A war Story

During my last year at school, about 3 or 4 months before graduation, once again like many nights, we spent the night in the bunker. I was standing next to a schoolfriend. During the conversation I asked her what she planned to do after graduation. Before we could commence with an apprenticeship or trade we had to spend one year in public service either working for a large family or for a farmer. She told me that she wanted to spend this year with a farming service initiative. I liked this idea and so I immediately applied for this. Had to spend 3 days at a camp where they tested to see if we were suitable for this posting and also if we had the right attitude. When I graduated I went into the “Bergische Land” (a state in germany). The camp was in an old mill in the forest. This accommodated about 30 of us girls. During the day we had our allotted place of work and the evening meal we had together at the campsite. Our leader was young and I liked her. We had nice evenings together when she played her guitar and we sang. I was working for a forest hunter. At our campsite was a small creek that earlier on must have driven the mill wheel. I can still remember that large rats used to come in through the cellar window. And during the night when the air raid sirens went, nobody wanted to be first in the cellar. So we used to throw brooms and all sorts of things down the cellar stairs.
Wednesday afternoon was our afternoon off. That is, we didn’t have to go to our normal jobs but had to help out at the campsite. Everyone had their allotted chores. I was usually working in the kitchen. Large kitchens had always fascinated me and the others were not all that keen on kitchen duties. One Wednesday, probably late autumn, we had to collect wood in the forest. There happened to be 5 of 6 of us girls together and we all came from the left side of the Rhine. During a break we sat and could hear the front coming closer all the time. Later on the enemy was pushed back again. Then I told the others, if they dynamite the bridge over the Rhine, we will never get home again. So we formed a plan that we would run away during that night. We only told the girls who slept in our rooms of our plan. After everyone had gone to bed, we started. We packed our things. Tied together the belts from our trench coats, so that we could lower the suitcases from our windows. We set our leader’s alarm clock one hour later. Then in the middle of the night we walked through the forest to the 2nd train station, so that they would not find us and collect us again the next morning wen the other woke up. Then we had to wait for the first train which was due around 6am. Everything went like clockwork. Mother was very surprised when she saw me but Father was concerned and told me that I needed to go back because he didn’t want any difficulties with the Hitler Youth organisation. During the night was a very bad air raid. The next morning Mum took me away again. No trams were operating because there had been a lot of destruction during the night. We had to walk across the Rhine bridge to the other side where the first tram was operating. Mother said goodbye and cried and I was convinced that I would never come home again. Later on when I was older and had my own children I often thought about how Mother must have felt.
I was the only one who returned. My punishment was to help out in the kitchen for several Sundays. But that didn’t bother me. Things continued for a few months. The air raids became more and more severe. Especially during the day. The woman I worked for was terribly frightened and used to come towards me in the morning as I arrived, already on her way to the bunker. The bunker was a tunnel under the train tracks which was used as an air raid bunker. The house where I worked stood right next to the train tracks. One day…my employer had already been for hours in the bunker, her husband took his bike at the last moment also to ride to the bunker. Above on the train tracks stood a red cross train which the enemy was shooting on from their planes. The airplane was so low and close I did not have time to make it to the bunker. I ran into the cellar and ran in circles like a wild animal that had been locked up. Then I heard the bombs drop. The hand rails from the cellar steps came down into the cellar and everything was covered in dust and dirt. But suddenly there was silence and I was glad to be alive. A few hours later I was rescued from the cellar. I don’t know how much later it was when I came home from work and the youth leader told us that the Americans were already on the left side of the Rhine and that during the night we were to leave the hostel. We had a few handcarts onto which we packed our belongings and set off in the rain in direction Radevorwald where the entire Hitler Youth were ordered. It was a youth hostel.
(to be continued)