The kitchen workers impatiently pound away at the gate. Long minutes pass without reply. Without thinking, one of them grasps the handle and pushes it down. The gate opens wide. The guards didn’t even lock it. During this night, for the first time after so many months, we had been free again—without knowing it.… People rush outside. There is no one in front of the gate. The watchtower’s signal light is on, but the guard is nowhere to be seen. There’s no one even in the administration building, the local headquarters of the SS. The rooms are in disarray, with evidence of packing in a rush. The
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