Die Wahrheit über das Konzentrationslager Buchenwald (The Truth About the Buchenwald Concentration Camp) by Werner A. Beckert, published by Verlag antifaschistischen Schrifttums. Weimar [1945].
A rare and harrowing factual report detailing the atrocities of the Buchenwald concentration camp as experienced and presented by a long-time political prisoner persecuted by Hitler’s Gestapo. This detailed and painful testimony describes Nazi crimes and methods of extermination of Jews in the camp. Accompanied by 27 black-and-white photographs documenting the horrors of the camp, including images of deceased victims, surviving prisoners, the crematorium, and more—featuring rare photos published here for the first time. German.
Werner spent one of the longest periods of imprisonment in Buchenwald among all Nazi death camp inmates, from September 12, 1938, to April 11, 1945, after being held in Dachau for a year prior. The first page includes a portrait of Beckert in prisoner uniform with his inmate number, 986. As a witness to the atrocities of Buchenwald throughout its operation, Beckert describes in chilling detail the horrors of the camp: the high mortality rate within the first months of its establishment and how prisoners were forced to construct the camp’s crematorium. Initially, there were two large cremation ovens, each burning three bodies at a time; later, they burned 10-12 bodies simultaneously in these two ovens. Beckert recounts the SS guards’ abuse of prisoners working in the camp quarry under extreme heat, storms, and heavy rain, the shooting of escapees, and how robust prisoners became emaciated within months. “I witnessed this abuse for months and saw these horrifying scenes of terror daily.”
Among the piercing testimonies, Werner describes the extermination of 400 Jews from the Netherlands who were brought to the camp, transferred to the Gusen quarry, and shot to death shortly thereafter. He also describes a unique form of torture directed specifically at Jewish prisoners in Mauthausen: Jews were forced to carry heavy stones up 100 quarry steps. Many collapsed midway, their dropped stones causing fatal injuries to others. Another cruel practice involved forcing two Jewish prisoners into a duel at the quarry’s edge, where the survivor remained alive, and those who refused were executed. The testimony also covers the transportation of Jewish women and children to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, and shipments of Jews arriving at Buchenwald from the Compiègne camp in France.
He further describes a shocking event in which 34 British and Canadian pilots, captured in 1944, were murdered, and after their execution, the Nazis used their bodies to conduct cruel medical and anatomical experiments. Toward the end of the testimony, he details the condition of the camp during its liberation by American forces: the number of surviving prisoners, the elderly and children who remained alive, and the horrific sights of corpses still scattered throughout the camp. He recounts how, as the first Allied tanks approached, the prisoners armed themselves with whatever weapons they had, guided General Patton through the access routes to the camp, all without a single shot being fired by the SS commanders. Werner concludes with a poignant wish that these atrocities be documented and etched into humanity’s memory forever, for the sake of future generations.
The booklet includes numerous significant photographs documenting forced labor in the quarry (taken by the Nazis themselves), emaciated prisoners lying on bunks in the “small camp” barracks, distressing scenes of deceased victims, the crematorium, torture facilities, and survivors during the memorial event held after the camp’s liberation in May 1945.
Extremely rare. Only one copy is listed in the WorldCat catalog, held at the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem.
[17] pages. 30 cm. Light stains on the cover. Condition: Good.
