03:23

Ruth Deutschmann

Benjamin Epp

St. Anton

2008-08-19

Sylvia Manning - Baumgartner

Nicole D´Incecco

1945

Then they took us to a train station close to Agram (Zagreb). We were herded into a stock car - all of us into stock cars. And there a soldier who had been noticeably quite badly beaten committed suicide. He had an egg hand grenade. He placed that egg grenade between his belt and his belly and activated it. Obviously that tore him to pieces. We all paid for that. I mean, they became more harsh. They became so brutal and pushed us into the cars. Later, we really bore the brunt of it. As we were herded down the street .. Then we rode through Agram. They sent a partisan into each of the train cars we were in. They only sent in one per car and that was a disadvantage for them. -- He started at the back of the carriage - at the back of the carriage he started taking away everything we had left. Some of us still had a nice fountain pen or were wearing a ring or still had a lighter. He took all those things away. Then he moved to the middle of the carriage. There was a door there which was three-quarters open. Two of the older soldiers - were standing directly beside the open door, and behind them there were some others. Behind - behind them. Then he came and the two soldiers grabbed the partisan's hands or his arms and threw him out. The embankment was high and at the bottom there was a hedge, a "Pfetscherzaun" as we called it, still call it - we saw him roll down there. Probably he was dead, but I can't say for sure. And they probably didn't find him for a while - for quite some time otherwise they would have sounded the alarm but nothing happened to us. If they had caught us they would have shot all of us in that carriage. Then again - after Agram they unloaded us and we had to continue walking on the road. -