small, very small children, taken away from their mothers, at first they sceamed, cried „Mama” they called their moms in different ways and then they stopped crying Zofia Stępień exhibited a great artistical talent since childhood her talent, in large extent, helped her survive Auschwitz-Birkenau and many of her camp drawings have outlasted to this day Grandma drew portraits of co-prisoners obtaining a pencil and a piece of paper with difficulty the rumor of her talent spread quickly throughout the camp, thanks to which, in return for a portrait sometimes she got an additional portion of bread Grandma's drawings are exhibited in Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in Oświęcim they are a testimony of those dreadful years although she deliberately beautified most of her works by adding nice haircuts, beddings or comfortable beds in order to give hope and light up the dark of this dreadful place after the war, when she moved to Kraków, she was still very active in painting she was a member of many artistic associations she took part in several dozen of group as well as individual exhibitions where she won many awards he never liked to talk about her camp expereinces in public in spite of many requests from televisons from around the world which makes this testimony even more valuable for us, as she agreed to record it barely two months before she passed away moreover, two years back she had dared to go back to the former camp with us and the cameras where for the last time she faced the demons of her past the material from this visit will make a third part of this documentary meanwhile, we invite you to watch the second part of the story Because my memories go back to very old times, over 70 years back sometimes I overlook things that were significant and speak about those less important I just remembered one moment which had determined my further life in the camp it was meeting Maria I came to a conclusion in the camp, when I was still very ill but I already learned to walk I crawled to the exit gate holding on to bunks I wanted to leave and go to the wires It was a known fact that on the wires people died very quickly, I only had to reach them because of course a guard stood by with a gun and fired at people who tried to commit suicide they prefered to torture us rather than let us pass away so easily so I was passing through that gate because that's where I wanted to go and I believed that I was going to reach the wires then suddenly someone grabbed me by the arm and the woman said in polish: „where are you going, girl?” and she took me to her place, she was a night guard, she kept guard on that exit she sat me down beside her, there was a sort of a box she was sitting on there was a blanket, she covered me with that blanket and says: „and now tell me – where did you want to go?” I said: „I can’t, I just can’t take that hell anymore, I want to die” and she says: „as you can see, there’s so many of us here and not so many rush onto those wires you must wait a bit and think about what you want. Who do you have out there on freedom?” And this is how our conversation began. That lady, she was a pharmacist from Radom, her name was Maria a noble, wonderful person and she says: „listen, right now there’s not much I can do for you but I will try to be near you as often as possible and help you as much as possible. There’s not much I can do materially but knowing that you have someone close to you will give you a bit of will to live” she kissed and hugged me she was from Radom and she was a pharmacist I didn’t care whether she was a pharmacist or a guard or whoever but she was a good person and from then on even after I left the hospital she was always close to me later on I realized why she had some possibilities to help her sister was a sort of a capo a woman who managed the brottkamera (bread house), a prisoner so that sister helped her a bit in life in getting a bearable job, and so she was surviving somehow and whenever it got really bad and sad she would come to my block and talk to me and I knew that there was someone out there with whom I could be, talk, cry a bit and that was a completely different life, a better life had begun since then so that was it...I don’t know what else there was during my stay in hospital later on, after I got discharged from the hospital and I went…also thanks to...someone must have interceded on my behalf so that I didn’t go back to work outdoors instead I got a job on site, under the roof I was mending old socks and stockings, a horrible work because these socks were all very dirty a dirty dust came flying out of them but at least I worked indoors, I didn’t have to walk miles somewhere to work get wet and cold and work outdoors so Maria really helped me a lot in this regard so that is when a sort of life began, I began to appreciate the value of life because in the hospital I no longer believed in anything, I didn’t have any hope when I saw girls next to me coming for two or three days to the hospital and then they were all dying and I kept living so evidently I was destined to live a bit more anyway, Maria really kept my spirits up and so I held on thanks to her and so life went on, later I always worked under the roof so there’s not much to tell because then I already settled a bit in the camp, I wasn’t so lost anymore I knew what I could and couldn’t do, and how to live to survive how to live to get some underwear or a dress, usually underwear was most desirable because we had absolutely nothing, no help no cloths, no... nothing to wipe ourselves