European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

“Since you come from the outside, what do people say? How long will the war last?”.

We always thought we knew everything, and we told them it would only last one or two more months,

but they replied it would go on for another two years. They were right, the war went on for two more years.

There were women who had to work on the railroad with shovels and pickaxes.

Sometimes they were even pregnant, and trust me, that’s hard work.

They didn’t do a headcount at night,

to see who was back and who wasn’t, they didn’t care if ten of us had died during the day.

Similarly, they did not expect us to work too hard, but we had to be at work every day.

In my camp, after we woke up at five,

we were supposed to get up and leave with the others,

but after that there was no control on what we did during the day.

And in any case, there was nowhere we could go.

You were simply expected to be at work, even if you didn’t do anything all day.

It was very cold where we were.

There were Russian women, as well as some men.

The harsh life of the camp

All they gave us to eat was one of those tall loaves of dark bread.

It was a large loaf, but you had to split it in five pieces.

That’s all you got until evening. Then at night we were given some slop, but no more bread.

That piece of bread was like gold for me: I used to eat it bit by bit, in order to savor it.