Benno Hallauer

The German doctor Benno Hallauer had been at Fort Douaumont for two days. He had arrived as back-up for the medical teams which, day and night, cared for the numerous wounded soldiers assembled in the passageways of the fort. Despite the rudimentary living conditions and standard of hygiene, the fort was a safe refuge like an unsinkable ship in a storm.

On the morning of 8 May 1916, worrying shouts came from the lower corridors, calling the doctor. Then, shots rang out and suddenly, powerful blasts rocked the fort with their full force, sending out a terrible shock wave. The entire barracks shook! What had happened?

Shocked but still lucid, Hallauer rushed towards the location of the catastrophe, filled with a thick cloud of smoke. Able to see nothing, he tripped over bodies and then fell to the floor, asphyxiated by the gas. He was dragged out of the fort but went back in again, determined to save as many lives as possible. As the smoke cleared, he realised the extent of the catastrophe: alongside the screaming soldiers, hysterical as a result of the explosion, he found numerous bodies, lying alone or piled one upon the other, some in pieces, others intact as if they had suddenly been frozen by death. There were however survivors, and Benno Hallauer set about providing first aid and evacuating the injured. He gave his all and saved hundreds of lives.

After several hours of this exhausting work, Hallauer judged that the explosion had killed 700 to 800 men. In his opinion, it was a French shell depot on the lower floors that had exploded. The origin of the blast was uncertain: human error? Friendly fire between German soldiers who believed they were being attacked by the French?

Fort Douaumont still bears the scars of this catastrophe, but nowhere are Doctor Hallauer’s actions commemorated. Despite his courage, which saved German lives, he died at Auschwitz in 1943, murdered by the Nazis who could see him only as an enemy of the state and the “Aryan race” because he was a Jew. And yet he had served his country.