ALMANACH DACHAU: kytice událostí a vzpomínek (Dachau Almanac: A Bouquet of Events and Memories). Published by the Association of Liberators – Political Prisoners and Survivors of Nazi Victims, Czechoslovakia, 1946 – First edition. A historical collection of testimonies and memoirs published in Prague immediately after the end of the Second World War. The volume was written and edited by Czechoslovak survivors who had been imprisoned in Dachau Concentration Camp, headed by the editor Bedřich Rudolf. It constitutes one of the earliest printed testimonies in the Czech language documenting life, suffering, and organized resistance within Dachau Concentration Camp. Accompanied by harsh photos of victims’ bodies as they were found by the Allied forces at the end of the war.
An important publication whose preparation by an entire editorial team took approximately one year, during which the editors gathered testimony from every survivor they were able to locate: “It seems that none of the books written thus far comes even close to describing the true life behind the scenes of the prisoners behind the barbed wire of the German concentration camps… From the pages of this book it becomes clear that, despite the common pattern upon which the concentration camps were based, each individual experienced his own fate in the camps differently…” (From the editor’s introduction.) This was the first official publication devoted to Dachau Concentration Camp and the first book issued by the Association of Liberated Political Prisoners and Survivors.
The almanac presents the complete history of Dachau Concentration Camp, from its establishment in March 1933 until its liberation and dissolution by the Allied forces in April 1945, including the trial of the camp’s commandants, which was held at the camp itself. All of the accounts presented here are those of prisoners who experienced the atrocities firsthand. The volume also includes contributions by representatives of the Austrian government in the immediate postwar period, including Leopold Figl, Dr. Franz Sobek, and others. Prisoners who had been among the camp’s earliest inmates recount in the first person the torture they endured under the tyranny of the camp authorities. The volume contains dozens of testimonies by prisoners incarcerated at Dachau throughout its years of operation, each describing his own personal story: forced labor, torture, the daily murders of close friends within the camp, the exhausting routine of everyday life, existence under the constant shadow of death, heroic accounts of prisoners who survived against all odds, the horrific deeds and cruelty of the camp commandants, escape attempts, and much more. Every testimony is presented in the first person exactly as it was given by the former prisoners, and each is carefully dated and documented.
The editors also present rare historical documentation collected over the course of that year, based on classified documents discovered at the camp, revealing in precise detail the manner in which the Nazis administered Dachau. The volume further includes rare photographs of prisoners taken while the camp was still in operation. Among them is a rare clandestine photograph of the Lagerstrasse – the camp’s main street, showing prisoners marching under German supervision, as well as another secretly taken photograph depicting Barrack 7 of the camp hospital in the spring of 1944. Also included are rare photographs from the courtroom during the Dachau Trials, conducted within the grounds of Dachau Concentration Camp and carried out entirely under the authority of the United States Armed Forces, showing surviving prisoners confronting their former commandants, among other scenes. At the end of the almanac appear several harsh photos of the infamous “death train” discovered by the Allied forces at Dachau at the end of the war, in which the Nazis had murdered prisoners only hours before the Allies reached the camp; German civilians forced to carry the victims’ bodies for burial; the bodies of victims lying scattered across the camp grounds and other locations within the camp; and more. The almanac is also illustrated with drawings made by prisoners during their imprisonment, documenting the camp’s buildings and their fellow inmates suffering in agony. It further includes musical notation for songs composed by prisoners, songs of comfort intended to strengthen their companions, examples of decorated greeting cards created by inmates in the camp, photographs of letters sent by prisoners, and more.
Rare. Only a small number of copies are recorded in the WorldCat global library catalog.
230, XXXIX, [4] pages + 48 photographic plates. Portion of the original dust jacket mounted on the paper-covered boards. Light wear to several pages. Good condition.
