European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

And once the group was formed we would get our work.

That’s how we came together; there were ten of us Slovenians. Then we got our tools, saws, axes …

We were sent into the forest to cut down trees.

There was enough food while we were in Russian captivity.

Perhaps there wasn’t much bread. The Russians up in Siberia, in the taiga, they only cook ‘supa’ and ‘kasha’.

You’re probably wondering what ‘supa’ and ‘kasha’ are. ‘Supa’ is everything that is cooked and still fluid.

‘Kahsa’ is porridge; everything like mashed potatoes, solid foods.

We only got fish food there, which there was enough of, not much bread, but enough.

After a while, it was still winter, all the Slovenians and also Croatians

and other nationalities were all together according to the nationalities.

Maybe the Slovenians and Croatians were together …

First contact with the Soviet resistance

After some heavy fighting at Dnjepr Petrovski and at Orel in the hinterland of the German fighting line,

I came to the small village of Balakleja.

There I came to stay with a family. The parents had two daughters.

One was my age; the other was two years younger.

I collaborated well with these two. At the time I knew Slovene and a little Serbocroatian.

We had learned some in school. That’s how we communicated.

One morning the mother brought a picture, an icon of the Mother Mary.

I said mother in Russian to her – a little Russian, a little Slovene and a little Serbocroatian – and I asked her why she brings this picture.