Toni Eckert

"We had to lock the front door with one hand, hand over the key and suddenly we had nothing. We were taken on a horse-drawn carriage with our fifty kilos of luggage to the airport to the assembly camp. Four days later the transport left. We firmly believed and were also promised that we would go to the American zone, but it was different. The border with Bavaria, the American zone, was impassable because they could not accept new people. In Cheb we already knew that we were going to the Russians. We were not going in the direction of Marktredwitz, but in the direction of Bad Brambach and Plauen. So we ended up in a camp in Bernburg in Saxony-Anhalt. The supply was poor, the sanitary facilities were bad, there was only one latrine, which had to be chlorinated all the time because of infections. The Russians looted there. They broke into the camp and stole what little was left of the people. What they didn't need, they scattered in the fields. Once there were four Russians in our house. They wanted salt from the cucumbers. We stole some cucumbers somewhere, so we had it. My mother understood, so she gave it to them. Then they saw me, so they wanted another eight-minute glass. They filled it with vodka and made me drink it. It was the first time I'd ever encountered vodka, and it made me sick. Somehow I managed, but for a long time after that I couldn't even see any schnapps."