Experiences in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp by inmate Bruno Marcus. Published by J. Ebner, Ulm 1945. German.
Bruno Marcus was taken to Terezin at the age of 66. In the introductory chapters, Marcus recounts that he stayed in the camp from January 1944 until July 1945. When he arrived at the camp, he did not think he would survive and wrote the following sentence for future generations: "Among these mountains where so many dead lie, I, too, the old and weary, sleep my last sleep." While in the camp, 30 prisoners were crammed into each room meant for only three. Marcus chillingly describes the area known as the "small fortress" in the camp, where Jews were sent, and where about 10,000 people died each year, detailing the process of extermination, body disposal, cremation, and transportation of the ashes outside the camp. Marcus succinctly describes what he and the prisoners around him went through in order to convey the essence of the horrors in the most direct manner. The book consists of thirty-four short sections, each written at a different time in the camp. At the end of each section, the date when the words were written in the camp is mentioned, as well as the dates of the testimonies received from prisoners who were in Auschwitz and other camps, even before 1944. For example, under the title "Hunger" he describes how he ate potato peels - leftovers from another prisoner's meal, and how he ate a piece of dirty bread he found on the ground: "I scrape the leftovers from others' plates and bowls, you don't think about hygiene when hunger consumes you day after day, hour after hour, and when you lose 20 kilograms in weight and feel the weakness in every limb...". Among other things, he describes the execution of 25 prisoners, the youngest of whom was 16, and the censorship that hid letters he wrote to his mother. In another place, he describes a harsh scene where a young man was taken to be killed, and his father requested to die in his place, but the Nazis insisted on taking the son. He also describes how the Jews who were brought to the camp by train after four weeks of traveling in terrible conditions, crowded, without food and water, amidst filth and excrement. Marcus survived miraculously. He recounts that when he learned that the International Red Cross was working to liberate the camp, he was on the verge of death due to suffering from a cruel type of dysentery, but he renewed his strength upon hearing the rumor of the camp's impending release, and despite his advanced age, he managed to survive. Marcus personally acknowledges the Russian forces' commander, Major Kuzmin, who primarily ensured food for the weak prisoners, and essentially saved his life.
From the early testimonies of what happened in the Theresienstadt death camp.
47 p. 21 cm. Good condition.
