On the morning of April 11, 1945, most of the Nazi SS left the Buchenwald camp. The underground took over the camp and managed to capture dozens of SS men. That same day, American soldiers from the Sixth Armoured Division, commanded by General George Patton, arrived at the camp.
The soldiers found about 21,000 prisoners in the camp and the members of the delegation immediately began documenting what they found. The report was delivered by members of the English delegation – Earl Stanhope and Lord Addison – and published in the same month (April).
The delegation described the various structures, the condition of the prisoners as they were found on the day of release, the piles of corpses, the terrible health conditions they saw and more. The delegation reported that a horrible smell pervaded the camp. They reported on the diseases afflicting the prisoners who were still alive – mainly tuberculosis and dysentery -, on prisoners found with severe bruising marks and on the thin cotton clothes in which the prisoners were dressed during days of extreme cold.
The delegation told about a 14-year-old boy named Avraham Kirchenblatt from Radom, Poland, who impressed the members of the delegation with his high intelligence. He said that his 18-year-old brother was shot to death in front of his eyes. His body had been taken away for cremation. He told them about prisoners hanged almost daily.
The members of the delegation also provided an extensive description of the crematoria and their operation. They reported on human skeletons found inside the crematoria and about the terrible process that preceded the bringing of the prisoners to the crematoria
The report, written in the first person, was completed by the members of the delegation in these words:
“In preparing this report, we have endeavoured to write with restraint and objectivity, and to avoid obtruding personal reactions or emotional comments. We would conclude, however, by stating that it is our considered and unanimous opinion, on the evidence available to us, that a policy of steady starvation and inhuman brutality was carried out at Buchenwald for a long period of time; and that such camps as this mark the lowest point of degradation to which humanity has yet descended. The memory of what we saw and heard at Buchenwald will haunt us ineffaceably for many years.”
This is one of a number of artefacts we have acquired to help bring to life the history of totalitarianism.
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