Differences Among Different Men and Women in the Roles They Played in Buchenwald
The differences and similarities among different genders and races and the roles they played within Buchenwald represent a complex dynamic of power that existed in Buchenwald, and additionally, a somewhat untraditional role for women through the camp’s history.
Buchenwald was in itself a complex camp system, with a large variety of subcamps that were formed throughout its history and oftentimes only lasted a short time for some project or the like (“Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA)” 297). However, there were two subcamps that were not for small projects, and those were the Abteroda camp for men in Abteroda (Thüringen) and the Abteroda camp for women in Abteroda (Thüringen) that were created in 1944 in response to a more demanding war effort (“Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA)” 300-301).
Although men and women during the 20th century often played vastly different roles in society, with women tending to be caretakers and the men being the breadwinners of the households, within the concentration camp of Buchenwald this dynamic was pushed to the side. One example of this is the subcamp system that existed in Abteroda. In Abteroba, it was not only the men who worked; women were also forced to work. Before we discuss the work women did in Abteroda, though, we should take a look at what men did in Abteroda.
In 1944, the war production for Germany needed to severely ramp up, and thus, great effort was put towards these camps to create munitions, equipment, and the like (“Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA)” 297-298). The men’s subcamp of Buchenwald in Abteroda came to an agreement with BMW to allow BMW to rent the male workers of the Abteroda camp to create aircraft engine parts. At BMW’s factories, they were worked until they could no longer work, after which they would be sent back to the main camp of Buchenwald and replaced by non-ill men. Most of the men were French, Russian, German, Italian, and Polish, according to the USHMM (“Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA)” 300). Many of these German prisoners were likely brought here as a result of military insubordination (“Certificate of Suspension from the German Army, Issued in Essen for Rudolf Frenkel…” 1). However, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly how many of these German soldiers were brought there because of military insubordination. Overall, the conditions and treatment in this subcamp were very demanding--there is a lack of information on the brutal acts carried out here and to what extent they were carried out. However, that being said, the inmates were watched almost constantly by four guard towers that loomed over the barracks (“Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA)” 300).
The women were not subjected to much better treatment. In fact, they were expected to work in a very similar way. The women’s camp in Abteroda had reached the same agreement with BMW as the men’s camp in Abteroda had reached. BMW would “rent” inmates for 4 Reichsmark a day. Instead of creating aircraft engine parts, though, women created chemicals for fuel and the like, called “blasting agents” (“Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA)” 301). One prisoner of the women’s camp in Abteroda said they were not simply taken back to the main camp of Buchenwald when they were sick; they were expected to work through it, even with diseases like tuberculosis and dysentery. Additionally, they had to work in extreme weather conditions, which may be different for the women than the men (“Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA)” 300-301). The men worked in underground and aboveground factories, but there’s no word of the men working outside, so the women may have faced even graver challenges in this regard than men (“Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA)” 300). Additionally, the women were paid as unskilled workers compared to men, who had the chance to be “rented” for a greater price if they were considered “skilled” workers (“Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA)” 300-301).
Aside from their roles in work, the women played roles in each other's lives. Women tried to support one another as best as they could, singing songs and telling stories with one another. However, these bonds were not multinational, with lines dividing the women by nationality in whom they would readily support the most (“Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA)” 301). The men, however, seemed more willing to bond across national lines to an extent, relying more heavily on their position as a prisoner within the camp. Take, for example, John Watson. He was a United States Army soldier who was arrested in Paris; however, when he and others were arrested, they were wearing civilian clothing. As a result of this, they were considered “political prisoners” and sent to Buchenwald in 1944. He describes the situation as extremely challenging:
“When we got to Buchenwald, they told us off the boxcar, herded us like cattle into an area. Then, we slept on the cobblestones...That’s where we slept on the cobblestone for ten days...the only food we had was a bowl of soup, and other times it had worms in it. We ate the worms too.”
Throughout this experience that lasted around two to three months, John Watson banded together with other men deemed as political prisoners to survive Buchenwald, and with hardly any Americans in the camp (only 78 confirmed after the war), John and men of other nationalities supported each other (“VHA Online” 5 June 2006). So, although, there were some differences in the way that men and women supported each other in Buchenwald, in the end, prisoners of both sexes tried to bring one another up, whether that was through nationality or prisoner faction.