Human rights abuses by the Third Reich: New evidence from the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald

Human Rights Quarterly

Volumn 18, Issue 4, 1996, Pages 848-873

  Hill, Ronald Paul ^a,b   Hirschman, Elizabeth C ^c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF PORTLAND   (United States)

^c RUTGERS UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 5844323010     PISSN: 02750392     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (114)

1. THE BUCHENWALD REPORT 140 (David A. Hackett ed. & trans., 1995).
2. MICHAEL R. MARRUS, 2 THE NAZI HOLOCAUST: THE VICTIMS OF THE HOLOCAUST (1989).
3. R.J. RUMMEL, DEMOCIDE: NAZI GENOCIDE AND MASS MURDER 11 (1992).
4. Ronald J. Berger, Agency, Structure, and Jewish Survival of the Holocaust, 36 Soc. Q. 15 (1995).
5. See CHRISTOPHER BURNEY, THE DUNGEON DEMOCRACY (1945); ABRAM KORN, ABE'S STORY: A HOLOCAUST MEMOIR (1995); PRIMO LEVI, SURVIVAL IN AUSCHWITZ: THE NAZI ASSAULT ON HUMANITY (Stuart Woolf trans., 1961) (1959); ISAAC POLLAK, LIVING WITH DEATH (1989); WALTER POLLER, MEDICAL BLOCK, BUCHENWALD: THE PERSONAL TESTIMONY OF INMATE 996, BLOCK 36 (Lyle Stuart 1961) (1960); DAVID ROUSSET, A WORLD APART (Yvonne Moyse & Roger Senhouse trans., Secker and Warburg 1951).
6. See CHRISTOPHER BURNEY, THE DUNGEON DEMOCRACY (1945); ABRAM KORN, ABE'S STORY: A HOLOCAUST MEMOIR (1995); PRIMO LEVI, SURVIVAL IN AUSCHWITZ: THE NAZI ASSAULT ON HUMANITY (Stuart Woolf trans., 1961) (1959); ISAAC POLLAK, LIVING WITH DEATH (1989); WALTER POLLER, MEDICAL BLOCK, BUCHENWALD: THE PERSONAL TESTIMONY OF INMATE 996, BLOCK 36 (Lyle Stuart 1961) (1960); DAVID ROUSSET, A WORLD APART (Yvonne Moyse & Roger Senhouse trans., Secker and Warburg 1951).
7. See CHRISTOPHER BURNEY, THE DUNGEON DEMOCRACY (1945); ABRAM KORN, ABE'S STORY: A HOLOCAUST MEMOIR (1995); PRIMO LEVI, SURVIVAL IN AUSCHWITZ: THE NAZI ASSAULT ON HUMANITY (Stuart Woolf trans., 1961) (1959); ISAAC POLLAK, LIVING WITH DEATH (1989); WALTER POLLER, MEDICAL BLOCK, BUCHENWALD: THE PERSONAL TESTIMONY OF INMATE 996, BLOCK 36 (Lyle Stuart 1961) (1960); DAVID ROUSSET, A WORLD APART (Yvonne Moyse & Roger Senhouse trans., Secker and Warburg 1951).
8. See CHRISTOPHER BURNEY, THE DUNGEON DEMOCRACY (1945); ABRAM KORN, ABE'S STORY: A HOLOCAUST MEMOIR (1995); PRIMO LEVI, SURVIVAL IN AUSCHWITZ: THE NAZI ASSAULT ON HUMANITY (Stuart Woolf trans., 1961) (1959); ISAAC POLLAK, LIVING WITH DEATH (1989); WALTER POLLER, MEDICAL BLOCK, BUCHENWALD: THE PERSONAL TESTIMONY OF INMATE 996, BLOCK 36 (Lyle Stuart 1961) (1960); DAVID ROUSSET, A WORLD APART (Yvonne Moyse & Roger Senhouse trans., Secker and Warburg 1951).
