大象传媒

With the arrival of this new girl, whose name was Ungar and she was from the Ukrain. We thought that there maybe changes because Sheba had done all of our washing and darned our socks. We were allowed a bath, which was in the cellar. But for change,would it be the same as it was before. I found out that Alex had worked with the new girl before.
1943 was now coming to an end. There was a Polish man, who lived in the next village and he was built like one of those Japanese Wrestlers. he would not sign any documents. He told us that he had been born a Pole and that he was always going to be a Pole and stop as a Pole.
The Police, who went around on these pop,pop motor cycles. They had this Pole hand cuffed, with his hands at the back of him. They also had put a rope around his neck. If he had tried to stop the Police, they would have probably gone straight over the handle bars of the cycle. he could pick up about a hundred weight in one hand and he could carry six hundred weight on his back, with no problem.
The farmer cried when they saw the Police taking him away.
On Dicker and Ditch's farm , foot and mouth had broken out and they were not allowed to leave the farm. The cattle were not ordered to be killed but their mouths had to be treated with vinegar and also their feet.
The Prisoners-of-War had a good grape vine, where they could pass on messages. You either did this by word of mouth or you passed notes, but had to be careful not to be found out. We were also told, that if we ever got asked for help by an escaped Prisoner-of-War. we had to help as much as possible. Dicker had said that he had done this once before, but he was a bastard German, so we said, to be on the safe side to ask questions and to ask them for their tags.
After Sheba had been released from prison, I met her one day when I was working in the fields and Hans was getting the ducks ready to be killed. He plucked the feathers off the ducks, when he had killed them. When he killed them he would let them bleed to death. But we never saw any ducks on our food table. The ducks blood was cooked with dried apple rings and this was a dinner, which was served with potatoes. This would taste very good, but we never ate the head or the feet.
In the town of Honstein there were quite a few Prisoner-of-War working, Some were at the seed collecting point. When the Pole was called up to the milk factory, he would just take a few eggs. It was surprising to find what you could get in return for these. You could get tobacco, sugar and everything, that would help us.
When we first got a Canadian food parcel. we found that we had a packet of gold dust, this was coffee, yes real coffee!. It was very surprising what you could get for that. When you had this you were very rich, at least for a while! But this was shared with the others at the billet. The Germans were always after soaps with perfume. If you had this you could get two loaves of bread for this. But there was only one thing that the Prisoners-of-War really wanted - that was their freedom! This proved to be the hardest thing to get.
After Sheba was arrested, there was a lot of changes at the farm. The German Officers brought to Frau Walterherr, wild boar and venison meat. All of us had a share of this. One morning I was helping Ungar, the new help, to milk. I heard someone fall from the window behind me, so I got up and went around to the back of the house by the window. He was watching to see if Ungar and myself were having sex. I done my nut. I called him a bastard. He apologised and I said to him "Do you want me to get a three years imprisonment". If you were found just talking to a German woman or a Polish woman and if the guards had been told that you were talking about sex, the punishment was three years in prison.
I had done some sabotage to one of the machines. How Hans had found out, I do not know. But one Saturday I was taken by the guard to Honstein Police Station. The Frau had given me food for the weekend, this was about 12.00 to 1.00 p.m. I was locked in a cell and later I was given some coffee, which was wet and warm. Also had some food then slept.
Sunday had coffee in the morning and they had put a pail in the cell for my toilet needs.
Monday had coffee, ate the food that I had left. The guard came to collect me and I was taken to the farm.I had a hot bath and all of my clothes were thrown into the boiler, while I had my bath. I was handed my own underwear and a civilian pair of trousers. I then had my lunch and I was told, by the guard to go to the billet and sleep, which I did. I could never understand why Hans Walterherr always called me a "black devil" But this name stuck with me. Nothing had changed since I had come to work for the Walterherrs, you still did the same work. We had killed a few pigs, they were then brought out and weighed. They were then returned and another larger pig was then brought out.
