Buchenwald - Early Publication with Photos about the Atrocities of the Buchenwald Death Camp. First Edition

Buchenwald - Early Publication with Photos about the Atrocities of the Buchenwald Death Camp. First Edition

"Buchenwald les Horreurs des Camps de Torture Nazis." France, May 1945. Special edition. First rare edition published about a month after the camp was liberated.

Early publication published only about a month after the liberation of the camp by the United States army. This was the first documentation regarding the extent of the horrors in the camp published for the general public, which had previously refused to believe the magnitude of the atrocities. The booklet includes horrific photos from the day of liberation, depicting some of the 21,000 half-dead inmates found by American soldiers of the 6th Armored Division, commanded by George Patton. 

The booklet features horrific pictures of "muselmann" in a state somewhere between life and death, torture equipment, crematoria, mass graves, American forces providing initial aid and feeding the prisoners, and more.

Buchenwald was the third largest concentration camp built on Nazi Germany territory, 138 sub-camps were affiliated with it. The camp operated from its establishment in July, 1937 until it was liberated by the American army on the 11th of April, 1945. During the interim years, about 250,000 people passed through it. An estimated 65,000 people were murdered in Buchenwald, including prisoners killed during the death march perpetrated by the Nazis when they heard that the allied forces were drawing near, right before the camp was liberated. This number does not includes prisoners that were sent from Buchenwald to death camps and to Aktion T4 (euthanasia program) at the Sonnentein fortress and other locations. 

Though there were non-Jews in Buchenwald, the Germans treated the Jews most harshly. They were housed under extremely difficult conditions and suffered abuse, hunger and medical experiments. According to the camp's notes, about a quarter of the inmates died in 1941, and in 1942 more than 38% of the Jewish inmates died.

A few days after the camp's liberation, on the 15th of April, Edward Murrow broadcast from Buchenwald and described the horrors that he saw before him. He ended his broadcast with the now-famous words: "I pray you to believe what I have said about Buchenwald. I have reported what I saw and heard, but only part of it. For most of it I have no words ... If I've offended you by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, I'm not in the least sorry."

Rare publication, not in the National Library.

16 pages. Very fine condition.