{"id":92726,"date":"2022-01-27T17:05:11","date_gmt":"2022-01-27T15:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=92726"},"modified":"2022-01-27T12:05:00","modified_gmt":"2022-01-27T10:05:00","slug":"04-05-71","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=92726","title":{"rendered":"The Death Marches: The Final Spasm of the Nazi Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>The Death Marches: The Final Spasm of the Nazi Genocide<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

MEL LAYTNER<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Walter Spitzer, \u2018Death March from the Auschwitz camp to the Buchenwald camp,\u2019 1945COURTESY GHETTO FIGHTERS\u2019 HOUSE MUSEUM, ISRAEL<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Stories from the survivors of the Nazis\u2019 evacuation of prisoners from Auschwitz<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 18, 1945\u2014just 10 days before the Red Army liberated Auschwitz\u2014the SS sent 56,000 prisoners on a series of death marches. The evacuations became part of a cascading mudslide of mayhem and murder that killed as many as 250,000 concentration camp inmates and POWS in the last four months of the war. Unlike the Nazi extermination program itself, this outcome was not planned or premeditated. Rather, it was largely the result of murderous inertia, bureaucratic bungling, and confusion. The Auschwitz prisoners followed a number of routes, all of them through one of Europe\u2019s severest winters ever recorded. This is the story of one march by one camp: Blechhammer, the largest exclusively Jewish slave labor camp in the Auschwitz system, and the second largest subcamp overall. All quotes are from published testimonials, memoirs, news reports, and personal interviews.<\/em><\/p>\n

This much the nearly 4,000\u00a0Haflinge<\/em>, \u201cdetainees,\u201d of Blechhammer knew: The Red Army\u2019s winter offensive was crushing the German defenders along the entire 558-mile front.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now rumors ricocheted like shrapnel throughout the camp \u2026 that the Germans were panicked and packing and would abandon the camp and its prisoners to the Russians \u2026 or, yes, the Germans were indeed packing, but the SS had wired the barracks with dynamite, intending to blow everyone up before they quit \u2026 or, no, trains were being readied to evacuate everyone to labor camps deeper into Germany.<\/span><\/p>\n

A withdrawal on foot was largely discounted because it was winter, snowing heavily with temperatures sinking to minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit. To walk any distance in this weather would be insane.\u00a0\u201cAfter all,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0this thinking went,\u00a0\u201cthey still need us.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Haftling<\/em>\u00a0179020 knew better. Sigmund Walder worked as an electrician alongside British POWs at the Blechhammer North refinery\u2019s central control station. They had warned him their officers were preparing for just such a forced march, distributing extra winter clothing and food rations, courtesy of the Canadian Red Cross.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sigmund told me he had \u201corganized\u201d several pairs of new combat boots from his POW contacts and had distributed some to friends.\u00a0Haftling<\/em>\u00a0178489, Walter Spitzer, told me he had been a recipient of Walder\u2019s largesse.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I saw people look straight into the eyes of their executioner as they waited for death.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What neither Walder or Spitzer knew was that the previous June, Heinrich Himmler had issued orders that in the event of a general retreat, all POWs and concentration camp prisoners were to be evacuated deeper into Germany. Indeed, between June and January the population of Auschwitz had been reduced by about half\u2014some 60,000\u00a0Haflinge.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Problem was, in the following months, little was done by way of the detailed logistical planning necessary to move hundreds of thousands of prisoners, from scores of camps, across hundreds of miles. When the Red Army\u2019s offensive hit on January 12, senior SS officials were left scrambling, improvising as events unraveled with startling speed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Himmler\u2019s orders had also said no POW or prisoner was to fall alive into the hands of the Red Army. Senior concentration camp commanders received conflicting answers when they asked what this vague statement meant. Interpretation was essentially left to the SS guards who would accompany the prisoners. They weren\u2019t called the Death\u2019s Head Division for nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the Russians took Warsaw on January 17, Berlin ordered the gas chambers at Auschwitz blown up and all records of its activities destroyed. That morning, the last roll call was recorded for Auschwitz and its subcamps: 66,020. This included 3,959\u00a0Haflinge<\/em>\u00a0in Blechhammer, about 35 miles northwest of the main Auschwitz camp.<\/span><\/p>\n

