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Life Stories

More than 50 life and persecution stories, processed as concise audio features, illustrate the composition of the prisoner society of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Identification service photo of Nina Andreyevskaya

Nina Andrejewskaja (married name Schalagina) 13/10/1928 (Surasch, Soviet Union) – 15/10/2002 (Moscow, Russia)

“And there we stood, for as long as we could still hear the shuffle of the wooden clogs ...”
Picture of Kurt Ansin

Kurt Ansin 2/10/1921 (Bretleben, German Reich) – 22/3/1984 (Berlin, FRG)

A Sinto from the Magdeburg Holzweg camp
Portrait photograph of Cornelius Antonides

Cornelius Antonides 24/2/1911 (Meppel, Netherlands) – 6/9/1970 (Meppel, Netherlands)

De Meppelaars
Floréal Barrier portrait

Floréal Barrier 3/1/1922 (Trélazé, France) – 25/10/2015 (Cagnes-sur-Mer, France)

“Because I worked in the printing trade, I produced leaflets.”
Private photo of Pio Bigo. To the left of him is a friend

Pio Bigo 28/3/1924 (Druento, Kingdom of Italy) – 28/9/2013 (Piossasco, Italy)

“There were about fifty of us partisans ...”
Portrait photograph of Wilhelm Billotin

Wilhelm Billotin 22/4/1890 (Bergheim/Erft, German Reich) – 22/7/1943 (Buchenwald concentration camp)

Handed over by the judiciary for “extermination through labour”
Photo of Léon Blum sitting

Léon Blum 9/4/1872 (Paris, France) – 30/3/1950 (Jouy-en-Josas, France)

“... not so much a prison as a cellar or a grave.”
Private photo of Dietrich Bonhoeffer standing

Dietrich Bonhoeffer 4/2/1906 (Breslau, German Reich) – 9/4/1945 (Flossenbürg concentration camp)

“While all the powers of good aid and attend us ...”
Hermann Brill and three other men stand in front of the camp gate inscription "To each his own", which is attached to the inside.

Hermann Brill 9/2/1895 (Gräfenroda, German Reich) – 22/6/1959 (Wiesbaden, FRG)

“To tell the German people which measures are necessary.”
Private photo of Danuta Brzosko-Medryk

Danuta Brzosko (married Mędryk) 4/8/1921 (Pultusk, Poland) – 1/9/2015 (Warsaw, Poland)

A-levels exam in the prison yard
Portrait photograph of Willem Drees

Willem Drees 5/7/1886 (Amsterdam, Netherlands) – 14/5/1988 (Den Haag, Netherlands)

In Buchenwalds “Golden Corner”
Portrait photograph of Orest Dvornikov

Orest W. Dwornikow 26/12/1916 (Odessa, Ukraine) – 2000 (Cherson, Ukraine)

A doctor helps Ukrainian partisans
Portrait photograph of Franz Ehrlich

Franz Ehrlich 28/12/1907 (Leipzig, German Reich) – 28/11/1984 (Bernburg/Saale, GDR)

A BAUHAUS student
Portrait photograph of Éva Fahidi-Pusztai

Éva Fahidi-Pusztai 22/10/1925 (Debrecen, Hungary)

"We did not even say goodbye to each other."
Portrait of Hermann da Fonseca-Wollheim with son

Hermann da Fonseca-Wollheim 22/8/1893 (Hamburg, German Reich) – 13/5/1944 (Buchenwald concentration camp)

Grounds for custody: “friendliness to foreigners”
Portrait photograph of Naftali Fürst

Brothers Naftali and Shmuel Fürst 18/12/1932 (Bratislava, CSSR) 20/2/1931 (Bratislava, CSSR) – 12/3/2003 (Kibbutz Lehavot Haviva, Israel)

A family from Bratislava

Portrait photograph of Rolf Grashey

Rolf Grashey 14/11/1903 (München, German Reich) – 4/9/1937 (Buchenwald concentration camp)

“Shot while trying to escape”

Private photo of Feliks Grzeskowiak adjusting a machine

Feliks Grześkowiak 14/5/1921 (Wolsztyn, Poland) – 31/1/2012 (Nowy Tomyśl, Poland)

Illegal connections

Portrait of Maurice Halbwachs

Maurice Halbwachs 11/3/1877 (Reims, France) – 15/3/1945 (Buchenwald concentration camp)

“... deported at the last moment.”

Group shot of 27 men in priest robes

Józef Huwer 14/3/1895 (Rogow, Upper Silesia) – 9/1/1941 (Buchenwald concentration camp)

Director of the Bruczków Mission House
Portrait photograph of Władysław Koźdoń

Władysław Kożdoń 1/9/1922 (Chwałowice, Poland) – 28/7/2017 (Wrocław, Poland)

A Polish Boy Scout

Portrait photograph of Piotr Stefanovich Korshunkov

Piotr Stefanowitsch Korschunkow 12/7/1919 (Aleksandrowskoje near Stawropol, Soviet Union) – 5/4/2002 (Ust-Bargusin at Lake Baikal, Russia)

“You can only hope that your will and your body will be strong ...”
Portrait photo of Aleksandra Pavlovna Lavrik with a baby on her lap

Aleksandra Pawlowna Lawrik 18/7/1918 (Dnipropetrowsk, Ukraine) – 20/6/2009 (Dnipropetrowsk, Ukraine)

“... or else they would take my child or one of my parents.”

Group photo of four men including Otto Leischnig. In the background you can see a Buchenwald watchtower.

Otto Leischnig 3/8/1907 (Pockau, German Reich) – 30/5/1973 (Waldenburg, GDR)

“... is still an intractable Jehovah’s Witness”
Portrait photograph of Franz Leitner.

