BREENDONCK LA-MORT- Early Testimony of Brindonk Camp Inmate Edgard Marbix - Copy with Author's Dedication

BREENDONCK LA-MORT- Early Testimony of Brindonk Camp Inmate Edgard Marbix - Copy with Author's Dedication

BREENDONCK LA-MORT by Edgard Marbaix - published by P. de myttenaere, Brussels, 1944. From the only, and earliest, evidence of what happened in the Brandonck camp in Belgium. Copy with author's dedication on title page: "Na počest Annie, gratuluji. Na dobré dny Edgard Marbaix" -" Annie's honor, blessing to good days. Edgard Marbaix".  The book - accompanied by difficult drawings describing the horror of the camp by Wilchar.

At the beginning of the book the author writes: "This book is a simple description of our imprisonment in the Breendonck-lcz-Wil-lebroeck concentration camp, in the province of Antwerp. I have no intention other than to relate - as faithfully as possible - to everything we saw, heard, suffered there". And dedicates the book to his friends to the camp who perished, and writes briefly the manner in which they were found dead and the exact date. In his testimony, he tells his story, starting with his capture and bringing him to the camp. It is interesting to note that apart from the harsh descriptions of daily life in the shadow of death, Edgard shares at length the judgment, thought, and deliberation he had during the days he was imprisoned in the camp in countless situations. For example, who to connect with in the camp, how to buy the trust of the SS commanders, whether to show a happy face even when it is difficult, or the opposite to show a hard face and perhaps gain mercy, etc. At one point he was debating whether to join a group of partisans who had planned to flee the camp, but eventually decided to stay for fear of being caught. One of the difficult situations he describes in the book is the execution of his friends in a basement near the camp, when the Nazis forced him to be present and watch it, and more.

Breendonk was a fortified military base for the Belgian army between the cities of Antwerp and Brussels in Belgium. During the German occupation of Belgium during World War II, it served as a detention camp, where Jews from the Belgian community were also imprisoned. On September 20, 1940, the first prisoners arrived at the fort. Belgian communists, members of the underground, hostages captured by the Germans, Jews from the Belgian community and also criminals were imprisoned there. In the first year of the camp, the Jews had about half the population of its prisoners. They were held in it separately from the other prisoners. Among others, Rabbi Shlomo Ullman, the chief rabbi of the Belgian Jewish community, and the heads of the Belgian Jewish Association were imprisoned in the fortress. The prisoners stayed in the fort for an average of about three months before being sent to concentration camps in Germany, Austria and Poland. The prisoners suffered from harsh living conditions, starvation, deprivation of medical care and cruel treatment by the camp staff, and they were enslaved; The Germans also conducted interrogations, torture and executions by hanging. Various 'political' prisoners were interrogated in the camp under severe torture. The first German commander of the fort, Philip Schmitt, was prosecuted in Belgium in 1949, convicted, sentenced to death and executed in 1950.

104 p. 18 cm. Cover illustrated with a drawing of a pulley wearing an SS hat, grabs a whip in its teeth. The back of the cover is detached. Good condition.