Fifteen years in a childhood paradise

Unfortunately, Mutter could not sing, so we never sang songs with her, but with others we loved to sing, either Christmas carols or nursery songs.

We also went to church whenever my parents went, to the German protestant church in Stþeszew, six kilometers towards Poznan on an unsealed road, only passable by horse-drawn coach. There was no Sunday school nor any segment for children, that is probably why Mutter took it on herself to teach us some of the Bible stories. She certainly taught us respect for other people, an awareness of right and wrong, and tolerance towards other religions, as we lived in a predominantly Catholic area.

I loved wandering around in our big park, about 20 acres of garden with tall trees and lawns ever since I was very small. It was all fenced in, and our parents must have thought it was safe. Our sand-pit was a long distance from the house, in the south-eastern corner of the park. Usually Irene came with us when we wanted to play there. One day I needed to go to the toilet quickly. Irene said: "Just run home, you'll get there in time."

But I didn't. I came screaming to Klärchen with my pants full and it was all running down my legs. She had to clean me up and change my clothes.

In the summer of 1934 our parents took us and Bernd to Zoppot, a seaside resort on the Baltic Sea, in the Free State of Danzig. We rented a house there and Klärchen cooked for us. We loved to climb in and out of the window, but many times we got into trouble for that with the landlady. It turned out, that she was a real dragon, as she constantly interfered with Klärchen in the kitchen. It was in Zoppot that I saw the sea for the first time Ñ water as far as the eye could see. What an enormous stretch of water! The magic of the sea had me completely enthralled.

During 1936 I grew faster than Günter, and for a time he and I were the same height. Mutter would often dress us the same so people thought we were twins. She was always so proud of us and never tired of showing us off. A year later I passed Günter in height, and he never caught up with me.

We had some Spanish relatives who stayed with us for some time during the Spanish civil war in 1936. They were Beyme's. Mutter's cousin, who had died earlier, had married a Spanish lady, Tina. She came with her three grown-up children, two daughters, one of them Alice, and one son Franz. Alice would insist calling us 'the twins'.

Tante Tina would always complain about the cold. One day she walked with us to the garden. Entering one of our greenhouses, with the hot sun blazing on its glass roof, she exclaimed, "Oh, this is nice, like at home, like in Spain." At that time we had no idea of how much refugees missed their home.

For Christmas 1936 Günter and I both received a red-indian tent with the appropriate clothing and head gear. It was great when the weather became warmer and we could play outside. The tent became our head quarters, from which we waged imaginary war with all and sundry.

The following summer Günter, Bernd and I wanted to sleep outside in

11