Ohrdruf Concentration CampA few miles south of Gotha, Germany is the small town of Ohrdruf. During World War II, Ohrdruf Concentration Camp was a sub-camp of Buchenwald. It was intended to be a forced labor camp, not an extermination center, for those deemed "undesirable." Nevertheless, it was the site of countless acts of
barbarous cruelty inflicted upon innocent civilians by members of the "master race." The site of the concentration camp and its graveyard are not marked, but the memory of Ohrdruf lived on for years in the minds of its former prisoners and liberators. Now, through the documentation and photographs provided by that generation, the memory of Ohrdruf can be preserved for many generations to come. |
"There were Bodies Everywhere": Jack Holmes' Memory of Ohrdruf
"We had traveled all night, at least it seemed that way. The next morning, on April 4th, we saw a group of buildings in the distance. As we got closer to the buildings, we passed by an empty field that had what looked like short pieces of wood sticking out of the ground. The convoy was halted, and we got out to get a closer look at the field. The things sticking out of the ground weren't pieces of wood. They were burned human arms and legs or what was left of them. The smell of burned and decaying flesh was overwhelming. Colonel Sears got a group of men together to start digging. There were thousands of bodies buried in that field, all in a shallow mass grave, and all of them that still had flesh looked like they had been starved to death.
We got back on the road and headed for the group of buildings. Strangely enough, the stench of burned and decaying flesh didn't go away as we got closer. The buildings were surrounded by high wooden posts strung together by barbed wire. There were several guard towers in the compound, so we were pretty sure that we had found a prisoner of war camp. It seemed deserted, so we opened the gate and walked in. In the center of the compound were about 40 dead bodies, and they hadn't been dead for long, maybe a couple of days, and all of them were skeleton-thin. Many of the bodies had their pants pulled down. I looked around. Some of the men were crying. Others were wandering around like lost children. I could feel anger, no, it was rage, building inside me. There was complete silence for a long time. It seemed that there were bodies everywhere. I was standing next to Ben. He had also been staring at the starved bodies, but suddenly he looked at his palms. They were dripping with blood because he had shoved his fingernails so hard in them that they bled.
Colonel Abrams ordered some men to search the camp for survivors. He told us we had found a concentration camp. We had heard rumors about those camps - how the Nazis rounded up Jews, Gypsies, Slovaks, homosexuals, handicapped people, and others that they wanted to get rid of, and put them in labor camps. None of us, including Colonel Sears or Colonel Abrams, had any idea that these labor camps were actually death camps. No one imagined human beings could be so cruel to other people. Colonel Sears then ordered us not to disturb anything that we found because he was going to call General Patton and tell him about the camp.
After a quick survey of the camp, it appeared to be composed of a main office, several buildings that were German officers' quarters and one large barracks for the German guards, many prisoners' barracks that were not completely shielded from the weather, two large sheds, and a gallows. Inside the sheds were more dead bodies, stacked like cordwood. Scattered around the periphery of the enclosure were ten or more cremation pits, dug in the ground, filled with railroad ties and bodies. Eight of the pits were used - charred human remains could be seen, especially the skulls.
Five survivors were found hiding under the barracks, and some men from the 89th [Infantry Division] had rounded up a few more outside the camp along with four German guards. Over the next few days, the prisoners, with the aid of some men who could translate German, told us about Ohrdruf Concentration Camp. It was supposed to be a forced labor camp, but many prisoners died of disease, overwork, but mainly of starvation. The gallows had been used pretty regularly to serve as a reminder to the remaining prisoners to obey their German masters. The purpose of the sheds was to hold bodies, and when they reached their capacity, about 200 bodies, a cremation pit was used to burn the bodies, and eventually the remains were buried in that field we had passed before we got to the camp. The Germans had learned that the Americans were close to Ohrdruf on April 2nd, so they ordered a forced march of all the prisoners to the parent camp, Buchenwald, about 40 miles away. Any prisoner who was took sick to march was shot on the spot - those were the bodies we saw upon first entering the camp. The camp had been in existence only since November, for just 5 months before we arrived, but over 3,000 prisoners had died or had been executed there.
