Lot 380
FIRST REPORT BY AMERICAN OFFICERS ON CONDITIONS AT BUCHENWALD
On April 4, 1945, the U.S. 89th Infantry Division overran Ohrdruf, a subcamp of the Buchenwald. It was the first Nazi camp liberated by U.S. troops. In the days the followed, the rest of the expansive camp was freed, and the extent of the Nazis' evil was exposed. On April 16, Brig. Gen. Eric Wood and four other officers (including one who had been a prisoner at the camp) made an inspection of conditions in the camp, and on Apr. 21 prepared this rough draft of their report to be submitted to the P.O.W. and Displaced Persons Division, U.S. Group Control Council. The report indicates that administrative personnel and supplies did not reach the camp until Apr. 13. The content of the report is incredible and most revealing, and of course this copy is uncensored. In part: "...Males only, including 1,000 boys under 14 [out of 20,000 prisoners]...anyone and everyone of outstanding intellectual or moral qualifications...a particular inclination for incarcerating prominent Jews...4,000 of them among the 20,000 survivors...given even worse treatment than the others...a few inmates were from time to time ransomed by their families...Mission of camp: An extermination factory...starvation complicated by hard work...typhus rampant...death rate was about 200 a day...5,700 had died or been killed in February...'The Little Camp'...about 35 cu. ft. per man...rations were less than at Regular Camp...death rate...2 percent to 4 percent a day...Regular barracks...40 cu. ft. per person...less than one blanker per prisoner...no heat...'The Hospital'...where moribund persons were sent to die...no medecines...lying cross-wise on the floor, shoulder to shoulder...death rate...5 percent to 20 per cent per day...Medical Experiment Building...used for medical experiments and vivisections...new toxins and anti-toxins were tried out...Body Disposal Plant...capacity of 400 bodies per 10 hour day. All bodies were reduced to boneash...gold-filled teeth were extracted...2 batteries of 3 fire-brick incinerators each...15 to 20 minutes were required...front end of the basement was occupied by the Strangulation Room...condemned prisoners...fell into this shaft and crashed 13' down to the cement cellar floor...they were garroted...by big SS guards, and hung on hooks...60 to 80 supplied by the Strangling Room...bodies loaded into trucks...fatigue detail dug one huge burial pit...Then the SS shot all members of the fatigue detail...adult corpses weighed only 60 to 80 pounds...600 to 700 calories per day...tattooed human skin for souvenirs. This story is true in every respect. Commandant l'Hopital stated that the wife of one of the SS officers started the fad...if she found the tattooing satisfactory the prisoner was killed and skinned...tanned and made into souvenirs such as lamp shades, wall pictures, book ends...This statement was confirmed by Lieut. Waler FG. Emmons. And we ourselves saw 6 examples at Camp HQ, including a lampshade...". Unsigned (being a rough draft), file holes at top, else fine. It has long been alleged by some that the tattoo relics were fictional creations; this document helps shed light on what really transpired at Buchenwald.
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