Day 93 - The big bulk of the hangman was always near!

"On the occasions where something was going to happen, the big bulk of the hangman was always close by - like the evil sighting of a banshee.  On one occasion, I was not too far away from the shootings and executions.   I was in the presence of a small German criminal notary.  We were now nibbling on some of the the much looked for triangle nuts under some trees growing in the area.

The butcher hangman, now appeared, as if from no-where and told us to be quiet just before we heard shots!  He was stroking his black moustache in consternation now and had a look of deep concentration. It appeared to be a matter of the most serene ritual for him!

Who was he after all???It seemed to me to be a bit more than just a job for this man - why was he always appearing, as if from nowhere, at these moments!  Was he like a counterpart of a Fiddler on the Roof - softening the impact of tragedy????

I was sorry for the fellows when I heard the rattling, short bursts,  in quick succession, all was over them at the moment -  the bravest...............

I hoped, somehow, that my nearness would be of some help to them in their last moments -  as there was no priest amongst us!!!............

To be continued ........

Day 92 - Weimer at the Xroad of the German Retreat!

"Maybe from then on we were safer in the camp!  Mob violence was now occurring and we might encounter retreating troops or be attacked by S.S. squardrons on revenge raids,  if we ventured out of the camp boundaries!

Weimer became the crossroads of the German retreat and that is why I think the planes were concentrating on this area.  I also think that the two S.S. men, with the Volkswagon,  that I had noticed the previous day, just before the bombing, were planting something near the fence to attract attention.

I don't know what! Possiblly, something to guide the planes to a particular target.  Again, they were more likely S.O.S. then S.S. - surely they were infiltrators!  I was so convinced of it that it made me confident that the camp would be saved. 

I was thinker lesser and lesser of excaping now than before.! It wouldn't have been wise all things considered.  On the other hand, I thought, never underestimate the strength of the S.S. or their capabilities!

On the night of the twentieth to the twenty first, I felt very disturbed again !
I knew something horrible was going on, my senses were acute all the time!  I was sitting in the dining hall, talking to the nightwatchman,  While we we talking inside, the old S.S., known as, "The Hangman", crept in - we knew him by this name due to his patrols within our barracks.

At this point, he warned us not to risk ourselves that night by going outside for any reason at all!  It was the night of the horrible executions, in the cellar of the crematorium, of all the German families and plotters.  Wholesome German families and the accomplices were actually being murdered there by the S.S. for treason against Hitler.

This proved to me that they still had enough power to do what they liked and mete out their vile retribution according to blood curdling tortures.  So much the more reason for us to beware and to be ready at all times!

Wing Commandent Yeo Thomas and a contingent of a dozen British with twenty three or more French and Belgians, all S.A.S., Special Air Services.  They had come in to Buchenwald about the same time as the German families.  Most of the service men were from, The Channel Island", and fully bilingual.  Recent radio broadcasts had made it clear that they were all considered to be terrorists and agents.

I remember when they had appeared, it was  near to the end of August 1944, just after the bombing of Guzloff.  They were brought in quickly on the advance after the landings and also when Antonio appeared on the scene.

After the war!!!The film made in honor of, Wing Commander Yeo Thomas,  "Sentenced to Die", from the same book as the "White Rabbit" was shown only once and for a selected audience and then destroyed.  A  fifty thousand pound epic, Kenneth Moore was the actor who played,  Wing Commander Yeo Thomas.   Why was it abandoned? I believe because it was going to be shown around the Commonwealth then.

During the last days of Buchenwald, similar to Pompei, things followed each other in rapid succession - from the shooting of the S.A.S. inmates to the murdering of the rebellious few German plotters and their families.

To be continued ...

 

Day 91 - War and Confusion!

"We now looked upon the body of an outstretched S.S., who had been killed by a concrete slab,  jettisoned right onto his chest.  He couldn't have been more dead.  We carefully put him onto a stretcher and by alternately changing the pole bearers we carried his body away from the disaster zone.  Taking his body out of the disaster area would help safeguard us against further complications!


Further along, we eventually caught up with our guards, who were headed for the village and close to a ravine.  They asked, ""what are you carrying there?" We told them and they said, "Throw him into the ravine and good riddance".


From the ravine, civilians started appearing now in bunches.  On meeting us and the guards they looked a bit worried.  For a few moments they looked back and forward from us to the officers and eventually,  in confidence,  they said,   "You don't look like terrorists at all, the Nazi's made us believe all that crap!


We now helped them get over the last steep edge, giving them a hand to pull themselves up and out.  We were now taken back in trucks that were provided for us, all the way back to the camp.....................!


To be continued

Day 90 - 9th February, 1945 - No trains at Buchenwald!

Janeck's friend had started a love affair, with a German girl, which was very well know to all of us and also successful - the Germans close by liked it.  We all seemed to idolize and support the secret romance as well as helped to protect the smooth running of the affair.  Sometimes, during the alarms, they had long moments by themselves.  The alarms were occurring more frequently than at any other time!

