The Boxer's Story by Nathan Shapow

Author:Nathan Shapow [Nathan Shapow and Bob Harris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781849544269
Publisher: Robson Press, The
Published: 2012-04-23T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE CRUISE TO HELL (STUTTHOF)

Our unpaid labour was clearly crucial to the ever-weakening cause of the Third Reich. So much so that as the net began to tighten, with the Russians marching back into the Baltic states and driving out their old enemy, the Germans, we enslaved Jews were even transported to Germany itself. We had been moved so many times by now that it was not necessary to pack – we had long since been stripped of all personal possessions, of anything that we could call our own except our pride and will to survive. These only grew stronger, as we gathered from our gypsy-like travelling that things were not going well for Hitler’s forces.

But any hope this news brought us was crushed when we learned that our destination, in occupied Poland, was a true death camp. We were being taken to … Stutthof. If all that had gone before was a bad dream then this was the real, living nightmare for us.

We were driven from Spilve in trucks to the docks in Riga where we were marched onto a German navy ship and, weak from cold and hunger, were thrown into the very bowels of the hold. The Germans’ cruelty again knew no bounds. They supplied us with no water but a large supply of salted herrings, cast down to us through a hole in the deck. They wanted us to suffer, knowing that in our hunger we would eat the fish and then have no water to slake the fierce resulting thirst.

We were in despair in our cramped quarters. Along with four Jewish boys from Helsinki I decided to break out and search for proper food and water. We knew they must have their own supplies somewhere aboard. We weighed the risks and asked ourselves, at this point, what more could they do to us? At the very worst, we’d be thrown to the fish, and then, at least, we would be out of it. It seemed there was no future, now that we were headed to a death camp … so why not take the risk?

Clearly the Germans thought we were too weak and under their thumb to try and do anything untoward, so it was quite easy for the five of us to slip out of our waterborne dungeon, climbing up the hole through which they fed us like seals and onto the main deck. After a brief search of the corridors we struck gold. We discovered a large cabin filled with packing cases and prised them open. We were dazzled to find that they had everything, the jackpot. Every case was crammed with luxurious food and alcoholic drinks. This was certainly worth risking our lives for. We took as much as we could carry down below and distributed the food and drink to everyone. There was not only canned food but also brandy, vodka and whisky, enough for everyone. If they caught us, so what? What did we care? At least we could die drunk and with full bellies.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.