European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

Well, but people try to save themselves to the very end. And there were thorn bushes.

There was no chance to get inside.

But somehow they managed to push the bushes down with their guns.

One would hold the thickets and another one would get there underneath these sharp bushes.

So we got inside these bushes and reckoned no one would find us there.

And inside we made this kind of clearing large enough for us.

They chased all of us away from the bushes and took us prisoner.

I left as the last one.

What will my sisters say?! My mother?! Me taken prisoner!

I get out and I see the pile of our arms lying there, because these Vlasov guys told us to leave it there.

This pile lying there and my friends standing in a row

and the Vlasov guys tying their hands at the backs.

When I saw it, I hid my head and backed under this juniper thicket or something,

a low growing one and got underneath, kneeling.

My sten with a missing cartridge was between my legs,

I leant on my elbows and just waited for things to quiet down.

These Vlasov soldiers tied my friends and you could hear them yelling.

As they moved on, they plucked up their courage yelling: Hurrah! Hurrah! Besides, they all were totally drunk.

All. If anyone of them died we used to check what weapons they had and they always had their canteens filled with hard liquor.