The worst night of my life - A true story from WWII
Remember the story told by my grandpa's cousin I posted over a year ago in German? Well, I finally translated it. It's not the best English coz it's a really long text and don't have the time to do a really good translating job. But I think you can get it :)
Until early January 1945, I lived with my parents, my sister Elfriede and cousin Horst in Great Kotzenau Lüben district (Lower Silesia). In mid-January we started a turbulent time. School we hadn't had since Christmas 1944, since all male teachers were collected. My cousin Horst was 15 years old and collected for the Volkssturm in Lüben. I was a 9-year-old and felt the restlessness which prevailed among the adults, from secret stations, we heard that Germany was loosing the war.
The first refugees from the area Guhrauer arrived at our place. My parents took on an elderly couple.
The situation came to a head, when the Russians drew closer. The refugees packed their belongings and moved west in icy cold. We too set up cars for the flight. We children were put to bed and my parents nailed board racks with the help of neighbors on the horse waggons, which were then covered with fabric or carpets.
Unfortunately it didn't came to an escape for us. Our local group leaders had cancelled it. The night as the cars we readied to escape, suddenly appeared Horst my cousin again. He had fled with his friend, both made their way to the west a few days later with skis on their feet.
The Russians moved closer. The men who were at the Volkssturm, which included my father, built roadblocks. They believed these barriers to oust the enemy. Finally, the Russians occupied the town Lüben. It must have been the beginning of February.
Our neighbor, whose family had been in the west, sat down on the bike and tried to escape. Half a year later we heard that he had managed to escape.
My parents, my sister, Elfriede and I were looking for shelter on this day at our neighbors, family Schumann. It did not take long and we were surrounded by Russians, Belarusians, and Mongols in the kitchen. My father was constantly forced at gunpoint to undress and he was interrogated in icy cold outside in the yard. They would not believe him, that he belonged to no party. Everything was ransacked and torn. It was the worst night of my life.
The next morning we were locked in our parents' house in the smallest room. We saw how Ukrainians who worked with us were transported on a truck. My mother and the neighbor were taken out to kill the chicken. My father was taken away, he was imprisoned in a cellar in the town. Fear made our mother move us to a good friend. The women was dressed in headscarves to look old.
Slowly, the stocks came to an end. There were no shops. We lived off what the Russians threw away. I can still remember that they burried pig heads and we took them.
After several days our father had been set free ,all men were later picked up again. They were told that they would be taken to Lüben to check the papers.
One day the women were rounded up. Weeping, we clung to our mother. On this day, she was lucky, she could stay with us. It was not long and my mother was also collected. My sister, who was then eight years old, remained alone with me. Neighbors told us that the women had been brought to Belarus . Now and then we went to our parents house, because it stood unlocked.
A known couple took us in. After 14 days my mother was suddenly in front of the house. They had not taken her to Russia, but 3 miles from the city Kotzenau for gun cleaning. When she became ill, the Russians sent her home.
It was spring now. My mother worked with the other women in the fields for the Russians. When the situation calmed down, we went back to our house. My mother took in our half-paralyzed uncle. On 8 May 1945, someone knocked on the window at night and a higher Russian officer said it was peace. A sister of my mother, who had fled with her two children, stood at the door again in mid-May. We lived quietly until early June in our country.
Then it was said that the next morning, everyone has to leave the place. The Poles occupied the whole area. Lüben. Outside the village, on the main road we had to line up to march. Thousands of people had gathered with their belongings. In the pouring rain we went into an uncertain future. Mounted Poland accompanied the trek. The uncle we had with us, had been put on a friend's horse by my mother. We lost him on the trek and never saw him again. The Poles led us along the highway, so we didn't pass any town for several days. We slept in the woods. We walked 20 kilometers a day on foot and on an empty stomach. Now and then my sister and my were allowed to sit down on their cart. The peasants, who were traveling with their horse and took none.
After several days we reached Bad Mustau on the River Neisse. The farmers with their horse had to leave everything behind. The next morning we crossed the Neisse River in the Soviet occupied zone. Food was given freely at the front doors, we stayed in barns or outdoors.
Spremberg and Luebben were the major towns, which I still remember, because in Lubben we had pitched our camp on the outskirts in a bush. But it was not possible to sleep, because swarms of mosquitoes tormented us. Cottbus Spreewald was the next stay. In a former candy factory, which served as a camp for the refugees, we found accommodation.
To hundreds of people we lay in huge warehouses on the floor. Every day, starved elderly and children were brought outside. The dead were loaded on a cart. It was a horrible image that we saw daily. To beg our mother went to the Spreewald.
