Part III - Liberation: Dachau, April 29, 1945

Summary

AS THE EXPERIENCE OF LIBERATION was confined to a brief space of time, the number of poems in this section is comparatively small. Yet these poems offer a crucial perspective for understanding the inner experience of those who survived to see liberation, affording occasional glimpses of how hard, after all the prisoners had gone through, a return to the world outside would be.

According to the last roll-call there were 32,335 prisoners remaining in Dachau on April 29, 1945.

Viktor Frankl described the experience of liberation from his personal perspective:

In describing the experiences of liberation, which naturally must be personal, we shall pick up the threads of that part of our narrative which told of the morning when the white flag was hoisted above the camp gates after days of high tension. This state of inner suspense was followed by total relaxation. But it would be quite wrong to think that we went mad with joy. What, then, did happen?

[…]

With tired legs we prisoners dragged ourselves to the camp gates.

[…]

“Freedom”—we repeated to ourselves, and yet we could not grasp it. We had said this word so often during all the years we dreamed about it, that it has lost its meaning. Its reality did not penetrate into our consciousness; we could not grasp the fact that freedom was ours.

[…]

Many days passed, until not only the tongue was loosened, but something within oneself as well; then feeling suddenly broke through the strange fetters which had restrained it.

[…]

Step for step, I progressed, until I again became a human being.