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I was in the kolkhoz from July until November 1941, when I was assigned to the Red Army. I could have run away with a friend, but it would have been dishonorable. We were convinced that there was one enemy and that it didn't matter where we were fighting.
We set off from the Morozovskaya station, we walked through heavy snow for five days, for 104 kilometers, until we reached the Marinskaya base, where the 12th Army was stationing. The Russians celebrated their first victory then, they took over Rostov-na- Donu.
We were on the front in January. What saved me was that all foreigners were sent off to the labor battalions. It was a horrible degradation with regards to conditions of life, because a soldier had everything - underpants, a shirt, bathhouse, food, shoes. And in the labor battalion we didn't get anything.
We set off from the Morozovskaya station, we walked through heavy snow for five days, for 104 kilometers, until we reached the Marinskaya base, where the 12th Army was stationing. The Russians celebrated their first victory then, they took over Rostov-na- Donu.
We were on the front in January. What saved me was that all foreigners were sent off to the labor battalions. It was a horrible degradation with regards to conditions of life, because a soldier had everything - underpants, a shirt, bathhouse, food, shoes. And in the labor battalion we didn't get anything.
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Interview
Jozef Hen
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