Amalija Gržetić

* 1927

  • „How many of you were in the cell?“ „I think there were eight of us in a cell (eight), full with fleas and full with everything.“ „So after 25 days they transported you...“ „Yes they transported us in a truck in 4 a. m.. We arrived in Trieste, and in Trieste they didn't ask us anything. They had all the documents, male separately, female separately as well as the minors, but older women were also with our group. I know that Slovenian girls and some of the girls from Buje were thrown inside and were burned. Their first layer of skin was completely burned. It was found in the documents. That they were courriers and it was found in the documents. They were tortured and didnt go with us in Germany. They went to Đezoviti. You know that song „Corroneo is my home, Đezoviti is my beautiful garden, it is certain, certain that you make me scared but you want make me dead.“ That was a long long song. We sang it whole night while on the road from Trieste, when we were aboard a train, when we were passing through Austria, Udine. When we were passing through Trieste we were singing. They were shouting at us: „Don't yell! Don't sing! We will never leave!“ We couldn't care less.“ „Were there any executions, have they killed people at Corroneo?“ „Yes. They have been doing to people whatever they wanted to do.“ „And who were they – were the fascists doing that?“ „Yes, the fascists, but the fascists were doing that even to Italians, not just to our people. We seafolk were treated badly, and so were Italians from Trieste. „There has been a talk about nuns from Corroneo, that they were laughing?“ „Yes they did laughed. Yes yes they did laughed at us. Laughed at us. Even the priests. Everyone was doing something. All together, all educated people were doing something, whatever they wanted to do. They laughed at us, they said we were going to Corroneo, that we were going to Germany and they hinted like they are going to cut our hair.“ „How long were you in Corroneo?“ „I was in Corroneo for ten days. (ten days)“ „Yes some of them came and were there, my colleague and friend was right in the hallway when we arrived, but we were not allowed to touch or come near to each other. That's the worst, we go in the morning, and you just arrive. I have found her afterwards in Auschwitz.“ „They transported with a train (front)?“ „Yes on a treasure train and there were 70 of us in a wagon. Men and women were separated. We had those grids and that was that. We had kibbles inside and that was that. And four sandwitches, small sandwitches, and we had some water, and in Austria they gacve to us some porridge, I think it was porridge, they gave us only one plate. Aftery four days, on our ways to Poland we had only four sandwitches. And that was that.“

  • „Have you ever been ill?“ „No, but I was in an ambulance for about eight days, my temperature was high. There was some lady Marija, she passed away ten years ago she was older, she brought a radicchio, she was working on the land. We mixed raddichio with coffee and margarine and ate it like that. Who knows what i was but I wasn't feeling well. So they transported me in the ambulance. I was there for eight days. An Italian from Naples saved my life. She gave me fat and bread to eat. But they all have gone to transport, I have lost of my company and had to go with others to transport, but luckilly I went with girls from Marečići, Ćusi and women from Istria. From Cerovlje to Karbuna. They were all local girls whom I was with, but I have lost all of my company.“ „How many toilets were in your...“ „It was a barrack so we had several holes. There were guards on both sides of the barrack. You could't be inside longer than two seconds or they would whip you with that whip. It was a whip with a knot on the top so they would whip you with it. The ones you received on your back, I still have a hole which I received and I was innocent.“ „Did you drag out someone?“ „Yes, it was forbidden, but I dragged her out as long as I could, she fell, and I helped her to go outside.“ „Besides that, have you...“ „She didn't, but I received beating.“ „Besides that, have you been grounded for something else?“ „No, I haven't, I have been very disciplined. I have endured everything.“