with, we had absolutely nothing so I started to think how I could start taking care of myself, I didn’t work in Brottkamera yet Brottkamera came later, but I worked under the roof so... I just knew I had to save on bread and for a couple of days leave small pieces of bread and I already knew where to go to exchange bread for something important bread was the biggest value in the camp so I was saving it piece by piece and after having saved a whole slice I used to go there to the end of the camp, far behind the barracks there was a mysterious camp market which I didn't know of before I was ill immediately after getting admitted but I went there by myself It wasn't smart to go with someone else because it seemed suspicious so I went on my own, held that bread in my hand and quietly I said: "I want to exchange it for underwear" there wasn't much of underwear there but a Jewess came up to me because in that block, where we could save those... where we could buy those clothes, usually jewesses worked so she came up to me and says: "what do you want?" and I say: "well, I would like to get underpants and an underskirt" "that's too much, you don't have enough bread, you need to have a full portion, not half portion" "so what can I get for that?" "Pants" "that's fine, but are they any good?" "Sure, very elegant pants, save more bread and come back again and I will find you a shirt" so that was the deal and that's what life looked like what more do I have to say... that time after I had left hospital counted as: what if I survive, what if I can handle it and that's how I tried not to starve and still be able to get something to wear to have some...I mean not on top but underneath to have some solid underwear it wasn't anything extraordinary but it was much better than what we were getting on admission and that's how we were surviving, there were no particular moments during that time but one day a girl came to me she didn't speak much polish but I could understand her she said she had heard I painted portraits and she had a loved one and for him - back then that's what girls called boys they liked she wanted to give her portrait to that loved one of hers "will you draw me?" so I'm looking at her, she was really interesting to portrait, black, black eyes, thick black hair but not long, short. I said yes, "then you will come to my room" she had her own room! That girl was Mala Zimetbaum she was a Jewess of Polish origin as far as I know, but she was arrested I'm not sure whether it's true, I don't want to exaggerate but I think she was arrested in Netherlands anyway, she got arrested, and because she spoke a couple of languages she was very useful for Germans - they made her into "Leuferin" - a sort of a liaison between the camp and the management whenever they had a message to pass on to the prisoners they would call Mala and tell her where to go, what to do and so on and she had her own room, while I dreamed of a tiny room, meter by meter or a bit more so I could have space to lie down and where noone would disturb me so I could be alone - I look around and Mala had.... a room as big as this one she had a table and two chairs and on that table I saw a tray, it was quite large the whole tray was dressed up with beautiful sandwiches each one had a bit os something different on it, there were some with fish, some with caviar anyway, I felt like a lunatic looking at those sandwiches she says: "now eat a few sandwiches so you have strength to draw me" she was sitting on the other side of the table and I, with such delight was drawing - I knew she was a good girl because she was heard of in the camp that she helped people whenever she had an opportunity to help so I drew that portrait of her, it was quite good but later on it went through many pockets and different stashes, it was torn and misshapen when I saw it years later as a free woman, an ex prisoner it had misshapen eyebrows, nose and eyes but I knew that it was my portrait of Mala but that was much later, years after I left the camp and I was shown that portrait in the former camp anyway, after I had finished that portrait she kissed me she said: "I like this portrait so much, I will give it to my loved one immediately" and so she gave it to him and then they escaped together and wandered for three weeks they were running towards Czech after three weeks they were certain that they were free so they started to live more freely, I mean to show up, they stopped hiding and started showing that they were normal people, normal loving couple because they managed to take some good clothes and that's how they got arrested again and they tortured her terribly to make her talk, I don't know about him because we all knew what was going on with her she was kept in a special seperate cell and they were torturing her there they wanted so badly to find out who had helped them to escape because he must have gotten a German soldier uniform and she must have gotten nice dresses someone must have helped them pass through the gate they both spoke German well but they passed through the gate everything went so well which is why they lived so freely later on near Czech and then they were taken back naturally she didn;t tell them anything he was tortured in a men's camp, she was kept in our part and the time came, time... what was it called? a murder, because they were both murdered in a women's camp stood a... what was it called? Execution. It was an execution, but that thing onto which they had to step sometimes I forget words...it was a thing onto which one had to walk