Bidspirit auction | Important Comprehensive Publication on the

Important Comprehensive Publication on the Atrocities of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Prague, 1959 – First Edition - Mauthausen: K historii odboje vězňů v koncentračním táboře Mauthausen – Mauthausen: On the History of the Prisoners’ Resistance in the Mauthausen Concentration Camp, by Václav Berdych, a former political prisoner in the camp. Published by Naše vojsko – SPB. Prague, 1959 – First Edition. Illustrated with numerous harrowing photographs. Czech. Rare. “Perhaps a thousand years from now, or even later, historians will discover with astonishment that in the middle of the twentieth century there existed in Europe murderous institutions that exterminated thousands of people, opponents of Hitler’s regime, on an industrial scale... Scholars will ask how it was possible that, in an enlightened century such as ours, something so barbaric, inhuman, and bestial could have existed...” (from the introduction). A comprehensive collection of testimonies concerning the atrocities of Mauthausen and the activities of the underground and internal prisoner resistance within the camp. The book contains extensive first-person documentation of the lives of Czech political prisoners; the prisoners’ clandestine organization – particularly the uprising of the prisoners in Block 20; and detailed accounts of solidarity among the various prisoner groups, the establishment and activities of an international prisoners’ organization, the lives of Jews in the camp, executions carried out there, the structure of the camp and its various sections, the SS apparatus and reign of terror, forced labor and the quarry, Gusen and the subcamps, the punishment cells and the “Bunker, ” the crematorium and gas chambers, and the construction by Mauthausen prisoners of the longest road tunnel in Europe, connecting Austria with Yugoslavia – including the suffering endured by the 5,000 prisoners subjected to forced labor on this project. The book also documents the lives of Soviet, Spanish, Yugoslav, and other national groups of prisoners in the camp, as well as the activities of SS personnel, including camp commandants Franz Ziereis and Georg Bachmayer. The author, Václav Berdych, himself a Czechoslovak political prisoner, documents in detail the resistance movement that operated within the camp – the organization of clandestine cells among prisoners from across Europe, mutual-aid activities, sabotage of the Nazi armaments industry, and the prisoners’ preparations for an armed uprising as the Allied forces approached. The book was written in the ideological climate of Communist-era Czechoslovakia, and considerable emphasis is placed on the role of Communist and Czech prisoners in leading the resistance movement within the camp. The second part of the book presents, one after another, prisoners’ testimonies describing the horrors they endured in the camp. These accounts are difficult to read, documenting the brutal torture to which prisoners were subjected on a daily basis. The testimonies are dated according to the day and year on which the horrific events occurred. One testimony, for example, appears under the heading “Baptism of Youth”: “I arrived at Mauthausen with a group of young men in February 1942. On our first working day in the Russenlager camp, 26 men were killed. Afterwards, we were all taken into the crematorium and forced to watch our comrades being burned under SS supervision. That was our baptism in the concentration camp.” Another testimony records: “Spring 1944: The Italians began building Gusen II. There were about 500 of them. Instead of working, they began singing the song ‘Avanti popolo.’ This caused a great commotion among the SS men. Several Italians were shot; the others were rounded up and distributed among various commandos.” Another testimony describes the solidarity among the prisoners: “Autumn 1941. After several days of quarantine, I learned what international solidarity meant. The Sudeten Communist Kuk and his comrades had been imprisoned since the autumn of 1938. They therefore already knew camp life. They obtained a warm cap and gloves for me. These small things reminded me that I was not alone, that there were comrades around me upon whom I could rely.” These are followed by numerous additional testimonies. A comprehensive introduction examining the background that led to the establishment of the Nazi concentration camps and the manner in which the camp system operated. The book includes 33 pages of harrowing photographs from the camp, documenting prisoners in horrifying physical condition, forced labor, the crematoria, the camp quarry, and the SS commanders of the camp, as well as illustrations, maps, facsimiles, and more. Rare. Only two records are listed in the WorldCat global library catalog, both in libraries in Germany. 247 pages + [33] pages of photographs. Hardcover with the original dust jacket. Complete. Wear and minor losses to the dust jacket. Good condition.