The Buchenwald Resistance was a resistance group of prisoners at Buchenwald concentration camp. It involved Communists, Social Democrats, and people affiliated with other political parties, unaffiliated people, Christians, and Jews. Because Buchenwald prisoners came from a number of countries, the Resistance was also international. Members tried to sabotage Nazi efforts where they could, worked to save the lives of child inmates, and in the last days of the camp, with many Nazis fleeing the approaching Allied troops, tried to gain control of the camp itself. After liberation, the prisoners documented their experiences on paper and formed an international committee to look after the welfare of survivors.
Forms of resistance
Certain administrative duties in the concentration camps were given by the SS to "prisoner functionaries". Originally, these tasks were assigned to criminal prisoners, but after 1939, political prisoners began to displace the criminal prisoners,Bill Niven, The Buchenwald child: truth, fiction, and propaganda Camden House (2007). . Retrieved April 15, 2010 though criminals were preferred by the SS. Political prisoners took over important positions as "prisoner functionaries" until liberation. The criminal functionaries were known for their brutality, which they used in order to impress the SS guards and improve their own lot. They were hated by other prisoners, who were eventually able to bring them down by uncovering evidence of theft from camp warehouses."Organized Resistance" Against the odds, official website. Documentary about prisoner resistance in Nazi concentration camps. Retrieved May 6, 2010
After the German–Soviet non-aggression treaty of August 1939, the ideological antagonism between the Nazis and the Communists was temporarily mollified. The SS knew that Communists were able to organize people and that they had an international network, which, from the point of view of the concentration camp direction, was useful because after the start of the war, Buchenwald had a multilingual prisoner population. When Germany later invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the Communist prisoners at first lost these positions, but later managed to win them back. To strengthen camp cohesion, the Communist kapos made sure that prisoner functionaries were from every country. They also worked with Social Democrats and middle class politicians to set up the People's Front policy of the Comintern.
The scope of the "red" (Communist) kapos was narrow. They were always under threat of being stripped of their responsibilities and of being killed. Nonetheless, as prisoner functionaries, they had a certain mobility and freedom of action, which they used, in whatever means possible, to preserve the lives of other prisoners. The main area of the red kapos' work was in the "office of the labor statistics", the camp infirmary and as camp guard surrogates.
In the office of labor statistics, the prisoner work details were planned and lists were made as to which prisoners were in which outside work detail. They could, for example, place specific Resistance fighters on work details to infiltrate the notorious Dora-Mittelbau camp. A prisoner could hardly survive longer than 6 weeks in the camp's tunnels. Nonetheless, prisoners like Albert Kuntz managed to build a resistance organization that committed sabotage of the V-2 rockets.
In the camp infirmary, kapos were able to briefly "hide" other prisoners from the SS. On occasion, they were able to send a prisoner there whose life was under immediate threat and have the records show the person as having died, then secretly give that prisoner the identity of another prisoner who had, in fact, recently died.
One kapo, Robert Siewert, himself a bricklayer, was able to convince the SS to allow Polish children to be trained as bricklayers, which the Nazis needed for their many construction projects, thus saving a number of boys from certain death.Gisela Karau, Der gute Stern des Janusz K. True story of a child inmate from Buchenwald, originally published in 1972. Pahl-Rugenstein Verlag, Bonn (2003)
International Buchenwald Committee The Committee began as an underground conspiracy of prisoners from the concentration camp, but still exists today."65 years since liberation of Buchenwald" (April 12, 2010). Retrieved April 17, 2010.
With the arrival of political prisoners from the various countries under Nazi occupation, the German political prisoners found contacts with members of the respective national organizations. The International Camp Committee (ICC) was organized under the leadership of the German Communist, Walter BartelLa Résistance Clandestine à Buchenwald Association Buchenwald Dora et Kommandos, official website. Retrieved February 11, 2011 and it became the conspiratorial center of political anti-Nazi resistance at the camp in July 1943, The founding and meeting place of the ICC was a screened room in the infirmary.
Under its leadership, an International Military Organization of Buchenwald was also formed.David Hackett, The Buchenwald Report (1995) Westview Press, Inc., pp. 3-5. At the end of the war, as American troops were closing in on the camp, most of the guards and higher Nazi officers of the camp fled. The prisoners were able to mount a camp-wide rebellion and liberate the camp just prior to the Americans' arrival.Wayne Drash, "Buchenwald liberator, American hero dies at 83" CNN (August 14, 2008). Retrieved March 20, 2011
Two American intelligence officers, Egon W. Fleck and First Lieutenant Edward A. Tenenbaum reported coming across a unit of thousands of armed prisoners, marching in formation outside the camp on April 11, 1945.
