The Theory and Practice of Hell (50 page)

I do not know the total number of victims among the Luxemburg prisoners in the Hinzert camp. Frenchmen ad-

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mitted to this camp, by the way, had two large letters painted on their clothes—HN, the German initials for “Nation of Dogs.” For about half a year, until late in 1944, 167 English pilots were at Buchenwald. They had a well-disciplined military organization and maintained close liaison with leading non-Communist personalities among the prisoners. They observed an attitude of loyalty toward the German Communist leader ship and also had useful contact with the Russian prisoners of war. Like the Danes they were rather reserved, which may have been a matter not only of their national temperament but of their calling. During the later period at Buchenwald, many excellent plans of action were based on the assurance of their

aid.

The regional Gestapo office in Paris sent a number of Allied secret agents from the west to the concentration camps in 1944. Forty-three of them, English and French, arrived at Buchenwald on August 17 and were quartered in the ad mission barracks No. 43.

Their stories were full of the exciting incidents usually associated with secret services, and especially so at that par ticular time. They ranged from adventures with the French Maquis to open warfare against Gestapo agents. At Buchen wald these colorful careers moved toward their tragic climax.

On September 9, 1944, without any advance knowledge in

the camp, sixteen of them were called to the gatehouse and im mediately hanged in the crematory. An effort was made at once to save as many as possible from the ranks of those that remained. Together with my friend Heinz Baumeister of Dortmund, who worked with me in Ward 50, of the prisoner hospital, I offered to carry out the operation by way of Ward 46, though the Ward Foreman was my enemy. My chief asset was that I had SS Major Ding-Schuler under my thumb, a situation still to be related. Unfortunately only a very limited number of the doomed men could be included. There was a tragic scene, when Squadron Leader Dodkin (whose real name, Yeo-Thomas, was known to no one) had to make a selection from among his comrades and put them in a se quence of priority. Because of his own importance, his comrades insisted that he head the list. These Britons and Frenchmen exhibited sterling morale. Only three of them could be saved: in addition to Dodkin, the British Captain

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Peuleve and Lieutenant Stephane Hessel of General De Gaulle’s secret service.

Under dramatic circumstances we succeeded in wresting

authority for the rescue operation from Dr. Ding-Schuler. As a cover we staged a pretended typhus epidemic in Barracks No. 17, placing the three officers named in isolation, an ac tion that had to be kept not only from the camp but even from Ward 50. The three men were admitted to Ward 46, where Dietzsch, the Capo, was made privy to the plot by Baumeister, insofar as this was necessary. At this particular time, “ unfortunately,” there did not happen to be among the prisoners or the incoming shipments any fatal cases of typhus with whom the agents might have traded identities. We could not use the convicts who were experimental subjects in the typhus experiments—not only as a matter of principle but also because the men to be saved would only have been exposed to additional dangers as wearers of the green triangle. Fur thermore, only Stephane Hessel spoke German. This language difficulty limited our search to Frenchmen. Both Dodkin and Peuleve spoke fluent French.

But where were we suddenly to find Frenchmen dying of

typhus?

As early as October 5, another twenty-one members of the group, including Peuleve, were called out. Twenty of them were shot. Twice on that day the SS came to Ward 46 to pick up Peuleve, who had been reported to the Roll Call Officer as sick. The first time Dietzsch, warned by our excellently func tioning intelligence service, deliberately absented himself, and the SS men were afraid to enter the ward, because of the sup posed danger of infection. The second time Dietzsch refused to surrender Peuleve, citing his orders that no one could enter Ward 46—except with the permission of Dr. Ding-Schuler.

While Heinz Baumeister and I administered an injection of milk to Peuleve in order to have him run a high temperature, Dr. Ding-Schuler actually paid no less than three visits to the Commandant. The first time he insisted that it was impossible to execute a dying man running a fever of over 105° F. (SS Colonel Pister replied: “ Why not shoot him down with a revolver while he’s on the litter?” ) The next time Dr. Ding-Schuler tried to have the execution delegated to himself as chief of Ward 46—which Pister declined to do.

