Buchenwald

Grandfather's Letters:

Markowitz is actually a friend of his at the time of his stay in Rome. His father was at the camp with me at the same time, in Buchenwald[1], where he lost an eye.

Notes:

1. Dad told us that Grandfather had been put into a concentration camp (for three months, is my memory) before the war, but never learned much more. So, here at least, we learn that it was in Buchenwald. Doing some research, it appears that around 10,000 Jews were arrested after Kryistallnacht and taken to Buchenwald. From an article on Buchenwald on the Yad Vashem site:

Following Kristallnacht (November 9-- 10 [1938]) an additional 10,000 Jews were imprisoned.

The Jews were treated very cruelly; they were forced to work 14--15 hours a day, and lived under terrible conditions. At this stage, the Nazis’ goal was to pressure the Jews to leave Germany. At the end of 1938 they released 9,370 Jews from Buchenwald. This was due to pressure from the victim’s family in conjunction with Jewish and International organizations, which had arranged for them to leave the country. During the short time such prisoners were kept at Buchenwald, 600 victims perished.

There is a separate Wikipedia article on "Mass arrests after Kristallnacht", which says that "[s]oon in all districts as many healthy male Jews - "especially wealthy" and "not too old" - were to be arrested as could be accommodated in the existing detention room." It says that 9,845 "Aktionsjuden" were transported to Buchenwald. In addition, on the other end of incarceration, it states:

From the end of November 1938, 150 to 250 "Aktionsjuden" were released daily. On 1 January 1939, 1,605 Jews were still imprisoned in Buchenwald and 958 in Sachsenhausen.

The reports of the 'Aktionsjuden' show that they could not identify any system or criteria for the dismissals. On 28 November 1938, the release of young people under the age of sixteen was ordered, as was the release of front fighters. As of 12 December, the inmates over 50 years of age were to be released, and as of 21 December, Jewish teachers were to be given preferential dismissal.

Particularly evocative, with more details about treatment at Buchenwald, is a page from a BBC site with the photograph below (in which we should imagine Grandfather being one of them):

On the day after our arrival, or rather on the same morning, we were lined up outside […]. The bulk of one’s activity consisted of standing about. In between one’s hair was shorn and personal details were again taken down. Not until 6.30 in the evening did we actually get our first food, a soup with fish, very good in itself. Altogether the food we received was perfectly good. This meant that from 7.30 in the morning of 10 November until 6.30 the following evening I had not eaten or drunk anything. Thirst and the irregularity of food and of the timetable were what we suffered from most […]; sometimes the meals followed closely one after another and sometimes at great intervals. This was due, in my opinion, to the fact the [SS] organization simply could not keep pace with the sudden arrival of some 10,000 people. […]

The document at the top of this page is from the Arolsen Archives. It is a "Money administration cards of prisoners of CC Buchenwald, 1937 - 1945. The money administration cards contain the following information: name, first name, prisoner number, date of birth, date of deposit and disbursement, respectively, amount of deposit, disbursement and the money on account, signature of the prisoner." It shows Grandmother (Grete) depositing 30 marks on November 29, and another 20 marks on November 30.

There appears to be a chapter in a book "Juden in Breslau/Wrocław 1933–1949" by Katharina Friedla about the "November Pogroms" which I will try to capture in translation sometime.