"We had a small light table and chairs and it didn't take too long before we tried out the spiritual bit! Our days were long and boring, the establishment worked on us like mad with the usual questions. Maybe it was the ongoing tension of not knowing how long we would be in prison or whether we would live or die - the usual questions one would ask in our predicament.
One day, Janeck set up a contraption of which we asked questions and it seemed to work like mad on the usual questions! The Spanish captain was skeptical about his answer, which of course was a negative one. Janeck and mine came to the point where we would meet again on a hill somewhere in the middle of Germany. The others were saying that somebody must have put his foot under the table and it was all a bad joke in the worst possible taste. I don't think that happened at all, but it was better so, some started to get worried about the whole affair and Janeck fully agreed to do better and finish it off.
After that incident tempers became short and people flared up at the slightest excuse as if an abstract or evil atmosphere was constantly around us. It could boil down to the fact that when people are confined together in a small space that tempers become frayed or was it something else, a created reaction.
As we took a siesta one afteroon, I was suddenly awakened by terrible screams coming from Zin Zhnn, both Janeck and Reiss were masturbating him and we quickly made them stop such practices. The old captain told them off and Zin Zhnn said he was going to call the guards if further attacks occurred. Somehow, Zin Zhnn got himself out the next day - either he got transported or he really was a ferret after all?
We were all changed to different cells and lost track of each other shortly after that. I was put in the last cell of the block on the same floor touching the stairways of the French quarters. Here was an older and more mature group from different walks of life and mostly from Bordeaux, it seemed. This would top my education and knowledge of this place called Fort Du Ha a good deal.
It was the same kind of cell I had left but with a vault hump in the right hand corner on the window side. This is where the stairs were underneath for the French guards who were contracted out; on the right day, we would have a break out when we found a way to hack through the hump and discover a solution that wouldn't compromise or incriminate the French guards - who would have to be involved.
As it was now, they were feeding us chickens, cigarettes, Lucky Strike, Camels dropped by and for the resistance, bread, meat, chisel and hammer, all through the skylight which we eagerly hauled in. We had long conversations, as well as sent letters and messages. They could easily watch the enemy from this lookout without being seen.
It didn't take long before entering that cell that they took me into their confidence, I had to be taken in by them and trusted, of course! Otherwise you were a goner anyway with the people present as they were; we had as our top leader a man called Carlos who looked like, The Sentimental Agent, one of the best known entrepreneurs of Bordeaux. He was supposed to be the son-in-law of Martial Foch, who supplied the resistance as well as the Germans. We also had Fiesche, a Corsican police inspector, well in with the resistance, he was one of the leaders and also a councillor of renown for his political activities and a genuine Corsican gangster. Our politician, Fiesche was short and strong with a big moustache, this gangster was a James Bond type of man. So, we formed a complete set ready for action. Time was all too short for our schedule now and the Gestapo were trying to get us on to transports.
During this time, I managed to write a letter to my mum and had it sent home by a secret route and it did arrive! My mother still had it at the end of the war and showed it to me. By that letter she was able to ascertain my whereabouts thanks to The Resistance and all those helpful souls.
We were planning the time and date of escape now as we could feel it was becoming more urgent by the minute ......
To be continued ....
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