It was a miracul that we were not sick. We lived six weeks in this camp. The summer was slow and then we took the train back and forth through the former GDR. Soon we were in Halle, Wittenberg, Magdeburg, Lieberose. All over the stations we begged for a slice of bread or cucumber in order to survive.
In mid-September, we arrived in Luckenwalde. They offered us a night in a machine shed. Here we stayed two weeks. The sister of my mother, with her two children came with us. From Luckenwalde we wanted to continue to Jüterbog. The trains were full, we had placed our hand cars in the train but there was no more room for us. So we had to climb onto the train. Unfortunately, we didn't came further than Jüterbog We drove back to Luckenwalde, where we were able to stay in our old neighborhood.
My aunt fell ill a few days with pneumonia. She was taken to the hospital, my mother brought her two children into a home. We traveled by train, because our goal was the West. In Erzhausen Kreiensen lived a brother of my father. In Teistungen, a small town on the border we lived with a farmer for two weeks. In that time, my mother got in touch with other people who were going across the border.
On 4th October, a day before Mother's birthday, it was time. A Russian was bribed with a bottle of brandy, which someone had found, and led us in the darkness across the border. It had spread rapidly, and many went with us to freedom. So we spent your night to the 5th Ocotber in Duderstadt at the station.
The next morning we went by train to Kreiensen. With our cart, we moved the last 7 km on foot. Our uncle took us in. We got a room in the neighborhood. That night we slept in a bed again, which we hadn't for the last 4 months. We were well pleased, but still the mother felt strange. From our father we had not heard. My sister and I visited the small one-class- school.
We knew that in the OberListings near Kassel, our neighbors from the old country were living. My mother felt close to them. She contacted them. In mid-February 1946, we wanted to visit our friends. We took the train to Kassel, but had to stay at the Kassel train station, because the next bus for Oberlistigen only left the next morning. That was our luck, because by chance we met our cousin Horst, whom we had not seen since Silesia. He with his 16 years moved around aimlessly in a foreign land.
So all four of us drove to Oberlisting the next day. There we also met the friend again, who had fled during the invasion of the Russians with his bike, it was a happy reunion for us and a piece of home. The friends and my mother decided to move to Oberlisiting. They had already found a flat for us.
Unfortunately, you needed aan approval from the Housing Office. We drove back to Erzhausen, with the intention to relocate soon to Hessen. My cousin Horst picked us up a little later from Erzhausen.
We learned that we would not get a train to Oberlistingen. So our cousin got off the trian with us in the evening in Korbach. We spent the night in a tavern. The next morning we were sent by the Housing Office for Immighausen. This was a small farming village near Korbach.
So we had something to eat my mother and my cousin were working with the farmer. My cousin had disappeared and we heard nothing from him. One day my aunt and her children appeared. Since she was seriously ill, she wasn't allowed to stay. She came to Bad Wildungen in a hospital and the children back into a home. We had to leave Immighausen, because they believed we were also sick.
Again, our mother went on with us and our cart. Now our goal was the Holland border. In the camp Mariafee we have been further directed to a camp in Gronau / Westfalen. There, they told us to go to Schöpingen, a small village at the foot of the tree mountains. It was a very Catholic area.
Once in Schöpfingen, we were met by a Catholic priests. We were accommodated in the peasantry Ramsberg at a farmer. There we were given a 6 sqm large room. It was a bed, a wardrobe, a chair and a dresser. Electric light and heating didn't exist. We had to sleep in a bed. My mother had to work hard again. My sister and I visited the one Catholic school.
After one and half a years of school failure. It was a bad time. For the farmer, we were regarded as poor Polish people. They harassed us all the time. If we wanted to warm up in winter and in the room, we were driven out by the old farmer's wife. We were only allowed to eat on an extra table.
My aunt was cured of her illness and had found shelter in the vicinity. Her husband came out of captivity and together they moved into the Sauerland. Unfortunately, we had heard from a friend that our father had died in early April 1945 in Alsace / Odessa at the Black Sea. He had gotton diphtheria and had died of it. For us, once again a world fall apart.
After a year, we were taught to a small farmer. Now began a great time. We were welcomed warmly by the three siblings. There were two sisters and a brother named Thesing. We were treated as if we belonged to the family. My mother helped hard. We went to Schöppingen to the evangelical school.
Fast the years went by and in the spring of 1951 I was dismissed from school. Once again we got to feel the difference, displaced persons and to be evangelical. Although I had good grades, I got no job. I voluntarily wentto school with my sister.
In May 1952 my cousin Horst married in Alfeld. He invited us to his wedding. The table partner that I had, I married five years later. So I have been living in Alfeld for 34 years. It is a second home for me.
