European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

for they were worried the partisans would do something to them otherwise.

On the 20th came the order for the partisans to leave and retreat across the border.

That was bad luck for us because we lost our support.

Horrible conditions in prison

Around 40 to 45 women were in one cell with 10 beds.

The others had to sleep next to them, or three in one bed, or on the floor.

Well, we were so many.

We only had one pot for the loo,

and in the morning there was everything in there,

and you can imagine what it looked like then.

Nobody brought in different straw mattresses.

With the food it was just the same.

In the morning it was a thin soup or coffee, which you couldn’t even smell – that was tea;

at 10 am we got a dry piece of bread for the whole day.

For dinner there was soup again,

with some lentils, oats or

whatever was left over from the stalks of cabbage, which you couldn’t even chew.

That was our lunch.

In the evening it was coffee again.

In prison