“Two Years in Nazi concentration camps”

Leon Gottlieb was a friend of Heinz and Ida Dehn and a witness to the marriage of their mutual friend Franz Lebrecht. They probably met in Dachau concentration camp and met again in Australia. His account of his experiences in three concentration camps is reproduced here in full – probably for the first time in German. It is the undated manuscript of a programme on the Australian radio station ABC. It can be assumed that contact between internees and the media was prevented by the Australian military censors. The text shows that the programme was made shortly before the end of the war, i.e. after Leon Gottlieb’s service with the Australian army ended in November 1942.

Translation, research: Peter Dehn.

“Two Years in Nazi concentration camps”

by Leon Gottlieb

For days, reports in the daily press have been describing the strocities committed by the S.S. in Nazi concentration camps. Unforunately quite a number of people reading these reports dismiss much of them as „propaganda“. I am a German Anti-Nazi who spent two years in three of the notorious camps, Sachsenhausen[1] Leon Gottlieb was no. 139 in the KZ Sachsenhausen camp from Feb 19, 1937 to March 13, 1937. Mail from the Sachsenhausen Memorial Archives to Peter Dehn from Aug 11, 2023., Dachau[2] He was incarcerated in the Dachau concentration camp with no. 11855 from March 13, 1937 to Sep 22, 1938; cf. Arolsen Archives. and Buchenwald[3] The Nazis kept Leon Gottlieb from Sep 23, 1938 until his release in Feb 14, 1939 with no. 8157; cf. Arolsen Archives., and I can assure xou that every line you read is perfectly true; and further, a lot of the strocities which I saw with my own eyes are not printable and would not pass censorship. For us German Anti-Nazis these strocities are not new, we have been about them ever since March 1933, ans hundreds and thousands of us, the opponents of the Nazis went through these hell camps for years before the war.

Leon Gottlieb 1959. Source: Gottlieb-Drucker family.

Read Leon’s biography

When occupoying your mind with these problem, do not forget that the first victims of Hitler facism were the German people and specially the liberal, democratic an progressive elements amongst them. They have been in this war for 12 years already, hoping fort he final collapse of Nazism with just the same eagerness as any member of the United Nations.

I would like to recall a few incidents which I witnessed during my two years in concentration camps.

After my arrest in February 1937 I was brought fromm y home town of Hamburg to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp[4] Wikipedia about Sachsenhausen concentration camp, Sachsenhausen Memorial online, retrieved Sep 10, 2023. where I was in solitary confinement for three weeks. Day and night I could hear the groans of tortured men. For no reason at all we were brutally beaten. After three weeks which seemed to be month, I was transferred to Dachau concentration camp.[5] Wikipedia about Dachau concentration camp, Dachau memorial online, retrieved Sep 10, 2023. Three day before my arrival a young Jewish boy was hanged in the lavatory of his block by an S.S. man, just because he was Jewish and looked Jewish. Elderly men who were not able to do heavy manual work were the play things of the S.S.

I recall one incident where an man was tortured to death in 12 hours in a concrete mixer. He was placed in the container which carries the concrete tot he revolving drum on top. On reaching the top and just bevor tinning over the S.S. men operating the engine loosened the brake and the container with ist unfortunate human load came down with a crash. This was done for hours, the S.S. men changing every now and then, several standing round an watching the gruesome performance with great delight. Eventually the victim died of fractured scull.

Another unforgetable incident was the transfer of prisoners to a speical cell building within the camp where they were held in cells measuring about six feet by six feet[6] Corresponds to 1,83 to 1,83 meters. in complete darkness for anything up to 18 month. One of these men, a friend of mine, who was a mathematician, only saved himself from going man during the nine month of his confinement by solving mathematical problems, such as the solution of quadrativ and cubic equations, by heart.

