Bidspirit auction | Unforgettable Truths - An Account

Unforgettable Truths - An Account of the Survival of Prisoner Oleg Stenbruckha, Who Endured Three Nazi Death Camps. [Belgium, 1945] - Onvergetelijke Waarheden (Unforgettable Truths), by Oleg Steenbrugge, a former political prisoner in the Nazi concentration and death camps of Gross-Rosen, Dora-Mittelbau, and Nordhausen (Oud politiek gevangene der Kampen: Gross-Rosen – Dora – Nordhausen). [Belgium, 1945] - First edition. Dutch. Extremely rare. ”Dear Readers! It is impossible to give you a complete picture of the way of life, the treatment, and the struggle that we, the political prisoners, endured for months and years in those terrifying death camps. I must therefore content myself with sharing with you only the most important aspects...” (From the introduction.)  A personal testimony of the horrors of the Nazi death camps through the eyes of a man who survived some of the most brutal camps of the Third Reich. Beginning in 1942, Oleg joined the A.S. Resistance movement in Belgium, concealing his activities even from his wife and children. In February 1943 he was arrested and taken to a Gestapo torture cell: ”They began interrogating me by pricking every part of my body with pins. Worse still, they burned me with lit cigarettes until I lost consciousness. I do not even know how long I remained there. When I finally came to, I was lying alone on the damp, filthy ground. Every part of my body was in unbearable pain... Long afterward they came to fetch me. Not a single word was spoken to me...”. He was held in complete solitary confinement for three months before being deported to Gross-Rosen, where he was assigned prisoner number 82,502.  He was placed in a barracks containing another 1,500 prisoners, although there was scarcely room for 500, ”packed together like sardines in a tin, ” as the regime of starvation and torture began. Within the first days at Gross-Rosen, several of his companions were murdered. He was assigned to forced labor, carrying 50-kilogram sacks of cement throughout the day: ”Other groups had to fetch large planks, carried by four men at a time, as well as building stones. Everything had to be collected from different places, often far from the destination. The quarry, for example, was four to five kilometers away, and that route had to be covered five times each day. That road, combined with the weight we had to carry, and then there were the unexpected horrors. The victims sometimes lay where they had fallen for as long as eight days. No one was allowed to move them from the road, and we were almost forced to step over the bodies of our dead brothers; more than anything else, this served as a form of torture! Then, finally, the corpse bearers would unexpectedly arrive to collect them and carry them away to their final resting place. The crematorium... the crematorium ovens. Those work crews had an enormous task. When there were too many dead, the bodies were piled together in full view of everyone, exposed beneath the open sky until they could be disposed of. When there were simply too many, I dare not estimate the number, they poured gasoline over them and set them alight. It was the quickest and easiest method. Piles of charred bones still remained.” After months of torture, in February 1945 he was forced onto a death march of approximately four thousand starving prisoners toward an unknown destination. Many were murdered along the way or died from starvation and abuse. ”Blows and kicks were constant. Many died on the road from exhaustion and the bitter cold, utterly spent, and were simply left to perish.” They finally reached Nordhausen, ”soaked, dripping with water, frozen, and in a horrifying physical condition. Those who stumbled had to support one another just to drag themselves forward. Everyone collapsed to their knees. Many fell unconscious.”  After a short period of further suffering at Nordhausen, Oleg was transferred with a small group of prisoners to Dora, where he was assigned to Block 25 together with disabled and sick youths who had been declared unfit for labor. At Dora his physical condition gradually improved, enabling him to survive until the camp was liberated by the Allied forces. During the Allied bombing raids, large sections of the camp came under bombardment, and he was forced to lie among the dead so that the flames would not accidentally consume him. After the liberation, he succeeded in finding his wife, who had also survived, and the two were finally reunited. In the introductory page (Voorlichting), the author addresses the readers directly, explaining that it is impossible to convey fully the way of life, the brutal treatment, and the daily struggle endured by political prisoners for months and years in those terrifying death camps. He emphasizes that this booklet should not be regarded as a work of fiction or a political tract, but rather as a record of true history and the authentic experiences of those who were there.