大象传媒

I was born in 1941 in Ormskirk, Lancashire because my father was stationed there. He was then sent to Burma and my mother returned to London and we lived in a flat in Brixton which, at that time, was a charming place with a thriving theatre, a famous market where people came from all around and wonderful shops.

We were eventually bombed out and were sent to live in Nissan Huts in West Dulwich (later, my friend who lived next door christened them 'the little round mansions'). Apparently, they were originally built for the American forces but they thought they were so awful they refused to stay in them!

However, I remember that we settled in quite nicely. There were 2 bedrooms, a big living room with an open plan kitchen. The only problems were the toilet was outside and when it rained my mother had to put buckets in strategic places to catch the leaks in the living room.

The garden was fairly long (at least that is my memory. In truth it probably wasn't) and at the bottom were allotments which weren't being used because there were no men-folk. So, imagine everyone's shock and surprise when they were told that there would be a German prisoner-of-war camp there. I remember my mother telling me that some of the more ignorant woman really believed that the Germans were devils and had horns!

Soon a wire-netting fence was put up (these days there would probably be a brickwall or at least a sturdy fence) and on the top, rolls of barbed wire.

The prisoners were taken out each day to work but in their spare time they would make things out of spare bits of wood that were lying around. They even made a vaulting horse and I remember seeing them do their exercises.

One day my mother's washing (a sheet) caught on the barbed wire and one of the British officers came round to disentangle it. In fact he said he'd send round one of the Germans but my mother threw up her arms in horror.

Although my mother was never really friendly with the prisoners, she was always polite and they used to talk to me and I remember how nice they were. One day they gave me a beautiful orange parrot, made out of wood which balanced on a post and when pushed, rocked from side-to-side.

Believe it or not, I still have this parrot. One side has faded a bit but the colour is still bright and it works beautifully. I would like to donate it to a museum and am looking into this.

We lived in the Nissan huts for quite a while after the war and eventually moved to a flat in Dulwich. Apparently many of the German prisoners stayed in England and married English women.

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