Larry J said:

>Going from Buchenwald to Stalag Luft III was like "going from
>hell to heaven."

It was extremely rare for an Auschwitz prisoner to end up in Buchenwald (Auschwitz prisoners were supposed to die there). However I recall reading comments by one prisoner who had that experience. He mentioned something to the effect that Buchenwald was like a holiday camp compared to Auschwitz. Lots of people died in Buchenwald since it was a horrible place but it wasn't intended as an extermination center like Birkenau or Treblinka.

The SS ran places like Birkenau and Buchenwald. The SS as Uebermenschen felt they were not bound by the usual rules governing human behaivor (a bit like al Qaeda).

Gary