Today’s Stiff, Frozen Yet Truly Morbid Fact
By late March 1942, the Nazi concentration camp administration in Bergen-Belsen had registered almost 14,000 deaths; in Wietzendorf the number was 14,500, in Oerbke it was 12,500.
The dead were buried by other POWs, supervised by Wehrmacht soldiers, in long trench graves at the camp cemeteries, which had been especially set up. The guards documented these scenes with their cameras, too.
“27 January 1942:[…] In the afternoon, I went out to the cemetery with our burial detail. […] The cemetery in the middle of the Heath, off the road to Munster, already holds almost 13,000 bodies. Initially, when the dying started, they were still buried individually, and each of them got his own coffin, each grave bore a name. […] When the numbers of dead rose, the empty coffin was brought back from the cemetery. Then they were buried in mass graves, 100 bodies per grave, and a simple cross bearing the numbers was enough for the index. The prisoners on grave-digging detail are finding it difficult to dig up the frozen soil with their pick-axes and spades. When I was waiting next to the open grave, the last cartload for today arrived. The stiff, frozen bodies, emaciated skeletons, tumbled down into the grave.” – From notes taken by Wehrmacht officer Heinz Dietrich Meyer at Witzendorf POW camp
Bergen-Belsen
The bodies were lined up on the “bier square” near the POW hospital, where they were undressed before the prisoners on burial detail took them to the cemetery. (Photographer unknown)
Oerbke
Photographer unknown, from the collection of Wehrmacht soldier Josef Landgraf
Wietzendorf
Photographer unknown, from the collection of Wehrmacht officer Heinz Dietrich Meyer
Culled from: Bergen-Belsen
Arcane Excerpts: Pauline and the Matches
THE DREADFUL STORY OF PAULINE AND THE MATCHES
Mamma and Nurse went out one day
And left Pauline alone at play;
Around the room she gayly sprung,
Clapp’d her hands, and danced, and sung.
Now, on the table close at hand,
A box of matches chanc’d to stand,
And kind Mamma and Nurse had told her
That if she touch’d them they would scald her;
But Pauline said, “Oh, what a pity!
For, when they burn, it is so pretty;
They crackle so, and spit, and flame;
And Mamma often burns the same.
I’ll just light a match or two
As I have often seen my mother do.”
When Minz and Maunz, the pussy-cats, heard this
They held up their paws and began to hiss.
“Me-ow!” they said, “me-ow, me-o!
You’ll burn to death, if you do so,
You parents have forbidden you, you know.”
But Pauline would not take advice,
She lit a match, it was so nice!
It crackled so, it burn’d so clear,—
Exactly like the picture here.
She jump’d for joy and ran about,
And was too pleas’d to put it out.
When Minz and Maunz, the little cats, saw this,
They said, “Oh, naughty, naughty Miss!”
And stretch’d their claws,
And rais’d their paws;
“‘Tis very, very wrong, you know;
Me-ow, me-o, me-ow, me-o!
You will be burnt if you do so,
Your mother had forbidden you, you know.”
Now see! oh! see, what a dreadful thing
The fire has caught her apron-string;
Her apron burns, her arms, her hair;
She burns all over, everywhere.
Then how the pussy-cats did mew,
What else, poor pussies, could they do?
They scream’d for help, ’twas all in vain,
So then, they said, “We’ll scream again.
Make haste, make haste! me-ow! me-o!
She’ll burn to death,—we told her so.”
So she was burnt with all her clothes
And arms and hands, and eyes and nose;
Till she had nothing more to lose
Except her little scarlet shoes;
And nothing else but these was found
Among her ashes on the ground.
And when the good cats sat beside
The smoking ashes, how they cried!
“Me-ow, me-0! Me-ow, me-oo!
What will Mamma and Nursy do?”
Their tears ran down their cheeks so fast,
They made a little pond at last.
Andersonville Prisoner Diary Entry Du Jour!
This is the continuation of the 1864 diary of Andersonville prisoner Private George A. Hitchcock (see the archived version for all entries up until now).
Here’s today’s entry:
September 8th. Cloudy. Mosquitoes troublesome. Several detachments left during the night, and a large number to-day. Rations of raw meal and beans.
Culled from: Andersonville: Giving Up the Ghost