Buchenwald les horreurs des camps de torture nazis - Buchenwald - Horrors of the Nazi torture camps - photo reports. France, May 1945. numero special [special edition]. The first and rare edition that came out about a month after the liberation of the camp - the first publication of harsh photographs from Buchenwald as found by the Allies at the time of the liberation of the camp.
A rare booklet, published only a month after the liberation of the camp by the US Army, brought the extent of the atrocities that took place in the camp to the attention of the world that was first exposed to the magnitude of the horror that took place there. The booklet contains harsh photographs from the day of the liberation of the camp as found by the American soldiers and fighters of the 6th Armored Division under the command of George Patton. When the American forces arrived at the camp, they found some 21,000 prisoners starving and beaten in a state between life and death, and immediately went to rescue those who it was possible to save. The photographs show prisoners in dire physical condition, prisoners with a look of happiness on their faces as they met the liberators, prisoners explaining to Allied soldiers about how the camp's torture facilities and the crematorium, the crematoriums of death, several photographs of mass graves filled with the bodies of the victims, including the bodies of children and babies, American forces giving first aid and providing food to the prisoners, George S. Patton examining the camp facilities, etc. The photographs are accompanied by explanatory sentences that condemn the Germans for their crimes and emphasize the enormity of the horror.
At the beginning of the booklet, Roger Minne says: "We think about all these deaths, all these eyes full of anguish that are directed to the sky... May one cry full of blood come out of all the throats. The hour is not an hour of forgiveness, nor is it an hour of tears. It's time for punishment... Revenge! We will avenge our dead...".
Buchenwald was the third large concentration camp built on Nazi German soil, one of the largest in Germany, to which some 138 subcamps were affiliated. The camp operated from its establishment in July 1937, until its liberation by the U.S. Army on April 11, 1945. During this period, some 250,000 people passed through it. It is estimated that some 65,000 people were murdered in Buchenwald, including those who were murdered on death marches with the announcement of the approach of the Allied forces, shortly before the liberation of the camp, without counting the prisoners sent from Buchenwald to the extermination camps and to the facilities of the "T4" (Operation Euthanasia) program, at Sonnstein Castle and other sites.
The attitude of the Germans towards the Jews in the camp was the worst of all. The Jews were held in very harsh conditions, and suffered abuse, starvation, and medical experiments on their bodies. According to camp records, about a quarter of them died in 1941, and in 1942 the percentage of Jewish prisoners who died reached more than 38%. A few days after the liberation of the camp, on April 15, radio reporter Eduard Morrow broadcasted from Buchenwald, and described to his listeners the horrors that had been revealed to him. His words became very famous, and ended with the words: I pray that you will believe what I told about Buchenwald. 'I reported what I saw and only partially heard. For most of what I've seen, I have no words...'.
Rare publication, does not appear in the National Library.
16 p. Good condition.
