ALMANACH DACHAU kytice událostí a vzpomínek – Dachau Almanac – Collection of Events and Memoirs, published by the “Union of Liberators – Political Prisoners and Survivors of the Victims of Nazism”, Czech Republic, 1946 – First edition. An extensive assembly of testimonies of prisoners who stayed in Dachau camp. A one-of-a-kind publication, edited by an entire team, took about a whole year, during which the editors collected testimonies from everyone they could: “It seems that none of the books written so far describe even remotely the real life behind the scenes of the prisoners behind the wires of the German concentration camps… The pages of the book indicate that despite the pattern on which the concentration camps were based, each person experiences his concentration fate differently…” (From the editor’s words in the introduction). Accompanied by rare photographs (some in color!) taken secretly during the camp’s activity, as well as historical photographs from the day of liberation. This is the first official publication about the Dachau camp, and the first book published by the Union of liberated Political Survivors and Prisoners.
The Almanac tells the story of the Dachau camp in its entirety from its establishment in March 1933, until its dismantling and liberation by the Allies in April 1945, including the trial of the camp commanders that took place in the camp itself. However, unlike the history books that document the horrors of Dachau from a historical point of view, here the entire description is in the form of the story directly from the prisoners themselves who experienced the atrocities firsthand. Also participated by representatives of the Austrian government at the end of the war, such as Leopold Fiegel, Dr. Franz Sobeck and others. The prisoners who participated in the establishment of the camp tell in the first person the torture they underwent under the tyranny of the camp commanders, the report contains dozens of testimonies of prisoners who were caught and imprisoned in Dachau during the years of its operation, each describing his personal story – the forced labor, torture, murders of their best friends every day in the camp, the grueling daily routine, life in the shadow of death, heroic stories of prisoners who miraculously survived, the terrible deeds of the camp commanders and their cruelty, the attempts to escape from the camp, and more. The testimonies are all written in the first person exactly as they were given by the prisoners themselves, and they are dated, and detailed.
In addition, the editors present rare historical documentation which they collected during that year revealing classified documents found in the camp, which appear here for the first time, as well as rare photographs of prisoners in the camp at the time when it operated, among which for the first time appeared photographs in color – among them a rare photograph taken secretly of the Lager strasse – the main street in the camp where prisoners are seen marching under German supervision, A secretly taken photograph showing barrack 7 of the camp hospital – Spring 1944, Dachau prisoners celebrating their liberation – a rare photograph that appears with precise dating including time: Sunday 29 April at 18:30, rare photographs from the courtroom as part of the Dachau trials conducted within the Dachau concentration camp and conducted entirely by members of the United States Armed Forces – showing former prisoners confronting their former commanders, etc. At the end of the Almanac there are some difficult to view photographs of the famous train of the dead that the Allies found at Dachau at the end of the war in which the Nazis managed to murder prisoners a few hours before the Allies arrived at the camp, German citizens who were forced to transport the bodies of the victims for burial, the bodies of the victims scattered on the ground and in various places in the camp, and more. The almanac is also accompanied by illustrations made by the prisoners themselves while they were in the camp, documenting the camp buildings and their fellow prisoners groaning from suffering, as well as musical notes for songs composed by prisoners – songs of comfort that strengthened their friends, examples of greetings made by camp inmates, photographs of letters sent by camp inmates, and more.
230, XXXIX [4] p. + 48 photo panels. Good Condition.
