APPENDIX

A translation of the BBC interviews recorded in German between Patrick Gordon-Walker and Hetty Werkendam after liberation.

Recorded at Bergen-Belsen 18 April 1945.

What is your name?

Hetty Werkendam.

And how old are you?

Fifteen years.

How long have you been in this camp at Belsen?

Fourteen months.

Did your parents come with you?

Yes.

And are they still with you?

No.

Your mother, for instance, what happened to her?

My mother drove away from here.

Drove away or taken away?

Taken away.

By the Germans?

Yes, the Germans took my mother away. They made her drive away.

And your father?

My father drove away a day earlier than my mother.

Now tell me, what is the worst thing you have seen in the camp?

The time my father wore two scarves around his neck, and then the Germans came and they said, ‘Ha! Ha! scarves around your neck. we cannot tolerate this, come here.’ Then they took each end of the scarves and they lifted him off the floor with the intention to hang him by his own scarves.

Recorded 21 April 1945.

Now tell me what is your name?

Hetty Werkendam.

And how old are you?

Fifteen years.

How long are you in this camp?

Fourteen months.

Are you with your parents here?

I was ten months with my parents here.

What work did your parents have to do?

My father worked in the shoe factory and my mother in the peel kitchen.

And at what time did your mother have to wake up?

At three o’clock in the night.

Why so early?

So early because my father at noon ...(corrects herself). So that my mother could give her food at midday to my father. My father was so very hungry that my mother gets up early so that she in the kitchen can get some extra food. That is why my mother got up at 3.00am and came home at 8.00pm when it was dark already.

Did you not get enough to eat?

No, we had terrible hunger and we scraped with twenty-five men the remains of the food from the empty food kettles.

Can you remember any of the names of the Nazis and the SS here in the camp?

Yes.

Which one for instance?

Herr Mueller. Er...(hesitates).

And what did Herr Mueller do?

He has beaten people and when he came into the barrack he did cupboard control and when the people had saved a bit of soup to eat at night, he would take the dish and throw it through the barrack, he would take their clothes and throw it in their faces.

And other SS men?

Lubbe. That was the one who took Appel and left us standing once for nine hours in the snow.

He left you standing in the snow?

Yes, and there were children there from three years old.