Testimony of a prisoner from the Dachau and Flossenbürg camps, member of the French Resistance Jean Andanson, which was typed on a typewriter by representatives of the American army as part of collecting prisoner testimonies during the Dachau Trials. Signed and dated in his handwriting - Dachau, December 14, 1945. French.
"MA VIE EN CONCENTRATION" - My Life in a Concentration Camp. Andanson recounts that he was arrested on March 19, 1943 for attempting to blow up a German train at the station in Salon de Provence. He was arrested near the train station shortly before carrying out the mission by French collaborators with the Nazis and taken for police interrogation. He underwent severe torture, but did not reveal who sent him on the mission, nor implicated anyone else involved in the operation. For a week, he endured harsh torture in the Gestapo cellars, being moved from one interrogation room to another, with all his bones shattered from the beatings. After withstanding the severe torture, he was transferred by SS soldiers to the Natzweiler concentration camp in northeastern France - "I will never forget the feeling of dread I felt when I saw the camp surrounded by electric fences and guard towers every 50 meters". Andanson testifies that during the 14 months he spent in the camp, 95% of the Frenchmen who arrived in July 1943 suffered from beatings, cold, hunger, and disease. He describes how for many months he was subjected to forced labor, carrying unbearably heavy stones, with barking and biting dogs inflicting injuries on his exhausted body. After a few months of labor, he fell ill with pneumonia, dysentery, and high fever. The doctors sent him to rest, and during those 35 days of rest his body regained strength, saving his life. On April 25, 1945, he was evacuated with other prisoners to Dachau, with over 100 prisoners murdered on the way because they could not keep up with the endless march, being shot dead when they faltered. Upon arriving at Dachau, they were informed that American forces were nearing the camp, and from that moment he testifies: "We no longer felt the fatigue, and were happy to have remained alive". He stayed in the camp until being liberated by the Allied forces, even assisting in removing bodies for burial. On May 25, he was transferred to France where he and his fellow prisoners received an emotional welcome from family and friends who survived the inferno.
The harrowing testimony is typewritten, signed and dated in Andanson's handwriting, and was given in the initial stage of the Dachau Trials, in the month they opened against the 40 Nazi war criminals who ran the Dachau camp, as the U.S. Army collected former prisoners, survivors of the camps across Europe, to come testify and recount the atrocities they endured.
[9] pages. 28 cm. Brown paper. Minor tears on page margins. Good condition.
