dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
until very primitive wooden barracks without any sanitary installations were created alongside the roll call grounds, which later became famous as the Blocks 1a-5a. During the first few days the SS had no clear survey that the keeper of the records would announce over the loudspeaker, "If another Jew hangs himself, will he kindly stick a piece of paper with his name on it in his pocket, so that one knows who he is." Where the Jews came from is given in the survey in Table 3. Table 3 Place of Origin Giessen Mainz Kassel Breslau Dresden Magdeburg Chemnitz Leipzig Oppeln Bielefeld Meiningen Dessau Various small places in Thueringen Number 138 97 693 2,471 151 375 171 270 703 406 91 85 Place of Origin Darmstadt Frankfurt a/M Friedberg Erfurt Halle/Saale Hannover Nordhausen Aachen Wuerzburg Eisenach-Gotha Offenbach Worms Number 169 2,621 99 197 124 316 89 135 103 112 82 87 689 This increase in the camp strength not only resulted in a definite but also in a greater percentage number of death cases, as indicated in Table 4. Table 4. Period Oct. 10-Nov. 9, '38 Nov. 10-Dec. 12, '38 Number of deaths 53 244+ Average Camp Strength 10 156 17 262 Deaths in % Camp Strength 0.52% 1.41% + Among them 3 unknown dead and 3 suicides. At that time the first construction work of the concentration camp and the necessary troop billets were finished in the rough. The SS sent their prophylactic prisoners to new places for the erection of other camps and SS barracks. The first professional criminals were sent to Camps Mauthausen and Flossenburg on 3 November 1938. Other Transports followed shortly. The "Actions-Juden" (Jews arrested during the movement or campaign against them) were also discharged after a comparatively short time, that is to say, after plundering them and requisitioning their property, they were for the greater part expelled from the Third Reich and upon leaving the camp had to immediately board a ship or cross the frontier. Through these proceedings and the inclusion of death cases the camp strength went down to 8,650 in round figures by the end of February 1939 and stayed at this level, for the time being. III Immediately after the beginning of the war the camp strength rose anew. At that time the "Aktions" prisoners, Reich nationals and Austrians unfit to
inclusion of death cases the camp strength went down to 8,650 in round figures by the end of February 1939 and stayed at this level, for the time being. III Immediately after the beginning of the war the camp strength rose anew. At that time the "Aktions" prisoners, Reich nationals and Austrians unfit to carry arms, arrived. Also the Czech hostages from the Protectorate were delivered as the next batch of foreigners in September 1939 amounting to a total number of 756, some of them coming from the KL Dachau. At the start of the war the KL Dachau was completely evacuated and on 26 September 1939 no less than 2,200 prisoners were transferred to Buchenwald. On 5 October 1939 members of the Polish minority in Germany numbering 181 persons followed. After the conclusion of the Polish campaign Buchenwald experienced a grim and tragic sequel in the action taken against the so-called Polish snipers and other Poles coming from those parts of Poland which belonged to Germany before 1918. On 15 October 1939 and 16 October no less than 1,000 and 1,098 Poles arrived and were put in tents under the most primitive and barbaric conditions on the half-finished roll call grounds, where they received only half of the amount of the food furnished to the other prisoners. The terrible results of this annihilation process is reflected in the comparison of the death cases. In the period 16 September to 15 October 1939-44 prisoners died in the KL Buchenwald, and from 16 October to 15 November 1939, therefore in the same space of time, 6.4 times as many, or 283 prisoners. After the attempt on Hitler's life in the Buegerbraeu in Munich on 9 November 1939 a new terror deed by the SS filled the camp with a shuddering and paralyzing fright. The 9 November was a holiday and no work was being done. In the morning under the command of the SS Staff Sergeant Blanck heavily armed SS soldiers appeared and without any list or records selected at random 7 men from each block of Jews, mostly young ones. Thereupon, without any further explanation, they were marched to the stone quarry and shot down. The particulars of the records of these 21 victims are known. The unbelievable bad conditions, especially the sanitary ones, in the special camp of the Poles,
