Day 106 - All Roads lead to Belgium!

"After we had completed our report Elmer told us that we could now return to Buchenwald.  He knew that we would not return!  There is a saying, "All Roads Lead to Rome", well in our case now,   "All Roads led to Belgium".


From a convenient view point, Elmer must have watched and observed us going the other way instead of towards Buchenwald.  That was the last we saw of him and him of us!


We went straight to Erfurt and Eisenach instead of Lower Franconia.  We got rides on all sort of odd transports including an empty tank carrier which shook us up and day and always -  especially when traversing fields and at the same time trying to avoid bomb craters and pockets in the roads.


In the process, we eventually picked up two British Prisoners of War -  armed with a pistol.  Later, we picked up a sharp, thin fellow who seem to me to be disguised.  He was dressed as a Belgian,  wearing a beret -  like the ones seen in British films. 


The beret had the Belgian colors sewn into but we do not wear berets in the way he did!  "With my first cross questioning he fell into the bag completely", !!!??  he confessed to me that he could not deceive me and he was indeed - not a Belgian!


Furthermore, he was too perfectly supplied, he had with him a small, carefully prepared rat pack, which he gladly shared among us.  We eventually passed him over to an American Commandent bivouaced along the road.


Soon enough he had talked himself out of that one!!and the last we saw of him he was walking stealthily away across the fields.  He could have been a Nazi like Eichman!


Along the way we came across a huge, Texas Ranger with a big cigar in his mouth.  He was gesticulating wildly and directing all wagons and vehicles into a parking lot in a field.  By this time,  the oddest thing we had travelled by was a fire engine!  The fire engine carried quite a lot of us!


We were now at a crossroads.  We took the road for Frankfurt which had been heavily bombed and was now enveloped in ruins!  Just walls and chimneys were left standing upright.  The inhabitants probably asking themselves whether it had all been worthwhile.


To be continued .... 













along the road

Day 105 - Eisleben - Martin Luther's birthplace!

"Elmer now took us to Eisleben, which is where Martin Luther was born.  Sporadic fighting was still going on around us, pockets of resistors were holding out and we could hear the distant thuds -   Elmer kept running back and forward to those places.


He now took us to an old farm house on the outskirts of town.  A typical old Saxon place with an old aunt in it.  Her daughter and some of her other relatives lived there as well.  In confidence now, she told us that her daughter's husband was a Nazi official.  This lady was very stuck on the Nazi culture or niche, as she called it, and she came up with a lot of excuses to justify their position. Antonio and myself told her where to get off!!!


We didn't waste any more time on the old aunt and now got on with the job that we were there to do.  Elmer had brought a typewriter with him.  In confidence, the old aunt sometimes talked to us and gave up some of her supplies while we were busy working on the report.


We were in a very historical house and I would not  have been  surprised if  Martin Luther had visited the house in a past era.  The atmosphere was perfect for it, old musty furniture, chandeliers and Dresden china all over the place!"


To be continued ...

Day 104 - The smell of burning flesh around Weimer!!

''The world was well satisfied that justice had been done at the "Nuremburg Trials".  Personally, I lost respect for the process of justice after the Trials! It seemed to me that the money distributed was of most benefit to many of the most affluent victims!  


All I can say is that, "I have been in Auschwitz and Buchenwald.  My files have resided in Bonn, Brussels and The Pentagon and who knows where else!  Whitehall and maybe Moscow but the best place is nowhere!"


Antonio ánd I now descended into the forest and walked towards the old quarry and the open plain.  At the bottom of the hill we came across a funny haystack!  To me, it stuck out like a thorn in the middle of a field and on the wind we smelt petrol fumes and human flesh.  No doubt, the S.S. had been around at work, who else!!!


I looked at the haystack again and said to Antonio, "It seems to be a set-up, probably an ambush -  let's get out of here quickly before we get fried".  It was too early in the year for a haystack and also the flat facade on the front was facing the road towards us.  Besides all that I also felt like someone was starring and watching us!  Once behind the walls of a building we made a safe getaway.  Who wants to get shot at the last minute when the hostilities are over!


When we got back to what had been, Buchenwald concentration camp,  Elmer came to see us.  He announced that he had a mission arranged with the Commandent and that everything was in order for him to take us and start a report.  Antonio was a good hand at typing and I had all the information on Auschwitz and the extra's!


To be continued ...

Day 103 - Reality after being in Buchenwald!

Ëlmer now told us to stay close by and be available to complete a report.  In the meantime, we had a thorough walk around the camp and scrutinized everything very carefully!


Firstly, we came across two funny fellows throwing combat knives into a board.  They were standing at the bottom of where a watchtower had once stood and were very near to where I had once stood eating Beech nuts which was also close to where the S.A.S. had been shot!


We were unarmed as we had been asked to surrender all weapons to the new Camp Commandent from the U.S.A.  I said to Antonio,  "I think those two are former S.S. and it is better if we make a hasty retreat as they are not Americans at all"!  They hardly spoke to us!


Later on the British did find the S.S. member Koch, former Commandent of Buchenwald.  Apparently, he was hiding and disguised in a prisoner of war camp!  Ilse, Koch's wife was found to be pregnant and given amnesty.


So much for that!  No doubt, they were living it up somewhere after the war!  The leniency of our judicial system and courts have become our downfall and maybe what I don't know yet????!!!!!


We cannot change thinking; we certainly have not found a cure for the wrong doings of people all over the world!  To me, we seemed to have developed a kind of upside down psychology.


No matter how many books are written!


There is not, as far as I know, any real proof or truth in any of the new philosophies in relation to psychology.  This new "science" is certainly in a favored position in relation to acceptability and having the opportunity, at this moment in time, to do a lot of writing and analysis on the subject!


Until we can change our primitive minds and construction of our brains or psychological makeup - I cannot see how we can do anything about it at all. 


This is my theory on the subject based on  conclusions I have made after what I saw in Aushwitz and Buchenwald as well as from my other life experiences.  It is the only thing that seems to have any reality for me the rest is all humbug!!!


To be continued ..