two million people at Auschwitz under Heinrich Himmler's orders. These confessions frequently align on core elements like the use of gas chambers and crematoria, suggesting collective awareness and standardized procedures within the apparatus, yet individual accounts exhibit variances attributable to selective recall or minimization of personal agency. Historians note that while such testimonies offer insights into perpetrator and , their reliability is compromised by tendencies toward , of victim humanity, and post-hoc rationalization, necessitating empirical scrutiny rather than uncritical acceptance. Critiques of historiography emphasize the dangers of over-relying on these sources without corroboration from neutral, contemporaneous documents, such as railway records that independently verify transport volumes to extermination sites like Auschwitz, where manifests detail train arrivals from across between and 1944. Eyewitness memories from perpetrators, prone to distortion under interrogation or ideological pressure, contrast with durable like blueprints of installations or procurement orders, underscoring the need for cross-verification to distinguish verifiable facts from subjective interpretations. Mainstream narratives in academia and media, often shaped by institutional biases favoring consensus over rigorous falsification, have at times elevated such testimonies without sufficient caveats, potentially amplifying inconsistencies—such as discrepancies in estimated death tolls or procedural details—over empirical anchors. The fate of unprosecuted figures like many SS officers who resettled in highlights a pragmatic prioritization of anti-communist alliances over exhaustive retribution, with approximately half of senior officials in the 1950s-1960s Justice Ministry comprising former Nazis, reflecting Allied and West German amid tensions. This selective justice erodes assertions of universal accountability, as voluntary testimonies from integrated perpetrators—unburdened by trial—may serve exculpatory functions, further complicating their use in establishing causal chains of events without supplementary forensic or archival data. Such patterns advocate a truth-seeking approach that privileges verifiable documentation and causal analysis, wary of narratives conflating perpetrator admissions with unassailable proof.

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