Booklets 1,2,3, ALSACIENS ET LORRAINS a' DACHAU - "Alsatians and Lorrainers at Dachau", by FRANCOIS GOLDSCHMITT - Testimony of a Dachau prisoner - François Goldschmidt several months after the camp's liberation. Complete 3 booklets set (numbered), France, December 1945. One of the earliest and most harsh testimonies ever written, detailing the horrors of Dachau from a prisoner who was there for almost three consecutive years. Booklet 1 and 2 were published during 1945 immediately after the war, booklet 3 was published in January 1946.
In the introduction to issue 1 Goldschmidt writes: "In the terrible war months from September 1939 to May 1945 all Alsatians and Lorrainers had to endure almost unbearable suffering... Newspapers publish reports every day, these articles are only rarely set aside for preservation, but our descendants will learn about our exceptional misery centuries later only through books... The most important events will be gradually described in a series of writings". The author was familiar with Dachau camp inside and out since he was held there for 32 months. During his time in the camp he was present in the SS offices by virtue of being clergy and was exposed to highly sensitive materials on the camp's inner workings. He took notes and collected materials, despite knowing with certainty that anyone who collected material against the Nazis and was caught "was immediately hanged from the gallows without mercy" in his words. The author unfolds his personal story starting from the day he arrived at Dachau together with 80 other prisoners, with each booklet documenting another period at Dachau. He begins with the horrifying story of a man who threw him bread over the barbed wire fence a few days after his arrival, who was immediately shot on site by a Nazi soldier, and how they took his bread ration from him. That day he understood what kind of cruel, harsh place he had come to. And he continues to describe Dachau's horrors in detail on a daily basis. François also tells about no less than 400 prisoners he knew personally and how they perished one by one, of those who survived the camp but died just weeks after its liberation from malnutrition and disease, the cruelty and sadism of the Nazis in countless cases, of his close friends who committed suicide by throwing themselves onto the electric fence, about the "bunker" near the fence on the camp's southern side which was used for cruel interrogations and torture. Executions, lashings and pole hanging took place in the bunker, as well as the confinement cells which were 'standing cells' where prisoners stood in the dark for up to 72 consecutive hours. He also describes the cruel medical experiments done in the camp under guise of "infirmary", he describes how typhus and starvation epidemics raged in the camp taking many lives in the end, the freezing cold in which prisoners had to stand in thin prisoner uniforms which many couldn't withstand, how the crematorium operated, and more.
In the introduction to booklet 2 the author writes: "For those readers with delicate nerves I recommend not reading this issue... It is also difficult for me with the fact that people whose relatives perished in Dachau will read these things and will grieve doubly... But I have no choice... The purpose of publishing these matters is to protect humanity from the renewed emergence of barbaric horrors... In the name of Dachau's many victims...".
The three booklets are accompanied by unsettling photos documenting the horrors of Dachau - piles of corpses of the murdered as found by the Allies, as well as passport photos of prisoners who were with him at Dachau, details about them, and how they met their deaths at the camp. Also appears a map of the camp, illustrations depicting prisoners in difficult scenes, and more. François dedicated the proceeds from the booklets sale to the families of the victims.
Booklet 1: 55 [1] p. French
Booklet 2: 79 [1] p. French
Booklet 3: 80 p. German - François intentionally published the last issue in the series in German so that the German people would know what the Nazi regime perpetrated, and it deals with the tragic events which occurred at Dachau in the winter of 1942-1943, copies of the booklets were specially sent to Germany and sold there.
The 3 booklets are complete and in very good condition.
