Student Report #1
Kurt Wittmann (Kurt.Wittmann@T-ONLINE.DE)
Tue, 6 May 1997 22:43:00 +0100
Hi there,
I have been very interested in reading your listserve mailings. Reading some
print-outs as well as reading excerpts from Tom Holloways Memories-Project has
inspired my students - 16-year-olds from our secondary modern school REALSCHULE
MARIA STERN in Nördlingen Germany - to file some reports of their own after
interviewing relatives, friends or just people they know who expereinced the
years at the end of WWII.
Tom encouraged me to put some of their reports on the listserve. I am starting
out today with the first story written by Monika Beck, a 16-year-old girl from
Nördlingen, Bavaria, Germany.
There it is:
The Occupation
Time and again you saw a woman looking out of the window. Worried eyes searched
the streets. She was waiting for something. Suddenly you heard a horde of
laughing children who came running towards the house. The woman at the window
laughed. They were her children. Theresa often worried about her children. She
knew that they were very reliable. But you couldn´t know everything that they
saw and did...
Things had changed a lot for the family since the Americans came to Nördlingen.
Life wasn´t easy for Theresa. It was always difficult to get as much food as
they needed for eight children and three adults. They had food tickets but
Theresa nevertheless had to try, as much as possible, to get out to the villages
in the country. It was a long time until they were allowed to go out into the
country. She remembered the first time that the Americans came to Nördlingen.
Everybody was afraid of them. You were not allowed to leave the house longer
than one hour a day. But the children were allowed to play on the closed court.
For some time past they had been allowed to leave the house for up to two hours.
But nevertheless Theresa had to go to the head quarters if she wanted to leave
the town. There the passes were given out.
There weren´t any problems for Theresa to get suchpasses, because she hadn´t
been in the party. But many other people´s papers proved that they had been
party members. Those were all sent to camps. Theresa knew a lot of people who
had been sent to such camps. In the two hours in which Theresa was allowed to
leave the town she got no further than Grosselfingen approx.10 km away from
Nördlingen. There she had to barter as much as she could. She always got milk,
some eggs or a bit of wheat. Such things, although they were few, were extremely
important for the family.
The family had been allowed to keep more than 150 hares in the town. Every
weekend they slaughtered two hares. So every family member had meat at least
once a week. Meat was rare at that time. Theresa had to divide the meat she got
really carefully. Only the oldest of her children and her husband Fritz got some
meat regularly. The younger children normally ate the things which Theresa made
out of fruit she got. They often got apples because they climbed trees which
stood next to the streets and picked them. Most trees they climbed were apple
trees.
They didn´t have much money, because Fritz was out of work. The factory in
Donauwörth, where he had been transferred by force during the war, was closed
down. But he could nevertheless collect his money when he came to this town. But
in order to get to Donauwörth he had to go with the lorries of the Americans,
because all the bridges, the train had to drive over had been blown up.It was a
long and arduous journey to Donauwörth,which was approx. 30 km away, but they
were in urgent need of the money.
Theresa was often anxious about her children, because there were so many
strangers in the town, in whom she wasn´t confident. Like all the others her
kids went to the Americans on the marketplace. The Americans were very friendly
to the children. They gave them coffee, cigarettes and chocolate. In the country
Theresa exchanged the cigarettes into food.
Nevertheless Theresa mistrusted the Americans, although their children assured
her that the Americans were good to them. Rudi was the strangers favourite. He
was the only one of the eight kids who had got red hair and the strangers
teased? him very often about his hair. They gave him a lot of presents. One day
Theresa stood again at the window and was waiting for her children. She saw her
son Richard who was coming towards the house.
Suddenly one of the American lorries drove to Richard and stopped. They began to
talk, which wasn´t really abnormal because Richard was able to speak a bit of
English. But then Richard got on the lorry and drove away.
Theresa´s heart nearly stopped. She was really startled. Hadn´t she always said
to her children they should be more careful with the Americans. She imagined the
worst things she ever had heard of and prayed to God that nothing would happen
to her son. After some time Richard came home. He told his mother that the
American had been searching for a dry cleaner´s and that he had shown him one.
The next morning somebody rang the door bell. Theresa opened the door and was
astonished to see that the man at the door was the same one who had taken her
son with the lorry. The American asked Theresa if she could iron his trousers.
Theresa wasn´t very keen on this, but she was friendly to him and ironed his
trousers. When the American saw the eight children he was very astonished, he
couldn´t believe that these were all Theresa´s children. He would have liked to
give her presents and wanted to pay for ironing his trousers. But Theresa didn´t
want to take anything and sent the American away.
At that time many house-searches took place. One Saturday morning the door bell
rang. Theresa opened the door and was very astonished, but then she knew what
she had to do. She woke up her children. Theresa and Fritz took the money, their
identities and their food tickets. These were the only things they were allowed
to take along. The Americans searched the flat for weapons and uniforms. Such
things normally had to be given up or thrown away, but the Americans wanted to
be certain that nobody had such things. The family were lucky because they
hadn´t been members in the party and so the Americans were more careful with
their goods. Theresa and her house-keeper tidied up the flat in a very short
time. Theresa had seen flats of party-members that had been searched by
Americans. The owners of the flat were occupied for days with tidying up their
flats.
Today Theresa, my great-grandmother, is 92 years old. Her husband Fritz, my
great-grandfather, died many years ago. My grandfather is one of the six
children who are still alive. Three of them still live in Nördlingen, two of
them live in Recklinghausen and Richard has lived in Australia for many years.
Monika Beck