uniform that would get her out of the camp. She didnât bat an eyelid but went straight to the hospital in the sector, Magdeburg-Goslar, and reported for duty as a nursing orderly.
Mother tended the sick and the wounded and the dying, but it was hopeless. She couldnât bear it. For as soon as they recovered, the soldiers were fetched and driven back to the Russians as prisoners of war on the other side of the Elbe. The whole area was going to be handed over to the Soviet Union the following month and the only thing to do was to get away, but she hung in there, waiting to hearfrom her family and to find her mother. She set enquiries in motion through the Red Cross, and, when the news came, she could hardly believe her luck. They had been evacuated to Einbeck!
She gave the head of the sector â Mr Plaiter â a kiss and got leave from the hospital. Then she wiped her mouth, picked up her suitcase and persuaded an American soldier to drive her to Einbeck â Papa Schneider was rich, he would be well paid for his trouble, and it was only 190 kilometres. When they drew up in the courtyard, she jumped out. It was Eva who caught sight of her first and shouted
âHilde!â
, and the others came running, and she wept and laughed and kissed them and threw her arms around Papa Schneider and asked for her mother. Where was she?
The figure that lay in the bed was a mummy, and she blacked out, broke down, strangling her screams, unable to breathe. Grandmother had been caught in an air raid that hit their house in Magdeburg as she was sorting out the washing in the cellar. The containers full of white gas in the room next door exploded, and she went up in flames. Mother wanted to kiss her, to stroke her hair, but she had no hair and no skin and was seared with pain at the slightest touch, by a breath of wind even. They kept the windows closed and crept around, carefully opening the doors, and every movement was torture. She stared out from under her bandages and her eyes were begging to die. And Mother gathered her whole life into one look â
âIch bin bei dirâ
â and whispered it so softly that it could scarcely be heard.
I am with you
.
Papa Schneider gave his camera to the soldier who had driven Mother home, and then there was nothing left. His wife, his estate, his land, he had lost it all â and now they were refugees in their own country, and not even welcome at that. They had been brought to this farm outside Einbeck, Kuhlgatzhof â now dilapidated, it dated from 1742 and had belonged to a snaps distiller â where they now lived in what had been one of the living rooms, with table and chairs and one camp bed each. In the room next door they had installed Fräulein Zilvig, who was a churchgoer. And then there was Frau Rab, who stole. The daughter of the Kuhlgatz family lived on the second floor and was married to an artist, Herr Hänsel, and they lived with Frau Dömicke, who was the widow of a doctor and dressed in old-fashioned clothes. Herr Webendürfer had previously been the manager of a fridge factory and had his quarters out in the stable. He had been a student in a duelling club and was always demanding satisfaction and rattling his sabre â
âIch verlange Satisfaktion!â
His plump and freckled daughter was called Oda and in the midst of it all she gave birth to a child and squealed like a stuck pig.
âAch, Kinder, ihr seid nichts als Vieh,â
Papa Schneider snorted and informed them that they had sunk to the level of beasts.
Herr Hänsel had a servant girl, Schmidtchen, who was a refugee from Pomerania and had a little daughter. She was slow-witted but did her best to make herself useful, fishing in the river and digging for worms in the dung-heap. Then she went off leading a she-goat to have her tupped and whenshe returned she stank of he-goat â and so did the stairs, the living rooms, everything â and it hung in the air no
Mother tended the sick and the wounded and the dying, but it was hopeless. She couldnât bear it. For as soon as they recovered, the soldiers were fetched and driven back to the Russians as prisoners of war on the other side of the Elbe. The whole area was going to be handed over to the Soviet Union the following month and the only thing to do was to get away, but she hung in there, waiting to hearfrom her family and to find her mother. She set enquiries in motion through the Red Cross, and, when the news came, she could hardly believe her luck. They had been evacuated to Einbeck!
She gave the head of the sector â Mr Plaiter â a kiss and got leave from the hospital. Then she wiped her mouth, picked up her suitcase and persuaded an American soldier to drive her to Einbeck â Papa Schneider was rich, he would be well paid for his trouble, and it was only 190 kilometres. When they drew up in the courtyard, she jumped out. It was Eva who caught sight of her first and shouted
âHilde!â
, and the others came running, and she wept and laughed and kissed them and threw her arms around Papa Schneider and asked for her mother. Where was she?
The figure that lay in the bed was a mummy, and she blacked out, broke down, strangling her screams, unable to breathe. Grandmother had been caught in an air raid that hit their house in Magdeburg as she was sorting out the washing in the cellar. The containers full of white gas in the room next door exploded, and she went up in flames. Mother wanted to kiss her, to stroke her hair, but she had no hair and no skin and was seared with pain at the slightest touch, by a breath of wind even. They kept the windows closed and crept around, carefully opening the doors, and every movement was torture. She stared out from under her bandages and her eyes were begging to die. And Mother gathered her whole life into one look â
âIch bin bei dirâ
â and whispered it so softly that it could scarcely be heard.
I am with you
.
Papa Schneider gave his camera to the soldier who had driven Mother home, and then there was nothing left. His wife, his estate, his land, he had lost it all â and now they were refugees in their own country, and not even welcome at that. They had been brought to this farm outside Einbeck, Kuhlgatzhof â now dilapidated, it dated from 1742 and had belonged to a snaps distiller â where they now lived in what had been one of the living rooms, with table and chairs and one camp bed each. In the room next door they had installed Fräulein Zilvig, who was a churchgoer. And then there was Frau Rab, who stole. The daughter of the Kuhlgatz family lived on the second floor and was married to an artist, Herr Hänsel, and they lived with Frau Dömicke, who was the widow of a doctor and dressed in old-fashioned clothes. Herr Webendürfer had previously been the manager of a fridge factory and had his quarters out in the stable. He had been a student in a duelling club and was always demanding satisfaction and rattling his sabre â
âIch verlange Satisfaktion!â
His plump and freckled daughter was called Oda and in the midst of it all she gave birth to a child and squealed like a stuck pig.
âAch, Kinder, ihr seid nichts als Vieh,â
Papa Schneider snorted and informed them that they had sunk to the level of beasts.
Herr Hänsel had a servant girl, Schmidtchen, who was a refugee from Pomerania and had a little daughter. She was slow-witted but did her best to make herself useful, fishing in the river and digging for worms in the dung-heap. Then she went off leading a she-goat to have her tupped and whenshe returned she stank of he-goat â and so did the stairs, the living rooms, everything â and it hung in the air no