European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

It’s not the fear of the gun,

it’s realizing that you’re absolutely nothing to them.

These men in uniform, who looked like cockroaches,

who spoke a language you didn’t know because they weren’t even from your own country,

not only could keep you from going inside your home, but also had the power to kill you.

You were nothing to them; you were less than a bug.

It’s shocking.

Maybe we weren’t prepared for this,

but it was the reaction of a young girl who by then had already suffered from bombings,

from seeing soldiers being captured.

The older men, who had fought in the First World War, were talking about concentration camps.

My father used to tell us that we had to feed my brother otherwise these beasts would let him die of hunger.

We had to help them.

You suffer terribly from these things you’re facing.

In the end they are just like you.

You don’t know what their future will be, you risk your own life to help them.

We went on the street as we saw a soldier and we escorted him out of danger,

since there were road blocks everywhere.

Our old men even carried them on the crossbar of their bicycles for a while,

so that they could rest a little and stay out of trouble.