9. See CHRISTOPHER BURNEY, THE DUNGEON DEMOCRACY (1945); ABRAM KORN, ABE'S STORY: A HOLOCAUST MEMOIR (1995); PRIMO LEVI, SURVIVAL IN AUSCHWITZ: THE NAZI ASSAULT ON HUMANITY (Stuart Woolf trans., 1961) (1959); ISAAC POLLAK, LIVING WITH DEATH (1989); WALTER POLLER, MEDICAL BLOCK, BUCHENWALD: THE PERSONAL TESTIMONY OF INMATE 996, BLOCK 36 (Lyle Stuart 1961) (1960); DAVID ROUSSET, A WORLD APART (Yvonne Moyse & Roger Senhouse trans., Secker and Warburg 1951).
10. See CHRISTOPHER BURNEY, THE DUNGEON DEMOCRACY (1945); ABRAM KORN, ABE'S STORY: A HOLOCAUST MEMOIR (1995); PRIMO LEVI, SURVIVAL IN AUSCHWITZ: THE NAZI ASSAULT ON HUMANITY (Stuart Woolf trans., 1961) (1959); ISAAC POLLAK, LIVING WITH DEATH (1989); WALTER POLLER, MEDICAL BLOCK, BUCHENWALD: THE PERSONAL TESTIMONY OF INMATE 996, BLOCK 36 (Lyle Stuart 1961) (1960); DAVID ROUSSET, A WORLD APART (Yvonne Moyse & Roger Senhouse trans., Secker and Warburg 1951).
11. THE BUCHENWALD REPORT, supra note 1.
12. Id. at 1.
13. Peter Monteath, Buchenwald Revisited: Rewriting the History of a Concentration Camp, 16 INT'L HIST. REV. 267, 268-69 (1994); see also THE BUCHENWALD REPORT, supra note 1, at 4-5. Individual Report #4 states that: At the time of liberation, the entire camp (including headquarters) covered 371 acres. There were 99 acres surrounded by the electrically charged barbed wire fence; the territory of the German Armaments Works encompassed 11 acres, roll call square was 3.7 acres; the Gustaloff Works covered an equal area. The entire area inside the sentry line comprised 0.75 square miles; the electrified barbed wire fence was 2.2 miles long. THE BUCHENWALD REPORT, supra note 1, at 115-16.
14. Peter Monteath, Buchenwald Revisited: Rewriting the History of a Concentration Camp, 16 INT'L HIST. REV. 267, 268-69 (1994); see also THE BUCHENWALD REPORT, supra note 1, at 4-5. Individual Report #4 states that: At the time of liberation, the entire camp (including headquarters) covered 371 acres. There were 99 acres surrounded by the electrically charged barbed wire fence; the territory of the German Armaments Works encompassed 11 acres, roll call square was 3.7 acres; the Gustaloff Works covered an equal area. The entire area inside the sentry line comprised 0.75 square miles; the electrified barbed wire fence was 2.2 miles long. THE BUCHENWALD REPORT, supra note 1, at 115-16.
15. Peter Monteath, Buchenwald Revisited: Rewriting the History of a Concentration Camp, 16 INT'L HIST. REV. 267, 268-69 (1994); see also THE BUCHENWALD REPORT, supra note 1, at 4-5. Individual Report #4 states that: At the time of liberation, the entire camp (including headquarters) covered 371 acres. There were 99 acres surrounded by the electrically charged barbed wire fence; the territory of the German Armaments Works encompassed 11 acres, roll call square was 3.7 acres; the Gustaloff Works covered an equal area. The entire area inside the sentry line comprised 0.75 square miles; the electrified barbed wire fence was 2.2 miles long. THE BUCHENWALD REPORT, supra note 1, at 115-16.
16. John Rodden, Uses of the Past: Versions of Buchenwald, 112 CHRISTIAN CENTURY 457 (1995).
17. THE BUCHENWALD REPORT, supra note 1, at 6.
18. Id. SS troops had demolished the camp's water pumps prior to their retreat, destroying the delivery system of fresh water. Id.
19. Rodden, supra note 9; THE BUCHENWALD REPORT, supra note 1, at 7.
20. THE BUCHENWALD REPORT, supra note 1, at 7.
21. Id.
22. Id. at 9-10.
23. Id. at 17.
24. These reports were used by Eugen Kogon as background for his scholarly account of Nazi concentration camps published in 1946 as Der SS-Staat, and revised and published in English as The Theory and Practice of Hell (Heinz Norden trans., Farrar, Straus & Co. 1950).
