Eyewitness Testimony Paul Baert

Paul Baert On July 14th, I arrived in the early afternoon at Paul Baert’s place in Stekene. Paul is the founder and secretary of the “Circle of Friends who escaped from Camp E.” For many years, he and his wife have made considerable efforts for the “Circle of Friends.” As always, I was warmly welcomed. To complete his oral testimony, Paul gave me permission to use the story he himself wrote a few years ago, of which I am pleased to be able to quote certain parts in full. In 1943, I was forced to work for the Friedrich Krupp Company in Magdeburg, where tanks were produced for the war effort. I worked at a lathe. In October 1943, I came home with forged papers to get married. I was granted 14 days for this occasion. I did not marry, and I did not return to Germany. On July 28, 1944, early in the morning, I was locked up during a large raid in Stekene and taken to the prison in St. Niklaas. The German command sentenced me to one year in a re-education camp. I appealed; they rejected it the next day. They took me by train to the state police station in Etterbeek; during the Second World War, it was converted into a prison. I was locked up there with 700 other men. On the afternoon of August 8, 1944, under strict guard by German soldiers, they put us on a waiting train with an unknown destination. During the night, we traveled slowly by rail through the western part of Germany. At dawn, we passed Dortmund and late in the afternoon Kassel. These two industrial cities were completely destroyed by German and American air raids. On the evening of August 9, we reached the station of Kahla, a name unknown to any of us. Each of us was forced to leave the train marching and escorted by soldiers; we went to a meadow near the village of Eichenberg, which we reached after two hours of marching. A farmer came with a barrel of skimmed milk to the meadow, from which each of us received a filled wooden spoon. You will work until you die On the outer meadow where we stood, Camp E was to be established. When we arrived, there was not a single barrack yet. During the first days, we slept under the open sky. Although it was already quite cold that night, we were glad it was such a beautiful autumn. The next day, we all had to line up on command, and they assigned us to different companies participating in the construction of one of the largest underground factories for secret weapons in Germany. Some of us were assigned to the camp labor detachment and were used for building the barracks and other facilities; so after a few days, we had shelter, although it was miserable for the approximately 1,500 prisoners. The labor detachment had to tear down the barracks in Hermsdorf and rebuild them in Kahla. On the first working day, we had to line up on the parade ground on command. A high-ranking SS officer gave a speech and explained that we had landed in a re-education camp because we had harmed the Reich and that under the current circumstances—the Reich was engaged in a fight for life and death with its enemies—we were to work until the day we die. At that moment—we were all young and healthy—we thought this man was crazy and was just talking nonsense. However, for many of us, these words would become true. In cooperation with the Gustloff Works in Weimar, the Nazi army command ordered 95 companies to draw up a plan which they had to execute very strictly. The foremen, all German citizens, all specialists in their work, were exempted from military service. They were pressured by the Reimahg management: if they did not achieve the required work standards, they would be sent to the Eastern Front. This was one of the reasons to force prisoners to high work performance. The supreme goal of the Reimahg operation was to establish a productive aviation industry at all costs, with the order to stop the Russian and Allied forces and to still win the war with the means of new secret weapons. At first, I was employed by the construction company “Ernst Linss” from Gerstungen, for which we had to drill tunnels. With a heavy drilling press, we drilled holes in the rock surface. We stuffed these holes with dynamite, which blasted parts of the rock away. It was inhumanly hard work. From February, I was employed by the “Tagmann” company from Leipzig. Our work consisted of removing the top of the Walpersberg mountain for the construction of the runway. The rubble was taken away by dump trucks, the so-called “Berliners.” One day I fell under such a truck; it tipped to one side, and I ended up underneath it. They wriggled me out from under it. My hand was injured, but the Germans ordered me to continue my work. Paul Baert You will work until you die Despite the severe winter—the