EXCERPT FROM THE LONG NIGHT
Fünfteichen
In the evening we had to be deloused before we were chased onto our planks. At this procedure we had to get undressed and scrupulously examine our shirts for lice for fifteen minutes. We were warned that if a single louse was found we would receive fifty lashes on our bare bottoms, so with considerable trepidation we meticulously searched. After a quarter of an hour we were asked if we had finished, and on Karol’s orders we had to respond with a loud “jawohl”. It was his stipulated “request” that we must respond to all his questions and orders with a loud “jawohl”. We always hoped that this concluded the tortures of the day and at long last we could get some rest on our planks.
‘Hospital’ barrack at Fünfteichen camp [www.miloszyce.republika.pl]
However, Karol prolonged the delousing procedure with a few extra tortures he invented himself. He grabbed a few exhausted older men from our group and checked if they had obeyed his instructions with the precision he insisted on. Of course he easily found a few more lice because this pest is quick. Karol showed off his great catch triumphantly and instantly ordered that these unfortunates should be laid across the stool.
Then he began to beat his victim with the narrow edge of a wooden board taken from one of the bunks. In his rage he also struck the spine and kidneys. Sometimes the victim was beyond screaming and we heard his final death rattle. The maltreated returned to us covered in blood, but his life had actually ended because of the beating he received on the stool. The following morning they would be grossly swollen and could hardly walk. The only way for them was to the sick bay from which they never returned.”
