(7) Farmer again

I was eventually evacuated from Krupp because of the intensifying allied bombing of the factory. They sent me to Overath, a nice little town surrounded by farms. About 1km away was an Aluminium mine where many prisoners of war and forced labourers were working. I decided that I should try and get a job on a farm, as I'd heard about the conditions in the mines, and you were usually guaranteed better food there.

At Overath I was chosen for work by a farmer, Herr Rotlander, a member of the SA, I remember him going off to the Camp at Overath every second day or so in his yellow uniform. He was going to select more prisoners to work on the farms, because of course, by this time, all the fit working men were in the army. The French prisoners there were regularly picked up in lorries and taken out to work on the surrounding farms.

Rottlander was married to a big woman, Maria who had three children, two girls and one son. She used to say "When we win the war, all you foreign men will be castrated, and we'll build a little hut on the farm for you to live in" She showed me the place, it was near the main road, in some bushes, and close to a well.