European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

We had to stay standing until this person was found. Sometimes we spent whole nights outside.

Some people hid, some escaped and then we had to stand until the following morning, in summer, and winter.

The winters in Upper Silesia are very cold, terrible. We lost many men there.

Our days began at 4h00 or 5h00 with a first role-call.

They handed out a brew that they called herbata in our mugs,

which we should absolutely not lose, and which we could never wash. Then we left for work.

Yes, we thought of it. There were three or four of us. We tried to find ways of fighting, but it was practically impossible.

There was a room leader who was to keep control. There also were leaders for each building.

And there were also team leaders, themselves being deported prisoners.

Often they were Germans, Poles.

It was very difficult, very hard. We got lots of beatings.

In the beginning we thought we shouldn’t take that, but we soon saw that there was no way out, as life there was so terrible.

It was difficult to form a group.

Those of us that had been arrested as French resistance fighters were scattered.

They knew exactly who we were.

It was very different from the camp in Compiègne. There we were still active, we resisted, discussed, talked.

But here we were seperated and with all the block leaders, the Vorarbeiter, the team chiefs, the Kapos

it was extremely difficult, as they were very loose with their batons.

We were not necessarily amongst French people at all. Sometimes there were 2 or 3 French people in a group of 150 or 200 men.

Most of them were Poles. They did not like us very much.