2024年01月09日
強制収容所に志願（二二五ー5）
二ヵ月半経ったある朝、突然警備兵に追い立てられ貨車に詰めこまれ収容所を後にした。数日間貨車にゆられて着いたところはオランダ国境に近いドイツの大工業地帯のルール地方であった。軍需工場での重労働で、毎朝三時半に起こされ十二時間働かされた。食物はアウシュビッツよりましで、何より有り難かったのは水道があり自由に水の飲めることであった。彼女は福音を説くためにも自らの養いのためにも聖書を必要としたが、得られなかったので、自作の聖書を作ろうと考えた。拾った紙と鉛筆で思い出した聖言を書き留めたりヘブル語の詩編を覚えている者に頼んで訳してもらったりして手製の聖書を書き加えていった。彼女はドイツ語が解るので、一緒に働いているドイツ人女性に必死に頼みこんで、とうとう一冊のドイツ語聖書を手に入れた。彼女は天に昇らんばかりに喜んだが、検査の時にうまく隠すのに苦心した。やがて連合軍は主要工業地帯であるこの地方に集中的に空爆してきた。その毎に地中に穴を掘っただけの防空壕に逃げこんだ。収容所も工場もみな爆撃で吹き飛び焼け落ちた。彼女は過労と栄養失調で倒れたこともあったが、なんとか殺されずにすんだ。
One morning two and a half months later, he was suddenly driven away by guards and packed into a freight car to leave the camp. After several days of being pushed around in the wagons, he arrived in the Ruhr region, a large industrial area of Germany near the Dutch border. They were woken up at 3:30 a.m. every morning and forced to work for 12 hours. The food was better than in Auschwitz, and the most important thing was that there was running water, which she could drink freely. She needed a Bible to preach the gospel and to feed herself, but she could not get one, so she decided to make one of her own. Using found paper and pencil, she wrote down the scriptures she remembered and asked those who knew the Hebrew psalms to translate them for her, thus adding to her homemade Bible. Since she understood German, she desperately asked a German woman she was working with to help her and finally obtained a German Bible. She was so happy that she was able to get it, but she had a hard time concealing it during the inspection. Soon after, the Allied Forces began bombing the region, which was a major industrial area. Each time, she fled to an air-raid shelter, which was simply a hole dug in the ground. The camps and factories were all bombed and burned down. She sometimes collapsed from overwork and malnutrition, but managed to avoid being killed.
