"We were now greeted by a big open space. We then saw the confines of the wooden billets. For the next mile or so, after the billets, were row after row of two story, stone buildings. Below were more buildings, which included a brothel and an indoctrination hall for propaganda films and picture taking, no lectures.
A quarantine camp was situated in between the junior and senior camps which appeared to be two to four rows in depth and length. On your left was a small first aid station or hospital. To the right was the crematorium but no gas chambers. The crematorium was smaller than a single building in Auschwitz but similar to the building we had last seen with the little girls.
We then entered the shaving block area and finally came to a large kitchen. The kitchen struck us as not very big for the camp size!
The hanging tree of Goethe was in front of us It was a big, thick oak tree and was just coming into bloom. In the center were concrete trenches used to dangle victims after being hung. Goethe used to sit at that tree writing and looking at the landscape, very likely in serene meditation not realizing what would become of his special place in the coming years.
In all of this horror there had to be some salvation for the international prisoners represented at Buchenwald. This presented itself in the form of, "The Ark. "The Ark", was an underground resistance movement which gave, some of us, the strength to float above the atrocities and survive.
We now entered the sorting and shearing rooms again, as we passed through we just had enough time to gather more information about the camp from senior prisoners. It was the 14th of May, 1944 and we were facing a new period of detention albeit with a diminished group. The CAPO's and helpers guiding us through the process under the surveillance of a single S.S.
The inmates warned us that we needed to be on our best behavior at all times - which meant orders had to be followed promptly. We were also instructed to be subservient, to the extreme of what one could bear and at the same time be unobtrusive!
Lastly, they said it was better not to be covered in or show beautiful tattoos. They said, "keep those fellow/fellows out of view". The reason being that the wife of the Commandant had a peculiar hobby of picking those bodies out for the purpose of covering lampshades!
The Commandant's wife was, Ilse Koch. She would spy on potential candidates from secret holes and compartments and look for anything that appealed to her morbid sense of satisfaction, which included making lampshades from human skin.
Once again, we were shaved all over our bodies and bathed too. Our clothes, from Auschwitz, were exchanged for striped ones with red triangles on that had numbers for this camp.
We were ever reminded of the nightmare that we were still involved in as the cruel stories continually reached our ears from the other prisoners".
To be continued ...
A quarantine camp was situated in between the junior and senior camps which appeared to be two to four rows in depth and length. On your left was a small first aid station or hospital. To the right was the crematorium but no gas chambers. The crematorium was smaller than a single building in Auschwitz but similar to the building we had last seen with the little girls.
We then entered the shaving block area and finally came to a large kitchen. The kitchen struck us as not very big for the camp size!
The hanging tree of Goethe was in front of us It was a big, thick oak tree and was just coming into bloom. In the center were concrete trenches used to dangle victims after being hung. Goethe used to sit at that tree writing and looking at the landscape, very likely in serene meditation not realizing what would become of his special place in the coming years.
In all of this horror there had to be some salvation for the international prisoners represented at Buchenwald. This presented itself in the form of, "The Ark. "The Ark", was an underground resistance movement which gave, some of us, the strength to float above the atrocities and survive.
We now entered the sorting and shearing rooms again, as we passed through we just had enough time to gather more information about the camp from senior prisoners. It was the 14th of May, 1944 and we were facing a new period of detention albeit with a diminished group. The CAPO's and helpers guiding us through the process under the surveillance of a single S.S.
The inmates warned us that we needed to be on our best behavior at all times - which meant orders had to be followed promptly. We were also instructed to be subservient, to the extreme of what one could bear and at the same time be unobtrusive!
Lastly, they said it was better not to be covered in or show beautiful tattoos. They said, "keep those fellow/fellows out of view". The reason being that the wife of the Commandant had a peculiar hobby of picking those bodies out for the purpose of covering lampshades!
The Commandant's wife was, Ilse Koch. She would spy on potential candidates from secret holes and compartments and look for anything that appealed to her morbid sense of satisfaction, which included making lampshades from human skin.
Once again, we were shaved all over our bodies and bathed too. Our clothes, from Auschwitz, were exchanged for striped ones with red triangles on that had numbers for this camp.
We were ever reminded of the nightmare that we were still involved in as the cruel stories continually reached our ears from the other prisoners".
To be continued ...
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