thermometer reached 20 degrees Celsius below zero and the landscape was covered by half a meter of snow—they had to work day and night and day after day. At the top of the mountain, the workers endured the worst strain. Trees were uprooted, and the mountain top was excavated for the construction of the runway. The Italian prisoners who were employed there and were not used to such harsh weather conditions died one after another. These poor souls were replaced by Russians, Dutch, and Belgians, who tolerated the cold temperatures better. Since the food supply for the hard work was insufficient (3/4 liter of kohlrabi soup, beetroot and beetroot leaves, and 150 grams of bread with a spoonful of fat or jam), the wooden barracks were almost uninhabitable, there were no washing facilities, and there was a lice epidemic; especially those who could not endure this inhuman life died first. The winter of 1944–1945 was very cold. Poor clothing and malnutrition took their toll: diarrhea followed by typhus, prolonged tuberculosis and dysentery, as well as starving to death, were the main causes of death. Days and months passed; comrades in the barracks died. Malnutrition and diseases ate away at the exhausted bodies. However, the hellish work continued. Those who could not meet the work requirements received only half of the food ration and perished.Due to the high mortality rate in Camp E, the Germans regularly brought prisoners in from Buchenwald. Buchenwald was a concentration camp near Weimar. On December 20, some French prisoners from Buchenwald arrived again at Camp E. The moment they found out that the living conditions in Camp E were worse than in Buchenwald, they demanded to be sent back to Buchenwald. As punishment and as an example for other potential unwilling workers, they had to stand outside all night under strict SS guard on the roll call square. Most of the men did not survive that night; they froze to death. “In the meantime, the first Me262 was ready. With a deafening noise and incredible speed, the plane took off, flew over Camp E, and disappeared into the atmosphere. The German Army Command had high expectations for this jet, which reached a speed of 850 km/h.” “Towards the end of March 1945, we heard the roar of cannons, a sign that our liberators were approaching.” Paul Baert You will work until you die “On April 1, it was Easter and work came to a halt. The camp was sealed off by the SS. Because we no longer worked, each prisoner received only half a ration per day.” “On April 10, Camp E had to assemble on the roll call square. Everyone who could still walk in any way was driven out of the barracks and had to stop at the kitchen. Everyone received a food ration and was to be taken by the SS to an unknown destination. Julies Saeless, Belgian champion in running (100 meters), was also in the line. He made a wrong move and was shot in the back. He died on the spot.” “After this incident, the column was set in motion under strict SS guard. After a few days of wandering around in the collapsed Germany, they were liberated by the arriving American army.” “For me and my comrades, each of our stories had a different ending. Because I was too weak to walk alone, I hid with some others during the deportation order, hoping that we would be liberated in the camp itself.” “Early the next morning, the camp was combed through by the SS, who brutally drove everyone they found to the gate. At the gate, the SS nervously loaded all seriously ill and dying people onto two rickety carts that had been confiscated from farmers. The march began immediately. I dragged myself on two crutches because I was too far downhill. The others who were part of this misfortune also went through truly inhuman moments. It was a fight against death. Those who could not keep up and fell behind were mercilessly killed by the SS accompanying us.” “After a three-hour march, the survivors reached a camp that I was later told was Camp 7. At this place, they had gathered all the sick and dying people from the other camps of Reimahg. In Camp E, I had already realized that a human life meant nothing in the eyes of the SS, but what I saw in Camp 7 was unbelievable: hundreds of people lay on the ground, dead or dying. It was April and it was slowly getting warm, which brought a smell of decay over the camp. The men from Camp E disappeared into the mass. Most of them died.” “On April 14, we were liberated by General Patton’s army. Every help was offered by the American Red Cross.” “They took me to the castle of Hummelshain, which had been converted by the Americans into a hospital. Upon my arrival, the other survivors and I were cared for by nurses, and after a general examination, it looked as if I