Approaching Russians

That night after we were locked up, there were many unusual noises.  What little we could see from our window didn’t explain the noise, but when dawn came, the guards were gone, the dogs were gone, no guards in the towers, and the doors of the barracks were unlocked.

I went with some of the guys to the officers’ quarters.  Everything small was gone.  There was a radio turned on, but the only thing we could get that we understood was an appeal for help.  Over and over we heard “This is Prague, Czechoslovakia, calling the Allies for help.”  This appeal went out all day.

From our camp we could see out onto the North Sea.  We could see people out on the water in boats, mostly small row boats with women and children and old men just sitting out there terrified.  They knew the Russian Army was coming.  The Germans were absolutely terrified of the Russians.  These people feared for their lives and sat out there, I am sure, not knowing if their homes would still be there to come back to, if they lived through this day.

Then, we thought what if the population of Barth think of our camp as protection.  We rushed to lock our gates.  We hadn’t enough food for ourselves and no possible way that we could do anything for them.  We were lucky.  The people came very soon, and although they begged to come into the camp, we turned them away, and finally they were all gone.

Some of us walked out of the camp just to look around.  I went out by myself and wondered while I was doing this should I just keep going.  But then, I thought what if I got stopped by soldiers of any nationality.  How could I convince them of my status as an American POW.  What would they do, perhaps just shoot me.  There wouldn’t be a chance.  I was torn between taking a chance or not, and I let myself choose not to run.  I knew what I had here in the camp.  I knew that if we were, and I was sure we would be, overrun by the Russians, we would be recognized as POW’s and surely turned over to the Americans.  So I walked back to the camp.

I passed an old couple standing by their barn.  They were holding each other and crying.  They had their cow in the barn.  The noise of battle was gone.  It was quiet, so quiet that it was fearful.

When I got back into the camp, some guys I knew just had come back from a tour of the area.  They displayed loot they brought back, women’s jewelry, some German money.  I was appalled.  I had always been so sure our guys wouldn’t do anything like this.  They claimed they just pointed at the stuff that the German civilians had after they had walked uninvited into their homes, and the women just gave them anything they pointed at or anything they took, gave it to them in fear.  The guys who did this had no compassion and some of them I thought had been friends of mine.

About noon the Russian army started to appear.  The first evidence of them were soldiers on horseback.  They galloped along on huge horses.  These soldiers wore many medals which bounced against their chests.  We were being liberated, but we weren’t sure.  There wasn’t any wild display of joy.  There was only quiet compliance.

Within an hour there were Russians everywhere.  We stood around and watched.  None of them took over the guard towers, but the gates were closed.  They rounded up the four of us who had been camp leaders in the camp before this one, and I was one of them.  This gave me some worry, but it was only to make lists of all the American POW’s.

We were put to work in the departed German officers’ office, and from their records the Russians wanted a completed list.  We worked all night at this list.  It seems so vague to me now.  I was tired and hungry.  We only had the remains of our Red Cross box and nothing from the cook house.  It had been stripped of any supplies.

Morning came, and we finished.  I couldn’t sleep in my bunk, it would have been too noisy.  I found the gate open so I wandered out to a field.  It was a warm day and the grass was dry.  It was spring and a lovely morning.  I just lay down in the grass and went right to sleep.  When I woke, I discovered the Russians had driven in a herd of cattle and had slaughtered them.  The meat was ground up, and we were each given some which we managed to cook and eat.  We didn’t get much, but it was delicious and a great supplement to what little we had.

The Russians announced they were putting on a show, an entertainment for us to which we were invited.  We were to go into a huge barracks that had been out-of-bounds to us.  My friends and I went together.  We expected some pleasant entertainment in spite of the language barrier, but there were guards inside the doors, armed guards, and they wouldn’t let you turn around and leave.  When I saw them, I wanted very much to leave.  The entertainment was all in Russian, their language, and after a while I tried to leave again and was turned back.  I really couldn’t even try to enjoy myself or try to understand what they were doing, I was so preoccupied with wondering, what next?

The barracks had a stage and benches for the audience.  I spent most of the time trying to understand what was happening and looking for any means to escape from this building.  I couldn’t understand the armed guards, and my relief was so great to find when the show was over that we were allowed to leave.  They must have used the armed guards to insure themselves of an adequate audience.

But before we left, we were advised that tomorrow we would be marched out of the camp and were to start a march to Odessa.  I had only a vague idea where it was, but I knew we’d have to cross Germany and Poland.  Some of us could make it, but how many would still be alive when the successful ones made it there.  We didn’t talk about it, but I was mad at myself.  Why hadn’t I walked away when I could have done it.  I couldn’t have been worse off.  In fact, I felt I would have had a better chance.   As I remember, I didn’t sleep much.  I tried to plan what I’d do and how much I’d carry.

©Joseph H. Harrison 1999