大象传媒

This story is taken from an interview with George Minn, and has been added to the site with their permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interview was by Walter Love, and transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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[You were born in Belgium]

The Nazis were on our street every day.

[You had some nasty experiences, then]

Not personally very nasty, but we had to be very careful. For example, we had chamber music every Sunday evening, and suddenly somebody shouted 鈥淪top!鈥�

We suddenly realised we were playing music by Mendelsohn 鈥� Mendel is a Jewish name, so we had to stop immediately! We had also a few comical things that I never forget.

We were desperate 鈥� no meat, no sugar, no coffee, no tea, no fruit in Belgium. One luxury was called Buttermilk. Every week I would go to the country, a village called Latham, for 2 precious bottles. One week in 1943 we got a surprise, my aunt says 鈥渘o buttermilk today. Today we have something better 鈥� plenty of meat.鈥�
鈥淎re we going to break the law?鈥�
鈥漀o, it鈥檚 just a little piglet that was rejected by its mother. 9 piglets, and it was rejected. So you take it with you. You can cut it to pieces for Xmas."

We had a bag at the back of the tandem 鈥� my sister would sit at the front, and I was a small boy at the back. And we put the little piglet in, backside first, with its little snout sticking out. All we could hear was [snorting]. My aunt said 鈥測ou will get in trouble. Because a mile further is the small airport, and the Germans will stop you. They will say Ihre Papieren Bitte, and you will have to show your papers. You will be caught when they hear the piglet.鈥�

鈥淒on鈥檛 worry,鈥� says my aunt. 鈥淲e鈥檒l find a solution.鈥� So she disappears, and got some brown soap and smeared it on the snout. No more noises, total silence. So we closed the flap of the bag over the little piglet. Off we went to my home town.

The Germans always stopped us in the same place. My sister was better at German than me, and at 18 years of age charmed the German. And during the lovely conversation, what did he hear suddenly?

[pig snuffling]

The soap had been licked up, and the pig had started snorting again.

鈥淲hat are you doing with that piglet?鈥� he asked. 鈥淵ou鈥檇 better be careful, there are 2 Germans later on.鈥�

And he showed us a detour to avoid them, because he knew we were breaking the law.

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