De retour des bagnes nazis - interview de Gaston Charlet - I returned from Nazi Prisons. Rare Interview with Mauthausen prisoner Gaston Charlet who spoke to a journalist immediately upon his release at the end of the war, in which he describes in detail his arrest by the Nazis, his deportation to Mauthausen, life in the camp, and liberation by the Allies. Published by Populaire du centre, France 1945 - first edition.
The author was arrested at his home in Limoges by the Gestapo on March 1, 1943, taken to a stable converted into a prison in the small military district, from there he was taken to Compiègne where he stayed until April 16, and two days later he arrived by train to Mauthausen along with other detainees. Immediately upon their arrival at the camp they were attacked by barking dogs the SS sent towards them, as well as SS soldiers who immediately began beating them. After 50 hours of travel to the camp without food and almost no water, there were those who paid other prisoners with a gold watch, a wedding ring, and objects they still had in their possession in order to get a little water. As soon as they entered the camp they noticed corpses piled up not far from the entrance, and the first roll call began. When asked, "Did you suffer from the initial Nazi brutality? (when you arrived at the camp)", Charlet replied: "The blanket I held in my hand during roll call was snatched quickly as an SS soldier jumped on me and gave me a dozen blows to the face and head. The steel balls at the end of the whip took a small piece from my right cheek and cut my skull into four ten cm wounds ...", and he goes on to tell how that same day all the prisoners’ belongings were confiscated, their heads were shaved, and their clothes were replaced with prisoner uniforms. Charlet was asked about the operation of the crematoria in Mauthausen and replied: "The camp crematoria never stopped, from the windows of our block we saw every day the carts filled with bodies carrying their horrifying cargo... In the room at the front of the crematoria, experts removed the jaws with a large wooden spatula ... to extract the gold crowns or bridges ... I must tell you that for us this crematorium was a real nightmare that haunted us relentlessly, day and night, even when we closed our eyes from the filthy oven...". In his testimony he describes horrifying things about the "quarry" those 126 steps where the Nazis tortured Jews to death in various ways that is hard to describe. He also tells of public hangings that the Nazis held in the camp accompanied by a marching band, and when asked by the interviewer: "But why this ridiculous musical accompaniment?" he replied: "Do not try to understand", "they", never try to understand them, with the Germans nothing is logical...".
Charlet describes the forced labor in which he worked drilling a 1,700 meter long tunnel without proper work equipment, the terrible overcrowding in the rooms, the internal psychological struggle of each prisoner: "Since our arrest by the Gestapo the experience showed us that with the Germans we always had to fear worsening our situation as prisoners...". He describes the great fear of the prisoners of the risks of evacuating the camp under pressure from the Allied forces, the great opportunity that came to escape alongside the knowledge that escape at such a time meant immediate death.
On May 7, the prisoners were told they were to leave through a tunnel on the Austrian side, the Nazis feared leaving prisoners in the camp when the Allies entered so they would not expose them. "The announcement did not make us scream with joy ... we were happy in small doses, and we still feared some last minute Nazi trick" he says. While preparing to take them out through a side tunnel, the Allies had already entered the camp, greeted by 950 prisoners including him, the large doors of the camp opened to freedom. He describes their mental state in those moments: "Broken and tired. No one is laughing, singing or crying, we are too tired to lift our spirits", and describes the exciting encounter with the Allies, and the strange situation of the prisoners who for the first time saw their German commanders with humiliated faces.
The book includes eight photographs documenting various sections of the camp, including a photo of the tunnel entrance connecting Yugoslavia to Austria which was built by prisoners between June 1943 and December 1944.
Rare. Only one copy appears in the global library catalog WorldCat.
32 p. 22 cm. Few stains on cover. Good condition.
