RSS

Buchenwald 13: The beginning, the monster gets fed.

Buchenwald 3From Wikipedia and USHMM

1938, in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, German SS and police sent almost 10,000 Jews to Buchenwald where the camp authorities subjected them to extraordinarily cruel treatment upon arrival. 255 of them died as a result of their initial mistreatment at the camp.

This reflected the direct orders of Germany’s Fuehrer. Hermann Göring met with other members of the Nazi leadership on 12 November to plan the next steps after the riot, setting the stage for formal government action. In the transcript of the meeting, Göring said,

‘I have received a letter written on the Führer‘s orders requesting that the Jewish question be now, once and for all, coordinated and solved one way or another… I should not want to leave any doubt, gentlemen, as to the aim of today’s meeting. We have not come together merely to talk again, but to make decisions, and I implore competent agencies to take all measures for the elimination of the Jew from the German economy, and to submit them to me.” .. Herman Göring.

Kristalnacht was officially called to a stop 11 November, but violence continued against the Jews in the concentration camps despite orders requesting “special treatment” to ensure that this did not happen. Violence did not stop until Communist prisoners stormed the guard towers, manned by the last Nazis not fleeing the oncoming American soldiers, including my own father.


Comments are closed.