At the end of May, that is at that time in Vienna when arbitrary mass arrests were carried out, the reporter’s business, which he ran with his father, was rung by the police authorities and initially his father was asked for. As he rightly suspected the purpose of the call he explained that his father was not available, whereupon he was asked who was speaking. He said the son, thereupon was asked whether he was able to supply information on the commercial aspects of the company, which he confirmed. Thereupon he was instructed to report to the police authorities. There he was arrested and initially brought to the Notgefängnis, Vienna XX., Karajangasse, primary school, where he remained for several days.
From there he was taken to Dachau by one of the many mass transports of those days. Even on the transport the prisoners were granted a dreadful foretaste of that which awaited them in Dachau. The words of the commandant of the SS troops who had taken over from the quite friendly police detention, explaining that “another wind was blowing,” would come true during transportation. They were horribly beaten, as these transports generally offered the SS troops guarding Dachau prisoners the first opportunity to vent their sadistic urge. The reporter recounted rumours circulating in Dachau that the railway staff had not only sometimes refused to clean the wagons after the transports, which had been covered all over in blood, but that once they had even refused to move the train any further because the screams of the martyred had almost driven the train driver mad. The fact is that each transport produced deaths and very badly battered people who would have to live with their injuries for the rest of their lives.
In Dachau the prisoners had to rise at about half past 3 each morning, in order to report at 5 o’clock. They had to work hard daily for ten hours, the work consisted mainly of making the vicinity viable (laying cables, making roads, breaking stones, felling trees etc.). Moreover there was assiduous “Exerzieren”. The prisoners included all age groups, thus amongst them a Vienna lawyer of 72 but also very young Vienna newspaper sellers who had been accused of circulating the (strongly anti-National Socialist) Vienna daily and evening newspaper Der Telegraph, which they had naturally only done for economic reasons, not based on an attitude of support. Treatment was very harsh, though accommodation and food were half way tolerable. In the accommodation strict separation of Jews from Aryans was applied although the work was often accomplished collectively, so that the reporter had the opportunity of meeting, amongst others, many prominent leaders of the [Kurt] Schuschnigg regime, who were handled particularly toughly. The very old and the seriously ill were not picked for heavy work, they had to prepare all nails and wires.
Once the work to be done in Dachau was half complete, all the Jews there went to Buchenwald, the Aryans remained behind. The first to return to Dachau were “Aktionsjuden” arrested on 10th November, their treatment is said to have been quite tolerable, according to information obtained by the reporter in Vienna after his release from Buchenwald. Their principal activity consisted of “Exerzieren”.
The transportation to Buchenwald repeated the atrocities on the transportation to Dachau to a considerably intensified degree. The new SS men who took over the prisoners wanted to show that they exceeded the previous guards in severity, evidence of which they succeeded in providing at this first opportunity. The reporter explained verbatim that the conditions in Dachau could be described as “paradise” in direct comparison to those in Buchenwald. It was impossible for him to depict all the sadistic atrocities of this dreadful concentration camp, because merely the memory of it is too upsetting.
The work and daily arrangements were similar to Dachau, although there was less “Exerzieren”, instead very hard work. The work was also similar to Dachau, it is interesting that, amongst other things, a number of prisoners were occupied in laying out a plantation of medicinal herbs. Here too individual prisoners were excused from work of a heavier nature and were occupied “undercover”, as the expression has it. Thus the well-known Vienna comedian Fritz Grünbaum was made to darn stockings, whereas a colleague of his, Ferdinand Leopoldi, who was accused of particular devotion to the Schnuschnigg regime, had to do heavy outdoor work.
The reporter himself, in the last stage of his imprisonment, when his Entlassungsgesuch was already in motion and had prospects of fortunate settlement, was occupied in the workshop as a skilled precision engineer.
The living and sanitary conditions in Buchenwald were appalling, hundreds of people were crammed into one camp block. The food was meagre and bad. In the canteen there was little to buy so the prisoners found it difficult to use the RM. 30.- they were allowed to have transferred monthly for extras to eat; it happened repeatedly that the money that had been sent to them did not reach their hands. The camp doctors were unbelievably brutal, if they made the effort to treat the sick at all. After the death of Herr vom Rath the following decree was implemented: half rations, writing and receiving letters forbidden, treating the sick forbidden.
Most of the many fatalities in Buchenwald cannot be attributed to external causes, though it did happen that those mistreated with blows died as a consequence of that mistreatment; it was no wonder, when the blows were struck with very thick sticks and unheard-of force in great frequency and rapid succession, whereby the tormentors did not make the effort to remove their victims out of sight of their fellow prisoners, who many times had to watch repeatedly the martyrdom of their colleagues; the beatings were repeatedly done during Appell, which was a brutality in itself; thus Schutzhäftlinge once had to stand to attention for five hours in snow and ice. It often happened that the thick stick was broken in use on the prisoner.
Another external cause of death was the electrified wires that thickly surrounded the entire concentration camp. Although their danger was known, it happened now and then that prisoners, driven crazy by pain or fear of the perpetual torture, ran into the wires and thereby caused either very severe burns or collapsed at the place where they made contact with the current.
However, the majority of fatalities were caused by pneumonia, which was badly treated in unheated or very inadequately heated barracks by malicious doctors; or total exhaustion. The fact is that, particularly in the most recent period of cold, there were very very many fatalities. (This information was also given to me by another informant, who told me that very large numbers of urns continuously come to Vienna from Dachau and Buchenwald.) With regard to important personalities, the reporter confirmed to me the decease of Paul Morgan, and he told me furthermore that two particularly noted lawyers of the Vienna chambers, Dr. Oswald Richter and Dr. Sperber, both died recently; they had been taken into Schutzhaft because of their situation as Social Democrats who were chiefly able to be involved with defending Socialists. In Buchenwald the prevailing view was that anyone who tolerated imprisonment badly and evidently bore marks of imprisonment (bad appearance, enduring traces of mistreatment), had absolutely no prospect of being released.
Relatives received urns of the deceased for RM. 8-10.-, soldered coffins for RM. 800.- to RM. 1,000.-. Whilst the reporter was present in Vienna, a family with whom he was friends received an urn containing the remains of their strong 24-year-old son sent from Dachau.
As a particular brutality the reporter depicted the treatment of a Vienna engineer Popper, who, because he had apparently been working too slowly, was strung up by the hands and had to dangle thus for one and a half hours; in spite of his loud cries of pain he was not let down. Most of all the prisoners suffered from the cold; frozen feet and open, festering wounds were very common.
The reporter was released with orders to leave Vienna, where he was authorised to give himself up, within five days. But at this point he received another Aufenthaltserlaubnis for one month. Amongst those who were released recently is the head of the cemetery office of the Vienna Kultusgemeinde , Felix Willmann, who served nine months in the concentration camps at Dachau and Buchenwald.
