The rainbow never sets

needing help, I could always go to them.

The border between East and West Germany had not been strictly patrolled during 1947. As it was not possible to obtain any official permission to cross the border, people were forced to do it illegally. There was a steady trickle of people coming and going in both directions. I met some of them on stations and in the train, and they were usually quite open about their adventures. From these reports it was easier to decide where to cross.

The farewell from Emersleben was taken with mixed feelings. I loved my family and friends dearly, but I also knew that I had to start a life on my own. The uncertain part was the border. No one knew for how long these illegal crossings would be possible. If the border were to be closed, what then?

Before starting to work on the farm, Mutter wanted me to see my cousin Jetty Oboussier, who lived with her mother Marthe in Hamburg, and to meet some of her relatives there and in Gettorf, near Kiel. We decided to go together. We packed as little as possible and caught the train to Dedeleben, the border town where it terminated. There was no one at the station to look at us suspiciously. Encouraged by this we made our way to Jerxheim, the next town which was already in West Germany. We had to make a quick decision, though. Should we take the long way around, covered by trees and low growth shrubs, and having to cross a creek Ñ as most people did Ñ or should we just walk beside the train line and cross over the railway bridge, a much easier way? Mutter, the daredevil, suggested the easier one, and I agreed. We had to walk for 6 km and were glad not to be loaded with too much luggage. In those days the motto was: travel lightly! We never saw a border guard along the whole stretch. Stepping onto the other side of the creek was a strange sensation: freedom, another world.

Jerxheim was the terminus of the train-line coming from west Germany. There we caught a train to Braunschweig, where we spent a couple of days with Tante Alice, Mutter's sister, and met all her family there. Then, via Hannover to Hamburg, where we stayed at the Oboussiers. In Hamburg, we also visited the Forstmann family, relatives of Oma Beyme. To go further north by fast train, we required a special permit. Jetty organised this through her work place, the State Institute for General Botanics and the Botanical Gardens. In Gettorf, via Kiel, we visited Mutter's other sister Annemarie von Bonin with her family. Mutter also showed me her father's grave in Eckernförde. He had died in 1922. The mansion there had been in the family for several generations, but with so many refugee families living there, the house and the farm looked rather neglected to me. Back in Hamburg, I said good-bye to Mutter and caught the train on 30 August 1947 to Göttingen, via Hannover.

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