| Dear Mrs Fox,
My name is Vincent Chatel, and I'm living in Belgium. I'm a child of
survivor. With Chuck Ferree, WW2 veteran and Liberator, I'm co-author
of
the web site "The Forgotten
Camps". I thank you for including our site in
your Holocaust Links Page and I'll include your excellent web site
in our
recommended Holocaust resources.
I have visited your pages containing images of the liberation of
Buchenwald. Here are some informations about the photos and survivors.
In
fact, some photos were taken in Nordhausen Concentration Camps, a sub
camp of Buchenwald. This camp was liberated by the 104th US Infantry
Division on April 12th, 1945.
The images of Nordhausen liberation are:
- "Look"
- "Ill"
- "Inmates"
- "Sorrow"
- "Gone
- "Starved"
The camp of Nordhausen was a huge complex of installations and hangars
made of concrete. The ruins you can see in the background of these
images
are the remains of these hangars. On April 3th, 1945, Nordhausen was
bombed by the US Air Force. Since the camp was installed in concrete
buildings and hangars, the US Air Force thought that it was a munitions
depot of the German Army. This effective bombing killed a great many
of
helpless inmates because the SS forced them to stay in the hangars
which
were set ablaze by the bombs.
Some of the survivors on these pictures ("Ill", "Sorrow") were also
filmed in a US army documentary filmed during the liberation of
Nordhausen by US War Correspondents. I have a copy of this documentary
on
video tape. This film was shown as proof during the Nuremberg Trial,
as
well as other films filmed during the liberation of several other
concentration camps (Penig, Leipzig, Hadamar, Breendonck, Dachau,
Buchenwald, Mauthausen, ...).
There are also some photos of the liberation of Nordhausen in the web
site of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum web site:
http://www.ushmm.org/uia-bin/uia_form/photos
(enter 'Nordhausen' as
keyword)
Some survivors on these photos are identical as the ones on yours.
Sincerely,
Vincent Chatel - Belgium
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Here is another comment on the pictures (sent on January 3, 2006):
My suggestion is that you label the collection of photographs Buchenwald-Nordhausen
and Buchenwald. There is a single label now, indicating or implying
the photographs are all from Nordhausen, initially a subcamp of Buchenwald.
The first few pictures are indeed from Nordhausen, which I've seen also
at the National Archives. The subsequent pictures, however, are at
Buchenwald, the main camp. The photograph of the boys, Survived,
is from Buchenwald [Waltzer pointed out in an earlier e-mail by comparison
with another photograph that the name of the boy on the far right is Abram
Zylbersztaym]. So too are the photographs around and after it --
of bodies, of emaciated prisoners.
Best Wishes,
Ken Waltzer
Director, Jewish Studies
Michigan State U.
Please visit this Holocaust Informational Web Sites:
The Forgotten Camps - Les Camps Oublies
English Version: http://forgottencamps.by.net
French Version: http://campsoublies.by.net
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