Convois de la mort au départ d’auschwitz en janvier 1945 à destination du protectorat de Bohême-Moravie
This article analyses responses in the Czech Protectorate population to the evacuation transports from Auschwitz in January 1945. At the moment when the Red Army approached the territory where the Auschwitz camp complex was located, the Nazis decided to evacuate all prisoners to prevent them from be...
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| Auteurs principaux: | , |
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Sprog: | Français |
| Udgivet: |
2024
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| Online adgang: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Summary: | This article analyses responses in the Czech Protectorate population to the evacuation transports from Auschwitz in January 1945. At the moment when the Red Army approached the territory where the Auschwitz camp complex was located, the Nazis decided to evacuate all prisoners to prevent them from being liberated. The prisoners were evacuated on foot, and then loaded onto open train wagons and transported to the west, to one of the remaining concentration camps deep inside Germany. Several of the trains passed through the territory of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, stopping along the way, including in major towns. Thousands of Czech civilians directly witnessed the transit of the trains, saw the emaciated prisoners, and interacted with prisoners as well as with SS guards. Based on written testimonies collected from Czech civilians soon after the end of the war, and later in the 1970s, the article focuses on their responses as witnesses, helpers, and traitors. In this way it makes a major contribution to the study of the so-called bystanders’ responses to the Holocaust, as well as of the execution of the death marches in the last months of the war. |
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