|
|
12 Dec.
45
accommodated in 10 different factories in
the Krupp works. The medical attention is given by a French military
doctor who takes great pains with his fellow countrymen. Sick people
from Krupp factories must be brought to sick call. This inspection is
held in the lavatory of a burned-out public house outside the camp.
The sleeping accommodation of the four French orderlies is in what was
the men's room. In the sick bay there is a double-tier wooden bed. In
general the treatment takes place in the open. In rainy weather it is
held in the above-mentioned small room. These are insufferable
conditions. There are no chairs, tables, cupboards, or water. The
keeping of a register of sick people is impossible. Bandages and
medical supplies are very scarce, although the badly wounded from the
factory are very often brought here for first aid and have to be
bandaged here before being transported to the hospital. There are many
loud and lively complaints about food which the guard personnel
confirms as being justified. Illness and loss of manpower must be
reckoned with under these conditions . . . .'
"In my report to my superiors at Krupps, dated 2 September 1944,
1 stated . . . .
"Camp Humboldtstrasse has been inhabited by Italian military
internees. After it had been destroyed by an air raid, the Italians
were removed and 600 Jewish females from Buchenwald concentration camp
were brought to work at the Krupp factories. Upon my first visit at
Camp Humboldtstrasse, I found these persons suffering from open
festering wounds and other ailments.
"I was the first doctor they had seen for at least a fortnight.
There was no doctor in attendance at the camp. There were no medical
supplies in the camp. They had no shoes and went about in their bare
feet. The sole clothing of each consisted of a sack with holes for
their arms and head. Their hair was shorn. The camp was surrounded by
barbed wire and closely guarded by SS guards.
"The amount of food in the camp was extremely meager and of very
poor quality. The houses in which they lived consisted of the ruins of
former barracks and they afforded no shelter against rain and other
weather conditions. I reported to my superiors that the guards lived
and slept outside their barracks as one could not enter them without
being attacked by 10, 20, and up to 50 fleas. One camp doctor employed
by me refused to enter the camp again after he had been bitten very
badly. I visited this camp with Mr. Gröne on two occasions and
both times we left the camp badly bitten. We had
445
|