“You won’t leave here except as smoke throught that chimney”
Those are the words that Joe heard from an SS Guard via another prisoner. They were spoken as they marched past the crematorium on the evening of their arrival at Buchenwald. It was one of the first indications that this was indeed not a POW camp as they were expecting, but something far more grim and terrible. Everyday smoke poured from the chimney as the Nazis disposed of their victims of cruelty, starvation, overwork, disease, and execution. The stench was unbelievable and Joe Moser still shudders at the thought. He was certain it could be smelled six miles away in the town of Weimar, and to this day he still cannot stomach the smell of burnt bacon.
Below: Crematorium at Buchenwald in 1942, photo of cremation oven taken right after liberation by Margaret Bourke-White, and recent photo:
