The Death March

At 9 o'clock in the evening of May 30th, they were evicted from their apartments. The
whole night long, men, women and children stood crowded together in the garden in AltBrnn. In the early dusk we were driven out of the garden and lined up in three columns
in the yard. A Staff Captain then arrived, together with a throng of partisans and
gendarmes, and shouted: "Hand over all gold, money and savings-bank deposit-books!"
Following this order the partisans, gendarmes and he himself rushed up to the
defenceless women and elderly people and tore all their jewellery, money and
valuables, in a word everything that seemed to be of value, out of their luggage and
from the bodies of the assembled. Each of the partisans had boxes full of money,
silverware and jewellery.
The following scene took place in front of our very eyes: An old lady wearing beautiful
diamonds was relieved of all her jewellery by a partisan. When the partisan tried to take
away her wedding-ring, she pleaded with him not to do so, crying: "Sir, please, let me
keep just this ring; it is of no value for you and it's almost 55 years since my husband
gave it to me before the altar - I wish to be buried together with the ring." He thereupon
pulled the ring off her finger.
The march began. Due to the fact that the assembled had had to stand in the open air
all night long on the streets and in the garden, many collapsed after a few kilometers.
After marching for close on 10 miles, near the village of Raigern, those among us who,
tired and exhausted, were unable to walk any further; were driven into the camp at
Raigern. Upon their arrival there they were assembled by female partisans, stripped
naked, and both men and women searched for jewellery and money. Their garments
were literally cut in tatters during the search for hidden valuables. Countless persons
were beaten to death and, according to the statements of many of those who reached
Pohrlitz, finally shot. I still remember the first killing - a soldier was chasing a woman. He
jumped over the exhausted women on the ground and in the course of the chase landed
with both feet on the head of an eight-year-old girl, killing her instantly.
The second death I remember was that of a woman of about 30 years, who was lying
on the concrete floor together with her two children, a three-year-old girl and a baby of
several weeks. In the early morning we heard the three-year-old child crying for her
mother; we then found out that the woman had committed suicide by taking poison. Her
face had already turned blue. The baby was dead too, since the woman had clasped it
to her breast until it too had died. A gendarme asked me in passing why the woman's
face was so blue. I replied that she had probably poisoned herself. He then cursed her,
calling her a whore and a filthy sow for committing suicide after two days in camp; and
he ordered me to "throw the sow into the latrine together with her bastard". Women
were forced to throw the corpse of the dead mother and the dead baby into the open
latrine. Partisans then ordered the inmates of the camp to use the latrine so that "the
sow with her dead bastard will disappear from sight as soon as possible". And this was
what happened.