Joseph Gringlas - January 14 & 22, March 18, 1993
Labor in Blizyn
Were you working in a factory there?
Yeah, we worked--at beginning at Blizyn, when I was, gotten, gotten into Blizyn I worked with shoes. I made shoes with wood, wooden soles and sho...leather. That's what the shoes are made of.
Do you remember what the factory, was it Heinkel?
The b...
The factory, was it Heinkel? The factory that, at...
It wasn't a factory, it was a barracks. Worked in the barracks.
Oh I see.
Yeah.
Was there, was there elsewhere a factory?
Old, old barracks. We were the pioneers in Blizyn when I came. We were--they starting building barracks there.
Uh-huh.
And what they put, what they give us, the dinner time, lunch time they give you out a little bit of soup, it was more water than, than potatoes. And you tried to be the last one so you can get a little bit from the bottom, potato, get a few potatoes there. And it was that--I was in Blizyn there eh, quite a. Yeah, there were other things in Blizyn were the Steinbruch. Steinbruch, that means the...
Stone quarry.
Stone, taking out from the ground and you had to cut eh, cut it, knock it on piece, for pieces that stones. And one was SS, SS guide us. That one, it was quite a few, we had a Ukrainian one he was com....uh, and his name, I don't remember his name, but he was something with his hand. I think what happened, those SS were injured on the front, they sent to the camps taking care of us. And they, they were sick. They're screaming like, they start screaming on you--and take out the gun they know that, you know how you could feel like you see on somebody else they shoot like this. And eve...uh, I forgot his name is, SS, tall guy but something was the hand he was screaming, he was hitting in, hitting everybody's--"Los, los, los,” should walk fast.
It was in the quarry.
Beg your pardon?
In the quarry, in the stone quarry.
Eh, the, Steinbruch was out of the ca...of that lager, it was, you had to work out with SS Ukrainian to outside work.
But he was, he was the overseer of the Steinbruch?
He was the head. He was the head of SS, but Ukrainian with the guns guarding around. Nobody escapes.
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