by Donald Hunt
Friday, the following day, was escape day. Roland had not talked with Anna or even seen her for several days. He made a point to sit by her at lunch. As they were finishing, he looked at her.
“I will not be seeing you again,” he said with a whisper.
She looked up, startled. Then she understood as she caught his faint smile. Without speaking she took his hand in hers briefly before he stood to leave.
Anna watched him go. She had enjoyed knowing this charming Frenchman whom she really didn’t know at all. Her thoughts raced back 16 years to the time her father had taken the family to see Charles Lindberg land in Paris. She was charmed by Frenchmen then and by Roland now. This evil war had brought her in contact with many extraordinary and courageous people.
At midnight everyone was in place. Five men were at the kennel, each with a chocolate bar and a grenade. Four men were hidden beneath the guard tower. Two would throw their grenades into the elevated tower hut and two would set the remaining three at the base of the tower. The nine-man escape committee was in the tunnel, plus one. The kapo had decided at the last minute to join them.
Each man at the kennel made a commotion that brought the dogs out into the individual dog runs. One shepherd barked briefly before smelling the chocolate. As the dogs got busy with the chocolate bars, each man dropped his grenade over the fence into the dog runs, then ran. The kennel explosions occurred almost simultaneously and rocked the quiet camp. Martin Lazar, the courageous locksmith, quickly swallowed his cyanide tablet and was dead in seven minutes.
The four men at the base of the guard tower then went into action. Two lobbed their grenades up toward the machine gun nest. At the same time, the three grenade pins were pulled at the tower base. One of the thrown grenades crashed through the glass into the gun nest, the other came quickly to the ground. All of the men began to run as the grenades demolished the tower and killed all three guards in it. The multiple explosions in rapid succession brought all the flood lights on.
In less than 3 minutes all of the men were back in their barracks. The escape committee plus one had made their way through the remaining soil and out to freedom. They ran about a mile into the forest and then split into three groups of three, three and four. The two Frenchmen and one German went west, the other two groups northwest and southwest. Each man had buried his prison garb and put on stolen clothing. By day light they were already 10 miles from Buchenwald.
The section of the camp with the exploded guard tower was a mass of confusion and SS troops. The entire camp went immediately into lock-down. The SS commandant personally took charge of the investigation. The escape tunnel was discovered about 4:00 a.m., meaning the escapees had a four-hour head start. All of the tracking dogs were dead. Without them, the escapee routes could not be found. Approximately 100 troops were dispersed to search for the prisoners. They were in armored vehicles and on roads. The prisoners were in the forest on foot. It was going to be difficult to find them.
There were approximately 100 men in each block. Those in block-12 were out on the parade ground within two hours. The commandant lined them up by tens. They were surrounded by about 40 soldiers.
“I want details of this tunnel!” shouted the commandant. “Who dug it? Over what period of time? Every detail. You have one minute to comply. Then I will kill one man each minute until I get answers.”
No one spoke. The men in block-12 understood that they were in control. As long as they did not break, they were in control. They were willing to give up their lives for this principle.
After one minute, the first line of men was ordered to turn around and kneel. The commandant proceeded to shoot one man in the back of the head each minute for 12 minutes. No one spoke. It appeared he would have to kill all of them and have nothing to show for it. Disgusted, he turned to his adjuvant. “Pick out five and get some information from them. Torture them!”
By chance the five chosen knew nothing of the tunnel. They were tortured but had nothing to give up.
Within a week, the commandant was relieved of his command and his deputy was moved up. The deputy had been the head of all of the SS security in the armament factories and the outlying camps of which there were almost 70. He was now in command of all of the 1,800 SS men at Buchenwald and the armament facilities. He was an unusual man for an SS Colonel, and he had no intention of bringing a reign of terror down on the prisoners in Buchenwald for doing what he knew any man would try to do.
* * *
Because of the lock-down, Anna did not get to go to block-66 that Sunday. She could get no word of Eric and would simply have to be patient. In the evenings she talked with Erika who assured her that the little boy was likely improving. It was nearing the end of February and spring was around the corner. What the women did not know was that the Allies had taken Hamburg and Hanover to the west and were only 100 kilometers from Weimar. So spring was coming and the Allies were as well.
The following Sunday the lockdown was lifted. It had been almost a month since Anna had placed the feeding tube in Eric. He had improved initially but she had not seen him in two weeks and she was apprehensive as she walked along the perimeter.
“He is fine….I’m sure of it,” said Erika as they approached block-66.
Anna smiled but did not speak. She moved on and made her way to the door, where she knocked gently. One of the squadron leaders met her. She greeted him and briskly walked to the central area’s exam room. Beryl Yenzer walked up and before he could say hello Anna immediately asked about Eric. Beryl smiled.
“I think he is looking for you.”
She turned around. Eric was walking toward Anna with a smile on his face. He was still very thin but his face was starting to fill out a bit and his dark eyes sparkled. Anna dropped to her knees and the boy put his arms around her neck. He held her tightly.