by stairs and a hangman stood there that was going to hang her and it was like...gallows and she was supposed to go up there to be hanged she had to walk along Lagerstrasse, there was such Lagerstrasse in Auschwitz two Germans led her by shoulders because she could barely walk, she was so weak they wanted so badly to show us and especially jewessess to show how people end up when they want to tease Germans and in the middle, when she was walking, and she was a very proud girl and in such good relations with all of them, on such friendly terms and suddenly she broke away from one of those Germans and hit him in the face her hand was already dripping with blood because she managed to get a razor blade and cut her veins and that blood kept dripping and with that hand she hit him in the face she hit him and fell down because the nervous tension was so terrible that even though she started to walk after being beaten before she had no more strength because she knew this was her end, she didn't want to walk onto that guillotine so naturally it was such a panic among Germans I didn't see it, I was at work, because they took all the Jews, there were many Jews in Auschwitz they were all drove out of their blocks and they made them all stand in two rows along Lagerstrasse and she walked between them I was only told what was happening by other girls how that Mala Zimetbaum was dying it was a very beautiful way to die, she couldn't walk any more so they ordered someone to come with a wheelbarrow and they lifted her by arms and threw her on it and they took her to a dispensary because Germans wanted by all means, they wanted to keep her at least a little bit conscius to still be able to hang her but there was a German girl there, she was a sort of a boss in that dispensary and she remembered her, she knew her well, and she helped her lose her consciousness faster and so she ended her life in that dispensary that girl, she said there was nothing more they could have done for her and him, they were also hanging him on gallows what was his name... I forgot but I will recall they led him there and put that loop around his neck and he shouted with all his might: "Long live Pols..." he could only say Pols and they tightened the loop, he didn't finish - Polska (Poland) that's all we know from men who came to out block later on but how much truth there is in it and what it really looked like...I read an article by some journalist many years after the war he was telling the story of Mala's execution and it was a bit different so there will surely be a couple of versions of her death the fact remains that she didn't let them hang her so that was it and then Three Jewesses who helped them get the weapons were arested because they worked in an armory they took out weapons for them for Mala nad her boyfriend because they also had guns in case they would have needed to shoot themselves but they had no time to shoot themselves but those Jewesses that worked in that armory it was well known who had worked there but they didn't tell anything, only that they delivered those guns to them, they had to tell something and that was the end, they were hanging those girls, I was already in men's camp back then and all the girls behaved in a very beautiful way they were walking with their hands tied on their backs but there was someting stuck in their mouths, I was told they were plastered because they walked by so silently, didn't say a thing from behind they entered that place where they were being hanged from one side they entered, here we all stood, I was there too and there in the end were the gallows where they were supposed to be hanged and they walked, those mouths closed someone said they had something stuck in their mouths so that they couldn't have said a word, and that's how they got up there by stairs onto the gallows and that's when someone in the crowd shouted: "about-face!" in Polish because those girls were Polish Jewesses every single one of us, as one man, we turned our backs on that that place where they were hanging them so that Germans knew that we hadn't seen that moment of hanging but they hung them so that was the end of the story with Mala A beautiful girl, that Mala, I mean maybe her looks weren't so but her character was beautiful And then my life went on somehow Of course there were days of hunger because I had no access to food but I had possibilities to save bread I was able for example not to eat bread for two days and live only on the soup but I saved bread for underwear or... I was a bit fat back then, I mean I was starting to gain weight I had quite a large bust so I had to wear a bra, and it was difficult to get one but I always had some bread to exchange for something a piece of cloth, a towel, something to wipe myself with to make that life a bit more similar to life in freedom and that is how I reached...I don't know what else there was we were sent, several dozen of us were sent to men's camp, to men's kitchen because at that time Germans were already so indigent, that they took whoever they could they almost took children to the army so they took all the crew that worked in the SS kitchen to the army and they took us there to help, not to cook because they had magnificent cooks they cooked for soldiers, officers and the whole army there was a dinner for the whole personnel of Auschwitz there so sodiers would come with dinner pails, take their food and go eat somewhere but the officers had a canteen where some of our girls the best looking ones from the group were chosen for waitresses they