Those Feldazera Were Themselves Mostly Deported Rxwslana Or Their Descendants and the HKVD Had the Sane Authority Over Them As Over Us
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lhk Those Feldazera were themselves mostly deported rxwslana or their descendants and the HKVD had the sane authority over them as over us. For bathing, the russlans used to install the so-called "Ban|a". It Is a small room where water is poured over heated stones and the hot steam is generated like in a turkish hath. Besides, there are wooden buckets which can be filled with hot water. The russlans have the habit that they go to the Bantta "en Famllle" , with wife and children and they bathe to* gather, formally they take along a second set of shirts and underwear and while bathing, the dirty laundry la washed on the spot in those wooden buckets. It is a bathroom and a laundry at the sane time. Going home, they put on their new laundry, carrying the washed set home for drying. In those Bantfas one has to be very careful because lice can be easily acquired. It was unavoidable to come in contact with the dirty laundry or clothes of the ox undressed people hanging all over, specially in this crow- ded small room cloudy with steam. There were plenty of Hog among our people but fortunately we had no typhoid, in this part of the country. In two places where I was moved around there were no Feldszers at all. The next one was some four miles away. Bare was a difficult problem. When someone didn't feel well, or if ke he had temperature, he could not be released for work unless he had a "Spravka". In order to get this Spravka, he had to go rain or snow, to see the Feldszer, walking those four miles. How it happened that the man got worse marching back and forth eight miles, but It also happened that in this strange climate, he arrived there without any temperature at all. Bare was where the trouble started. This happened to a lady from our barrack the wife of a steel merchant, Herself /MS in Chemistry. She had a hard time to persuade the Feldszer to give her the Spravka for this day. If not, she would have been punished under the provision of the labor law because she would be considered "loafing". 1^5 , iteee I* pie Ambulatorium wkeve not only Feldszere weee employed, but also regular physicians with MD degrees, (mostly women). hSaa higher authority /fe»y and its recommendation was respected by the MKYD. The Doctors there were mostly deported themselves since many years and had to stay and work here. They had more understanding and compassion for us. BEING A PATIENT ( My Own Experience) After ten months working in the woods, I was at the end of my strength. My legs became swollen and I felt very weak. I got permission to visit the Ambulatotium. Here I had one of those experiences which will remain with me through my whole life. A little school girl was in front of me. A woman opened a little window in the wall from the waiting room and from the conver- sation I found out that the little girl didn't go to school this day and she needed a "Spravka" for the school principal. Children of deportees need a Spravka while absent from school, like a worker while absent from work. The woman asked her while filling out a form for her name, age and then came the question: it.Tfolna 111 Nlewolna n.? It means '' free or not free.'' The girl answered with a loud melodic voice so characteristic for the russlan language: "Nlewolna" (not free). At first I didn't understand the question. It was funny to ask a little school girl about her status, but it dawned on me that she wae asking the girl whether she was a free citizen or a slave, and the girl knowing al- ready, that she was born with a stigma answered, with a full mature earnestness that she is NOT Free, it means i.e., destined to be a slave. I got heart sick after I realized the meaning of this strange dialogue in a matter of course tone. It flashed through my mind what my children have to expect in a similar case and how they would take it. Ifc6 I slowly recovered from the shock end I was asked the same question. I had no trouble In answering them properly. The elderly woman doctor after examining me carefully, started a conversation vith me inquiring about ray past and background. She was very syapathetio and sighed when she heard that I was working as a wood cutter. She asked me to oome back In the evening when she would present my case to her superior. Around 8 o'clock In the evening the other woman doctor heard her reporting my case and I was told to wait outside. After a short con- sultation, I was called in and presented with a "Spravka" that I am relieved from manual work for the next four weeks. Ify gratitude to those two kind ladies and my Joy was immense. It was worthwhile to walk back at night those four miles through the woods knowing that I have not to march the next day in the morning hours to the woods. When I presented the next day before work, the Spravka to our HOT) deputy, he was outraged and pale with anger. It happened before that some man or woman from our group was sent back to the Foslolok where our families lived because of illness or inability to work. Bow I was eligible to Join my family but the IKVD deputy didn't let me go. It took nearly two weeks of consultation between our HKTO deputy and the HKYD man where my family lived and the higher Bayon's Commander, until I was allowed to start my way "home". nsinrt^TtfesffliimKnaaJOTBgattK. I have to recall a very characteristic Incident in connection with my temporary release from work, Hy wife after she learned from my letter that I became sick, and that I was free from work for the next four weeks, tried also from her end, to get permission from the local HKVD deputy that I 11*7 might Join my family. A good friend of ours who spoke fluently russian wont to him In behalf of my wife and tried to convince him that I will recover faster being cared for by my wife and besides pointing to the HKVD'a deputy's wife present at thie oonversatlon, my friend told them, "You see you are together with your wife, why shouldn't he be together with his?" At this moment the HKVD deputy turned to hie wife and said, I spit at my wife, and ir f/ the being together is not at all necessary. Being finally told that I could join my family, didn't mean that I was provided with some means of transportation. As far as he was concerned I simply could walk for some 70 miles, after being released from work be- cause I was found sick. And so I went. It was on the 9th of April, 19^1* (1 remember this date because it took me four days to march and I arrived Just on my wife's birthday.) There was deep snow still around. I was only shown the general direction. Bow and then some sled appeared and took me along for some distance. Sometimes it was onlyufer a while because he took a side pass from the main road. Sometimes I was luckier because he went to the next village In my direction. It was a sort of hitch-hiking but not like here where every few seconds a car passes by. I Just kept walking. I was quite scared when my way led me between woods and I had not seen a living soul for hours. Specially when it became dark anithere was not trace of human life In sight. And so I had to keep walking, perspiring from a cold sweat until from the far distance, a dim light from some little window greeted me. It was like finding water In a desert. For the night, I knocked at the door of some hut and was always allowed to stay there or rather to sit around the stove during the night. The Russian peasants sleep during the winter mostly on top of a huge stove made from brick and mud which keeps warm being heated all day long. Spending U*8 several nights with russian families In their homes gave me a chance to see how they lived, to talk to then and to hear their life stories. Of course they didn't fail to notice that I am a stranger, and eo they wanted also to know about the life 1A the West and the reason of my being here. Some of them didn't even know that there was a world war going on. They were friendly and hospitable people but they didn't have anything to offer me because they were very poor themselves. Even for money they couldn't sell anything. I had therefore to economize on my bread which I took along with me. Of course there was nothing to buy anywhere. (Those experiences here and all my others while working an& living aogether with the ruasians, \aade it possible for me to descrlve In a separ- ate chapter from my first ham1 knowledge, my impressions on the hundreds of ruaeians I met there.) When I finally on my fourth day of wandering around noon time saw from the far distance, the hill with the hute/ or Posiolok, I had the feeling of coming home.