Day 99 - The LIberation of Buchenwald!

The following is from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Web Site.


The Liberation of Buchenwald
As Soviet forces swept through Poland, the Germans evacuated thousands of concentration camp prisoners from German-occupied areas under threat. After long, brutal marches, more than 10,000 weak and exhausted prisoners from Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen, most of them Jews, arrived in Buchenwald in January 1945.
In early April 1945, as US forces approached the camp, the Germans began to evacuate some 28,000 prisoners from the main camp and an additional several thousand prisoners from the subcamps of Buchenwald. About a third of these prisoners died from exhaustion en route or shortly after arrival, or were shot by the SS. The underground resistance organization in Buchenwald, whose members held key administrative posts in the camp, saved many lives. They obstructed Nazi orders and delayed the evacuation.
On April 11, 1945, in expectation of liberation, starved and emaciated prisoners stormed the watchtowers, seizing control of the camp. Later that afternoon, US forces entered Buchenwald. Soldiers from the 6th Armored Division, part of the Third Army, found more than 21,000 people in the camp. Between July 1937 and April 1945, the SS imprisoned some 250,000 persons from all countries of Europe in Buchenwald. Exact mortality figures for the Buchenwald site can only be estimated, as camp authorities never registered a significant number of the prisoners. The SS murdered at least 56,000 male prisoners in the Buchenwald camp system, some 11,000 of them Jews.

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I still have about another 10 or 20 blogs to do before I finish my Dad's memoir and then I am probably going to add his manuscript on the war in Zimbabwe - we lived there too during the terrorist war!

I also have another blog that I have been running parallel to this called: Buchenwald's Belgian Daughter - it is at www.laurafynaut.blogspot.ca or .com!

Day 98 - The U.S. 6th!! Army was on the way!

"'The remnants of a small rebellion of Danish Police, started in Copenhagen, were dying like flies.  They were unused to the severe hardships and the extreme conditions which the rest of us had gradually adapted to while in Buchenwald."

At the last minute, Red Cross packets  had been sent for them.  As much as possible, these packages had been divided and distributed to everybody, on an international basis.  So, the chances for all turned out to be more or less equal!  

I had an advantage because of one of my former commandos in which I had access to the animal food from the pig's trough.  This  had help supplement my diet and the meager supply of food.  

All that we could do now was sit and wait for the last orders.  We were ready for action.  The tension was growing!  At last, on April 11th, we heard the tanks crawling up the hill.  Also, flying overhead that morning and clearly visible we had seen spotter planes.

The U.S. Sixth Army was on it's way!Not sure if is was the Sixth or the 8th - there may have been a typo when originally typed!!

The watchtowers gradually turning their machine guns on the advancing army and assault troops - who were coming steadily and stealthily up with the tanks.

When they were near enough and the sporadic firing had started that was the moment we had all waited for.  At a quick tempo and on a signal, every block stormed out and was organized by the already prepared Commanders.

I had Commander Blum of Brussels as my leader:  "You and you, there you go".  No doubt or shaking of your heads was tolerated.  He now told the slackers to stay behind - speaking directly to a lawyer!

It was four o'clock in the afternoon.  The ones that didn't go for the fighting had to pass the arms to us.  White flags were put up in the blocks to avoid confusion and mistakes by the fighting forces.

I was given two German stick grenades and told how to use them, putting them in my belt.  Knives, pistols and a few rifles - that's all we had!  Now, everybody can observe why we hadn't broken out before - what we had was negligible!

While the Americans were battling in front we charged like mad bulls at the fence.  It only took a few grenades to get a gap in the fence and cut the electricity flow. 

From our positions, we were now throwing grenades into the watchtowers.  In a hurry, we then had to make for the S.S. arsenals -  that's where the weapons were; in no time we were armed from head to toe, a formidable little army to account to.

The die hard S.S. were killed where we found them, no chance was taken, in their fox holes.  In all, we took two hundred prisoners by ourselves, which was not a bad show.  We were able to hand them over to the Americans almost intact! Here and there an individual bit the dust of course, that was understood.  

I found my tormentor from my beating incident! Dead already, in a fox hole, fighting until the end.  He had chosen his own way out and not otherwise!

During the past day, President Roosevelt had died and we made a last farewell ceremony in arms, as a solemn tribute to him and what it all stood for, the final victory!"

To be continued .....

Day 97

For any new readers of my dad's memoir -  I started blogging late December 2011 and I have been blogging on an ongoing basis.   Day 96 is the 96th blog of 97 blogs to date.


Day 1 is the introduction - I guess it is quite confusing when your first log on to this blog - although my daughter said that most people know a blog is in reverse order or backwards.


