Thursday 10 May 2012

Day 78 - Wing Commander Yeo Thomas, S.A.S.

"The fact was that, "The Camp", was very much in control of everything and Wing Commander Yeo Thomas did not have any more power over decisions than the rest of us.


Despite having rank within the S.A.S., he possessed a very flimsy authority in the camp and could not save any more of his buddies than we could save ours!  No ordinary man in the camp possessed that kind of authority.  In addition, at this point, many of the inmates were more like cabbages than anything else and if summoned to do so could not escape the death transports or anything else for that matter.....!


The Commandent, was now using all kinds of ruses over the loud speaker - trying to get as many inmates on the death transports as he possibly could - this was very likely to offset the pressure in the camp and shoot them down more easily later.


At that time, using any kind of weapons would have resulted in what would have been a massive suicide for us.  The Allies were too far way to be of any help and the Nazi's were still very strong.  Therefore, the suggestion made by, Major Yeo Thomas, that we use our weapons probably would  have made our general position even worse than it already was........!


In addition, we were still very much divided and it could have created an abominable state of armed suicide.  With the weapons at hand, we probably could have made a go of it but the S.S. would have been able to pick us off very easily.


The action that Wing Commander Yeo Thomas had suggested was very typical of S.A.S. types.   I admired his courage for suggesting that we take action using the weapons because that is the way I often felt myself.  There was definitely support among us even though we hardly knew each other. 


However, the situation was still such that The Underground Movement made all the decisions not us! Churchill and our Allies had probably made the right decision in view of the circumstances.


As you can imagine, for many of us, the decision not to take action was very disappointing - most of us felt very let down!  I now felt that forgiving and accepting the facts was more useful than making silly accusations -  jumping at each others throats would serve no purpose.


"I now ask that an evaluation of the facts, in relation to the epic movie that was made about Buchenwald, be conducted.  I feel that this is important in order to put the historical context of the events into their proper perspective and not the perspective of a few individuals who were not present at the time.  This should be done in memory of the men and women who made such great sacrifices within our camp - It is Never too Late!


We cannot judge history on the statements of a few individuals....!"


To be continued ....




Today, is May 10, 2012, my Dad would have been 89 years old today!  What a trooper.  My Hero for sure!

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