One day, we had stayed out much longer than the usual time.  We passed along a river with a big ridge rising just behind us.  A short distance away from me, I now noticed two very fit, S.S. with an amphibious "Volkswagon, with great concentration and very laboriously they seemed to be putting something down near to the fence.  They then drove quickly away in an awful hurry

The next day, the same alarm occurred again and lingered on too!  This was the 9th of February, 1945.  It was a clear and beautifully sunny, day, a bit chilly that was all but very dry and we were enjoying our outing!

All of us were now standing in a group and talking together.  Suddenly, from behind the ridge, on an average attacking altitude, "the super fortresses", appeared in full formation!  This was the big prelude to the usual frontal assault.

The planes were now throwing down their smoke tracers, in various colors and at a steep angle. We just saw the released bombs awkwardly beginning to drop out of the opened bays.  After this there was a draft and a terrible noise - we then realized that they were coming straight for us!

Holy Mackerel!!!!!  We just about had enough time left to run and jump quickly behind the parapet bordering the river before the impact hit the ground just where we had been standing moments ago!  The mud and stones were falling all over us now and into the river.  One very sharp stone piercing my cranium with blood spurting out and down my face -  it was a small, sharp, deep cut as if by an arrow ahead.

Around the edge of the nearest enormous crater was one of my mates laying without any movement, he was just behind the turned over edge.  We felt for sure, that he was dead!  Suddenly, he woke up and rose up, as if from the grave and joined us, smiling.  If ever I saw a Zombie like creature it was him!!! Maybe, everything had just passed over him.  He was one of the surviving carpenters and builders left behind in Buchenwald.

The Angel of protection or the crossing of the Red Sea, in small doses, was happening to quite a few of us, or we liked to think so, for our own sake.  Otherwise, the dividing line was very thinly strung.  When would all of this stop - we had just about had enough of it all by this time!

The landscape had changed into a real mess, the earth was overturned and poles and ruins were left behind with all kinds of debris being strewn about! The debris was all mixed up, making it look as if a tornado and earthquake had just struck as well as a battle had just happened!   Everything raged in one hell of a havoc - a complete chaos!!

We had no intention of returning to the center as the sounds of heavy planes kept on and on!   Turning around now, to see if there was anything worthwhile left - we noticed that our guards had had enough of it as well.  Everybody had just walked away!

It was a pity that there were no trains available at such a moment!  They were either out of service, hiding or destroyed.

To be continued ...........

Day 89 - The Twilight Zone for my dad at Buchenwald!

"While I was ill but still fully conscious I was in a trance like state.  What they called the twilight zone, the ethereal, not quite the astral when one leaves the body but maybe I was just before that stage.  Light came in at me and I felt oversensitive to presences that I could clearly see and hear around me.  


One night, late in the evening, it seemed to me that by force I was made to get up from my bunk.  A night guard was on duty and was standing outside the dormitory.  I saw a person enter and put something in the bin.  I saw it clearly from inside and in between the artificial light zone.  A person who I recognized as having been killed the previous day by the Yugoslavs - a traitor for Micheaelovitz, Tito's partisans they were!!!!


None of us interfered in the affairs of other groups within the camp - their affairs were for them alone to deal with. The unhappy spirit that he may have been appeared to me to have come back as clearly as if he was there in reality.  Possibly, I thought, he was bothered about something he had left undone.  Maybe he was there to help me in my troubles. Possibly he was innocent of the crime!!!


I now went to the guard in the ante room, which was our communal dining hall and asked him if he had seen anybody enter - he said he had seen nobody and anybody entering would have had to have passed by him! 
Possibly, I had been hallucinating due to my illness!  I felt like I had participated in a conversation with the deceased on a variety of subjects including when the war would end. 


I now felt as if pressure was rising to a high level all around me.  I could also hear rattling and hissing noises.  It seemed to me that the awful din I was hearing was coming from behind the door of the dormitory.  I now threw open the door to quell the noise and some of the elders appeared and tried to subdue me - to the extent that one of them stabbed me with a sharp object in my neck.


They couldn't hold me at all now.  I mentioned the noises but the elders said they couldn't hear any noises and didn't understand what I was saying!!!!
I then proceeded to follow the noise that only I seemed to be hearing and went straight to the bunk where, Jose De Wever, the Belgian dentist, was fast asleep at the top of the three rows in his bunk.


To relieve whatever was bothering me, I now felt that I had to climb the bunk and touch De Wever.  The elders were probably thinking that my fever was making me crazy!  I now wanted to solve the problem connected with the German criminal with who I had previously disagreed and whom we suspected of being a "ferret".  At this point, I believed that he knew too much about us and was going to give all of us away and that we needed out of the ordinary help to deal with the situation.


Anyway, as I touched De Wever the whole effect left me and I relaxed, it was done, my peace of mind returned.


