European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

They didn’t search us, but everything else.

All the straw mattresses were torn open and everything searched.

Whatever we had with us was all piled up in a heap in the yard.

They did not find anything.

But as they were looking for evidence

we had to line up in the corridor, 1 meter apart from each other, facing the wall.

Then we had to go into the cell.

There we had to get fully undressed and they searched us whether we had anything hidden.

I don’t know where you can hide anything if you don’t wear anything.

That was done by the Gestapo and it was another bitter experience.

You were not even a human being any more, not even as good as a fly.

Even them you let go occasionally so they can fly away.

Under arrest; end of the war

They knocked hard on the door on the 5th May at 11 o’clock in the evening: “Open up, open up!”

My father opened and they asked where I was.

I was lying in the living room, but I heard everything.

Then two or three came in and shouted: “Get up!”

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Get up and you will see then what’s going to happen.”

Of course I got up then.