On 20th May 1938 the reporter was picked up at his shop in Vienna. To his parents’ question as to why the arrest was taking place came the reply, “He’s a Jew, that’s enough.” He was first brought to the Karajangasse police station, abused with slaps on the face, punches in the ribs, blows from the butt of a revolver, robbed by the SS of all his money and valuables, shipped off with others by vehicle to the Vienna Westbahnhof, dumped in the carriage and set on the bench with a knock-out blow. Eating, smoking, talking, relieving oneself were forbidden during the journey. In every compartment stood an SS man brandishing a revolver. The journey lasted nine hours. There were 450 men in total on departure, on arrival nine were already dead; they had been shot.
In Dachau the work consisted of excavating and levelling a swamp. The hygiene facilities were good, the treatment relatively quite reasonable. In contrast to his subsequent stay in Buchenwald, Dachau could have passed for a sanatorium.
Transfer to Weimar happened in the middle of September. The Dachau camp was purged of Jews because of the imminent war. At Weimar station, where a large crowd of people was waiting, the commandant welcomed them with the words, “The Jews are here.” They were then lined up in rows of ten facing the wall and then loaded onto buses. The Buchenwald camp is located on a mountain and the total length of the perimeter is 3.6 km.; every 100 m. there is a watchtower topped with a machine gun. At the outer entrance stands an inscription, “Recht oder Unrecht einerlei – Deutschland dein Vaterland” [Germany your Fatherland – right or wrong; actually Recht oder Unrecht – mein Vaterland; My country – right or wrong]. On the other door is “Jedem das Seine”. The camp is surrounded by a 3 m. high barbed wire entanglement, which at night is loaded with electrical current. Finally inside is an 18 m. wide lawn, lastly past that a trench which it was not permitted to set foot in. At night the camp is illuminated on all sides by arc lights. Buchenwald contains 50 barracks with at that time (September) 11,500 internees, of whom 40% are Jews, 60% others. The clothing consists of a shirt, long drawers, socks, shoes, linen trousers, flimsy jacket and cap. On payment of RM. 12.- a pullover and gloves could be bought. All the internees are identified by their clothing: Jews have a yellow triangle with a red triangle on top. Jewish Rassenschänder a yellow patch with a black triangle, Jewish “criminals” a yellow patch with a green triangle, “Asoziale” a yellow patch with a solid black triangle. Aryans have the same badges without a yellow patch, the Communists have a red patch with the same symbols, the Bibelforscher, of whom there are a significant number, have a purple patch, the 175-er have a pink patch.
The barracks were overcrowded and instead of 100 in one area had to accommodate 180 men. The beds are mounted in threes above each other. The washing bays work in the morning and evenings each for half an hour as there is little or no water available; often they do not work at all for four weeks. Lavatories are built but cordoned off as there is no water, therefore there are only latrines. Within the camp there is the ‘sick bay’, the hospital barrack; admission there is almost impossible as only 100 people can be admitted and there is always overcrowding.
The food consists of: in the mornings chicory coffee or soup, 15 g. margarine, 1 tablespoon of jam or syrup, 3/4 lb. of bread for the whole day; at midday more coffee with some cheese or herring or brawn, in the evening stew, tasty, but without a bit of fat. The eating bowls could be washed completely clean with cold water without soap, if there was water to be had, a sign that the food is completely fat free; if there was no water, the eating bowls were just wiped out with bread.
One of the most frequent illnesses was phlegmon, a festering inflammation which spreads internally caused by injuries at work which are not permitted to receive attention. After two to three days blood poisoning sets in and it becomes necessary to amputate limbs. Cases like these occur very frequently and these people are then never released.
The day’s business begins with waking up an hour and a half hour before dawn, in summer at 20 past 3. Then we have to report for Appell on the large compound set aside for this on the mountain. After this work is allotted. The route to the quarry where the work is done takes three quarters of an hour. The work is allocated by an Aryan prisoner called a Kapo, usually a criminal. The more he shouts and beats the men, the more he ingratiates himself with the SS. The workplace is marked out at a distance of 10 m. by red flags (called the line of death as it is not permitted to cross it on pain of being shot), behind that surrounded by SS with revolvers. The kinds of jokes that are played are that an SS man suddenly rips the cap off a man’s head and throws it away; the cap falls onto the line marked out in red. Anyone who does not have a cap is punished. If the man now runs after the cap and crosses the forbidden track, as happens repeatedly, he is immediately shot down. Work is done from 7 o’clock in the morning until 12 o’clock, then half an hour morning break. More work is done until 4 o’clock. At work it is not permitted to speak, smoke, or eat. The price of every infringement is a punishment. There are all kinds of punishments:
1. To be strapped by the SS to the Bock and 25 auf das Gesäß, either with the bullwhip, the dog lash or the cane;
2. Baumhängen: to be hung backwards by the arms on the tree for an hour;
3. Sachsengruß: to stand face to the wall for eight hours with arms crossed at the back of the neck, not permitted to eat or to relieve oneself;
4. Bunker, which the SS are not so keen on as the men are then away from the work.
A favourite method is to watch the men from a watchtower through the telescope to see whether perhaps the number which is sewn on is no longer clean and then at Appell inflict one of the above punishments on the unsuspecting person.
Work is done in all weathers. If anyone collapses at work or at Appell he remains lying where he is, until at last he is then transported off. Bombastic phrases on such occasions, “The Jewish pig should perish!” or “A German is not ill, a German dies immediately!” Forms of address: “You arsehole" or “Jew no. ...”. At every opportunity they say, “Jews get nothing to eat on Sunday,” which was very often the case too. Sunday work was done from 7 until half past 12.
Sunday food: whale ragout with jacket potatoes. Every 14 days one letter was allowed to be written and one letter to be received. Money was allowed to be sent; it was paid into his account, and the prisoner was permitted to receive up to RM. 10.- from his account each week. They said that everything could be bought in the canteen; usually it was closed, and the worst things were reserved for the Jews.
Separately, distinct Strafkompanien punishment companies were also operated. Here things were even stricter; one letter was allowed to be written and received every three months. At 4 o’clock Appell again, then collecting food, tidying our things, by half past 8 we had to be in the barracks. During the night no one was allowed out, they would immediately be shot. At night there were also sirens for air raid precautions, then in five minutes we had to be on the Appellplatz.
Every day six or seven dead were transported off without being placed in a coffin; two crematoria especially were used for the incineration: Weimar and Jena.
In the month of July, when the camp was only occupied by 6,000 men, there were 165 fatalities.
Paul Morgan died there from pneumonia. The reporter was released on 29th October, as his emigration had been arranged. On release, like everyone else, he had to sign a non-disclosure statement to say that any kind of injuries he had inflicted himself, that he had not had to work, that anyone who spoke out disparagingly against the state would be immediately reported to the police, that he would keep completely quiet about the facilities and experiences in the camp; the most serious measures are threatened for failure to comply. One man, whose toes had been amputated, had to sign two blank forms in the hospital barrack.
In the camp the organisation is very poor.
The Aryans are frequently goaded by the SS, so that Jews were frequently attacked in the forest, robbed and hung from a tree.
“Anyone who leaves a concentration camp will not be granted their freedom, they will be given their life.”
Reporter: Erwin Mann, businessman, 28 years old, formerly of Lerchenfelder Strasse 41, Vienna; last European address c/o Herr Jus Axelrad, 1 Gower Street, Bedford Square, London W.C.1, emigrated to Nicaragua.
