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We left from Chanteau, France for Lindburg Germany and the trip lasted from twelve to fifteen days. We had very little to drink and were given very little food.
We arrived in Linburg where we received some two [?], and were registered under the International Red Cross.
We then left for Jerchen, Cheq and this was another hard trip in box cars and lasted about ten days. We were moved to Poland where we worked in a Coal mine for about four months. The food was mainly potatoes and [?] and we had very hard work. Worked eight hour shifts and were forced to finish our work before coming to the surface.
On Jan 23rd we started the march and the first eleven days was almost starvation. Many of our boys who had not worked because of sickness had to be left behind along the road. We were fed only at night and sometimes not at all. Our guards were the SS and would not let the civilians feed us. Any civilian caught giving us food or clothing was usually shot on the spot or severely punished. Our clothing was getting worn out as we only had our uniforms we were captured in and few of us were left with socks. We had nothing to wear on our hands, and we had frozen hands more than once. At nights we slept in hog rooms and with no soap of any kind it was impossible to keep clean. Before a month was over we were all lousy and were unable to sleep at night.
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