Letter from Vincent Chatel

to Jayne Fox, Holy Cross Web Editor, concerning the collection

Dear Mrs Fox, 

My name is Vincent Chatel, and I'm living in Belgium. I'm a child of 
survivor. With Chuck Ferree, WW2 veteran and Liberator, I'm co-author of 
the web site "The Forgotten Camps". I thank you for including our site in 
your Holocaust Links Page and I'll include your excellent web site in our 
recommended Holocaust resources. 

I have visited your pages containing images of the liberation of 
Buchenwald. Here are some informations about the photos and survivors. In 
fact, some photos were taken in Nordhausen Concentration Camps, a sub 
camp of Buchenwald. This camp was liberated by the 104th US Infantry 
Division on April 12th, 1945.

The images of Nordhausen liberation are:
     - "Look"
     - "Ill"
     - "Inmates"
     - "Sorrow"
     - "Gone
     - "Starved"
 
The camp of Nordhausen was a huge complex of installations and hangars 
made of concrete. The ruins you can see in the background of these images 
are the remains of these hangars. On April 3th, 1945, Nordhausen was 
bombed by the US Air Force. Since the camp was installed in concrete 
buildings and hangars, the US Air Force thought that it was a munitions 
depot of the German Army. This effective bombing killed a great many of 
helpless inmates because the SS forced them to stay in the hangars which 
were set ablaze by the bombs. 

Some of the survivors on these pictures ("Ill", "Sorrow") were also 
filmed in a US army documentary filmed during the liberation of 
Nordhausen by US War Correspondents. I have a copy of this documentary on 
video tape. This film was shown as proof during the Nuremberg Trial, as 
well as other films filmed during the liberation of several other 
concentration camps (Penig, Leipzig, Hadamar, Breendonck, Dachau, 
Buchenwald, Mauthausen, ...). 

There are also some photos of the liberation of Nordhausen in the web 
site of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum web site:
http://www.ushmm.org/uia-bin/uia_form/photos (enter 'Nordhausen' as 
keyword). Some survivors on these photos are identical as the ones on yours. 

Sincerely, 
Vincent Chatel - Belgium 

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Please visit these Holocaust Informational Web Sites: 
The Forgotten Camps - Les Camps Oublies
English Version: http://forgottencamps.by.net
French Version:  http://campsoublies.by.net