Buchenwald: Hell on a Hilltop: Murder, Torture & Medical Experiments in the Nazis' Worst Concentration Camp

Buchenwald Trilogy

by Flint Whitlock

How could a sophisticated,civilized nation like Germany could sink into an abyss of degradation that had no bottom? How could the SS rulers of Buchenwald torture, starve, and murder defenseless prisoners? And how could Nazi doctors use the camp as their personal, ghoulish laboratory? on a Hilltop is a comprehensive examination of the depths of officially sanctioned depravity into which the Third Reich sank.

Genres: Holocaust, History, World War II, Nonfiction

374 pages, Hardcover

First published August 18, 2013

About the author

As an art major, Flint Whitlock graduated from the University of Illinois in 1964 with a degree in Advertising Design, but has always been as much a writer as an artist. His love for military history began at an early age—fueled by his father, James, who served with the famed 10th Mountain Division in World War II. Flint also had an uncle who was a military policeman with the 1st Infantry Division and another uncle who served with the Navy in the Pacific.

Wanting to serve his country, Flint was commissioned a Second Lieutenant through the Reserve Officer Commission Training Program and entered active duty in December 1964. After attending the basic Air Defense Artillery officers' course at Fort Bliss, Texas, Flint earned his jump wings at Airborne school at Fort Benning, Georgia. He was then posted to a Nike Hercules battery in Baumholder, Germany. After two years in ADA, he received a branch transfer to the Quartermaster Corps and spent an additional year with the Supply and Maintenance Agency in Zweibruecken, Germany, where he was promoted to captain.


In 1968, Flint was transferred to South Vietnam, arriving one day before the Tet Offensive in January, 1968. He served for six months as a supply specialist at 1st Logistical Command Headquarters at Long Binh, northeast of Saigon, before being transferred to the 14th Inventory Control Center at the same post. He returned to the States in 1969 and spent a year with the 5th Infantry Division Supply and Maintenance Battalion at Fort Carson, Colorado, before resigning his commission and returning to civilian life.

After a stint as the Public Relations Director for the Denver Dynamos of the now-defunct North American Soccer League, he served as a copywriter, art director, and creative director for several major Colorado advertising agencies. While holding down these positions, he also continued to paint and write, becoming a locally prominent artist of the “photo-realist” genre. His attention to visual detail also translated to the written word, as he sought to convey the emotional and physical aspects of the soldier's experience.

To heighten his understanding of, and appreciation for, what the World War II combat soldier went through, he became involved in World War II re-enactment groups, in which he has been active for over 20 years. As a tribute to his father, he founded the 10th Mountain Division Living History Display Group in 1983 (www.tenthmountain.org). He is also a member of the 10th Mountain Division Foundation Board of Directors and the 10th Mountain Division Resource Center Advisory Committee.

Flint Whitlock lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife, Dr. Mary Ann Watson, a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at Metropolitan State College of Denver. They have three grown children: Gillian Lee Whitlock, an actress and make-up artist in Hollywood; Suki Montgomery, a psychologist and member of the counseling staff at Ithaca (NY) College; and Matthew Montgomery, an anesthesiologist in Denver. To keep in shape, Flint skis, referees soccer, and plays tennis.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

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Books on the Holocaust are the ultimate in the horror genre. Why? Because these events happened. So it was with some trepidation that I started to read this book, expecting to encounter the usual recycled lies about American tanks smashing through electrified fences, or blowing the locks off the gates to liberate the helpless inmates, or participation by units that were hundreds of miles away.

Instead, I found a well-researched, well-written account of the camp's history, its administration by a sadistic Nazi commandant and his twisted wife, the horrors endured by the inmates daily for several years, the self-liberation by its inmates as the American 6th Armored Division approached and discovered the camp, and the fates of the main players in the years after the war. The author is a respected military historian but writes in an everyman style-even entertaining in the most grotesque way. Flint Whitlock does not give us clear answers if there be any, but he does a fine job of describing humanity at its worse rather graphic and extremely sad at times.

Buchenwald was the epitome of cruelty. Nonstop degradation, around the clock brutality, starvation, hideous medical experiments on hapless victim's page after page it's all here. I will leave you with a few quotes to digest that I found were the reasons I read this book to learn more, and they are not pretty. If you want a book to remember what the holocaust was this is the one.

1.) "When a prisoner received twenty-five lashes with a cane, he had to bend over and stick his head in the SS toilet that was filled with excrement. After the punishment was completed, he was not allowed to wash off the excrement...had to run around covered with excrement for weeks." (p46)

2.)"This was a place where men were experimented on as human rats though they had 95 to 5 chances of surviving, men actually volunteered as guinea pigs for an extra slice of bread a day."(p320)

3.) American soldier 23-year-old Harry Snodgress after entering Buchenwald upon liberation visited the Buchenwald Commander's office. "There were lampshades made from the skin of Jews. In the crematorium they used the ashes of the inmates to fertilize the fields-the ashes of dead people. After an hour, it just became too much. I was stunned...just stunned. We don't even treat dogs like this."(p318)

These are just a few. The story of Buchenwald is not a pretty story. There is so many more stories that are even worse than the above so proceed with caution when reading it. I had to put the book down in places just to reflect and meditate. How will you react?

[David Skeen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book recounts the horrific story about the Buchenwald concentration camp. Whitlock describes the changing nature of Buchenwald through the war years, as the Nazis had to use prisoners to build weapons and underground factories because of their battlefield losses. By focusing on a camp that the US Army liberated, Whitlock could recount what American soldiers saw at the camp: the soldiers were outraged, seeing first-hand evidence of Nazi atrocities against Jews, political prisoners, and POWs. We hear from these soldiers in their own words. Whitlock also explains how the SS killed tens of thousands in the last weeks of the war by marching or transporting prisoners away from advancing Allied armies. Histories like this one are sadly needed, given neo-Nazi attempts to minimize the Holocaust.

[Donna Humble · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very informative book. At times I had to put the book down and let my mind rest. I appreciate all of the details but, it is very hard and depressing to absorb the horror and the fear that the prisoners lived with on a daily basis.

[Alexandria Beringer · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is very difficult to write about history and do it well in a manor that holds you attention and keeps you engaged in the storyline. Flint is one of those writers!

[Mr. Jason Bourne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some accounts you may not find/know from anywhere else

[Kenneth Barber · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book details the history of the Buchenwald concentration camp. The site was chosen and construction began as early as 1937. At its inception it was primarily used for political prisoners. The author traces its construction and its first commandants. Once the war started the camp began to house Jews and later Soviet prisoners of war. While technically not a death camp as it had no gas chambers, the death toll at the camp was significant. As the war progressed various sub camps were formed to utilize the slave labor of the of the inmates. One of the sub camps built various parts for the V-1 and V-2 rockets. Medical experiments were also performed on the inmates.
The author relies heavily on the testimony of surviving inmates and others involved in the operation of the camp. The author describes the horrible conditions in the camp and also the prisoners efforts to resist Nazi regime. This included sabotage of their work details as well as planning a revolt. The book also details the liberation of the camp, the reactions of the liberators, and the subsequent trial of the guards and camp hierarchy.