PS: Cousin Horst is my grandfather. He and my grandmother are now married 58 years:)
Until early January 1945, I lived with my parents, my sister Elfriede and cousin Horst in Great Kotzenau Lüben district (Lower Silesia). In mid-January we started a turbulent time. School we hadn't had since Christmas 1944, since all male teachers were collected. My cousin Horst was 15 years old and collected for the Volkssturm in Lüben. I was a 9-year-old and felt the restlessness which prevailed among the adults, from secret stations, we heard that Germany was loosing the war.
The first refugees from the area Guhrauer arrived at our place. My parents took on an elderly couple.
The situation came to a head, when the Russians drew closer. The refugees packed their belongings and moved west in icy cold. We too set up cars for the flight. We children were put to bed and my parents nailed board racks with the help of neighbors on the horse waggons, which were then covered with fabric or carpets.
Unfortunately it didn't came to an escape for us. Our local group leaders had cancelled it. The night as the cars we readied to escape, suddenly appeared Horst my cousin again. He had fled with his friend, both made their way to the west a few days later with skis on their feet.
The Russians moved closer. The men who were at the Volkssturm, which included my father, built roadblocks. They believed these barriers to oust the enemy. Finally, the Russians occupied the town Lüben. It must have been the beginning of February.
Our neighbor, whose family had been in the west, sat down on the bike and tried to escape. Half a year later we heard that he had managed to escape.
My parents, my sister, Elfriede and I were looking for shelter on this day at our neighbors, family Schumann. It did not take long and we were surrounded by Russians, Belarusians, and Mongols in the kitchen. My father was constantly forced at gunpoint to undress and he was interrogated in icy cold outside in the yard. They would not believe him, that he belonged to no party. Everything was ransacked and torn. It was the worst night of my life.
The next morning we were locked in our parents' house in the smallest room. We saw how Ukrainians who worked with us were transported on a truck. My mother and the neighbor were taken out to kill the chicken. My father was taken away, he was imprisoned in a cellar in the town. Fear made our mother move us to a good friend. The women was dressed in headscarves to look old.
Slowly, the stocks came to an end. There were no shops. We lived off what the Russians threw away. I can still remember that they burried pig heads and we took them.
After several days our father had been set free ,all men were later picked up again. They were told that they would be taken to Lüben to check the papers.
One day the women were rounded up. Weeping, we clung to our mother. On this day, she was lucky, she could stay with us. It was not long and my mother was also collected. My sister, who was then eight years old, remained alone with me. Neighbors told us that the women had been brought to Belarus . Now and then we went to our parents house, because it stood unlocked.
A known couple took us in. After 14 days my mother was suddenly in front of the house. They had not taken her to Russia, but 3 miles from the city Kotzenau for gun cleaning. When she became ill, the Russians sent her home.
It was spring now. My mother worked with the other women in the fields for the Russians. When the situation calmed down, we went back to our house. My mother took in our half-paralyzed uncle. On 8 May 1945, someone knocked on the window at night and a higher Russian officer said it was peace. A sister of my mother, who had fled with her two children, stood at the door again in mid-May. We lived quietly until early June in our country.
Then it was said that the next morning, everyone has to leave the place. The Poles occupied the whole area. Lüben. Outside the village, on the main road we had to line up to march. Thousands of people had gathered with their belongings. In the pouring rain we went into an uncertain future. Mounted Poland accompanied the trek. The uncle we had with us, had been put on a friend's horse by my mother. We lost him on the trek and never saw him again. The Poles led us along the highway, so we didn't pass any town for several days. We slept in the woods. We walked 20 kilometers a day on foot and on an empty stomach. Now and then my sister and my were allowed to sit down on their cart. The peasants, who were traveling with their horse and took none.
After several days we reached Bad Mustau on the River Neisse. The farmers with their horse had to leave everything behind. The next morning we crossed the Neisse River in the Soviet occupied zone. Food was given freely at the front doors, we stayed in barns or outdoors.
Spremberg and Luebben were the major towns, which I still remember, because in Lubben we had pitched our camp on the outskirts in a bush. But it was not possible to sleep, because swarms of mosquitoes tormented us. Cottbus Spreewald was the next stay. In a former candy factory, which served as a camp for the refugees, we found accommodation.
To hundreds of people we lay in huge warehouses on the floor. Every day, starved elderly and children were brought outside. The dead were loaded on a cart. It was a horrible image that we saw daily. To beg our mother went to the Spreewald.
It was a miracul that we were not sick. We lived six weeks in this camp. The summer was slow and then we took the train back and forth through the former GDR. Soon we were in Halle, Wittenberg, Magdeburg, Lieberose. All over the stations we begged for a slice of bread or cucumber in order to survive.
