I reported to J. Gast as ordered. My job was to screw together two iron parts whose purpose I never understood, working on a piecework basis. In 1943 the normal working day was still ten hours; in 1944 it was increased to twelve hours. I didn't find the work itself particularly problematic. But it was a different story with the camp I was assigned to. It was a camp for foreign workers, in which people who had been deported from all the occupied territories to work in the Reich had to live, men and women in separate areas. French, Belgians – divided into Flemings and Walloons – Dutch, Poles, Russians, Ukrainians and Yugoslavians. Those groups kept to themselves and formed solidary communities which no outsider could break into. I spoke only German and once again there was no place where I fit in. Other “countrymen” who were compelled to do forced labor had the same experience. Even the Nazis didn't have a pigeonhole for us. It's still a mystery to me why they didn't put us all together in some camp.

The other camp inmates were suspicious. They assumed – probably rightly – that the camp authorities had planted informers among them. With my German mannerisms and unusual skin color, I made a perfect suspect. Nobody bothered me, but it was equally clear that nobody was well inclined towards me. I was very uncomfortable. The accommodation in the barracks, with their bunk beds, contributed to that. Each of us had a narrow metal cupboard for his belongings, like the ones in the factory changing rooms. We had to stuff our own straw mattresses and we were allowed to change the checked bedclothes once a month. There was a board with a list of prohibitions next to the door, including “Sexual intercourse is forbidden to foreign workers!” I had other worries. The washing areas and the toilets were very primitive and there was only cold water. Nobody used them if they didn't have to. I washed and showered at the factory whenever possible. On top of that the barracks were infested with bedbugs. They hid in the cracks in the daytime and at night they attacked.