Evening star., 1945-04-29
Official Army Report
Lists BuchenwaId as
determination Factory
BY EDWARD KENNEDY.

IAsVlIIiIlIuuiVU I0llVI
BY EDWARD KENNEDY,
Associated Press Star Correspondent.
PARIS, April 28.-Buchenwalc
concentration camp is termed ar
determination factory" in ar
official report to Supreme Head.
quarters by Brig. Gen. Erich F
Wood, 1t. Col. Charles OFT ano
Chief Warrant Officer S. M. Dye
who inspected it on its liberia
ton by American troops.
Not only were prisoners exter-
minated by starvation, abuse, beat
ings, torture, and unsanitary con-
ditions, but many internees were
used as guinea pigs" for testing
new toxins and antitoxins, dying as
a result, the report declared.
Thomas r. Henry, Star war
correspondent, in dispatch
printed in The Star Tuesday,
reported that inmates of the
Buchenwald Camp had been in
jected with typhus germs and
killed day by day so German
physicians could observe the
effect of the progress of the
disease on their internal organs.
The investigators were accom-
panied on their inspection tour by
Commandant Rene Hopital-
former aide-de-camp to Marshal
Foch and personal friend of many
Americans-who had been interned
there during two months before
the camp was freed. In that time
his weight fell from ITS to 95 pounds.
Founded by Nazis.
The report said the camp was
founded by the Nazi party when
it came into power in 1888, and
had been in continuous operation
since then, though it had had its
largest populations only since the
beginning of the war. It's SIS guards
fed during the night of April IL. and
American armor overran the area
the next day.
Twenty thousand prisoners were
found, including 1900 French, $500
Poles, 1,240 HungarianS, $40 Yugo-
slavs, 1880 Russians, 324 Dutch, 622
Belgians, $50 Austrians, 242 Italians,
2,105 Czechs, 1900 Germans and
l,467 anti-Franco Spaniards and
miscellaneous nationalities.
Character of surviving popula-
ton: Males only, including 1000
boys under IA years old, intelligent
sia and leadership personnel from
all of Europe" the report continued.
ANY one and every one of out
standing intellectual or moral quail
ificationS, or of democratic or anti
Nazi inclinations or their relatives.
For instance. as to French inmates.
they included four anti-Vichy
members of Parliament
Many Professional Men.
Professors of the Pasteur Insti-
tute, the University of Paris, the
University of Caen, etc, eight high
4oAAhA1iS anu 1Sils SCllCl dlo, al
cluding Gen. Vermeau, who was at
one time chief of staff, and the son
Of one Of them, and French engi-
neers, lawyers, editors and other
professional men of higher brackets !"
The prisoners included 1000 prom
inent Jews, and Jews were given
even worse treatment than the
others"
"A few inmates were from time to
time liberated to spread word among
other leadership or intellectual anti
Nazi personnel throughout Europe
as to the penalties Gnternment in
this and similar camps for anti
Nazis.
Mission of the camp: An ex-
termination factory. Mere death
was not bad enough for anti-Nazis.
Means of determination: Star
vation complicated by hard work,
abuse. beatings and tortures, i'll
credibly crowded sleeping conditions
and sickness-for instance, typus
was rampant in the camp and many
inmates were tubercular.
Thousands Exterminated.
by these means many tens of
thousands of the best leadership
personnel in Europe, including Ger
man democrats and anti-Nazis,
have been eXterminated.
For instance, six of the eight
French generals originally COM
mitted to the camp, and the son of
one Of them died there. The recent
death rate was about 200 a day.
Five thousand seven hundred had
died or been killed in February, $500
in March and about 1000 in the first
10 days of April
The main elements of the in
stallation included the little camp,
regular barracks, hospital. medical
experimentation building, body dis
posal plant, and ammunition fac
tory Immediately adjacent to the
camp and separated from it only by
the wire fence of the little camp.
Prisoners here slept on triple decker
shelves. each shelf about IL feet
by IL feet, six PRISONERS to a shelf,
clearance height between shelves
being little over two feet.
"The cubage figured out to about
35 cubic feet per man as against
a minimum for health of 600 cubic
feet prescribed by United States
Army regulations.
Starvation Deliberate.
"All arriving new prisoners we're
initiated by spending at least six
weeks here before being graduated
to the regular barracks. During this
the prisoners were ex-
pected to lose about 40 per cent in
weight.
Jews, however, seldom, if ever,
graduated to the regular barracks.
Camp disciplinary measures in
Cluded transferring recalcitrant pris-
oners back to the little camp. AS
persons became too feeble to work.
they were also sent back to this
camp or to the hospital
"Rations were less than at the
regular camps and the death rate
was very high here-recently two to
four per cent per day.
Regular barracks: Dormitory