大象传媒

This story was submitted to the people's war website by Wendy Young and was added on behalf of Winfried Richter with his permission and he fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was born on the 29th January 1937 under the most powerful and most influential Nazi regime, consequentially I was given a christian name as Germanic as it came at the time, namely Winfried.
My home was about 30km from the polish boarder and was called Steinau/Oder. On the 29th Jan 1945 the Nazi army head office told the civilian population to get out of the shooting line for a short time, because the red army was approaching and they were hoping to push the Russians back to the urals. Mother believed it so we left our home overnight, leaving behind photographs and memorabilia and everything. In fact Stenau fell about a week later to the Russians and I remember my mother fainting out of desperation, we could never go back.
Any way we left our home overnight in an overcrowded train to Berlin, which was 150 miles away. We went to my Uncle's home in Berlin - Tempelhof. The first thing we heard were sirens, the R.A.F and Americans were about to attack. We fled into the air raid shelter, where we spent the next five weeks on and off, and I remember very vividaly us boys and girls playing cowboys and indians in the air raid shelter. We eventually got one of the last trains out of Berlin going to Bavaria, which agin in itself was a very adventurous thing because we were subjected to a russian M16 diving and machine gunning several times. I saw people wounded and killed in the train but the bullets just missed us. NSV nurses were rushed in to attend to the wounded. We were lucky to end up in Tegernsee where there was a large villa in a beautifal location Ammann which had been originally occupied by a very high ranking Nazi, and was the post war centre for General Eisenhower who was about to sign the declaration of defeat with general Jodl who was signing on behalf of the Nazis. Eisenhower was virtually a neighbour to our hotel.
My uncle Walter, the Berlin chap, who gave us refuge, was in the SS and was part of the Hitler bodyguard he had such good connections, so when we arrived at the lake of Tegernsee Bavaria we were surrounded by the wives of the SS who had the priviledge to use this very posh hotel because of their husbands. We were also accommodated in this hotel through my Uncle's connections. Because we were not SS people, we were incriminated against, all the wives were very snobby because we were just a naval officer's family.
I was now eight years old and stole from the Americans, who loved children and wouldn't suspect anything. Us children went into the jeeps and stole cigarettes. All the relatives were happy to have something to smoke.
We had been told by the Nazis that the American negroes would intimidate the population and eat the children, low and behold we found how children loving these people were, a child on each knee, feeding them with chewing gum and sweeties, laughing and joking. Our mothers were almost fainting with fear fearing their children would soon be eaten. Hitler had refused to shake hands with a coloured winner of the Olympic games in 1936. The propaganda was against the coloured people.
The war was certainly over, the retreating German army were blowing up all the bridges. There was a little bridge right next to the hotel called the Mangfall Bridge. We were sitting in the cellar when the blew it up, the blast was quite horrendous. We heard a swishing noise and the whole rail of the old bridge went over the hiotel and landed in the medow behind us.
Many SS and army people threw their uniforms away, including their weapons, and bought civilian clothes from the farmers and walked around saying "war, what war?", to give the impression of being civilians to escape inprisonment. But us kids of between 8 and 13 years old picked up the pistols, we played around like you would play in a fun fair, rifle shooting using live amunition. When you're 8 years old, your arms aren't very strong but you still pull the trigger and it goes over like a loose cannon. We dismantled other weapons, including bazookers. We put gun powder like tablets on a stone with another stone on top. You gave it a thump and it gave a bang. We were taught by two 13 year olds, but those who were 14 were recruited to fight the Americans. They had a few hours training how to hols a gun and a bazooker. We were quite close to these boys. A few years later, Germany was in the throes of fraternisation with the British Occupation Forces.
We still didn't have the right to hunt and shoot wild animals, but the British soldier had. One day my younger brother and I were looking at two soldiers who were walking 150 yards ahead of us with their guns. There were a lot of pigeons flying above them and I whistled, alerting them. One of the soldiers shot upwards while the other shot in my direction to intimidate me not assuming to hit me, but he did, with a single bullet, missing my jugular vein. It knocked me out. You can imagine what a sensation it caused. My father caught the man, and my relatives were up in arms.
In 1956 I came to England as a young student on holiday with my pushbike, landing in Dover. I went to Canterbury and then to London and joined a boys club and was the centre of attraction. I was unable to understand the cockney boys and I had the audacity to say to them "why don't you speak proper English?". I continued my journey and went to Land's End.
Two years later I got a scholarship to the London School of Economics. I studied there for nine months, during which time I met my first wife.
This country has always made me welcome. I love the tolerence and the sense of humour.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.