European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

Then everything had to be done fast:

make the beds, have a wash, go to the toilet, which was in some sort of shed around the back.

Then the food was given out.

We got half a litre of soup, the daily ration of bread, a little bit of fat and jam.

Brown bread and white bread were mixed.

Then there was roll call; all high speed.

After that we went out to work, there we had to muster.

I used to be at the well draft most of the time.

There were about 500 prisoners and they were counted again.

We were counted X-times a day.

Afterwards in the moor, where we were working,

we were counted and around us was the cordon.

There was one of them sitting here and there, so they would have an overview.

In the evenings, we marched back around 5 o’clock.

We were counted again to check if all had come back.

After that we went back into the shack.

You always had to run to get your supper.

Sometimes there were stews, ‘Peluschken’ which were big beans

not everybody could take; or some other vegetable – those things.

A really bad thing was when there was roll call while the food was given out.