.Pdf of Arye Falk's testimony from Yad Vashem
Because any plan of resistance had to be hatched in complete secrecy, there exists today few documents created by underground resistance groups while they were in camps. Most documentation of resistance is based upon survivor testimony or memoirs. Such is the case with the testimony of Arye Falk, who witnessed an uprising at Buchenwald, a concentration camp near Weimar, Germany, just before its liberation in 1945. By April 9th of that year, when the uprising occurred, Soviet troops had liberated Auschwitz and the Allies were close to victory in Europe. Inmates had been collecting and hiding weapons since 1942 and, after using a hand-built radio transmitter to contact Allies, they stormed the watchtowers of the camps and killed the SS guards therein. On April 11th, U.S. troops liberated Buchenwald. Falk’s testimony points to the secrecy mandated by participation in an underground group: he acknowledges in the testimony that he “did not take part in that uprising because I had only been in the camp for a month or two and I was not a member of the organization.” He also recalls in the testimony a particularly poignant moment when, after liberation, inmates destroyed framed pictures of top Nazi officials, including Hitler.
Because any plan of resistance had to be hatched in complete secrecy, there exists today few documents created by underground resistance groups while they were in camps. Most documentation of resistance is based upon survivor testimony or memoirs. Such is the case with the testimony of Arye Falk, who witnessed an uprising at Buchenwald, a concentration camp near Weimar, Germany, just before its liberation in 1945. By April 9th of that year, when the uprising occurred, Soviet troops had liberated Auschwitz and the Allies were close to victory in Europe. Inmates had been collecting and hiding weapons since 1942 and, after using a hand-built radio transmitter to contact Allies, they stormed the watchtowers of the camps and killed the SS guards therein. On April 11th, U.S. troops liberated Buchenwald. Falk’s testimony points to the secrecy mandated by participation in an underground group: he acknowledges in the testimony that he “did not take part in that uprising because I had only been in the camp for a month or two and I was not a member of the organization.” He also recalls in the testimony a particularly poignant moment when, after liberation, inmates destroyed framed pictures of top Nazi officials, including Hitler.
