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Q. When you say, Father Come, that you gave up your priest’s
habit, do you or do you not mean that your priest’s habit was taken from
you?
A. No, I mean to say that I had given it up voluntarily, but I do
know another priest who had arrived at the camp before me — I want to
imply here that there were three priests at the camp — this priest, by the
name of Robert Nicolas de Medellier, had taken his priest’s habit along
and it had been taken away from him in the camp.
Q. In the camp?
A. Yes, in the camp.
Q. You say you were given convict‘s
clothes at Dechenschule, is that a uniform which had a yellow stripe on the
back of it?
A. Yes, there was a yellow stripe on the back, there was
also a yellow stripe on the chest, and also a yellow stripe on each of the
knees.
Q. Can you tell the Tribunal how that yellow stripe was put on
or renewed every now and then, and the manner of indignity of that procedure?
A. Yes, it would happen that if they noticed a prisoner had taken off
part of these yellow stripes, and if a guard noticed it or somebody from the
office noticed it, he would come along with a color pot and have fun putting on
the color again — running after him and putting the color on.
JUDGE WILKINS: Color, did I get that?
MR. THAYER: Paint, I
think, would be a better translation. Were you locked in at night in
Dechenschule?
WITNESS COME: We were locked in as from 8:30 p.m. until
4:30 a.m. — locked in with lock and chain.
Q. During the rest of
the period were you free to come and go, or were you restricted?
A. At
4:30 o’clock in the morning the guard would open the rooms, unlock and
shout in there “Aufstehen” which means “get up.” He would
come in with a piece of rubber hose which he would use for those who were not
quick enough for his tastes. Between 5 o’clock and 5:10 a.m. there would
be the first morning gathering. I wouldn’t call it a roll call because no
names and numbers were called at that time; it was therefore only a gathering
and did not last very long. It was simply that so and so many, what they called
“Stuecke”, so and so many pieces of human material would be counted,
pointed out for certain detachments, and as soon as there were sufficient
persons for that detachment, the guard would make them form ranks and then
would march them to the factory section in question in silence.
The
work started at 6:00 a.m. There was a break between |
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