One man in my block, Ernst Heilmann[7] Wikipedia about Ernst Heilmann (German). The leading social democratic politician was arrested shortly after the handover of power to the Nazis in June 1933 and was sent to nine concentration camps. He was murdered in Buchenwald concentration camp on April 3, 1940. Officially, the SS feigned "cardiac insufficiency due to heart failure (dropsy)" as the cause of death, retrieved Aug 25, 2023., the forme leader of the Social Democrats in the Prussian Parliament, was compelled, in the Esterwegen concentration camp[8] The Esterwegen concentration camp near Bremen had 15 sub-camps, including the Börgermoor camp, where the song "Pead Bog Soldiers" was written and sung first, retrieved Oct 15, 2023. where he was before his transfer to Dachau, to live in a dogs kennel for weeks. Chained to it he had to eat like a dog and behave like a dog in other respects.

Wholesale torture was practised on many occasions. For some trivial reasons our block was compelled fort wo weeks to stand to attention for hours after coming back in the evening from the outside working parties. It was a stormy winter season an snow was falling. S.S. men watched us all the time to see that every prisoner stood properly to attention with his fingers straight at the seam of his trousers. If anyone dared to move his fingers slightly he was kicked on the bare frozen hands with heavy hobnailed boots. We stood like frozen columns, the melting snow on our faces freezing again to ice.

In summer, prisoners hat to stand like that for hours without capks in the nlazing sun, many fainting and collapsing with sunstroke.

But apart from these straight out tortures the so-called „work“ was perpetual torture. Thos work consited of pick and shovel work on hard soil and pushing wheelbarrows at a terrific speed. Pushing tipping trollies at the double, carrying 100 lbs. Of cement bags at the double, working in canals waist deep in water on cold rainy autumn days.

Prisoners not working quickly enough were made to do so with fixed bayonets,. If that did not show results, their names were taken by the S.S. guard and they were reported tot he camp commandant who had several types of special punishment for these prisoners.

There were two main types of punishment. The first was public flogging, that is, 25 strokes with a specially prepared ox tail. The prisoner was trapped to a trestle and his head was pushed into woolen blankets to throttle his groans. The second punishment was hanging on a pole. Here the prisoner had his hands tied together behind his back and his arms were brought straight up. Then he was hung to a hock on the pole, so high that gis feet did not touch the ground. After hanging like that for one hour, the standard time normally, the arms came our of their joints and the sinews lost their elasticity. This ty of torture was speically dreaded because the prisoner hat to continue work afterwards with hands he was unable to use sometimes for days.

In Buchenwald concentration camp[9] Wikipedia about Buchenwald concentration camp, Gedenkstätte Buchenwald online und Liste bekannter Häftlinge, retrieved Sep 10, 2023., which is so much in the news lately, the flogging was tone every night during the roll call.

Here I witnessed the worst scenes I hav ever seen. When in November 1938 tens of thousands of Jews[10] Immediately after the pogrom night on November 9, 1938, 30,000 male Jews, so called Aktionsjuden, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aktionsjuden, (German) were deported to the Buchenwald, Dachau and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. They were forced to leave Germany immediately with their families. Among them was the Nussbaum family from Hanover. were rounded up all over the country, about 10,000 were brought to Buchenwald in 3 days. On arrival these men, aged from 13 to 80 years, had to run the gauntlet of S.S. men. From both sides they were kicked and clubbed with rifle butts. Many of the victims collapsed before reaching the camp.

Another gruesome spectacle was the execution of a communist named Forster[11] Whether Peter Forster, born in 1911 and a member of the SPD-affiliated youth organization SAJ since 1927, actually fought in the communist resistance is unclear according to biographies from SPD-affiliated sources. A detailed biography was published by the SPD Amberg, retrieved aug 20, 2023 who broke out and was recaptured in Czecho-Slovakia by the Nazis who had occupied this country at the time. We were placed on the parade ground, 20,000 of us. The commandant read the sentence and Forster was executed by hanging.

During the 1938-39 winter we hat an average of 25 dead per day, men frozen to death, starved to death and tortured to death. I was arrached to a special squad carrying that corpsesm or rather what was left of them.

The scenes I witnessed during those dasy are too gruesome to talk about.

From what I have briefly told you about the Nazi strocities which I experienced myself for two years, you can rest assured tha we Free Germans as well as the Allies will nor forget these strocities; but we also hope that the Allies will not forget the Germans fighting with the Allies, partivularly those on active servive with the British and the Red Army.

Footnotes