by Donald Hunt
“Thank God for men of valor,” she whispered to herself.
* * *
By the end of 1944, more than seven million civilian foreigners and POW’s were working as slave laborers for the Third Reich. Most had been essentially kidnapped in occupied territories and deported to Germany in boxcars with little food or water and no sanitary facilities. They were forced to work in factories, fields and mines. The kidnapping operation even had a code name – ‘Hay Action’.
In western occupied territories, the SS blocked off sections of towns and seized all able-bodied men and women. Workers brought from areas of Eastern Europe were rounded up in an even more shameful way. Villages resistant to the forced-labor order were simply burned to the ground and their inhabitants carted off. All of the workers were subjected to overcrowding, inadequate food, water, clothes and toilets. And for all these reasons, diseases spread throughout the camps, which served as breeding grounds for the spread of typhus and infestations of lice.
One group of men working in the Krupp Works, maker of most of Germany’s guns, tanks and ammunition was kept in a dog kennel for six months. The men slept in a cubical three feet high, six feet wide and nine feet long. They entered by crawling on all fours just like the canines for which the kennels were built.
Among the unusual stories coming from the occupied countries in the West, those coming out of Denmark were the most extraordinary. This was especially true of the great Danish physicist and Nobel laureate, Niels Bohr. His father was a devout Christian and a professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen. His mother was Jewish and came from a wealthy Danish banking family. Bohr had been awarded the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the structure of the atom. He was the first to propose the theory that the chemical property of an element was determined by the number of electrons in orbit around the nucleus. In 1943, Bohr received a coded message from James Chadwick in England inviting him to move there to work on nuclear fission. At the time, Bohr was skeptical of the application of atomic physics. He also felt a higher calling to aid in the protection of exiled scientists who had come to Denmark seeking refuge from the Nazis.
The Germans were dependent on Danish agriculture for food stuffs and needed the cooperation of the Danish government and indeed the entire population. A delicate memorandum of understanding existed between the Nazis and the Danish government. The Danes would continue to supply needed agricultural products in exchange for continued self-governance and the security of the 8,000 Danish Jews, most whom lived in Copenhagen. As German occupation became more egregious, there was less cooperation from the Danish farmers. Finally, things came to a head. Hitler ordered a takeover of the Danish government in Copenhagen. His real malevolence concerned his anger that the Danish Jews had escaped the ‘Final Solution’ of the Third Reich.
In early September of 1943, Bohr learned from the visiting Swedish Ambassador that the Danish Jews were in danger of being arrested. The following day an anti-Nazi woman working at Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen saw orders from Berlin directing the arrest of Bohr. That night the Bohrs walked through the darkened city to a seaside suburban garden and hid until they were picked by a small boat. They were transported to a waiting fishing boat off the coast, then taken through mine fields to safety in Sweden.
The next day Bohr learned the Nazis planned to arrest all Danish Jews remaining in Denmark. He rushed to Stockholm and worked through bureaucratic channels to gain asylum for the 8,000 Danish Jews. In the interim, the Danes had taken the initiative to hide more than 7,000 Jewish people. Within days asylum was granted and almost all of those being hidden were taken across the Oresund to safety.
The Germans did not give up easily. Although Sweden was officially a ‘neutral’ country, Stockholm was crawling with German agents. It was evident that Bohr had played a pivotal role in the rescue of the Danish Jews. On October 2nd the offer of asylum was broadcast on Swedish radio. Hitler was furious. He sent a communication to agents in Sweden to find and eliminate Bohr immediately.
British intelligence was aware of the risk to Bohr. The next day, a telegram was sent to him by Lord Cherwell, the English physicist who had been appointed by Churchill to be the principal scientific adviser to the British government. The telegram asked Bohr and his family to come to England as soon as possible.
Bohr was the first to go. The British flew diplomatic communiqués back and forth to Stockholm on an unarmed twin-engine Mosquito bomber. It was a light, fast plane capable of flying at altitudes high enough to avoid German anti-aircraft batteries located on the Danish and northern Norwegian coastlines. The flack usually reached 20,000 ft. The Mosquito could take a single passenger seated in the bomb-bay. Bohr was fitted with a flight suit and a parachute. He was given flares to use in case the plane was hit. If that occurred, he was instructed to parachute into the North Sea and use the flares for rescue.
As the flight took off and the great Danish physicist was secure in the Mosquito bomb bay, a problem arose no one could have foreseen. Niels Bohr had an enormous head. His flight helmet with earphones simply would not fit. As the pilot climbed to
25,000 ft., out of range of the German anti-aircraft guns, he radioed for the crew to start oxygen, but Bohr could not hear the order. He soon lost consciousness. When the pilot got no response, he realized there was a problem. As soon as the plane cleared the coast of Norway, he dropped down and crossed the North Sea at low altitude. By the time the plane touched down in Scotland, Bohr was fully conscious, none the worse for wear.
