Eyewitness Testimony Frans De Geyndt

"In Kahla, we were all condemned to a time of misery, hard labor, hardship, and ultimately—for many of us—death." Frans De Geyndt I also visited Frans De Geyndt at his home. In the post-war period, as a former prisoner of Camp E, he worked to gain recognition for all former prisoners of Camp E. He succeeded. His file was the basis on which many former prisoners were recognized as such. Here too, I was received kindly. To make my work easier, he had already written down his entire story about his arrest and liberation. With his consent, I am fortunately able to include his testimony in writing in my book. "Belonging to the class of '24, I fell under the law of April 27, 1944, which stated that all men born between 1920 and 1924 were forced to perform voluntary labor for the Germans, either in Belgium or in Germany." "In all newspapers, there was an announcement with the final deadline by which everyone had to report to the employment office. For me, that meant I had to go to Brussels, Naamsestraat." "From the moment I read this article, I decided not in the slightest to work for the enemy." "A few days after the deadline passed, the employment office sent me a letter instructing me to perform forced labor in Belgium and that I had to report within 48 hours to undergo some medical tests." "Since I did not trust any of this, I decided not to go there to work for the enemy; I had to hide. Raids were carried out one after another, and I was able to escape several times. Therefore, I decided to go live with my grandparents in Jette." "On August 2, 1944, I rode with my father by bicycle from Ternat to Jette. We reached the intersection of Gentse Steenweg and Keizer Karel Street in Saint Agatha Berchem, where the road was blocked by two men." "In Kahla, we were all condemned to a time of misery, hard labor, hardship, and ultimately—for many of us—death." "'Stop, German police,' they shouted. They asked me for my papers. I gave them my ID, which they took away. In an angry tone, one of them told me that I could now reconsider my stubbornness in Germany. At that moment, I was not really aware of what was happening. I did not take them seriously until one of them pulled me off the bike and threw it to the roadside, while the other took my hands and led me to a car parked a little further away, as if I were the worst criminal. The second person followed us, his pistol aimed at my back." "In the car, I had to sit between two Gestapo agents. Throughout the way through Saint Agatha Berchem, they tormented me and laughed at me. They spoke German to me, but I did not answer, and one of those who arrested me said that I probably spoke English better than German. He suggested that I might be a member of the resistance." "First, we arrived at Naamsestraat in Brussels, where I had to face a tribunal. They ordered me to empty my pockets and put everything on the table. One of the things I took out of my pocket was an English text that was in my coat pocket. It was a note from my last school test, which I had taken at the end of June. When they saw this text—which I probably did not understand a word of—they assumed I was an English spy and told me that as punishment, I would be sent to Germany to work there." "After the interrogation, they sent me to the police barracks across the street on de la Couronne in Etterbeek, where they locked me up with other young men. From August 2 to 8, I spent time in great uncertainty; the food we received was very poor, and we slept on straw in a barn." "On the afternoon of August 8, 1944, under the supervision of German soldiers, we had to go to the station in Etterbeek, where a train was waiting to take us to an unknown destination in Germany." "On the platform, the Red Cross gave each of us a food package. In every wagon sat German soldiers. At the front and rear of the train, machine guns were mounted to prevent escapes. More than once, young men who tried to flee were shot." "Thus, the first convoy set off, and we arrived in a small town called Kahla." "After walking a few kilometers, we reached a large meadow near the village of Eichenberg, close to a forest. Most nights we had to sleep outside because there were not enough barracks. Once they were finished, we were divided into groups to work for different companies, where we were obliged to build the largest German underground weapons factory. That was the beginning of a long time full of misery, hard labor, hardship, and ultimately—for many of us—death." Franz De Geyndt "In Kahla, we were all condemned to a time of misery, hard labor, hardship, and ultimately—for many of us—death." In this text, Frans mentioned that the terrible time in Kahla is well known and writes about it; he does not go into too much detail. During my visit, he told me some important things that I especially want to highlight. "I worked as a carpenter and as an employee of a floor layer. I only worked in two different places." "When we were assigned to different