After the Bergermaster returned home, either Hans killed the pig or he did. The blood was collected and a small sample was taken by the postman for testing. Then you never saw the family for a few weeks after that until the pigs had been cut up. They made black puddings and brawn.
We had found leaflets on our beds about joining the German Army and to fight in Russia. A German uniform with a Union Jack on one sleeve and the St George and the Dragon on the other. You also would receive Four thousand Marks which would be spent on a holiday in Berlin. But these Germans had forgotten, that in 1940. when we were starving of food, that if we had joined then we would be considered traitors. They would never have been able to escape and if caught by the Russians it would be death.
Did Germany think that we were that mad?
We burned all of the leaflets.
THE STORY OF THE P O W COWBOY. They said he was crazy. He had made two wooden pistols also a hobby horse. Also had made a pair of chaps. But when he was back to the main camp, he then saw the Camp Commander. The mand had tied up his horse. He bedded his horse down for the night and gave it some grass. The next morning he went outside to feed his horse. He was then taken to hospital. This person was trying to work his ticket home but I never found out if he did or not.
More Russians had arrived to work in the village and on some of the farms. They were all very young men. I wondered if there was anything going on with Frau Pacticy and Alex, but it was nothing to do with me.
Since coming to Germany, we had found that Hitler had enemies, not everyone was swayed by him. All of the flag waving that was going on and the salutes of "Heil Hitler", in some cases it was all for show. We could not understand why the Germans went mad when the heard the words "GENEVA CONVENTIONS" I will never forget when Hans Walterherr was waiting for news on the wireless. All morning there was no news. A party of men friends had arrived and they were speaking. "No news, is history repeating itself" Hans had said. But at 1.00p.m. the news came over that the Germans were retreating from Moscow 1942. Their faces now were not so good. Then in February 1943, Stalingrad was retaken by the Russians. The War now did not seen so good for the Germans now!
As 1944 approached, our routine at the farm remained the same as the days gone past. The snow went and in January, we could not work on the land. The horse's had had a good rest. On the journey to the milk collecting point, the Prisoners-of-War faces were all smiles. They had heard that Russia had Leningrad back. Things were now beginning to look up.
In April, we moved from our winter retreat to our summer retreat. The stables,as the day went by. We had a change of guards and this new guard was a right so-so. Nothing was ever right for him. When he broke the news that an Officer was arriving to inspect the billet, it had to be as clean as a new pin. We did the best that we could do, in the circumstances. It was now May and the officer was due to arrive on the following Tuesday. The next morning the German guard came in and shouted "ROUST,ROUST" He entered the stables and he picked on a man called Smith and told him to wash. The guard left the stables 10 minutes later. He saw Smith and that he was still making his bed and he shouted to him "Why have you not washed" Smith pointed out that there was only one bowl to wash in. The guard shouted back at him "I'll get my rifle and will shoot you dead" When he returned, he had his rifle, put it up to his shoulder and he shot Smith in the left hip. There were eight Prisoners-of-War as witnesses to this. The guard went out and we put Smith onto his bed. We did what we could for him and put a paper bandage on the wound and waited for a Doctor to arrive. But no Doctor came. Smith lay on his bed all day. We all took turns to watch him. At 12 o'clock an ambulance arrived to pick up the body of Smith. The British Medical orderely said that he had heard that Smith had died. They then drove Smith to hospital but we heard that he died the next morning at 3.00 a.m. This man would have been alive today if the guard had not lied at the Court of Enquiry. The German farmer had said that we were all trouble makers but we all told the truth. We then had a new guard. I requested a move to another camp, I then went to Dicker and Tich's farm, the worst in the area. They had 7 children, one in arms. The Polish helped. The German soldier was just using his wife for breeding. On the Tuesday morning, the guard told me to pack my kit and I was going to Danzig. Once again I was on my way,but could it be to go to prison, as we all had witnessed a murder. That was me, Bert,Green, Dicker,Tich,Alex and Jimmy.

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