selected at random 7 men from each block of Jews, mostly young ones. Thereupon, without any further explanation, they were marched to the stone quarry and shot down. The particulars of the records of these 21 victims are known. The unbelievable bad conditions, especially the sanitary ones, in the special camp of the Poles, spread to the rest of the camp. The epidemics in the camp and the fear of contagion on the part of the troops forced the SS to quarantine the camp. Individual additions arrived only in exceptional cases. From 1 November 1939 to 30 June 1940, I.e. in 8 months, only a total of 131 additions arrived. Correspondingly the discharges from the camp were almost completely discontinued. Therefore, it was in the main the death cases which in this first winter of the war, owing to the miserable nourishment, hunger and dysentery, caused a decrease in the number of prisoners form 12,841 on 24 October 1939 to 7,986 on 1 May 1940. Death took an especially high toll among the Burgenland gypsies confined in the camp. In the aforementioned figures showing the decrease, a transport of 1,000 prisoners on 6 March 1940 and one of 3,000 on 14 April 1940 sent to the KL Mauthausen, is included. Who ever knows the reputation of this newly erected camp in Mauthausen must also know that no many of these prisoners remained alive. A larger number of additions to the camp only began to arrive again in August 1940, namely again 1,100 Poles in two transports from Posen. In the following winter the camp strength remained about the same and averaged in round numbers about 7,500 prisoners. (Hitler had promised a very generous pardon decree for his 50th birthday. It consisted in discharging in round figures 2,300 mostly "asocial" prisoners. Later delayed pardon act reduced the camp strength from 6,363 on 1 May 1939 to a low figure of 5,376 on 21 August 1939.) IV The first results of the Western Campaign soon manifested themselves in Buchenwald. Already on 2 July 1940 delivery of 216 Hollanders was made to the KL Buchenwald, mostly high-ranking officials and officers as hostages, and was followed by an additional 111 on 8 and 9 October 1940. The last Dutch hostages arrived on 23 August 1941. They were isolated in a block from the other camp inmates like the
delivery of 216 Hollanders was made to the KL Buchenwald, mostly high-ranking officials and officers as hostages, and was followed by an additional 111 on 8 and 9 October 1940. The last Dutch hostages arrived on 23 August 1941. They were isolated in a block from the other camp inmates like the preceding ones, and were conceded certain modest facilities. A selected few of them were discharged during the year. The main body, however, remained in Buchenwald until 15 November 1941 and were then transported to the vicinity of Herzogenbusch. In the beginning of 1941 the German security police raided the Amsterdam Jewish quarter after a strike and abducted for transfer to Buchenwald 389 Dutch Jews on 28 February 1941. They were immediately employed in the hardest physical work and in this manner destroyed. The balance of them, 341, with 350 other prisoners were transferred to the KL Mauthausen on 22 May 1941. Finally it should be mentioned, that a large transport of 2,000 prisoners arrived from the KL Dachau at the beginning of the Summer of 1941. In contrast to Buchenwald the construction regarded as a sort of recreation camp to which invalids and sick prisoners were sent. When they had recuperated they were again sent to other camps for heavy enforced labor. More will be told later about these "transferes", as they were officially termed, from one camp to another. The aforementioned addition and transports, augmented by the regular additions which were delivered two or three a week from the police prisons, caused the camp strength to rise from the low figure of 6,705 on 1 June 1941 to 8,370 prisoners on 1 October 1941. V On June 22 1941 Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. The delivery of 2,000 Soviet prisoners of war was the first direct effect on the camp on 18 October 1941. The SS troopers could not prevent the Joyful reception of these prisoners of war by the camp inmates who provided them with additional bread, food, tobacco and other articles. The whole camp was punished and especially certain individuals who attracted most attention. The prisoners were also strictly isolated from the others and their barracks provided with a sign having the inscription "prisoners of war". Probably Soviet reprisals were feared and they did not want to give the impression that the prisoners
