大象传媒

This story was added to the St. John's Centre WW2 pages with the permission of Peggy, who understands the terms and conditions.

During the war I was sent to Beltane Co-eduactional School, near Melksham in Wiltshire. I was about 14 at the time, and amongst my fellow pupils there was a German girl called Sylvia whom I shared a room with at one point.

I remember one night with particular clarity because we heard the planes coming over, and I looked across at Sylvia. I saw the plane in the distance as it came down, and I can see it now, the way it lit up as it nose dived and crashed. Sylvia climbed up onto the window ledge and watched as the plane burnt. We all tried to get her to come away from the window, but she was glued to the glass and wouldn't move.

I don't know if it was a German or British plane, but I remembering thinking how hard it must have been for her as a German in the midst of all of us English. Although she hadn't done anything wrong the fact was she wasn't one of us and I imagine that she must have had a fairly hard time at our school during those war years.

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