大象传媒

My grandparent鈥檚 names were Johann and Marie and Johann and Karoline. They lived in Mecklenburg, but my grandmother Karoline was from Landskrona in Sweden and her father was a farmer.
My father had three brothers and four sisters. They all stayed in Germany, but none of them is now alive. My brother is Herbert he was very kind to me.
Herbert was forced to join the Hitlerjugend and to parcipitate in World War 2 as a barely 18 years old young man. They sent him to Russia. There were not enough food supplies, so he and his mate went to Russian farmers to beg. They sometimes even stole food from the farmers. Once a Russia woman ran after them asking them, crying, not to steal her hens.
He was home on leave at times. I remember one occasion very clearly. He showed us his frost-bitten toes and said: Germany can never win this war. There are not any clothes, especially not boots and socks. Food is scarce and it is tremendously cold in Russia. A rather long time passed after that day and my parents were daily waiting for news (feldpost) from Herbert 鈥� dull, gray envelopes. However, in August 1944 the news of his death arrived. Wallet, photos and watch were put on the table, but my parents did not want to be believe that he was dead. In fact, he and the other soldiers were in a trench, and as my brother was very tall he was shot through the head. That was in Latvia at the Lake Peipus. At that time I was only eight, and I felt awfully lonely. My mother forgot all about me, but my father and tried to console each other. His hair got white, and he left the German church. (Later on, many years later, my neighbours told me that my brother had deserted.)
In September 1942 I went to school in Eissendorf in the southern part of Hamburg (the school is still to find there).My mother accompanied me the first school day. We were asked to draw a picture (any picture) after the enrolment, and I draw a coffee table with cups, and flowers and a cake. The day after I went to school on my own together with a girl in the parallel class.
After one year the school was closed owing to the war. Everyone got very upset and my parents decided that my mother and I had to leave Hamburg and go to my mother鈥檚 sister, who had a big farm in Mecklenburg. We travelled on a big, open lorry, together with many other people, sitting on benches in the open air. After three or four hours we arrived at Lubeck railway station. Then we could not get any longer-dead stop! we were exhausted, I lay down on a wooden bench and fell asleep. My mother was looking after our luggage. Suddenly a foreign woman came up asking us if we would like to stay the night in her flat. We ended up in a chemist鈥檚 shop.
The morning after we continued our travel and reached the big farmhouse and I lived there for certainly a year. My mother went home again, but she visited me once or twice during that year.
Our first closes contact with the war and how terrible it can be was phosphor-bombs hitting the poultry-house. Our neighbours and my dad could put out the fire, but some of the hens were destroyed.
During the days mother and I was on are own, and as the alarm went off we ran down into the cellar. Once, at an exceptionally strong air battle, she pressed a soldier鈥檚 helmet onto my head. A big acoustic (air) mine exploded on a nearby cemetery. The potatoes stored were flying about and the house was (to be cont.)
We all got off well and on coming back into daylight we saw the huge crater in the cemetery. The neighbours gathered together, more or less shocked.
One day something happened that made a great stir after a bombing of our street. One of the houses had been hit and an old man, who kept refusing to use the shelter, had fallen out of the upper part of his bunk bed. At last he was transferred to our house and stayed overnight. It was terrible! There were lots of feathers on the trees from his bed. They were there for a quite a long time. In the night many people went to the mans house and started digging in the ruins. That came out years later when I borrowed some books from an older girl. The pages of the books were covered with ashes.
In the meantime my mother had been taken ill, she got rheumatism from the humid and cold shelters. She could hardly walk during at least one year, and had to be carried to the new bunker. We called it 鈥淪tollen鈥�.
Once at noon on a cold and sunny winter day the air raid alarm went off. As usual I bought my little backpacker and a small wicker piano stool on my head. All of a sudden there was a small plane, 鈥淭iefflieger鈥� above our heads. I ran as fast as I could against the bunker entrance, deeply scared. Earlier I had followed the stream as I mostly was very sleepy; there was hardly any point in getting undressed in the evening. About one hours sleep 鈥� then the alarm went off! (To be cont)
There weren鈥檛 any toilets in the bunkers, we had to use buckets in a corner. Often the women were awfully frightened and even cried. Many people started smoking to calm them down (they had to make the cigarettes themselves, so they didn鈥檛 taste very well). I didn鈥檛 cry, but stayed calm and felt safe with my father.
In August 1944 we went to a big party (my midwife Petersen鈥檚 silver wedding). The way there was long and it was hot. We saw so much food, a strange sight for us. However, the old couple had saved a long time to do that party. The guests were many and we were all in their garden. I think that was the last time I saw my parents being happy, because it was only a short time after that party they got the message about my brother鈥檚 death.
In school we had a doctor coming very often to check out health. We were divided into three groups, well-nourished, normal, and thin. I always was in the 鈥渢hins鈥� group and they often wanted to send me to the countryside to stay in a children鈥檚 home. However, I refused because I was too afraid of leaving my home.

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