Larry Wayne - 2005
Organizing in camps
Do you think you thought it made it easier to be on your own?
No it was easier to be together...
Together.
...you could help each other. My, my brother helped me an awful lot, especially when he went to coal mine, because for awhile they--he was young and he--they took him off from the coal mine shift and they let him work on the outside and he was able to make some friends among the Poles that were helping out. And that way he helped me out too.
So these were outside the camp.
Right.
Yeah. Was there any way that you managed to sneak in food, extra food, anything?
Well, once in awhile when I wasn't in, in, in a camp I used to steal some shirts or something and although they watch you like hawks, and take it down to the Polish miners and give it to them and they used to give you some bread sometimes for it, not too often.
So you organized.
Organized, yeah, and we had what they call organizers, you know. That we knew you're going down ??? some guys at the higher care here, you know in the camp, that they could not get out of the camp to go, so they used to, not, not me but there were some other people, they used to give them stuff to get down and put in orders with the Polish miners to bring it back to them. Especially the guy who was the head of the kitchen or something, whatever it is, you know. Or have the other thing, you know. So he had it much better than anybody else and... So he was able, so maybe he wanted something uh, sardines, I don't know, you know.
So there was a lot of black marketeering.
Oh yeah. Well, I don't know a lot, but certain degree there was, because there were contact between inside and outside people.
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