THE SONNENBURG TORTURE CAMP. BY AN ESCAPED PRISONER
New York: Workers International Relief & League for Industrial Democracy, June, 1934. Illustrated by Illustrated Cover. Item #42380
1st edition. Original illustrated paper wrappers, 12mo, 38 pages. Very early account of a Nazi concentration camp, published in 1934 by Workers International Relief and the League for Industrial Democracy. The inside & rear covers include appeals for the release of Ernst Thaelmann, the German Communist leader. In this pamphlet, an anonymous 7-month prisioner recounts tales of torture and horrible conditions and reports the attempted suicides of 3 Jews following torture. The booklet also lists other known concentration camps. "Sonnenburg concentration camp (German: Konzentrationslager Sonnenburg) was opened on 3 April 1933 in Sonnenburg (now Slonsk in Poland) near Küstrin (Kostrzyn nad Odra) in a former Neumark prison, on the initiative of the Free State of Prussia Ministry of the Interior and Justice. Although the state of hygiene in the building, which had been closed in 1930 was appalling, officials of the Prussian justice ministry recommended it as a suitable site. They estimated the capacity of the building at 941 so-called protective custody prisoners (Schutzhäftlinge), who could be accommodated either in single cells or in communal cells holding up to 20, 30 and 60 people each. The first 200 prisoners along with 60 SA auxiliary police came on 3 April 1933 from the Berlin Police Presidium. Later, on the order of the head of the Prussian Gestapo, prisoners were deported from the penal institution of Gollnow in Pomerania to Sonnenburg, bringing the number of inmates to 1,000. Sonnenburg concentration camp was officially closed on 23 April 1934, although in practice it remained open. Since the beginning of the Second World War in 1939 the concentration camp or punishment camp (Straflager) continued as a concentration and labour camp for alleged anti-German people from the occupied territories until 1945. Amongst its inmates were the resistance fighters, Jean-Baptiste Lebas and Bjørn Egge. The French spy, René Lefebvre, father of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, succumbed in 1944 to the consequences of imprisonment there. On the night of 30th-31st January 1945 with the Red Army approaching, the Gestapo killed over 800 prisoners by lining them up against a wall and shooting them. Soviet soldiers entered the camp on 2nd February to find the bodies still lying in the courtyard" (Wikipedia). SUBJECT(S): Political prisoners -- Biography. National socialism. Prisonniers politiques -- Biographies. Nazisme. National Socialism. Personal Narrative History. Re´cits personnels. Allemagne -- Histoire -- 1933-1945. OCLC: 39468703. Light staining to rear cover, Very Good Condition (Holo2-160-26-AFLXX).
Price: $225.00