The title of this section of my blog is from Page 3, Walter Poller's book, published in 1961, "Medical Block Buchenwald". It was one of the books found in my Dad's possessions when he passed away!
Walter Poller was a German political prisoner at Buchenwald and was released on May 10, 1940. May 10, 1940, my Dad's birthday, and the day my Dad says that the war really started for him.
My Dad's story and Walter Poller's story seem to flow naturally into each, both with a very powerful message!
From Walter Poller, Introduction to the English Edition!
I wrote this book in April and May 1945, directly after the collapse of the Third Reich. From the meagre notes - disguised for safety's sake - which I had jotted down during the first months after my release from the concentration camp in 1940.
It was not my intention to release the book immediately for publication. I knew that the contents could have become a manual for Evil and was afraid that in the forthcoming difficult years it could foster a new irrational premise and obscure objective standards.
My intuition told me that this report in its intended sense could not fulfill its purpose until, from an inner need and the in the fullness of time, the blackest of chapters in history could fruitfully overcome......
Today it has become an imperative duty to conquer the sinister past, not only in Germany and Central Europe but throughtout the whole world. The public cannot and will not weaken in this respect.
The reader will easily recognize that this book was written to break down doors which were closed to many and which might have been closed today. These are the doors through which each man must pass if he wishes to lead a decent human life and to strife for a better humanity.
As I wrote it there loomed behind me the shades of 238,379 prisoners who passed through the Calvary of Buchenwald and of the 56,545 men and women who were murdered there. May this book prove a foundation stone for a better future!
London, 6th December, 1960. WALTER POLLER
Days 1 - 132 of this blog are primarily my Dad's story about his e road to Buchenwald and back from a Belgian survivor's perspective!
Walter Poller was a German political prisoner at Buchenwald and was released on May 10, 1940. May 10, 1940, my Dad's birthday, and the day my Dad says that the war really started for him.
My Dad's story and Walter Poller's story seem to flow naturally into each, both with a very powerful message!
From Walter Poller, Introduction to the English Edition!
I wrote this book in April and May 1945, directly after the collapse of the Third Reich. From the meagre notes - disguised for safety's sake - which I had jotted down during the first months after my release from the concentration camp in 1940.
It was not my intention to release the book immediately for publication. I knew that the contents could have become a manual for Evil and was afraid that in the forthcoming difficult years it could foster a new irrational premise and obscure objective standards.
My intuition told me that this report in its intended sense could not fulfill its purpose until, from an inner need and the in the fullness of time, the blackest of chapters in history could fruitfully overcome......
Today it has become an imperative duty to conquer the sinister past, not only in Germany and Central Europe but throughtout the whole world. The public cannot and will not weaken in this respect.
The reader will easily recognize that this book was written to break down doors which were closed to many and which might have been closed today. These are the doors through which each man must pass if he wishes to lead a decent human life and to strife for a better humanity.
As I wrote it there loomed behind me the shades of 238,379 prisoners who passed through the Calvary of Buchenwald and of the 56,545 men and women who were murdered there. May this book prove a foundation stone for a better future!
London, 6th December, 1960. WALTER POLLER
Days 1 - 132 of this blog are primarily my Dad's story about his e road to Buchenwald and back from a Belgian survivor's perspective!
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