大象传媒

My mother Therese Frejus was 15years old when war broke out. Her family came from Britteny in France. They were famers that travelled to the Channel Islands to pick the potato crop. My mother was born there.
When war broke out my mother was taken by the Germans and put into a forced labour camp on the island of Aldany. She no had family or friends with her. She suffered rape, starvation, beatings, and had both legs broken to stop her trying to escape. She said she was better off then the white russians, who were left to die in camps they called "the magot farm". My sister was born in the camp in 1944, her father was a German solider.

Meanwhile my uncle Vincent was a prisoner of war in Germany. His job was to remove the personal items of people who had died, and bulldoze their bodies into pits. He was operated on by the Germans who collapsed one lung, consequently he was not expected to live long after the war. He died last year.

I was born in 1950 when there was still food rationing for some items.

The lasting effect the war had on our family was my mothers complusive need to always fill her cupbords, and to inflict swift punishment if food was ever wasted.
I grew up on a diet of; "thats another meal the Germans won't get!"

My view of Germany and the German people has been clouded by what happened to my family. I suspect that there are others born in post war England who feel as I do. It took 54 years for me to agree to visit Germany, which I did last year. My mother died in 1996 aged 72 years, and I know that had she still been alive I would never have gone.

What happened to that great generation is etched into the living memory of this nation. My children and I have spent time visiting war cemetries in France, and studying artifacts within the Imperial War Museam. I have taught my children respect for men and women of such courage and duty. As a result my son Alexi now 22years old, has developed a love, and admiration of the receipiants of both the George Cross, and the Victoria Cross.
We Will Never Forget.

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