大象传媒

The first contact with a German was when we were at Ker Maria School. there is a house there called Doman, they had the Red Cross thing there, and the German Doctor was there. He was coming along the road and he was very good with children. Whether this was him or whether he was told to do it, but I asked him for sweets, 鈥榮ugarreiden鈥�, if I remember rightly. My mother would have beaten me to death if she had known I had asked a German for sweets!

I thought he was about 40 鈥� 50 [years old], 鈥淥h yes, come with me鈥�, we went into this house, there was the red cross on the front, which had been painted on, that was their field hospital, and he gave me two tubes of sweets. He said, 鈥淒on鈥檛 you tell anyone, I can鈥檛 give them all away鈥�. Then I went to school, put one tube in my pocket and the other one I was eating. They were very funny sweets, dissolved in your mouth, very sweet. Anyway it didn鈥檛 take long for the rest of the form to find out I was eating sweets. I wasn鈥檛 beaten for them but I had to share them out. I only had one tube, but they didn鈥檛 know I had another tube. And it wasn鈥檛 for years and years later I realized what he had given me, glucose tablets for the troops, energy!

The next German I met was a German officer, it must have been when they were building the Vardes and we were playing in the Salines Road. A car came along and it was the typical staff car you see in films, open top, summer this was, and this German officer in it and he stopped 鈥擨 thought, 鈥� Oh my God, that鈥檚 it, we鈥檙e dead!鈥� 鈥� He got out and he spoke English. We thought well, that鈥檚 a good thing, anyway. He wanted to know the way to the Vardes, the Grand Maison Road. We said
鈥淒o you want the gun emplacements?鈥�
鈥� Yes,鈥� he said.
We knew the way to the Vardes so we were able to direct him, but of course he wasn鈥檛 quite sure, so we said
鈥淪hall we come in the car with you?鈥�
He said 鈥淵es, but just to the end of the road,鈥�
So the first time I had ever been in a car was a German staff car.
I must have been 7, I suppose.
MALCOLM WOODLAND

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