POST 114, POSTSCRIPT—EDWARD HANS LINDENBERGER, A DISTANT COUSIN: DID HE SURVIVE BUCHENWALD?—HIS FATE UNCOVERED

 

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.

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POST 114—EDWARD HANS LINDENBERGER, A DISTANT COUSIN: DID HE SURVIVE BUCHENWALD?

 

In Post 114, I posed the rhetorical question of whether my remote cousin Edward Hans Lindenberger, born on the 27^th 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 27^th 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 11^th 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, 27^th of July 1925, confirming this was my distant cousin; this list established that Edward never reached his 20^th birthday as I surmised in Post 114. On this list, Edward is recorded as having died on the 29^th 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 29^th 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 7^th of February 1974, discussed above.

 

 

A third list, this one dated the 30^th 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 17^th 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 22^nd 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 27^th of January 1945 and the 23^rd 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 28^th of March 1945 in contrast with the date of the 29^th 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 30^th 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.