Like I wrote in my post before we were blessed. 2 spacious rooms to move around and play.
It wasn’t easy to keep 5 children occupied on bad weather days, I’m sure. My oldest Sister and I remembered all the beautiful Toys we had in Dresden and we missed them, but making paper dolls and little dresses for them was not a bad thing. My mom was a great artist and encouraged us to draw , it became my favorite thing to do. On beautiful day’s we played outside.
There where fields and forest all around the village. The farmhouses are nestled together in the village, very close to each other. It was fun to watch the people from our Apartment window to do thier daily routine’s. With time we all became friends.
I was happy to help turning the hey on the fields in exchange for food to fill my stomach and some food to take home. My little brother was the cutest, he just smiled at people and they gave him something to eat. He was spoiled!
The war ended in May 1945. Care packages from the United States made our life’s a little better. We received cheese, powdered milk and powdered eggs, just to name a few. Butter was a special treat and we needed stamps to buy, if available. One day my mom send me to the store with the stamps to buy the butter. The store was about 2 miles away from home in another village and I lost the stamps, all of them. Was I afraid to go home, you bet. There wasn’t just time out. Wooden spoon was my moms best friend. I never lived that one down, though!
My Dad was still a POW in France and he received no notification about us being alive. So many lost there lives in the bombing of Dresden. It wasn’t easy to be accounted for.
In the mean time this small village was our home.
We had to go to school.
The school was very small, with 1’2′ and 3 graders in one classroom. I still remember it was no fun. The classmates made fun of us because we where outsiders. I had to literally fight my way home. It was mostly me who got bullied. I was a skinny kid and undernourished. Acturly, we all where undernourished. My mom went to bed many times hungry because she gave us the food.