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KLAUS GLEISSBERG

JUST ANOTHER WAR BABY

INTRODUCTION - SETTING THE SCENE

In 1938 my grandfather Oskar Gleissberg, born in 1894, divorced my grandmother (38) leaving her and their 16-year-old daughter fending for herself. He already had moved elsewhere in town in town. The divorce was only possible because Hitler had introduced stringened new culture laws and my grandmother was accused of reading books no longer allowed to be in existence - officially she was declared the guilty party. (As long as I can remember I never have seen her reading any book)

My grandfather was to pay very little maintenance (100 Marks a month) to grandmother although he had an extremely well paid job as the General Manager for the Cooperative Organisation in Braunschweig (65 shops). My mother started work the same year as an apprentice shop assistance in a department store. Grandmother found life very difficult, little money and the only skills acquired were those working as a maid for Circuit Judge Family for 8 years prior to getting married

In the winter of 1939 my mother met a professional pilot serving in the Luftwaffe. A few month later she realised she was pregnant. My grandmother was very strict and soon noticed that all was not as it should be with her daughter. My mother was very scared to tell her but once confronted had to admit to her mother she was with child. On hearing the news grandmother immediately gave mother a hiding and locked her in her room, calling her a whore. She proceeded at once to contact her ex husband, telling him his daughter was pregnant and arranged a joint meeting on a bench in a civic park in Brunswick to discuss the situation. On the way to the meeting with her daughter she kept on shouting and hitting her. As soon as my grandfather saw my mother he called to her ‘come to me, we shall sort it. Don’t worry. I shall see to it’.

Grandfather considered himself the family matriarch and therefore expected everyone to follow his plans, no arguments. Within a few weeks my grandfather had arranged everything. Three month into the pregnancy my mother was send to a first class very secluded private establishment in the Harz mountains (a little town called Ellrich) where unmarried pregnant women/girls from well to do backgrounds were hidden from their usual friends and neighbourhood. After all, nobody needed to know as the system was for the newborn child to be adopted immediately after birth.

In the meantime Grandfather had contacted the Luftwaffe, found the pilot, met up with him and asked him to do the decent thing and marry my mother, which he agreed to do. Proof had to be provided that all members of the family during the last 200 years was of pure Arian stock. However, it soon became apparent trough his Luftwaffe details the he was married already and had children of his own. After admitting this he produced a major and his wife, who were unable to have children, desperately wanting to adopt a child. A deal was struck, and as soon as my mother had given birth I would be handed over to the major and his wife. Official adoption papers were prepared.

During the six month in the Harz Mountains grandfather visited his daughter at least once every month. The staff and other pregnant women were sure he was her lover; not believing it could be her father. My grandmother did not visit her daughter once and told friends and neighbours she was staying with a cousin in the Rheinland.

Whilst staying at the home, a nurse convinced my mother not to have me adopted and instead have me send to a foster home for one year. This would give my mother the opportunity to sort out her circumstances and either take me back or have me adopted.

THE ARRIVAL

On the 22nd of August 1940 I was born during a bombing raid in the Maternity Home in Nordhausen just before 1pm., 4 days before my mother’s 18th birthday. Although she was all on her own grandfather had arranged for big bunch of flowers to be presented to mother as soon as possible after the birth.

Six days later whilst still in the home I was officially christened in a Lutheran church Klaus-Dieter Gleissberg. The christening dress was provided by the home. At the beginning of September mother handed me over to the foster home in Ellrich and she went back to Braunschweig.

All this time my grandmother and grandfather had a dispute about how much maintenance to pay her if any. He claimed she was fit to work and should support herself. As my grandmother did not want to get a job I became her saviour. She suddenly realised if she looked after me and mother went out to work she could stay at home and her ex husband had to support her. So the deal was struck, grandmother got her 100 marks a month (which she received for 46 years, the amount never changed until his death). I was collected by mother in November 1940 and taken to Henschelstrasse 3 in Braunschweig. I second hand pram was waiting for me provided by a neighbour. So grandmother met me for the first time and began to look after me. Mother went back to work in December as a clerk in an office.

BRAUNSCHWEIG 1940 - 1943

War had now come to Braunschweig and bombing raids became very frequent. Initially once the sirens went we had to evacuate to the cellar, three floors down. I can recall being taken to the cellar in a washing basket when the bombing started. Once a large bunker had been built 5 minutes walk away this became the much safer option. I can remember getting very frightened.

With the increasing bombing raids the authorities wanted to evacuate mother and me to a much saver region Braunschweig being a large industrial town and a very important railway junction.
Mother wanted to stay but agreed for me to be evacuated by making her own arrangements. The parents of Walter and Maria Schatz had a small farm in a little village in the Harz Mountains. It was decided that the two boys of Maria and I would be taken there. The three of us arrived in Suelzhain early 1943.A box of personnel possessions from Braunschweig had also been taken to Suelzhain for safekeeping.

Grandmother’s compulsory war efforts required her to sew linings for steel helmets at home and mother’s, besides working as a clerk for the government insurance company, had to roll bandages.

EVACUATION

My recollection of my time spent on the farm in the Harz Mountains is very limited. I was very happy there with the animals, the woods and all the other children. I can remember we had to leave the farmhouse and were taken to a camp when the Russian soldiers moved in. A week later we were allowed back into the house. There appeared to have been a lot of looting as all the taps and the door fittings had been taken. I can clearly remember that not a single door could be closed.

On another occasion whilst I was playing with the other children in the woods not far from the farm on some cliffs a hand grenade suddenly exploded and I was thrown clear. The other children carried me to the house. I was very lucky and ended up with just cuts, bruises, a permanent scar on my forehead and a bit of shrapnel in my back which is still there today.