“Eric, you look so much better. Are you also feeling better?”
“Yes.”
“Is your mouth better?”
“Yes.”
Anna laughed. “Can I hold you for a moment?”
“Yes.”
She held him in her arms for a long minute. It felt as if she were holding a miracle in her arms. She rubbed her hand along his shoulder to his wrist and noticed the tattoo on the inside of his left forearm, B-6130. She was hoping this would be his only scar from Buchenwald. She was more determined than ever to do all in her power to bring all of the boys safely through the war. There were obviously more resources available than she could have imagined, and she planned to use them all.
In the afternoon she met Erika on the walkway with a broad smile. Erika returned the smile.
“So, I take it things are going well with the children.”
“Very well. Eric is significantly improved, and I think out of danger, thank God. He is such a charmer. I wish you could have seen him.
“I will, and it may only be a matter of weeks!”
The new commandant had spent little time in the actual camp during his tour as deputy commandant. His duties had been in the DAW (German Equipment Works), the sprawling enterprise to make arms for Germany and money for the SS. During his first week, his orientation revealed many of the atrocities he had heard about but had not seen. He interviewed the doctors who were doing medical experiments and learned of the results of poisoning subjects with various substances and performing autopsies before sending them to the crematorium. He toured the camp and viewed thousands of starving men. Except for those working on the V-2 project at the Mibau facility, fully 25,000 men were near death, emaciated men who looked back at him with hollow eyes. The sanitation was squalid. The kapos would not use the latrines and were given access to the indoor toilets. He came across a building that had once been a horse stable. It now held over 200 starving men who had nowhere to go and nothing to do.
The new commandant was a soldier, a distinguished colonel who had fought bravely
and honorably for his country. He had been wounded on the Russian front and there would be no more combat for him. By the time he had taken in the horror that was Buchenwald he was deeply depressed. There was no honor left in Germany. Now orders were to evacuate the camp before it was over-run by the Allies. But how to do it? And where were the prisoners to go? There was no place to hide thousands of starving prisoners. Most of the men were so starved and sick they could not scream. But the crimes of the Reich would scream. They would be heard from this camp and they would be heard by the world.
His thoughts harkened back to 1933, when he had decided to join the Nazi party. Expectations were high for the German Volk and there was great excitement in the air. He was disturbed by the 1935 Nuremberg Laws that deprived Jewish men and women of their citizenship. Then in November, 1938, things turned very ugly with Kristallnacht…. ‘The Night of Broken Glass’ when 1,000 Synagogues were burned, 7,500 Jewish businesses were destroyed and 30,000 Jewish men arrested. He knew then that it would not end well. But he was a soldier, not a politician and 10 months later Germany invaded Poland. Now the end was near.
The following week, the second week of March, he received a classified communication from SS headquarters in Berlin. It was marked ‘urgent’ and signed by Himmler. It read as follows:
March 13, 1945
From Obekommando der SS
To: Commandant Buchenwald Camp
-Orders for immediate execution of prisoner
Anna Eichenwald
-Confirmation to SS headquarters required.
General Heinrich Himmler
The commandant sat in his chair trying to absorb what he had read. “Colonel, shall I have the order carried out?” asked his adjuvant.
“No. I will execute the prisoner myself today at 5:00 p.m.”
March 14th was a routine day for Anna. She was counting the three days until Sunday when she would return to block-66 for a visit with Eric and to evaluate more sick boys. She did not even mind the grueling 12-hour work days making liquid oxygen. She had something to look forward to and in fact, since her loss of Christian, something to live for. The days were passing quickly. Spring was in the air. Within the next two weeks the fields and meadows that could be seen through the electrified fence would begin to burst forth in color.
In mid-afternoon something unusual happened. A SS car pulled up to the main entrance of the Mibau facility. The driver was the adjuvant to the commandant. The commander of Buchenwald was in the front seat. The rear seat was occupied by a sergeant and a lieutenant. The sergeant and lieutenant got out of the car and went into the plant. They inquired about Anna’s work station. The presence of the SS brought ominous quiet and a palpable apprehension. The supervisor led them to Anna’s station. She had not noticed the two.
“Anna Eichenwald?” asked the lieutenant. She was startled but turned to face them. “Yes, I am Anna Eichenwald.”
“Come with us!”
Anna collected her coat and started to ask where they were taking her and why. Then she decided it must be related to her caring for the boys. She felt she could defend her involvement in block-66.
She was placed between the two soldiers in the rear of the car, which sped away. The commandant said nothing. As the car turned to the north, she realized they were going away from the camp entrance. Her heart began to race.
“Where are you taking me?”
The lieutenant did not answer. After another moment she repeated the question. “Where are we going?”
“Silence!” he said harshly.