A week later, Bohr’s family, including his 21-year old son, Aage, followed. Bohr and Aage, a budding physicist in his own right, toured British scientific facilities and learned that the arduous effort at nuclear fission had shifted to the U.S. and was centered at Las Alamos in northern New Mexico. Now Bohr had gained an understanding of what was happening, an understanding that only his brilliance would allow. So the Danish theoretician headed a team to the U.S. Aage would later conclude that the work on atomic energy had progressed much faster than his father could have imagined. In the words of Robert Oppenheimer, head of the Manhattan Project and the development of the atomic bomb, “to Bohr the enterprises in the United States seemed completely fantastic.
* * *
On Saturday night Anna had trouble going to sleep. This was uncommon for her. The weather had been unusually warm for February in central Europe. Anna lay awake with her eyes open. She knew she could share with Erika what she was going to be doing on Sunday. But she decided against it. Erika would find out soon enough. Anna went over the instructions Roland had given her and finally drifted off to sleep.
Sunday’s breakfast was the usual porridge. Anna finished it quickly. The first hour for walking came at 9:00 a.m. The daily census count would come at 6:00 p.m. All female prisoners had to be accounted for each afternoon.
About 30 women were going to walk today. The sun was shining, and the temperature rose to 40 degrees. The perimeter walkway was a little more than a four-mile loop. The women had one hour to complete it. Fifteen minutes per mile was a brisk pace, too much for all but the healthiest women.
The section of the path that remained out of sight of the towers was one section about half a mile in length. Anna began the walk with Erika and another woman. As they progressed the first mile, Anna shared briefly the information about block-66 and the children. The plan was for Anna to enter the block and remain until the afternoon walk. As it turned out, Erika had heard of a place in the prison where children were being kept, but she had no idea where it was.
The women made their way around the perimeter speaking in casual conversation. But all the while, Anna kept a sharp eye out for the barracks. Suddenly they were out of sight of the guard towers. She had been told to look for three medium sized pine trees as a tip off to the barracks location. There it was, a long flat-topped building that had no windows. There were four large roof canopies spaced equidistant from o
ne end to the other. There was a set of double steel doors and multiple smoke stacks were scattered along the rooftop. Smoke was rising lazily from each.
Anna broke off from her two companions and quickly approached the steel doors. She knocked and a moment later, one of the doors opened slightly, then half way. A large man with a dark beard wearing a blue wool cap stood looking at her. Then he reached an enormous hand out and took her by the arm.
“Please,” he said.
Beryl Yenzer gently pulled her inside and closed the door, locking it with a large steel dead bolt. His accent was heavy. In mellifluous German he spoke quickly.
“Thank you for coming. We’ve been expecting you.”
He was a massive man, several inches taller than Anna. Yet his nature was that of a gentile patrician. She learned later that he had been headmaster of a Yeshiva in Poland.
Yenzer led Anna down a dark hallway into a small office lit by a single bulb on a cord. The walls were concrete. In the center of the room was a large oak desk with one chair and a wooden bench sat against the wall. He motioned her toward the bench. “Please sit down. Can I offer you some hot tea?”
Anna shook her head.
“As Roland mentioned, we are part of a clandestine network of men, mostly Jewish, who are protecting 900 children. Six hundred of them are in this block.”
“Six hundred children are here?”
“Yes. You’ll see shortly.”
Julian Richburg was a precise man, a Jewish Communist who was brought to Buchenwald after his arrest in occupied Czechoslovakia in 1942. He was a thin, balding intellectual who had been a bank president. After the invasion of his country, he joined the resistance. At the time of his arrest the execution of men in the underground had stopped. The Germans were more interested in slave labor by that time and even execution of Jews had slowed. This was a change in policy that was being kept even from Hitler. It was in the camp that Richburg had met Beryl Yenzer, who had served in the resistance in Warsaw.
Richburg was a man of extraordinary organizational skills. He and Yenzer soon realized that many Jewish young men were being hidden in the camp. With at least 80 percent of the prisoners being Jewish, organizing to protect the boys was a common cause. In time, they had been able to bribe about 20 SS officers to cooperate with them. As the war dragged on, many German officers felt defeat was simply a matter of time. They began to see life after the war, life after the Third Reich.
The prison administration had no idea of block-66. Their concern was supplying men for the armament factories. The SS who had accepted bribes were also vulnerable to being exposed. In a strange way it was Richburg who had the upper hand, at least where the children were concerned. The entire effort was supported by many of the kapos who saw a chance to do something noble for a change.
The story had now unfolded as Anna listened. “May I see them?” she asked.
“Of course.”
Anna was escorted through a narrow hallway that led into an enormous area some 200 yards in length. It was well lit. There in front of her were young boys ranging in age from four to 15. They had been organized into six ‘squadrons’ each with a 15 year old squadron leader. The majority of the boys were 10 years old or older, but 23 of them were under 10 years old and six of them were under the age of seven. The youngest boys were in the same squadron. Each squadron had been named after a bird of prey….the eagle squadron, hawk squadron, etc. Each squadron slept in the same area and ate together. In the center of the living space was a large open area for games and recreation. Surrounding the recreation area were bunks stacked three high. The kitchen and mess hall were on one end of the living area and the toilets and showers on the other. Each of the boys except those under five had a ‘buddy’ to look after him. Buddies looked after each other and reported any problems to the squadron lieutenants of which there were five in each squadron.
