Description

Description: Written on Aug 28, 1950, Margarita Anastasiadou’s 23-page harrowing handwritten narrative relates beatings, starvation, sleep deprivation, burnings alive, sickness, hopelessness.

“12 o clock at midnight on Aug 3rd-1943 I was seized by the Germans from Kefie, and together with many other girls similarly taken . . .”  15 Greek girls along with other men and women were taken from Katerini, Greece, and sent from camp to camp (Pavlos Melas Soldier Field, Salonica; Penitas Prison, Belgrade; Auschwitz, Poland; Ravensbourg and Madgburg, Germany) for 2½ years. She details the ruthless treatment meted out by the Nazis–German and Polish men and women–rarely encountering someone at the sick bay who treated them with any compassion. They are quarantined, starved, beaten, put to work in the fields and ammunition factories even when sick and emaciated. Those who were too sick to work were burned alive. They lived in constant fear. Freed after the bombing of Magdeburg, the narrator reaches home “with joy and happiness” only to find it ransacked and looted by the Germans (Oct 8, 1945).

Initially the Germans questioned them about the “men in the neighborhood who had disappeared” and their radio which “was strictly forbidden to have & radio especially to dial the London station.” They spend 8 months of terror at the “Paul Melos Soldier Field”: “Daily she ??? (Klouba) would come early in the morning–take full count of the Greeks (men) from all over Greece and they would kill them mowing them down with machine guns–in the yard–[they] could hear the sound of guns–thus sick at heart for the fate of the dead & in agonizing pain waiting for [their] turn . . .” They experience the American bombardment of Belgrade while being held at the Panista prison. When they learn they are on a train bound for “Poland-Aousvits”(sic) : “[Their] brains ceased functioning when [they] heard the the name Aousvits for [they] knew that this place was the graveyard of the Jews . . . from the little windows of the wagons [they] could see thousands of women all in the same garb, their hair cut close–[they] lost all hope–for here was an official to take [them] there. . . .  and lastly [they] were given numbers–drilled into [their] left hands [her] number was 8222j–[she] still [fears her] number . . . . This camp contained people from all lands occupied by Germans.”

After a month of quarantine they are put to work for 12 hrs each day on a diet of watery soup: However, “The regime began at 4 am in the line up–a whole hour at attention until [they] were all checked & counted–Next began the military stepping out to the rhythm of the music of an orchestra . . . to dig potatoes, carrots etc or breaking stone to repair some road–or to go harvest grain . . . .” Along with whippings, they were threatened with the “crematory fate” and haunted by the cries of those who were burned alive. When Margarita falls terribly sick, a “good nurse” gets her to the hospital where she learns she has “abdominal typhus.” After 12 days in the hospital, “[she] was pretty close to not recognize [her]self, [she] was like a skeleton–[Her] knees bent under [her] from weakness (sic)–Every morning [she] watched them carry away the unfortunate girls that had died that night . .  . .”

On Oct 4, 1944, they were dispatched from (???/rest center) to Ravensburg, Germany. With barely any clothing and no blanket, “like animals [they] snuggled together for the bodily heat–but it didnt (sic) do much good because of the severity of their cold–” At Ravensburg they spent “their time in bed sleeping or trying to forget the knowing hungry feeling–.” With 200 other girls, they were sent to Magdebourg “to work at ammunition factories.” She is separated from the people she knew but is comforted by the Russians and Polish girls. At the camp, “A Russian girl was so resentful that she talked back to the German engineer & they hanged her. So terrified [they] worked harder with empty stomach & lack of sleep. . .” They were so starved that “[they] used to swallow at the sight of Germans sitting comfortably & eat all sorts of sandwiches without even offer of a crumb to us (sic)–the unfortunates & oh! How we desired it.”

After the dreadful bombing of Magdeburg–and Germany retreating–they find themself escorted out of the city “through the horrible scene of actual war between the Germans & English American & Russians.”After much suffering and abuse at the hands of Russians–“who were much worse than Germans”–some Greek girls set foot in Greece. Margarita is joyous but alone as her parents had migrated to the U.S. She concludes: “Spiritually however I am shaky as you can well imagine, it can happen to a lone girl, helpless & in foreign enemy country–. . .” Denied entry into the U.S., she hopes to see her parents “sometime in the future.”

Written on thirteen sheets of 11” x 8 ½” ruled paper.  Includes an old typed transcript. Item #A01863

Condition: Small rust stain at the left margin on the first few pages. Handwriting is legible and clear. In good condition.