Lidé beze jména – Men Without Names, by the political prisoner František Loubal, who was imprisoned in the Dachau and Buchenwald camps. Novela Brno, Czechoslovakia, 1945 – First edition. With an important introduction on the significance of the testimony of a concentration camp prisoner who came from the political sphere. Czech. Accompanied by harsh photos. Rare.
“The author of this book, which, like many other books that will undoubtedly be published in the languages of all the nations of Europe, describes life behind the barbed-wire fences of the Nazi concentration camps… This is not merely a skillfully written report, for Loubal never abandons a calm and restrained tone on a single page of his book, even when recounting the darkest stories of innocent prisoners who became herds of anonymous people in the barracks of the concentration camps, and he consciously confines himself to a meticulous documentation of the facts…”.
The author, František Loubal (1893–1950) – a Czech writer, historian, politician, educator, Nazi political prisoner, and concentration camp survivor – wrote a moving autobiography in which he describes the persecution and imprisonment endured by himself and his companions, other Czech prisoners, during the Nazi occupation. He begins with the German persecutions in Czechoslovakia itself following its occupation and the helplessness of the people to defend themselves, as well as the immediate searches that began for the Jews in the city. At that time, “the Czech people were shattered, ” he writes. He himself still managed to witness the procession that took place when Adolf Hitler drove through the streets of Brno as a triumphant conqueror: “Adolf Hitler stood upright in the car beside the driver and saluted with his raised right hand.” A short time later, he was arrested in his home by two Gestapo agents. In his book, he describes the stages he passed through after his arrest: the Špilberk Fortress in Brno, which served as an infamous Gestapo prison for political prisoners and members of the Czech underground, and later his transfer in a cattle car, together with about 700 other detainees, to the Dachau concentration camp, where they were greeted by prisoners who had already been interned there: “We saw the nearest barracks beginning to open and figures in strange uniforms emerging from them. Figures in canvas clothing with broad white and blue stripes, shaved heads, and numbers on their coats and trousers. They also had various triangles sewn onto their coats and trousers beneath the numbers. We looked at them with curiosity, just as they looked at us… We were immediately convinced that the condition of the Jews was indeed the worst in the concentration camp.” Throughout the book, he describes the severe violence he experienced in the camp, the brutal corporal punishment, and standing for long hours at roll calls in extreme weather conditions and in a state of utter exhaustion: “Work in the concentration camp was not an end in itself, but merely an instrument of torture, ” he writes. After a period in Dachau, he was transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp – the torments endured by him and his fellow prisoners in Buchenwald are described in detail in the second part of the book.
At the end of the book are plates of harsh photos documenting harrowing scenes from the death camps – piles of victims’ bodies, the crematorium, and more, photographed by the Allied forces upon the liberation of the camps. The rare cover was designed by A. Milen in the form of light blue and white prison stripes, imitating the striped uniforms of concentration camp prisoners, and bears a round black ink stamp featuring the Reich eagle and swastika of the Kommandantur Buchenwald (Buchenwald Camp Command).
Extremely rare. Only three records in the WorldCat global library catalogue.
107, [5] pages + [14] photographic plates. Original paper wrappers. Very good condition.