Every morning after breakfast was ‘sick call’. This was followed by ‘school’ which was three hours of reading, math and science. Beryl supervised the school which involved the older boys teaching the younger. After Beryl went underground, his entire family was murdered; his mother, father and three sisters were all killed at the Treblinka death camp. Now Beryl’s mission was focused on saving the children. On Friday mornings, he taught Hebrew classes and on Saturday they held ‘Synagogue’. The afternoons were for free time, competitions and recreation. Fifty boys were significantly ill. These were the children who would be brought to Anna.
She was still trying to absorb all she was hearing and seeing. It amazed her that an underground effort and culture of this magnitude was in existence here, especially given the fact that the purpose of its existence was to save the lives of Jewish children in a country dedicated to killing all Jews. Anna believed all life was sacred and her singular focus as a physician was to save lives and relieve suffering. As she progressed deeper into the citadel of block-66, she began to sense that it represented something almost enchanted, a safe haven from the death that surrounded it. The entire block was evocative of a Jewish home - except there were no mothers and fathers.
She was escorted to the center of the large complex where a table and a chair had been set up. using blankets draped from the ceiling, a makeshift exam room had been fashioned. The 50 boys were waiting to be seen. All activity had stopped, and all eyes were on Anna. It had been many months and for some, almost a year, since they had seen a female. A number of healthy boys suddenly felt disappointment that they had no malady that could provide them the chance to have contact with the beautiful doctor.
Many of the boys had upper respiratory infections and common colds. An eight-year old had an abdominal mass that Anna believed might be a kidney tumor. She could do nothing for him. Many of the boys had varying degrees of malnutrition.
After sizing up their medical conditions, Anna spoke with Julian about how the problems might be addressed. The Danish Red Cross was delivering care packages to the main camp on a weekly basis. They had some items only adults could use, such as coffee and tea. But some of the packages had dried fruit and chocolates. Anna stressed to Julian he should gather as many of these packages as possible for the children.
The last child brought to Anna was Eric. He was carried in by his squadron leader, Martin. Eric was near death. He was four years old and had been in block-66 for about two months. Little was known about him except that he had been significantly malnourished when he arrived. He would not eat nor speak. It was reported that he had witnessed the murder of his parents by the Gestapo. When the officers had turned to deal with him, he was gone, and it was unclear how he had come to Buchenwald.
Beryl had decided to call him Eric. Mostly because Beryl’s late father’s name was Eric. The child had curly black hair and dark eyes that showed no emotion. His legs were swollen, as was his abdomen. His cheeks were sunken and there were multiple sores in his mouth. Anna had never seen a child in such poor condition, but she recognized it from her medical studies. Eric had Kwashiorkor.
Anna took him in her arms. He rested his head on her chest as his legs dangled lifelessly over her lap. His form of malnutrition was the most severe. With no protein or caloric intake, the body essentially uses its own protein causing severe muscle wasting. Finally, the immune system shuts down and cannot protect the body even from normal bacterial flora in the mouth. Tongue and mouth ulcers develop which make eating painful and difficult. Eventually, these children become listless and anorexic.
As Anna held Eric she asked his squadron leader to get Julian. Anna rocked him back and forth as she contemplated how to save him. Julian arrived in minutes.
“Can we save him?” he asked.
Anna looked into the eyes of this fragile little piece of humanity.
“I think we have one chance. Call Beryl. I need both of you to hear my instructions.”
Beryl arrived and Anna began.
“We need someone to
get to the camp infirmary and steal a stethoscope.” “What’s that?” asked Beryl.
“A stethoscope is what a doctor uses to listen to the heart.”
“Yes, the heart. I know what to look for.”
“I need cooking oil and a large syringe, also from the infirmary. And can we get salt?”
“Yes!” said Julian.
“Good! I want you to clean his mouth sores three times daily with warm salt water. Two other things. Can we get eggs and milk…cow or goat, it doesn’t matter.”
“Of course,” Julian said, having no idea how he was going to get it.
It was almost time for Anna to leave. One of the squadron leaders was looking out for women making their afternoon walk. He saw them.
“They’re coming,” he said in a loud voice.
“Notify me through Roland when you have what we need. I’ll be back.” With that, Anna got her coat and disappeared out the door.
The following Monday and Tuesday were routine work days. Anna was at work before 6:00 a.m. for her usual 12-hour shift. She saw Roland but they did not speak or make eye contact. Anna performed her work routinely but could not stop thinking about Eric. She knew he could not last another week. His kidney and liver function would start to shut down and he would die in a matter of days. She had held him for less than half an hour, his eyes listless and his body rail thin. But in that time he had become for Anna, her country’s chance at redemption; if she could just save Eric. Although it would not bring back the tens of thousands of Jewish children who had been gassed or starved or killed in some other way, it was a start, a new beginning. The soul of Germany had died. Men were still dying daily at the hands of the SS. She wondered why the life of one four-year-old child could matter so much. But it did.