Transportation
was brutal and often unbearable, hundreds died during these journeys.
Many didn't
even have time to say goodbye before they were herded into trucks
or on trains and taken away.
On arrival at Rothau train station they were dragged out of the cattle
cars and whipped, kicked, and beaten with truncheons and rifle butts
by the laughing S.S. guards and by the Kapos, then force marched the
many miles up the mountain road, as dogs tore at their flesh to speed
them up. As they neared the camp they surely realised this was a death
camp.
They were constantly degradated as prisoners, this was to dehumanise
them by treating them as sub-humans, fit only to work and die. |
Where
were their loved ones, what had happened to them? |
The
majority of the deportees who were arriving from all over Europe to
this living hell, were processed, numbered and forced
to wear external signs of recognition, and given the infamous striped
prison garb, that was generally used in all of the camps. Each prisoner
had a different coloured triangle stitched to their uniform on the
left side of the chest denoting the category of their "crime".
Yellow
-
Jews |
Green
-
Criminals |
Purple
-
Jehovah's Witnesses |
Red
-
Political Deportees |
Pink
-
Homosexuals |
Black
-
Anti-socials |
|
" Nacht und Nebel"
prison uniforms. |
There
were many other coloured triangles worn as well. But there were those
whose uniform was designated with the initials N.N. It was
Hitler's notorious decree of 1941 against these "Enemies
of the Reich" that any methods of torture could be used
upon them. The German term for these prisoners was "Nacht
und Nebel" (night and fog) This was the category that belonged to the French Partisans, and other
Resistance Groups, and S.O.E. captives, their treatment was the most
severe, no mercy at all was to be shown in any way, to them. |
It
meant that there was no hope at all for these who had defiantly
opposed the Nazi regime, in their deliberate acts of sabotage and
violent opposition, their awaited fate would certainly be, a cruel
and sadistic death.
When the women from S.O.E. arrived in Struthof
in early July, their impression must have been absolute fear and
dread, knowing that as S.O.E. Agents they would be treated very differently from the
other camp inmates, they were to have no rights at all, or any legal
existence, they were not permitted to send or receive any packages or letters. Their
names were recorded in pencil in the camp register, so that it could
be erased at a moments notice, so that no memory of them was ever
to be found.
Their destiny was in the hands of the S.S. interrogators, who took
great delight in inflicting the most sadistic torture on these defenceless
S.O.E. Agents and Partisans. |
|
|
