Report from the concentration camp at Buchenwald near Weimar

On the notorious Thursday evening when the synagogues burned and the shops and homes were wrecked, I was arrested by the Gestapo with the explanation, “We must take you into Schutzhaft in connection with the events of this day.“ I was transferred to the remand prison and remained there one day. Treatment there quite correct, perhaps it could even be called friendly. Released towards evening, so that at first the thought occurred to us that we would be released to go home.

We learned better however through the fact that a row of buses suddenly drove up, into which we were loaded. Transported to Frankfurt-Süd railway station, met there by a large crowd of Schupos, who shouted loudly at us, but otherwise left us alone. Loaded onto a passenger train, order: “During the journey none of the windows may be opened; in the event of an attempt to escape those concerned will immediately be shot without warning.“ Journey to Weimar. The first acts of violence on arrival there. We had to go into the tunnel under the tracks, face against the wall, we were crammed closely together and mistreated with blows and punches. After the transport was counted off, we were herded on with crude shouts and cursing to run as quickly as possible up the steps to the buses that were standing there. The first kicks were planted on the steps. Here already it then became apparent that the boys and the agile came through comparatively well whilst the older or physically impaired were on the receiving end of the blows. Loaded into the buses already standing there, again with loud and crude shouts and many insults. Example: An SS man asks, ”What are you all?“ Of course no reply, as the question was not understood. Slap on the face. “We are all Betrüger, you must say! What must you say?“ Slap on the face. At last comes the required answer. Slap on the face. “Speak up, you Judenschwein !“ etc. In the bus the sudden command: “Spectacles off, heads down!“ Punches immediately to all necks that were accessible until all heads held deeply bowed. We had to remain in this position for the whole journey; if anyone dared to raise the head, immediate punch to the neck.

Arrival in Buchenwald: order to get out. Even louder and cruder shouts and hail of insults. Order: “Hats off.” Again herded at top speed and then a proper running of the gauntlet. We had to pass between two lines of SS men, one punched and kicked, the other beat us with knuckle-dusters and whips. One plump Wachtmeister had a short-handled whip in his hand like the Russians’ nagaika and it was doubtless also interlaced with wire or studded with pieces of lead. He struck the head with it and blood generally flowed after every lash. Again it was the case that agile younger men got away with a couple of blows whilst the older men, some of whom were suffering acutely, emerged from the alley bleeding and limping.

Report on the square in front of the commandant's office, there allocation of prisoner numbers and allocation to the barracks. At the double to the barrack and there immediately ordered onto the Pritsche. Here an older prisoner consoled us, “Now you can all calm down, here you are safe.” From my place I counted 22 men with bleeding heads. Mostly it was bleeding weals although on some individuals, however, the skin had split and the scalp lay bare. One of the older prisoners looked after the wounded insofar as he dipped a towel in water and laid it on the heads of the wounded to cool them. As he had neither many towels nor much water he had to remove the primitive bandage again after ten minutes in order to lay it on another man. Basically in Buchenwald there is no treatment of wounds for Jews. They have no claim to bandaging material, to medication or to any medical help whatsoever.

In the camp there were four barracks in which approximately 2,000 men had to be accommodated. Pritsche in four or five tiers above each other so that when everybody was lying flat and all the aisles and the central area were also occupied, most were able to lie down at least. All the same the room is not quite large enough, a number have to spend all night standing up. Two days later a fifth barrack was ready, so that in the end it can be envisaged that perhaps roughly 10,000 men have somewhere to sleep. There are no washing facilities. Already on the second day our hands are dark grey and sticky, so that we feel sick having to touch the bread with them. The camp must suffer from a shortage of water. At any rate it has to be saved even in the medical barrack to the extent that that the Krankenwärter complain that they can scarcely wash their patients. Another consequence of the water shortage: Jews are entitled to have coffee once a day. The daily coffee ration that was given to us amounted to at most only four or five mouthfuls, so that we all suffered from thirst and could often barely speak with the enormous amount of dust produced in the barracks, and for that reason it was very often necessary for us to clean our noses during the day by digging in with our fingers and so removing the crusts of filth. For the five barracks there was one latrine of perhaps ten metres in length. The usual field latrine: a tree trunk at sitting height with a corresponding pit behind it. It is self-evident that this latrine was not enough for so many people, and those who only wanted to urinate did not queue up for an hour to get to the latrine but urinated anywhere in the area, which naturally led very quickly to a contamination of the whole area. See below on the conditions during an occasional dysentery epidemic.

In the camp the prisoners are not allowed to wear a hat and are immediately ordered to take off collars and ties. On the first day we had to spend most of the day lying on the Pritsche, as there are only two alternatives. Either reporting on the square in front of the commandant’s office or lying on the Pritsche. A day room does not exist, or even just space in which to move outside the barracks, even if only to a small extent. Once a day there is a hot meal; however, because of their thirst many only consume part of it.

