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Los trabajos forzados — Testimonio

Joseph Stanley Wardzala
Nació: 1923, en Smigno, Polonia

Describe los trabajos forzados en Hannover [Entrevista: 1990]

La transcripción completa:

When we was working, there was so many, uh, people, were Poles and another nationality: Italian, French, and the...we don't talk much because, uh, German was like bosses and watchmen, was few watchmen with, uh, with, uh, weapon [so] that you, you don't escape, and, uh, we just have, we can't talk, uh, much. If you, if you talk right away they see you and, uh, you get, you get hit, so, uh, we, we just have to, uh, work. We just, we talk to each other very, uh, low. We, we talked to, we Polish, yeah, but not they hear, not the German hear. And they always, uh, they watch us what we do good job and if you do something wrong, then you get, uh, you get very bad beaten with the shovel or with the rifle. If, sometime, uh, one day I have to bring, uh, cement from, uh, a train, the, the two guy take it, a bag of cement and put on your shoulder and you go put it to the storage. You have to run. Uh, when there was rain, there was mess. Then if the bag of cement break, then you get beaten, so...it is not your fault but you have to be careful, so they was very strictly about, uh, sabotage. We couldn't do sabotage in, in Germany, because, uh, even if you try, it cost your life.

When we was working, there was so many, uh, people, were Poles and another nationality: Italian, French, and the...we don't talk much because, uh, German was like bosses and watchmen, was few watchmen with, uh, with, uh, weapon [so] that you, you don't escape, and, uh, we just have, we can't talk, uh, much. If you, if you talk right away they see you and, uh, you get, you get hit, so, uh, we, we just have to, uh, work. We just, we talk to each other very, uh, low. We, we talked to, we Polish, yeah, but not they hear, not the German hear. And they always, uh, they watch us what we do good job and if you do something wrong, then you get, uh, you get very bad beaten with the shovel or with the rifle. If, sometime, uh, one day I have to bring, uh, cement from, uh, a train, the, the two guy take it, a bag of cement and put on your shoulder and you go put it to the storage. You have to run. Uh, when there was rain, there was mess. Then if the bag of cement break, then you get beaten, so...it is not your fault but you have to be careful, so they was very strictly about, uh, sabotage. We couldn't do sabotage in, in Germany, because, uh, even if you try, it cost your life.

Joseph y su familia eran católicos. Después que Alemania invadió Polonia en 1939, empezaron las redadas de los polacos para hacer trabajos forzados en Alemania. Joseph escapó el arresto dos veces pero la tercera vez, en 1941, fue deportado a un campo de trabajos forzados en Hannover, Alemania. Por más de cuatro años fue forzado a trabajar en la construcción de refugios contra aeroplanos hechos de hormigón. Con la liberación por las fuerzas estadounidenses en 1945, el campo de trabajos forzados fue transformado en un campo de refugiados. Joseph se quedó ahí hasta que recibió una visa para entrar a los Estados Unidos en 1950

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