weighed only 32 kilos. I was like a living skeleton.” Paul Baert You will work until you die In the weeks that Paul and his comrades stayed in the hospital of Hummelshain, they were always hungry. They received only half a ration; too much and too fatty food could cost them their lives. They were always on the lookout. If someone died, they ate that person’s ration. The doctor had warned them that it could be dangerous because some people had typhus. But Paul himself had a mild form of typhus when he drank water from a river in Camp E, since in Dienstädt, the next village, the excrement of a goose colony had ended up in that river. “I stayed five weeks in Hummelshain. From there, we were taken in open cars to the SS barracks in Erfurt. The next day, we started by train in cattle wagons.” “It took five days to reach Namur, from where I and someone from Antwerp were taken by bus to Brussels; from Brussels we traveled by train to Antwerp.” “I went home with this man from Antwerp; also hoping to get something edible there. That was not the case, and then I walked through the small tunnel on the left bank of the Schelde River.” “There I took the train to St. Niklaas and from there the Red Cross took me by car to Stekene. Late in the afternoon on May 31, I reached my home.” For Paul, liberation came at the right time. He weighed only 32 kilograms and would not have survived much longer. Upon his arrival home, he estimated his regained weight at 50 kilograms, which was still not much. Paul Baert “On March 16, 1945, my brother Andre died of malnutrition in Camp E.” Etienne Bauduin Even after all these years, it is very distressing for Etienne to talk about his time in Kahla. After all, he and his brother were arrested together; however, only Etienne returned. Andre died on March 16, 1945, of malnutrition. “Both my brother (Andre) and I refused to work in Germany; we had already been living underground for a considerable time. During that time, we both worked for my father. He was a construction contractor for public works and together with him we took care of road construction.” “The Gestapo had already been to our home ten times by then, but they had not found us.” “Until on August 1, three vehicles stopped at our workplace. Gabriel, a colleague, and I were asked for our papers. I said that mine were in my coat, which was on the bicycle, and took to my heels to get away from there. But I stumbled and fell on the sidewalk.” “The Gestapo man aimed his weapon at me and was about to shoot at any moment, but a lady who was just passing by stood between us. Nevertheless, they beat me black and blue.” “The three of us (Andre, Gabriel, and I) were arrested. By the way, it was Belgians who imprisoned us.”“We were taken by car to the Gestapo headquarters in Doornik. They locked us up in a kind of manor house on Boulevard Leopold. It was not advisable to even attempt to escape. The walls were all smeared with blood, and on the first floor there were always machine guns ready to fire.” “We stayed there about four days; later they took us to the barracks on Avenue de la Couronne in Etterbeek.” “On August 8, at 5 a.m., they took us to the railway station. On the way there, every 10 meters stood a German with a rifle in hand. On the train itself, a German sat next to every door.” On March 16, 1945, my brother Andre died of malnutrition in Camp E. “I carried a suitcase with some clothes and some food. On the platform, there were people from the Red Cross who each gave us a few tomatoes and two slices of bread.” “At the moment we left the platform, we were still singing, because the Americans were almost in Paris. We were firmly convinced that our train would not get very far. If we had known then what still awaited us...” “The men who tried to escape during the journey were brought back every time.” “We traveled by train for two days and one night; late in the afternoon of August 9, 1944, we reached the Kahla train station.” A letter written by Andre after his arrival in Kahla describes: “We were treated as if we were the greatest criminals in Europe.” “The first thing we saw in Kahla were Russians begging for food. At that time, we still thought these men were crazy, but after only a month, we were begging like them too.” “I worked all the time in the tunnels; until January I still worked with my brother. I was involved in drilling the tunnels. We drilled about nine holes in the rock. A German loaded them with dynamite and part of the rock was blasted. We had to transport the pieces away. For that, we had to drive in and out of the tunnels with the debris, once to reduce dust and also for air circulation.” “At the beginning—at that time we were still strong enough—we sabotaged as much as