War Diaries (July 6) (nonfiction)
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Diaries
Reina Spiegel: July 6, 1940
What a terrible night! Horrible! Dreadful. I lay there with my eyes wide open, my heart pounding, shivering like I had a fever. I could hear the clanking of wheels again. Oh, Lord God, please help us! A truck rolled by. I could hear a car horn beeping. Was it coming for us? Or for someone else? I listened, straining so hard it felt like everything in me was about to burst.
I heard the jangling of keys, a gate being opened. They went in. I waited some more. Then they came out, taking loads of people with them, children, old people. One lady was shaking so much she couldn’t stand, couldn’t sit down. The arrests were led by some fat hag who kept yelling in Russian, “Sit, sit down now!” She loaded children onto the wagon. The whole night was horrific. I couldn’t wait for the dawn to come.
Some of the people were crying. Most of the children were asking for bread. They were told the journey would take four weeks. Poor children, parents, old people. Their eyes were filled with insane fear, despair, abandon. They took whatever they were able to carry on their slender backs. They are being taken to Birobidzhan. They will travel in closed, dark carriages, 50 people in each. They will travel in airless, dirty, infested conditions. They might even be hungry. They’ll travel for many long weeks, children dying as they pass through a supposedly happy, free country.
And how many will reach their destination? How many will die on the way from illness, infestation, longing? When they finally reach the end of this deportees’ route somewhere far into Asia, they will be stuck in rotting mud huts, hungry, exhausted, ironically forced to admire the happy workers’ paradise and sing this song:
A man stands as the master Over his vast Motherland
—Renia Spiegel, civilian (diary)
- Excerpts from the Diaries of Renia Spiegel @ Smithsonian Magazine
George Beck: June 6, 1941
Wrote a card to wife. Received five letters from her. Can’t get over the one dated 25 February 1941. The days and months are passing nicely now but what a horrible waste of life. Nothing to look at here but barbed wire and guards. Roll on. No news to put down.
—George Beck,1st Battalion The Duke of Wellington's Regiment, prisoner of war (diary)
George Beck: July 6, 1944
Had to leave hospital for there is a shortage of beds. Everybody had been great to me including the sisters, regarding the Sisters of Mercy they’re wonderful. Especially Sister Angela who I shall never forget. She did a lot for me without complaining and before I left I showed my gratitude by giving her two blocks of chocolate. Resins and prunes. She nearly wept with joy when she received them. Gave the other Sister choc. Too. Shook hands with all before leaving including the patients who all treated me wonderful. One chap spoke very good English and was bombed out at Berlin. Came and saw me everyday and still studies our language for after the war, says he’s going to England, as he’s an engineer. Gave me photo. Doctor saw him talking to me and warned him to remember that it is forbidden to talk to prisoners.
—George Beck,1st Battalion The Duke of Wellington's Regiment, prisoner of war (diary)