A witness to his time
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8 Sch Schrade, Karl Zürich (Schweizer) 17.4.96 19.10.34
8 Sch Schrade, Karl Zürich (Swiss) 17 April [18]96 19 Oct. [19]34
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Carl Schrade’s suspicion that no one would believe a supposed »criminal« was confirmed during the Flossenbürg Main Trial. When he appeared before the court as a witness, the defence cast doubt on his credibility. They repeatedly asked him why he had been arrested and about the colour of the triangle he had to wear in the camp.
However, Carl Schrade stood up for himself and emphasised that he had been »a victim of fascism just like hundreds and millions of others«.
Source: KZ-Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg
Presumably in the period shortly after liberation, Carl Schrade began to record his experiences and recollections of his time in Flossenbürg camp:
»I’m no writer – readers will soon notice that – and it was never my intention to write a literary work. This book will undoubtedly be the only one I ever write. But given that I spent eleven years of my life in German concentration camps and had become very familiar with the set-up of these camps even before the war, my comrades and I considered it a duty to leave behind this testimony for future generations.«
This is how Carl Schrade begins his account.
It was above all his friends who encouraged him to write, not only to leave behind a testimony for future generations, but also to work through what he had experienced.
Carl Schrade presents his recollections in great detail. At times it appears as if he were back in the witness box at the trial listing the perpetrators’ crimes. His account is coloured by his experiences at the Flossenbürg Main Trial. It is evident how much the lawyers’ mistrust and doubts have got to him. Coupled with this is the fact that only a fraction of the SS men were even tried at all. Those who were convicted generally received lenient sentences. Schrade writes:
»I was most impressed by the solemn ceremony and fairness of the judges […]. In some cases, the sentences were spot on. Unfortunately, in other cases a degree of leniency meant that genuine murderers managed to slip the noose. Their victims were not so lucky.«
Carl Schrade spent eleven years in five concentration camps. Eleven Years is also the title of his memoir, the memoir of a man who was persecuted and incarcerated by the Nazis as a supposed »career criminal«.
Carl Schrade did not want to stay in Germany after liberation. After testifying at the trial, in July 1946 he went directly to Switzerland, where he spent the rest of his life. He initially worked as a commercial employee, and later as a travel agent. He failed in his attempts to be recognised as a victim of National Socialism. The authorities rejected his compensation claim in 1958 and closed the case. In their eyes he was still classed as a »career criminal« and was therefore not a victim of National Socialism.
It is unclear exactly when Schrade wrote his memoir as the original manuscript has gone missing. The surviving French-language manuscript dates from the 1950s and has the handwritten title Livre de Carl (Carl’s Book).
Source: KZ-Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg
Carl Schrade’s memoir remained unpublished during his lifetime. He died in Zurich in November 1974 at the age of 78.
The memoir was not published until 2011, when it appeared in French. The German edition came out three years later. Schrade’s personal testimony »Eleven Years: a Report from German Concentration Camps« is one of the few surviving documents by people who were persecuted and incarcerated as »career criminals«.
| The SS (»Schutzstaffel«) under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler was envisioned as an elite paramilitary organisation of the National Socialist state. With Himmler’s takeover and reorganisation of the police, the SS became the regime’s central instrument of terror. In 1934, it was given control over all concentration camps. The Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), formed in 1939 as the planning centre for crimes in German-occupied Europe, was subordinated to it. |