 Sorry if it is confusing! I am still a rookie blogger and have not had time to make it more professional!  


The purpose really was just to get my dad's story from the concentration camp out there!  He would have been very happy if you liked how he wrote!

Day 96 - Quelle Courage Louis and Antonio!

June 8, 2012

"An S.S. was looking straight down the ranks at us now as a Jewish prisoner moved along and put himself in between Antonio and I.  He was pushed by the others and would have fallen out at the end and been shot by the S.S. if it were not for us covering him.

Pleading he looked at Antonia and I - I'll never forget all this!

Antonio was Jewish too but that was not known! We would have been shot had they found him in between us!

Not a word was said and the danger passed missing a potential victim.  The retrieved man (my dad's exact words - the wrong word but that is how he put it!) just looked at us and stayed with us for a while to disappear later!

After the S.S. had their numbers right they went out and we had another reprieve: we then descended to our blocks determined not to get up anymore, that was it, whatever was to come, this was the finale, them or us!

The ones left were the survivors and fighters left among us, the weak ones and the unfortunate ones had been sorted out but we were a pack of skeletons, an army of the walking dead.

In the evening, we stood watching the fighting now developing in the valley below.  What a spectacle that was, guns blazing, spitting fire and brimstone, it was like a land and sea battle combined.  People were still dying around us en masse.  

I just about had eaten up all the little tidbits I had saved for such an emergency ................

To be continued

Day 95 - Waiting for the U.S. 8th army at Buchenwald!

Today's Date: June 8, 2012


"Toward the end we were kept in the camp and all commando's were now stopped.  I had a last outing to Weimer and found myself a bit further away from the camp than normal and came across a bombed out police station with adjoining stores.


The bombing had really shaken the house to pieces, it was full of Masonic regalia and trinkets.  This explained a lot to me, right up to the end it had been a secret masonic type house.


It turned out that a lot of our German connections had been ancient members of this organization, mostly in the police department.  The Belgians that had helped me turned out to be masons as well. 


So, the people who helped me were not all communists as some people would have liked to have made out. 


My own inclinations were very much the same after the war!!


Many of the Germans went into hiding by mixing with us and trying to prepare a place of refuge for themselves.  Richard Thalman, they were after him soon enough and just the same got him near the end.


When transports were assembled now the personal roll calls ceased, no more time for that, that is what we had waited for our time was coming.....................


The Russian guard went first, voluntarily, with the idea to jump their guard in unison, on one signal, they did just that successfully and got away with it.  At such close range, there was no way the guards could take evasive action and shoot all of us.  To accomplish such action you had to have the right people with you which I had realized all along. They offset some death transports which received the worst of it!


Instead of seeing it out with us, Wing Commander Yeo Thomas, rushed ahead which nearly cost him his life.  Later on he was picked up by an American advanced column from the many dead and dying..


The camp commandent was begging us to get out  - promising nice carriages, food etc.  Now we could smile a bit at last!
We knew we had to refuse and stand up but not before they tried to make a last attempt to get us out with all the force they had left!


Suddenly, on the loud speakers we heard a croaking voice speaking quickly and saying, Schnell!!!  Schnell!!! All to the assembly place all blocks out.  This was seven days before the eleventh of April, 1945.


No more food had come and we knew the Americans were not far off, the 8th army but not near enough yet.  Old S.S. now came storming down from the tower, their pistols in their hands, shooting wildly around them.


They were screaming, Jews first and anybody who was too slow or anybody who ran back down to hide was shot at; so we had to walk very slowly up to the hated square. Their forces were very much diminished now and that was the last show which was spread out to the most dangerous proportions. 


Together with Antonio, we carried his Dad out between us.  We were trailing along a bit too long for our own good with the old man.  He told us to let him go!  Regardless, we insisted on taking him out.  Now and then I glanced at the murdering going on!


Eventually, we joined the ranks to be counted for the last time!!!!


To be continued

Day 94 - Dispirited Prisoners! at Buchenwald!

"Also, present with me at that moment were two very frightened people from a little town in Belgium.  A town mayor and his helper, batsman I should say!  The batman was always trying to do things for the mayor instead of helping himself.

After an opulent beginning in life the mayor was now old and  starving - he failed to survive to the end of the war.  The servant died in Belgium, shortly after the end of the world, broken hearted and dispirited.  Those two were an inseparable pair.  They worked in the camp incessantly - not daring to look up from their work for a minute!

I have witnessed a pair of twins who came into the camp on adjoining transports suffer the same fate!  They both died in quarantine - dispirited and broken hearted!........

To be continued .....

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 ........