The Man Who Saw Too Much: ‘In Natzweiler, you were always afraid’
Stephen Oryszczuk learns about the oldest known survivor of a Nazi extermination camp, which was the first to be liberated
Last week marked three quarters of a century since the first Nazi extermination camp was liberated and the world first caught a glimpse of the Holocaust – but few today know the camp’s name.
Natzweiler-Struthof, a relatively small death camp in the mountains of Alsace, is now home to a striking Holocaust memorial in the grounds of a cemetery, but was once the site of industrial murder.
Among those to survive was Boris Pahor.
Get The Jewish News Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up
Pahor, 106, is the oldest known survivor of a Nazi concentration camp and, having told his story in the form of a book called Necropolis, he was the subject of an emotional BBC documentary with Alan Yentob last week, entitled The Man Who Saw Too Much.
Arrested in Italy for anti-fascist writings, Pahor was locked up in Natzweiler, a camp built soon after the Nazis occupied France in 1940. It was the first camp to be liberated by the Western Allies in 1944.
A British intelligence officer at the time recorded that “the majority of deaths were caused by shooting” and outlined Nazi medical experiments as well as torture. He said freezing winter temperatures led many to die from swollen limbs.
In the one-hour BBC documentary, Yentob retraced Pahor’s steps.
A loyal Slovenian born in Trieste, Pahor recalls the joy of hot water on his freezing body, even though he knew the camp’s furnace was powered by burning bodies.
Pahor was first sent to Dachau, where he was beaten with a strap until he looked “like a zebra”, then transferred to Natzweiler, a camp for political prisoners and resistance fighters, who were given a number and labelled with a red triangle.
There were also a small number of Jews, gypsies and Jehovah’s Witnesses there.
Of the 52,000 people who entered the camp, 22,000 never left, and 86 Jews were murdered there in order to provide skeletons for what one historian interviewed called a ‘zoological museum of an extinct species’.
Pahor survived because a chance encounter with the camp’s Norwegian doctor meant the doctor retained his services as a translator, with Pahor staying in the barracks.
“They made me a diarrhoea nurse, right there in the worst condition,” Pahor told Yentob from his home in Trieste. “Whoever had a job that enabled them to stay in the barracks had a hope of survival.”
The camp, whose end came about 75 years ago this week, was built next to a fashionable 1930s ski resort, where the local hotel was commandeered for SS officers and where the village hall was turned into a gas chamber.
Camp commandant Josef Kramer, who lived in a large house with a pool, personally gassed the 80 Jews for the “skeleton collection”.
Kramer was later transferred to Auschwitz and then to Bergen-Belsen, where he was nicknamed “the Beast of Belsen” by prisoners.
Yentob’s visit to Natzweiler for the documentary comes 55 years after Pahor himself returned to the camp, recalling his time there.
“You came in at the top and the gallows welcomed you,” he recalls.
“You were told there was an oven down there and that there was no way out but through the chimney. In Natzweiler, you were always afraid.”
The Man Who Saw Too Much is available to view on BBC iPlayer
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
-
By Laurent Vaughan - Senior Associate (Bishop & Sewell Solicitors)
-
By Laurent Vaughan - Senior Associate (Bishop & Sewell Solicitors)
-
By Laurent Vaughan - Senior Associate (Bishop & Sewell Solicitors)
-
By Laurent Vaughan - Senior Associate (Bishop & Sewell Solicitors)