  • „Did the same thing happen in Eberswalde?“ Yes they would punish you. You weren't allowed to talk to anybody. You weren't allowed, and one Ikrainina girl found her brother, and he was on the other side. There was a window through which you would receive parts for machine and you weren't allowed to talk to anybody, and she saw her brother and shouted and then they punished her. They said few words to each other.“ „How did they punished her?“ „They ran electric current through her and then shot her. She was 19 years old.“ „Has the brother seen that?“ „No, he didn't know about anything.“ „You were freed in what month?“ „We were freed on 2nd May in peace, but were walking for three days before that. Everbody had abbandoned us: German women, German men, they all ran away. The planes were flying. Americans and Russians were flying above us. We didn't know what to do. We walked, we didn't have any food. Then we found potatoes because people were escaping from trains. It was all looking like a big row, everybody was fleeing....and we sat down in the forrest. Just outside the road and then there were planes. Somehow we managed to eat those poatoes and onions.“ „Who liberated you?“ „The Russians“ (Russians) „Yes and then we received a package that Americans had sent to Red Cross, they gave to us a package, it was too much and one girl died. Whe received the food, ate it and got diarrhea. Vera from Mala Učka was 22 years old and we buried her near Berlin. She had something on her lungs. Dušica Dušan, we brought her home, she lived for 48 years. She is also from Zarečje.“ „Tell me, how much did you weigh.“ „About thirdy kilograms, but I was feeling allright. The was a Slovenian girl here from Buzet. Actually an Istrian girl from Buzet near Slovenian border, her name was Ana Kocijan. We were walking outside the camp one day, we could go freely because no one knew what to do with us and she threw herself in a canal and said. „I can't do it anymore, let me go.“ She was born in 1925 – two years older than me, and there were women born in 1915 and 1917. Those women understood, they had ther own children at home which they had abandoned. „No!, she said. „I don't have to!“ She couldn't, she really couldn't. One lady, Ema from Cerovlje said to me: „Amalija, give her mouth to mouth cpr. Then we'll figure something out.“ I opened her mouth and gave her air from my lungs and she started breathing. We wrapped her in a blanket that we had. She lived until last year and she was a grandmother to someone.“

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Pazin, 14.07.2015

    (audio)
    duration: 
    media recorded in project Testimonies of Istrian survivors
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

“When we were passing through Trieste we were singing....We couldn’t care less.”

Amalija  Gržetić
Amalija Gržetić
photo: Pamět národa - Archiv

Amalija Ljuba Gabrijelić Gržetić, the daughter of Jure Gabrijelić and Marija, born in Zarečje on September 25th, 1927. She had one brother and four sisters. Her father was a mason and her mother worked in agriculture. She was able to finish five grades in Italian primary school. Her family members talked a lot about politics although it was forbidden. Her father was jailed on May 1st, and in 1941, he was mobilised in special military battalions - Suspeto Politico and for two months he was in Calabria when Italy capitulated. After the Germans had arrived, they managed to hide in the forest with the help of local fascists. Amalija was arrested on May 16th, 1944; the fascists came with a list that was put on a table and started calling people. Because her father had already been arrested, Amalija was arrested too and transported first in „Konvit” (gymnasium in Pazin) and then in jail. She remembers how her father was tortured. He was sent to Dachau and never returned. Eventually, she was sent to Corroneo prison in Trieste. She remembers how the nuns were laughing at them and how they were going to cut their hair short. After ten days, she was onboard a train along with seventy other people. When they arrived to Auschwitz, they became only a number. Their hair was cut short, clothes changed to prison uniforms, bodies disinfected before they were transported to camp. On her first day she received a number 82370 which was tattooed on her forearm. She was located in barrack number 32. She remembers that they had good relationship with Ukrainians while we’re scared by the Polish girls because of their treacherous behaviour. The conditions were scary, during meal time they managed by any means necessary, many didn’t have kitchen utensils and tableware. When someone was ill, they had to go to ambulance but not many ever returned. She especially remembers Milena, a twenty-year-old girl from Trviški Katun, who died of malaria. She remembers the terrible conditions in the toilet when she was beaten because she helped one of the prisoners who fell into lavatory. After two months, she was taken to Ravensbrück and then to Eberswalde, near Berlin, to work in a factory. Amalia was building bombs. She was working from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The conditions were little better but still not good enough. Near the end of the war, she went on a death march, however Nazi soldiers got scared by American fighting planes and left the prisoners. For three days, they were wandering around without any food until the Soviets found them. She remembers her colleague Vera, from Mala Učka, who died out of overindulgence and Ana Kocijan to whom she saved life by giving her CPR. She returned home by train on October 19th, 1945. Her mother and sisters were waiting for her. After the war, she helped in rebuilding as did many other Istrians, poor but happy to be free.