we could. Later, we were too weakened to continue our plans.” For all survivors of Camp E - Kahla, food is the most precious thing of all. Etienne would never go on a diet. Because if you have almost died of hunger, then you want to eat exactly what you want for the rest of your life. “We received a liter of watery soup and a piece of bread. At first, we got one loaf for four men, then one for six, one for eight, and finally one for twelve. In every room, one person always had to cut the bread. The one who did it that day always got the piece left over after everyone had chosen theirs. This method was intended solely to avoid favoritism.” “If one wanted to survive solely on these rations, one would have been lost. In Camp E, I did almost everything to somehow get some food. I stole potatoes stored below the kitchen, I even ate frogs...” Etienne Bauduin On March 16, 1945, my brother Andre died of malnutrition in Camp E. “From time to time, we even tried to get some extra food in the kitchen in the evening. There, you had to gather all your courage. One day the Germans chased us away, another day it was even possible to get something.” For Etienne, it is especially difficult to speak about Kahla since he lost his brother there. “My brother died on March 16, 1945. He died of malnutrition, mistreatment, beatings, and the poor working conditions. A human life was not of great importance in Kahla.” “Andre was even more sensitive than I was. I stole food to survive, I dared more. Andre did not do that.” “He stayed sick in his bed in the barracks for a while and then stayed for one or five days in the infirmary barracks before he finally died.” “The nurse had already informed me that Andre would not last much longer. I visited him once more in the infirmary barracks; at that time he was still alive, but he was no longer aware of my presence. He was in a coma and had edema...” “On March 16, at 11 o’clock, Andre died. That day I worked the night shift, so I was in my room in the barracks during the day. The nurse came to check on me.” “In the evening, I had to go to work for the night shift. I cried, and one of our shift explained to a German that my brother had just died. This German turned out to be quite decent because he wrote a document that allowed me to return to the camp and still entitled me to my daily ration.” “That night I returned to the mortuary barracks. I searched among the dead until I found Andre and cut some locks of his hair.” Etienne leaves the room and comes back with a small brown package. For 55 years he has kept Andre’s hair. “Andre’s body was taken out of the camp with the last truck that collected corpses. This truck always drove into the camp with empty coffins and out again with full ones. The coffins were reused every time.” Etienne Bauduin On March 16, 1945, my brother Andre died of malnutrition in Camp E. Right next to the memorial stone on the mass grave of the Kahla cemetery, Etienne placed a memorial stone in memory of his brother. Together with hundreds of comrades, he found peace there after the long inhuman time in Camp E. “And as for me, I had continuous dysentery since January; but I still always had to go to work in the factory.” “In the factory, someone collapsed dead somewhere every day. Once a tunnel collapsed. Only the first ten meters were supported, the rest was not. That day there were many victims there.” “During the winter months, it was freezing cold there. I no longer had warm clothes; I went to work wrapped in a blanket.” “The men who had tobacco could truly call themselves rich there. I had no tobacco, so I had to be inventive. Once I rolled a cigarette from dried, pressed leaves for a German guard in the factory. In exchange for the cigarette, I got bread. The next day a comrade told me that the guard was looking for me. I was terribly frightened, I feared my trick had been discovered. But nothing of the sort. He had liked my cigarette and asked me for another.”"The Nazis wanted to suppress any form of solidarity and comradeship. So we had to change rooms every three weeks. But the longer we stayed in Camp E, the solidarity simply disappeared on its own. When you have to fight for survival, everyone is on their own." "It was simply inhuman there. In September, I saw someone shot because he had picked a pear from a tree." "I, I once received 25 lashes with a stick because they caught me with a piece of bread. The Germans made you bend over a wooden bench with your bare upper body; then they beat you with a club. After this 'treatment,' you were allowed to go back to your barrack, at least if you were still alive..." Etienne also mentions a striking thing about the camp leadership. "The camp leader who was on duty at