DUPONT: Not on the initiative of anyone in the camp. These elements had nothing to do with the camp administration or the guards. I must make it clear that those whom I saw belonged to the Wehrmacht, whereas we were guarded by SS, all of them from the Totenkopf Division. Towards the end, a special use was made of them.
In the early months of 1945, members of the Gestapo came to Buchenwald and took away all the papers of those who had died, in order to re-establish their identity and to make out forged papers. One Jew was specially employed to touch up photographs and to adapt the papers which had belonged to the dead for the use of persons whom, of course, we did not know. The Jew disappeared, and I do not know what became of him. We never saw him again.
But this utilization of identification papers was not confined to the dead. Several hundred French internees were summoned to the “Fliegerverwaltung” and there subjected to a very precise interrogation on their person, their connections, their convictions, and their background. They were then told that they would on no account be allowed to receive any correspondence, or even parcels—those of them who ever received any. From an administrative point of view all traces of them were effaced and contact with the outside world was rendered even more impossible for them than it had been under ordinary circumstances. We were deeply concerned about the fate of these comrades. We were liberated very soon after that, and I can only say that prisoners were used in this way, that their identification papers were used for manufacturing forged documents.
M. DUBOST: What was the effect of this kind of life?
DUPONT: The effect of this kind of life on the human organism?
M. DUBOST: On the human organism.
DUPONT: As to the human organism, there was only one effect: the degradation of the human being. The living conditions which I have just described were enough in themselves to produce such degradation. It was done systematically. An unrelenting will seemed to be at work to reduce those men to the same level, the lowest possible level of human degradation.
To begin with, the first degrading factor was the way in which they were mixed. It was permissible to mix nationalities, but not to mix indiscriminately every possible type of prisoner: political, military—for the members of the French resistance movement were soldiers—racial elements, and common-law criminals.
Criminals of all nationalities were herded together with their compatriots, and every nationality lived side by side, so conditions of living were distressing. In addition, there was overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and compulsory labor. I shall give a few examples to show that prisoners were mixed quite indiscriminately.
In March 1944, I saw the French General Duval die. He had been working on the “terrasse” with me all day. When we came back, he was covered with mud and completely exhausted. He died a few hours later.