Refugee in search of a homeland

farm was propagating wheat for seed purposes. The soil in that area was known as the best in Germany for wheat, it looked black and very fertile. The wheat crop looked magnificent. I had never seen anything like it before. On our property in Poland the wheat was always sparse and thin, whereas here it stood as dense as a table top, full of ripe ears.

I was also given work on the farm, and I enjoyed it. After my long illness my muscles had rather weakened and I felt quite out of condition. This was a good opportunity to build up my body again and earn some money at the same time. My future began to look brighter again.

During our early days in Emersleben, when life was still chaotic, and none of the public services, like trains, buses, telephones or mail were working, we received a letter via a messenger from Onkel Werner and Tante Margaret. It brought us the very sad news that my cousin Horst had been killed by the Russians in Potsdam. He had been wounded and had come on leave to Potsdam, where Tante Margaret lived at her sister's. About three days after the Russian occupation, on 28 April 1945, he had stepped outside their house to fetch some water, when a Russian sniper shot him dead. He died in Tante Margaret's arms. Onkel Werner had been drafted into the reserve army a few weeks before the Russian onslaught on Berlin and had been taken prisoner of war, but was released now. My cousin Bernd had escaped on a bicycle a couple of days before the Russians came. The three of them were now living in Rittmarshausen, near Göttingen. They had been allocated two rooms in a farmer's house.

"How will we ever be able to visit them?" asked Oma with great concern. "We are under Russian occupation, and they are under American."

"Surely they must open the borders for people, as soon as things go back to normal. They can't just divide Germany into four parts!" Mutter was convinced that the division was to be a temporary one.

"It doesn't look like it now, if you consider how the Russians are guarding their border." I had heard that some Germans had been shot dead trying to cross into the American zone.

"They are doing it now, just because there are some people who are still trying to flee over to the west. Once that has stopped, everything will be all right."

"I don't think so, Mutter. I don't trust the Russians. Look how long it takes for everything to go back to normal here. And now this letter arrives. Horst shot down, as if he were a dog. I wonder what they have done to Günter?"

"Don't talk like that, Dieter. You are just being angry." "Of course, I am."

"You know about this rumour, that he was seen in Sapowice by someone there, don't you? It could be possible, you know. Perhaps it was Maria who saw him?"

"Well, I don't believe it, until we receive a letter from him or from

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