The disused factory was a muddy field the size of a football pitch containing thousands of people, with no facilities of any kind and no shelter. Kanitz and his family spent two weeks there, waiting for the trucks to take them to the camp. "It was raining and we had absolutely no cover, no blankets, no shelter, nothing to sit or to lie down on. Just the mud," Kanitz said in an interview with "The StarPhoenix". There was one barrel of water a day, and meals consisted of a cup of hot water with some rotting vegetables in it.