Four days later, some 2,500 inmates from the Gleiwitz subcamps arrived in Blechhammer overnight. Exhausted, hungry, and cold, they told of a three-day forced march through heavy snow and subfreezing temperatures. Anyone who couldn\u2019t keep up was shot.<\/span><\/p>\n

The camp\u2019s loudspeakers made it official later that morning. Blechhammer was being evacuated to a safer area, with better working conditions, in the west. Prisoners would receive double food rations for the trip. They could bring their food tins, spoons, blankets, and personal possessions. Only those too ill to walk could remain behind.<\/span><\/p>\n

No one believed this. It was a given the SS would shoot anyone left behind.<\/span><\/p>\n

The pandemonium that erupted indicates how surprised many were to learn they were being sent on a forced march. Prisoners broke into the food lockers and clothing warehouse, grabbing whatever food and warm clothing they could before the\u00a0kapos<\/em>\u00a0arrived with their clubs and whips to restore order. The Germans really were panic-packing and stayed outside the wire.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the food lines,\u00a0kapos\u00a0<\/em>distributed the promised double ration: about a pound of black camp bread, a double portion of artificial honey, a dab of margarine, and a slice of horsemeat sausage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once outside the 16-foot walls, the SS shunted the prisoners to side roads. The main ones were reserved for military traffic and hundreds of thousands of German civilians, many hauling carts laden with furniture and household possessions, all fleeing west, away from the approaching thunder of Russian artillery.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wind cut like razor wire. For some protection any prisoners wore \u201ccamp undershirts,\u201d fashioned from paper sacks used for cement under their striped uniforms. The sacks were constructed of several layers of brown industrial paper. The innermost layer, the one most impregnated with cement dust, was stripped out. Holes were cut for the arms and head.<\/span><\/p>\n

Relatively few\u00a0Haftlinge<\/em>\u00a0had scored proper footwear like Sigmund Walder and Walter Spitzer. Most wore standard concentration camp issue \u201cDutch\u201d clogs\u2014cloth uppers tacked to unyielding wood soles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Snow stuck to the soles of these wooden shoes. To move forward,\u00a0Haftlinge<\/em>\u00a0had to lift their legs high like quarter horses, stopping every few steps to knock off the accumulating snow.\u00a0But on whom could you lean on for support?<\/em>\u00a0Fabric uppers would tear from the tacks holding them to the wood soles. Prisoners then walked with only rags around their feet. Caking snow weighed down blankets the prisoners had wrapped around their heads and shoulders. Many discarded them, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The great terror was knowing that, despite your exhaustion, you had to stay on your feet and keep walking.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The flat, echoing crack of a gunshot ruptured the silence every few minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe great terror was knowing that, despite your exhaustion, you had to stay on your feet and keep walking,\u201d\u00a0Haftling\u00a0<\/em>A-5714, Robert Wiederman, recalled. \u201cIf you sat down to rest or were too weak to go on, you were shot. On the march, we heard constant rifle and pistol shots.\u201d (After the war, Wiederman would change his name to Clary and become the actor best known for his role as LeBeau in the TV sitcom\u00a0Hogan\u2019s Heroes<\/em>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Any pretensions of order soon dissolved. Those at the head of the column had to forge a path through the fresh snow. Those in the back risked being shot by the rear guard for falling behind. Those with the presence of mind tried to stay in middle.<\/span><\/p>\n

