Eyewitness Testimony Z. P. Gulyaev

• Gulâevoj, Z. P., Questionnaire provided by the Belorussian Republican Foundation "Understanding and Reconciliation". Gulâevoj (va?) Z. P. I was born on July 1, 1926, in a peasant family in Kobylyaki, Orsha district, Vitebsk region. The Germans burned our house in 1943, and we lived with neighbors. My father died in the war; he was 36 years old and was drafted in 1941 – and did not return. I often hid, but on April 13, 1943 (or 44 – unclear what she meant) I was taken out of bed at 4 a.m. On April 14, we were transported by freight train to Germany, Freienorla in Thuringia. There I worked for two months on the construction of the road to the factory. I was in the Freienorla camp, and on the other side of Orla was the men's camp Stern. Then I got a job in the kitchen of the Stern camp, I received work clothes – normal work clothes. Once they gave us food in the kitchen, and then we made up/distributed/organized something ourselves. We were all young, 20 girls in one room with bunk beds. We waited for liberation, cried, and were afraid. The factory was about 2 to 3 kilometers from the camp. There were no roll calls. Our work was supervised and controlled by the cooks. The supervisors behaved normally. For our wages, we could drink kvass (probably beer M.B.). I only worked in the kitchen, that was enough work. We cleaned vegetables, washed dishes and floors, took out the trash – the food was prepared by two cooks. We were young and worked well because we were afraid of being beaten. There was no contact with home; I received a package once. We were not allowed to move freely. We had no contact with workers of other nationalities; in the kitchen worked girls from Belarus and 2 Russian women. There were no children in the camp – we were children ourselves. I do not know the nationality of the guards; they did not report it. There were no informers among us. I do not know if parts of the food or mail were withheld. Letters were very rare. I witnessed mistreatment once; the victim was a young man. Our camp was only half of the building; the men were in the other half. Once I saw a young man being whipped, but I do not know why. I do not remember camp rules or judges. The German workers and camp administration behaved normally towards us. We had no contact with the local population. There were also Germans who treated prisoners humanely and helped them. There were no escapes from the camp. At the end of the war, we scattered as best we could and later found each other again. We stayed in our camp until August, then our army brought us back home. I know nothing about arrests among the camp staff. At home, we were despised and given no work. I finished the 8th grade in 1941, and after the war, I attended a vocational school and then worked on an animal farm, then I went to a vocational school for auto mechanics in Rostov-on-Don and worked in the system for 40 years. I married and had two children. My husband died tragically in 1972. My son became ill at 18 and is disabled; he lives with me. I am 81 years old, sick, and very weak – I apologize for my poor handwriting, I have been writing for three days and wish you much success in science.