Maurice Chandler - October 3, 1993
Escaping to Russia II
And then we come into a field, and in the field we see little fires, you know, and we realized that there's people in the big field, and finally, you know, we got to them. We see people sitting around, you know, warming themselves. We said, "Who are you? Where are we? What is this?" And they said, "Don't you know? This is no man's land." "What's no man's land? What do you mean no man's land?" "Well, this is no man's land. It's between the Germans. You're free of the Germans already. They pushed you across no man's land, and now, this side is over here. See that forest? That's the line where the Russians are. You see in the back? That's where the Germans are. You are on this side now. You are in no man's land." So my brother and I--I remember we had a pillow that my mother gave us to take. The pillow was so heavy because it was raining, and the water got into it. We schlepped this pillow with whatever--I don't know what we have--a coat--and we're saying, "How long have you been here? What is this?" They said, "We've been here a week, and they've been there for a week." And everyday, they tried to cross into the Russian side, and the Russians won't let them in. So they're waiting. They said, "One of these days, they will let them cross over."
Was it winter?
That was uh, just about this month. October.
It was still...
[interruption in interview]
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