On the evening of this first day came the first cases of mental disturbance. Next to me lay an old pharmacist, who suddenly began to talk incessantly. He said that he asked for coffee twice, had as a result deprived his fellow prisoners, realised his mistake and now had to report to the commandant in order to have himself shot. We tried for hours to dissuade him and in the end held him fast by the collar, however eventually tired and let him go. He reported to the Unteroffizier who was just doing his rounds, who nevertheless dealt with him really very kindly: "So now I'm going to tell you something, go now and turn in and shut your mouth, and if you do that, then that'll be the end of the matter, but if you don’t keep quiet, then I‘ll come and shoot you!" The second case of mental disturbance went much more badly: an old gentleman from Frankfurt suddenly burst out with the cry, “Jews, help me, they want to kill me!“ He could not be kept on his Pritsche, began to run around, again and again breaking into the frantic cry, “They want to kill me!“ In the end one of the elderly prisoners confronted him: “Now finally shut your mouth, or I’ll give you what for!“ “Yes, but they want to kill me!“ Another warning and when the old man again yelled out his characteristic cry, a punch landed on his head so that he flew back over several prisoners lying on the floor towards the stove, half pulled this over, however, then rapidly hid himself behind it, but immediately shouted, “They want to kill me.” At this the elderly prisoner (who incidentally wore the green triangle of a common criminal) dragged him out from behind the stove and got three men as reinforcements and then seriously set to work. As a doctor I felt it was my duty to intervene and to make the people aware that one was dealing with an undoubted case of mental disturbance. I climbed down from my Pritsche and came forward below: “I am a doctor, the man is ill, would you perhaps allow me to see if I can cope with him?“ Shove on the chest so that I lurched backwards. “We don’t need any doctor here. We understand enough about these things and know what we’ve got to do with people like this.“ “If you make one more sound you’ll be finished off!“ When the old man still went on making his characteristic cry despite this, the four pounced, for perhaps one minute pelted him with punches to his head, which afterwards was a mass of blue-black; the place where his nose and his eyes should be could barely still be made out. The old man was half unconscious and of course kept quiet. As a result, great satisfaction on the part of this Rollkommando: “Yes, we already know how to deal with people like that, we‘ve already shut up lots of people who didn‘t want to keep quiet. We've got all sorts of ways. If there’s nothing else for it, then you‘ve just got to believe in stopping it instead of one thousand or two thousand having to put up with it. If we don’t cope with the fellow like that, then we take him outside for a bit. Then we‘ll make him keep quiet, we‘ve learned how to do it nicely now, and we don’t even need rope for it.“

After about half an hour the old man had again recovered enough to burst out with his cry, “Let me live”, at which a similar scene was played out as described above. The old man, of unbelievable tenacity, withstood it repeatedly, until in the morning at 6 o’clock we reported for duty, he lay on the floor of the hall in the dust and was still breathing noisily. However it cannot then have lasted much longer.

Another case from that night: one of the prisoners suddenly bursts out in fits of screaming, which ring out dreadfully through the entire hall and initially in fact were indistinguishable from hysterical screaming fits; later we often took these as a symptom of the start of a mental illness. One of the Rollkommando rushes up to him, “Shut up or I’ll finish you off!“ No effect on the prisoner and the first step is a kick up the backside, such that the man in question flies over two others. The screaming continues, at which the other man fetches a slat, with which he then wallops the screaming man so hard that the blows ring out loudly throughout the hall and everyone who should still have been asleep wakes up. The screaming continues, at which the other man ties a couple of rags to the point of the slat, sits down next to the screaming man, at the right moment pushes the gag deep into his throat. The screaming now stops of course, all that can be heard is the man still gasping. “See, we understand how to deal with people like you too, see, now you are all nice and quiet.” The gag is now pulled out a little, or the pressure of it is increased again as necessary and ultimately pulled out when the prisoner had almost completely suffocated. After he had recovered, he started screaming again, and I believe, however it cannot be stated with complete certainty, that this time he was suffocated to stop the screaming. At any rate this man was dead by morning.

That night there were also two cases of heart spasms. The men affected were laid on a table which stood in the middle of the barrack, “You Saujuden needn‘t come to us with such stories of heart spasms, we already know the ruse, since we also have our special methods to handle it.“ The treatment consisted of throwing water in the face of these prisoners. One of them, who was still lying on the table in the morning and was still alive, oddly enough had a wound in the region of his heart; where it came from, I do not know. This wound looked exactly the same as one on another man who had stabbed himself near his heart with a penknife. That night another man made an attempt to poison himself with Veronal. – Result of this night: three, perhaps even four dead in my barrack. As quite similar things are said to have happened in the other barracks, one can assume that at least 15 to 20 deaths per day could be recorded in the camp.

