ABSTRACT
The political prisoners left Berga in early April. "Day and night the SS marched us farther away from the ever-increasing thunder of the guns," Eugene Heimler recalled. The men who could not walk when they left Berga were put on a "sick wagon." Erwin Metz decided who could ride in the wagon. A prisoners of war (POW) "had to be practically dead," Milton Shippee said, to be allowed to ride. According to Metz, about 35 men were sick each day, but there was plenty of room on the three sick wagons he said were available. Contradicting POWs who said he determined who would ride, Metz claimed the medics made these decisions. The POWs were marching through some woods one night. Laurence Gillette and Jack Kemper hung back. "There was a little light outside, but under the trees it was black as black.
