Note: In this postscript to Post 114, I discuss supplementary documents I obtained from The Arolsen Archives that tragically confirm precisely when and where my distant cousin Edward Hans Lindenberger died.
In Post 114, I posed the rhetorical question of whether my remote cousin Edward Hans Lindenberger, born on the 27th of July 1925 in Bielitz, Poland [today: Bielsko-Biała, Poland], might somehow have survived the barbaric, brutal, and inhumane internment in a Nazi Konzentrationslager (abbreviated in German as KL or KZ). As I explained to readers in my original post, while researching various Holocaust databases, I discovered an online 10-page file on him in The Arolsen Archives. From this I learned or confirmed a few things, namely, that Edward Lindenberger had survived at least through the 27th of January 1945; that he had been interned in KL Mittelbau-Dora, formerly a subcamp of KL Buchenwald; that his occupation in the KL was “mechaniker,” a mechanic; and that his father was the merchant, “Kaufmann. Mauricius L.,” and his mother “Alzbieta L. geb. Strausz.” I reviewed the contents of this file in my original post.
What the materials failed to indicate is what might have happened to Edward Lindenberger following his arrival in KL Mittelbau-Dora. As implausible as it seems, I held out hope that he might have outlasted the unsurvivable. Knowing he’d arrived there in January of 1945, likely transferred in pitiable condition from KL Auschwitz-Birkenau, but aware that US troops had freed the inmates who’d not been evacuated by the Nazis on the 11th of April 1945, there seemed a very remote possibility he might have hung on long enough to be rescued. Historic accounts describing the final hectic days of inmates who’d been incarcerated in Mittelbau-Dora and the Nazis’ efforts at ensuring none survived made this improbable; still, I was determined to ascertain his fate, if possible. This is an ongoing attempt to document the fate and remember my ancestors, as unimportant as their lives may seem to some.
The Arolsen Archives website implied additional documentation on the Häftlingen, inmates, at the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora concentration camps might be available. I sent them an email inquiring about such records with scant expectations that relevant materials might still exist. Thus, it came as a surprise when after several weeks The Arolsen Archives sent me 50 pages of supplementary materials, including six lists with Edward Lindenberger’s name!
The first ten pages of the file include a series of letters from 1974 and 1980. A letter dated the 7th of Febuary 1974 was sent from the Staatsanwaltschaft, the Public Prosecutor’s Office for the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia in Köln, Germany (Cologne, Germany) to the International Tracing Service of the Red Cross (ITRC), predecessor of The Arolsen Archives. (Figure 1) In this letter, the Public Prosecutor’s Office attached a typed list with the names of some prisoners who died at the Rottleberode subcamp (KZ-Außenlager Rottleberode – Wikipedia) of KL Mittelbau-Dora, requesting any documents related to these individuals. (Figure 2) The names were derived from Todesbücher, death books, presumably from Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora. In the case of Edward Lindenberger, his name was found in Totenbuch Nummer 7931, Death Book Number 7931; it included his name, a prisoner number, “Häftlingsnummer 105715 Jude,” and date of birth, 27th of July 1925, confirming this was my distant cousin; this list established that Edward never reached his 20th birthday as I surmised in Post 114. On this list, Edward is recorded as having died on the 29th of March 1945 (more on this below).
During WWII, the Rottleberode subcamp (KZ-Außenlager Rottleberode – Wikipedia) in which Edward Lindenberger was interned was initially a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp from March 1944 until October 1944, at which time it became a subcamp of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, along with another subcamp in Stempeda. Following Edward’s arrival in Rottleberode (KZ-Außenlager Rottleberode – Wikipedia) he along with the other concentration camp inmates appear to have been tasked with assembling components of the Junkers Ju 88 and Junkers Ju 188 aircraft in an expanded gypsum cave that had been converted into an underground factory for the production of these aircraft and placed under the command of the SS. Conditions, as I explained in Post 114, were brutal.
