childhood and the blitz
Ernest Blaschke (aa568@FREENET.TORONTO.ON.CA)
Tue, 19 Mar 1996 23:25:40 -0500
In "childhood and the blitz" Tom wrote:
TH=> For indoor games at home we would put out our few toy
TH=> soldiers (made of lead and very precious) and then I could
TH=> be a Stuka Dive-bomber and drop things on them. We were all
TH=> very taken with Stuka Dive-bombers, they made a wonderful
TH=> screaming noise which we would immitate until the grown-ups
TH=> shouted at us to STOP THAT BL**DY ROW IMMEDIATELY OR YOU
TH=> WILL BE SENT TO BED...
TH=> Goodness me - how bloodthirsty it all sounds now, fifty
TH=> years after! Hey Eberhardt, Ernest and others!! Were you
TH=> and your pals doing the same things in Berlin and Vienna?
Quite frankly, war games were not so much on our agenda in
Vienna. Too much of the real war close at hand. Rather we
delighted in playing soccer - or cowboys and Indians. In a
country where no one had ever seen either a cowboy nor an Indian
everything was based on the 65 volumes written by Karl May. This
was a German author, who himself had never been to North America
when he wrote his books, but who managed to produce the most
widely read adventure books in German fiction. Every youngster
without exception had read Karl May. While 5 of his volumes dealt
with his adventures in the middle east among the arabs, the
remaining ones took place in North and South America. He was
known as "Old Shatterhand" among the Indians, and the friendly
tribe were the Apaches, the enemies were the Comanches. I don't
know whether the present generation still reads Karl May in
Germany. (Eberhardt?) Eventually a museum was built in Germany
which exhibited all the (fake) implements Old Shatterhand had
used in his adventures.
Ernest Blaschke
the schoolboy from Vienna.