Eyewitness Testimony Etienne Bauduin

"On March 16, 1945, my brother Andre died due to malnutrition in Camp E." Etienne Bauduin Even after all these years, it is very difficult for Etienne to talk about his time in Kahla. After all, he and his brother were arrested together; however, only Etienne returned. Andre died on March 16, 1945, from malnutrition. "My brother (Andre) and I both refused to work in Germany; we had already been living underground for quite some time. During that time, we both worked for my father. He was a construction contractor for public works, and together with him, we took care of road construction." "The Gestapo had already been to our home ten times by then, but they had not found us." "Until on August 1, three vehicles stopped at our workplace. Gabriel, a colleague, and I were asked for our papers. I said mine were in my coat, which was on the bicycle, and I took off running to get away. But I stumbled and fell on the sidewalk." "The Gestapo man aimed his weapon at me and was about to shoot at any moment, but a lady who was just passing by stood between us. Still, they beat me black and blue." "The three of us (Andre, Gabriel, and I) were arrested. By the way, it was Belgians who detained us." "We were driven by car to the Gestapo headquarters in Doornik. They locked us up in a kind of mansion on Boulevard Leopold. It was not advisable to even attempt to escape. The walls were all smeared with blood, and on the first floor, machine guns were always ready to fire." "We stayed there about four days; later they took us to the barracks on Avenue de la Couronne in Etterbeek." "On August 8, at 5 a.m., they took us to the train station. On the way there, every 10 meters stood a German with a rifle in hand. On the train itself, a German sat next to every door." On March 16, 1945, my brother Andre died due to malnutrition in Camp E. "I carried a suitcase with some clothes and some food. On the platform, there were people from the Red Cross who each gave us a few tomatoes and two slices of bread." "At the moment we left the platform, we were still singing because the Americans were almost in Paris. We were firmly convinced that our train would not get very far. If we had known then what still awaited us..." "The men who tried to escape during the journey were brought back every time." "We traveled by train for two days and one night; late in the afternoon of August 9, 1944, we reached the Kahla train station." A letter written by Andre after his arrival in Kahla describes: "We were treated as if we were the greatest criminals in Europe." "The first thing we saw in Kahla were Russians begging for food. At that time, we still thought these men were crazy, but after only a month, we were begging just like them." "I toiled the whole time in the tunnels; until January, I still worked with my brother. I was involved in drilling the tunnels. We drilled about nine holes in the rock. A German loaded them with dynamite, and part of the rock was blasted. We had to transport the pieces away. For that, we had to drive in and out of the tunnels with the debris, once to reduce dust and also for air circulation." "At the beginning—at that time we were still strong enough—we sabotaged as much as we could. Later, we were too weakened to continue our plans." For all survivors of Camp E - Kahla, food is the most precious thing of all. Etienne would never go on a diet. Because if you have almost died of hunger, then you want to eat exactly what you want for the rest of your life. "We received a liter of watery soup and a piece of bread. At first, we got one loaf for four men, then one for six, one for eight, and finally one for twelve. In every room, one person always had to cut the bread. The one who did this on that day always got the piece that was left after everyone had chosen theirs. This method was intended solely to avoid favoritism." "If one wanted to survive solely on these rations, one would have been lost. In Camp E, I did almost everything to somehow get some food. I stole potatoes stored below the kitchen, I even ate frogs..." Etienne Bauduin On March 16, 1945, my brother Andre died due to malnutrition in Camp E. "From time to time, we even tried to get some extra food in the kitchen in the evening. There, you had to gather all your courage. One day the Germans chased us away, another day it was even possible to get something." For Etienne, it is especially difficult to say anything about Kahla since he lost his brother there. "My brother died on March 16, 1945. He died of malnutrition, mistreatment, beatings, and the poor working conditions. A human life was not of great importance in Kahla." "Andre was even more sensitive than I was. I stole food to survive; I dared more. Andre did not do that." "He stayed sick in his bed in the barracks for a while and then stayed for one or five days in the infirmary barracks before he finally died." "The nurse had already informed me that Andre would not last much longer. I visited him once more in the infirmary barracks; at that time he was still alive, but he was no longer aware of my presence. He was in a coma and had an edema..." "On March 16, at 11 a.m., Andre died. That day I worked the night shift, so I was in my room in the barracks during the day. The nurse came to check on me." "In the evening, I had to go to work for the night shift. I cried, and one of our shift explained