Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T15:24:39.144Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Léon Boutbien, France, biography

from Part III - Liberation: Dachau, April 29, 1945

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

Dorothea Heiser
Affiliation:
Holds an MA from the University of Freiburg
Stuart Taberner
Affiliation:
Professor of Contemporary German Literature
Get access

Summary

Léon Boutbien was born in 1915 in Paris. He became a doctor of medicine; he was arrested in 1943 and in July deported to Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp as a Nacht und Nebel prisoner. He was later evacuated from Erzingen, an external camp of Natzweiler-Struthof, to Allach, an external camp of Dachau, in a brutal forced march in April 1945. Here, Boutbien worked as a doctor until his liberation, as is also clear from the poem reproduced here, which was first printed in a brochure titled “Natzweiler Struthof.” After his liberation Boutbien published several books and, as a socialist, was involved for a time in French politics. He died in Lanloup, France, in 2001.

Léon Boutbien's poem refers toward the end to a very specific incident that occurred the day Dachau concentration camp was liberated, April 29, 1945. The incident is described in another source in the following way: “American shells, which were targeted at German anti-aircraft fire, hit the periphery of the Allach camp and the Jewish camp, wounding and killing some of the prisoners, who were waiting for their liberation. A Jewish doctor who was standing next to Dr. Boutbien during an operation met a tragic end in this way….”

Poème

Nous avons pas à pas descendu les gradins

La plaine est devant nous

Courbés sous notre fardeau

Le ventre creux

l'oeil hagard

le geste tremblant

Nous avons retourné la tête

Une tête vieillie

blanchie

usée

Le champ est couvert de grands nénuphars

de terre ocre et sale

éclaboussée de boue

les bombes

Le canon tonne au loin

la sirène épouvante

Si la mort est là, pour nous maintenant

qu'importe!

La montagne est loin

elle fuit, elle a dépouillé son habit

tué son chien

jeté son sac et son fusil

elle fuit comme un homme

qui a peur

tout simplement

La montagne est derrière nous

je l'aperçois au loin

elle reste toujours neigeuse

insensible

étrange.

Serait-ce ça la montagne!

Le train roule! J'ai froid

je frissonne

j'ai peur

L'air vibre, l'avion passe

il passe

Le train roule! Où allons-nous

je m'inquiète

dans un coin râle

un mort.

Type
Chapter
Information
My Shadow in Dachau
Poems by Victims and Survivors of the Concentration Camp
, pp. 205 - 211
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×