Reece B. Robertson, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Benjamin J. Bahlmann, March 7, 2002: Saving the Legacy tape nos. 498-500

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REECE B. ROBERT ON R H 7 2002 the room that knew how to milk. I said, What we' 11 do is g t up about thr fl ur clo k in the morning, I 11 take three for four fellows with me four or five fellows and we ll corner these cows that are kind of wild, that nobody else can milk and we'll milk them, I'll milk those." So it worked out fine. We'd get a couple of containers, couple of buckets of milk every morning. BEN: How long did that last? I mean, how long between the time you were liberated before ... REE: Well, it wasn't too long, maybe two weeks. But during that time we were milking cows, milking cows. BEN: Just for your room? REE: Just for our room (laughs). We weren't going to share that milk with anybody. There was one guy from Texas, he says, "Boy, this Clem is good. When I go home, I'm going to have a can of Clem all the time." When he started drinking that milk, I said, "You still going to have that Clem?" He said, "No way!" When he got that fresh milk, he said no. BEN: Quite a bit different. Interesting. Could you tell the war was ending? REE: We knew the war was ending from the BBC. BEN: Could you hear the Russians actually advancing, as well? REE: We could hear the artillery from the Russians, the Russian artillery. It was kind of a thud, but you could hear it. BEN: When you first got into the camp, was there optimism right from the start that things were wrapping up? Or in January, was it still kind of in question there? REE: At least I was sure things were going to be wrapping up soon. 82