VITA BOKEN om Tysklands koncentrationslager i Buchenwald – “The White Paper on the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany” – Official British Documents – The British White Papers – Report to Parliament by the British Foreign Secretary under the direction of the government. Swedish edition reviewed and approved by the British representation in Stockholm. Published by Fants Nordiska Forlag. Stockholm, 1945 – First edition in Swedish. Extremely rare.
The Swedish edition of the “British White Paper” on Nazi crimes in Buchenwald was published following pressure from the German minister in Stockholm after the British edition was received in Sweden as propaganda rather than as a source of true facts. He saw it as of utmost importance to publish the report in the local language so that all citizens would be exposed to the atrocities committed and recognize the bitter truth of Nazi crimes. The report includes several harsh and detailed testimonies about Nazi abuse in German cities and concentration camps during the 1930s. The descriptions provided represent the first exposure to Nazi crimes and reveal the extent of Nazi cruelty in Germany and Buchenwald in particular.
The descriptions that appear constitute the first exposure to the magnitude of Nazi cruelty, even before the outbreak of World War II. After the British were accused by the media and the Nazi press of atrocities in South Africa, in response, His Majesty’s government saw fit to publish hard evidence of the Nazis’ crimes against civilians, especially Jews, within Germany.
The report reveals the first concentration camps set up in Germany as early as 1933 against opponents of the Nazi regime and the day-to-day abuses of prisoners of various nationalities, especially Jews. “The UK Government states that the decision to publish the hard documents classified in this report was taken after the UK reached a conclusion that there is no slightest chance of reaching an understanding agreement with the German government”. The spokesman adds that the venomous propaganda of Nazi Germany and its abuse of minorities in its territory must reach world public opinion, bringing to its attention that the period is the darkest period in human history.
Among the cases revealed in the report: Detailed descriptions of what happened in the Buchenwald death camp from inmates who were detained there, among them, testimony obtained from a Jewish detainee who stayed in the camp for six weeks, and describes the forced labor in which he worked 16 hours a day all week. The ban on drinking water at all those hours, even in the hottest weather, as well as lifting bricks with a weight that one cannot bear, and how the Nazi officers mocked the Jews saying that Pharaoh did not work them enough in Egypt, and now they are completing the job … A prisoner caught drinking water during the day Immediate in 25 whips … One small faucet was available to 480 men for only fifteen minutes to wash … A Jewish prisoner was never released from the camp … The filth and mud in the camp, the harsh conditions in the barracks, the thin clothes given to the Jews in the cold ( Without Underwear), about Jews who chose to end their lives, about medical experiments done on humans, about the camp law that no prisoner should be released with beaten marks on his body, and how the Nazis made sure to leave such marks in the bodies of all prisoners on the grounds not to release them, and more.
Also described are arrests made on the streets of Berlin of innocent Jews passing by for no reason, arbitrary burglary of SS soldiers into Jewish homes, mass arrests and arbitrary torture after the assassination of General von Fritz. A letter written anonymously appears by a German priest addressing British leaders Against the Nazi regime working to erase from history any Christian mark of the German nation [“In the heart of Europe a generation grew up on hatred for Christianity, thousands of years old traditions are about to disappear under the influence of the National Socialist Party”], and more.
Extremely rare. Only one copy is registered in the world library catalog world cat, in a library in Sweden.
47 [1] p. Very good condition.
