How was it for me growing up in Germany during and after WW2 ?
WW2 ended in 1945 I was eight years old. We lived in Dresden and went through the big bombing of Dresden and lost everything. It was a dramatic experience but the calmness from my mother transferred over to us children.
She prayed and promised God if we get out of the fire storm alive, she will make sure that all of her children will get to know him. God answered her prayers, and no one got hurt and she kept her promise till the end of her life.
After our building was damaged by a bomb we had to get out of the basement. There was no chance to get back up to our apartment. The phosphor started to consume the stairs, and it was no more an option to get out or up that way.
There was a little window in the basement wall and People started to climb out on to the sidewalk. Not sure if they made it to safety. I don’t know all the details anymore. In my mind I always thought we climbed out first till I read my mothers writing where she explained how she let everyone clime out of the window first.
My older sister Trudy asks her what we are going to do? We got to get out too she said and in that moment as my mom looked at her, she saw a blinking light in the corner of the basement. Her first thought was, how weird but she went there to investigate. There was big crack in the wall where we all climbed through arriving in another basement. The blinking light in front of us. From basement to basement till we reached the end of the street then the blinking light was gone.
Miracle indeed, we where never alone God was with us!
As we reached the end of the street there was fire everywhere, it was very windy and very very hot. The force of the wind picked me up and threw me right in the middle of the flames. My mom told me that my body was rolled up to a big ball. With such a forceful wind it was hard to stand upright. Only in a kneeling position was my mom able to pull me out of the flames with my 2-year-old brother in her arms.
I had no burns on my body only my hair was slightly scorched.
It was very difficult to get forwards, but we reached the Elbe River and there I saw people jumping in the water they looked like burning torches. Mothers holding their children under water and as soon as they came back up the fire started to ignite again, there bodies were covered with phosphor. Phosphorus bombs are very deadly, it burns everything down till it is gone.
A moving truck was parked at the riverbanks it was empty and no driver in sight, it was a shelter for all of us. It didn’t take very long, and the truck was filled with more survivors.
After a little while the truck started to move.
Survivors were transported out of the city and brought to the train station with transport vehicles what ever was available. Soon the train station and the trains were filled with people, packed like sardines if I can call it that. We still heard the sirens and fighter planes flying over the trains station destroying the infrastructure around town, it was not over yet and we are not out of danger.
The train stopped many times, and everything became dark.
People screaming and crying und jumping of the train, but my mom was very calm and so did we, all 5 of us children huddled together.
God was with us we made it safely out of town. Our first stop was at my Grandparents house. They lived outside of Dresden in a small little town, called Freital.
We stayed with my grandparents as my mom drove back to town to find out if she could find some of her very close friends. She had no idea if their homes got destroyed or not. Big piles of dead bodies in the streets and ruins after ruins was the only thing she found. She didn’t find anyone and the smell that greeted her downtown was nauseating she never forgot.
The house of my grandparents was pretty small, and we couldn’t stay there very long.
As we left and said goodby to our grandparents, uncles, ants and cousins a short time after that the Russian Military started to move in. We left just in time, a little bit later we would have never bin able to leave. This was the last time for many many years I saw my Grandparents and all of my Dads Family.
East Germany became Russian territory and under a strict communist dictatorship.
My dad got wounded and was laying in a military hospital in Würzburg, that’s the direction we started our travels by Train, Bus and streetcar if available but mostly by foot.
I remember also riding in a hay-wagon going through some fields and villages and out there in nowhere we found refuge in a small shack for a little while to rest up. It was abounded in the middle of the forest. By all means it was no luxury but a roof over our head. We picked mushrooms to eat and sting-nettle that made the most delicious spinach. What ever we could find in the woods and fields that was eatable we ate.
We had to walk about 2 miles through the woods to get to a farm where we could buy milk and bread. Sometimes we got startled because there was a body hanging in a tree. We didn’t look very closely but we saw that they where not soldier they looked more like Civilians men that got lynched.
We heard shots being fired around us but we were never afraid. I remember, one day there where soldiers coming towards us in front of the little shack aiming their guns at us ready to shoot. My Mother told us to get behind her and she stud in front facing the guns from American soldiers. After some exchanged words with my mom, they searched the place carefully and very thoroughly probably looking for German soldiers we guessed.
It was time to leave my mother told us one early morning. On one of our visits to the village she received some horrible news. Some of the polish military came through the area and murdered civilian people. Killing parents and leaving the children unharmed, very disturbing it surely was time to move on.
God protected us again and helped us to get out of harms-way.
