大象传媒

The von Thadden Family in Pomerania (part four)

by Barbara Fox von-Thadden

Attach on Russia June 1941

鈥淭he war got worse and worse. The attack on Russia brought initial German successes, but when the winter came the soldiers had to suffer dreadfully. Every time you opened the 鈥楢delsblatt鈥� monthly magazine for the aristocracy, there were pages and pages of black edged announcements of officers and soldiers.鈥�

Work Camp April 18th, 1943

鈥淓very girl after leaving school or aged 18, had to spend a 6 months period in the mountains. Nazis women leaders ran the camp. A swastika was blowing in the spring breeze. The dormitory slept 22 girls, with 11 bunks beds with straw sacks. The girls were a mixed group; many of them came from the city of Dessau. We worked for about 6 to 7 hours outside the camp. Though the leader in charge of the camp tried to find loopholes in my obedience or general behaviour because of the Abitur (German school leaving exam) and the 鈥榲on鈥� (a much bigger disadvantage), I coped with it all quite well. The political lectures, the daily hoisting of the flag accompanied by our singing, the petty regulations, the 鈥楬eil Hitler鈥� at every opportunity, the animosity of the Leader towards some of us, those were not good things. But we, the kindred spirits, got through it all relatively unscathed.鈥�

鈥淣ow I found a place with the Navy with two other girls who had also escaped the earlier selection. There was no flag; there were no lessons in political thinking, no drills, no singing and no uniform. The organisation was called War Help Service, or K.H.D. We were taught technical drawing and I loved it. All the men had been severely wounded and were now being retrained.鈥�

鈥淲e sat behind each other at our drawing boards, near the windows. Outside was a narrow strip of grass and beyond, in the middle of the whole compound, were two barracks behind very high barbed wire fencing. This was a prisoner-of-war camp, full of Canadians and British prisoners. I am sure that it was against the Geneva Convention to place POW鈥檚 within military establishments. We tried to talk to them a little. This was strictly forbidden. Spring 1944 and the bombing raids on Magdeburg and Braunschweig were increasing. The POW鈥檚 were not taken to shelters when the alarm sounded but had to stay in the barracks. During the time I was in Thale we never had an attack on our naval establishment. I wondered whether the enemy intelligence knew about the prisoners in the middle of this military target?鈥�

鈥淛uly 1944

鈥淎 message came to tell us the Elizabeth had been condemned to death. More than 4000 people were killed and thousands of relatives and people connected with the coup were imprisoned after the coup on Hitler鈥檚 life. We were not allowed to say that Elizabeth had been executed. We only said or wrote that she had died.鈥�

鈥淢ona, my sister, was away at that time, digging the 鈥楨astern defences鈥�! She was away for several weeks. Together with all the young boys and girls鈥� aged 15 or over they were to dig deep trenches for the Russian tanks to tumble into should they come that way. This was one of the most absurd ventures the State had thought up at that last stage of the war. The trenches were some 40 or 50 miles east of Vahnerow. The teenagers were hungry, badly housed and overworked and when they came home they were weary, cross and cynical.鈥�

鈥淭he Russians were at that time on the borders of East Prussia, and had advanced well into Poland. We had to accept a 鈥榟ouse guest鈥�, sent to us by the SS. She arrived with all her belongings, complete with framed photographs of Hitler, Goring and other high Nazis, which she put on display in her room. She talked enthusiastically about the final victory and her hero Hitler. Unfortunately, I do not remember my mother鈥檚 surely ingenious explanation for the absence of any pictures of Hitler in our house.鈥�

The Estate of Vahnerow

鈥淢y father, like previous owners of our estates, always had an estate manager. The landowners often had positions in public life that would take them away from home for lengthy periods. Some, like my great uncle Gerhard, were in the government in Berlin, or they were delegates to the provincial assembly or, like my father, were Landrats. He also held various directorships and chairmanships of some organisations and charities. But they were all keenly interested in the land and the forests.鈥�

鈥淢y job as farm secretary included the weighing of the piglets every Monday morning. I had to work out everybody鈥檚 wages for our maids, cook, for all the farm hands and women, and also for the Frenchmen and Ukrainians.鈥�

Foreign workers.

