http://www.youngjudoclub.co.uk/Margret%20Clarke%20forgotten%20Heroine.htm
This Blog is not about her Judo prowess and her work in England it is about her experiences in Germany during World 2. Mum died in 2004 and I have recently found some paper work on her life. I remember asking to record her life especially during the war years which she started to do sadly she did not finish the work. What she did leave were some interesting reports on her life as a young women in Germany during the War. The articles are not in chronological order, she just wrote things when she remembered them, the first report is below and can be of interest to people who would like to see the German side of the War. She was 12 years old when war broke out and was an only child a sister had died with what we would now call a cot death
 |
| Margret with father Willie 1937 |
In those days it was
difficult to get place on any train. People used to stand on the steps on the
train or even on the top. This was rather dangerous as the possibility arouse
to be shot or hit by the German Flak which very often misfired when I managed to
get a train to Dortmund when I stood on the station I could only see ruins there
where no streets only rubble. My grandparents luckily lived in an semi detached
bungalow outside the inner city. One Night my Grandmother had to get up because
of the bombing and a piece of shrapnel hit her bed. A few months later she died
and a few weeks after her death her house also got completely bomb out. My Grandfather
and Aunt had lived for a few months with us. We had very little room and my
father slept at work. Even though the bombing got worse (if that was possible)
people started to collect the bricks to build makeshift homes on a lot of the bricks
where addresses where people had moved to after the bombing, sadly many also
who died. We got coupons for cloth, unfortunately you cou1d not buy any and I don’t
know how my parents managed to always find shoes for me. My mother made winter
clothing out of old blankets and I thought myself very lucky to be smartly
dressed while at war
An advert appeared asking
young German girls to help people (Ethnic Germans) in Poland; these people had been
evacuated from Siberia just before the war with Russia. We were told that they
had to leave their villages which were all ethnic Germans, They would take over
farms in Poland and the Poles would take their farms in Siberia, it was I
believe something to do with Stalin’s ethnic cleansing so I was told, I never
did find out the truth. Theses ethnic Germans did not settle very well and we
could we could not understand their language. Apparently there German was still from the
German spoken in the middle ages when they first settled in Siberia. Their food
cooking and customs where strange to us, yet I remember them to be very polite and very
good looking. All seemed to be very blond and slim and tall
Us Girls stayed at an old
school at night a learned a few Polish phrase but is said you may forget
sentences but you always remember rude words in a foreign language. However the
situation for us girls where getting dangerous and we went earlier home than it
was expected we where picked up by a guard of German soldiers and to our dismay
all old enough to be our fathers. I never ever heard of the family I started to
be fond of, I wonder if they even survived the war. Coming back home the air raids
got more severe my hometown got badly damaged we where one of the few houses
who did not get damaged but all the windows kept getting smashed .It was
amazing that we did not get hit as the factory was only across the road Now
that I am older I think how cruel the war was and it can play on peoples mind, when
the bombs where dropped in an different town to us we where glad that we did
not get hit, you would see the fire all around us but it was not us. We where
also applauding when some planes got shot down it was my mother who spoke with
passion to remind us some mother wife or child would be weeping about the loss
of they loved one. I started not feeling well much to my parents concern who
took me to see a Doctor I was told that
I had Tuberculosis of the glands, my lung was still not affected. I was
admitted to Hospitals but after one week I was sent home The hospital was only
underground operative because of the constant air attacks between the fighters
and the bombing. The hospital had to take so many injured people that patience
who could walk had to be discharged It meant that I had to walk to the Hospital
nearly every day for several weeks. Buses where not inn operation any more I
used to run from one sheltered area to the next, till I was too weak to carry
on, as extra ration I got an half litre of milk every day Neighbours and friend
collected herbs for me for tea , which I quite liked, since those days I have
been a great believer in herbs. We finally got encircled by enemy troops which
were mainly Americans I will never forget the day when we witnessed the retreat
of the German troops we stood by the side of the road and wishing them all the
best. We where still living in the cellar. After the German soldiers left it
was getting quiet upstairs and town was no longer bombed. My father was that
night at home and he thought he would go and have a look what was happening He
saw soldier in our porch smoking a cigarette, He tapped him on the shoulder and
warned him to disappear as the Americans where nearby. As the soldier turned around to my fathers
surprise it was already an Amy, that what we called them We came to the
conclusion that he wanted a quick smoke, because he quickly walked away. The
situation became chaotic in my town we had no council or policing. The
Americans released the Russian prisoner of war and they rampaged through the
town an looted most of it the shops The Russians where most probably very
hungry. Next to our house was a bakery who had a little flour left The fathers
and grandfathers protected the shop from the Russians so we could get bread and
then came the French prisoner of war, whom we had helped and we became friendly
with them while they were prisoners and they repaid us for the friendship.
After a few days the Russians
where put in a camp and soon sent home. For a time we had to have a curfew and
had to off the street at dusk The Americans did not stay for long and English
troops took over from that day law and order came back. Before the German
troops left they put dynamite under a railway bridge this meant that we had no
water, we had to go into the woods to get some fresh water from little stream.
Of course everything had to be boiled, which again was a problem as we had for
a time no ways of cooking. We only cooked with coal or wood and we had no gas
or electric. Once again went into the woods to get the soft coal, which was on
the top of the ground. It was a long business to get the soft coal to burn and it
took hours to cook on it. I used to go with my father in the woods to fetch the
water and the coal once he could not come and I went alone on the way home a
car with English soldier
For those who knew my mother will remember a scar on
the right side of her neck, this was where the TB was removed
No comments:
Post a Comment