Eyewitness Testimony Edith Binder

Interview and conversation with Edith Binder, née Werther Mrs. Werther was born on 01.12.1929 and lived in Dienstädt at the time in question. She was no longer in the region during the last weeks of the war because she was in Weimar/Schöps for training (agricultural training) when Kahla was already in American hands (the head of the school was later arrested by the Americans and she was brought home by Danilo). According to her memory, the police presence in the town was low before the establishment of REIMAHG, with one policeman in Orlamünde. According to her recollection, this changed with the construction of the plant—now German SS controlled and checked whether foreigners were in the yards or Germans were talking to them. Even before the REIMAHG workers arrived, there was contact with forced laborers, as far as she knows English and French, often one on each farm, in Orlamünde a whole group who helped, for example, with threshing. On her parents' farm there was a Russian, Danilo (a civilian prisoner), and a Pole who, according to her memory, behaved very unwillingly and hostilely. The agricultural workers (who were housed in a guesthouse in Orlamünde) were better off than the later REIMAHG people. However, according to her memory, the relationship with the foreigners was also monitored here, and an Elfriede Frischauf (0.4.) was arrested for relations with a foreigner. The creation of the plant directly affected her family because her grandparents lived in the Dehnamühle and owned land on the mountain—they lost this property through confiscation and had to move out. As far as she remembers, there were no announcements or information about the plant, but many wild rumors. People were also more likely to remain silent out of fear. The area was strictly fenced off. Unlike elsewhere, no large number of REIMAHG employees (Germans) were quartered in Dienstädt, and the mining/tunnel construction engineer who was quartered in the yard did not talk about the plant at all. However, from outside one could see how the planes were pulled up the mountain and took off—apparently quite narrowly in her memory (she wondered if they did not crash). The surrounding villages were used to supply REIMAHG—they had to deliver certain quantities, partly directly to the camps. She remembers how some chickens were confiscated from the hatchery/poultry farm of her parents (more precisely her mother) by uniformed men when Frau Sauckel was in Hummelshain; despite protests, the animals were simply shot and taken away (but she does not know when). She herself saw the forced laborers when she accompanied her father delivering milk in Kahla; they only came to Dienstädt as beggars and workers, as there was no camp there, while in Kahla she saw Italians and Belgians. They were poorly fed and clothed, with only poor wooden slippers on their feet and no stockings but only foot wraps, presumably because their feet were injured by the shoes. The workers wore their civilian clothes until these were completely worn out. To protect themselves against the cold, they wrapped themselves in blankets and similar items. They suffered from vermin (fleas) because they only had cold water for washing. The Italians partly arrived in good clothes—perhaps taken from the cinema in black clothes and with jewelry. Soon they were completely ragged and half-starved. Some prisoners also used paper sacks and made hats against the cold. Their food was probably a meager soup (a little cabbage or turnips or similar). Among the beggars were many Italians, and she remembers how they murmured/begged "Hunger, hunger." when people passed by them, which still affects her today. There were very many beggars, but they had to be careful. According to her memory, they were young men and few women, no children. Among the residents there were also very malicious people. The foreigners sometimes tried to get turnips and potatoes from the rents in their hunger, and some residents threatened the forced laborers with rifles. Whether they also shot, she does not know, but it was known that they beat the foreigners. Some people helped beggars and gave them food, but as already mentioned, others drove them away with threats of rifles or by beating. She remembers Poles, Russians, and Belgians as well as Italians. According to her memory, there was hardly any talk about the foreigners, also out of fear of forbidden contacts. The foreigners partly still had jewelry and tried to exchange it (watches, etc.) for food, but how widespread this was, she does not know. She remembers that a Russian was forcibly deprived of his golden dental prostheses. She rarely saw the guards in action; in any case, they shouted when she was there delivering milk. Some of the guards were later captured elsewhere after the arrival of the Americans and driven through the village on the march. She herself was not an eyewitness to mistreatment, but there were repeated stories that foreigners were beaten half to death by the guards. Her father delivered food to the camps among other things—potatoes (in the camp area around the mountain near the Dehnamühle, not in the Leubengrund), and was afraid of getting infected because he noticed a lot of dysentery and typhus. However, he did not talk much about what he saw. She remembers that her grandmother tried to help the Belgians, who were also starving. She hid potatoes at a certain place at night and was therefore summoned by the police but was then released again. A Belgian prisoner gave the family the address of his parents so they could notify them if he died—and he indeed did not survive, but she no longer remembers his name. If one helped prisoners, one was afraid of being denounced by neighbors. She says that Danilo (who did not belong to REIMAHG) was a 27-year-old teacher. He and Mrs. Werther’s mother were arrested on the accusation of a relationship—a charge that later dissipated. As far as she knows, Danilo was sent to Buchenwald for a while, her mother was held in Gestapo custody in Weimar before the family was able to get her released there. Danilo later came to Drackendorf; after the war, he worked as an interpreter for the Red Army and came several times with officers on hunting trips, before whom the Werthers were somewhat afraid, but according to her statement, there were never any incidents.Mrs. Werther no longer knows how many foreigners from REIMAHG were employed for work in the village (for her farm, in addition to the two non-REIMAHG people, later U. Kibkalo was assigned in his "free time"). Her mother later hid Mr. Kibkalo and his family (parents and sister) on her farm in the last days of the war. She believes she remembers that V.K.'s mother was very ill and possibly died. The sister, whom they called Schurka, supposedly had one or more children, but they were taken out and killed (?) during the transport to Germany; therefore, she had psychological problems when she saw children. ( Note: She suggested the suspicion that the father of the child/children might have fought for the Germans — but this is only a suspicion; it cannot be ruled out that even the families of collaborators were by no means safe from German terror. These matters, as well as the possible death of his mother, were not mentioned by Mr. Kibkalo, so I am uncertain whether they are true, because I consider it unlikely that he would have kept them secret (perhaps the possible service of the man/lover of his sister for the Germans, but the death of her children or his mother?). MB. According to her description, people lived quite well together after the war as long as the Kibkalos were housed on her farm. An uncle of V.K. lived together with a pastor’s wife. The Americans were present in Dienstädt with a troop; people were afraid of them, but no incidents occurred. After the liberation, some former Polish prisoners looted — they searched the houses (they took a camera and her watch from her house, etc.). They partly cut down the cherry trees and ate the fruit. To her knowledge, the local farmers' leader in Dienststädt was arrested, but probably no one because of REIMAHG. After the war, she visited the Sauckel house with some other girls, which, according to her memory (and what was told), was very richly furnished. As far as she knows, all of it was looted by the people from Großeutersdorf, who sometimes even drove up to the complex with horse-drawn wagons to transport away whatever there was.