It took Anna only a very brief moment to realize she was facing the end of her life. She sat perfectly still sandwiched between the SS lieutenant and his sergeant. The dark gray sedan with the white swastika on the door belonged to the Commandant of Buchenwald Prison, and the Colonel in the front seat was apparently that man. Initially when placed in the car she had demanded a reason, but she got only silence. She wanted to scream, but she was now finding it hard even to breathe. Night was falling and the horizon was fading into black. Through the window she watched the cold landscape grow increasingly dim. They were taking her in the opposite direction from the prison. Heart pounding in her chest, pellucid thoughts raced through her mind. She would not see her parents again; she would not see Eric again.
The end would be quick. As a physician she knew the bullet from the German Lugar would explode into her brain with unbelievable violence, much as the Nazi Reich had exploded with violence onto her country twelve years earlier. It was very cold, and she began to shiver. The landscape was becoming more remote. Her lifeless form would freeze quickly…..slowing, at least for a time, the decay that would follow. She thought back to a similar cold day in Berlin when she was officially confronted with the nightmare of Hitler’s new Germany. So much had happened. She had always believed it would end differently.
The car traveled for six or seven minutes along the country road, then turned off onto a narrow side road that was obviously little used. After another half mile the car stopped. The lieutenant opened his door.
“Get out!”
He took her arm and pulled her out. Anna now knew she was to be shot. She felt weak as the adrenalin of fear poured into her system. She was having trouble standing. The Commandant got out of the car and turned to the lieutenant.
“I will do this. You wait in the car.” The lieutenant started to argue.
“Sir, I…….”
“Wait in the car,” the commandant said again. Anna was looking down. Her legs were trembling. “Walk ahead of me,” the commandant said. They moved away from the car.
“Dr. Eichenwald, listen very carefully. I am Ernst Bishoff. Twelve years ago, I was shot in the chest in a Communist riot. You saved my life. When I tell you, stop and get on your knees. I will fire my pistol very close to your head. Immediately fall over. Twenty minutes after we are gone walk back to the main road and follow it north about 10 kilometers. You will come to a farmhouse. They will help you.”
They walked another 20 paces.
“Stop and drop to your knees,” he commanded.
He drew his Lugar and put a bullet into the chamber.
“I am the one who supplied the goat’s milk and eggs for the boy. We are not all evil men.”
He raised the pistol and fired once. Anna immediately slumped to the ground. It was easy to do, as she could no longer stand on her weakened legs.
The following morning the lieutenant sent a communication to SS Berlin headquarters reading:
Anna Eichenwald eliminated……bullet to the head.
Chapter 21
Auschwitz
Anna lay motionless for what seemed like a very long time. In reality, it was only about 20 minutes. The wind was calm and a thin crust of snow blanketed the ground. The sun was going down, though, and the temperature was dropping rapidly. Anna began to feel cold. She decided it must be safe to try to make it back to the main road. After all, she had been left for dead, supposedly with a bullet in her head.
Anna stood up and was immediately aware of two things. She was shivering and had a dissonant ringing in her ears. In fact, it seemed she could not hear anything from her right ear. The Lugar muzzle blast had taken its toll.
She began to follow the ruts of the little-used road back to the main road. She walked at a brisk pace to try to get warm. She wondered if others had been brought to this spot to be murdered. She would never know for sure, but she suspected this was a place for murder.
It was dark by the time she stepped onto the main road. Instinctively she turned in the opposite direction from which she had been brought, hoping it was north. She was surprised at her strength. After her near death experience she wondered why she didn’t feel weak. That would come later. For now, she picked up her pace. The colonel had said there was a farmhouse. And she remembered that he had mentioned 10 kilometers. Still, her mind was cloud
y. Where did he come from? She remembered his surgery, the gunshot wound to the heart and the encounter in the hospital with Adolph Hitler. But she had forgotten the colonel’s name. His surgery was one of hundreds she had performed. His stood out only because it had kept her from being arrested for a time.
Anna continued down the road. She walked as fast as possible but gravity seemed to be pulling her down. She thought about her survival. She’d been at Buchenwald more than two months and then suddenly she was selected for execution. She knew the former commandant would have had her killed. But he was gone and Ernst Bishoff, a former patient, had replaced him. The whole thing was bizarre.
She was beginning to tire. The cold was numbing but she pushed on, now unable to feel her feet. They felt like wooden pegs. She had no hat and her exposed face and head were draining her body of heat. But she knew that as long as she kept moving she would not freeze. The daytime temperatures were in the 30s but night could see single digits.
So the man whose life she had saved had in turn saved her. She thought of this paradox and whispered to herself, “I won’t die here on a frozen road in rural Germany.”
She pushed on. And then she saw them, tiny dots of light. They were gone quickly but then reappeared through the trees. She tried to run. The lights grew bigger, brighter. Another few minutes and she could clearly make out the farm house with a large barn behind it. Now she could see a fence and a chimney with smoke billowing from it. He had not deceived her. It was just as the colonel had said.