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The Kinderlandverschickung (KLV) operated during World War II (1939-1945). Here are my experiences. I have tried to get as much on paper as possible, but much after all these years is forgotten.
I was born in September 1931 in Berlin, and lived in the midst of the city. We had a pleasant apartment house.
Berlin is located in eastern Germany. Thus it was a very difficult target for the British and later the Americans. Mu awarness of the bombing began with overhearing the adults talking that bombs may fall on Germany. At that time, we hadn't experienced anything like that yet, and I remember vividly, standing in the court yard of our apartment, looking up straight into the sky and wondering why a bomb should fall right on my head when Berlin was soo big. (To be naive can save one's sanity!) So, I was never afraid, "because Berlin was soo big!"
I and the other girls entered the Hitler Youth (HJ) at age 10. There was a law requiring this. The girls division of the HJ was the Bund Deutscher Mädel (BDM).
The Kinderlandverschickung (KLV) operated during World War II (1939-1945). The program was to get the childten out of the cities that the Allies were bombing. The next thing I remember it was 1943 when a lady entered our classroom talking to the teacher, then turning to us, asking us "who wants to go to a camp in Tschechoslowakei?" [Note: The NAZIs had dismembered Czechoslovakia after the Munich Conference, but apparently German civilians still used the term. KLV camps were situated there because it was beyond the range of Allied bombers.] My arm flew up. It sounded exciting. My brother, Werner, 15 month older than I am, was already at a KLV Camp near Prague.
It was 1943. I was happy to go.
The small town of Trentchin-Teplitz had 24 KLV camps run by the HJ, girls and boys separated. There was also one old fortress which was renovated to take a group of hundred girls, and I was among them to live there. We slept in rooms with 2-4 girls per room. The enormity of space was breathtaking. Every morning at 7 AM, the "Fuehrerin", the lady in charge, was greeted with "Heil Hitler" by everyone, and according who was the speaker of the room at that time, that girl added: "room so and so ready for inspection". The bed sheet could not have a wrinkle, and when she opened the closet, she found every thing folded 20 cm in width. In all, it was a year of fun, schooling and sport - the war was very far away. We had our meals in a huge dining hall, the tables were covered with white table cloth, and the food served was delicious. Before we sat down, we stood behind our chairs and held hands. When the Fuehrerin arrived, we said in unison: "we thank you". To this day, I am still contemplating whom we thanked, was it God, Adolf Hitler or the Czech Republic who provided for us so well? Every week, we could go to the town for a few hours, mostly to buy some trinkets to take home. One day, there was a big announcement made, Baldur von Schirach, the Youth-Füehrer of Germany was coming to visit the camps. It was at the edge of the town where 24 camps reunited, waiting and staying at attention. Quite a few girls fainted, and then, finally we stand relaxed. But it was Arthur Axmann, the new Youth-Füehrer, who arrived 2 hours. Naturally, we were all in uniform and were greeted warmly with a hand-shake.
News came in late spring of 1944 that we had to be evacuated. Our camp was moved to Krenau by Kattowitz in Poland. From there, our parents were to pick us up. There were no fathers left who had young children, they were all at the front, so the mothers were the ones who had to make the train ride to Krenau.
Krenau was a grey mining town. We slept in one part of the town and had to march to another end for the meals, but this all lasted about a week when I spotted my mother one morning on the way to the mess hall. We were in the middle of the street, marching and singing as if the victory was ours, when all of a sudden, I saw my mother far on the left pedestrian walk, walking in the same direction. I ran to the front to announce my findings, and I was told to run for it! Long before my mother could have heard or seen me, she stopped and looked toward me, and as soon as she recognized me, she held her arms out. What a welcome!
Mother and I stayed that night at a hotel in Kenau. We took the train early in the morning to Korschen in East Prussia, the state where my mother was born, and where many of her relatives had farms. My sister, Irmgard, 15 month my junior and my brother, Karl, 2 1/2 years younger than I am, were already there. We were saved again from the horrors of war. Again, I went to the HJ meetings, and occasionally we went to the train station in Doenhofstaed to greet German soldiers with flowers who just came from the front. Our lives were very peaceful as long we stayed there. Years before, we went to the farm when we had summer school vacation, and for a city kid this was heaven. When school started, I was enrolled in the Middle School in Korschen. We had to walk 2 KM and then took the bus for another 9 KM. But then again, all came to a stop, like when we had to leave Trentchin-Teplitz. My mother got notice at the end of October 1944, that in a week's time, the last train will leave for Berlin. Her relatives wanted her to stay and then we all would leave with the big wagons. The treks from the far East of Germany were already passing as the Russians came closer and closer. My mother told us later that she felt she had to go to Berlin, as if she heard a voice, and I believe, there is something like a sixth sense. Anyway, we packed and were on the train to Berlin. My aunt Anna and my cousin Waltraut, have packed so many goodies for us; it was a good supplement to our ration cards.
