Alving Andersen, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Becky B. Lloyd, February 25, 2003: Saving the legacy tape no. 628

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L LV: That was it. Then they w nt · nto camp r barr th tl t t u the minefields those that where in these units. Th y h d t t ut and one lost his leg there. See, after they said th fi ld i cl ar th n th soldiers on both sides and we marched them and they had to tramp th ground. ut in th cleared area, you know, where the sand moved quite a bit, I guess th r was on m1n that they hadn't been able to detect. The sand had blown around so that was cov r d and he happened to step on that and, Boom!, ripped his leg up. He had to be carried and taken care of. But most of them showed, because I got to do lots of work on the ammunition dumps where they had the duds, as we called them-ammunition that had been fired but which hadn't exploded. They are kind of dangerous. I was working in that place because I could speak a little English and German at that time, so that I could interpret a little bit between them. The Danish officers were supposed to be able to speak German, English and French. But, apparently, they couldn't because they always got hold of me. Even when I was off duty, I was hiding myself in a haystack to be free for a little bit, they would be shouting around and I would get up and come out and do the best I could. BEC: Interpret for them? AL V: Yeah. So a little later on, it became every day. Fourteen and fifteen year old kids got into our compound and I was supposed to send patrols out and to change the guards. That was my job to do that because I was one of the low numbers in the camp. They always would say the low number will take care of this and that. So I would send out patrols. I had the r~ght to send them out at my discretion. One morning I came in and kicked the guy under the feet and says, "You're going on patrol now." "No, it's an hour 33