Camp E around Christmas was a boxer. Two prisoners in the camp were also professional boxers. On December 25, the camp leader organized a boxing match: him against the other two. We, the prisoners, were forced to watch the fight." Slowly, liberation approached. Etienne Bauduin On March 16, 1945, my brother Andre died of malnutrition in Camp E. "In the end, we didn't even have anything to eat anymore. The seriously ill were sprayed with cold water to liquidate them faster." "On the day of liberation, I weighed 36 kilos. Someone who has not experienced this themselves can hardly imagine this hell. Around April 10, we were taken out of the camp. The Germans wanted to release us in March, but our room did not want to leave the barrack." "At the moment when someone from our room had to pee, he was seen by a few SS men. They came into the barrack and drove us out. We had to leave, otherwise we would have been shot." It seemed that Etienne and Valere were in the same room. "With some others, we were freed. Before we reached Camp 7, we hid in the woods near a farm." "We stayed there for four days. The Germans who passed by did not harm us." "Then came the moment when we found ourselves right between the two armies, in a kind of no man's land. (The German army was retreating, but the Americans had not yet arrived.) This lasted for two hours." "During this time, we went to the farm to look for something to eat: a pig and a chicken. In Camp 7, we fell upon the chicken and the pig; fifteen minutes later, two Poles who had eaten too much died on the spot." "We were liberated by Americans. They let us go to Kahla in the town, where they deloused us with DDT and gave us new clothes. They gave me a jacket from a Russian uniform and the shirt and pants of an Italian uniform. But they kept us in quarantine." "The three of us finally left; we walked a bit along the main street and then through the woods. We ate what the American army left behind, we slept in barns on farms. Our journey ended once we arrived in Fulda." "There, some Canadian soldiers picked us up and took us to a camp whose name I have forgotten." "From there, they took us by truck to Liège and from there to Brussels." "I stayed one night in Brussels; the next day they took me by car to Ottignies. I had not warned my parents that I was on my way home. My brother was dead and I did not know if they already knew." Etienne Bauduin On March 16, 1945, my brother Andre died of malnutrition in Camp E. After his return from hell, Etienne took his life back into his own hands. However, not a day passes without him thinking of Andre and Kahla. Etienne Bauduin On March 16, 1945, my brother Andre died of malnutrition in Camp E. After his return from hell, Etienne took his life back into his own hands. However, not a day passes without him thinking of Andre and Kahla. Etienne Bauduin "Thanks to the two slices of bread per day that I received from Franz Meyer, I was able to survive the camps in which I lived." "I could no longer stay in Veurne. One of my acquaintances took me to Tielt and on the way there, at a checkpoint, I was arrested. I still had my passport, but that was the only paper I had left." "They took me to the field gendarmerie of Diksmuide, which was located at the market square, where I spent the night in prison." At the field gendarmerie of Diksmuide, Valere was confronted with the cruelty of the occupying power. During the interrogation, he was beaten by the Gestapo for the first but certainly not the last time. They claimed he was lying and that he should spend a night in a cell to think about his lies. "Of course, I lied; I could not possibly tell them that I had been hiding with my sister the whole time." "The next morning, one of the Gestapo, whom I still knew from before the war, got me out of the cell and said: 'I am letting you go,' he raised his revolver and said: 'and before you run five meters, I will shoot you like a dog.' So there was no escape route. They took me from Diksmuide by tram to Bruges to the field gendarmerie, from where I was taken to the prison of Kruispoort." In the tram from Diksmuide to Bruges were five members of the Gestapo; actually many. They could not only be there because of Valere. What later turned out to be false. During this time, 17 young men were imprisoned in Beernem. Why? Well, a member of the Gestapo had asked for the papers of a young man for a routine check. The young man opened a drawer of the kitchen table, grabbed a revolver, and shot the Gestapo member. He himself was able to escape; as retaliation, they imprisoned 17 young men. "After 8 days in Bruges, we were taken by train to the barracks of Eterbeek on Kroonlaan. After about 3 days, we continued by train to