Fifteen years in a childhood paradise

Ñ but I couldn't; just a feeble attempt going up and down on my knees, just to please Günter.

We also played with a little hay cart, which had a long handle. I loved to sit in it and Günter would pull me. One day he turned the corner too fast and tipped me out. A few tears, but we continued to play. From early on we were inseparable friends. Horst and Bernd had come to us to play regularly, or we went over to their place. We grew up together almost like brothers.

*

But there was no point trying to hang on to the past. "What's going to happen to all our things here?" I heard Günter say. "I don't know whether they're safe," said Horst. "They're probably going to lock and bar the big house of Oma and Opa (my grandma and grandpa), but your father is going to stay here, so there will be someone staying to keep watch."

"But what if all is going to be destroyed?" persisted Günter. "I think you need to do something about your valuables, though, like the silver and jewellery," was Horst's advice.

"Surely the jewellery could go with us, but the silver would be more difficult," said Bernd.

Horst had read many detective stories, and he loved especially the books by Karl May on the Red Indians, like 'Winnetou' and perhaps twenty other titles. Our parents always thought they were a waste of time to read, but what Horst said now came straight out of the pages of 'that trash': "You and we will have to bury our silver at some secret place where no one will be able to find it. We will have to remember exactly the place where we dig, and when the war is over we'll be able to dig it out again."

That sounded most exciting to us. We all agreed, and with that our war cabinet meeting was over.

*

We lived in the 'small house', a suburban style 'villa' about 150 meters from the manor house which my grandparents owned. Our villa had been built for my parents before their wedding, and they had moved into it after their honeymoon. The ground floor had three rooms: the lounge, the 'Damen Zimmer' or ladies lounge and the dining room. There was a small toilet and ante-room as one entered the house from the front steps. Upstairs were three bedrooms, one for my parents, one for my sister Gerda, and one for Günter and me. There was also a family bathroom

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