Occasionally, the\u00a0Haftlinge\u00a0<\/em>crossed paths with POWs outfitted in layers of woolen winter khakis, heavy coats, hats, and leather boots. Before starting out, they had each received a four-day ration of tinned meat, bread, margarine, sugar, and cigarettes. Nevertheless, the POWs did not escape unscathed. Between 2,200 and 3,500 American and British POWs were shot or died from exposure, disease, or starvation in the months of the death marches.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eddie Hyde-Clark, a POW from Suffolk, England, was just settling down to eat when he looked up and \u201ccoming towards us I see what can only be described as a shuffling collection of living skeletons. Never have I witnessed such utter despair on the faces of human beings with such hollow faces and protruding bones, all dressed in filthy uniforms that looked like gray-striped pajamas.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At night, the guards crammed prisoners into abandoned barns or warehouses. Food was haphazardly distributed, the rations from Blechhammer long gone.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the fourth day of the march,\u00a0Haftling<\/em>\u00a0178610, Abraham Schaufeld limped from the barn where he had spent the night jammed against hundreds of fellow prisoners.<\/span><\/p>\n

A German guard spotted him. \u201cDu kannst nicht aufen,<\/em>\u00a0you can\u2019t walk?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJa nat\u00fcrlich,<\/em>\u00a0Mir geht es gut.\u00a0<\/em>Yes, of course, I\u2019m fine.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The guard ordered him to one of three horse-drawn carts, the last filled with SS men and machine guns. At dusk, the carts pulled up to a fresh ditch dug against a low brick wall of a village cemetery.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey said, \u2018remove your clothing,\u2019\u201d Schaufeld recalled. \u201cPeople started shouting and screaming because they could see the ditch and people against the wall, people crying in all sorts of languages.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Amid the pushing, shouting, and tumult, \u201cI went over the wall, into the cemetery. I lay down near a gravestone, near the wall. By now it\u2019s dark. I could hear the shooting. The screams and the shooting, the full massacre. And then it was quiet.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Schaufeld lay as silent as the gravestones. \u201cI gave it some time. This was winter. Sodden fields. I walked through these fields. In this mud, in this field, I lost my wood shoes. I walked barefoot. No overcoat. Nothing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Schaufeld made for the vague lights of a village, fell into the hay of open barn, and passed out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Awakened suddenly by a barking dog and a lantern\u2019s dancing light, Schaufeld saw a German farmer standing over him with a pitchfork, and the farmer\u2019s wife shouting. The local village policeman soon arrived. \u201cI told them my father was an officer in the Polish army. They gave me something to eat, some coffee.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The policeman handcuffed Schaufeld and walked him back to the main column, \u201ctelling me that he was sorry, that the SS would probably shoot me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The SS guards, \u201cimmediately start smacking me around, kicking me. Luckily some women came around and said, \u2018Why are you hitting that boy\u2019 and they stopped. They said, \u2018take him to the barn, we will deal with him later.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s a terrifying spectacle to see the dead carried by the half dead.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Schaufeld avoided the SS by mingling with the hundreds of prisoners leaving the barn and rejoined the column.<\/span><\/p>\n

Days merged into a nightmare of hunger and exhaustion and gunshots. Unable to walk, more and more prisoners fell to the side of the road.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNot being able to go on, they resigned themselves to certain death,\u201d Walter Spitzer recalled. \u201cI saw people look straight into the eyes of their executioner as they waited for death.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Peter Black, a POW from Scotland, said, \u201cThe Jewish columns were ahead of us. Most were in a pitiful state and if they didn\u2019t keep up, they were shot and their bodies left by the road.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

POWs weren\u2019t the only witnesses to the carnage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rudolf Hoss, promoted from Auschwitz Kommandant to a headquarters job, was dispatched to the Eastern Front for a firsthand look after communications were cut off by the Soviet advance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThere was no food. In most cases, the [German officers] who were leading this parade of walking dead had no idea which direction they were supposed to go,\u201d Hoss recalled from his prison cell awaiting execution for crimes against humanity. \u201cIt was easy to follow the route of this ordeal of suffering because every few hundred meters lay bodies of prisoners who had collapsed or been shot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

