From Dachau

In the morning, a larger convoy set out to unload prisoners from the Dachau camp in southern Germany. Another convoy continued the already ongoing transports from Sachsenhausen in Oranienburg. I accompanied five trips to Sachsenhausen during the following period. The journeys usually started around five in the afternoon and went via Lauenburg, Ludwigslust, Perleberg, and Neuruppin to Oranienburg, which was typically reached around one in the morning. Since loading generally did not begin until around four in the morning, one could get a few hours of sleep on the buses—unless air raids forced us down into the camp’s underground shelters.

As nearby Berlin was subjected to nightly bombing raids, visits to the shelter became routine. The camp commandant, Standartenführer Anton Kaindl, typically offered the officers’ mess as a place for officers, nurses, and accompanying Gestapo personnel to stay, and served us coffee on a few occasions alongside the midnight meals we brought ourselves. According to the commandant’s orders, loading had to take place under cover of darkness. The stated reason was that darkness concealed the operation from the rest of the camp, preventing unrest among the remaining prisoners. Additionally, the darkness provided protection from aerial observation and, presumably, from prying eyes.