Then the American moved into the area trying to flush out any remnants of the German army. They moved into our village the Russians had previously vacated. The Americans established a command post in the school opposite our house. Once again we had to leave the house and spent days in a camp. On our return I kept visiting the command post and became friendly with a few soldiers who would give me white bread sandwiches, which I had never seen before and pieces of chocolate. In return I used to get into the woods, pick wild strawberries and took those to the soldiers. I was amazed to see a soldier the colour of chocolate; I kept touching him to make sure he was real. He was very kind and let me wear his steel helmet.

I was told much later that during the American occupation of the village one of their soldiers went berserk, entered the farmhouse at night, entered one of the other evacuee’s bedrooms and killed one of my him with an axe - whilst I was asleep in the next bedroom. It really happened but I have no recollection of that crime or the aftermath.

Although the war finished in May 1945 neither I nor the box of personnel possessions were collected until late August. At that time Suelzhain was an American sector and word got around it would become Russian. The need for me to return became suddenly very urgent. The box and I were taken by hand cart by my mother’s father-in-law during the night to the nearest station with a railway still working. Apparently we had to travel in open goods carriages, changing twice before reaching Braunschweig.

THE AFTERMATH OF WAR

Soon after the war Germany was divided into 4 separate Sectors, Russian, American, French and British. Looking back I was very fortunate to leave Sulzhain at that particular time, as very soon afterwards it became part of the Russian sector, with virtually no travel allowed to any other sectors. Unless written permission had been granted travel between the other sectors was also impossible. Braunschweig was now in the British Sector. The town had been heavily bombed and conditions were bleak. Food was the biggest problem, little was available and nearly all was rationed. The lack of coal added to the misery and discomfort. These were desperate times.

WAR BRIDE?

By now mother considered herself to be no longer marriage material, which would want a woman with an illegitimate child. Then mother was told that there were appeals to write/ meet soldiers who had little contact with the outside world. So mother started to write and meet this apparent lonely soldier who happened to come from Braunschweig. She married Walter Schatz in 1942 and he went back to the front a few days later, so my mother was now Frau Schatz. I kept mother’s maiden name. My mother told me that she become very friendly with his sister Maria who had two young boys. She apparently lost all contact with Walter Schatz and only met him by chance after the war in Braunschweig. As both had new partners they decided to get divorce. This divorce came effective in 1947. To my knowledge I never met Walter Schatz, he meant nothing to me.

I must say others who sadly are no longer alive had told me a different version and appeared to be more realistic. This is my mother’s very limited version from 2003. She claims they never lived together but I can recall many years ago seeing various pictures of my mother and a soldier having a good time at my great grandmothers house were I was told it was her husband.

THE APARTMENT BLOCK

My return home to mother and grandmother was an anti climax. After a lovely time on a farm back to an apartment on the second floor with substantial bomb damages. One room had a hole where a bomb entered through the roof (4 storey building) and ended up in the cellar but did not explode; one could see day light and the rain used to come in. Another room had totally burned out after an incensory bomb hit it. Out of the four rooms, kitchen and bath only two had some glass left in the windows. None of the stoves in the rooms were useable as the chimneys had been damaged but luckily the cooking range in the kitchen was still operational. So that was our main living space besides the beds in the other room. The water in the taps run brown and was infrequent. Although we had the use of a cellar it was permanently flooded with raw sewage and rat infested.

The apartment block we lived in had a large co-op store on the ground floor and six big apartments over the other three floors. This was prior to the commencement of the bombing raids. All had been let. At war end only three of the apartments were partially habitable. One side of the apartment block was bombed out with only the outer walls remaining. The separate entrance to the apartments had been totally destroyed and a temporary open-air staircase had been constructed on the outside of the building.

The family living below us were one mother with two young sons, her brother in law with one young son, and his mother. Above was a family with one young son. All together five young boys, just within a year of each other. Only one having both parents alive. There appeared to be always disputes between the different tenants, either about the washhouse, the drying area, the communal stairs etc. The one family on the third floor with a son (Wolfgang, 2 years older than I) were friendly with us and we assisted each other. The husband worked for the railways repairing steam locomotives.

As useable living accommodation was very scarce only a limited amount of space per person was permitted thus we had to sublet one of the two useable rooms in the apartment. I can recall three different male lodgers between 1945 — 1948. The first was a u-boot commander, the second a librarian ex Shanghai and the last a trainee solicitor. From my return to Braunschweig until we moved in 1956 I always had to share a room with grandmother. There was no space I could call my own therefore I was under total control — I hated it!

In the road we lived only parts of two apartment blocks were still habitable the other three were just ruins. 75 % of the surrounding apartment blocks in the other nearby streets had been destroyed. Most of the streets were covered in brick rubble.
In late 1946 structural repair to the building begun which was eventually completed in 1949, including our damaged rooms, windows and chimneys.

A NEW BEGINNING

During the war grandfather was put in charge of the cooperative society’s biggest location in Magdeburg (well over 100 outlets plus various factories). Grandfather had ensured that his successor in Braunschweig would offer mother a job once she was released from helping with the war efforts (clerk to a commander of an internment camp). In 1945 she started her new job at the central coop offices and bakery as a bakery assistant. An hour’s bike ride from were we lived. And it was there where mother met Kurt, her future husband. He was a POW captured by the British and living in a camp. As a skilled baker he had to work in the large coop bakery guarded by the British. Mother was useless in the bakery, Kurt helped her as much as he could but eventually her shortcomings could no longer be accepted and she was moved to the main office to train as a wages clerk. She excelled and some years later became the supervisor of the wages office. They married in 1949 and he became a brilliant step father.

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