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Baumeister regarded any further attempt to use the SS major to outwit the Commandant as futile; but Dr. Ding-Schuler went to Pister a third time, to ask him to delegate the execution to Dr. Schiedlausky. It was an uncertain and haz ardous expedient, threatening the very lives of all concerned. Pister’s suspicions, however, were not aroused and he assented. Dr. Ding-Schuler was dispatched to see Dr. Schiedlausky. We knew that since his sojum in Buchenwald, Schiedlausky had discarded the habits he had acquired in other camps. He no longer liked to administer fatal injections in person. It was Dr. Ding-Schuler’s job to persuade him to delegate the execution to SS Master Sergeant Wilhelm. We knew enough about the sergeant to have confidence that we might use him as an unwitting tool.

It was late afternoon and night was beginning to fall. Dietzsch prepared a magnificent repast for Wilhelm, with plenty of
Schnaps.
Every phase of the operation had to be carefully timed, and no one except the five who were in on the plan could be permitted to have even an inkling of what was going on. When the master sergeant was deep in his cups, Dietzsch showed him a dying patient who happened to be in the ward and told him this was the man to be executed. Since the man was obviously on the verge of passing away, Dietzsch said, there was no use in wasting an injection on him. Wilhelm actually left and reported to the Camp Medical Officer that the execution had been carried out.

During this entire incident Captain Peuleve with his comrades sat concealed in an adjoining room of Ward 46, momentarily expecting execution.

To disarm any suspicion on the part of the Gestapo office that had issued the order for the execution, a separate report on Peuleve had to be prevented. Some keen-minded Security Service man might have come to know the practice of ex changing the living for the dead from other camps, even though it was rare enough. A report of a single execution in an isolation ward might arouse his suspicions. All that would be necessary to discover the evader would be to line up all the convalescents discharged from Ward 46 during the time in question. For a while I actually considered the possibility of a second change of identity. But by dispatching Dr. Ding-Schuler to the Commandant we succeeded in having all

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twenty-one executions reported to Berlin in a single teletype message.

During these very days a “ heaven-sent” shipment arrived at

Buchenwald. It included dozens of Frenchmen suffering from typhus. The first death among them occurred almost im mediately. The dead man’s age, appearance and background corresponded somewhat to those of Peuleve’s. The trans action was promptly carried out. Henceforth Peuleve’s name was Marcel Seigneur.

Another week had elapsed and we stood in daily fear that execution orders for the two other men who were to be saved might arrive. There were nerve-wracking days of waiting. Would any additional patients die, and when? All the while Baumeister and I had to maintain the sharpest vigilance, lest Ding-Schuler or Dietzsch accelerate any such deaths by means of poison. Finally we succeeded in effecting exchanges for Dodkin and Hessel.

How simple it all sounds today! We obtained the personnel records of the dead men from the Political Department, though only the Prisoner Foreman working there was sup posed to have access to them. We saw to it that “ regulation autopsies” were performed by Father Thyl on the supposedly dead men, even sent pathological typhus specimens from the bodies to the Institute of Hygiene of the
Waffen SS
in Berlin. For two full weeks a glass bottle labeled: “ Dodkin, No. 10844. Specimens from spleen, liver, heart, brain—typhus” stood on the table before me.

Then we proceeded to smuggle the three officers—who had become a carpenter, a policeman and a student, respec tively—into appropriate outside labor details, for they had of course become known in camp. Numberless dodges were adopted to mislead the personnel in the Orderly Room, the Labor Record Office, the Personal Property Room, to over come obstacles, to checkmate possible enemies. Our heads were always in several nooses at the same time.

The reader may get a picture of the atmosphere in which this operation was conducted from the letters that were smuggled back and forth between Buildings 46 and 50 during those critical October weeks, since open communication was out of the question. I have managed to save some of these notes, scribbled on slips of paper in English, French and German.