The end of the Second World War

In the household of Aunt Irena in Siemiątkowo there worked a Polish family which took it over after the arrival of the Russians. „Sie haben die Tante nicht nur in Frieden gelassen, sondern ihr sogar geholfen. Sie gaben ihr Geld und brachten sie mit ihren Kindern zum Bahnhof in Raciąż, von wo sie nach Breslau fahren konnte. Von dort aus gelangte sie nach Deutschland.“ (They not only left the aunt in peace, they even helped her. They gave her money and brought her with her children to the station in Raciąż, from where she could travel to Breslau (Wrocław). From there she reached Germany.)

Another German woman treated her servants so badly during the occupation that after the arrival they beat her to death with spades. The author places the two cases side by side without a comment.

„Jede Familie in Łaszewo ereilte ein anderes Los.“ (Every family in Łaszewo met a different fate.) Aunt Jadwiga spent some time in a camp for Germans in Lublin. The Kolm family was sent for a few years to the camp in Łambinowice in southern Poland — „es war ein sehr hartes Lager, und viele Insassen haben den Aufenthalt nicht überlebt“ (it was a very hard camp, and many inmates did not survive the stay).

The peat was dug out with special spades near alders and birches — the land belonged to Grandma Sabina. „Es gab eine spezielle Maschine, die 2 m hoch war — wie ein großer Fleischwolf hochkant aufgestellt mit dem Auslauf nach unten —, angetrieben durch einen Ochsen. Der Torf wurde oben reingeworfen, und unten kam eine quadratische Schlange von 15 mal 15 Zentimetern raus. Man legte ein Brett drunter, schnitt es in Abständen von 60 Zentimetern ab — so dass es eine Person tragen konnte — und legte es ins Gras. Das trocknete dann in der Sonne, und im Winter hatte man kostenloses Heizmaterial.“ (There was a special machine that was 2 m high — like a large mincing machine set up on end with the outlet downwards —, driven by an ox. The peat was thrown in at the top, and at the bottom a square strand of 15 by 15 centimetres came out. One put a board underneath, cut it off at intervals of 60 centimetres — so that one person could carry it — and laid it in the grass. That then dried in the sun, and in winter one had free heating material.)

The path beside the grandmother's house was very sandy, „der Sand reichte bis zu den Knöcheln“ (the sand reached up to the ankles), and served the children as a playground and a pitch for ball games. „Jetzt ist da eine Asphaltstraße mit rasenden Autos. Das Haus steht nicht mehr. Das vernachlässigte Dach ist eingestürzt, und Onkel Antek, der Mann von Tante Zosia, hat das Haus abgerissen.“ (Now there is an asphalt road there with cars racing along. The house no longer stands. The neglected roof has collapsed, and Uncle Antek, the husband of Aunt Zosia, has torn the house down.)

From the first months after the war the author tells a scene that in a single sentence contains the whole climate of these months. In Konopki a barn was on fire, and out of curiosity he went there. When he came back, Grandma Sabina said: „Bogdan, wenn so was passiert, halt Dich fern, sonst behauptet noch jemand, ein Deutscher hätte es getan.“ (Bogdan, when something like that happens, keep away, otherwise somebody will claim a German did it.)

„Dennoch fühlten wir Kinder uns als Gruppe relativ frei in Konopki.“ (Nevertheless we children felt relatively free as a group in Konopki.) And then came the summer.

For this farewell the manuscript holds a second, harsher version — that of Gizela. She writes that the grandmother said while milking in the byre that they had to go, because the whole village was enraged: „Wir wären Deutsche und hätten kein Recht hier zu sein. Wenn wir hier blieben, würden sie uns verbrennen und ermorden.“ (We were Germans and had no right to be here. If we stayed here, they would burn and murder us.) Gizela adds: „Ich erinnere mich bis heute daran und danke unserer Oma, dass durch uns nicht mehr Menschen ermordet wurden.“ (I remember it to this day and thank our grandma that through us no more people were murdered.)

The author sets against this what Aunt Julianna said in Danzig (Gdańsk): it had not been like that, and the grandmother had not thrown them out. He himself records that a four-and-a-half-year-old Gizela could hardly remember it so exactly — „oder vielleicht doch?“ (or perhaps she could after all?). Here too he leaves both versions standing.