25. These reports were used by Eugen Kogon as background for his scholarly account of Nazi concentration camps published in 1946 as Der SS-Staat, and revised and published in English as The Theory and Practice of Hell (Heinz Norden trans., Farrar, Straus & Co. 1950).
26. J.M. Reitzel & B. Lindemann, Introduction to Historical Analysis, in 2 A HANDBOOK OF SOCIAL SCIENCE METHODS: QUALITATIVE METHODS 167 (Robert B. Smith & Peter K. Manning eds., 1982); Gaye Tuchman, Historical Social Science: Methodologies, Methods, and Meanings, HANDBOOK OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 306 (Norman K. Denzin & Yvonna S. Lincoln eds., 1994).
27. J.M. Reitzel & B. Lindemann, Introduction to Historical Analysis, in 2 A HANDBOOK OF SOCIAL SCIENCE METHODS: QUALITATIVE METHODS 167 (Robert B. Smith & Peter K. Manning eds., 1982); Gaye Tuchman, Historical Social Science: Methodologies, Methods, and Meanings, HANDBOOK OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH 306 (Norman K. Denzin & Yvonna S. Lincoln eds., 1994).
28. Ian Hodder, The Interpretation of Documents and Material Culture, HANDBOOK OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH, supra note 18, at 393. He notes that written documents are a special form of material culture artifact used by a variety of disciplines including "history, art history, archaeology, anthropology, sociology, cognitive psychology, technology, and modern material culture studies."
29. MATTHEW B. MILES & A. MICHAEL HUBERMAN, QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS (2d ed. 1994).
30. Edward F. McQuarrie & David Glen Mick, On Resonance: A Critical Pluralistic Inquiry into Advertising Rhetoric, 19 J. CONSUMER RES. 180 (1992).
31. The SS regularly referred to inmates as stuck, a term used by farmers to designate the number of animals in a herd. Further, Individual Report #130 notes that "Labor assignments for all prisoners . . . were the domain of the labor assignment officer. . . . a cold-blooded beast for whom the prisoners represented only commodities." THE BUCHENWALD REPORT, supra note 1, at 297 (emphasis added).
32. Id. at 45.
33. Id.
34. Id. at 247.
35. Id. at 45.
36. Id.
37. Id. at 46.
38. Id.
39. Id. at 46-47.
40. Id. at 47.
41. Id.
42. Id. at 48. In 1942, morning exercises were added to this routine, but they were canceled after numerous cases of pneumonia and subsequent deaths occurred. Id.
43. Id.
44. Id. at 48-49.
45. These roll calls were feared greatly by the prisoners: Often one had to stand for hours in the icy cold or in stormy weather, after a hard day's work. But the SS wanted to count their slave workers precisely every day, as many of them of course harbored thoughts of escape and often enough even attempted to flee - which always meant retaliation against the entire camp. . . . Twice, in 1938 and 1939, the camp had to stand for eighteen or nineteen hours straight, costing many people their lives. We were often frisked in roll call square; that is, we had to empty our pockets, and the SS inspected the contents, during which a great deal of money and tobacco disappeared. [Individual Report #19]
46. Id. at 137.
47. Id. at 49.
48. Id. at 143.
49. Between October 1, 1937 and April 10, 1945, 34,566 prisoners died in the camp or on external work details. However, the total number of dead inmates increases to approximately 55,000 when "liquidations" and "death transports" are included (see Individual Report #2). Id. at 112-13.
50. Id. at 66.
51. Id.
52. Id.
53. Id. at 68.
54. Id.
55. Id.
56. Id.
57. Id. at 154.
58. Id. at 59.
59. Id.
60. Id.
61. Id. at 207.
62. Id. at 55.
63. Id.
64. Id. at 94. Both projects were subject to deliberate sabotage by the prisoners, and neither operated as demanded by the SS. Further, Individual Report #137 discloses that: In the Middle German Construction Company (Mibau), for example, the normal output of a civilian production worker pressing coils on the hydraulic presses amounted to 720 pieces in a ten-hour workday. The output of a prisoner in eleven hours was 350 pieces. In the winding and soldering of the coils, the normal output of a civilian worker was twenty to thirty pieces in 9.5 hours; for a prisoner it was eight to sixteen pieces in eleven hours. In mixing the press material for the coils, the prescribed percentage of the various component parts was altered, and ground-up rubber was mixed into it. The soldering of electrical connections was done loosely so that the apparatus was capable of passing quality control. During further use, however, electrical connections would come apart.