Germany. Via Herzogenrath, Düsseldorf, Kassel, we reached Weimar in the evening. There, for the first time, we saw prisoners at work; they were digging holes. It was very strange, all the men wore 'pajamas.' It did not take long before we knew what this meant.""In Weimar, we were housed for a week in the theater where Hitler gave a speech in 1933. It was the second half of July. They had already asked in Bruges and Brussels if we wanted to join the Gestapo. We paid no further attention. In Weimar, they asked us again, and three men out of a group of 30 committed themselves. After that week, our group was divided into two groups; some were sent to Kahla, some to Suhl, and the rest to Oschersleben." Valere Braet "Thanks to the two slices of bread per day that I received from Franz Meyer, I was able to survive the camps where I lived." "I went to Suhl, where I worked in a camp until the end of August - beginning of September. We had to unload food, do other work, and maintain roads. From there, I was sent to Oschersleben. We were trained to work on the airplanes." In Oschersleben, the Focke Wulf was built. "At the beginning of October, I was transferred to Quedlinburg. Perhaps 90 prisoners were housed in the Luftwaffe barracks. Compared to the other camps, Quedlinburg was like heaven. Every month, 250 Focke Wulfs were assembled. I worked on the takeoff." At takeoff, the aircraft was jacked up and checked. (The wheels were moved together and apart.) "In Suhl, I still received two packages from home; in Kahla, this was no longer possible. In one package I received in Quedlinburg, there was a box of 'Speckkies' (a kind of candy). The enclosed letter said: The bottom is usually the best. At the bottom of the box was white linen folded into a small bag, in which I found coffee beans. At work, I asked Franz Meyer if he could use coffee. He said yes and gave me two slices of bread every day for the coffee as long as we were together. This bread saved my life." Franz Meyer was a German who worked in Quedlinburg. Rumor had it that he was anti-Nazi; Valere and Franz Meyer worked together. So Valere risked asking him if he could do something with the coffee. Meyer asked what he wanted in return. Bread, said Valere. Well, said Meyer, I will give you 20 kilos of bread. Valere replied that he could not use 20 kilos if he got it all at once because he had no way to hide or store it. Also, the risk was too high that he would eat too much and get sick. Valere suggested to Franz Meyer that during the time they were together, he give him one slice of bread every day. Franz Meyer agreed to give him two slices. They had an agreement. At the moment they had to leave Quedlinburg, Franz also had to go to Oschersleben and later to Kahla. Until the day before Easter (Saturday, April 1), Valere received two slices of bread every day. On Easter Day, Franz Meyer was able to take leave and go to his wife. During the entire war, Valere never saw him again. "At the end of January, they moved us again from Quedlinburg to Oschersleben. After a short stay there, we went to Kahla." "Via Magdeburg, Halle, Weißenfels, the train stopped in Kahla. When we arrived there, the train station was on fire. So the train went back, and we had to go out into the meadows. From Jena, we took the train back to Kahla." Valere Braet "Thanks to the two slices of bread per day that I received from Franz Meyer, I was able to survive the camps where I lived." "In Kahla, I first stayed in Camp 7 in Leubengrund; later I was transferred to Camp E." "There, I worked at the top of the mountain on the runway; I helped with the takeoff of the airplanes. With the help of a tractor, the airplanes were pulled out of the huge assembly bunker. They were lifted onto the platform, then it took 20 minutes before they reached the top of the mountain via the cog railway track. At the top of the mountain, we (two Belgians and four Russians) had to take the machine off the platform and push the airplane to the start of the runway." "Then two people attached an auxiliary engine to each wing. The Germans fixed the ignition mechanism." "The small engines ran on regular gasoline. We started the engine like a lawnmower. When the engine ran, the pilot started the airplane. Then the auxiliary engines were fired up, and the ME262 took off like a shot. (The auxiliary engines were switched on after the airplane reached a certain speed and the middle of the runway.) The auxiliary engines were dropped; the Russians had to pick them up." "In Kahla, 14 airplanes took off during the time I was there." Fourteen airplanes took off from Walpersberg; seven of these would reach Zerbst, where the artillery and ammunition were placed. Years later, Valere happened to