The rainbow never sets

"Why don't you find a hide-out for yourself?" "I might do that."

I waited for a while. Then I followed them in search of a deserted place, where I could hide, and get some sleep. It was not easy, though. I carried my pick, as if I had orders, across the main floor of the factory. On the other side a lot of machinery was still in place. I found a spot right under a cylinder, but it was not easy to get to sleep. The worst thing were my hunger pains. Also, the constant noise of the demolition droned in my ears. I must have dropped off for a little while, though, for I woke with a start. There, nearby, I could hear someone yelling. I peeped around the corner and I could see a Russian guard beating into one of my fellow workers mercilessly with a piece of iron pipe. Shivers crept down my spine. It could have been me. He probably tried to rest, just as I did, but he got caught. Phew, that was a close shave. A great fear gripped me, and for the rest of the night I worked steadily, the screams of the other still in my ears. The brutal force of our slave drivers appeared to be absolute. Is this how real slaves have felt in the days of slavery?

When morning came I was totally exhausted. No food since my school lunch, and practically no sleep, the dust and the noise, in addition to the unaccustomed hard physical work! All this seemed to have attacked my body, but worse still was the extreme fear and hopelessness, which had attacked my mind. The lorry took a group of us to Emersleben. What would my parents say? Wouldn't they be half dead with worry?

"Where have you been, my boy?" It was Vater, who met me in the yard. "We have been so worried about you."

I told him. "We had hoped that it was nothing worse than that," he conceded. "There have been other instances of the Russians taking people to Siberia or forcing them to do some work. I'm glad that you are back again. What about this afternoon?"

"I have to go again. 5 pm with the lorry." "Have you had anything to eat?" "Nothing since my lunch yesterday." "You must be starving. Mutter will make you something, and then straight to bed."

"My word. I'm dog tired." A quick meal, and then bed Ñ what bliss! I was dead to the world for the first two hours, but then I tossed and turned. Sleeping during the day had not been invented for me. I began to think of the coming night, and reality and sleep turned into a dreadful nightmare, or rather 'daymare'.

The lorry came just before 5 pm, and left at five sharp. There was the same group on board as this morning, no one was missing. On arrival at the sugar factory, we were allocated similar work as the night before. There were again ugly scenes of brutality, inflicted upon ordinary human beings.

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