03:42

Ruth Deutschmann

Benjamin Epp

Wien

2008-06-13

Sylvia Manning - Baumgartner

1944

After that we had to go through an area that was occupied by the Russians. I picked up a small backpack, because soldiers were throwing everything away. Just to be able to run! I took the backpack and had a look inside. It contained a blanket and a shiny screw top made of aluminium. I thought it could be a hand grenade so I took it with me. We still had to cross a lake. There was a 300 metre long ford that ran through the lake - mostly under water. That was the third time our uniforms got wet that day, at five degrees below zero and in the snow. I felt a strong piercing pain in the lungs. On the other side of the lake I opened the backpack. With my pocket knife I cut a slit into the middle of the blanket and wore it as a cape, over my wet uniform. We still had to cover about five kilometres that day. I was able to hitch a ride on a canon a very bumpy ride. We had built this road ourselves two years before, so we knew where we were. But the road led through the middle of an area surrounded by Russians .. The Russians fired at the road with grenade launchers. There was a lot of German gear, lots of horses and corpses. We went though there for about one kilometre. We saw a mound on fire. Well, if it's burning, we thought, it must be a house, and where there’s a house, there’s a road. So that's where we have to go. We ran or marched or rode there on any kind of vehicle. And what did we find there? It was a huge pile of German provisions - bread and tinned food and all kinds of things - and we hardly had any food at all. It had been drenched in petrol and set alight - I pulled out a loaf of bread. I cut away the outside and ate the inside which was dry. Of course, it smelled strongly of petrol. But it was warm and it was food. Then I saw that what I had thought was a hand grenade in the backpack was in fact a canteen without the cup. I took it out, it was filled with red wine. I drank half a litre of red wine in one go and ate the bread. And then I was so warmed up that the pain in my lungs went away. After five more kilometres we reached the assembly point ? of course we were completely drenched, spent the night. No chance to warm up - just a small oven - but with wet clothes it didn't help.