punished and especially certain individuals who attracted most attention. The prisoners were also strictly isolated from the others and their barracks provided with a sign having the inscription "prisoners of war". Probably Soviet reprisals were feared and they did not want to give the impression that the prisoners of war had been turned over to a concentration camp. Nevertheless they were subjected to the same strict camp discipline as the other prisoners and in the first months especially the quality of their food was considerably inferior. They were compelled to do the hardest physical work. Details of the future fate of the prisoners of war will be reported later. A transfer of 1,000 of them to the KL Mauthausen was made on 19 May 1942. In the following months and years more Soviet Prisoners of war were delivered. At the end there were 821 prisoners of war in the camp which were evacuated in one group, when during the last days before the liberation the SS began to clean out the camp. The camp strength rose to 10,342 persons with the arrival of the prisoners of war on 16 October 191. During the winter of 1941/42 the figure slowly decreased and on 12 March 1942 amounted to 9,770 prisoners. On that day and the following one two large transports departed from the camp one on 12 March 1942 of 400 to the KL Natzweiler and one of 800 to the KL Ravensbrueck. The SS apparently tried to break the anti-fascist character of the camp by these transfers, which had manifested itself especially in its attitude toward the Soviet prisoners of war. Many long term Political prisoners were sent away without any consideration. Undernourished and badly billeted they were forced to the hardest kind of physical labor in the new camps, so that the majority of them died and only a few were able to return to Buchenwald after a long time with other transports. After the departure of the transports the camp was again strictly searched for German political prisoners and a number of them isolated in a special company for hard physical labor. This matter will also be treated by another source in a special report, therefore, it will not be necessary to go into details at this time. These transports and the aforementioned transport of 1,000 Soviet prisoners of war to the KL
and a number of them isolated in a special company for hard physical labor. This matter will also be treated by another source in a special report, therefore, it will not be necessary to go into details at this time. These transports and the aforementioned transport of 1,000 Soviet prisoners of war to the KL Mauthausen reduced the camp Strength on 1 June 1942 to the figure of 7,601, due to the relatively minor additions. About this time, Sauckel, the gauleiter of Thuringia and Hitler's General Deputy for labor Employment, began to adduct on a large scale the population of the occupied eastern territories for forced labor in Germany. Partly voluntary, with a naive belief in the promises of the Nazis, and partly concerned they came in large mass transports to Germany for employment. Already at the beginning the Germans must have recognized that many undisciplined and politically undesirable "elements" were to be found among them, which threatened to endanger peace and order. They were harshly treated and locked up for minor infraction in the punishment and concentration camps for "commitment to labor", which in other words meant life-long slavery. No trouble was taken to determine in the individual cases the question of guilt. No one felt responsible for the fate of the abducted. The SS demanded and received their share of the booty derived from this unpaid labor and exploited it without any consideration and brutally for their own selfish purposes. Beginning 1 June rapidly increasing numbers of Ukrainian, Russian, Tartar civilian workers and former prisoners of war arrived in the camp. In addition the normal collecting transports abducted people of all the various nations and of every age to the Ettersberg. Within a very short space of time the camp was inhabited by persons from 25 countries from all over Europe and overseas, one might say, shortly from nearly all the countries in the world. At the end for 1944 nationals from 36 different countries were imprisoned in the camp. If the influx let up, the Reich leader of the SS would issue new decrees on the basis of which new raids and actions were carried out causing the inflow to increase again by leaps and bounds. The SS also understood how to procure slave labor from inside Germany. Beginning December 1942
