Pioneers and Refugees:

The Americans had indeed withdrawn from the camp overnight as part of an agreement with the Russians that the Russians would take over control of this part of Austria. So, Jana thought, after all these months of moving to evade the Russians, they are finally able to find relative safety with the Americans, only to be given to the Russians without warning or recourse.
For the first few days, the Russians continued to tell the Swabians that they were going to be sent back to their homes in Yugoslavia. After seven days, everyone in the camp was loaded onto a train, in empty cattle cars and assumed this would be their transportation home.
Not long after leaving Camp Gusen, rumors, likely started and spread by the Russians, spread among the passengers that Yugoslavia was not safe for the Swabians and they would be going elsewhere. Gisela, Jana, Christine, Otto and Ursula found several other people from Werbass and they stayed together for the duration of their journey, helping each other as best they could.
The train stopped at the town of Gmünd, located in the northwestern region of Austria, bordering on Czechoslovakia. The travelers were made to get off the train in a large field with all their belongings and lined up in rows, their suitcases opened and all their other belongings laid out in from of them. They stood there for over an hour until a Russian officer appeared followed by a cadre of soldiers.
The officer was in his forties, and was unremarkable in his appearance other than he carried a riding crop in his right hand. He started at one end of the row of people and looked through the first woman’s belongings. Without saying anything, he pointed to a jacket lying among that her things with his riding crop. When she did not react, he hit her on the face with his riding crop. She shrieked and recoiled from the stinging blow, a trickle of blood forming on her face. The officer pointed his crop to the jacket again and then to a space in front of the woman. The woman picked up the jacket and threw it in front of her.
This process continued as the officer went down the lines, selecting what he wanted and each of the people placing the items in front of them. He took something from everyone, usually suitcases and some items of nicer clothing. The soldiers walking behind the officer would pick up what had been placed forward and loaded it onto a cart one of the men was pulling.
By the time the officer got to Gisela, Christine and the children, he had pulled out quite a few items and his trailing minions had fallen behind him, busy loading up all his newfound treasures. The officer looked at the two women with their children and their belongings laying in front of them.
Gisela was looking down to the ground, but Jana met the officer’s gaze, contempt clearly in her eyes. He smiled at her and took his riding crop and gently placed it under her chin. He then said something in Russian and smirked. His attention then went to their belongings. He pointed to one of their suitcases, then, to Jana’s dismay, he pointed to the featherbed. Jana picked up the suitcase and placed it forward but hesitated with the featherbed. He pointed to it once again, raising the riding crop ever so slightly as a warning. Gisela quickly grabbed the featherbed and placed it with the suitcase. The officer smirked again and moved on to the next person.
Jana noticed that the soldiers picking up the selected items were still far behind the officer and were not paying attention to what was occurring ahead of them. When the officer had moved on a few more people and he was turned away from Jana, she quickly stepped forward, grabbed the featherbed and threw it back on their pile of belongings.
Gisela gasped and Christine gave Jana a pat on the back. Several other people observed what Jana had done, but everyone stayed silent, some even smiled themselves and nodded their heads in approval. When the soldiers came to them, they picked up the suitcase and put it in the cart without comment. Even though Jana appeared fearless with her action, her heart was pounding the entire time until the soldiers had passed. They never saw the Russian officer again.