Franz Leitner 12/2/1918 (Wiener Neustadt, Austria) – 20/10/2005 (Höf-Präbach, Austria)

“With the children, solidarity was especially strong.“
Portrait photo of Pavel Lysenko

Pawel Lysenko, alias Alek Mironow 28/2/1919 (Prokopjewsk/Kemerowo, Soviet Union) – 28/6/1984 (Sysran/Samara, Soviet Union)

Hand grenades for the resistance
Private photo of Robert Maistriau. In the background a hedge

Robert Maistriau 13/3/1921 (Ixelles, Belgium) – 26/9/2008 (Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, Belgium)

Hold-up of a deportation train
Private photo of Aleksandr Makeyev. Another young man is standing to his left.

Aleksandr Makejew 21/11/1919 (Obwal, Soviet Union) – 3/1/1942 (Buchenwald concentration camp)

From a Red Army Soldier to a “Work Russian”
Portrait photograph of Henri Manhès

Henri Manhès 9/6/1889 (Étampes, France) – 25/6/1959 (Nice, France)

“Fondateurs du collectif français”
Group shot of Jacqueline Marié. To her right are her mother and brother, in front of them sits her father at a desk

Jacqueline Marié (married Fleury) 12/12/1923 (Wiesbaden, German Reich)

“Without the women, the résistance wouldn’t have been what it was.”

Portrait photograph of Günter Pappenheim

Günter Pappenheim 3/8/1925 (Schmalkalden, German Reich) – 31/3/2021 (Zeuthen, Germany)

The Marseillaise – a “subversive attitude”
Portrait photograph of Marcel Paul

Marcel Paul 12/7/1900 (Paris, France) – 11/11/1982 (L‘Île-Saint-Denis, France)

“Fondateurs du collectif français”
Portrait photograph of Anna Peczenik

Anna Peczenik 9/2/1911 (Sofia, Tsardom of Bulgaria) – 12/1944 (Buchenwald concentration camp)

A nurse in the international brigades
Portrait photo of Maurice Perchuk

Maurice Pertschuk 31/7/1921 (Paris, France) – 29/3/1945 (Buchenwald concentration camp)

A British agent in the French underground
Identification service recording of Peter Wilhelm Pollmanns

Peter Wilhelm Pollmanns 1/4/1899 (Düsseldorf, German Reich) – 2/8/1942 (Buchenwald concentration camp)

“In his case, a particular push to get him to work seems called for!”
Portrait photo of Hildegard Reinhardt

Hildegard Reinhardt (married Franz) 26/2/1921 (Tübingen, German Reich) – 7/5/2013 (Deislingen, Germany)

“I came back without children, without anything ...”
Portrait photo of Farida Saliksyanova

Farida Saliksjanowa 23/5/1920 (Moscow, Soviet Union) – 28/10/2020 (Moscow, Russia)

Female soldier behind enemy lines
Portrait photograph of Gilberto Salmoni

Gilberto Salmoni 15/6/1928 (Genoa, Kingdom of Italy)

The last transport from Fossoli
Portrait of Mafalda of Hesse, Princess of Savoy

Mafalda of Hesse, Princess of Savoy 19/11/1902 (Rom, Kingdom of Italy) – 27/8/1944 (Buchenwald concentration camp)

“... bombs fell very close to us ...”

Portrait photograph of Svend-Aage Schaldemose-Nielsen

Svend-Aage Schaldemose-Nielsen 16/5/1900 (Frederiksborg, Kingdom of Denmark) – 26/11/1944 (Buchenwald concentration camp)

Police against the occupiers

Portrait photo of Felicia Karay.

Felicija Schächter 26/1/1927 (Kraków, Poland) – 9/3/2014 (Rishon Leziyon, Israel)

“... between grenades and poems.”
Portrait photo of Wolfgang Schieweg

Wolfgang Schieweg 1/9/1919 (Leipzig, German Reich) – 4/2/1974 (Leipzig, GDR)

“Bash the Hitler Youth wherever you find them.”
Jorge Semprún standing at the lectern with country flags behind him.

Jorge Semprún 10/12/1923 (Madrid, Spain) – 7/6/2011 (Paris, France)

A Spaniard in the French résistance
Group photo of the male parts of the von Stauffenberg nuclear family. Alfred and Alexander sitting, Berthold and Claus standing behind.

The Von Stauffenberg Family Als Himmlers Geiseln in der Isolierbaracke

“Sippenhaft”

Portrait photo of Rudi Supek

Rudi Supek 8/4/1913 (Zagreb, Kingdom of Hungary) – 2/1/1993 (Zagreb, Croatia)

"Naš glas" Unsere Stimme
Portrait photograph of Ernst Thälmann

Ernst Thälmann 16/4/1886 (Hamburg, German Reich) – 18/8/1944 (Buchenwald concentration camp)

Shot to death in the crematorium
Portrait photograph of Jindrich Waldes

Jindřich Waldes 29/6/1876 (Nemyšl, Bohemia) – 1/7/1941 (Havanna, Cuba)

A Czech entrepreneur – blackmailed and expropriated
Passport photo of Max Windmüller

Max Windmüller 7/2/1920 (Emden, German Reich) – 21/4/1945 (near Cham in the Upper Palatinate, German Reich)

“... to fight to the end.”

Portrait photograph of Martin Wolff

Martin Wolff 24/9/1894 (Aurich, German Reich) – 14/3/1942 (NS-Tötungsanstalt at Bernburg), German Reich)

Reason for arrest: owning a bicycle

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