Members of the clandestine International Camp Committee, 1944–1945 Walter Bartel
Jan Haken Otto Horn
Marcel Paul
Rudi Supek Walter Vielhauer
Minors saved from extermination
The lives of hundreds of child and teenage Buchenwald prisoners were saved. The film The Boys of Buchenwald examines their efforts to re-join society after their experience as Nazi prisoners. The French film La Maison de Nina also examines the topic of children survivors. A few of those saved were:
Imre Kertész (Nobel Prize for Literature, 2002) Joseph SchleifsteinStewart Ain, "A Real-Life ‘Life Is Beautiful’" The Jewish Week (March 26, 1999). Retrieved March 19, 2011 Gert SchrammBiography and photos of Gert Schramm, the (teenaged) only black survivor of Buchenwald Retrieved April 13, 2010 Elie Wiesel, (Nobel Peace Prize, 1986) Stefan Jerzy Zweig"Naked Among Wolves" Movie plot summary and commentary. Retrieved April 13, 2010Volker Müller, www.berlinonline.de "Das willkommene Heldenlied" Berliner Zeitung (April 28, 2000) Retrieved April 5, 2010
The Buchenwald Resistance is referred to in the last chapter of Elie Wiesel's memoir, Night, with specific description of the moment in which Wiesel is saved:The resistance movement decided at that point to act. Armed men appeared from everywhere. Bursts of gunshots. Grenades exploding. We, the children, remained flat on the floor of the block. The battle did not last long. Around noon, everything was calm again. The SS had fled and the resistance had taken charge of the camp. (115, emphasis added)
Buchenwald Popular Front Committee Anti-fascists in Buchenwald built a united front composed of members from different parties. In 1944, they succeeded in building a German "Popular Front Committee". This was a clandestine organization within the camp. The main members were Hermann Brill of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) as chairman, Dr. Werner Hilpert from the Zentrumspartei, later the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), from the SPD and Walter Wolf of the Communist Party (KPD).
Documents After the liberation of Buchenwald concentration camp on April 11, 1945, there were several prisoners' groups that made resolutions and declarations.
A declaration of the Popular Front Committee of Social Democrats, Communists and Christians The Buchenwald Manifesto of German-speaking Social Democrats and Socialists A resolution of the Buchenwald Communist Party Draft of a school policy manifesto by the Education Commission Numerous declarations and manifestos in various languages by former prisoners Oath of Buchenwald from the International Camp Committee of Buchenwald, in many languages.
Declaration of the Popular Front Committee
On April 19, 1945, at the memorial rally of the international camp committee in honor of Buchenwald's dead, the People's Front Committee presented its resolution before 21,000 survivors.
"The next tasks of the Popular Front"
"The democratic forces around the world stand at the victory over Nazism. The German anti-nazis may be proud to have contributed their part to this victory, in spite of many victims and much suffering. The awful adversary lying on the ground is nonetheless not yet shattered. The hour of history demands much more the mobilization of all anti-fascist forces in order to put down forever the blood-spattered enemy of all cultures and be able to avert any repetition of its criminal dictatorship. Therefore, at present, we call for the following:
Immediate formation of anti-fascist Citizens' Committees in city and nation. Takeover of the government through the Citizens' Committees in consultation with the occupation authorities. Purging of the police from Nazi elements, establishment of a defense force from the militia to ward against saboteurs, Werwolves and the like. Cessation of all work for Hitler, prevention of any further destruction of Germany, prevention of all work, transport, communication and any fight for the remnants of the Third Reich through the Citizens' Committees and their institutions. Arrest and surveillance of all Nazi elements, their transfer to people's court. Confiscation of Nazi assets and businesses. Creation of a new democratic order against the Nazis. Organization of a National Committee of Anti-Nazis, formation of a republican government. Return to work, under humane conditions, in city and nation; and exclusively for the sustenance of the German people. Speedy re-entry of Germany into the world economy, prompt adoption of a close economic relationship with the Soviet Union as a natural economic partner on the European continent. Formation of anti-fascist trade unions. Publication of new newspapers, magazines, utilization of the news services of radio and all institutions to inform the German people about the crimes of Nazism, about Germany's true situation, and to forge a democratic public opinion.
Long live freedom! Long live the German People's Republic!"
Buchenwald Oath
Contents The core of the Buchenwald Oath is: "We will take up the fight until the last culprit stands before the judges of the people. Our watchword is the destruction of Nazism from its roots. Our goal is to build a new world of peace and freedom. This is our responsibility to our murdered friends and their relatives."
After the Buchenwald Oath was read aloud, the prisoners raised their hands and said, "We swear".Buchenwald Oath Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime official website. (Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes - Bund der Antifaschistinnen und Antifaschisten).
Reception The Buchenwald Oath was, for the Communist Resistance fighters, an important symbol in the fight against fascism.Der „Schwur von Buchenwald“ . Document of the Month April 2005: "The Buchenwald Oath," Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv (DRA) Retrieved April 14, 2010 The role of Communist functionary prisoners is the subject of controversial debate, also because they were exploited by the German Democratic Republic (GDR).