The camp doctor, a German, knew about me. He was the only one I trusted".

And the Russians? Didn't they notice anything? "No. The Russian doctors didn't conduct any thorough examinations. They left this to their German colleag-

ues".

One day we moved from the camp in East Prussia to one inside Russia. In a small camp, the name of which Else - Wilhelmine has forgotten ("There were so many P. O. W. camps then") she and two fellow prison- ers prepared for an escape.

"For months the three of us were on the way. Sometimes we almost collapsed from hunger and ex- haustion. Once we stole a young goat near a farm, killed it and ate the raw meat, because we were afraid to light a fire. We drank the blood".

"We made it to East Prussia. Then we were caught again. I was put to work on a collectivized farm. We were only able to buy potatoes and bread".

It was here that Else - Wilhelmine A. met the girl Adelgunde, whom she had known from her home village, ever since Adelgunde was a very small girl. In the meantime Adelgunde had become 18 years old and had survived the horrors of war and the Russian occupation. "She was deadsick. Misery and hunger had made a hu- man wreck out of her. I took her under my wing. simply wanted to help".

I

The togetherness of these two people, who met during the horror and hardship of the times right after the war, deepened. They found support and protection in each other.

Curious and remarkable, but maybe because of the simple and strong desire, not to leave each other any more, they appeared a few years later, after camp and captivity were behind them, before the justice of peace in the city of Torgau. Wilhelm A. married Adel- gunde.

44.