Eugene's story - part 2

Tom Holloway (xuegx@csv.warwick.ac.uk)
Sat, 27 Jan 1996 12:12:30 +0000 

My Search for Freedom - part two.
By Eugene Halski as told to Rosemary Woodel

My second prison camp at Orell was a very dangerous place.  The
guards were brutal.  I saw many prisoners beaten and killed by
being shot or hanged.  I tried to get friendly with certain
guards and learned German.  I volunteered for every work detail
to get out.  One time they asked for volunteers who had worked
on the railroad.  I lied and said I had just so I could get
away from this camp.  They took about 60 of us into Bronsk.  We
were to saw down the thickest, heaviest pine I'd ever seen with
a cross-cut saw, then move the 60 foot logs by hand to the main
railroad track.  Guards beat us badly while we tried to do this
impossible job.

One day a guard who trusted me gave me his gun and told me to
watch that no one escaped while he checked on the time.  I left
the gun behind one of those pine trees and escaped with a
friend.  We managed to stay free for awhile, hiding in the
woods and a deserted village, eating berries and muddy water
and one chicken we found.  But eventually we were captured by
Romanian soldiers on the German's side, who tortured us more
than the Germans had.  This was my third time to be captured.

This time I had even less freedom than before because I was put
in isolation.  I was scared to death.  I have no idea how long
I was in that little room which had bed bugs, no window and no
handle on the door.  After that, I was assigned to another work
camp where I worked on a highway but we were heavily guarded
even when planes dropped bombs on us.

The worst part of my being a prisoner-of-war, though, was when
they shipped us out of Russia into Germany.  They put about 75
of us into one box car -- like sardines, but the smell was much
worse.  One night while we were stopped on a side rail a plane
attacked us, throwing bombs so close that the locked boxcar
jumped into the air.  Inside I heard every kind of praying --
even the communists were praying.  Naturally I was praying too.

We were allowed to get out only when we arrived in Germany.  We
walked four hours to Stalag #9.  I didn't know how I would get
out of there because each barracks had a fence around it.  Then
there were two heavy barbed wire fences around the whole camp.
Each fence was 12 foot high.  They were about 10 feet apart.
In between was rolled barbed wire filled up to the top.

One day they asked for plasterers.  I knew nothing about
plastering but volunteered because they took us out of the camp
and I thought I could escape.  I could not.  Another time they
asked for brick layers.  Again I volunteered although I knew
nothing about bricklaying.  I did not escape then either.

Finally, in May of 1945 we were removed from this camp, marched
from place to place in front of the advancing English army.
Mostly we traveled during the day but the English were moving
so fast we finally had to move at night as well.  One night we
were walking down the highway under armed guard when an
American airplane threw some phosphorous bombs.  They lit up
the sky and a big area.  The guard gave us an order, "Go off
the highway to the right and lie down."  I went to the left and
ran like a scalded dog.  I didn't stop until I was sure I was
free of the Germans.

I ran and ran until I finally found a barn and entered it.  A
huge sow was in the stall and she attacked me.  I practically
flew up into the loft -- free from the sow!  Eventually my
hunger forced me out.  I found a house nearby and asked for
food.  The German farmer said, "Sorry, we haven't been to the
bakery, we have nothing to eat."  His daughter, though, gave me
one slice of bread and a raw egg.  I returned to the barn and
tried to make friends with the pig.

The next day I left the barn when I heard some shots.  The same
German farmer came out and offered me cake, sausage, bread and
butter and clothing.  That's when I knew the shots meant the
end of the war.  I went looking for the English soldiers and
finally found them on the road.  They were glad to see me and I
was very glad to see them!  I decided I would not try to return
to Ukraine because Ukraine was not free.  I had suffered too
much.  Although my sisters and their children were still living
there I decided to try to get to a free country.  I stayed in a
displaced person's camp in Hanover for five years until I was
sponsored to come to Georgia.  Here in the United States of
America I am free.

Eugene Halski