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 ..

Day 102 - Continuation of the Buchenwald tour!

Disturbing content!!!


"There was a perfectly manufactured lift or elevator in good working condition which carried the executed ones up to the ovens and it had three powerful furnaces.  Everything worked so smoothly most of the time, without many interruptions.


The skull smashing mallet was laying nearby where they had dropped it.  Some evidence, for the victims, some of whom would have been partly alive after the prolonged slow suffocation on the strapping clamps or hooks - a last order would be given if there were kicking stupors!


There was the whipping block, the ashes and partly burned bones and bodies everywhere!  Unearthing a mass grave near the Bismarck Tower was enough evidence as to what happened to the transports which never got off...........!!!!!


All these places were opened and even Germans were made to have a good look and do the digging back in or carrying the corpses'.


I never saw Janeck and many others again, only Antonio, his Dad and Jose Dewever and a few others.  I figured that 1,200 to 1,600 of my transport had vanished as only two hundred had survived!!"


You can think that it was about the same for the other transports.  The health of the few who survived, like myself, left much to be desired.  A good many of the survivors died shortly after being liberated, others were handicapped and invalided.


We weren't given too much food when we first arrived, weaned like babies I should say, food was another hazard for our delapidated bodies.  Some people were worse off than others of course.


Elmer Luchterhand, Antonio, myself and another prisoner had our photo taken at the gate of the watchtower with "Yedem das Seine",
for Walter Poller's book called, "Medical Block Buchenwald".


We stood there like two bookends, with Antonio and Elmer hiding behind the two in front.  Walter Poller had been a former German inmate of Buchenwald and he was one of the first people back in the camp after liberation.




To be continued ....

Day 101 - The Control Commission!

"Before liberation, Antonia and I had once been assigned for commando work in the environs of some aristocratic type people.


The French President and his wife were staying in a villa retreat in our environs.  I do not know what happened to them or the other Russian aristocrats who were in the area, they just went back like us I suppose!


We had to show an American Sergeant around who was in charge of the "Control Commission".  His name was Elmer Luchterhand and he became a proper friend, S/Sgt. H.Q.Co., Inf. E.T.O. U.S.A. Army.


While going around the camp we all looked into the oven which now held the charred remnants of what had once been people!


We also saw the horrible little hobby of Ilse Koch, the wife of the Commandent, and also the shrunken heads.  Diverse masks representing the different races - looking like partly shrunken heads staring at you from the wall.


One in particular, took my attention and I recognized it, it was of a tall Cameronian I had seen in Fort du-Ha or Caserne Boudet.


Different dissected human parts were preserved in jars for multiple experiments, it was there for all the believers and non believers alike to gaze at!


It still should be there to look at but I heard lately that evidence is gradually disappearing!  Madam Tussards  had nothing on this, it was the real thing and a mind boggling experience for us all!


The hooks in the crematoriums were all covered up, about fifty of them, freshly cemented in, all the evidence destroyed on the surface!


We then proceeded to another crematorium between here and the kitchen, with bigger foundations which was under construction.  They had, indeed, great plans for the thousand years Reich, ambitious, continuous and of a lasting kind!


To be continued ...

Day 100 - Skeletons moving around at Buchenwald!!

"When I looked at our squadron and their weapons it was an impressive crowd and a Farewell to Arms.  Luckily, except for a few skirmishes most of the battle was over now. 


Later we found out that when released, those big grenades, with their sticky ends moved by a strong spring more often than not exploded with a big rush!  The operator was supposed to sit in a fox hole and then pop up and manage the grenade!  They were a forerunner to the bazooka.


Now, some of the Germans went straight back to their old homes, weapons and all were taken.  Nothing was heard, everything was under control and orderly.  Big sprees of revenge didn't occur beyond what one would normally expect in such circumstances.  Talks with the townspeople took place on a grand scale.


The only news that was of any importance to us now was discovered by the Americans.  Apparently, before liberation an S.S. platoon had been on its way to burn us out with flame throwers and with a scissor grip!! was intercepted just in time! The intention had been to trap us inside and then set fire to every block with their hellish flame throwers.


If they had started with the flame throwers we would have been ready with our few weapons.  After suffering at the hands of our cruel captors for so long, many of us, would have tremendously welcomed a battle.


Instead, we were told food would come first and that first aid would be made available and that everybody would receive relief at the same time.  Lastly, we were informed that, after scrutiny, we would be given proper identity papers and eventually repatriated.


Delegations from the Red Cross and others now arrived at the camp which was laid open for general public inspection.  Nobody could understand the evidence bared to their eyes!  It was beyond normal reasoning and moral decency!


The skeletons of dying people were still moving around for everybody to see.  The mass graves were opened up and the yard at the crematorium was made available for everybody to see the pile of the dead who were still there!  The sites people now had to witness were incomprehensible to most.............................!"


To be continued ......












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