were imprisoned in the camp. If the influx let up, the Reich leader of the SS would issue new decrees on the basis of which new raids and actions were carried out causing the inflow to increase again by leaps and bounds. The SS also understood how to procure slave labor from inside Germany. Beginning December 1942 the judicial authorities had to turn over in part their cheap labor employees to the concentration camps. A decree was issued which ordered the transfer of the prisoners of the courts of justice to the concentration camps for labor commitment. Committees visited the penal prisons and shortly thereafter pronounced criminals (murderers, persons guilty of manslaughter, persons guilty of moral turpitude) sentenced to long and life-long penal imprisonment were sent from the penal prisons Saxony, Thuringia, Hessen, the Rhineland and Westphalia, as well as from the Province of Brandenburg, (were sent) to the KL Buchenwald. Many of them were used as "guinea pigs" in the spotted fever barracks, while many others, accustomed to living for years in confined quarters, died, because they could not endure the sudden transition to a life in the open during the winter and in the spring. If some of the concentration camps were overcrowded or workmen were needed at certain points, whether for the construction of airdromes, defense fortifications or barracks, or even for the completion of castles, country houses and homes of individual highranking SS officials and their staffs, the private slaves of the SS were dragged, without any consideration from one camp to another. Further developments are shown in Table 5, in which the camp strength and the number of the addition for the 12 months from 1 June 1942 to 31 May 1943 are given. Table 5 Month Camp strength beg. of month Additions during month Special Transport June '42 7,601 1,019 On 5 July-300 invalids July '42 8,000 1,996 and 51 clergymen to Dachau. Aug. '42 8,849 1,715 Sept. '42 9,886 1,709 500 from KL Dachau Oct. '42 10,075 984 13 Oct.-619 to KL Sachsenhausen. 17 Oct.-405 KL Auschwitz. Nov. '42 8,831 794 On 23 Jan. 43-843 foreign workers from Duessldorf. Dec. '42 9,092 1,044 Jan. '43 9,517 2,500 Feb. '43 11,275 1,291 Mar. '43 11,920 2,474 The first in the small camp. Apr. '43 12,461 2,773 On 5 Mar.-500
from KL Dachau Oct. '42 10,075 984 13 Oct.-619 to KL Sachsenhausen. 17 Oct.-405 KL Auschwitz. Nov. '42 8,831 794 On 23 Jan. 43-843 foreign workers from Duessldorf. Dec. '42 9,092 1,044 Jan. '43 9,517 2,500 Feb. '43 11,275 1,291 Mar. '43 11,920 2,474 The first in the small camp. Apr. '43 12,461 2,773 On 5 Mar.-500 to KL Dachau. May '43 13,326 2,939 On 23 Mar. to Riga. 31 May '43 14,441 On 3 Apr.-933 Poles from Lublin. On 12 Apr.-339 from KL wewelsberg. In what manner the terrible conditions in the overcrowded German concentration camps and the pitiless exploitation of the prisoners crossed the plans of the higher authorities of an increased production, is revealed in a communication of the SS Main Office of the Economic administration. According to this letter, the total number of additions in all the German concentration camps in the 6 months from June to November 1942 amounted to 136,780 whereas 70,610 died in the same period. (See copy of the document in Annex IV.) VI The Germans had to leave the Soviet Union after the decisive defeat at Stalingrad. During the retreat all the still available manpower reserves were combed out everywhere. Men and women, children and old men were dragged off to Germany. A great number of them were not even employed as foreign workers, but instead immediately delivered to the concentration camps. In the Fall of 1943 the following transports from the still occupied parts of the Soviet Union arrived in Buchenwald. Table 6 Date Origin Number 26 Aug. '43 Dnjepropetrowsk 998 29 Aug. '43 Dnjepropetrowsk 781 19 Sept. '43 Dnjepropetrowsk 1,362 5 Oct. '43 Nikolajew 604 10 Oct. '43 Kiriwograd 529 31 Oct. '43 Kiew 233 n Nov. '43 Kiriwograd 318 28 Nov. '43 Nikolajew 192 24 Mar. '44 Nikolajew 377 ---- 5,394 Women and children also arrived with these men here. They were not allowed to enter the camp, but were passed on directly to the women's concentration camp, or an exception was made, and they were temporarily billeted for one or two days until they were transported to other places. At the same time conditions in France also took an unfavorable turn for the Third Reich. After the defeat on the East Front the lack and in correlation the want of manpower rose in Germany.