would set the tables, bring food and then after those gentlemen had finished to eat they would clean after them, wash the dishes, they were no longer waitresses but servants anyway, this is where the end of the war found me anly that we, I mean the girls who prepared everything that those officers and soliers were eating everything was scrubbed, cleaned, washed, there was around twenty of us there but they were only getting food from the camp cauldron and none of them ate those beautiful things it was all only for soldiers and me, I would sometimes get some I would get a portion of food a very nice one but that was very rare so once, I wrote about that Walter in my diary, there was this German guy - a sort of boss's trusted assistant with a german...because those triangles that we were wearing together with the number each triangle was...if you were a political prisoner it was a red triangle and the first letter of nationality on it, his was blank anyway, he was so polite and kind but he was a German so I didn't want to talk to him at all whenever he would come and smile I was gruff and I would move away that's how stupid I was, yet Germans were also taken to camps for politics, and he was particularily amiable so once, when they brought that cauldron with that disgusting food and they poured it into my bowl and I was supposed to eat it, I must have pulled a face and he would address all girls "you" and me, he adressed "madam" he said: "you don't like it?" and I say: "I have to eat it but it is disgusting" "so please, don't eat it" and he brought me two plates in two hands, tasty soup in one and a second dish in the other and I remember there were brussels sprouts, such small bulbs and two potatoes and a piece of fried meat and a side salad I said: "Is this for me?" and he says: "well, yes, so that you don't have to eat that junk" he spoke polish after that he wouldn't come back for a long time, I guess he didn't have an occasion to bring me anything one time I hear a kick on the door - because I had a room to my disposal because I took care of cooks's clothes I had to mind so that everything is well tied, stuck and sewn and that is all I had to do but I worked all days because there was always something torn and there were many cooks anyway, someone kicked that door so I run to open to see who's kicking, it was the boss, the main chef I open the door, he walks in and makes such a gesture to him and behind him stands Walter with those two plates and he says: "put it on the table, put it", so he put it on that table and that boss, he must have been two meter tall, he was half a head taller than Krzys [grandson] he stood in front of him and said: "and you won't eat dinner today" and him: "yes sir!" this was the only way to answer there so they both left a while later Walter came back and said: "was it any good?" I say: "It barely passed my throat because I didn't know what he was going to do with you" and he says: "he wouldn't do anything because he sits in my pocket" such things were happening! There, prisoners who had functions and gained trust of their bosses could get whatever the prisoners... we could get dollars, that is if someone had at home and if someone had dollars they would exchange them for something else anyway, the dollars were going to his boss "he sits in my pocket" he wasn't afraid of me, and that's what it looked like...and then there came...he wasn't bringing me food anymore later there came a time, that 17th of January 1945 the war was about to finish, I mean there was still plenty of time but they... what was it...they were deporting us west in parts in parts so... all the kitchen, those waitresses and others there were no longer waitresses who would eat with gentlemen officers, in secret but still... all of us together, there must have been around 50 girls and we were all supposed to leave on the 17th January 1945 so, if someone had an access to some warehouse where clothes were they could get equipped with good shoes, some jackets, any other clothes and we had no access because we were only going from our barrack to the kitchen and back every day. We had no possibilities we had nothing, we had to leave the way we were dressed to go to work and so we walked we walked all night long and the next morning... I walked together with Irka but she escaped on the first layover and she was trying to persuade me, because it was a layover near a church the gat of the church was wide open it was inviting us to run in and Irka says: "want to jump in?" I say: "No. I spent too much time in that camp to be found in a trench somewhere here" because on the way, whoever couldn't walk anymore they were shooting and they were pushing that shot person down to a trench, and I saw it so I wasn't up for an escape and I say: "don't run away, we will hold on till the end" and she says: "don't be silly, you never know what they're going to do with us, they may shoot us all" and she escaped, jumped into that gate and along the wall, there was a bricked wall along that gate, I saw her when she was running there and she made it, she even wrote to me later from France she wrote how she escaped, how helpful people were even Germans helped although not too often but Poles helped very much, especially the priest the priest counted on it, he left the gate open, not that little wicket but the whole gate and he knew that someone would enter, someone kept guard there and someone took her to some hidden place there that night and she got to freedom in the General Government it was quite easy because at that