65. Id. at 308.
66. Id. at 129.
67. Id. at 42. Particularly talented artisans occasionally were "loaned" to other SS leaders throughout the country so that they too could exploit these prisoners' abilities. Id.
68. Id. at 40-41.
69. For example, Himmler ordered the removal of all gold teeth and fillings from dead prisoners as well as from surviving inmates whose golden teeth were deemed "irreparable" by SS dentists (see photograph #4). Id. at 62. Also, Commandant Koch had the "best" examples of tattooed skin removed from inmates and placed in the pathology department on display for SS visitors (see photograph #5). Id. at 64. Further, the administration at Buchenwald funded monthly open-air eating and drinking festivals by "punishing" the entire inmate population with twenty-four hour fasts and diverting the eight to ten thousand marks set aside for their food to pay for these extravagances.
70. Id. at 51. Individual Report #46 reveals that the stone quarry "work was very heavy, especially the pulling of carts. Every evening the dead, the severely wounded, and the invalids were brought back into the camp on carts. It amounted to about thirty men almost every day." Id. at 186.
71. Id. at 161, 163.
72. In some of these studies, prisoners were forced to take part. In others, subjects came willingly in order to avoid dangerous work assignments or in the expectation of receiving some additional nourishment in exchange for their participation. Id. at 80.
73. Id.
74. Id. at 229-30.
75. Id. at 77.
76. The conditions in the so-called "Little Camp" were significantly worse. See Individual Report #115 for more details. Id. at 271.
77. Id. at 65.
78. Id.
79. The camp food supply was withdrawn regularly as noted in Individual Report #116: If a single person stirred during roll call or collapsed of weakness, the command was immediately handed down: "Today there will be no slops [nichts zu fressen]!" Our food then ended up in the pigsty. In November there were a total of seventeen hunger days for us. Id. at 276 (alteration in original).
80. Id. at 49.
81. Id.
82. Id. at 131.
83. Id. at 61. A gravel path leading to the hospital did exist, but it was reserved for the SS. Id.
84. Id.
85. Id.
86. Id. at 58. Theft from another inmate caused punishment from the prisoner leadership, rather than the SS, that was swift and ruthless. Id. While the motivation for stealing was clear, taking food from others who also were struggling to survive was viewed as an unconscionable crime.
87. Id. at 52-53.
88. Id. at 53.
89. Id.
90. Id. at 127.
91. Id. at 53.
92. Id.
93. Id. at 150.
94. Id. at 73-74. Individual Report #84 recounts: In summer 1943 there arose in Buchenwald, as elsewhere, a so-called special building, that is, a brothel. Through these means the SS attempted to corrupt the prisoners, to play them off against each other in that female prisoners were forced to surrender their bodies to prisoners in the name of camp order. Entirely aside from all questions of morality, a visit to the brothel signified an acceptance of this Nazi tactic - and was recognized as such by the prisoners. Id. at 235.
95. Id. at 74.
96. Id. at 131 -32.
97. Id. at 74.
98. Id. at 86.
99. Id. at 85. Prisoners found listening to foreign radio broadcasts were hung, as occurred in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Id.
100. Id. at 182.
101. Id. at 95. On the other hand, the food supply to the camp decreased as the war progressed. Fortunately the Red Cross began sending relief at about the same time, which improved the situation substantially. However, the SS administration confiscated major portions of each shipment, and Individual Report #140 estimates that 5,000 to 6,000 Red Cross Packages in total were appropriated. Id. at 314. The camp officers were seen clearing their rooms of empty Red Cross boxes as the front approached so that the American troops would not see this "evidence." Id. at 96.
102. Id. at 95. Such attempts were made throughout the camp, but particularly in the crematorium where many of the hooks used to hang dead bodies were removed. Id. at 4.
103. Id. at 125.
104. Id. at 296.
105. Id. at 99.
106. Id.
107. Id. at 213.
108. Id. at 100.
109. Id.
110. Id. at 102.
111. Id.
112. Id. at 103.
113. Id.
114. Id. at 104.