BALACHOWSKY: There were other visits also, and some German Red Cross
nurses visited that block in October 1944.
M. DUBOST: Do you know the names of German personalities who visited the
camp?
BALACHOWSKY: Yes, such personalities as the Crown Prince of Waldeck and
Pyrmont, who was an Obergruppenführer of the Waffen SS and the Chief of
Police of Hesse and Thuringia, who visited the camp on several
occasions, including Block 46 as well as Block 50. He was greatly
interested in the experiments.
M. DUBOST: Do you know what the attitude of mind of the prisoners was
shortly before their liberation by the American forces?
BALACHOWSKY: The prisoners of the camp expected the liberation to come
at any moment. On the 11th of April, in the morning, there was perfect
order in the camp and exemplary discipline. We hid, with extreme
difficulty and in the greatest secrecy, some weapons: cases of hand
grenades, and about two hundred and fifty guns which were divided in 2
lots, 1 lot of 100 guns in the hospital, and another lot of about one
hundred and fifty guns in my Block 50. As soon as the Americans began to
appear below the camp of Buchenwald, about 3 o’clock in the afternoon of
the 11th of April 1945, the political prisoners assembled in line,
seized the weapons and made prisoners of most of the SS guards of the
camp or shot all those who resisted. These guards had great difficulty
in escaping as they carried rucksacks filled with booty—objects they
had stolen from the prisoners during the time they guarded the camp.