European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

At first, we wondered what we were supposed to do – maybe get some coffee! –

then four or five of them came inside and started acting rough.

We immediately understood that we had to get up, even if we couldn’t understand the word.

They were really mean there, so I left and went to this other camp,

by a large river that had just been bombed, where we started to work.

I lost all contact with the two officers afterwards, since that place was basically a marshalling camp,

where 100-200 prisoners arrived by train every day.

I’ve been in four different German internment camps.

The last one I was in, where we were finally set free, was called Wickede and was in Westfalia, near Dortmund.

Normally people used to go to sleep immediately.

The camp I’ve been in for the longest period was in Hagen, again in Westfalia, near Dortmund, which was a very big city.

In Wickede, I had to get up at 5 in the morning, walk 2 km to the station,

travel by train for 70 km, then walk to the job I had,

and sometimes I would end up getting back at nine in the evening.

There were also nasty episodes, although not too often.

They might come to check on us at, say, 10:30 at night, so we would have to gather in the hallway.

One of us was sleeping in the corner, another one was ill, and they would send us all outside to do some exercise.

We wore wooden shoes that could easily be lost while walking down the three steps that led to each shack.

Then they would have us walk in circles for hours, sometimes under the rain.

Episodes of this kind were not too frequent, but definitely happened.