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V. R. Bunelik

Vasily Rodionovich Bunelik  was a Ukrainian educator who was politically active during the Second World War and wrote about the horrors of Mauthausen Concentration Camp where he was imprisoned and from where he escaped. The book is in Ukrainian, but he wrote a Russian version in manuscript which has been translated here by his daughter and grandson.

ESCAPE FROM MAUTHAUSEN (EXCERPT)

I and several other prisoners were taken to the railway station to unload boxes of machines for the factory. The boxes were so heavy that they could not even be budged. Enraged, the Fascist beat us, but it did not help. Then he took out a pistol from his holster and began to beat each of us with the handle, at random and I got a blow in the stomach . . . . I groaned, but recovered from the blow and asked the beast pleadingly:

"Believe me, I want to do it, but I don’t have the strength. There’s no point in beating me, nothing will help, when there is no strength .."

Nearby some Germans were working. One of them came up and said something to the SS. He nodded. We went quiet. What was  awaiting us? 

Three meters away from us lay a half-rotten swede. I asked the SS guard permission to take it.

“Take it!” He agreed.

I instantly grabbed the swede and began to eat.

" Stop! Vek Lassen! " Cried suddenly the SS.  “infection! “

He hit my hand and knocked down the swede, but in an instant it was in the hands of another famished prisoner. The SS lashed him with a whip. A third hungry inmate swallowed the remnants of the completely rotten swede. The SS

hit him hard with his whip on the head. 

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