The Russians

At the end of the month while on parade the German officers announced we would be leaving in the morning for a new camp.  We should be ready in the morning early to march out of the camp.  None of us had trouble deciding what to pack. We owned very little, and it all went into the suitcase.  But it was cold.  I had a green knit hat my mother had put in the package that had the bean bag, and I didn’t want to wear it.  I didn’t want to attract attention.  I had a tan scarf that I had bought with some of my cigarettes from another POW.  I sewed about 12 inches of the scarf together at the center, which made a very practical hood and still left enough on each end to wrap around my neck or pull up over my mouth to protect me from the cold.  That is the way I marched to the train, my blankets over my shoulders, my overcoat buttoned and suitcase in hand with mostly my precious Red Cross food.  We marched down the long gravel road, the road we had had to run up only last summer.  There were no civilians watching us, only our guards.  We wondered if the civilians had been moved out too from this area because of the Russian advances.

When we arrived at the railroad station, there was the usual freight train, and as usual my friends and I got in the same car, and as usual it was packed so that it was only possible to sit with knees drawn up and suitcase alongside.  I had a terrible boil on my seat, and to relieve the pain, I rolled my blankets in the shape of a doughnut so that I could sit easier.

Soon we were moving.  We had been told as the doors slammed that we were being saved from the Russians.   It was a dark, overcast day.  Our total trip this time took two days and one night. We didn’t move very fast and were often stopped.  During the day Russ Goodwin, who had sung professionally, sang for us at times.   

We stopped during the day once, let out in a field, and got some water.  There were new guards here, much older men, rough in manner with their guns drawn and pointed at us, yelling “Rausch, Rausch” all the time.

At night we stopped and didn’t move most of the night.  It rained all night and was cold and damp.  We could hear much activity outside and could see other freight trains near us.  We kept very quiet.  We didn’t want to attract attention because we would be helpless if our train were attacked.

We could look out of the slats of the car and saw open freight cars carrying civilians in the rain.  We even saw civilians stealing food, we thought, from an open freight car.  All of these people out in the rain were evidently being moved from the approaching Russian armies.

Very few of us slept during that night.  It was too cold, and we really worried that our train would be attacked by the hungry people all around us.  But, I guess our guards kept them away.  I couldn’t see much of the guards, but they were always around.

Morning came and it had stopped raining.  We weren’t wet, but we were cold although the number of bodies did help, to some extent, in supplying some heat.  Although I tried to eat something from the case, I couldn’t.  I didn’t feel like it.

©Joseph H. Harrison 1999