The next day they went to the station. „Beim Aufsteigen auf den Wagen — eine einfache Plattform — habe ich unglücklich mit der Tasche dagegen gehauen, so dass die Thermosflasche kaputt gegangen ist.“ (While climbing onto the wagon — a simple platform — I unfortunately hit it with the bag, so that the thermos flask was broken.)

Everyday life

Market journeys, well water, a round stove

The year 1946 was very hard for the family, for the mother especially. In Gralewo the father had seen to it that she did not have to cook; Aunt Zosia looked after Halina and Gizela, a servant looked after the household. „Jetzt musste Mama alles von Neuem lernen. Kochen und sogar Brot zu backen. Der erste Versuch endete in einem Misserfolg.“ (Now Mama had to learn everything anew. To cook and even to bake bread. The first attempt ended in a failure.)

She began to travel to Raciąż and the surrounding area, where there were markets, bought eggs, butter, cheese as well as hens, cocks, geese and the like there and took them to Bromberg (Bydgoszcz), Posen (Poznań) and Stettin (Szczecin), „um es dort gewinnbringend zu verkaufen“ (in order to sell it there at a profit). She returned home either on Saturday evening or early on Sunday; on Monday she set off again. The author cooked and went to school. „Aber manchmal gab es nichts zum Kochen. Und manchmal aßen wir den ganzen Tag nichts. Lediglich abends brachten uns gute Menschen — ich weiß noch den Namen: Rokitniccy — einen Laib Brot und eine Kanne Milch.“ (But sometimes there was nothing to cook. And sometimes we ate nothing the whole day. Only in the evening did good people — I still know the name: Rokitniccy — bring us a loaf of bread and a jug of milk.)

In winter wood had to be gathered in the forest, for heating and for cooking. In the fine large room a small round stove served as a cooker and as heating — „und im ersten Winter auch als Beleuchtung“ (and in the first winter also as lighting). There was no water from the wall: it had to be brought up from a deep well with a bucket and a sweep. „Besonders im Winter war das schwer, da sich um den Brunnen herum durch das verschüttete Wasser Glatteis gebildet hatte und ein 12-jähriger Junge nicht viel Kraft hatte. Der Begriff ‚Bad‘ war mir damals fremd.“ (Especially in winter that was hard, since around the well the spilt water had formed a sheet of ice and a twelve-year-old boy did not have much strength. The word ‘bath’ was foreign to me then.)

There was no electricity and no radio, and no boredom either: in summer hide-and-seek on the big farmyard and gathering mushrooms — „bis zu 100 große Steinpilze nach einem Ausflug“ (up to 100 large ceps after one outing) —, in winter small sledges on which one stood with one's feet, shod with wire and steered with a long stick at whose end sat a larding needle.

The sisters would not have been able to reach the school from Zaborowo, and the school in Kaczorowy had only six grades. The author was already in the 11th class of the grammar school. As rent they had, apart from the money, sometimes to help the owner with the threshing.

„1951 habe ich das Gymnasium abgeschlossen und mein Reifezeugnis bekommen. Das Gymnasium in Raciąż — einer kleinen Stadt — hatte viele gute Lehrer.“ (In 1951 I finished the grammar school and received my school-leaving certificate. The grammar school in Raciąż — a small town — had many good teachers.) He names three of them and their effect. Prof. Borkowska, the Polish teacher, was an outstanding educationalist: „Dank ihr ist mein ärmlicher Wortschatz der polnischen Sprache stark gewachsen.“ (Thanks to her my poor vocabulary of the Polish language grew greatly.) Prof. Kisielińska was excellent in mathematics: „Dank ihr wurde mein Interesse für Mathe entzündet, obwohl ich nicht viel gelernt habe.“ (Thanks to her my interest in maths was kindled, although I did not learn much.) And Prof. Zalewski, the physics teacher, „hat uns gar nichts beigebracht“ (taught us nothing at all): „Man musste am Anfang der Stunde lediglich das Wort ‚Gewehr‘ in den Raum werfen, und die Stunde war hin, denn danach ging es nur noch um Gewehre.“ (One only had to throw the word ‘rifle’ into the room at the start of the lesson and the lesson was ruined, for after that it was only about rifles.)

For a year he helped the mother afterwards. „Auf den Markt fuhren wir gemeinsam, und die Waren brachte ich allein in die großen Städte. Die Mädels haben gelernt und gespielt.“ (We travelled to market together, and the goods I brought alone to the big cities. The girls studied and played.)