In the end Kapitan Stelben agreed to accompany the Korporal forthwith to see his officer. He instructed me to proceed to the top with the first load. I was to leave one of my men with the remaining guard in charge of the trucks. He then departed with the Korporal.
I posted my man on the truck containing the gold and, with the rest, boarded the sleigh. At the top of the slittovia was a building, like a concrete emplacement, which housed the haulage machinery. Near it was a small refuge hut, and just above this were earth workings where the flak guns were being installed. We had barely completed the unloading when the telephone rang in the machine-room. I went in and answered it. It was the Kapitan. He ordered me to have the boxes moved to the edge of the deepest of the pits dug for the concrete gun platforms. Whilst my men were doing this, I was to send the sleigh back for him. This I did and ordered the men to move the boxes to the gun positions. A path had been worn from the top of the slittovia to these workings. But it was very slippery. The slope was steep and the boxes difficult to manage. My men grumbled a great deal.
We had not completed this work when the Kapitan arrived. He complained that we were slow. And he kept glancing at his watch. He seemed agitated. The men grumbled even in front of him and he blamed me for not having control.
When the work was completed and the boxes stacked round the pit, he said, ‘Parade your men in the machine-room, Korporal. I want a word with them.‘I did this, parading them in a single line on the far side of the room where there was a little space. I was nervous and so were the men. Discipline was not good at this stage of the war, but we were still afraid of the Gestapo. The Kapitan gave an order to the driver of the sleigh and he came in with a sheepish look.
Then the Kapitan entered and shut the door. His face twitched and I noticed that there was blood on his tunic and on his left hand. I thought he had fallen and cut himself. He seemed irritable and plucked nervously at the sling of the automatic gun on his shoulder. ‘One of the cases in the truck has been opened and some gold is missing,’ he said. ‘I am going to search each of you in turn. About turn!’ We turned automatically so that we were facing the blank concrete wall.
For some reason I turned my head. I saw then that he had the gun in his hands. At the same moment that I turned, he began firing. I sprang at the naked electric light bulb which was fixed to a wall socket just above my head. I hit it with my fist. In doing this I tripped over a piece of machinery and fell against the cable drum. The room was completely dark. It was full of smoke and the noise of the gun was very loud in that confined space. I felt half stunned, for I had hit my head.
A torch was switched on. I lay still. I could see the Kapitan through a gap in a large wheel against which I was lying. He climbed over to the wall and began examining the bodies, one by one. He had his torch in one hand and his revolver in the other. The door was quite near me. I slid quietly along the floor behind the cable drum and reached it. He turned and fired as I opened it. The bullet hit me in the arm. I staggered out and then felt myself falling. I rolled over and over down a steep slope and finished up in soft snow. I had fallen down the sleigh track.
I climbed into the shelter of the woods. Shortly afterwards the sleigh came down. Kapitan Stelben was driving it, and two bodies lay across one of the seats. A few minutes later firing broke out at the bottom of the slittovia. When everything was quiet, I went out on to the sleigh track. But someone was coming up, pulling himself up by the cable. He passed quite close to me and I saw that it was the Kapitan again.
I then made my way down through the woods. At the bottom I found the Korporal, who had gone with the Kapitan to see his officer, lying on his face. The snow was red under his head. He had a bayonet wound in the throat. A little farther on there were more bodies. One had been garrotted. The other two had been killed by bullets. One was the Kapitan’s personal servant and the other the man who had driven the sleigh.
I was very frightened at the sight of these dead bodies and at the memory of what had happened at the top of the slittovia. I was afraid my story would not be believed. I bound up my wound, which I discovered to be only slight, and had the good fortune to obtain a lift in a truck going down into Italy. This took me to Trieste and from there I managed to obtain passage in a caique bound for Corfu. Later, in civilian clothes, I took passage in a schooner for Salonika, where I had been stationed in 1941 and knew people who might help me.
I hereby swear that the above is a true record of what occurred. This is the first statement I have ever made concerning the events described and at no time have I ever mentioned the matter to any one in whole or in part.
Signed: hans holtz. At Salonika, 9-I0-45.
