大象传媒

This story was submitted to the people's war website by Wendy Young and was added on behalf of Winfried Richter.with his permission and may fully understand the sites terms and conditions

Unlike my Uncle who was part of Hitler's bodyguard, my father was a naval officer who had particiaped in the defeat of Poland. After this he was sent to Danzig, where he was put in charge of building scores of U-Boat pens. U-Boats were operating in the Baltic from out of Danzig, at the time father was also in charge of the road building programme.
In one of those years he was allocated 20,000 inmates from concentration camps to help with the construcation work.
When the Russian troops approached Danzig from the East, he was given the order to blow up the U-Boat pens that he'd been building for four years.
Being a naval officer, father led a very cushy life, he lived on a luxury liner which was moored in Danzig harbour, he also owned his own car, a very big priviledge, thanks to his position in the navy.
During the summer months, he would bring the family up from Silecia, where we were living at the time.
We had to travel 300 miles by train through land which had been conquered by Hitler, when the train passed through dangerous areas, the blinds had to be pulled down. During the summers of 42, 43 and 44, the family went to different places in Danzig, and I have wonderful childhood memories from thoses years. When the Russians drew near to Danzig, the civilian population and some of the military were evacuated. The naval part was left holding the fort, so sto speak, but eventually they evacuated themselves.
My father, together with ten men and three women, picked a trawler, being less conspicious than a mine sweeper, which would have attracted attention. It was loaded with provisions, like bacon, barrels of butter, cigarettes, linen and canvas, which they had removed from depos in Danzig. Father also loaded his car onto the trawler.
They travelled to Bornhoft, a Danish island in the Baltic, and stayed in a town called Ronne. Then they went across to Lubick Travenundo where they landed. They bribed the farmer to lend them his large barn, where they put all their booty. Father his his car under some straw. They threw their naval uniforms away and put on civilian clothes, bought some pushbikes and travelled some 50 miles to Hamburg.
The biggest danger they faced, wasn't the American or British, but the Polish ex prisoners of war, and ex-inmates of concentration camps. The British had given these people clothing, provisions, and a pistol. They were told to make their way back to Poland. Any German that got in their way would have been killed.
Once father and his colleagues had accuired a job, they returned to get their booty, only to find that 90% had been taken, and also father's car had gone. What was left lent itself profitably on the ubiquitous black market, particularly the cigarettes, unlike the reichs mark, which was going currency. Father went to fetch the family from Bavaria, but I was already on the way to Hamburg, travelling with my Aunt, the wife of my SS uncle, and her 2 daughters. When we reached Hamburg, there was absolute chaos, it had been flattened, and large tents had been erected to accommodate refugees and civilians.
Some of our relatives went back to where we had lived and had months of starvation. My maternal Grandmother, already and old woman, had been raped 50 times.
Although father couldn't speak English, he was allocated a block to administer in Hamburg, having been an architect by trade in peace time. He was allocated building material, permits, and licences, he was able to build his own house and bought a small car. We never starved.
I was just 9 when we had the thoughtlessness of giving me the building permits, and certificates and asked me to find the recipients. There were no street names, I walked through the rubble, I used a tram, train, underground, a lone nine year old in all this chaos.
My father got another job just outside Hamburg as a planning officer in a neighbouring town. In this job he was also responsible for the administration, and later the rebuilding of the Island of Helgoland, in the North Sea, off the mouth of the river Elb.
It had been bombed by the RAF five days a week and was used as a bomb target, the civilian population had been evacuated. The planning administration were allowed to take a boat out and do surveying during non bombing weekends. Father took me with him several times and let me run around, although there were unexploded bombs and mines.

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