By the time the columns reached the Gross-Rosen concentration camp 13 days and 180 miles later, about 800 of the roughly 6,000 Blechhammer and Gleiwitz\u00a0Haftlinge<\/em>\u00a0who began the death march on January 21 had been shot or otherwise died and left lying in the snow and mud.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ordeal was to become worse.<\/span><\/p>\n

Three months before the Soviet offensive, the\u00a0Kommandant<\/em>\u00a0of Gross-Rosen received instructions from Berlin advising that his camp would be the destination for thousands of prisoners should there be a general evacuation of camps from the east. Little, however, was done to prepare. When Soviets launched their attack, the camp was unprepared for the arrivals from Blechhammer and elsewhere. Gross-Rosen swelled to more than 97,000 prisoners.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many guards and\u00a0kapos<\/em>\u00a0were Ukrainian nationals working for the SS. \u201cThey were totally dehumanized, filled with hate and anger,\u201d recalled\u00a0Haftling<\/em>\u00a0178488, Edward Gastfriend. The\u00a0kapos<\/em>\u00a0\u201cbeat our heads with whips and sticks. There was no way to escape the gauntlet. We pushed forward and in our panic trampled over other unfortunates who did not have the strength to run.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Walter Spitzer remembered the corpses, stacks of them. \u201cThis incredible sight that has haunted me for many years since: a constant line of prisoners, pulling corpses, or skeletons more precisely, holding them by the tendons and the skin \u2026 The white of the bodies stand out against the gray and dark brown of the muddy earth. In the total silence, the only thing we can hear is the dull sound of the skulls and the open mouths scraping on the ground \u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a terrifying spectacle to see the dead carried by the half dead.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Robert Clary was also haunted by his memories. \u201cOh I have tasted hell on Earth and I know what it is,\u201d Clary recalled. \u201cThey did not know what to do with us. They shoved us into unfinished barracks, no windows, no doors, no bunks, no straw on the floor, just cold cement and it\u2019s freezing and muddy outside.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Roll calls were held in a newly plowed field on plateau above the main camp, exposed to the winter winds. Prisoners stood in slush for hours. Many sank into the mud and died there.<\/span><\/p>\n

After three days of this frozen hell, thousands of prisoners were loaded into open coal railcars and shipped 300 miles west to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Weimar.<\/span><\/p>\n

The words above the gate\u2014Jeden das Seine<\/em>, To Each His Own\u2014were prophetic. The loose brotherhood of Blechhammer prisoners disintegrated as each man had to make his own way in this new camp.<\/span><\/p>\n

Buchenwald was liberated on April 11, 1945, by Gen. George Patton\u2019s 3rd Army. By then, more than 5,000 prisoners had died, most of starvation, dysentery, though hundreds were also shot. For tens of thousands more in camps across the shrinking Reich, successive death marches continued for nearly a month more, until the Nazi regime itself was declared dead.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

This article was adapted from the author<\/em>\u2019s investigative memoir,\u00a0<\/em>What They Didn\u2019t Burn, which tracks down a Nazi paper trail that uncovers his father\u2019s Holocaust secrets.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Mel Laytner<\/strong><\/span><\/a>,<\/strong> a former foreign correspondent for NBC News and UPI, is the author of\u00a0What They Didn\u2019t Burn: How Hidden Nazi Documents Proved a Survivor\u2019s Holocaust Stories<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Death Marches: The Final Spasm of the Nazi Genocide MEL LAYTNER Walter Spitzer, \u2018Death March from the Auschwitz camp to the Buchenwald camp,\u2019 1945COURTESY GHETTO FIGHTERS\u2019 HOUSE MUSEUM, ISRAEL Stories from the survivors of the Nazis\u2019 evacuation of prisoners from Auschwitz . On Jan. 18, 1945\u2014just 10 days before the Red Army liberated Auschwitz\u2014the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92726"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92726"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92743,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92726\/revisions\/92743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}