Notes

“We were thrust into a shed of sorts with no windows and no roof. Portions of bread were distributed once a day and absolutely nothing else, not even hot water. As we were pretty well freezing (10 degrees below zero), we tore out the planks of the floor and burned them to keep ourselves from freezing entirely...The prisons were more crowded than seems humanly possible and became more so everyday...and at the moment when I entered it there were already 63 persons in it. The fortunate ones were squeezed tightly up against the balls, almost pushed through them. The others simply stood up on the floor. It was impossible to sit. Each new arrival meant additional misery for the others, and especially so at night when. the attempt was made to sleep. For this attempt we disposed ourselves in rows, our legs drawn up to our bodies. Each row had a prescribed side towards which they were allowed to lie, and to turn on to one's other side meant violent discomfort for all one's fellow sleepers, protests and even serious quarrels and assault...A doctor visited us once and noted the cases of sickness and never came back. Once when one of the prisoners had a very severe heart attack, we beat on the door and demanded help. After a moment our guards looked in, glanced with complete indifference at the man and said, "Let the brute die, then there'll be one less of you".