Henry Konstam - October 25, 1991
Labor Camp Conditions
How long were you in Gronow?
Gronow I was about two and a half years.
You were there for that... Did conditions change?
That they did. They got always worse. In the beginning they were pretty decent. Later on uh, they, you know, got worse. They had people from the mm, uh, SS coming in and, and then make inspections where you uh, you used to have, let's say, a uh, aluminum uh, kind of uh, that, that you washed, you know, that uh, from, you know. And, and they come in and see they, how polished this is. It had to be, it had... You had to sit there for hours and polish it, you know. And if it was not to his liking, well, you got a beating.
And that, that changed.
I remember one... Yeah. And worst of all, the, the uh, every barrack had a uh, had a leader, you know. And they uh, there's one fellow, I remember, he uh, he got beaten so badly, you know. Uh, they... He was full of welts, you know. By the time they got done with him, he couldn't, he couldn't move. 'Cause... For several days, for about a week, he had swollen welts.
Did he survive?
He survived, yeah. I saw him after the war. I saw after the war in Germany.
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