"Önce downstairs, the main Gestapo agent gave a speech for the benefit of the inmates, brandishing his pistol and knocking on all the doors saying that he would have me shot in the morning.
Just in case he felt like shooting me now in his worked up frenzy I thought I had better be ready for any eventuality. With my back towards him, I opened the knife that was inbetween both of my hands and with a backwards movement could have slashed his throat but his three seconds hesitation to shoot me changed the situation. Maybe, now I could have grabbed his luger and started shooting getting the other prisoners out in the process. It was all in the hands of the gods!
Suddenly, he ordered his soldiers to throw me in the further cellar pushing the door open in his hysterical rage. This saved us all from further trouble for the time being. This is how I entered the cell, still fuming, teeth clenched firmly, chin forward. I heard the door clanging and closing behind me without further ado. The prisoners surrounded me and jumped back on seeing the knife. Daniel was there as well. Everybody had been aware of the escape and the turmoil it had caused. They said a woman had been shot in the erratic shooting and had been wounded in the arm.
Gently, they took the knife away from me and hid it. Now, with sympathetic understanding surrounding me my adrenalin started dissipating and a sense of feeling came rapidly back. Within a few moments I didn't know what to do with myself the reaction being so strong. I was given the only bunk on which to rest and relax.
After what I judged to be about an hour the pain subsided and the Germans said I had to get ready to leave. I just had time to tell Daniel to keep his mouth shut and that was the last I heard of him until the war ended. Later,
I heard that the knife was used by the prisoners to break out, this happened after Daniel had gone!
I was taken upstairs to the second floor and they put my arm in a sling giving me the V.I.P. treatment, disinfectant, ointment, bandages and all. They took me to the balcony window, showing me the height, laughing and saying you certainly won't jump again. Little did they know that I had jumped heights like that before. I was ready to do it again but they held me firmly and the sling was no help either.
Putting me in front of a typewriter and watching me they started the process of interrogation. What they wrote I had no idea but I guessed it to be the worst. Very likely to be treated as very dangerous. The only thing they asked me was why I tried to escape. Not to give anything away, I said morosely, "Because I was afraid and I didn't want to be shot".
Once a prisoner you couldn't tell them just anything! Anyway, it was better to be wise and use the point of least resistance. That same evening I was carted off on the first transport put together, Daniel was not in it! As a companion I had a giant Corporal who did not leave my side for a minute. That was a bad sign he even accompanied me to the toilet. I lost my chaperone when I got to Bordeaux but handcuffs were put on me instead. In fact, everybody was handcuffed and with two full vans we were transported though the town.
I attempted to wriggle out of the handcuffs, some people can, but it was to no avail. Maybe I could jump from the van but it proved to be impossible. Our journey ended at a place called "Caserne-Boudet", an annex of
Fort-Du-Ha. The place was overcrowded everybody was hitting back at the Boche. The awakening had taken place.
I was still convinced they were going to execute me. Maybe they had found out that I was the leader through Daniel. He couldn't tell them very much about my contacts as that was safe in my head. He could, however, inform them that we were heading to North Africa or England. I trusted him to keep silent as I would have done ...
To be continued ...
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