In mid-September, we arrived in Luckenwalde. They offered us a night in a machine shed. Here we stayed two weeks. The sister of my mother, with her two children came with us. From Luckenwalde we wanted to continue to Jüterbog. The trains were full, we had placed our hand cars in the train but there was no more room for us. So we had to climb onto the train. Unfortunately, we didn't came further than Jüterbog We drove back to Luckenwalde, where we were able to stay in our old neighborhood.
My aunt fell ill a few days with pneumonia. She was taken to the hospital, my mother brought her two children into a home. We traveled by train, because our goal was the West. In Erzhausen Kreiensen lived a brother of my father. In Teistungen, a small town on the border we lived with a farmer for two weeks. In that time, my mother got in touch with other people who were going across the border.
On 4th October, a day before Mother's birthday, it was time. A Russian was bribed with a bottle of brandy, which someone had found, and led us in the darkness across the border. It had spread rapidly, and many went with us to freedom. So we spent your night to the 5th Ocotber in Duderstadt at the station.
The next morning we went by train to Kreiensen. With our cart, we moved the last 7 km on foot. Our uncle took us in. We got a room in the neighborhood. That night we slept in a bed again, which we hadn't for the last 4 months. We were well pleased, but still the mother felt strange. From our father we had not heard. My sister and I visited the small one-class- school.
We knew that in the OberListings near Kassel, our neighbors from the old country were living. My mother felt close to them. She contacted them. In mid-February 1946, we wanted to visit our friends. We took the train to Kassel, but had to stay at the Kassel train station, because the next bus for Oberlistigen only left the next morning. That was our luck, because by chance we met our cousin Horst, whom we had not seen since Silesia. He with his 16 years moved around aimlessly in a foreign land.
So all four of us drove to Oberlisting the next day. There we also met the friend again, who had fled during the invasion of the Russians with his bike, it was a happy reunion for us and a piece of home. The friends and my mother decided to move to Oberlisiting. They had already found a flat for us.
Unfortunately, you needed aan approval from the Housing Office. We drove back to Erzhausen, with the intention to relocate soon to Hessen. My cousin Horst picked us up a little later from Erzhausen.
We learned that we would not get a train to Oberlistingen. So our cousin got off the trian with us in the evening in Korbach. We spent the night in a tavern. The next morning we were sent by the Housing Office for Immighausen. This was a small farming village near Korbach.
So we had something to eat my mother and my cousin were working with the farmer. My cousin had disappeared and we heard nothing from him. One day my aunt and her children appeared. Since she was seriously ill, she wasn't allowed to stay. She came to Bad Wildungen in a hospital and the children back into a home. We had to leave Immighausen, because they believed we were also sick.
Again, our mother went on with us and our cart. Now our goal was the Holland border. In the camp Mariafee we have been further directed to a camp in Gronau / Westfalen. There, they told us to go to Schöpingen, a small village at the foot of the tree mountains. It was a very Catholic area.
Once in Schöpfingen, we were met by a Catholic priests. We were accommodated in the peasantry Ramsberg at a farmer. There we were given a 6 sqm large room. It was a bed, a wardrobe, a chair and a dresser. Electric light and heating didn't exist. We had to sleep in a bed. My mother had to work hard again. My sister and I visited the one Catholic school.
After one and half a years of school failure. It was a bad time. For the farmer, we were regarded as poor Polish people. They harassed us all the time. If we wanted to warm up in winter and in the room, we were driven out by the old farmer's wife. We were only allowed to eat on an extra table.
My aunt was cured of her illness and had found shelter in the vicinity. Her husband came out of captivity and together they moved into the Sauerland. Unfortunately, we had heard from a friend that our father had died in early April 1945 in Alsace / Odessa at the Black Sea. He had gotton diphtheria and had died of it. For us, once again a world fall apart.
After a year, we were taught to a small farmer. Now began a great time. We were welcomed warmly by the three siblings. There were two sisters and a brother named Thesing. We were treated as if we belonged to the family. My mother helped hard. We went to Schöppingen to the evangelical school.
Fast the years went by and in the spring of 1951 I was dismissed from school. Once again we got to feel the difference, displaced persons and to be evangelical. Although I had good grades, I got no job. I voluntarily wentto school with my sister.
In May 1952 my cousin Horst married in Alfeld. He invited us to his wedding. The table partner that I had, I married five years later. So I have been living in Alfeld for 34 years. It is a second home for me.
PS: Cousin Horst is my grandfather. He and my grandmother are now married 58 years:)