Grégory Cingal: "In the Nazi camp at Buchenwald, there was a better chance of survival if you were a communist."

BarcelonaIn August 1944, 37 Allied intelligence officers entered the Buchenwald concentration camp. They were destined to be executed, but three of them, with the complicity of the well-organized underground resistance within the camp, managed to escape by hiding among the sick on whom the Nazis were conducting experiments to find a vaccine against typhus. Frenchman Grégory Cingal, born in 1971, explores the story of these three men in the novel Les derniers sur la liste (The last on the list (in the Spanish edition by Tusquets, translated by Patricia Orts). The writer, who is also an archivist and translator, not only describes their adventure, their dilemmas, and the fate they met after leaving the camp, but also describes, in great detail, life and power struggles in a world of terror.

A lot happened in concentration and extermination camps. Why did you choose the escape of three officers?

— Because it is extraordinary. I first read it in an article by Modern Times, the magazine founded by Jean-Paul Sartre in 1945. The story was told by one of the protagonists of my book, Stéphane HesselIt was an escape, a great story of adventure and challenges, and at the same time, it shed light on the power struggles within Buchenwald. There are several versions, most of which contradict each other. It was difficult to understand and understand what really happened.

The story is very precise. It's like a mystery story, and the reader feels like they're in the middle of everything. How did you research it?

— I spent two years researching. I am an archivist and I classified the files of David Rousset [a Buchenwald survivor and Renaudot Prize winner with The concentrationnaire universe [The concentration camp universe], In 1946, I'm quite familiar with the archives at Buchenwald and the Pasteur Institute, because one of the protagonists is a scientist from that institution. I spent countless hours in both French and German archives. I wanted to achieve dramatic tension and a certain amount of suspense, but without inventing anything.

There's the escape of the three officers, but one of the novel's major themes is the clandestine organization within the camp and the power struggles among the prisoners themselves. To what extent did they influence daily life in the camp?

— They had a clear impact on all prisoners. To survive in the camps, you had to be young and healthy, but it was also important to enjoy the protection of those in power. At Buchenwald, the ones in power were the Red Triangles, the German communists.

At various points in the book, these powerful groups argue that avoiding conflict and unrest is more important than saving lives. Was order more important than saving lives?

— If their goal had been solely to save lives, they wouldn't have been sufficiently credible to the guards and could have lost power to the Green Triangles, the common criminals who had controlled the camp during the early years. The Green Triangles had imposed harsher conditions. There was always the danger of a shift in alliances, and it also depended on the individual's personality. There were corrupt and violent communists, and there was a certain tolerance because they were their own kind. However, in 1944, there was an opening toward other circles and nationalities.

You often talk about the corrupting violence in the countryside. To what extent does it extend everywhere?

— For the vast majority of deportees, the only way to survive was to try not to suffer this violence, that is, to think about themselves, to try to save their lives. Heroes are always a small minority; I think this happens in all totalitarian societies. When the Nazis occupied France, I'd say 10% were heroes of the resistance, another 10% became executioners, and the rest were trying to survive and adapt to the new situation.

In the book he brings out Jorge Semprún, who survived Buchenwald and left a literary witness. Among other things, Semprún explained that, as a political deportee, he perhaps had a better chance of survival than a Jew. A Jew had the crematorium open 24 hours a day; he knew his destiny was to die. And the crematorium wasn't the destiny of a political deportee. Nor were they locked up for the same reasons. Was it easier to survive as a political prisoner than a Jew or a homosexual?

— Jews and homosexuals, even Russians, were the most mistreated populations. The communists ruled Buchenwald, and there was a better chance of survival if you were a communist. Semprún had it easier. He had a privileged position. He did office work, not physical labor. He was a communist, but perhaps the most important reason he got the job he did was that he spoke German very well. Also in his favor was the fact that he was Spanish. The Spanish community at Buchenwald was small but often privileged because the German communists had fought in the Civil War.

To what extent do you think there were more efficient strategies for survival?

— It's a difficult question. In the book, I say that some fell asleep at dusk dreaming of their families. This helped them. Others tried to forget their past lives and make rural life their new normal because they despaired at the thought of everything they could no longer have. I said before that, in order to survive, men basically thought about themselves. I've read many testimonies, and I think it was a bit different with women. There was more solidarity.

In the book, you mention the subject of brothels in concentration camps. Is it a taboo subject?

— No, it's not a taboo subject. It's just that younger generations have forgotten it. Witnesses spoke from the beginning.

There are many witnesses from the camps, and many great books have been written. Can putting ourselves in the shoes of the victims help prevent this from happening again? Genocides continue to happen. We're seeing it in Gaza.

— David Rousset was one of the first to compare Nazi and Soviet camps and to create a commission against the camps and prisons in the former USSR, China, Greece, the French colonies, and Franco's Spain. Decades ago, Rousset warned that it could all happen again. My book isn't so much about putting yourself in the shoes of the victims as it is about showing heroic behavior in times as difficult as those experienced in a concentration camp. I wanted to explain how the deportees fought and how they resisted. With the rise of the far right, we need, more than ever, heroes like those at the Nazi camp of Buchenwald to resist.