meet a German pilot at an air show in Koksöde who had left Zerbst during World War II with an ME262 manufactured in Kahla. He had participated in the air attack on Prague. "The food in Camp 7 and Camp E was far too little to stay alive. We got a liter of water soup, and we had to share one loaf of bread with six others. Very unusually, we got a small piece of sausage with the bread." Valere weighed 51 kilos when he arrived home. "I was glad I did not get sick there. Those who became seriously ill were already dead in advance. But I developed a dysfunction there because I was always exposed to the exhaust gases of the airplanes. In the cold winter, we warmed ourselves with these exhaust gases; it was 20 degrees Celsius below zero." "From April 1 onward, work was stopped. The only work done after Easter was the disassembly of the airplanes that were ready to be transported to Zerbst. I and some others had to bring the wings, bodies, and other parts to the runway at Orlamünde." "On April 14, Camp E was liberated. A few days earlier, the camp was evacuated. We were supposed to participate in a march toward Neustadt an der Orla. But we did not leave our room in the barracks. We already saw the artillery." Valere Braet "Thanks to the two slices of bread per day that I received from Franz Meyer, I was able to survive the camps where I lived." "The moment someone in the room had to urinate, he ran outside into the arms of the SS. They entered the barracks and drove us outside. We had to go, or we would have been shot. I and two others went.""We were heading towards Kahla, but we had the feeling that we should not cross the bridge. We were afraid that the bridge might have been bombed. Near the bridge, we crawled into a hole and fell asleep. The police woke us and accompanied us to the other side of the bridge." "We had just reached the other side of the bridge when it was blown up." "Then we went towards a village, which I was told during the memorial service was Hummelshain. The German soldiers we passed gave each of us a loaf of bread." "When we reached Hummelshain, we went to the cemetery; we wanted to spend the night in the death house. But it was locked, so we slept in the woods." "The next day, a truck with three German soldiers stopped beside us. They gave us cigarettes and advised us to go into the woods and wait for the Americans." "So we also spent that night in the woods." "This continued up to the top of this mountain. There were also other Belgians, French,... We heard the Allies; when we saw the Americans arrive, we waved to them with a white shirt and came out of the woods." "The Americans gave us chewing gum and cigarettes and told us to go back in the direction we had come from. That night we slept in a sawmill." "In the morning, we crossed the Saale again and an Alsatian sent us back to Camp E; a truck would come and take us." "The next day, trucks with French drivers arrived. Forty men were packed into one truck. The one I was in had a flat tire. So I got out of the truck to help the driver. Meanwhile, someone stole my place in the carrier, so I had to spend the rest of the trip on the hood of the truck." "They drove us to a field where the fascists stood separately from the group. From there, we were taken by GMCs (the ones that brought ammunition to the front) to Eisenach, still with forty men per truck. We stayed there two days. Then they took us to Mainz to the barracks of the German Panthers. We were not allowed to leave before we had cleaned the entire barracks, which was quite a difficult task without water." Valere Braet "Thanks to the two slices of bread per day that I received from Franz Meyer, I was able to survive the camps where I lived." "We were also dusted with powder there. Everyone who was disinfected received a red card." "They transported us to another barracks." "From there, they took us by truck to a train station. They placed us with forty men in a cattle car. It was impossible for everyone to lie down at the same time, so we took turns every two hours." "In this way, we traveled for two days and two nights without food and drink. Through France, we arrived in Metz. In Arlon, we got something to eat." "In Jambes, we were interrogated by the state security and had to see a doctor. Everyone received 200 francs to go home." "In Brussels, we were all arrested. We told them that we were volunteers and disappeared." "I took the tram to my family in Schaerbeek, from where I called Tielt." "On April 24, 1945, at about 8 p.m., I arrived in Tielt. A huge crowd of people was waiting for me there." To this day, Valere cannot forget this period in his life. When he sees someone in a striped shirt, his mind takes him back to that terrible time.