exception was made, and they were temporarily billeted for one or two days until they were transported to other places. At the same time conditions in France also took an unfavorable turn for the Third Reich. After the defeat on the East Front the lack and in correlation the want of manpower rose in Germany. Sauckel went to Paris and negotiated with Laval for the delivery of forced labor. This development reflected itself in the KL Buchenwald by deliveries of French prisoners of war from the German concentration camp in Compiegne. The poetical talents of the German Security Service and its sneering attitude toward these victims expressed themselves in designating this action as the "Meerschaum Operation", which was followed in 1944 by another operation termed the "Spring Zephyr". The large mass transports which arrived in KL buchenwald from the West are compiled in Table 7. Table 7 Date Number Origin 21 May '43 50 Compiegne KL Mauthausen 27 June '43 962 Compiegne 4 Sept.'43 896 Compiegne 18 Sept.'43 926 Compiegne 30 Oct. '43 911 Compiegne 16 Dec. '43 921 Compiegne 19 Jan. '44 1,940 Compiegne 24 Jan. '44 1,991 Compiegne 29 Jan. '44 1,580 Compiegne 8 May '44 967 Brussels 14 May '44 2,052 Compiegne 14 May '44 1,667 Compiegne via KL Auschwitz 22 May '44 891 Brussels 19 June '44 574 Brussels 3 July '44 435 Compiegne 6 Aug. '44 1,080 Compiegne 10 Aug. '44 827 Compiegne 20 Aug. '44 1,650 Compiegne 21 Aug. '44 1,246 Compiegne 5 Febr. '45 285 Penal Prison Gross-Strehlitz Total 21,851 Frenchmen and Belgians formed the bulk of these transports. However, all these transports also contained nationals of other countries, who were living temporaly or permanently in France, and were also delivered to Buchenwald. The stream of mass transports stopped after the Red Army had reconquered the greater part of the Ukraine. However, many "normal" additions continued to arrive, i.e. prisoners from the Germany prisons, but also 90% foreigners, who were sent to the concentration camps on the orders of Himmler. Nevertheless, these additions could not have covered the disastrously increased demand, brought about by the inconsiderate waste of manpower, if the SS had not uncovered new sources. Beginning in the early summer of 1944 Hungarian Jews were dragged into
to the concentration camps on the orders of Himmler. Nevertheless, these additions could not have covered the disastrously increased demand, brought about by the inconsiderate waste of manpower, if the SS had not uncovered new sources. Beginning in the early summer of 1944 Hungarian Jews were dragged into German slavery in undiscernible masses. They were followed in August by the civilian Polish population evacuated from Warsaw. It is characteristic of the continually increasing catastrophic shaping of the conditions in the Third Reich, that the services conducting the arrests were no longer in a position to properly register the prisoners. Whereas the transport directing services sent lists along containing the records of the prisoners in the first mass transports from the Soviet Union, France and Belgium, such lists did not accompany the Hungarians and Poles coming from Warsaw. Most of these transports passed through the KL Auschwitz where the prisoners probably were subjected to a first examination. Whoever appeared fit for work was provided with some scant clothing and after a few days sent on. In Auschwitz they were designated as "Transport Jews", and no one took the trouble anymore to review their records. That work was left to the concentration camps to which the individuals were finally committed. The SS regarded the labor commitment as their first duty, and the prisoners engaged with the reception of the additions were faced with the greatest to determine the records of the additions so that the SS would not simply use them up as numbers. Only the fact that we insisted on carrying out the still existing order regarding the reception of the additions and did not ignore the regulations, which would have greatly pleased the SS it is now possible to report-who passed through the camp, who died in the camp-and in the near future it will be possible to give information to the bruatally torn apart family members, relatives and acquaintances on the fate of their relatives. The same applies to the Hungarian Jews, the Poles evacuated from Warsaw, the Polish Jews, Poles, Estonians and the Lithuanians, who had been interned in the labor camps in the East. They had been commited as foreign workers and in part had lived together with their families. When the