We were told, “Identification discs are the badge of honour of the soldier. You don’t get that, but we advise you to stick a piece of paper in your pocket with the address of your wife on it, so that at least we know where to send the ashes.”

On the second day, report for duty at 6 o’clock in the morning, attempt to create order in sections fails completely however, because no organised issue of commands and no communication of commands whatsoever were available. As a result of the unclear commands, frequent conflicts: if something is done wrong, there is beating with a slat or a wooden club. Where that involves a soldier, if he clicks his heels and shuts up, then it is fine. If he does not stand to attention or tries to explain his misunderstanding in an unsoldierly way, or to apologise, he gets fresh blows from the club, as it depends on the circumstance or on the mood of the man doing the beating whether the blow is made harder or weaker, or whether he hits the shoulders, the back or the head and the back of the neck. Heavier blows on the head and the neck make the person concerned slightly “groggy”, then the situation becomes dangerous for him, for if he begins to teeter the command inevitably comes, “Heels together! Proper posture!”, and as he cannot do that, fresh blows follow until he keels over. Those who have keeled over are either brought back to a standing position with kicks or left where they fall. Sometimes dozens of them could be seen lying around.

At last at about 10 o’clock we were led in a relatively disorganised way onto the square in front of the Kommandant's office, and there they began to call out the prisoners by name according to town. A short pause to receive coffee, a somewhat longer pause to receive the hot meal. Otherwise this process went on without interruption until half past 6 in the evening, so that on this day we stood for roughly twelve hours. Of course the elderly and those who have not served in the military could not bear it but keeled over by the dozen.

That day new trains of prisoners came again, a new barrack was built remarkably quickly, but was not ready. I was one of those who were to be accommodated in this barrack. We were herded into the barrack until we were standing crammed rather closely together. Then the command for everyone to lie down, assisted by brandishings of the whip over our heads, and wherever we were standing we had to throw ourselves into the filth. Needless to say, people lay partly on top of each other and all over the place so that we could barely move. That night many started to suffer from diarrhoea. Those near the entrance tried to get out, asked the guard to be allowed to step outside, which was sometimes permitted with loud swearing and beating, also sometimes refused. At the latrine they stood in a long line. It frequently happened that somebody could not wait that long and he had to then more or less decide to drop his trousers just where he was standing and to pollute the area, reason enough for those on duty to swear and lash out at the Schweinejuden. For hours that night almost without interruption one could hear the smack of blows and the cries of those being hit. At one point a shot rang out. It is clear that under these circumstances fewer and fewer people would have the courage to go outside and more and more would choose to stay in the barrack and let everything run into their trousers. Those who were lying distant from the entrance already more or less had to do this because they could not push their way through to the entrance. Also that night cases of acute confusion, as I have described those of the previous night, with the associated consequences.

The next day again report for duty at 6 o’clock. Again stand in front of the Kommandant’s office until 11 o’clock, again many people collapsed, especially those with gastro-enteritis. At 11 the command everyone turn left face and sit down so that one had the left-hand neighbour between one’s legs. For four hours we had to stay in this position, which perhaps in the long run is far more strenuous than standing.

During the following night the taking of restless deranged men to the washhouse played a particular role. Of course I did not see for myself what happened there, that night also slept for four hours out cold from exhaustion. I heard that the events in the washhouse are said to have been roughly that somebody’s head was pushed under water in a bucket with the usual threats and held down until they almost drowned.- One prisoner jumped into the electrically charged barbed wire fence, either in his confusion or even with the intention of committing suicide, another is said to have been found in the latrine.

Each Vorgesetzter, or each elderly prisoner who occasionally or regularly acts as a Vorgesetzter, whips on principle.

Punishments: one punishment which is frequently used is whipping on the Bock which stands in front of the Kommandant’s office and from which the smacking sound is often heard. During this the skin of the buttocks often splits and bleeds. Another punishment which I have seen on a daily basis is leaving the prisoners standing in front of the punishment wall of the Kommandant’s office. They remain standing there for so long that they keel over. This punishment is compounded by the fact that a sandbag with different weights is hung around the person in question. Another punishment: tying the hand to one of the window bars and leaving the person standing there for hours. This punishment can be made harsher if both hands are tied to the bars at a height where the person in question still just touches the floor with the tips of their toes, which practically means that they are suspended by their hands. A further punishment: two prisoners have a fetter on both wrists and are locked together round a tree so that they can barely move. If they go limp, then the one hangs on the wrists of the other and through the weight causes him considerable pain.