time Germans didn't mind so much anymore they were scared too, they wanted to leave Poland as quickly as possible and that's it, the rest is known we were in Ravensbruck, we were dazzled by Ravensbruck camp it was so comfortable compared to that dirty, hideous Auschwitz there each barrack had a bathroom equipped with several sinks but there was no shower so we couldn't take a bath but sinks, where we could wash, there were some cloths to wipe with we were there only for a month or two, I don't remember, it's been so many years and then we were deported to Neustadt-Glewe and in Neustadt-Glewe I got to... and all this time, Maria - I forgot to mention that Maria was by my side all this time she was being taken care of by her sister from Brottkamera but she couldn't work there because it was too heavy for her Maria had one kidney because she had one kidney removed before the war so, it was very hard work in that Brottkamera we would unload bread from a car and put on shelves and the next day the block leaders would come with their guards and would take an amount of bread needed for the number of alive members, prisoners they had on their lists anyway, there, in Neustadt-Glewe we had a terrible famine it was a barrack made only for us, for over a dozen people desks were still raw, straight from a sawmill they were so damp that after one night - and there was no mattress or a blanket or anything, after one night - and those desks weren't like this close together but two centimeters away from one another those desks we slept on, and in the morning when we would undress, you could see such stripes on the skin from the place where the body would go between those two desks anyway, that's where that sad life of ours ended and we were going home together and whatever happened in the meantime will remian my secret and I don't speak about it there was a bit of harm, of transformation of a human being... not a human being a degenerate, a human being damaged by the camp, who opened their eyes after the war had finished I saw such an example but this is all I can say together we returned to Poland, to the train station in Radom we were traveling in a sort of a car trailer to Poland and we couldn't believe that we're in Poland and we saw two crowns shining from the distance, it was Mariacki Church, the highest point in which I got married later on, and those crowns were glittering in the sun it was so bright, so sunny, and that was my last joyful day and then I came home and found out that those I cared about those I was longing to see and with whom I was binding my life had died, there was noone left so in fact I was left alone my girlfriends who wanted nothing to do with underground organizations had gotten married, had children already, because it was two and a half years that I was gone but they had nothing to do with us ex prisoners they lived their normal lives and I kept living the camp because I kept being followed by those dead beings and then, then of course, I didn't want to be alone not at all I don't know, there were people, there were women who had faded completely if they didn't do well I had friends whom I lived well with in Brottkamera for example and they would be going back to different cities one for example had a full family parents, children, had a beautiful house and when she came back she found ruins and an information that her parents and children, everyone had died under that house those returns were even worse and me...my mom was alive, was waiting for me, my brother was alive, was waiting for me and he was a partisan and had to hide for another year and after a year he reappeared because amnesty was announced for N.C.O's and soldiers that they should report, give back the weapons and they won't be arested and in fact he was in prison for only two weeks or so he was somewhere in prison but they let him go because he was only a regular soldier he was younger than me and that's how my life began again without great joy or great delight though I really counted on it... apart from my mom naturally the fact that she waited for me was a lot but... that's it I don't remember anything more Stories that escaped memory Burning people one night Maria woke me up because at that time we lived in one barrack sometimes we lived in different ones but she woke me up and says: "come here, I need to show you something" and she led to me to some chink but I don't know where that chink was, whether in the building or in the door, anyway there was a chink there a small one, and through that chink I saw crematory and next to the crematory I saw a horrifying fire there was a pit dug by its side and cars were driving up close to that fire full of gassed people and on the edge of the car, it was a truck two men were standing, prisoners, one by hands, the other one by legs swinging and throwing into that fire those gassed people that still could feel because they were only gassed a little and that's how...because crematories couldn't keep up with burning people I say: "this is horrible, Maria, why are you showing this to me?" and she says: "Zosia, I won't live till the end of this" she was much older than me "but you will survive... and someone has to speak about it because noone will talk about it because noone has seen this, this is done behind our eyes" well then, so I remembered it and this is why I spoke about it now, and I forgot and when I spoke about the camp before I forgot to tell about it that there was such a horrible thing it was different...I mean we all knew that people were being burned in