HERR BABEL: You said “we prisoners”; who were these prisoners?
BALACHOWSKY: The internees inside the camp.
HERR BABEL: What internees?
BALACHOWSKY: We, the political prisoners.
HERR BABEL: They were supposed to have been mostly German concentration camp prisoners?
BALACHOWSKY: They were of all nationalities. Unknown to the SS, there was an international secret defense organization with shock battalions within the camp.
HERR BABEL: There were German concentration camp prisoners who wanted to help you?
BALACHOWSKY: German prisoners also belonged to these shock battalions—German political prisoners, and in particular former German Communists who had been imprisoned for 10 years and who were of great help towards the end.
HERR BABEL: Very well, that’s what I wanted to know. Then, with the exception of the criminal who wore the green triangle, you and the other inmates, even these of German origin, were on friendly terms and helped each other; is that right?
BALACHOWSKY: The question of the “greens” did not arise, because the SS evacuated the “greens” in the last few days before the liberation of the camp. They exterminated most of them; in any case they left the camp, and we do not know what became of them. No doubt some are still hiding among the German population.