A second undated handwritten list included among the documents sent to me by The Arolsen Archives revealed Edward Lindenberger’s name as one of the prisoners who died on the 29th of March 1945 in Rottleberode (KZ-Außenlager Rottleberode – Wikipedia). (Figure 3) His prisoner number on this list, namely 105715, coincides with the number on the attachment to the letter dated the 7th of February 1974, discussed above.
A third list, this one dated the 30th of March 1945, confirmed that Edward Lindenberger died at 5am the preceding day of “Pleurit.de.” (Figures 4a-b) More on this below.
A fourth list with Edward Lindenberger’s name is dated the 17th of January 1945, identical to the date he is presumed to have arrived at KL Buchenwald based on forms on file at The Arolsen Archives; this register gives his date and place of birth, and his occupation. Interestingly, his prisoner number on this list “114883” corresponds with the number he was assigned upon his arrival at Buchenwald, that’s to say, when he was still living. (Figure 5)
On a fifth list dated the 22nd of January 1945 from Weimar-Buchenwald, Edward’s name appears among a group of 2740 Jews newly arrived in so-called “Lager II,” Camp 2. (Figures 6a-b)
The final list with Edward Lindenberger’s name, titled “Häftlingsschreibstube K.L. Buchenwald,” Prisoner’s Office KL Buchenwald, has two dates, the 27th of January 1945 and the 23rd of January 1945. Insofar as I can determine, this appears to be a list of the inmates who were transferred from KL Buchenwald to KL Mittelbau during this period. (Figures 7a-b)
The final document included in the file of papers sent to me by The Arolsen Archives, amazingly, is tantamount to a “death certificate” for Edward Lindenberger. Given the literally millions of Jews the Nazis murdered, it is stunning they ever took the time to complete death certificates for any of their victims. I have only ever once previously come across such certificates for Jews who died in concentration camps, in the instance of Jews murdered in Theresienstadt in then-Czechoslovakia; those forms, however, appear to have been completed posthumously.
Edward Lindenberger’s death certificate is difficult to read, so I have transcribed and translated it for readers, as best as I can. (Figures 8a-c) It is informative in several respects. The date of Edward’s death is given as the 28th of March 1945 in contrast with the date of the 29th of March 1945 written on a few of the lists mentioned above. Edward’s time of death, 5am, again is specified; the fact the Nazis would note the hour he died, stunning as this is, speaks to Germans’ penchant for exactitude.
Edward Lindenberger’s Häftlings-Personal-Bogen (Detainee Personnel Sheet)discussed in Post 114, was the most informative record of those completed upon his arrival at KL Buchenwald. (Figure 9) On this form, above the printed word Konzentrationslager, is handwritten “Pol. Jude,” signifying Edward was a Polish Jew. As I stated in Post 114, the Nazis assigned each concentration camp inmate to a category, making it clear why he or she had been arrested. Assignment to a detention group, like nationality, led to a hierarchy in the camp, since the groups were subject to different rules, among these the amount of food or the hardship of the work. Therefore, prisoner category and nationality had an impact on one’s chances of survival. Readers will note that on his death certificate, the abbreviation “PJ” (i.e., Polnischer Jude) is used showing that Edward’s classification followed him to his death.
What is equally surprising is that his death certificate specified his cause of death, “Pleuritis dextra,” pleurisy. This corresponds to his cause of death cited on the list of deceased internees dated the 30th of March 1945 as “Pleurit.de.” Pleurisy is a condition in which the pleura — two large, thin layers of tissue that separate your lungs from your chest wall — becomes inflamed. Also called pleuritis, pleurisy causes sharp chest pain (pleuritic pain) that worsens during breathing. A variety of conditions can cause pleurisy including a viral infection such as the flu; bacterial infection such as pneumonia; tuberculosis; rib fracture or trauma; etc. Given the arduous and unhealthy conditions to which camp internees were exposed one can only assume this was the cause of Edward’s illness.
