大象传媒

After working in the sugar beat factory I was sent to work in Stobber鈥檚 brewery
Tiegenhoff. Where I was put to work loading barrels of beer. One day I was given a twig brush and told to accompany a German guard to a little green door at the side of the brewery. I was about to enter the the room behind the green door, a Polish worker shouted over to us and the guard held back ordering me to wait. After a few minutes the worker came running over and handed me a club hammer. After a few words to the German he went away. I must have looked longingly at the club hammer and then back at the German guard; for that is the only reason I can give for the very violent attack I received from the guard. I subsequently woke up in the prisoner of war hospital and found myself with a broken jaw and severe bruising around the head & shoulders.
I later learned that the reason for the hammer and brush was that the brewery being an old building allowed dust and kernels from the barley to filter through the cracks of the floorboards, which eventually ended up in the cellars. This was ambrosia to the vermin, which had become a permanent fixture at the brewery. The rats were abnormally big and to keep them under control a group of wild cats were introduced. Every weekend it was necessary to clean out the cellars. Thus, I was issued with the broom to sweep with and the hammer to ward off the enclosing rats and cats, by striking one of the many iron pipes of the brewery.

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