Dirt and Hunger, work camp 1944

PRIBEHY: SO HAS, SO HIN (STORIES: WHAT WAS, WHAT IS)
A Workshop Script by Robbie McCauley in collaboration with Ethela and Ilona Ferkova, Ondrej Gina, Margita Reiznerova, Hana Syslova, and Miroslav Mencl First performed in Czech and Romany at the Roxy Experimental Space, PragueOctober 12, 13 and 14, 1995
DIRT AND HUNGER: WORK CAMP 1944
CHORUS:
On August fifth the Germans came to our village.
They took all the Romanies, put us in aline, and chose the people who could work. ETHELA:
They took me, my new husband, and my brother. CHORUS:
They put us in trucks and took us to Sabinoff, where they put us in prison.
ILONA:
Romanies from other villages were there too. The Germans told us to wait until morning and a transport would take us to Klavitch to work.
The Romanies did not trust the Germans.
Somebody started singing sad Romany songs. Nobody slept. All of us sat on the floor and prayed that God would save us.
RUDA:
In the morning, we were put on a transport.
When we came to Klavitch, they kicked us out of the wagons and made us go to the camps.
CHORUS:
We had to dig trenches.
No matter whether it was warm or freezing cold, we had to dig and dig and dig.
There was nothing but dirt, and hunger.
ETHELA:
Every day I ran out of the trench to the fields to look for potatoes the farmers had left behind. When I found some, we made a fire and baked them.
ILONA:
The Germans put my brother into another group.
One day he came to find me: he was hungry and knew that I would have something. He sat down at the fire, and I gave him a potato. I was happy that he had come. One Romany was jealous of my brother, and went and told the Germans that he had run away from his group. So the Germans came and took my brother.
I ran after them, shouting: ETHELA:
Let him go! Let him go!
ILONA:
I couldn’t say it in German. But someone said there was a Romany who could speak German. I asked him to explain it to the Germans. But when he did, they still kept my brother.
ONDREJ:
Luckily, though, there was a Polish man in the camp who spoke for us because he saw that we were telling the truth.
But a jealous Romany man came up and slapped him. Pole (HANA) plays the Jealous Romany. HANA:
You know how tough it is here. So why are you telling lies to the Germans?