大象传媒

Peter was 9 years old when War first broke out in 1939, because he lived in a relatively safe area of Leeds there was no need for him or his sister to be evacuated, much to his relief. Growing up in the War was very difficult for him, food was rationed, he would have to constantly hide in a shelter and bombs were dropped around him. At the end of the War he was sixteen. By this time he had forgotten what bananas looked and tasted like and was disappointed by the return of normal egg as he preferred the powdered egg.

He described the Anderson shelters as cold, damp and boring. You were unable to read because the only light was a single candle. It was also very hard to sleep because there were no beds in the shelters. Despite this Peter found that a cup of cocoa and a good sing song did a lot to raise morale! Fortunately for Peter, his family had a brick shelter shared with neighbours to replace their Anderson Shelter.

Throughout the War Peter was never short of food, though at times he felt he could have done with more to eat. He was constantly suspicious that his mum would slip her own food onto his and his sister's plates. His mum would collect blackberries and grow potatoes and peas.

Despite living in a safe area of Leeds, Peter witnessed many incendiary bombs. He described it as scary seeing the sky aglow with bombs and not knowing if your house was on fire or not. Peter's family was lucky enough to have only one bomb to land in their garden and a near-by sandbag soon extinguished it. Unfortunately, some of Peter's neighbours were not so lucky!

During the War Peter's mother took in a Jewish girl who had been evacuated. The girl didn't appreciate Peter's mother's kindness, however, and refused to leave the house when the siren went off. One day when Peter's family came back from the shelter the girl had disappeared without a trace and was never heard from again.

Peter and his friends would collect paper and tin cans for recycling. They would collect old clothes as well. He would also enjoy hunting through ruined houses to see if he could find anything of value with his friends.

After the War had ended Peter was sent to work in Germany at the age of 20. Because he had grown up in the War, he had heard terrible stories about the Germans and had believed them. He believed that that they worshipped the Devil and that they were breeding a master race. He also believed that they killed babies and would resort to any kind of violent crime to get what they wanted. Whilst in Germany, he realised that the stories he had heard as a child were not true and he was surprised to find out that they went to Church on Sundays like himself.

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