Tag #116186 - Interview #100368 (Dobre Rozenbergene )

There was no way we could know that Hitler’s defeated troops were rolling down to the West. We didn’t know that in July 1944 Vilnius was liberated and Kaunas in August. We could only second-guess, seeing the bold Fascists. In August 1944 we were taken together, shaved, for us not to escape on our way, as being bald everybody would see that we were convicts, and taken to the West. Now we were taken to the real death concentration camp of Stutthof [12]. It was a huge international camp. There was a constant fume from the furnaces of the camp crematorium and we only had to wait for our turn. We didn’t work there and we were hardly given any food. We could only remember morning coffee in Kiliele. In the morning we got up for a roll call and afterwards we weren’t permitted to go back to the barracks. We remained standing outside. Some of us fell down dead.