Tag #117542 - Interview #100491 (Frida Zimanene)

We hit the road. In a couple of hours I understood that we would not come back as soon as we had thought. There was a terrible war, and the army was retreating. There were a lot of fugitives: on carts, trolleys, bicycles or on foot. The column of peaceful civilians was bombed by Fascist aircrafts. I saw death for the first time in my life. It was comparatively quiet in Minsk [today capital of Belarus]. We got off the bus and went to the market to get food. Our company drew the attention of the people around, as we looked differently. All of us were very well dressed, unlike the Soviet people. We were detained by a patrol right in the street. The whole group was arrested by NKVD officers [14]. They were pressed for time and since we definitely looked like capitalists we were charged with espionage.