The final thing I would note about the information on Edward’s death certificate is the title of the individual who signed the form:
“Der SDG im Häftlingskrankenbau
SS Uscha.”
From this we learn that Edward passed away in KL Mittelbau-Dora’s Häftlingskrankenbau, or prisoner infirmary. I was eventually able to determine that “SDG” (Sanitätswesen (KZ) – Wikipedia) is the abbreviation for “Sanitätsdienstgrad,” or “medical rank,” and that “SS Uscha.” is an SS-Unterscharführer, a Sergeant in the SS. Putting all this together, we learn that camp doctors in concentration camps were assigned so-called SS medical ranks, “SDG,” as auxiliary personnel. These auxiliary personnel acted as SS members in the prisoner infirmaries as nurses. These medical ranks typically had no or only short nursing assistant courses (i.e., paramedics), and practically no medical knowledge. It’s clear that even if the Nazis had had any interest in restoring Edward to health, the SDG that staffed the prisoner infirmary at Mittelbau would have been unable to competently perform this function.
In closing, I would remark on a few things. It’s unclear to me to what extent The Arolsen Archives retain records on concentration camp inmates who were interned and/or murdered in the various concentration camps. I typically access Yad Vashem and similar Holocaust databases to try and determine the fate of my Jewish ancestors whose fate is unknown to me or who I suspect may have been murdered during the Shoah, with mixed results. The extent of information I was able to track down on my distant cousin Edward Lindenberger came as a surprise. For readers in a similar situation, having perhaps found some mention of one’s ancestors in The Arolsen Archives, I suggest sending them an email inquiring whether additional information exists which has not been automated. The results of such inquiries may be sobering, but it may allow readers to find some closure. While it should come as no surprise to me, the further I delve into my family’s ancestry, sadly the more family members I learn were victims of Nazi atrocities.
Note: In this post, I consider the possibility, absent absolute evidence to the contrary, that a distant cousin I just learned about who was interned in Buchenwald might have survived his confinement in this notorious concentration camp.
I most assuredly consider my distant cousin Edward Hans Lindenberger’s life to have mattered. (Figure 1) Within this context, I review the limited evidence of his existence in terms of whether he might have survived his ordeal in the Konzentrationslager (KL), concentration camp, Buchenwald. His case serves as an illustration of a question relatives of internees likely asked themselves in the aftermath of WWII, namely, whether their loved ones might somehow have outlasted detention in Nazi internment camps. Too often this question is rhetorical because, as we know, the odds of survival once Jews were in the maws of the Nazis were infinitesimal. Yet, in the absence of irrefutable confirmation of Edward’s fate, I assess what I have been able to uncover about him and consider the remote possibility he might have lived.
Briefly, let me provide readers with an orientation on how I learned about Edward Lindenberger and how we are related. In Post 113, I discussed my great-granduncle Oskar Bruck (1831-1892) and his wife Mathilde Bruck née Preiss (1839-1922) who together had 14 or 15 children. As mentioned, Oskar Bruck had eight siblings, children of Samuel Bruck (1808-1863) (Figure 2) and Charlotte Bruck née Marle (1809-1861) (Figure 3), whose fates I’ve been trying to determine. The vital information on the nine children is presented in a table at the end of this post. For reference, Edward Lindenberger would have been one of Samuel and Charlotte Bruck’s great-grandsons.
One of Oskar Bruck’s younger sisters, the eighth-born child of Samuel and Charlotte, was Helena Bruck (1845-1910). She was married to Edward Strauss (1842-1920) with whom she had three children. The youngest of these was Else Strauss (b. 1884) who married Moritz Lindenberger (b. 1877), and these were the parents of Edward Lindenberger, their only child and the subject of this post. I discovered these distant relatives on ancestry.
