“We were delighted that the sabotage worked. That evening we sang and danced for joy, because we had managed to sabotage something. “
– Esther Bejerano, * 1924, German Jew; Siemens: from Winter 1943/44, Hall 4
“What sabotage did we do at Siemens ? Well I have always thought of it as using every opportunity we got to destroy things, be it material (and especially scarce materials) or the work process or the administration.
[…] it was the only „political“ work we could do under those circumstances, and it was therefore useful and necessary.”
– Noen Beuzemaker, * unnknown, Dutch; Siemens: ab October 1942, Hall 2
“There was unintended sabotage, when you mixed up a workpiece because you were inept or inattentive, destroyed a tool or damaged a device. The deported person working on the machine would, regardless of the cause of damage, be seen as responsible for it and be punished, sometimes by hanging.
[…] The deliberate acts of sabotage were also relatively frequent. Take, for example, Maria Montuoro […] she knew perfectly how to best break the pieces. She worked at the most notorious spot in hall 8, handling a toxic acid, the „Tri“. But she made no effort to be moved to a better station, just so she could stay there, and particularly during the night shift, systematically sabotage the capacitors she was working on.
[…] Even the theft of a piece of wire, a sheet of paper, of a cloth rag was seen as sabotage, but everybody committed that. Any form of friendship between inmates was also seen as sabotage.
[…] Aiding our fellow inmates in their survival and at the cost of the smooth running of production was seen by the system as the most profound sabotage”.
– Lidia Beccia Rolfi, * 1925, Italian; Siemens: October 1944 – April 1945, Hall 8
“As there were 42 Slovenian women working in our hall, sometimes more, sometimes less, our contribution to sabotage was especially large. Although there were, as everywhere, prisoners of different nationalities, there were no traitors among us”.
– Mara Pavletic, * unknown, Slovenian; begin of work at Siemens unknown, hall 8