The following morning they caught the culprit and I never saw him again!  The fever had left me now but I was still a bit wobbly.  Later, someone told me that the "ferret", had managed to change his triangle and had infiltrated into our section and that Jose De Wever had done all the investigation.


Soon after my illness, I returned to the garage in Weimer but the impetus for my escape had somehow been taken away from me!  I remained at Buchenwald, maybe for the better.................."


To be continued ....

Day 88 - The last transport at Buchenwald from Auschwitz and the Russian advance!

Please Note:


You may not want to read this particular blog if you had relatives who died in Auschwitz or Buchenwald concentration camps or any other camp!






"One day, the German criminal and I, had a disagreement about our places at the table and he threatened me.  Soon after this unhappy incident he accused me of stealing bread from my fellow prisoners.  It seemed to me that, in a moment of spiteful anger, he was going to get even with me about the earlier disagreement!  It had now become a very personal conflict and was quickly  beginning to look like an enraged passion play!


He appeared to be very irritated and I thought perhaps this was due to my reaction at his provocation.  Later, we found out that he was a suspected "ferret".  In his eagerness to frame me he had placed my hat near the cupboard where the bread was missing.  The inference, of course, was that I was the culprit - it was too obvious to be true!


Meanwhile, the group now proceeded to set a trap for the rat that he was - it was much better done than what I could have managed as I was still under stress.  The worry and trouble over this incident took over my plan of escaping and I had also caught a virus at the same time.  I started feeling very sick with a high temperature - I had caught typhoid fever.  Probably after having climbed over the dead and dying who had recently arrived from Auschwitz.  


These prisoners had been quickly assembled on a last transport due to the imminent and rapid Russian advance.  A "foregone conclusion".  These poor  human survivors just came in and expired at Buchenwald.  Their conditions were appalling -  they were dying and lying in their own excrement in specially fenced off areas.  The Germans were afraid to catch the diseases too; typhus, disentry and diarhroea.


Well, I guess I had caught the lot, what a moment!  They all thought I was a goner - I was delirious and spiritually I was now far away from worldly  surroundings... "






To be continued ...

Day 87 - Polish and Russian Connection at Buchenwald!

One day, in the kitchen, a very young, Polish chap, who just happened to be a friend of my friend, Janeck was in charge and also the go-between with the local police, the camp S.S. and the prisoners.  There were also foreign workers present, girls and women who were doing the cooking, all the time!  They  were from the Eastern lands, mostly Poland and Bylo-Russia??.


Our Polish connection and charge hand arranged everything from obtaining bread to getting potatoes and vegetables.  During the bread run, he would have us organized like a chain gang.


From the cart outside, we would get the single loaves and pass them along the line, turning the stairs and then putting them on the shelves in the cellars below.  We would then have to quickly remove one from each shelf to replace the previous days one.


All this was done while the guard were still counting the loaves.  The guards could never follow all of us at once when it came to carrying the heavy baskets inside.  When we were lucky, we were able to throw one or two loaves behind the door before the guards noticed.


Everything was done so fast, with him quickly passing the guards at lightening speed and on a single command, us responding as he passed by us.  We were never short of bread with him!  Under our coats it went to take into the camp to share with our comrades in the block, first come first served!  This helped the whole situation while I was busily working on my getaway!


A bit further on from us was a hill or rather curving ramp, with a slope running just above us.  At this point, the trains arriving and leaving from the other points westward would slow down just enough to enable me to jump on!  Being a fast runner, I would be able to make the jump if running at a good speed and pace - I was a bit off form and weaker now but still good enough.


We were now going out during the bomb alarms!  The camp elders did not have to encourage me too much to make my escape.  They knew I would take my opportunity with a bit of calculation and at the most opportune moment.


I now got to know a lot of the new arrivals - especially the block in which Antonio was in - he was Jewish and became a very good friend of mine.  His father turned up a bit later.  They were former, Spanish refugees, from the Civil War who had been residing in Brussels in exile. 


Antonio had been involved in running the blockade over and back to Spain with different businesses involved - about which he had kept very silent.  His involvement in the war effort had formed an integral part of our set-up as well as for the allied intelligence.


I believe he was "Cato", code name for Spanish Operator from Catalonia - he had initially presented himself to the British Embassy in Madrid and been refused.  His father was a mayor in one of the suburbs of Barcelona.  After the British had refused him he had offered his services to other intelligence organizations and than gone back to the British,  giving false information to the Nazi's!


Camuz", was Russian intelligence and Wing Commander, Yeo Thomas, British Intelligence.  Wing Commander Yeo Thomas' code was "Nathan" in Buchenwald.  A Belgian dentist, Mr. De Wever,  "White Brigade",  from Antwerp looked after me in my block.


At this point, a German criminal, who had steadily infiltrated in the camp, tried to accuse me of stealing bread from fellow prisoners so it was especially good that I had Mr. De Wever on my side ...............................