鈥淲hen the war with Poland was over, a group of Polish prisoners of war were allocated to Vahnerow. There was an acute shortage of workers everywhere because all the able bodied men had been called up. The Poles were given lower rations than the Germans. Ukrainians arrived in Germany in 1942. The young men and women had been rounded up in the Ukraine and sent to work in the factories or on the land all over Germany. Their rations were minimal.鈥�

The last weeks of normal life

鈥淕erhard, my brother, came home on leave. One evening I went with him to find the deer he had shot. He had left it in the wood until darkness fell. We had to be secretive about it because we only had a small quota of venison that we were allowed to keep without it affecting our meat rations. Gerhard had been given a few days leave only on the understanding that he would bring back some venison for his lieutenant. The venison, cut up and wrapped, went into his kit bag and we travelled together as far as Berlin.鈥�

鈥淭he German armies were retreating westwards. More and more people were called up to stem the relentless progress of the Russian armies. Even old men had to go to the earthworks. Some men were too frail to dig the trenches. We all knew that nothing could stop the Russian advance, certainly not the earthworks, nor the exhausted retreating German army. Our only hope was that the Western Allies would advance even faster into Germany. But as the weeks passed, we feared that this was too much to hope for鈥�

鈥淲e had to get rid of our visitor and her Hitler pictures. She insisted there would be that much hoped for secret weapon any minute now and everything would turn into a glorious victory.鈥�

鈥淭reks were coming through our villages all the time, tired horses pulling carts and wagons from places as far as East Prussia. We looked after the people and the horses, but the misery of the desperately slow processions in the snow and the cold and the mud was not encouraging. The SS had allowed these people to leave at the last minute. We were not yet allowed to leave and rumours were going round about people hanging from trees, as a warning to others who wanted to get away quietly before getting the order to leave from the SS.鈥�

March 1945 to April 1946

鈥淭he winter of 1945/46 was very cold. There was frost and ice and snow, and the winds were extremely chilly. We pitied the people and the horses that came on the treks through our villages, and we pitied even more the lines of PoWs who arrived for the night. They were tired; foot sore Canadians, British and Italian soldiers and some Serbian officers, guarded by a few elderly German soldiers. We opened the barn near the sheep where the hay provided some warmth. On the next morning they walked away again. On the following day another long line of PoWs came, but they stayed only for a short rest before they had to move on.鈥�

鈥淪ince February 25th a number of German airmen came to stay, their small reconnaissance planes were able to land and take off from the field beyond the park and we could watch them from our windows. Some of the men stayed in our house. The airmen were very kind and one day they drove my mother to Plathe to see our friends the Bismarcks who were getting ready to leave with all their valuable collections. My mother wanted to see about any chances for her daughters to leave with the Bismarcks. A railway wagon had been allocated for these things, with space for a few people. Mona and Atti had to pack their things; I should stay with our mother. Officially, it was forbidden for people to flee, thus the villagers had no chance to get away. I quote from Atti鈥檚 notes about this. 鈥榃e had to get up very early, nobody in the village must know of our departure. In the dawn, Robert is waiting with the hay cart; under the hay our luggage will not be visible. I climb onto the hay, Baba and Mona and Robert walk beside the cart and the horse. We go along the quiet village street; the morning is cold and clear. The lane to Plathe, the orange dawn through the black branches of the chestnut trees. Wild geese in angled formation in the glowing sky. Then terror: a low flying Russian plane appears shoots at us, disappears just as suddenly. He did not hit us; there was no time for fear. In Plathe at the station we find the wagon, greet the people, mostly elderly relatives of the Bismarck family, we are the only young girls. We say goodbye to Baba. The Wahnerow cart leaves.鈥欌��

鈥淲hen I said goodbye to Mona and Atti, I said, 鈥榃hatever happens, you can rely on it I shall stay with mother and that I shall not leave her.鈥� On our way home, it was broad daylight by now, several more low flying Russian planes came over and shot at us.鈥�

鈥淢y mother was anxious and agitated when I got home. At last the order for all the people in the village to leave had been given, and now she was discussing with Herr Krienitz what should be done. Refugee families from western Germany were housed in our home.鈥�

鈥淢other sent to every house in the village to call the people to the school. She told them that at last we were given orders to leave but it was too late, that we had not enough horses to pull all the carts we would need to move everybody, and that in any case we would not be able to reach the safety of the other side of the river Oder in time. She and I knew that the Russians would soon be here because we listened to the Allies鈥� broadcasts secretly, and we also knew from the airmen the exact position of the Russian advancing armies. Finally, my mother said that because Vahnerow鈥檚 hidden position among the woods and gentle hills, we might perhaps be saved altogether from the advancing armies, they would surely prefer to use the main road and not our muddy lanes.鈥�

鈥淢other would not leave without the villagers. Ado, my brother, had rung from somewhere in Hungary where he was in retreat with his troops. They had rung in spite of being aware of the dangers for both of them and us, because anybody who tries to flee before the SS or the Party had said so, was liable to be shot or hung from the next tree as a coward and a traitor.鈥�

鈥淚 had the chance to leave, but without my mother. I had made a promise to my sisters and stayed.鈥�

Continued on part five.

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