DE LA RESISTANCE AU BAGNE - From Resistance to Imprisonment - Testimony of French resistance activist Andre Blecourt who was captured by the Nazis, held in a local prison, transferred to Compiègne, from there to Auschwitz (testifies among other things about Nazi abuse of Jews in Auschwitz), and finally held in Buchenwald until the camp's liberation by the Allies. Published by Fernand Nathan, France 1945 - first edition published just one month after the end of the war on July 20, 1945.
Following the informing by a resistance member named Jacques, Andre was captured in Paris by SS soldiers along with 79 comrades, taken for interrogation and torture in the Gestapo cellars for three days and nights during which he was placed in an ice bath dozens of times and nearly lost his life amidst the torture. After withstanding it bravely and not revealing any names of his comrades he was taken to a prison in France for a few months where he was kept in complete isolation, after which he was taken to Compiègne. Immediately upon his arrival at Compiègne he planned an escape from the camp while realizing that the only possibility of escaping was by the train that left the camp at times. The plan did not materialize and after some time at Compiègne he was transferred in cattle cars along with several dozen prisoners to Auschwitz. En route, some prisoners tried to escape by breaking the side of one of the cars, but the Nazis noticed the act and shot those who tried to escape. Upon his arrival at Auschwitz those who were still alive were spewed straight from the train into the camp, including him. His arm was tattooed with a prisoner number, he was given prisoner uniforms and thrown into a barrack with another 800 prisoners in terrible overcrowding. The barrack where he stayed was near the gas chambers of the camp, and it was possible to discern from it the extermination being carried out daily. At Auschwitz the conditions were dire - just one day after their arrival 12,000 Jews were executed there. He documents in detail how the crematoria and gas chambers operated, and his suffering in the camp: "Hunger, especially thirst, torment us, I sneak out of the barrack at night to drink water from a nearby well contaminated with urine and dead rats. More and more sick, the camp doctors do not come, with no medicine the infection grows... in the camp we see babies in the arms of their parents, some taken care of by other prisoners when their fathers and mothers are exterminated... at dawn long lines of women carrying hoes and picks on their shoulders go out to their day of field work, singing sad tunes, the SS women who accompany them, armed with pistols, even crueler than our SS men..." . On May 12, 1944 Andre was transferred to Buchenwald, not before being warned not to reveal anything he had seen with his eyes at Auschwitz. At Buchenwald he was put in block 57, relatively good conditions. In the camp he worked at the radio factory. One time he witnessed the public hanging execution of prisoners who tried to escape from the camp. He stayed in Buchenwald until the end of the war. When the Americans arrived to liberate the camp, the Nazis tried to sneak out several dozen prisoners including him, to cover up evidence, but the convoy was bombed and he managed to escape to freedom.
On the page after the title page there is a map marking Andre's routes between the various camps. On the last page there is a map depicting the sections at Buchenwald.
Rare. Only two records in the global library catalog WorldCat.
31 [2] p. 18 cm. Good condition.
