Nightmare Memoir: A Book Review

Nightmare Memoir is a book by Claude Letulle and describes his four years as a prisoner of the Nazis during WWII. If there were ever a book to make me thankful of my life, this is surely one of them. Mr. Letulle lives in south Louisiana where my husband's family lives. The author, Mr. Letulle, was signing copies of his paperback book and several family members picked up a copy.

I saw it on the counter and decided to read it. The book is short but powerful. Mr. Letulle was a soldier for the French army. He was captured and spent four years as a prisoner. He worked on farms, mines, and in concentration camps. He shares his experiences in a way that moves the reader. I wanted to share just a few parts of this book with you.

Page 26:

Running through my mind continually were the possible tortures I might have to suffer once we reached Germany. I was absorbed in thought when a few guards came along and, faithful to their bestial habits, began to beat us. "Get up. Fast, fast!" they demanded. We had walked a few minutes when I felt a hand holding me by the collar. I turned around to face a guard, pointing his rifle at me. He told me to remove the bandages around my feet, and since disobeying him would mean death, I sat down on the wet ground and began to unravel the wrappings. I had hardly finished when another guard walked up with a piece of barbed wire in his hand. Before I imagined what he might have in mind, he beat my feet with the wire...

Claude struggled but managed to continue walking as the guards led the prisoners to a small town. In the town they packed dozens of men into cattle cars. They were packed so tightly they could not breathe and many men died and remained upright because there was no room.

While he worked in the concentration camp his job was to clean the torture room and he describes some of the atrocities he witnessed in the torture room.

Page 89:

"What are you going to do?" one [of the female attendants] asked the doctor. He replied, "I would like to see if repeated electrical charges to the testicles will sterilize him permanently. You will help me," he added, going to a closet. He returned with a wooden plank that held a generator and small electric motor.The generator had two long wires, each with a metal clip and spring. "Attach a clip to each testical," he said. The woman planted the attachments into the flesh. I watched her face, which contracted with pleasure. She was an image of the perfect sadist.

There are several tortures that Claude shares with the reader, but they are not appropriate to place in this venue.

Page 171
Claude remembers his role when the war between Germany and Russia became worse.

A truck drove the bodies to the pit we had dug and unloaded its cargo [dead Russian prisoners] as if it were dumping a load of stones. We were forced to go into the pit and line up the bodies, and it remains the most horrible experience I have had in my life. Some of their eyes were opened and seemed to be looking
at us reproachfully. In some cases, the skin had ruptured, leaking a putrid liquid as we walked over the bodies. I got out of the pit sick to my stomach and nearly out of my mind.

This book gave me chills to read. If you have any interest in the holocaust or what the Nazis did during WWII... this is definitely a book to pick up.