Milan Sirotić

"They used to wake us up during the night, every night. Outside, by the door, a man used to wait with a “karabač”. Do you know what is it? It’s a whip. If one was of small stature, he could get away with beating, but the big ones... There was a man with me, from Lupoglav. He was a cook in that Italian camp. He got beaten. They used to beat for no reason. If one didn’t make his bed, then he got 25 whips. And then, there was a three legged stool. You had to hold it by the legs and jump and crouch, all by punishment. There were bunk beds. They were 60 cm wide, but two men had to sleep in it. Two men up, and 2 down. The beds were stuffed with maybe a kilo of straw. We had one cover up and one below us. It stunk. The straw seemed like it was ground. During the nights, they used to take us, by 2s or 3s to the showers. They were 200- 300 m away. It was next to the crematorium. We had to walk naked back and forth. Sometimes the water was burning hot, and sometimes freezing cold. On the way to the showers, we had to rush, but on the way back, we had to go slowly to get frozen. One time, I noticed my shoulder got frozen. It was happening every 2 or 3 nights. One time, after 40 days of quarantine, the Gestapos arrived to the camp and took us, the minors, not only the ones from Buzet, but everyone, and the Slovenians, all between 18 and 20 years of age. They shaved us, gave us clothes, and the sacks which were left behind and told us like this: “You are going to a factory, and you shall not tell anyone where you were, what you did and what it was like.”

"One time, at night, I am still talking about Guzen, the alarm went off and the lights were out. All we could hear were the ss soldiers. They were standing next to the wire fence between the shacks. It was placed there so we don’t contact each others. We heard shots, looked out of the windows and saw a prisoner on the fence. He did that on purpose, most probably, just to put away his misery. He was 3-4 meters from us. The snow fell, covered him, then it melted and the man was still there. When the snow melted, they took him away."