The rainbow never sets

Frau Grube was most hospitable to my parents. It did take eventually almost six weeks before they were flown out of Berlin, and they stayed with her for all that time. They were able to pay her for their lodging, and they also had some parcels sent from Emersleben with food. Mutter met with Onkel Helmut in East Berlin who brought over some of the family silver and valuables. Mutter never lacked courage. Having reached the safety of West Berlin, she put herself again at risk going across the zone border! Vater was always more careful and thoughtful. But it could have gone wrong. The rest of the family silver came across the border either in parcels or through Onkel Helmut at a later time.

On 9.2.53 Vater wrote that he had received news from Emersleben, that he had been recalled from Blankenburg per telegram on the 3.2.53. and since the budget plan for 1953 had been handed in late (they had been working on it for weeks), he was dismissed from his position on the spot as per the 4.2.53. The flat had to be vacated by the 16.2.53. This dismissal had come before the authorities knew that Vater had defected to the west. He expressed disgust at the mentality of the authorities: "For that I had worked like a slave for eight years!"

No thanks, no appreciation. He was lucky indeed to get out of there alive.

Eventually my parents and Gerda were booked on a flight from Berlin to Hannover, on 10.3.53 arriving at 10.30pm. Onkel Box, brother-in-law of Tante Alice, Mutter's sister, had sent a car to pick them up and taken them to Braunschweig, where they were staying with Tante Alice.

The weekend 14 to 15 March was the first opportunity to visit my parents and Gerda in Braunschweig. Jürgen Siemering allowed me to borrow the firm's car, a Ford Taunus 12M. What a wonderful reunion that was! I felt they had escaped from prison! Now they were free again. By then the 'iron curtain' had truly come down, and the loophole via Berlin had also been closed. How thankful we were that they had escaped just in time. The 15th March was also Vater's 59th birthday, and we all celebrated together his 're-birth'.

On Good Friday 3 April, the girlfriend of my friend Kurt von Heyking gave me a lift to Hannover. Her name was Helga. From there I caught the train to Braunschweig, to be again with my family, until Easter Monday. My six cousins, children of Tante Alice, were there too and we had a wonderful time together. Helga picked me up from Hannover again. She had been racing her horse somewhere nearby.

Just a weekend before Easter we had farewelled Kurt, who had started a new job at the firm Polysius in Neubeckum. I had promised him to look after Helga. Her mother owned a chocolate factory in Bremen, and Helga's passion were horses, and I would have added 'riding in a taxi'. Wherever she went, she took a taxi, when poor people like Kurt and I would go by public transport. We teased her of course quite considerably about that, but she didn't mind. For the next few weeks I would attend more horse

250