crematories but in that manner to burn like this because there is no more room in crematories this was unnacceptable and it's true that whatever, whenever I would read about crematories I never found anything about burning people in that huge pit and that pit was really huge they must have put something flammable there for those bodies to burn so willingly Children in the camp ah yes, they had a separate barack one time they arested women, I don't know where it rings a bell that it could have been Witebsk that they were from somewhere near Witebsk but I may be wrong they arested all the women I don't know how many but they were all pregnant, all with big bellies with babies at their breasts and bigger children too, they were in such a hurry to generate these children all children were taken away from them I think from...I don't know, I don't want to exaggerate but I think all children from two or three years old up to seven were taken away they opened a new block and those children stayed there small, very small children, taken away from their mothers, at first they screamed, cried "Mama" all in different ways and then they stopped to cry and they stayed there because the mothers weren't showing up, they were forbidden to visit them and we made an acquaintance with the block leader there was a time when all Aufsieren went to sleep, there was noone in the camp so they let us, me and I don't remember whom with I used to go there I know someone else was with me so we would save at least small pieces of bread, a bit of sugar although it wasn't healthy, that sugar, because children had swollen bellies after it and it wasn't anything much to eat but it was something and then came a day when huge trucks drove in and children were being led out those who could walk already would walk alone beside women prisoners and those who couldn't walk were carried out, even Germans, those Aufsieren were carrying them out and they put theym onto those trucks when women, the mothers found out that their children are being taken away oh how they gathered how they screamed, called the names of their children and children cried "mama" again from the trucks I couldn't believe it, I was standing on the side behind the row of soldiers, because there was a row of soldiers so that the mothers wouldn't get there to those cars so they wanted to, the trucks started to move, all at once started to drive and that's when the mothers pulled that row of soldiers apart and threw themselves towards those cars and noone was shooting they were all terrified what the soldiers were to do next they would have to shoot all the mothers so they kept standing, they reached those cars the trucks had such big wheels, they were huge and they threw themselves onto those wheels, because they were moving very slowly to get out of there so they started to go faster and faster the mothers kept running behind them and each was calling the name of her child it was such a horrible picture and I kept standing there and I cried so much I think it was the first time I cried to much in the camp after those children, I felt so sad for them and I thought: when I come back, and I have to come back, I will have three children and I will love them so much that it's impossible to express but from all that I only had his daddy Rino the dog Rino was the main chef's dog The chef was huge the same one who had brought me dinner with Walter before he had that dog - Rino he was a fierce dog, he was trained on prisoners when the chef disliked someone, a cook he would bring him along to me and order me to tie towels around his hands what else did he order me to do...and legs I had to tie some cloths around his legs calf down but I think he was bringing it to me...I don't remember anyway, I would wrap their hands and legs and he would take him, that prisoner, to the basement with that dog - Rino, and Rino would yawn and drool and there he would train him, sometimes he wasn't coming back for an hour, that's how he would train that Rino to make him into a bad dog and the dog, he would pretend to be bad but inside he was a decent dog then they would all come, the prisoner it was all covered in blood, those cloths on his hands and legs and the dog all breathless and tired because that chef would sic him to bite and tear that prisoner and the prisoner could barely stand, he was so exhausted and he would order me to unwrap it and go away, the prisoner couldn't go back to work would stay on the dispensary cause he was very exhausted and it happened a few times, I was so afraid of that Rino then he would take Rino back, he had a beautiful room there, near the kitchen and they left and then he noticed that I wasn't so much afraid of that dog, but I was so one time he brought him to my room and said: "he will wait for me here and if you only move he will bite your head off" so the dog stayed, the master went away the dog stood in the other end of the room, the room was long, here I had a table with all the buttons and threads to repair what was torn and in the end, here was the door and the dog sat here by the door he brought him, left him and the dog stayed there whenever I turned around the dog stood up I was afraid he was really going to jump at me and bite my head off but he wasn't doing anything so the chef couldn't take it anymore and on the fourth day one of the cooks came with such a bowl a big bowl with baked pig leg, a baked ham he put it in front of Rino and said: "well now, we'll see if you can resist that ham" and he left "and keep in mind that he can bite" so he left