Eyewitness Testimony Nikolaj Fedorovic Baj

• Baj, Nikolaj Fedorovič, questionnaire provided by the Belorussian Republican Foundation "Mutual Understanding and Reconciliation." Baj Nikolaj Fedorovič Lesnaja Street 23, village Kruki, Svetlogorsk district, Gomel region. Baj, Nikolaj Fedorovič Street: Lesnaja No. 23 Village: Kruki, District: Svetlogorsk, Region: Gomel 1. (date of birth, where the family lived) January 1, 1930, in the village Morchovički, Kirov district, Mogilev region. Besides me, there were two brothers and one sister in the family. 2. (circumstances of deportation) In spring 1944 - I was a shepherd - I was arrested during the day at work, first locked in a shed, then taken to Bobrujsk and from there to Germany. 3.-7. (circumstances of transport, arrival, which camp in Kahla, living conditions, clothing, etc.) We were transported by train, where we spread out on the floor and on the bunks. In Erfurt we stayed about two weeks, then we were taken to a camp in Kahla, whose commander was named Schulz. From this camp we were taken to a factory; we loaded stones, built a road. After work, we were brought back by vehicle under constant bombing attacks. During one such bombing, the vehicle overturned and four people died. I broke a leg and ribs. I was taken to a Polish camp and then from the Polish camp to the Russian tent camp Bibra. There I was admitted to a Russian hospital. The food was not very good. We lived ten to fifteen in a tent. The tents had small iron stoves and everyone had a blanket. 8. (Was work clothing issued?) Only in winter did we receive knitted jackets and shirts. 9. (Food) In the morning there was a bowl of soup without bread, at noon the same, and in the evening a small piece of bread with margarine. There was a canteen. 10. (Start and end of workday, way to work) The workday began between five and six in the morning and ended at 7 p.m. The camp was two kilometers from the factory. 11. (Were there roll calls?) Yes, there were roll calls. Sometimes we were beaten with sticks. 12. (Work quota and control) No, there was no fixed daily work quota. They controlled to ensure no one rested. 13. (Behavior of the "foremen," etc., were they Germans or others) Foreman Adam was a good person. 14. (Was there pay, and could one buy something with it?) In the first and second months we each received 30 marks, but there was a ration card system and we could not buy anything because we were not given cards. 15. (Were they sent to other work, e.g., in the Luftwaffe?) No, we were not sent anywhere else. [Back side:] In Kahla in the tent camp Bibra the following persons worked: 1. The head of the hospital - Colonel Mr. Richter 2. The doctor Nikolaj Vasil’evič Poršnev 3. The medical assistant Nikolaj Vasil’evič Popeliso (born 1925) 4. The nurse Valentina Alekseevna Nasarovna (born 1925) 5. The technical assistant Natal’ja Nasarova All these persons were born in Stalin (today Donetsk). Jadviga Radčkovskaja from Warsaw - translator Nurse from Leningrad - Elsa 16. (Contact with home and control of contact) No one wrote to us and we did not receive any parcels. 17. (Contacts with workers from other camps) I personally had contacts because I delivered documents, reports about the killed and deceased. 18. (Were certain groups treated differently than others?) The Russians and Italians were treated with more brutality, while others were treated with more leniency. 19. (Contacts between workers of different nationalities) Yes, there were some. The Germans sometimes helped us with food (once I came to a neighboring village and the residents gave me something to eat). I often played chess with an Italian worker and we went to the cinema. 20. (Question about children and families in the camps) I remember one family (father, mother, and daughter). They were allowed to live together but received exactly the same treatment as everyone else. 21. (Question about nationality of guards and their behavior) The guards were German and treated the workers normally. 22. (Were there informers among the workers) I remember one informer from Leningrad, his name was San’ka. 23. (Question about corruption regarding food and mail) We received no letters or parcels and the ration was always the same. 24. (Was he witness to mistreatment or murders, who were perpetrators and victims) Yes, there was one case. In the hospital there were many sick people. They were not washed for a long time, which caused lice infestation. Then the camp commander came and started scolding that no one could work, took a sick person (it was winter) and led him to the river. There he undressed him and poured water over him. The sick person soon died of hypothermia. 25. (Punishments in the camp) If someone tried to escape, he was shot. 26. (Behavior of German workers and camp leadership – presumably regarding the workers) Good. 27. (Contacts with civilians?) Yes, there were some. 28. (How did the civilians behave) Friendly, they gave us bread and salt. 30. (Were there Germans who treated workers humanely and helped them?) Yes, there were some. 31. (Escape attempts and punishment for them) There were very few because people knew they could not escape anywhere. Those who tried to escape were shot. 32. (Medical care) The sick went to the hospital, there were many lice, there was very little medicine, mainly iodine, Zelenka (a disinfectant (?)) and bandages. 33. (Question about mortality) Wounded and almost daily people died of exhaustion; only the strongest survived because conditions were not very good. Dmitrij Solonivič from the village Ljuboniči, Kirov district, Mogilev region (born 1928) died in a bombing attack. 34. (Question about evacuations – the death marches) On April 11, 1945, we were evacuated and after several stops arrived at Gomelschnaj [?], where we were taken to a field. From there I fled together with three prisoners because there was no food (Michail Sidorenko from Dnepropetrovsk). We came to Tischandorf and began working for the farmer Bawor; in spring we helped plant potatoes and mowed hay. 35. (Where he was liberated, in what condition) When the liberators came, we were lying in the farmer’s barn. Our condition was normal; we often went to the American soldiers to eat in their kitchen. 36. (Question about arrests of guards after liberation) Many guards fled from the liberators.37. (Question about returning home) In the autumn of 1945, I came to the site of the fire; everything was burned down. 38. (Further fate) I worked on a kolkhoz. In 1950, I was drafted into the army and served on Sakhalin Island in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the 51st Engineer-Technical Regiment. I was wounded in the leg and spent five to six months in the hospital. After that, I left the army and left the city. After the army, I attended the mechanic school in Bobruisk to become a combine harvester and tractor driver. Then, through the Komsomol (Communist Youth League), I was sent to work in Kazakhstan, in the East Kazakhstan region, in the Kirov district at the repair and technical station of Zaul'binsk. After working there for two years, I returned to my homeland. In the winter of 1965, I got married. With my wife, I raised three sons and three daughters. Two of my sons live in the Arkhangelsk region, and the other children live in various cities of Belarus. My compatriots who were with me in Germany have all died. 39. (Question about additional information important to him) The journalist Lyubov Kapustina published a report about me in the newspaper "Belaruskaja niva" (= Belarusian Grain Field).