Dachau inmate uniform, and the story of "the train of death", 7909

[Jean-Loup]

BORING INTRO: ( This thread is a follow up of a thread from one year ago where I posted photos of a tunic belonging to a survivor of Dachau. The old thread is here: http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ghlight=dachau
I was maybe a bit naive to post photos of the tunic last year without having done more research into the tunic... Anyways, last week, I got more information about the original owner of my tunic, that I will post in this thread. The owner is listed in the book "Le train de la mort", or "The train of death" by Christian Bernadac. The story of this train is so amazing that I will start by briefly resuming what is written in the book, before presenting you the tunic and additional info. What is written below is mostly based on the book "Le train de la mort", as well as on info provided by the familly of the owner of the tunic. The book "Le train de la mort" is exelent by the way, written with many extracts of accounts of people who were in the train. I would advise anybody with an interest in humanity to read it)


Clément means "mercifull" in French, and it is this word that was chosen to name a child born in Nice, France, in 1904. I will keep the familly name private.
In 1944, Clément had a familly of his own, and Clément and his son were both arrested by the Gestapo in February 1944, in the Var region, near Nice. I am not sure yet what their crime was, but it was related to resistance activity.
The son managed to somehow escape from the hands of the Germans, but the father was put in the Beaumettes prison in Marseille. He was then sent to a camp in Compiègne, near Paris. This was the camp from which the convois left for Germany and the concentration camps.

[Jean-Loup]

In the camp at Compiègne, there was a mixture of people from all origines. Most prisonners were French, but there were also some Spaniards, Belgians, Poles, Russians, etc.
The reasons they were prisonners were also very variable. Many had been members of the resistance, but there were also many common criminals, some hostages, some inocent, etc.
On July 1st 1944, 2166 inmates of all origines were selected to be sent to Dachau, north of München, the next day, in what was to be the biggest convoy of prisonners ever to depart Compiègne. Clément was amongst those selected to leave.
On the morning of July 2nd, the 2166 men were marched to the Compiègne train station, where train number 7909 was waiting for them.

[Jean-Loup]

The train was composed of many different models of cars. The prisonners were warned that any attempt to escape would lead to 10 people being shot. Anybody hidding a knife or tool would be shot as well as the man at each side of him. Of course, many men still managed to hide items.
100 men were odered into each car, except in the last car. The men were packed extremely tightly, with not even enaugh room for everybody to sit down at the same time. All the openings in the train cars had been borded up but two on each car. These two openings were covered with barbed wire.

[Jean-Loup]

Now most of us have heard of these trains one thousand times, but I had never actualy taken the time to imagine what the condtions were like inside.

In the month of july, it was obviously extremely hot, and the heat was immediately unberable in the train cars packed with 100 men. The train was going very slowly, and often halting for hours at a time, so not much air could circulate through the windows.

In some cars there was a tin can to act as a "toilet", and in others there wasnt. People were obliged to urinate on those next to them, and many of the prisonners having disenteria, they were also forced to defecate on themselfs or directly on to the floor.

Each car had a small reserve of water that was quickly used up. Most men got completely undressed to help stand the unberable heat. Fights quickly started to arise between inmates, particularly the common criminals, who were locked up next to idealists and intellectuals.

Soon enaugh, unimaginable chaos irrupted. Men started dying where they were sitting, and others lost their minds and started fighting with those next to them. Knives and weapons started being pulled out of their hidding places, and prisonners brutaly murdered each other. Some people who were relatives from the same famillies killed each other in their desperate strugle for life. In their weakened condition, the simple effort required to be in a fistfight could cause a person to die within the following minutes.

The exact type of car that the prisonners were closed up in now became very important. In cars with slightly larger windows, or more space, nobody died. In most cars 10 to 30 people died or were killed. One car in the convoy was made out of metal, making the temperature inside more unberable then in the other cars: by the time the train arrived at Dachau, 99 of the men in it were dead, with only one young man surviving.

The train would often halt for long hours on the tracks. Occasionaly, peasents working in the fields managed to give bottles of water to the prisonners, giving them relief, but also causing violent fights. Inmates threw messages out of the window, in the hope that someone would find it and send it to their familly.

Inside some cars, the men were now walking nacked on dead bodies, covered in human waste and blood, and desperate for water. What had been a group of civilised men with strong comeradship and a comon hatred for nazism was changed within a few hours to a mass of living dead ready to do anything to survive.

The convoy finaly arrived at Dachau on July 5th, after 3 days of traveling. By then, 536 Men were dead, with 1630 survivors left. Clément was amongst the survivors.

The photo below apparently was actualy taken on july 5th at Dachau, and shows the very train Clément was on, being emptied of bodies.

[Jean-Loup]

The spectacle of the trains arrival is litteraly hell on earth.

[Jean-Loup]

I dont know much more about how Clément managed to survive being in Dachau, but in 1945, he came home, with his uniform from the camp in his posetion. He took the photo below as a souvenir, and died in the following months.

[Jean-Loup]

Cléments son kept his fathers uniform (two tunics, one cap and one set of pants), and gave it to a friend of mine a few years ago. My friend divorced and moved, so sold most of his collection. However, he preciously kept these items.
After me insiting a few times, he consented to selling one of the two tunics last year, and ended up selling me the cap and pants this year.

Here is a photo of the entire set. It is composed of two tunics made of HBT material, and one pair of pants and a cap made of thick and reversible cloth. The HBT material is much lighter in color, and this difference in color between the tunic and pants is clearly visible in the period photo of Clément.

[Jean-Loup]

This is the first tunic I had bought last year (I now exchanged it for the other tunic).
Its only insignia is a dutch volunteer badge converted to a french flag, with what is apparently Cléments serial number written on it, though the last number is unreadable.
The buttons are German trouser type buttons.

[Jean-Loup]

In the lining of the tunic, a pencil and pieces of paper were found in a secret pocket.

[Jean-Loup]

The second tunic also has a dutch SS volunteer shield added as a french flag; and also has a red triangle sewed on, and the serial number 76615.
The buttons are German tunic type buttons, with all but one marked "T&G" at the back.
I have an SS Totenkopf button in my collection, and I noticed it is also marked T&G. Maybe some SS collectors can comment on this?

[Jean-Loup]

Inside the tunic, a sleeve taken from an unknow type of uniform has been sewn in as a makeshift pocket. Can anybody identify the origin of the sleeve?

[Jean-Loup]

The badges on my tunic, compared with the representation of badges of the tunic of Jean-Charles Panchetti, who was also on the train of death of July 2 to 5th 1944.
As you can see the number is 993 higher then the number on Cléments tunic, which is logical considering 1630 men arrived at Dachau on that same convoy.
Note that the prisoner at bottom right is clearly wearing HBT pants, but a thick material tunic.

[Jean-Loup]

Clément was clearly wearing the second tunic on the photo from 1945 (the reason why I exchanged the first tunic for the second with my collector friend).
Note the thiner stripes and lighter color of the HBT tunic compared to the rest of his clothes.

[Jean-Loup]

Here is view of the cap and pants made of thick material. Note the pants also have the number 76615 sewn on to them.

[Jean-Loup]

The inside of the cap.