Ancestry.com includes documents for Moritz (Figure 4), Else (Figure 5), and Edward Lindenberger (Figure 6) entitled “Kraków, Poland, ID Card Applications for Jews During World War II, 1940-1941 (USHMM).” The page for Edward Lindenberger contains a link to another document, “Germany, Concentration Camp Records, 1937-1945” showing he was interned in a Konzentrationslager referred to as “KL Mittelbau,” a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp. (Figures 7a-b) Knowing that Edward’s parents had also filed for IDs as Jews living in Kraków, Poland at the same time as Edward established the fact they too had been there as late as 1941 and had probably been swept up in a deportation to a concentration camp like their son.
Suspecting the page of Edward Lindenberger’s internment in a Konzentrationslager might be from the Arolsen Archives, I also checked Edward’s name in this database. Surprisingly, here I discovered a complete 10-page file on him (Figure 10), including one page I had found in ancestry.com, that provides important clues. His date and place of birth are given as the 27th of July 1925 in Bielitz, Poland [today: Bielsko-Biała, Poland]. (Figure 11) The latest date in the file suggests he was still alive as late as the 27th of January 1945. His occupation was “mechaniker,” a mechanic. His parents’ names and father’s occupation are given, “Kaufmann. Mauricius L.” and “Alzbieta L. geb. Strausz.” The file confirms he was assigned to KL Mittelbau, which was established in late summer of 1943 as a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. (more on this below)
The file shows four documents attached: Häftlings-Personal-Karte (Detainee Personnel Card); Effektenkarte (Effects Card); Postkontr.-Karte (Post Control Card); and Häftlings-Personal-Bogen (Detainee Personnel Sheet) (Häftlings-Personal-Karte_AroA.pdf (arolsen-archives.org) Uncertain as to the significance of these documents, I started researching them. Briefly, here’s what I learned.
The Häftlings-Personal-Karte (Detainee Personnel Card) (Figures 12a-b) was created for all concentration camp prisoners. At first glance, the cards seem diverse, having been printed in different colors, having been filled out by prisoner scribes by hand, usually in pencil, or typewriter, and on some of them having a photograph of the prisoner attached. In certain instances, the cards are entirely filled in, while on others personal descriptions in the right-hand column are missing. Despite the diversity, all cards are the same document regardless of age, nationality, and category of detention, and were completed for both male and female prisoners.
The Effektenkarte (Effects Card) (Figures 13a-b) came in different colors, though all versions had the same meaning. These cards were used to manage the personal belongings prisoners had to turn over when they arrived at a concentration camp. According to the Arolsen Archives, the cards could be filled out very differently. On pre-war cards, more items were ticked or numbered than on cards from 1939 onwards. By 1944 and 1945, most cards were completely empty as the prisoners were transferred to camps with no personal belongings. It’s unknown exactly when Edward Lindenberger arrived in Buchenwald and/or whether he was transferred there from another camp, but his Effektenkarte shows no personal effects. Apparently, different stamps provided information on the disposition of the objects. As the war progressed, Nazi decrees and regulations increasingly allowed belongings to be confiscated and reused for other purposes.
The Postkontr.-Karte (Post Control Card) (Figures 14a-b) implausibly appears to record the incoming mail received and outgoing mail sent by concentration camp prisoners. I can find no specific information about this record, but in the case of Edward Lindenberger, predictably, there is no incoming or outgoing mail. Perhaps, like the Effektenkarte, this card was more relevant in the pre-war period?
The Häftlings-Personal-Bogen (Detainee Personnel Sheet)(Häftlings-Personal-Karte_AroA.pdf (arolsen-archives.org) (Figures 15a-b) is the most informative record. The form was designed in such a way that it could be printed inexpensively and in large numbers and be used in different concentration camps. The Detainee Personnel Sheets, also referred to as prisoner personnel sheets, were intended only for male prisoners, with no separate form for females; the names of spouses were almost always added by hand.
The prisoner personnel sheet was one of the central documents used to administer prisoners in the concentration camps. Upon arrival, all relevant information about a prisoner was recorded, including personal data, previous periods and reasons of imprisonment, and sentences or transfers to other camps. In the early years, registration was done by the Gestapo, which used the interrogations to harass and abuse the internees. Soon, so-called Funktionshäftlinge, prisoner functionaries or “kapos,” as Germans commonly called them, took over the interrogations.
