Hans Kessler lived on the second floor at 418 Colorado with Steiger, Otto Keller, and Carl Ottiger, who went to New Manila on February 2 for the weekend and so escaped the ordeal. Below them lived Col. Martinez, a Bataan man and Chief of the Bureau of Investigations under the Japanese, with his wife, baby, five-year-old boy and a couple of children by the wife's previous marriage — one a strapping son.

On Monday, February 5, the residents spent the day digging a well. Heavy shelling on Wednesday marked the beginning of their ordeal. The Japanese took over the Paco Fire Station, near their strong point at the cemetery. The firemen and engines were evacuated to a point two blocks away. They used their pumps to provide water for the refugees because they were not allowed to extinguish the fires ravaging the area — there wasn't enough water for that anyway.

The Americans dropped leaflets on Thursday and Friday; none landed near the group. By Friday most of Padre Faura was burning but not their side of the street. A direct hit on their garage started a fire that they extinguished with well water. When a house nearby bordering San Marcelino took a direct hit, they also put out that fire, finding two dead Russians inside. Practically surrounded by houses on fire, the group moved to the second house from the corner of Padre Faura and Colorado, where some 100 to 150 people were taking refuge underneath it. The shelling was "terrible," and Kessler knew it came from the Americans. "Who else?"

The Japanese weren't allowing anyone on the streets even if their houses caught fire. Several times they saw houses nearby burn and no one dash out. Col. Martinez began to chaff at the thought that the Japanese intended for them to die by fire. On Saturday he finally announced that he'd go and ask them permission to evacuate, otherwise they had no choice but to "fight it out." He had a number of pistols, and figured on using his eldest son as his main helper. Some time later Japanese soldiers appeared at the house next door and a gunfight began. Shortly after, an injured cook crawled in through a hole in the wall and cried that both had been killed (his wife and younger children were still with the Swiss group).

That same evening, the Japanese ordered everyone out because they intended to burn the house. When I questioned Kessler, he admitted that their pantomime could have meant instead that the house was in danger of being hit by shells. The refugees moved to a damaged house on Judge Del Rosario's compound. The Judge and his son, as well as ten others, died there from a direct hit. Kessler said the bodies showed signs of bayoneting or bullet wounds.

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