Tag #130233 - Interview #101129 (Samuel Eiferman)

The Germans were in the process of withdrawing, with the Red Army approaching from the direction of Kiev. They were only a few hundred kilometers away. At noon they gave us food and let us rest. While others were smoking, I fell asleep. I only woke up in the evening. I found myself alone. They had assembled the workers, but hadn’t counted them, so they had no idea I was missing. I hid in a nearby forest and spent the night there. In the morning I noticed I was close to a cemetery; it wasn’t older than 2 years. Romanians, Germans, Hungarians, Italians and Russians were buried there. I couldn’t make it back to the camp, for I wasn’t familiar with the surroundings. I went up to a Ukrainian local who was harvesting in the field. I was certain he wouldn’t turn me in, since the Russians were close. He took me to his place, fed me and, in the evening, he returned me to the camp in Moghilev.