Regarding this system, “. . .the prisoner functionary system minimized costs by allowing camps to function with fewer SS personnel. The system was designed to turn victim against victim, as the prisoner functionaries were pitted against their fellow prisoners to maintain the favor of their SS overseers. If they neglected their duties, they would be demoted to ordinary prisoners and be subject to other kapos. Many prisoner functionaries were recruited from the ranks of violent criminal gangs rather than from the more numerous political, religious, and racial prisoners; such criminal convicts were known for their brutality toward other prisoners. This brutality was tolerated by the SS and was an integral part of the camp system.” (Wikipedia)
On Edward’s personnel form, above the printed word Konzentrationslager, is handwritten “Pol. Jude,” signifying Polish Jew. Obviously, he was Polish and was interned because he was Jewish. The Nazis assigned each concentration camp inmate to a category, making it clear why he or she had been arrested. Assignment to a detention group, like nationality, led to a hierarchy in the camp, since the groups were subject to different rules, among these the amount of food or the hardship of the work. Therefore, prisoner category and nationality had an impact on one’s chances of survival.
All concentration camp prisoners were assigned a number upon arrival at a camp. Numbers were more important than names, and prisoners had to report to roll calls using them. Multiple numbers could be assigned within a camp, for example, after discharges, transfers, or death of prisoners. Prisoners transferring from another camp were almost always given new numbers.
As mentioned above, as the number of new arrivals in camps increased the Gestapo could no longer handle the registration. Consequently, the SS assigned prisoner functionaries to carry out administrative tasks or supervise forced labor. The prisoner clerk’s number recording the information was noted on the form.
The prisoner personnel sheet has a special meaning for many relatives today, especially of deceased prisoners. The signature is often the last personal sign they have of their relative. (see Figure 1) A “newcomer” to the camps had to confirm with his signature that the information he gave was true; false statements were threatened with the most severe penalties. This seems like an oxymoron since internment in a concentration camp was tantamount to a death sentence.
On the back of the prisoner personnel sheets, after the personal data and the history of imprisonment, are items that determined the lives of the concentration camp inmates: punishments and (re)transfers to other camps. However, in most cases, the prisoner personnel sheets were not updated which is why these fields are almost always empty.
Having given readers a general overview of the individual documents attached to Edward Lindenberger’s file, let me turn now to the Buchenwald subcamp to which he was assigned. This may provide clues as to whether Edward might have survived.
The Konzentrationslager where Edward Lindenberger was interned was KL Mittelbau, also referred to as Mittelbau-Dora, Dora-Mittelbau, and Nordhausen-Dora. (Figure 16) It was a Nazi concentration camp located in Nordhausen in the German state of Thuringia. (Figure 17) It was established in late summer 1943 as a subcamp of Buchenwald.
To better understand the role that Mittelbau-Dora came to play in the Nazis’ war effort, a brief discussion of some historic events is useful. In early summer of 1943, the Germans began mass production of the A4 ballistic rocket, later and better known as the V-2, the “V” standing for Vergeltung or retribution. Among other places, it was mass produced at the Heeresanstalt Peenemunde on the Baltic Island of Usedom. On the 18th of August 1943, a bombing raid by the Royal Air Force seriously damaged the facilities and effectively ended the construction of V-2s there.
On the 22nd of August 1943 with Hitler seeking to move facilities to areas less threatened by Allied bombers he ordered SS leader Heinrich Himmler to use concentration camo workers in the production of the A4/V-2 rocket. One of the sites selected was at the mountain known as Kohnstein, near Nordhausen in Thuringia, not far from Buchenwald. Since 1936, the Germans had been building an underground fuel depot there for the Wehrmacht, which was almost ready by late summer 1943.
