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Show : After 20 Mumtbs WrmchmAt Lost n p . Is the second of three articles telling the true story of Cato H. of Bountiful, who spent 20 months in a German Prison en!!' Th'S article tells of the suffering and horrors she experi-m, experi-m, m and saw until liberated. of - letting me see Rosie and Petie." Cato didn't like what she saw. Rosie was sick and had lost her willpower to live. "I would sneak into her line and pinch her cheeks to make it appear that she was well." BUT A FEW days later, Rosie was herded into another line - this line led to a gas chamber for extermination. For the next several months many horrible things happened around the camp, Cato recalls. She told of being forced by the Nazi to watch other prisoners being tortured and raped; a mother and her baby being shot; and finally the witnessing of thousands of deaths of prisoners being shot at the edge of large and deep ravines, gas poured on their bodies and burned. AT THE SAME time, Cato made friends with an older girl who appeared to be having a hard time of it. They slept cuddled together that night and the following morning Cato realized her friend had died. Petie had become seriously ill from malnutrition and Cato felt obligated to help him. She followed a prisoner around camp one-day one-day waiting for him to collapse and die. When he did, she took his clothes - and a piece of old bread clutched in his hand - and gave them to her brother. "I, TOO, was fading fast," said Cato. "I struggled through each day with only a strong willpower to keep me alive. I wasn't going to let the Nazi get the best of me." During the last few months of her stay in prison Cato was assigned to cleaning the creamatoriums. "That's where I was exposed directly with the gassing and cremating of prisoners," she said. "IT SEEMED that there were more exterminations and brutal tortures during the final months before the war ended. The Nai knew they were losing (the war) and took it out on the prisoners." Cato said there were rumors of the war's end coming soon and this kept her going. "I could not have lasted more than a few more months. Physically and mentally I was going fast." THE DAY finally came. There was the sound of airplanes, trucks and tanks in the distance. Moments later, the Americans crashed through the fences surrounding the camp. AFTER 20 months -- freedom at last! Next Week: What it felt like to be freed from Nazi control and the horrors of Nordhausen Concentration Camp. Cato is also reunited with her parents, but after about eight years decides to immigrate to the United States via Canada. Her troubles were not over. e , 2 By GARY R. BLODGETT lCC Clipper News Editor ' wNT1FUL "" 11 was on,y a short train ride to Nordhausen i- tail i Would sPerd the next 20 months - the most horrible 0Hhs f her young life. Oil Z VSVS A gutty kid- 1 had a lot of sPunk and fl8ht in me and p- on'y thing that kept me going," she says. "Looking I' " now-1 wonder if I would have done the same thing." id :ChiariVlng at Nordhausen, Cato, Petie and hundreds of -:riPD J d,ren were herded into the prison camp where they were u,b ai i f, '.l lnfected (for lice) and ordered into lines of five to ;d' a" further instructions. :d. CTo ,5' j ADMITS that she "mouthed off' to a woman "SS" m- "other h WaS badly beaten- Petie tries t0 heIP and is taken t0 is., Cato , 'Tacks- Now both are alone, and scared. :edtn they would get up early each morning and were -until dayb?e k "" W'tH thC'r hadS bWed tW hUrS '1S ablul EfRE 8'ven a piece of bread -- covered with mildew - af- Cat0 Water as tneir tota' food ration for the entire day. icC stat-v-S ass'8ned to the "factory" where the children sorted ,n. ed in ,f c'othes. One of her first days at work a Gestapo ur, and ordered all Jews to come with him. pC' ;1EL,JCTANTLY followed the others and for a time nil 'nfide jUt her best friend- She had n0 one 10 talk t0' n ne t 'iilH6' Cat0 'earned that jewelry and other expensive '4es n'a Occasionally be found in pockets or lining of the f Nothing Shg discovered three large diamonds in an article of dt' I BAD i jig .'0rk Were uarned from Petie that Jews who became too weak to ' ':'sie'" saiHng terminated and I couldn't let this happen to sato. "I used the diamonds to bribe a guard into L : CATO H. PERSICO , mi. p.i. i ijui ii i ni i . II. hi ill ii u. . i w |