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I never saw that the Jewesses in the camp were ill-treated; what I
did see was that the camp leader, Rieck, carried a rubber club.
At the
Krupp factory we supervisors worked each day in another section. Thus, I gained
a general view of the nature of the work and the treatment in the plant. I
never saw any case of ill-treatment or any other treatment degrading to women.
Nor did I ever hear anything of this nature.
The Jewesses worked on
machines which had been previously operated by German women. I myself worked on
these machines before my term as a supervisor. Thus, one of these operations
consisted in the following:
The women had to insert iron rods into a
machine, the machine returning these rods automatically in another place. Then
these rods had to be bundled. This was a light kind of job. The bundles were
carried away by a crane.
Another operation consisted in putting iron
bars (not iron blocks) of different sizes on stands, which was done by two
workers, then grinding down bad spots with an electric grinder. This kind of
work I would term as medium heavy work. It had been previously done also by us
German women.
When later on, as a result of the heavy air raids, on the
plant, debris had to be cleared away the Hungarian women had to assist in the
work of clearing. Not only the Hungarian women but the German men as well had
to take part in this clearing work. I saw the Hungarian women carry bricks. We
supervisors told the Hungarian women repeatedly on this occasion that they
should not carry too many bricks at one time.
In my opinion the food
was quite good. In the camp they received bread with butter, sausage or cheese.
At noon soup was brought to them from the camp. After having taken the
Hungarian women back to the camp after closing time, we supervisors gave the
Hungarians what was left of our own lunch. It is true this did not happen
regularly, yet it did happen frequently. The women's clothing was first poor,
but later became better. Thus, the women received wooden shoes which had partly
leather uppers, partly uppers of cloth.
I know of but one case of death
that occurred in the camp. It concerned a girl who was killed during an air
raid. I cannot state how it came that this girl had not been taken along into
the shelter. The raid came all of a sudden in the afternoon while we were in
the plant.
Prior to the destruction of the camp, each of the Jewesses
had her own bed. Each of them had several blankets, maybe two or three. Each
bed was provided with a straw mattress. |
1183 |
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