"We were also forbidden to approach nearer than five metres of the other
blocks. Anyone caught doing so was whipped on the 'horse', and was sure of
at least 15 to 20 strokes. Other categories of prisoner were similarly
forbidden to enter our block. We were to remain isolated as the damnedest
of the damned, the camp's 'shitty queers', condemned to liquidation and
helpless prey to all torments inflicted by the SS and Capos.
"The day regularly began at 6a.m., or 5 a.m. in the summer, and in just
half an hour we had to be washed, dressed and have our beds made up in
military style. If you still had time, you could have breakfast, which
meant a hurried slurping down the thin flour soup, hot or luke-warm, and
eating your piece of bread. Then we had to form up in eights on the
parade-ground for morning roll-call. Work followed, in winter from 7.30
a.m. to 5 p.m., and in summer from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., with a half hour
break at the workplace. After work, straight back to camp and immediate
parade for evening roll-call.
"Each block marched in formation to the parade-ground and had its
permanent position there. The morning parade was not so drawn-out as the
much feared evening roll-call, for only the block numbers were counted,
which took about an hour, and then the command was given for work
detachments to form up.
"At every parade, those that had just died had to be present, i.e. they
were laid out at the end of each block and counted as well. Only after the
parade, and having been tallied by the report officer, were they taken to
the mortuary and subsequently burned.
"Disabled prisoners also had to be present for parade. Time and again we
helped or carried comrades to the parade-ground who had been beaten by the
SS only hours before. Or we had to bring along fellow-prisoners who were
half-frozen or feverish, so as to have our numbers complete. Any man
missing from our block meant many blows and thus many deaths.
"We new arrivals were now assigned to our work, which was to keep the area
around the block clean. That, at least, was what we were told by the NCO
in charge. In reality, the purpose was to break the very last spark of
independent spirit that might possibly remain in the new prisoners, by
senseless yet heavy labour, and to destroy the little human dignity that
we still retained. This work continued til a new batch of pink-triangle
prisoners were delivered to our block and we were replaced.
"Our work, then, was as follows. In the morning we had to cart the snow
outside our block from the left side of the road to the right side. In the
afternoon we had to cart the same snow back from the right side to the
left. We didn't have barrows and shovels to perform this work either, that
would have been far too simple for us 'queers'. No, our SS masters had
thought up something much better.
"We had to put our coats with the buttoned side backward, and take the
snow away in the container this provided We had to shovel up the snow with
our hands -- our bare hands, as we didn't have any gloves. We worked in
teams of two. Twenty turns at shovelling up the snow with our hands, then
twenty turns at carrying it away. And so, right throught the evening, and
all at the double!
"This mental and bodily torment lasted six days, until at last new
pink-triangle prisoners were delivered to our block and took over for us.
Our hands were cracked all over and half frozen off, and we had become
dumb and indifferent slaves of the SS.
"I learned from prisoners who had already been in our block a good while
that in summer similar work was done with earth and sand. "Above the gate
of the prison camp, however, the 'meaningful' Nazi slogan was written in
big capitals:
'Freedom through work!'"