Tag #130338 - Interview #78415 (Max Wolf)

I served in the labor detachment until 1944, until the very end. I walked out of there on 23rd August 1944 [10]. I was in Vadeni, 10-12 kilometers away from Braila [Editor’s note: 22 kilometers north-west of Braila] when the Russians [Editor’s note: the Germans] started bombing the town of Galati. At midnight I was sitting on top of a pile of hay and saw the town being lit up by the bombing. It was so bright that you could read a newspaper! I kept turning my eyes towards Braila, to check on the town where my parents were. Fortunately, it remained covered in darkness. I felt more relaxed knowing my native town was not a target. However, some 30 kilometers northward, Galati was being bombed like crazy. [As a result of the events of 23rd August 1944 – when Romania broke the alliance with Nazi Germany and joined the Allied Powers – the German forces unleashed a fierce attack on Bucharest, on Hitler’s order. In the days that followed, heavy fighting took place in Bucharest, on Prahova’s Valley and in some other areas. By 28th August 1944, the Nazi resistance had been annihilated.]

Things changed radically for us when the commander of our detachment and his soldiers fled. We were free to leave for Braila. It took us eight hours to get there, because we had to avoid the ordinary roads. They were definitely not the place to be at that particular time, as they were crawling with the withdrawing German tanks and troops. So we got on a freight train that headed to Braila. The trip lasted for 4-5 hours, because the train kept stopping. At one point, all trains were halted in order to block the Nazi withdrawal. When we finally got to Braila, our families were happy to see us, happy the war was over, and happy the whole forced labor routine had become a thing of the past.