KZ
Object numberM1999/021
TitleKZ
DescriptionGravure printed magazine of Bergen-Belsen, Nordhausen and Ohrdruf camps. In German, about the liberation of various Nazi concentration camps. Front cover missing.
Excerpt from the preface: And yet in spite of its incompleteness does this collection of pictures already speak an only all too clear language. It shows how in the concentration camps countless men, women and children, German and non-German, were murdered according to plan and in cold blood. The murderers, camp guards of the SS and Gestapo, will be punished for their guilt. All Germans need to be told the complete truth. They have to become conscious of the weightiness of the crime which was committed in their midst, in their name, and with their agreement.
Excerpt from the preface: And yet in spite of its incompleteness does this collection of pictures already speak an only all too clear language. It shows how in the concentration camps countless men, women and children, German and non-German, were murdered according to plan and in cold blood. The murderers, camp guards of the SS and Gestapo, will be punished for their guilt. All Germans need to be told the complete truth. They have to become conscious of the weightiness of the crime which was committed in their midst, in their name, and with their agreement.
Subjectliberation, concentration camps
Object namepamphlets
Materialpaper
Dimensions
- width: 217.00 mm
height: 270.00 mm
Language
- German
Page 1:
The account is by far not a complete replica of the facts. During this time this was printed, the Allies came across new concentration camps practically daily and even in those which they already had liberated, was the stock-taking by far not concluded.
Dachau, Auschwitz and Oranienburg still were in the hands of their German camp guards. And yet in spite of its incompleteness does this collection of pictures already speak an only all too clear language. It shows how in the concentration camps countless men, women and children, German and non-German, were murdered according to plan and in cold blood. The murderers, camp guards of the SS and Gestapo, will be punished for their guilt. All Germans need to be told the complete truth. They have to become conscious of the weightiness of the crime which was committed in their midst, in their name, and with their agreement.
They will then grasp that the world shall not exonerate (forgive) the German people of their core responsibility.
Page 2:
From the Registers which were kept by the authorities of the camps it appears that 50,000 people died in that camp where they lived and slaved during the war. Many of them died on the gallows; some of them were shot. Lots of them died of Tuberculosis or heart conditions or diseases of the digestive tract. The majority were simply left to die of starvation.
They died in large numbers, day and night, and every 24 hours the corpses were collected (carted away) to be taken to the ovens for disposal, as long as there was enough coal to do the burning. In the last weeks the coal had run out and therefore the corpses in some places in the areas of the camps were heaped and stacked in large quantities. At the arrival and after arrival of the American troops still may hundreds of men and women died in Buchenwald.
After about a week they started to give health care to the people – quietness, medical treatments and provision of medicines which began to have an effect, and the number of the dying was reduced to about 35 a day. Yet for many of the ‘living dead’ there was no more hope.
Credit lineSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Mrs. Joly Offer