大象传媒

I was born in 1926 in Berlin and during the war we lived in a small town in what is now Poland- near Stetin which is now called Chechin. My father was a station master on the railway and I had one sister. In March 1945 the Russians were advancing towards us - so we became refugees heading west and we ended up in a small town - Bramscha not far from Osnabruck. My father had to stay behind to keep working- my sister had gone on before us- so myself and my mother travelled on a train basically anywhere it would take us away from the immediate danger.
In Bramscha we got a room allocated by the local council. It was a terrible period- losing your home, leaving your father, losing my country- and even though we were german we were treated harshly - we were just refugees- we felt very lost.
We had no lights no electricity and no radio- so we didnt know the war was over- only from hearsay. I remember one lovely day walking alongside the canal and hearing British soldiers on one side and German soldiers on the other- and the Germans shouted look out- you might get shot- but at that time life meant nothing and I didnt care whether they shot me or not. Then one day the German soldiers were all gone and the English took over. I was glad it was all over and it was definitely better to be on the British side rather than the Russian side. Before we had left Stettin an advanced troop of Russian soldiers came into the town- we could hear women screaming in appartments downstairs - they were being raped. My mother put spots using her lipstick on her and my face,to make it look like we had measles. Fortunately the soldiers never came into our appartment so we never had to find out if our ruse would work. At the time I just dealt with it - but now thinking back I realise how dreadful it was.
At the end of the war there were 3 houses down the same road that housed English soldiers. They always passed our house in the morning and said 'morning' nicely to us. At EAster 1946 they decided to invite us and other families into their sergeants mess. We had drinks- it was the first time I ever had Gin and Tonic! They each introduced themselves- it was very friendly- children and whole families were there- and I got to meet Taffy - I didnt know he was Welsh- it was just his name. I found him very nice and polite and attractive. By midnight I was a little tipsy and it was curfew time and the english soldiers were carrying some of the party-goers home- it was a very happy easter time.
The next day the german and english men had a football match- some of them were not all there - they were still a bit drunk. Taffy asked my mother if he could go for a walk with me and she was okay with that. He was quite shy and very nice. In September he gave me an engagement ring. We had to get special papers before we could get married- these involved checks on my family history to make sure there were no nazi war crime connections. We had to write both our family names down on these papers-and those of our relatives - I read them out and realised Taffy had written a different name down for himself- it was Glanvill- 'what's this?' I said- 'That's my real name' he told me. But I still called him Taff.
We were married in 1949 in Oldenburg. We lived in married quarters while he was in the army. In 1954 we lived in Windsor and between '54 and '59 we lived in Cyprus. In 1961 my husband left the army and we came to live in Manchester. Taff died in 1995 after 46 years of happy marriage. Out of the tragedy and pain of war came happiness and contentment and a new home and country.

This story was submitted to the Peoples War website by Rupert Creed for GMR Action desk on behalf of Ellinor Jones with her permission. The author is aware of the site's terms and conditions

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