Testimony of two prisoners who managed to escape from the Nazi death camps - The Netherlands [1944] First edition

Testimony of two prisoners who managed to escape from the Nazi death camps - The Netherlands [1944] First edition

Duitschlands folterkampen : Oranienbrug Sachenshausen Amersfort Duisburg Dusseldorf en eiland Alderney - German torture camps: Oranienburg - Sachsenhausen, Amersfoot, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, and the island of Alderney, by former prisoners Jan Woitas (the Pole) and G. Krijger (the Dutchman) - from their capture to their escape. The two managed to escape from the Nazi death camps and write down their amazing story towards the end of the war. The Netherlands [1944]. Dutch. 

The testimonies of two prisoners - one Polish and one Dutch - in the Gestapo prisons and Nazi death camps. In the first part of the book Jan Woitas writes his own story. He was arrested by the Nazis in Danzig in August 1939 on charges of spying for Poland. He was interrogated and tortured in the Gestapo prisons. He learned about Germany's invasion of Poland while he was imprisoned in Germany. He was taken to the Stutthof concentration camp, not far from Danzig, which was under construction at the time, and he and the other political prisoners were forced to work on building the camp with about 1000 other prisoners. They witnessed 5 to 10 deaths per day. After several months in Stutthof, he was transferred to Sachsenhausen in Cattle cars. When they arrived in Sachsenhausen, he and his fellow prisoners were attacked by biting dogs, and within minutes they realized that they had arrived at a much worse place than Stutthof. Their hair was shaved, they were given prisoner clothes, and assigned a prisoner number. Jan describes in detail the daily abuse in Stutthof, the severe hunger, the daily executions, and his own struggle for survival day by day. At one point, he describes how the Nazis hanged him on torture poles "wooden cross". It was a horrifying torture method in which the prisoner was hung with his arms tied behind his back for several hours. Several other prisoners were also hanged in the same way, but he was the only one who survived. After that torture, one of the prisoners took over his work of digging potatoes, which helped him to recover his broken body in the following days. He writes that if that hadn't happened, he wouldn't have survived the next days.

One time, a large group of about 800 Russian prisoners of war arrived at the camp. Jean describes how they were all killed within a few days while the crematoriums worked non-stop. Jean stayed at Sachsenhausen until October 1942, when he was transferred to the Alderney camp. He stayed there for 17 months. Out of about 1,000 prisoners who arrived with him, only 400 remained alive. On June 6, 1944, the Allies attacked the island, and the Nazis evacuated the prisoners by ship back to Germany through France. Five prisoners managed to escape on the way to Germany, but Jean was not among them. At one of the intermediate stations in a French town, Jean, with three of his friends, managed to escape. Two were shot during the escape attempt, but he managed to hide in a cowshed, and despite the Nazis' attempts to find him, they couldn't locate him. Two days later, he joined the Canadian forces, and thus survived the war.

In the second part of the book, Dr. G. Krijger testifies. Krijger was arrested by the Nazis after the occupation of Netherland in May 1940. He was taken to a local prison on charges of underground activity and possession of illegal materials, and was held there for about two years under relatively comfortable conditions. From there he was transferred to the Amersfoort camp with several dozen prisoners. In Amersfoort, he was forced to do grueling labor, and many of his fellow prisoners died. After three weeks, he himself was on the brink of death, but miraculously he received a letter from his wife, which gave him renewed strength to continue fighting for his life. After a few weeks, he was transported with several prisoners to Oranienburg as an intermediate stop on the way to the Sachsenhausen camp. In Oranienburg, he was assigned to a construction unit that left the camp every day and returned in the evening. At the same time, his body weakened greatly from the harsh work and various illnesses. From there he was transferred to Ohrdruf as an intermediate stop on the way to Germany. There, he worked in the infirmary, and every day, many prisoners died. Krijger knew that if he didn't escape while he was in Ohrdruf, by the time he reached Germany, it would be too late. In those months, the Nazis relaxed their tight control over the prisoners who were leaving the camp because of the approaching Allied forces, and they concentrated all their efforts on the front line. Krijger took advantage of this and planned his escape. He learned all the entrance and exit ways of the hospital where he worked nearby, as well as the inspection and guard positions of the Nazis. One day, a group of about 30 prisoners organized a joint escape. They left through the main gate of the hospital and started running, but were fired upon by the Nazis from their guard positions. Krieger took advantage of the fact that the attention of the Nazi guards was focused on the entrance and the administration of the camp, and escaped through a side gate that he knew well in advance. He hid in a pigsty nearby for a whole day until evening. (After some time, he learned that 70 SS soldiers were searching for him and another prisoner who had escaped on the same day. They found the other prisoner and killed him in front of all the prisoners in the camp's yard). In the evening, he left his hiding place and arrived at the house of a local farmer whom he asked for shelter. The man agreed to hide him, but not for a long time, out of fear of the Nazis. After a few days, Krieger had to leave the farmer's house, but he equipped him with a loaded gun in case he ever encountered the Nazis again. Krieger hid in a remote castle several kilometers away for several weeks, until he noticed the Polish and Canadian forces who picked him up and took care of him until his final release.

In epilogue, the two thank the Belgian citizens for the help and sympathy they showed towards them during the liberation days at the end of the war.

Rare. Only three copies in the World Cat World Library Catalog, does not appear in the National Library.

85 [1] p. 22 cm. Minor tears in the spine and at the edges of the front cover. Overall good condition.