I can not imagine how my mother must feel, the responsibility to take care of 5 children, the oldest one being 10 and the youngest 2 years old with no place to go too. Out of desperation she started to visit her mother and stepfather. My Mom didn’t have a good relationship with her parents since her grandmother raised her, but that’s another story.
Being strangers in there home created very uncomfortable situations for all of us. One occasion
that I remember my grandmother broke my sister’s nose just for talking at the dinner table. Many unpleasant situations that God helped me to forgive and forget, God is so good.
Needless to say, we didn’t stay very long at my Grandparents home.
In the meantime, my dad heard about the big Bombing of Dresden and tried to find us.
He still wasn’t well but took a leave from his squadron and traveled to Dresden to find our Apartment but there was nothing left of the building, nothing but ruins every where he looked. He studs on top and cried, he didn’t know if we are alive or buried somewhere in a mass grave. Both my parents where heartbroken because no one know anything from each other, alive or dead just nothing….
On my dad’s way back to his squadron he got captured by the French Army and taken as prisoner of war and transferred to France with many other soldiers.
There was no time to contact the army or the Red Cross. Out of desperation my dad wrote a short note about his ware-about and where he was going to be transported too. That short note he put it in an empty soda can and at the most convenient time tossed it out of the truck. A farmer in the field saw something being tossed out and looked for it, read it and brought it to the Red Cross.
Through the Red Cross we became the message that my dad is being transferred to France as a prisoner of War.
The Red Cross also helped us in finding this small village of about 900 people excluding the children. We became the first refugees in that village in our own homeland. The village people where not prepared for new residents they never had too life was good, the war had no effect on them; nothing got destroyed and food they had plenty of. This village was surrounded by mountains and rich fields very privet tucked away from city life. The village Mayor gave us two rooms above the fire station. This became a home for 5 children and one adult. No indoor plumbing or water supply but there was an outdoor toilet if I can call it that. Fresh Water we needed to fetch from the spring and the dirty water we had to throughout in a drainage hole in the street.
I remember our first night there. Word must get around that there are new people in town. A mother with 5 children without a man in the house.
Our first night, we heard allot of noice banging on the door asking my mom to open the door because they like to meet us. It was late in the evening and already dark outside, the 3 little once were already asleep. We didn’t open the door because by the sound of that it was all male voices, and they became louder and louder bagging my mother to only stick her head out of the door.
My Mom, my sister and I moved all the furniture we could find in front of the door hoping to give the door more stability. The door looked like it’s going to break down in any minute, but God protected us again, the door held up and after a while they left. That was our welcome to Raboldshausen.
In Raboldshausen the School-system was very poor. First, second and third Graders had to share one room. Fourth, Fifth and six graders where together in another room and so on. I was in the 3rd Grade at that time and terrible bored that resulted in not paying much attention what the Teacher was talking about.
I was convinced that he doesn’t like me allot because he carried that heavy Paddle around every time, he came to me he used it when ever he had a chance. I’m sure I gave him many reasons to paddle me.
The teacher didn’t set a good example for the students in the class to welcome me or to make it easy for me to have friends and be excepted. It was totally the opposite I was not excepted; I had to fight my way home and was made fun of because I was skinny and didn’t fit in. To often I had my dress torn. To the extreme I had to fight and roll on the floor to protect myself. I was very determined not to let anyone bring me down to my knees.
I remember, Lunchtime was my favorite. We had to bring our own cup to receive a Soup of some kind depending on what ever was available.
A couple more families were brought to the village to find a temporary home and I know they had a more pleasant welcome. The villagers had to give the refugees shelter in their own homes-houses.
I became friends with the new kids on the block so to speak. We could identify with each other. They lost their home and all their belongings and on the search for a new Beginning
My Mom and Dad are a very devoted Christian, and we have been raised in the Baptist Faith. Raboldshausen had only Catholic and Protestant and both used the same Church Building, but I don’t know or remember if it was used every Sunday or only on special occasion.
I don’t think that my mom gave it any consideration to join the Protestant Nomination. She was so rooted in her Believes and she wanted to make sure we all grow up knowing God and believing in his Word. She wanted to keep her Promise and God answered her Prayers again.
She met a Family in the Village, the owners of a little grocery store and they have been going to worship every Sunday Morning 3 mile away from Raboldshausen. They invited us to come along and find out if that is what my mom was looking for, and yes it was. The Worship was in a private home with People coming from all around other Villages. There weren’t allot of people, but the room was filled with happy people singing and praising God, giving thanks for all.
The closest town was about 25 miles away from RABOLDSHAUSEN, where we visit once in a while.