American's Eye-Witness Account of Dachau Terror

Several pages of drawings
in "The Harrowing of Hell:
Dachau," the revealing book
by Dr. Marcus J. Smith, pub-
lished by University of New
Mexico Press, re-create the
shocks that humanity felt
when the Nazi terror was
exposed to the world.
The entire book is another
factual presentation of the
horrors that turned men in-
to beasts.
Dr. Smith was the medical
officer in charge of a dis-
placed persons camp when
it was liberated from the
Nazis after the war. He
headed the team that had
charge of relief activities and
together with his associates
in DP Team 115 of U.S. in-
fantrymen he conducted res-
cue and rehabilitation work.
"Harrowing of Hell" is ex-
actly what the title says, and
Dr. Smith's is a personal ac-
count of his experiences
which brought him close to
the suffering survivors and
to the details of the geno-
cidal crimes.
A number of his associates
were deeply involved in the
rehabilitation work, a n d
among the leaders in the
group was Lt. Charles Ro-

senbloom, the commanding
officer of DP Team 115.
It was on the day after
Dachau was liberated—April
30, 1945—that Dr. Smith's
team began its work, and
he and his men were in po-
sitions to see the evidence
of the horrors that were
perpetrated upon mankind.
Many nationality groups,
all faiths were among the
sufferers. Only 8 per cent of
the Jews survived, and the
evidence 'accumulated in the
Americans' experiences in
Dachau point to the bestiali-
ties and inhamanities of one
of the worst, if not the worst,
crimes in all history.
The Smith story is remini-
scent of the report that was
submitted soon after the war
by the late Malcolm Bingay,
who had gone to the camps
and had reported on his and
his associates' harrowing ex-
periences. Like Dr. Smith
and his team, the r eport
was of carloads of dead, of
mutilated a n d murdered.
The Nazis had no time to
remove the devastating evi-
dence, in their flight upon
the entrance of the Ameri-
can forces after the defeat
of Hitler's forces.

Dr. Smith's account is of
a harrowing experience be-
cause he dealt with broken
people, with nearly-destroyed
souls who needed to be
saved.
There is this brief account
of his experiences in rela-
tion to the master race and
the Jewish sufferers:

"Unfortunately, racism dies
hard — if at all. It is not con-
sumed in the flames generated
by its own senseless passion."

There were, indeed, many
in Poland who worked with
the Jews in the resistance.
But there were instances of
collaboration with Nazis
which have disgraced the
labors of the libertarians.
Dr. Smith has added a
valuable chapter to the ex-
pose of the Nazi terror. The
more often these revelations
are published, the better for
an honorable future that de-
pends on an unforgetting
generation of descendants of
the victims of Nazism.
*t *

"Many of the consultants are
held in my office in one of
the SS administrative buildings,
in a room next to the office of
Colonel Barrett, a Military Gov-
ernment officer temporarily in
charge of the camp. I have taken
over a comfortable room in a
former SS library with a huge
map of Europe on one wall and
a calendar on another. In one
corner is a cracked, empty safe.
There are also desks and chairs,
a coat tree, and a bookcase
filled with Nazi brochures and
books containing hideous propa- The 40th Anniversary
ganda and teaching material—
lantern slides of the Untermen- of Opening of Dachau
schen, the subhumans such as
The publication of Dr.
the Jews, Slays, Orientals, and
others, subhuman because they Smith's "Dachau" has an his-
were inferior to the members toric link. Miss Louise Kell-
of the Master Race. With each
slide was correlated written ma- er, publicity manager of
terial.
University of New Mexico
"These teaching guides have Press, comments:
been studied intently: there are
many marginal annotations and
"There is a newsworthy
exclamations. In one of the
pamphlets entitled Das Juden- story in connection with the
tum (Judaism), picture number fact that this month marks
5 shows in its upper left corner
an army of tall, blond, muscular, the 40th anniversary of the
seemingly invulnerable Nordic opening of the camp at
men, four abreast, dressed in
shorts, wearing boxing gloves, Dachau. The concentration
striding resolutely forward. The camp was opened on March
companion illustration in the
lower right-hand corner shows 20, 1933; Hitler assumed
bearded black-hatted gaunt men, dictatorial power on March
many using canes — Orthodox 23 of the same year. Many
Jews from Poland. The caption
says: Young German Sportsmen liberated prisoners believed
Disgusting Eastern Jews. The
sixth picture shows Der Jude, that Dachau and Hitler were
Ein Bastard. Three centrally synonymous, that one could
placed heads — fat, bearded, not exist without the other.
bald. Four marginally situated
show their unsavory cousins If this is true, it is, perhaps,
Negro, Hamite, Asiatic, and Or- more than a coincidence that
iental.
"In these brochures, the Jews the liberation of the camp
are described and caricatured as by American troops on April
short, furtive, odious, nonhuman
creatures with sinister devil's 30, 1945, followed closely the
faces, thick lips, fleshy eyelids, suicide of Hitler.
hooked noses, and hor'i-rimmed
" 'The Harrowing of Hell:
glasses. Their evil deeds stem-
med from their materialistic, Dachau' has been in publica-
Marxist traits and their ability
as international bankers. They tion for only a few months,
were responsible for all the dis- but, judging from the num-
asters of the past and the pres-
ent: the slaughter of 75,000 ber of readers' comments we
Egyptians at the time of the have received, it has a wide
Pharaohs, the Black Death during
the Middle Ages, the surrender appeal. Professors, doctors,
of the German fleet at Scapa clergymen, teachers, and the
Flow, the detestable Weimar Re-
public, the burning of the airship general reading public are

