Then a German began announcing something over a loudspeaker and another translated into Russian, ‘Line up” and over a hundred captured soldiers lined up. Then they announced:

“Any communists present, step forward”.

In front of the line, there were German soldiers with automatic weapons at every ten paces. All of a sudden I was startled when a Türkmen near to me said: ‘Can’t we push forward that Atamyrat who gave the cigarette to communist?’ (implying that you prefer giving cigarette to a Russian rather than to us so you are also like him, a communist then, so you should step forward)

They grumbled: ‘Now do you understand who you should have given that cigarette to?’ A German soldier who had heard and seen this event came running up and then they took away Atamyrat by poking him with their guns, fifteen paces away to the edge of a hollow. Then, having gathered several more men, in front of our eyes, they executed them by shooting them by a machine gun and threw the dead in the hollow.”

Çary Aga added, ‘May Allah full their graves with Divine Light’ and wiped his eyes with a handkerchief taken from his pocket. He looked at me quietly. No, he made no mistake; there was no tear in my eyes. He did not see my sadness. He guessed that I had not believed what he had said. ‘My son, at that time Hitler ordered that whenever the German soldiers took a communist captive from among the Soviet soldiers then they were to execute them there and then. There was permission for the exchange of other captives for German captives. I, like all the others, benefited from the exchange of prisoners and I returned rightly to my homeland,” he said and again stared at my face.