Testimonials from Buchenwald Concentration Camp
»Maurice Halbwachs died at the end of February 1945 at Buchenwald after his deportation. He was arrested on 23 July 1944 on the grounds that he had provided protection and shelter for his son Pierre, a member of the resistance who had deserted from forced labour and himself been arrested just a few days earlier. [...] Halbwachs was initially interned in Fresnes and later deported to Germany. It does not appear that he endured the brutalities and mistreatment to which so many of his fellow prisoners were subjected. However, it is clear that the intended effects of a deliberately organised state of physiological distress did not allow him to maintain his strength at the same level as his hopes. He died with his son — whom he had reunited with in the camp — at his side during his final hours.« (From »Über Maurice Halbwachs« by Georges Canguilhem, translated into German by Ronald Voullié and edited by Henning Schmidgen, Berlin 2022, pp. 7–9.).
Below is a selection of documents vividly recounting Maurice Halbwachs' imprisonment at Buchenwald concentration camp, where he died a mere seven months after arriving.
Sketches from Buchenwald
In 1945, the French painter Boris Taslitzky published sketches from Buchenwald in his book »III Dessins fait à Buchenwald, 1944–1945«. Two of these drawings show Maurice Halbwachs just a few days before his death. Taslitzky himself was interned at Buchenwald from 6 August 1944, until the camp's liberation. He died in Paris on 9 December 2005 at the age of 94.
Official Documents from the Concentration Camp
From his personal file to letters from camp doctors and his death certificate: The official documents bear witness to Halbwachs' imprisonment and suffering at Buchenwald concentration camp.
Témoignages strasbourgeois
Berichte französischer Überlebender der Konzentrationslager Buchenwald und Mittelbau-Dora« (reports by French survivors of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora concentration camps)
In 1947, just two years after the war ended, in 1947, the Université de Strasbourg published a volume titled »Témoignages strasbourgeois«. The compilation was made up of accounts in which survivors described their deportation to German concentration camps and the French resistance against the National Socialists.
Selections from these reports have been translated and are now available for the first time in German. In »Témoignages strasbourgeois – Berichte französischer Überlebender der Konzentrationslager Buchenwald und Mittelbau-Dora« (reports by French survivors of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora concentration camps), editors Anett Dremel, Michael Löffelsender, and Jens-Christian Wagner relate the experiences and observations of courageous Université de Strasbourg members who survived deportation and forced labour in the concentration camps. Henning Schmidgen contextualises these reports in the history of European universities and academic history.
The volume was published by Wallstein Verlag Göttigen:
»Témoignages strasbourgeois.
Berichte französischer Überlebender der Konzentrationslager Buchenwald und Mittelbau-Dora« (reports by French survivors of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora concentration camps).
Edited by Anett Dremel, Michael Löffelsender, and Jens-Christian Wagner
Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2024
Reading on 24 October 2024
At 6 pm on 24 October 2024, the book was presented at a reading held in the lounge of the University Library. Prof. Dr. Jens-Christian Wagner, Director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorial Foundation and Professor of »Geschichte in Medien und Öffentlichkeit« at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, and Prof. Dr. Henning Schmidgen, Professor of »Medientheorie und Wissenschaftsgeschichte« at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar gave compelling accounts of the circumstances under which the reports were created after the liberation. Pauline Böhnisch read excerpts from the original texts.
Attendees were also presented with in-depth impressions of the historical significance and a categorisation of the reports and their origins. The Université de Strasbourg was a centre of resistance against the National Socialists and German occupiers Many of its university members, faculty, and students were deported to various concentration camps, including Buchenwald. The book reveals the inhumane conditions of camp imprisonment which caused Maurice Halbwachs's death.
Photos: Thomas Müller