Testimony

V. S. Sinyak – Walpersberg

When I was in the hospital in Orlamünde, I once opened the door and a policeman with a dog came in. He asked me to bring a bowl and gave me a bowl full of soup – it was so good that I cannot forget it. As for the mortality, I know of two dead people but nothing more precise. I worked in Kahla for two days, but I don't know when exactly. We were 30 to 40 people and dug earth holes to bury the dead. They were simply thrown in (mass graves). They were already completely green and rotten and the lice were so big that I felt sick and I collapsed. The foreman shouted and chased me away and I was no longer assigned to work in Kahla. In the last days of the war, our camp was evacuated under arms. We were supposed to walk on foot under the threat of being shot – people ran away and saved themselves as best they could. We were on American territory, and the Americans sent us to the Soviet government in Wolkenhain, where we were in quarantine for 2 weeks. I was in very poor physical condition. Whether anyone from the camp staff was arrested, I no longer know. In October 1945 I returned home. At home in my settlement there was hunger. Later I worked at the MTS (tractor station). At home were my mother and my ten-year-old sister. I imagine what the plant looks like today… • Sinâk, V. S., questionnaire provided by the Belorussian Republican Foundation "Mutual Understanding and Reconciliation". V. S. Sinyak – Ssinjak Sinâk, V.S. I was born in the village of Šanovka on 29.01.1927. My parents have 7 children, I myself 6, my wife is a disabled person of the 2nd class. During the blockade (probably referring to a cauldron operation during a German anti-partisan campaign, maybe) I was captured in the forest on June 3, 1944, and deported to Germany. I was two weeks in a quarantine camp, then I came to Kahla – Freienorla. I worked on the construction of the railway, tunnel construction. I was transported by train to Kahla and immediately put to work. I was in Freienorla the whole time but was assigned to various jobs. The conditions were very hard, I was just 17 years old then. It was warm in the barracks, there was a large heating boiler. We also had warm blankets and slept in bunk beds. We had to use our own clothes, none were distributed. When my pants tore, I helped an old German stack wood and got a pair of pants for it. In the end, shoes were also distributed. The food was bad and we were constantly hungry. There was soup and 1 kilo of bread for 4 people. Our work started early at dawn and went until evening. Once a month there was a day off. The way to work changed depending on where we worked. Sometimes it was three kilometers to work, sometimes more, sometimes we were transported somewhere. There were no roll calls, but there were Germans who watched over us. We were constantly under control (at work), and they made sure we worked well. Once, when the rock was broken and the remains were loaded into carts, I possibly had fewer stones than the others – for that I was beaten. I received 70 to 80 marks monthly, but because of the ration system there was hardly anything to buy – beer in the inn and in autumn the vegetables and fruits from the gardens that the Poles had who worked for the Germans. I was not assigned to agriculture myself. We had no contact with home, nor with other camps. All prisoners were equal in the camp. In our camp there were only Belarusians, and they were exclusively men and youths. Guards were Germans. Punishments, for example for stealing food, were beatings. I know nothing about informers. I am not aware of embezzlement – the food was already too little anyway. We made homemade carts from a stick on a string so that everyone got the same. For theft, one was whipped by the guards. That was a very brutal punishment because people were beaten until unconsciousness. One also had to pay for the number of lashes – 1 lash 1 RM. The mainly used punishment was the whip. The German workers and the administration behaved relatively normally. The older German women in the civilian population sometimes gave us food when we asked, but they were afraid of being punished themselves. Women, especially those who had men or sons at the front or in captivity, helped us – maybe they hoped that the same would happen to their relatives. Sometimes one worked for food, but openly no one showed help, they were all cautious. The civilian population did not participate in punishments. I do not remember any Germans who helped us especially, everyone treated us the same. None of us tried to escape – we did not know where to go or where to hide. If someone was sick, he was sent to another camp – I no longer know which. No one came back. There was no infirmary or the like in the camp. Many people died in the camp, and for a certain time I also buried people from my camp myself. We could not cope because so many died, mostly the Italians. Once we wanted to bury a countryman in a coffin, but we did not get permission and so there were only mass graves – 30 people in a row. In the last days of the war, we were all driven somewhere in the evening, but I was able to escape on the way and hid in the forest. I stayed there five days, then we wanted to return to the camp. On the way we met Americans who told us we were free and gave us food. I then returned to the camp for one or two months. Whether people were arrested after liberation, I do not know because I was not in the camp at that time. I was liberated on April 14, 1945, then worked in (Grachenberg, Drakenberg) or similar in a sugar factory from July to October 1945. I was also involved in the harvest. Then I returned to Belarus, but not immediately home, but first to the mines in the Donbass, where I was for almost a year. At the end of 1946, shortly before New Year, I then came home.