and I look at it, such a wonderful smell it smelled like at home so I came another two steps closer and I say: "Rino, if I take a tiny piece, will you bite me?" I started to speak humanly to him and he looks at me, gazes at me, turns his head because nobody ever spoke like that to him, there were only orders so I moved another step closer, I said: "you know, I would only like to try a piece don't bite me" so I begged him "don't bite me, doggy" sobody spoke to him like this, finally I kneeled by that bowl I tore a big piece of that, it was so well done so good, I took a piece and I hold it in my hand like this, he stooped, smelled it, bent back and did nothing so I started to eat and I ate that piece, it wasn't much but it was something so I say: "you know, now I would like to take some for the girls in the kitchen they haven't seen anything like that in a long time" and nothing, he even moved his tail a couple times I took it in both hands, a piece here and another here it was enough to open the door and go to the kitchen and there it was only to open the door and they were sitting in two rows some were peeling something, others something else and so I put that piece of meat on one girl's knee and the first one on the other side got another piece "take it but don't let anyone see it" and nothing, they only winked and I left I got back and sat down and once I sat down, my heart was pounding terribly because I was so afraid that someone might have seen me with that meat finally I hear movement behind me, the sound of claws on the floor I look around and the dog is behind me, not far so I'm thinking: now I will pay for that meat and he jumped on, I was sitting on such stool without the back support he jumped on that stool from behind, I was sitting on the edge so now, I'm thinking, now he will try to bite me and instead he licked me on the cheek with that big tongue who would ever believe it? Nobody! A dog trained on prisoners licked me on the cheek so I turned around and I almost licked him back and that's how great love began from then on he always sat by my side and when he heard chef coming he moved away fast and sat by the door he knew he had to be fierce with the chef around and that's the way it was and then one day we go back from work in the afternoon but how was it that chef knew we were friends... anyway, I can't remember that, he must have felt it we were walking and Rino came up to us the chef walked that way with the dog and we walked the other way from the kitchen to our barrack and we met somewhere here and then the dog jumped away from the chef ran up to me, he smelled me, dogs have great sense of smell he jumped at me came and tossed my hand to stroke him, he went crazy I say: "Rino, run away, run away, Rino" and nothing, he walks by my side and tosses my hand with his nose so we all froze really because all girls knew I was friends with him and then a whistle from chef so the dog went back to him and then we heard horrible howling, a yelp of pain and the chef hit him with such cruelty on the street but without any mercy, he might have broken his bones, I don't know it was a big dog, this tall and the head so I couldn't sleep all night because I kept thinking what was going to happen to me and I felt so sorry for Rino and then the chef came to me in the morning, very early, he never would come so early he was literally drooling, his eyes were popping out, he was so angry he couldn't understand why the dog betrayed him like this he started throwing all my things on the floor, all the sheets, clothes, all the cooks had white clothes he threw that all around on the floor, there was a bucket full of water because I was supposed to wash something he kicked it and it fell the whole dirt went on the floor and everything that was clean and ironed, ready to be worn it was all covered in that dirty water and he looked at me and shouted: "in an hour everything must be done, washed, ironed and clean and if not, you'll see what I will do with you" and he left and I just stood there completely shocked, it was a horrible experience for me I feel sorry for the dog, I'm afraid for myself what will he do, he can easily shoot me and nobody will even say anything to him but he wasn't coming back for a long time, maybe two or three hours Walter came and he saw me, such a weeping willow standing in front of that mess I didn't know what to begin with, buttons, everything that was meant to be repaired everything was in that dirty water and I was standing there and tears kept falling because I was helpless, I didn't count that Walter might help and he stood there, looked at me and said: " now you will calm down, and we will make it right" he brought a basket somewhere from the basement such big, square basket that all the clothes went into it the dirty ones and the clean ones, alltoghether he picked up all those buttons and put on the table and he says: "and now you sit quietly and you don't leave this room I will take care of the rest" he brough someone else to take that basket in two they brought it to loundry room he must have told the gitls there that it must be done in an hour they even had a dryer there it must be done quickly because there's someone in danger and they did it but I don't know hol long it took, I know that it was beginning to get dark when he brough it back to me it wasn't irioned but it was clean and he said: "and now quickly we fold it" so we folded everything and that's how the story finished he was so good, he was so incredibly good to me and that was all The end of part two
