Even the inmates in the Ellrich-Juliushütte subcamp learned of the Red Army’s rapid advance. After the war, Serge Miller, a member of the French resistance, remembered 13 January 1945 as a day of hope: news of the major Soviet offensive spread in Ellrich “like a desert storm”.

Over the weeks that followed, the Soviet troops made significant headway. The prospect of an Allied victory fuelled hopes of survival. Miller wrote: “Despite the cold and the hunger, every fallen city […] was like a morphine shot that kept us upright.”

Miller had been deported to Ellrich back in May 1944 after his arrest. He committed his memories to paper shortly after the end of the war.

(Marvin Keitel)

Quelle: Serge Miller, Le Laminoir – Récit d'un déporté, Paris 1947.