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9 o’clock and 9:15 and — that is, a.m., — another
break between 1 o’clock and 1:30 p.m. and the work would stop according to
the various detachments between 5:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. after which the
detachment would be brought back by the guards also in ranks and also in
silence — back to the camps.
Again, there was only a gathering and
only the numbers were called up, that is, not the numbers of the prisoners, but
they were simply counted to see that the same number came back from the
detachment as had gone to the detachment. Then, between 6 o’clock and 6:30
p.m. before that, first the first soup distribution, and then between 6
o’clock and 6:30, when all the detachments had come back from work there
would be the evening roll call. This time it was a real roll call, very long,
sometimes even endless and only after that there was the distribution of the
second ladle of soup and also of the bread ration which had to last until the
next evening. Then, at 7:30 — 8 o’clock one could go out within the
limit of the camp or else go and wash to the washroom, or to the room, but all
that lasted until only 8:30 because at 8:30, as I stated before, the guard
would come and put lock and chain on the door and lock us in. That, Your Honor,
is what our day was like in the camp.
Q. You said you were referred to
simply as “Stuecke” or pieces, weren’t you addressed as a
priest? Were you called Mon Père, Monsieur le curé or
l'abbé or some such designation of your priestly office?
A.
Sometimes certain guards would call me Mr. Pastor, but that is all. I mean I
was nothing to the management of the camp, a mere nothing.
Q. And when
you were called by the guard to eat did they call you in German and can you
describe the manner in which you were called to eat?
A. We then never
used the German word corresponding to human eating. They always used the word
“fressen” which refers to animals, feeding of animals, and the first
words I heard in German were, no work, no feeding, “Keine Arbeit, kein
Fressen.”
Q. And did you conduct religious services while you were
at Dechenschule?
A. I never could.
Q. Later, when you were at
Neerfeldschule, did you conduct religious services?
A. Later when the
civilian clothes were given back to us, I thought that, at least to a certain
extent, I would be able to do my religious duties. I heard a comrade of mine
approach the camp commandant, Rath, and the answer was no. Three to four weeks
later I heard he approached him a second time. The answer |
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