By the 28th of August 1943, thus within ten days after the British raid on Peenemünde, inmates from Buchenwald began to arrive at the Kohnstein. Over the ensuing months, almost daily transports from Buchenwald brought thousands more prisoners. During the first months, most of the work done was heavy construction and transport.
Mittelbau-Dora exemplifies the history of the concentration camp forced labor and the subterranean relocation of armaments production during WWII. The inmates at Mittelbau-Dora, most of them from the Soviet Union, Poland, and France, were treated brutally and inhumanely, working 14-hour days, and being denied access to basic hygiene, beds, and adequate rations. There were no sanitary facilities except for barrels that served as latrines. Inmates, died from hunger, thirst, cold, and overwork. Since there were initially no huts, the prisoners were housed inside the tunnels in four-level beds. Only in January 1944, when production of the A4/V-2 began, were the first prisoners moved to the new above-ground camp on the south side of the Kohnstein though many continued to sleep in tunnels until May 1944.
Estimates are that one in three of the roughly 60,000 prisoners who were sent to Mittelbau-Dora between August 1943 and March 1945 died; the precise number of people killed is impossible to determine. By the end of 1943, the Dora work squads are known to have had the highest death rate in the entire concentration camp system.
Towards the end of 1944, as the Red Army approached Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen concentration camps (Figure 18), the SS began to evacuate the inmates from there, many winding up in Mittelbau. It seems reasonable to assume that Edward and his family were initially deported to Auschwitz since the distance there from Kraków, Poland, where the family lived, was only slightly more than 40 miles. Edward’s parents were already elderly by 1942 or whenever they were deported so likely were immediately killed. Edward, on the other hand, would only have been in his late teens so would have been considered useful to the Nazis as a slave laborer. It’s possible Edward was among those evacuated from Auschwitz to Mittelbau towards the beginning of 1945, as his Häftlings-Personal-Karte dates his arrival there as the 17th of January 1945. Likely any who survived the transit would have been weak or sick. References suggest that between January and March 1945, around 6,000 inmates died. We have no way of knowing whether Edward was among this number.
With the advance of US troops towards the Harz in early April 1945, just under nine miles north of Kohnstein, the SS decided to evacuate most of the Mittelbau camps. Thousands of inmates were forced to board box cars in great haste and with considerable brutality, while others were forced to walk; they were being headed northeast towards Bergen-Belsen, Sachsenhausen, and Ravensbrück concentration camps. (Figure 19) Those unable to keep up with the death marches were summarily shot. The worst atrocity, known as the Gardelegen massacre, resulted in more than 1,000 prisoners being murdered in a barn that was set on fire; those who were not burned to death were shot by the SS as they tried to escape. Again, no reliable statistics exist on the number of deaths on these transports, but estimates put the number of prisoners killed at around 8,000. On the 11th of April 1945, US troops freed the remaining prisoners who’d been left behind at Mittelbau-Dora.
The British Army liberated Bergen-Belsen on the 15th of April. Many of the “kapos” there had accompanied the internees from Mittelbau, and after liberation the inmates turned on their former overseers and killed about 170 of them on that day.
So, returning to the question I asked at the outset of whether Edward Lindenberger could have survived the brutal and inhumane conditions in Buchenwald, the answer is we don’t know given the absence of accurate record-keeping in the final days of the war. However, given the chaotic conditions that prevailed towards the end of WWII, the callous and barbaric manner in which prisoners were treated, the weakened and sickened state surviving internees would have been in, and the final paroxysm of atrocities the Nazis perpetrated as they were cornered, the answer is that he likely did not reach his 20th birthday.
VITAL STATISTICS FOR SAMUEL & CHARLOTTE BRUCK AND THEIR CHILDREN
NAME
(relationship)
VITAL EVENT
DATE
PLACE
SOURCE OF DATA
Samuel Bruck (self)
Birth
11 March 1808
Pinkus Family Collection (family tree for Samuel Bruck & Charlotte Marle)
