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Testifier A : ...she was making these women read aloud to her. They were reading
to her. At first we thought this guard, this guard is...more sensitive, she's
more human, she's kinder. Often she chose the weak, the sick, she picked them
out, and she seemed to be protecting them almost. But then she dispatched them.
Is that kinder ?
Judge : I want to move on now to the march. As I understand it, you and your
daughter were marched for many months.
Testifier B : Yes. It was the winter of 1944. Our camp was closed down. We were
told we had to move on. But the plan kept changing every day. Women were dying
all around us in the snow. Half of us died on the march. My daughter says in the
book, less a death march, more a death gallop.
Judge : Please tell us about the night in the church.
Testifier B : That night we actually thought we were lucky because we had a roof
over our heads.
Judge : Go on!
Testifier B : We’d arrived in a village, as always, the guards took the best
quarters. They took the priest’s house. But they let us sleep in a church. There
was a bombing raid, in the middle of the night. The Church was hit. At first we
could only hear the fire, it was in the steeple. Then we could see burning
beams, and they began to crash to the floor. Everyone rushed, rushed to the
doors. But the doors had been locked on the outside.
Judge : The church burned down ? Nobody came to open the doors ? Is that right ?
Testifier B : Nobody.
Judge : Even though you were all burning to death? How many people were killed ?
Testifier B : Everyone was killed.
Judge : But you survived ? Thank you. I want to thank you for coming to this
country today to testify. |
