Eyewitness to Wehrmacht Atrocities on the Eastern Front by Luis Raffeiner and Hannes Heer

Author:Luis Raffeiner and Hannes Heer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War II
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
Published: 2022-01-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

‘The dead can’t harm us’

I was one of around 170,000 men who were trapped here in Deutschbrod. Organized distribution of provisions was out of the question in view of such an enormous number of people. If I had known what was in store for me I would not have left the little bag of bran lying there so carelessly that I had found in a coach on a trip around the airport. Later I thought about it with much regret.

The rumour soon went around that the Austrians would be released. We even formed our own committee, and it was arranged that we should gather in groups of a hundred men each. The swastika flags were taken out of the aircraft that were lying around: red, white and red flags were made out of them, attached to a stick, and every hundred people now received an Austrian flag. Altogether there was a total of 1,800 Austrians in the prison camp. The groups of one hundred were divided into three companies. Each company presented the Russians with a list of names with their place of origin and information on where each of the soldiers intended to go. We did not have to wait long. The Russians gave my company, 500 men, permission to march. In Iglau/Jihlava we spent a whole day on a slope in the blazing sun. I carefully divided my bread into small rations because there were no provisions. Next we arrived in Brünn/Brno.

It was already the end of May when I was sitting in a shell crater with my comrade Hans Bachlechner from Defereggental in East Tyrol and we were pondering how we could get something to eat. He sat there crying because his loaf of bread, his only piece of food, had been stolen from him overnight. I gave him some of my meagre stash, and we agreed that we would share everything and help each other in other ways. Suddenly my gaze fell on a building that looked like a hospital. I knew that there were kitchenettes there where I could find something to eat. A Russian guard was on duty in front of the building – but at the right moment I sneaked in. The hospital was empty, and I found nothing in the kitchenette except a few tea bags. Now I had to hurry back to my company, otherwise they would have marched on without me. Suddenly I got the unmistakable smell of germinating potatoes. It was coming up from the cellar shaft that I had just passed. So I stuck my head into the shaft, waited a little for my eyes to adjust to the darkness of the cellar, and saw my assumption confirmed. Now I quickly looked for a container and then lowered myself down over the coal chute into the cellar. I quickly shovelled a couple of shrivelled potatoes into the small dented tin bucket and almost could not get out of the high shaft hole. I was only able to pull myself up with the greatest of efforts.

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