16—Friday, April 27, 1973

Israeli Hotels Boost Prices 25 Per Cent

JERUSALEM (JTA)—
Many Israeli hotels have
raised their rates by 25 per
cent as a result of the recent
price hikes for food, oil and
water.
The price rises were put
into effect on the eve of the
annual tourist rush that pre-
cedes the two major spring
holidays. Passover and Inde-
pendence Day.
The director of the Hotel
Owners Association, Dr. Kurt
Licht, said "the price of meat
just rose by 50 per cent.
Basically, everything has
gone up in price. What do
you expect from hotel own-
ers?—that they will absorb
all these price increases
themselves?"
A check of 30 hotels in
Israel indicated that hotel
owners had already imposed
indirect price increases by
abolishing special reductions
for children and by raising
food prices.

responding with genuine
emotion.
"Richard Bradford, author
of 'Red Sky at Morning,'
says, `I found "Dachau,"
though not enjoyable, ex-
tremely absorbing, horrify-
ing, and, strangely enough,
ultimately cheering . . . the
book is written with a praise-
worthy and disciplined mix-
ture of emotion and orderli-
ness . . . " Walter Kerr, for-
merly foreign editor of the
Dr. Smith rejoices over New York Herald Tribune,
defensive methods that had writes, 'If you don't know
been used to help Jews. He what a police state can come
to, read "Dachau" . . . an
states: :
"It is refreshing to hear stories important book, a good
of heroism MI behalf of the book.' "

1111

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Jews. These are related by the
surviving Jews themselves, par-
ticularly those from France, Bel-
gium, Holland, Italy and Nor-
way. They were hidden in pri-
vate homes, Catholic schools,
barns, and even ships, despite
the penalty for helping a Jew—
hanging. We hear that the Nazi
occupation forces in Denmark
were able to round up very few
Jews.
"It was rare for the Jews who
came from the eastern occupied
countries to tell such stories;
apparently, the tradition of anti-
Semitism had prevented many
Jews from being saved. Despite
this prevalent attitude, some of
the Jewish inmates told about
efforts made by individuals on
their behalf, or for people they
knew. Two Jews from Romania
were hidden by their neighbors
for one year, until they were
all caught and sent to the camp.
A Polish storekeeper was exe-
cuted for feeding Jewksh chil-
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of brave, compassionate Poles,
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cause of their heroic actions.
"In Poland, the people were
shocked by the slaughter. They
began to understand that racism
was a contagious disease, and
that they, too, were to be en-
slaved or exterminated. A major
effort to help the Jews was
ma4e by the Polish resistance
forces.
"But it came too late.

Israel to Build 91
Education Centers

JERUSALEM (JTA)—The
Jewish Agency announced
that it will invest $8,000,000
this year in the construction
of 91 educational institutions
for Israel, including 28 gen-
eral schools, three public
libraries, 18 community cen-
ters, 39 day care centers,
and three sports centers.
The Agency's educational
fund has built 184 educational
institutions in Israel over the
last eight years in the devel-
opment regions through the
contributions of world Jewry.
The minimum donation the
education fund accepts is
$100,000, but only after the in-
dividual has made a contri-
bution to the United Jewish
Appeal or other similar gen-
eral Jewish fund-raising bod-
ies.

The largest price increases
were at hotels in Safed, Ti-
berias, Ashkelon and Na-
tanya, usually in the modest
two-star and three-star hotels.

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Hindenburg.

"'Pigs,' they had been called
by the SS guards, they had no
other names.
`Other racial, national, and
ethnic groups were also stereo-
typed. Uncle Sam was depicted
as carrying two guns and wav-
ing a flag of imperialism, or
characterized as a mongrel mon-
ey grubber or a greedy shop-
keeper. The American soldier
was portrayed as an ignorant,
loutish savage, with dollar bills
hanging from his pockets.
"In contrast was the Germanic
superman, an overtly heroic,
bold, determined, powerful giant,
the personification of all desir-
able physical, cultural, and in-
tellectual attributes."

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