Refugee in search of a homeland

races than I could have ever imagined. The fact that she had her own horse in these races, made it of course somewhat more interesting.

My first big business trip on my own was to take place during the first week in May. I left on Saturday to the Rhineland, stopped at Kurt von Heyking's for afternoon tea, and stayed overnight with the Forstmann's in Dahlhausen. From there I visited five worsted spinning mills in that area, and stayed with Bernd over night at Mönchen Gladbach, where he was employed by Onkel Wilhelm Forstmann in the timber yard. Then via Godesberg, Wiesbaden, Kaiserslautern, Hersfeld, again back to Dahlhausen, where my parents came visiting the following weekend. Bernd had announced his engagement with Ingrid Bardt at Easter, and over that weekend we celebrated their engagement with them. On Monday 11 May I drove back to Bremen.

During that week I had visited most of the worsted spinning mills in the south and west of Germany. I managed to sell only very little, about 2,000 kg of tops, which was very disappointing. I had earnt in the first quarter of 1953 a total of DM156 in commission, second quarter DM235, third quarter DM340, and the final DM348.

For the long weekend of Pentecost 23 to 25 May we arranged to meet again with my parents and Onkel Werner & Tante Margaret in Braunschweig. As Tante Alice was away with her children, it was a Tieman only reunion and we kept talking of the past, of the many times we had been together as a family in Sapowice and Strykowo. It was so good to be able to do this again after so many years of enforced separation. We also felt intensely the loss of our two brothers Günter and Horst.

My next business trip was planned for Saturday, 20 June to southern Germany. Helga wanted to visit her boyfriend Kurt, so I offered her a lift to Neubeckum. I was glad to have some company for the first part of the trip. It was a warm and sunny afternoon. The car just purred along through the country side. Helga operated the car radio from the passenger seat. The volume was perhaps a bit louder than necessary, but it felt great to drive through the country side with the fresh leaves on the trees and shrubs still verdant in their early glory. We had just passed Minden and were about to enter Oeynhausen, coming around a gradual bend, with trees and shrubs on our right and only the occasional tree on our left. There were some triangular warning signs on the right (a black steam engine in a red frame). These were partly obstructed by trees and shrubs. I hadn't noticed them. Suddenly Helga shouted out: "Watch out, a train is coming from our right!"

I slammed on the breaks, but it was too late. The narrow-gauge steam-train engine, pulling several passenger carriages, had just left the road-side station and was already half way across the road. I tried to veer to the left to avoid a collision, but the car skidded and the passenger side smashed against the left wheel of the steam engine. The impact pushed my car clear away from the railway tracks and it came to a halt in the middle of

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