We gave the prisoners our rations. They couldn't believe that we had chocolate. One skeletal man ate so much so quickly that he threw up, but that didn't stop him. He just started eating again. They were so grateful. They kept thanking us for saving them. Somehow, their gratitude was more that I could bear, so I had to go away and cry for a while. Then they told us what they knew about their families. Most of the prisoners at Ohrdruf were men since it was a labor camp. They had been separated from their wives and children or their parents at Buchenwald. They knew that all of the children had been killed and so had the older people. They cried as they talked about their families, and we put our arms around them and tried to comfort them.
General Patton, along with General Eisenhower and General Bradley, got to the camp on April 12th. I watched General Eisenhower closely. As he was looking at all the bodies, he had tears in his eyes, and I could tell he was getting angry. He walked through the entire camp and the burial field outside the camp. General Patton couldn't force himself to look inside the sheds with the bodies in them. After a while, he stood by himself looking somewhere in the distance.
After the generals left, Colonel Sears rounded up some men, and they drove two miles to the town of Ohrdruf. They brought the mayor of Ohrdruf and his wife back with them and forced them to tour the entire camp. The next day, Colonel Sears and some men went back to the town of Ohrdruf and forced all adult citizens of the town to walk completely through the camp. After their tour, he stood in the middle of a large pile of bodies and addressed the crowd of Germans, using an interpreter, and told them, "This is what your master race has done. May God show you the mercy you don't deserve." On the 14th, he repeated the same scene with the citizens of Gotha, a larger town about 4 miles away.
As American soldiers prepared the bodies of the former prisoners for a proper burial, Colonel Sears forced able-bodied men from Gotha to dig their graves. Then the chaplains led a funeral service for the vicitms. I was surprised to see many of the townspeople from Ohrdruf and Gotha at the funeral. Maybe they felt guilty. Maybe some of them really didn't know what was happening inside the death camp.
We left the camp the day after the mass funeral. Nobody talked about it. We couldn't. A night never went by after that without hearing some soldier screaming or crying in his sleep. After the Division got back home in 1946, I got a letter from the Army asking for copies of all the pictures I had taken of Ohrdruf. I sent them all of my negatives so they could make as many copies as they wanted to. Maybe someone could let the world know what we had seen.
It's been almost fifty years, but a day never goes by without me thinking about those prisoners and what they endured. For years, I couldn't sleep through the night. I've seen a lot of horrors in my life, but nothing can come close to what we saw in that camp. What makes it worse is that, no matter what nightmares I have about that camp, it has got to be much worse for the victims.
Don't let anyone forget what happened in those death camps. I hear a lot of young people say that it never happened or that it wasn't that bad. It did happen, and it was even worse than anyone can imagine. Never forget those innocent people and what the Nazis did to them."
We got back on the road and headed for the group of buildings. Strangely enough, the stench of burned and decaying flesh didn't go away as we got closer. The buildings were surrounded by high wooden posts strung together by barbed wire. There were several guard towers in the compound, so we were pretty sure that we had found a prisoner of war camp. It seemed deserted, so we opened the gate and walked in. In the center of the compound were about 40 dead bodies, and they hadn't been dead for long, maybe a couple of days, and all of them were skeleton-thin. Many of the bodies had their pants pulled down. I looked around. Some of the men were crying. Others were wandering around like lost children. I could feel anger, no, it was rage, building inside me. There was complete silence for a long time. It seemed that there were bodies everywhere. I was standing next to Ben. He had also been staring at the starved bodies, but suddenly he looked at his palms. They were dripping with blood because he had shoved his fingernails so hard in them that they bled.
Colonel Abrams ordered some men to search the camp for survivors. He told us we had found a concentration camp. We had heard rumors about those camps - how the Nazis rounded up Jews, Gypsies, Slovaks, homosexuals, handicapped people, and others that they wanted to get rid of, and put them in labor camps. None of us, including Colonel Sears or Colonel Abrams, had any idea that these labor camps were actually death camps. No one imagined human beings could be so cruel to other people. Colonel Sears then ordered us not to disturb anything that we found because he was going to call General Patton and tell him about the camp.
