Marvin Kozlowski - August 28, 2002
Liberation
They didn't want you to escape?
I don't know. Uh, ea...each of them, each, each uh, each officer had his own thing, he can do what he wanted to. At one time, we were poor people to come out and clean uh, not the garage, something like this, like a big shack or whatever it is or whatever. They was supposed to--it was cold air, it was also laying there some skin from dead horses. I'll never forget we cut up a piece, I cut up, how I had to cut it I tore off a piece of the horse and put it in my sheet. And I brought this in and we put it against that stove, piece was small we ate it. Everybody uh, people--everybody wanted a piece of it. And there was only so much, it just. And he was trying to save ??? everything. Nothing happened to us, I can't imagine. Lived like animals. We stayed there for about thirty days. And they were coming on again. They were not moving fast enough. I thought it would take forever. So we--they--we, they give us back the clothes and we went, we were supposed to go and we walked to a railroad tr...track they had boxcars. And uh, a couple of 'em were non-box...I think I happened to be in the non-boxcar. People were, we were squashed in, angry at each other, there was no food. Finally by the--a day or two days later, they had in the back machine guns, big petroleum. You name it ??? dynamite what the hell ???. The SS ran away, took off, to take the uniforms off probably because the Americans were just entering the city of Osterburken almost. And we were just a little bit outside Osterburken, that's Baden, I think. And we were camped there to that place there uh, we sent out--we didn't able to eat. But there were a few French Jews, they said, "Dig out those uh, leaves, those four, five leaves together." ??? they used to call it, whatever. And make a little bit fire from a little glass--sun, if you were able, against the sun makes a fire. We made a fire and in, and in no time, most of these people died. They got dysentery and died. Anyway, we sent in a uh, uh, about four people, a delegation to the city hall asking them from a little bit of food. Bread or soup or whatever they could spare. They told our delegation if we don't get out they're going to be shot. That was, they were only about a few miles from the city. Uh, we stayed there and we ate actually nothing, grass. Some people lucky, some people not. And we went there back, a few days later we were ??? around. And they said okay they'll give us, they give us some soup. They were not a few people, we ate a big kettle of the soup ???. There was--the war came to an end. Not everybody was lucky, the war came to an end. You, you could name your place where to go and get food wherever you want to. We went to German farms, they brought eggs they--you name it. And the people ate. They were dying, they couldn't believe it. And I was like this. Like a square box. I, I was si...uh, liberated I was sixty some, pounds. So you know what happens. Uh, they put us in a quarantine later. And they gave us just a little bit of food in the morning, a little bit and let us out two months later. We became like human being. And from there we stayed awhile in Germany and emigra...
Wife: That's all.
That's all.
And you came to Baden.
Pardon?
You were Baden, is that where you were?
I think, yeah. Yeah Baden. Not far from, not far from--what's the city with the M?
Moßbach?
Wife: You said Moßbach.
It was another. Mergentheim. Pretty close to Mergentheim and not very far from Heidelberg either, but.
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