We arrived in Berlin very happy - at the end - this was our home. The window-glass was gone in each window, but after a few days new glass was installed. Unbelievable what one could do with saved cigarette rations and a piece of ham. Our school was still standing, it fact, it never got bombed, but our first night back in Berlin let us know: "kids you are back in a war zone", and that was the truth. (Note: The Allied air forces had concentrated on France for several months before and after the D-Day landings, but afterwards they returned to Germany and Berlin was a major target.] It was the time were we had to go at least once a night, sometimes three times to the basement when the British harassed us with their fire bombs, and then at day, the Americans visited us, too. I remember, I had one major problem. While sitting in the basement, in a room about 15x15 feet with chairs around the walls, I sat opposite of what should become a break-through to the next house, in case we can not escape ours. The hole about 2 feet wide and 5 feet high was closed with bricks with a big ax next to it, to prevent people to move to and fro. My trouble was, there was Frau Rinau, sitting right next to the bricked-up entrance. She was a kind, elderly lady, but looking at her size and the size of the entrance, I had a big problem. And here, too, I belonged to the Hitler Youth. Now, I was already 13 years old and was asked to help. My task was with other girls, to go to the train station to make sandwiches for the people who escaped the Russians and were on the way west. I was very happy doing it, and I remember, there was so much to make great sandwiches. At that time, rhere was rationing but we were not hungry. The hungry time came in May 1945, when we had a complete break-down. My mother was not very happy to let me go for half a night and when we were attacked, we got home quite late. I remember, one time she told the lady who picked me up: "I am sorry, Margot has no shoes to wear". but Margot was right behind her and showing off her shoes. There were many times we had to go to the bunker, separated from my family. I remember the worst time, when we sat with a group of young girls in a bunker singing one song after another while we could hear the bombs. It was early in the morning when we finally could leave, everyone went his own way. I see myself walking over rubble, but I can never make out how I got home. When I finally made it, our neighbor met me to say: "I am so glad you are home, your mom cried so much".
Before we were evacuated from Berlin, there is still Christmas to come. My mother, as every year, bought a tree right up to the ceiling. We never saw the tree lighted or trimmed before we were called into the room on Christmas Eve. And in order for her to find the time to decorate the tree, we children took a long nap. Since the dining-room was adjacent to the living-room, we ate that night in the kitchen, awaiting the bells to ring. But as soon as we heard the music from the gramophone, the bells rang right after.
When we entered, we stood next to the tree in awe joining the songs from the gramophone. Then each of us children had to say a Christmas poem, and then, only then could we go to the dining table on which our presents laid. A piece of clothing and a game, and instead of the American Christmas stocking, we had a hard paper plate, beautifully carved and colored with all the goodies on it. But this year in 1944, I will not forget, it had on the plate some candies, some home made cookies and a can of oil sardines. And do you know what? We were the happiest kids in the block.
Now there was the problem with my brother. I remember, he was not with us that Christmas, he was still in a glider school in East Prussia. My mother was able to have him come home when she sent papers that showed that he had a job, and my mother found one at the Tempelhof airport to work as an apprentice. We were finally all together, exept my father who was in France.
In February 1945, my cousin Gerda and her friend, both in the military, visited us. They had rations for material and wanted to sew a coat - with my mother's helped. They took me with them, but as soon as we left the store, people were running calling out "Grand American attack on Berlin"! We were running to get home before the bombs were falling. When we arrived, my mother had decided to go to the Metro (subway used as a bomb shelter) instead of to our basement, and this time, she took nothing with her, just her hand bag. When we arrived, at the entrance of the Metro, we saw Frau Rinau laying at the side of the steps. She too rushed down the road, but collapsed before going down. Some people cared for her, but actually, she was already gone. It was a sad moment for all of us. The bombing seemd without end. When the planes had finally passed, we could not go back because the whole street was on fire. We stayed one week in a bunker, sleeping on wooden benches with a blanket. In the morning, my mother directed us where we can go to wash, with a reminder: " don't forget to shine your shoes". Unbelievable, but that was my dear mother!
Then we were evacuated to a small town in the south. The camp was located on a hill, not far from Leipzig. We all slept on blankets on the floor. For us children, it was not a big deal, but it must have been for the elderly. From there one night, I saw the greatest firework of Leipzig when the city was bombed. From there we left again by train to Balje, a small village at the River Elbe in the far north-west.
My brother, Werner, who just turned 16, had to stay in Berlin fighting with the Volkssturm, boys and old men--all Germany had left--against the massive Russian armies cloesing in on Berlins. It was the last major battle in Europe and one of the most terrible. I still have a little address book in which my brother wrote: "we are out of ammunition and have to go back". Berlin fell to the Russians at the end of April. A few days later the NAZIs surrendered and the War was over. Good for him, otherwise he would have died in Berlin or been shipped to Siberia. He went with some of his comrades to the south and worked an a farm for the whole summer. My mother got in touch with the Red Cross, and so we found him. On my mother's birthday, October 30, 1945, she received a card which said: "Mom, I will be home tomorrow". She came to see us when we had recess at the school to show us the card - we lived all with different families at that time - but, lo and behold, when she arrived home, he was already there. What a birthday present! But there was one bomb which exploded later, nobody knew that he carried the tubercle bacillus and had only 2 more years to live.
A word to my mother: " You were one of the best, I love you". And to my sister, Irmgard and Brother Karl, "I have always loved and cherished you, and always will."
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