Refugee in search of a homeland

business. I climbed up to the rest of the group, mumbling: "No point arguing with them." The soldier mounted the lorry directly after me and stood there, watching us with not a trace of humanity showing on his face.

When the lorry started to move with a jerk, we had to hold on to the frame. It took us out of Halberstadt, into the direction of Wegeleben, due east, about 10 km from the town. Arriving at the district's sugar factory, we were ordered to jump off the lorry. Then we were marched into the yard of the factory, which had been completely sealed off with barbed wire. A German man under Russian orders, took our I.D. cards, and wrote down our names and addresses in a big book. After that was finished, he explained: "You are all ordered by the Russian occupation forces to work here in this factory. It is to be demolished. The machinery will be shipped to Russia as reparation for all the destruction the German occupation forces had inflicted upon the heroic Russian people. You will be working the night shift here, which starts at six. As it is already nearly five, you can't go home. Your shift starts now. Tomorrow morning at six a lorry will take you to your village, where you can stay at home and sleep. Another lorry will come again in the afternoon to pick you up for the night shift at six. The driver will tell you where he will pick you up and at what time that will be. If you don't turn up, a special lorry will come and pick you up, only that time you will be on your way straight to Siberia. Is everything clear?"

"What about my school. I have to attend there, or else I will be punished." I was so angry!

"You can go back to school after this work here is finished." Only later I remembered Jesus' saying in the Bible: 'If one of the occupation troops forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two miles.' It was by no means an easy saying. I didn't want to have anything to do with the Russian occupation forces nor with this demolition.

I was completely shattered. How would I be able to let the school know where I was? I felt sure that they could get me out of this terrible place, somehow. But there didn't seem to be any way. Then I thought of my parents. They would be terribly worried, if I didn't turn up that afternoon. But what could I do?

Feeling most depressed, I grabbed a pick and started attacking a semi-collapsed brick wall. The big boilers were to be pulled out through the break in the wall. Soon I was tired, and hungry, and I looked around for the Russian guards. Luckily, in the section where I was working, they were pretty thinly spaced. Other fellow workers, who had been recruited in a similar fashion, were trying to sneak off.

"Can you risk it?" I was a bit anxious after my experience earlier that afternoon.

"We'll hide just for a couple of hours somewhere here. I need some sleep."

"So do I."

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