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Germans came to examine our car an Opel Kadet of which were desirable to the Germans, But it only had two doors and they were fussy, so a friend came and took items and parts including the wheels and there it stayed for the next four years and ironically enough, the same person who took the parts, came back and put them back on. The day after Liberation, Re-assembling the car to its original standards.

During the four years of war my parents were not allowed to work unless they wrote what the Germans wanted to.
Because my parents had lived through other emergency’s including the First World War. They had wisely prepared their stocks of food and other items. They had to sell all their valuable items of jewellery and anything else of value.
On top of this Germans would commandeer and take items of brass and other things.
I had to walk to school which was quite a long way. Sometimes I might get a tram back but had to wait.

We had to adapt to the German Time Scales and in the winter I went to school in the dark. One winter they had a quite severe weather conditions and because of the shortage of fuel we had to attend school part time and we developed a very efficient energy conservation system.
Many times we would be stopped by the Germans for identity checks and as children we regarded this as a game, but later we realised the situation. I had a couple of girl friends who were Jewish, they disappeared but we did not know where to?
The bread was so horrible that many of us had to sift the flour and I used to get dispatched to a distant baker, sometimes on my roller skates and the baker used to bake our individual breads for us in their ovens.

I went to Secondary ( Lycee ) school when I was 12 , where we stayed until we were 18. This school was bombed and a large chunk of our science and other areas were destroyed. At this time bombers had started to cross over to attack Germany. Fortunately we were not at school and therefore was saved from injury.

The friendly comradery was extremely warm and close at this time.
Because there was so little traffic our street became a huge playground, good memories from bad times.

I became a Girl-Guide and when we went to camp we were not allowed to put tents up, at the side of a memorable huge Forest. Because we were restricted in travelling anywhere, we had to make the most of local entertainment.
We were not supposed to listen to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio and this, if we had been caught, we would have been dealt with severely. This listening was quite a ritual for us every evening. Listening to the secret coded messages. The Germans use to create interference with our radios ( jamming).

It was a fantastic day that special Day Of Liberation. We knew that the Germans had begun to leave . We suddenly saw the Regiment Of Guards and we suddenly went absolutely mad with joy and excitement.
The Guards were leaning out of the Tanks and Lorries and the soldiers place out their hands and their hands were one continuous hand clapping.

My parents finally managed to get employment then and I believe that Alan Whicker was one of the correspondents of the Exchange Telegraph Newspaper. The main benefit was that my parents took up their positions the same as before the war and a Free Press was re-instated.
The only scary moment after this point was when the Germans launched their surprise counter-attack now named ‘The Battle of the Bulge’. When American forces came under serious attack.

This story was submitted to the “Peoples War Site by Rod Aldwinckle of the CSV Action Desk on behalf of Anne — Marie Heath and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the terms and conditions of the site.

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