to a German that my brother had just died. This German turned out to be quite decent because he wrote a document that allowed me to return to the camp and still entitled me to my daily ration." "That night I returned to the dead barracks. I searched among the dead until I found Andre and cut some locks of his hair." Etienne leaves the room and comes back with a small brown package. For 55 years, he has kept Andre's hair. "Andre's body was taken out of the camp with the last truck that collected corpses. This truck always drove into the camp with empty coffins and out again with full ones. The coffins were reused every time." Etienne BauduinOn March 16, 1945, my brother Andre died of malnutrition in Camp E. Right next to the memorial stone on the mass grave at Kahla cemetery, Etienne placed a memorial stone in memory of his brother. Together with hundreds of comrades, he found peace there after the long inhuman time in Camp E. "And as for me, I had been suffering from dysentery continuously since January; but I still had to go to work in the factory every day." "In the factory, someone would collapse dead somewhere every day. Once a tunnel collapsed. Only the first ten meters were supported, the rest were not. That day there were many victims there." "During the winter months it was freezing cold there. I had no warm clothes left; I went to work wrapped in a blanket." "The men who had tobacco could truly call themselves rich there. I had no tobacco, so I had to be inventive. Once I rolled a cigarette out of dried, pressed leaves for a German guard in the factory. In exchange for the cigarette, I got bread. The next day a comrade told me that the guard was looking for me. I was terribly frightened, I feared my trick had been discovered. But nothing of the sort. He had liked my cigarette and asked me for another." "The Nazis wanted to suppress any form of solidarity and comradeship. So we all had to change rooms every three weeks. But the longer we stayed in Camp E, the solidarity simply disappeared by itself. When you have to fight for survival, everyone is on their own." "It was simply inhuman there. In September I saw someone shot because he had picked a pear from a tree." "I once got 25 lashes with a stick because they caught me with a piece of bread. The Germans made you bend over a wooden bench with your upper body naked; then they beat you with a club. After this 'treatment' you were allowed to go back to your barracks, at least if you were still alive..." Etienne also mentions a striking thing about the camp leadership. "The camp leader who was on duty at Camp E around Christmas was a boxer. Two prisoners in the camp were also professional boxers. On December 25, the camp leader organized a boxing match: him against the other two. We prisoners were forced to watch the fight." Slowly, liberation approached. Etienne Bauduin On March 16, 1945, my brother Andre died of malnutrition in Camp E. "At the end, we didn’t even have anything to eat. The seriously ill were sprayed with cold water to liquidate them faster." "On the day of liberation I weighed 36 kilos. Someone who has not experienced this themselves can hardly imagine this hell. Around April 10 we were taken out of the camp. The Germans wanted to release us in March, but our room refused to leave the barracks." "At the moment when someone from our room had to pee, he was seen by some SS men. They came into the barracks and drove us out. We had to leave, otherwise we would have been shot." It seemed that Etienne and Valere were in the same room. "With some others we were freed. Before we reached Camp 7, we hid in the woods near a farm." "We stayed there for four days. The Germans who passed by did not harm us." "Then came the moment when we found ourselves right between the two armies, in a kind of no man's land. (The German army was retreating, but the Americans had not yet arrived.) That lasted for two hours." "During that time we went to the farm to look for something to eat: a pig and a chicken. In Camp 7 we fell upon the chicken and the pig; fifteen minutes later two Poles who had eaten too much died on the spot." "We were liberated by Americans. They let us go into Kahla, where they deloused us with DDT and gave us new clothes. They gave me a jacket from a Russian uniform and the shirt and pants of an Italian uniform. But they kept us in quarantine." "The three of us finally left, we walked a bit along the main road and then through the woods. We ate what the American army left behind, we slept in barns on farms. Our journey ended once we arrived in Fulda." "There some Canadian soldiers picked us up and took us to a camp whose name I have forgotten." "From there they took us by truck to Liège and from there to Brussels." "I stayed one night in Brussels; the next day they took me by car to Ottignies. I had not warned my parents that I was on my way home. My brother was dead and I did not know if they already knew." Etienne Bauduin On March 16, 1945, my brother Andre died of malnutrition in Camp E. After his return from hell, Etienne took his life back into his own hands. However, not a day passes without him thinking of Andre and Kahla. Etienne Bauduin On March 16, 1945, my brother Andre died of malnutrition in Camp E. After his return from hell, Etienne took his life back into his own hands. However, not a day passes without him thinking of Andre and Kahla. Etienne Bauduin