KL BU: BERICHT DES INTERNATIONALEN LAGERKOMITEES BUCHENWALD published by Weimar; Thüringer Druckerei, Report of the International Committee of Buchenwald Concentration Camp - of the first reports detailing the horrors of Buchenwald - facts and figures. Weimar - 1945. First edition. German.
An preliminary report that details the horrors of Buchenwald concentration camp made by the "International Committee of Buchenwald" comprised of former prisoners in the camp. The committee was made up of several anti-fascist prisoners who were involved in the Buchenwald uprising towards the end of the war, and after being liberated they gave testimonies, collected documents, and established an international committee that dealt with survivors and brought their story here. The report before us consists of over one hundred reports written by prisoners after their liberation, and it includes a detailed account of the camp from the day it was established: working hours in the camp, forced labor, the various roles of prisoners, the daily punishments imposed on prisoners who did not work hard enough or who did not meet Nazi demands ("A popular method was to take prisoners' hats and throw them into the bushes. When the prisoners bent down to pick up the hats they fell victim to the guards' bullets"), overcrowding in the barracks, starvation, daily murders, the fate of women in the camp, how the gas chambers operated, interrogations and tortures undergone by prisoners arriving at the camp, escape attempts and punishments given to prisoners caught trying to escape, extensive details of the methods the Nazis used to try to conceal the atrocities committed in the camp, and more. In addition to the detailed testimonies, dozens of tables, figures, and precise statistics on the number of victims in the camp each year from its establishment, the number of prisoners by place of origin in German cities and surroundings, lists of prisoners who arrived at Buchenwald from other camps, lists of prisoners' duration of stay in the camp, the condition of the camp as Allied forces approached its liberation, and many other important data. In addition to the numerical data, the report is full of detailed testimonies in which prisoners describe the terrible deeds done in the camp daily from its establishment, including names of Nazi commanders and their sadistic behavior, and names of abused prisoners, each horrifying in its own right.
174 p. Title page cover, no binding. Reinforced spine with adhesive paper. Good condition.
