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!

Day 77 - "The last public hanging at Buchenwald"

"This was also the last time the gallows would be brought out for a public hanging.  Public hangings were used as an example for us all; in case we should think of trying an escape.


We had to watch the hangings for a couple of hours while the music played and the fellow, a Russian or Polish, I think, were slowly hung up and left to die.  Everybody was compelled to look upon it during that time.


His executioner, an S.S., would give a speech about daring to escape and that was it!  I always thought that there were two that I saw but from where I stood I had a rather awkward view and what with moving about, the helpers and the posts, my view from the distance was somewhat impeded.


Winter went by with snow and freezing temperatures and I had the only woman's fur coat in the camp.  It kept me decently warm, it was a bit thin and worn out but kept the freezing wind out very well.  It also covered up my escape outfit.  My hair was nearly normal now, no brush cut to spoil the effect!


The winter was made harder by the long roll calls.  We had to be counted and recounted until late into the night - they always found mistakes to be dealt with unless the S.S. was a slow poke.  We all quickly came to the conclusion that the long roll calls were a direct result of sour grapes on their part because of all the set backs they now had to face.


All of their fronts were now crumbling - even the home front!  However, they probably felt the need to preserve their institutions as long as they could and we were the shield in front of them.  That was the intended finale; to use us as human shields, our sole hope was to get and receive help from our Allies.


Churchill had refused the arms drop we had asked for in return for the destruction of the secret arsenal.  We thought that this would have given us the chance of getting the equalizer for which we had hoped.  It was believed that   Churchill would not give us what we wanted because of potential reprisals against the other camps...


Wing Commander Yeo Thomas had his reservations too!  He had been saved by the Camp Resistance (very much like myself), for its uses.  That is how he escaped death at the hands of the Gestapo and Nazis, not otherwise as the film suggested from the death transport.....




To be continued ...

Day 76 - Peenemunde - foreshadowing Hitler's downfall!

I recently discovered that the number I have been quoting as my Dad's Buchenwald number is incorrect.  My brother and I were relying on our memories of the number branded on my Dad's arm - it seems that neither of us were correct!   The number on his arm was allocated at Auschwitz and also slightly different from the number I have been quoting!!!!!  At this point, I am leaving the blog with the incorrect number. Somehow!!!Day 51 is in the wrong spot in the blog - sorry about that!


"A combination of planned and unplanned actions now came into play which helped hasten the downfall of Hitler.  The information that had recently been passed on to us was essential intelligence in relation to the V2's and V3's as well as the military installations for jet planes down in the valley.  There were enough weapons to have a ball.  "Peenemunde" was a baby in comparison.  Nevertheless, it was only Peenemunde that was ever mentioned out of it all!!!


Like most other concentration camps, Buchenwald is only known for its atrocities - no recommendations for the actions and deeds mentioned in this narration, which I believe were of the greatest importance to the overall cause.


The question, of course, why destroy a fifty thousand pound epic when you could combine two epics without losing any credibility and at the same time please an intelligent audience with a masterpiece!


If you have to squash or destroy a good film after the war in the process of something that is very wrong or else given credit to other nations or nations of other peoples, besides your own, is that it!  A further course of events would explain what I have just written, my writing is just like Buchenwald which had a veil hanging over it!!!!


My further explorations now found me caught in the underground tunnels near the V2's and it was here that I now met with what appeared to be another member of the S.S. - this time I had a completely different experience from what I had encountered when I had been beaten for another infraction.  This man was completely different in character - the contrast was so great that I was left wondering whether he was one of us or just monitoring the place after the bombing.  


It seemed to me that he was trying to hide just as much as I was!!  Possibly he could have been disguised as an S.S. and not concerned about me or what I was doing down there at all!  He had the character of a gentleman, with class, and appeared to be genuinely concerned about my welfare.  He advised me that it would be better for me not to hide down there and left me unscathed - I never saw him again after that either!


S.O.S. were operating on the inside now, taken from emigrant settlers from the U.S.A., with German origins.  Anyway, no further communications with me were tried - the incident I had experienced in the underground tunnels appeared to be purely coincidental in nature! 


If the man in the tunnel had been an S.S. officer things were really on the turn.  However, their blend was such that they could hardly change based on their oaths and so called honors of the new knights class.  To me, he didn't seem to belong to the lower echelons or brutal bullies we knew but appeared to be an aristocratic in his bearing!!!


In the camp events were rapidly changing now.  Criminals were completely eradicated from our ranks and the "politicals" were taking over to be Capos."




To be continued ...

Day 51 - A camp within a camp and timelessness!

See Day 1 (Blog 1) for introduction!


"There was still no drinking water so most of us drank of the dirty pools on the earthern floor with dire results to follow.  I abstained and found myself a place against the back of another fellow and alternatively against a wooden panel.  People started dropping downwards again and making room in this way.

I put one sole under my buttocks, the other under my feet.  In this way, I took some naps in the long and eventful night that followed.  First, I was rudely awakened by a couple of shots, some of our fellows got shot for daring to go outside for starters! That was out of bounds.

Later in the night, we heard muffled voices and shovelling and we couldn't make out why,  we weren't allowed to see anything, you see - we were always left completely in the dark.

The morning of another day arrived and we were allowed to go out into the early morning dew to the pit, managing for what we had to do!  The two shot bodies of our comrades were placed next to the pit to be hauled away.

When the food came around, which judging by the sunlight, was about nine, which I am afraid I cannot prove either, not having an instrument amongst us to give us a measure of time, I say all this as a matter of fact.  Sometimes, a machine made by man and programmed to his conceptions is more believed than man himself.

This again, seems to me, to be especially the case today.  I have noticed that many of the disbelievers of what happened in the camps have a special attraction to machines programmed to man's conceptions.  It is something they can see and therefore they justify their arguments through technology which I have observed with utter amazement but not disbelief like them! 

A knowledge of time was forgotten, somehow, by us, the soldiers had watches but it was safer to keeps ones distance from them.

After the bodies had been removed and the soldiers had left - don't forget we were a camp within a camp, we noticed and found ourselves inbetween barbed wire on the inside of an electrical fence.

The food was atrocious but we ate it eagerly, just a bowl with a glue-like, jelly-like substance holding the cabbage and some seeds together - I think it was some rye.  No utensils of course, a little bread was provided and we managed to pick the food up with the bread and slurped down the rest like animals do.

That was the idea, we were reduced or rather brought down to that
level ........ "

There is enough material in my Dad's memoirs for me to continue this blog for many more months!  I will also include official camp papers and other material that my Dad kept  from the war in the next few months!