shifts, I was employed to build a railway line from Orlamünde to the Walpersberg mountain. First, we had to do some earthworks, and then rails had to be laid, stones and pickaxes had to be broken..." "During the earthworks, we had to load the waste onto 20 wagons of a small train. Always two men per wagon; I paired up with a young man from West Flanders. After two days, blood ran from my hands. We had to work at a murderous speed while German soldiers shouted at us: 'Loss, Mensch, arbeiten! Faster, faster!'" "When one of the wagons was filled—all had to be full—the train could take them away." "The boy I worked with always shouted at me to work faster. I told him that I really wanted to, but I could not go faster. I had just come from school and was not used to such hard work.""The boy noticed that I had tobacco and promised to work a little harder if I gave him some tobacco. So I gave him some. Well, this boy worked himself to death here; he made it until December." "The work on the rails was horrible. It was 20 degrees Celsius below zero and the rails froze to our hands." "From November until the evacuation of the camp, I worked in the bunkers. Together with many other men, I worked on a large concrete machine; it was piecework. We had to pass concrete bags from one to another for twelve hours straight; all this was under the supervision of German guards." "The food we got in Kahla was insufficient: one liter of water soup and 200 grams of bread per day. People died like flies." "Fortunately, I had a well-stocked bag from home: two boxes, each containing 50 packs of cigarettes and some packs of tobacco. I also had two kilograms of sugar." "The tobacco saved my life in Kahla. I traded most of it with German soldiers for bread. The little extra food saved my life." Franz De Geyndt "In Kahla, we were all condemned to a time of misery, hard work, hardship, and ultimately—for many of us—death." "With the sugar, I saved another person's life. Around December, I had barely touched my sugar and tried to keep it as long as possible. The living conditions in Kahla were very bad, and I thought that the situation would not improve the longer the war lasted." "Around this time, a comrade who slept in the same barrack as I did began to cough up blood, which increasingly weakened him. Piece by piece, I gave him the two kilograms of sugar, which restored his strength." Frans knew someone else who survived in Camp 0. "I know that the boy was sent to Camp 0; I heard nothing from him for a long time. When I came back home, his family came to ask if I knew whether he was still alive. At that moment, I did not dare to say where he had gone; I only told them that he was alive when I last saw him, but we had lost contact. I feared that the boy was dead. A few weeks after my return, he also came home. There was not a spot on his body that had not been injured by dog bites." Gradually, liberation was announced. "At that time, on April 7, 1945, a column, which included me and my friend, left Camp E." "After walking a few kilometers, we managed to escape our leaders. We rolled down a hill and pretended to be dead until the column passed us by. We hid in the forest all night. In the morning, we saw small groups of people walking along here." "The next day and the following days, the area was the target of heavy air raids. Allied planes shot at everything that moved. We were terrified to death and begged for shelter at a nearby farm. They thought we were criminals and forbade us from entering any of the houses on the premises. After begging and urging, we were allowed to stay outside the farm in an open building, but at our own risk. They hoped the police would arrest us soon." "We stayed there in great uncertainty and amid the cruelties of war for four days and nights. The farmer's wife or his daughter secretly provided us with turnips so that we would not die of malnutrition." "On April 14, 1945, the first American tanks appeared on the road. That meant the end of our misery." "In Kahla, we were all condemned to a time of misery, hard work, hardship, and ultimately—for many of us—death." "When we saw our liberators, we were overwhelmed with hope and joy. We left our hiding place and ran to the American soldiers and told them what had happened to us." "They gave us bread and other tasty things, but they had no more time to look after us." "Our interest was to return home as quickly as possible. But how were we to do that? We started to walk." "After three days, we reached a town called Weimar, which was 30 kilometers away from Kahla." "From there, army vehicles took us to the SS barracks in Erfurt. All the Belgians who had wandered around in the last days were gathered here and awaited their return to their homeland. Piece by piece, army vehicles came to pick up the former prisoners." "After three weeks, it was our turn. An army plane took us to Verviers, where we were deloused. From there, we were taken by train to North Brussels, where I arrived on May 12, 1945."