大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by a CSV Action Desk People鈥檚 War Story gatherer on behalf of Anne Ward. The story was added to the site with her full permission. She understands the sites terms and conditions.

My name was Anne Royal and when the war broke out I was living with my father and my grandmother.

I was 15 or 16 and had just started working for a German firm -Gutterman- as a junior office worker. I did all the little jobs. My aunt and uncle were the concierge at the firm so they got me the job.

I had 2 brothers - one was taken prisoner by the Germans, the other one was never captured.

When the Germans arived they were all young, smart, very well turn out. I remember them marching into Brussels doing the "goose step" we all rushed indoors - we were very frightened.

The Germans took over all the local firms. We carried on living and working.

We had very little to eat. We had to queue for everything - coal, potatoes, everything we needed. Sometimes my grandmother was able to buy bread and meat on the Black Market. It was very expensive. The Germans took everything and left very little for us.

I can remember the soldiers stopping the trams and taking off the men and sending them to Germany. They took my uncle and my cousin. My brother's sister-in-law and her husband listened to the B.B.C. and someone reported them. They were sent to Germany and then to seperate camps. He died there. She was saved by the arrival of the Americans. She had been in the next group to be sent to the gas chambers.

One of my friends who was Jewish asked if I would sell her my identity card but I was too frightened to do so.

It was awful. We were terified all the time. At my church one of the young boys was taken to a concentration camp. The young men taken off the trams - we didn't know where they were taken.

I remember the day the British arrived - they came marching into Brussels on one side of the city as the Germans marched out on the other side. As I watched the Germans leave I remembered them arriving in Brussels - so smart, so elegant, so handsome - and now they looked old, dishevelled, stooped.

It was over!!

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