Dachau. France, 1945 - Rare First Edition. Harsh Photographs from the Camp

Dachau. France, 1945 - Rare First Edition. Harsh Photographs from the Camp

Dachau by Arthur Haulot and Ali Kuci Bruksless 1945, French. Published only two months after the liberation of the camp by the Allies. Published by Est-quest. The rare first edition of the book is before us, with sheets uncut by the press in part of it.

Early book covering the horrors that occurred in the Dachau concentration camp. The book was published in July 1945, about two months after the camp's liberation, and most of it has harsh photographs from the camp as it was discovered by the Allied soldiers on the day they arrived at the camp. There are pictures of prisoners' corpses, gas chambers [which were only partially used in this camp], muselmann prisoners in the camp yard, dead from electrification from the electric fence surrounding the camp, an interesting photograph showing Allied soldiers fighting at the camp gates, dead near the river that flowed near the camp, SS vehicles for transporting corpses, crematoria built outside the camp's fences, prisoners who had died of starvation, human skeletons in advanced decay and more. Before us is rare early documentation of the horrors that occurred in Dachau from a time very close to their occurrence. The binding has an impressive picture of a bleeding crucified prisoner on a swastika.

The Dachau concentration camp, which was located near Dachau, Germany, was set up in an abandoned gunpowder and ammunition factory used by the Nazis for the incarceration of Jews and Soviet POWs. The camp served as a forced labor camp for ammunition production. The Nazis established a "bunker" next to the camp's south gate, used for cruel interrogations, harsh punishment, torture, executions, whipping and hanging. Medical experiments were conducted at the camp, camouflaged as a medical clinic. The SS camp was outside the camp fences, as well as crematoria, where murders and executions were carried out, and a greenhouse and orchard area where prisoners were forced to work in harsh conditions which led to the death of most of them. Approximately 30,000 people were killed in Dachau. Ovens were used to cremate corpses in order to hide the number murdered.

On April 29, 1945 the camp was officially liberated by the American army. The liberators, the 45th division of the 7th US army, were exposed to the horrors of the camp upon its liberation. Even before they entered the camp, they found forty transport vehicles and train cars filled to the roof with corpses in advanced stages of decay, and the closer they got to the camp, the more they came upon the many dead left in the field. Under the influence of the harsh sights, the American soldiers killed German soldiers in the camp indiscriminately, in an event later called "The Revenge of the Dachau Liberation."

Later editions of the book are found in the National Library, the edition before us which is, as stated, the first, does not appear in the National Library.

170 [4] pages. 19 cm. Many leaves appear without the printer's cut, slight tears in the spine. Fine condition.