Mrs. Roemerfeld - 1982?
Telefunken II
You said that um, you were in the Sudetenland for how long?
Uh, I would say uh, six to seven months the most. Not too long.
And you went to work everyday at--early in the morning?
Yes. That is, incidentally registered with the German government, which they uh, paid me for it. The company isn't existent now, Telefunken. So uh, they paid me a certain amount uh, which it wasn't much to speak of, five hundred dollars for the time that I worked for them as a slave.
Did you um, were you in contact with any civilian people in Telefunken that were running the factory?
Uh, not in speaking terms. We saw them. Uh, some supervisors, some men or whatever. And uh, they kept on switching us over from the, you know, uh, this apartment to the next apartment if they needed a hand there or working at a machine or whatever. Well...
You worked in the factory itself, sorting munitions?
Yes.
Did you know what they were?
No, I did not. And actually uh, Telefunken is an electronic firm. It is not uh, an ammunition uh, factory. But uh, and they must have switched that over during the war because that's when they were building ammunition bombs or whatever.
Did you ever have any contact with any uh, civilian people at all? Any, did they try to give you bread or did they try to treat you in a more kind fashion than the SS were?
Where, in Maehrisch-Weisswasser?
Mm-hm.
No, they were not allowed to go near us. And we weren't allowed to step out of line. Like I said uh, that one man threw once a piece of bread and I grabbed it and I thought the world of him because I couldn't believe that there are still human beings who care for one another.
What would have happened to him if they would have found him doing that?
Well, him probably not much. But I would be uh, punished for it.
Did you see any women being punished for just that?
Uh, well, there wasn't too much throwing. There wasn't too much giving.
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