After a quick survey of the camp, it appeared to be composed of a main office, several buildings that were German officers' quarters and one large barracks for the German guards, many prisoners' barracks that were not completely shielded from the weather, two large sheds, and a gallows. Inside the sheds were more dead bodies, stacked like cordwood. Scattered around the periphery of the enclosure were ten or more cremation pits, dug in the ground, filled with railroad ties and bodies. Eight of the pits were used - charred human remains could be seen, especially the skulls.
Five survivors were found hiding under the barracks, and some men from the 89th [Infantry Division] had rounded up a few more outside the camp along with four German guards. Over the next few days, the prisoners, with the aid of some men who could translate German, told us about Ohrdruf Concentration Camp. It was supposed to be a forced labor camp, but many prisoners died of disease, overwork, but mainly of starvation. The gallows had been used pretty regularly to serve as a reminder to the remaining prisoners to obey their German masters. The purpose of the sheds was to hold bodies, and when they reached their capacity, about 200 bodies, a cremation pit was used to burn the bodies, and eventually the remains were buried in that field we had passed before we got to the camp. The Germans had learned that the Americans were close to Ohrdruf on April 2nd, so they ordered a forced march of all the prisoners to the parent camp, Buchenwald, about 40 miles away. Any prisoner who was took sick to march was shot on the spot - those were the bodies we saw upon first entering the camp. The camp had been in existence only since November, for just 5 months before we arrived, but over 3,000 prisoners had died or had been executed there.
We gave the prisoners our rations. They couldn't believe that we had chocolate. One skeletal man ate so much so quickly that he threw up, but that didn't stop him. He just started eating again. They were so grateful. They kept thanking us for saving them. Somehow, their gratitude was more that I could bear, so I had to go away and cry for a while. Then they told us what they knew about their families. Most of the prisoners at Ohrdruf were men since it was a labor camp. They had been separated from their wives and children or their parents at Buchenwald. They knew that all of the children had been killed and so had the older people. They cried as they talked about their families, and we put our arms around them and tried to comfort them.
General Patton, along with General Eisenhower and General Bradley, got to the camp on April 12th. I watched General Eisenhower closely. As he was looking at all the bodies, he had tears in his eyes, and I could tell he was getting angry. He walked through the entire camp and the burial field outside the camp. General Patton couldn't force himself to look inside the sheds with the bodies in them. After a while, he stood by himself looking somewhere in the distance.
After the generals left, Colonel Sears rounded up some men, and they drove two miles to the town of Ohrdruf. They brought the mayor of Ohrdruf and his wife back with them and forced them to tour the entire camp. The next day, Colonel Sears and some men went back to the town of Ohrdruf and forced all adult citizens of the town to walk completely through the camp. After their tour, he stood in the middle of a large pile of bodies and addressed the crowd of Germans, using an interpreter, and told them, "This is what your master race has done. May God show you the mercy you don't deserve." On the 14th, he repeated the same scene with the citizens of Gotha, a larger town about 4 miles away.
As American soldiers prepared the bodies of the former prisoners for a proper burial, Colonel Sears forced able-bodied men from Gotha to dig their graves. Then the chaplains led a funeral service for the vicitms. I was surprised to see many of the townspeople from Ohrdruf and Gotha at the funeral. Maybe they felt guilty. Maybe some of them really didn't know what was happening inside the death camp.
We left the camp the day after the mass funeral. Nobody talked about it. We couldn't. A night never went by after that without hearing some soldier screaming or crying in his sleep. After the Division got back home in 1946, I got a letter from the Army asking for copies of all the pictures I had taken of Ohrdruf. I sent them all of my negatives so they could make as many copies as they wanted to. Maybe someone could let the world know what we had seen.
It's been almost fifty years, but a day never goes by without me thinking about those prisoners and what they endured. For years, I couldn't sleep through the night. I've seen a lot of horrors in my life, but nothing can come close to what we saw in that camp. What makes it worse is that, no matter what nightmares I have about that camp, it has got to be much worse for the victims.
Don't let anyone forget what happened in those death camps. I hear a lot of young people say that it never happened or that it wasn't that bad. It did happen, and it was even worse than anyone can imagine. Never forget those innocent people and what the Nazis did to them."