Description:

REPORTS ON THE HAMBURG-NUENGAMME AND BEHNDORF CONCENTRATION CAMPS (2)
Incredibly detailed pair of retained carbon copies of prisoners' statements, likely collected for use at the Curiohaus Trials of complicit concentration camp staff members and administrators in Hamburg, 1946, each providing frightening details of the horrific conditions at the Nuengamme concentration camp and the atrocities committed there. The first report, 2pp. 4to., in German, is headed: 'Thumann, commander of the troops at Neuengamme'. This would refer to Anton Thumann (1912–1946), Protective Custody Camp Leader at Nuengamme. At the Neuengamme Camp Case No. 1 he was found guilty, sentenced to death and executed at Hamelin Prison. It reads, in small part: '...Thumann was a great boxer, but only when he had in front of his a defenseless prisoner. His blows were particularly feared by the foremen and the senior men in each block. Thumann required them to pass on to their fellow-prisoners working under the blows which he dealt out to them daily. Th. thrashed people brutally and ruthlessly on the slightest pretext. He hit prisoners chiefly in the face. For this purpose, he would first put his gloves on, with leisurely premeditation and while savoring a sadistic pleasure...To some [fellow guards] he frequently uttered threats, exactly as he did to the prisoners, to throw them on the ground and whip them...Th.'s predilection was for corporal punishment on a continuing basis. If something did not go right in the camp, or if the parade was amiss and the commander of the camp troops was in a bad mood, the senior men in the blocks had, as a punishment, to stand for hours, or even for the whole day, at the camp gate. On one occasion, all the senior men in the blocks were whipped on his instruction...a large Alsatian dog, which used frequently to accompany him on his inspection tours in the camp. The dog was trained to deal with prisoners, and was pretty aggressive...The Obersturmfuhrer commanded a sadistic band of terrorists in Neuengamme concentration camp, under the protection and with the support of Pauly, the camp commandant...The adjutant, Unterscharfuhrer Dreimann, was a sadist and murderer of the same stamp. Thunann and Dreimann carried out the executions of prisoners almost daily. They surpassed each other reciprocally in gruesome acts...When the noose was already round the neck of prisoners, they were still given kicks and blows with rubber truncheons. The block commanders' room, by the Neuengamme camp exit, was the place where punishments by beating were most frequently carried out. This was Dreimann's kingdom...If a prisoner, when being beaten on his back, merely still kept his head somewhat erect...He belaboured his victim with kicks until the latter lay on the ground, with the spittle oozing from his mouth...I could continually watch Dreimann scenes of this kind. With my own eyes I saw Unterscharfuhrer work over a 14-15 year old Russian boy with kicks, until the latter collapsed, streaming with blood; the ostensible reason was that the boy was not working hard enough....' WITH: a second report,1p. 4to., Hamburg, Aug. 27, 1945, a statement by Otto Dockhorn. In part: '...To: The Committee of Former Political Prisoners. On 2nd May [1945], I travelled in a military truck to Lubeck. There I waited for transport to take me on to Neustadt, at the same time as the British army entered it. Finally, I had the opportunity to go along with 2 officers, who first of all drove across country to Badkau...The command group from a labor camp were at the inn there...When the two officers came back, I noticed that they had on their brassards the sign 'Adolf Hitler'...this unit was supposed to be stationed in Berlin...Moller appeared, dressed in smart civilian clothes. At the same moment, a vehicle drew up. The man in civilian clothes who was sitting in it was the very person about whom Moller had enquired on the way there...the suspicion occurred to me that he had worked for the Gestapo and had finally had the job of the punishment operation conducted against prisoners in the ships. I did send a report at once to the Military Government, but Moller was then no longer around...On the following day, in the morning, I went into the town; I had heard beforehand that a lighter loaded with prisoners had been driven ashore, and that the occupants had escaped. some Home Guard. I met a group of police...The Neustadt armed police were in the foremost party. I heard one of the first three saying: 'I told them if anyone of them dares to refuse to take part, he will be the first man whom I personally shall finish off.' I am convinced that the man concerned is still serving there. I heard later, from women who were down at the harbour, the dreadful story of how they had throw people into the water, and then shot them with machine carbines. The 'Cape Ancona' was bombed in the afternoon. We had previously heard reports that there were prisoners on the ship. Other details have been repeated by concentration camp prisoners, but the incident was not previously sufficiently well known...' Paper labels in corners, very good. Both transcripts with complete translations.

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September 10, 2023 9:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

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