Tag: 2024-09 Notes-From-Renate

April 24, 1945. On April 24th it was reported that Berchtesgaden had experienced an air raid in the middle of the day. We were horrified. This beautiful little town in the Upper Bavarian mountains, which held so many memories for us, had been destroyed by bombs. Now our uncle had nothing left either, we were…

April 20, 1945. We had heard of Russian foreign workers who worked in the munitions factories around Sonneberg. These girls worked all night long and were strictly forbidden to leave the factory premises during the day. They were only allowed to stay in their bar corners. But somehow some of them always managed to sneak…

But a week before the war was over for Sonneberg, there was only one topic: would our city fathers be so sensible as to ignore the orders of the more stubborn and surrender the area without a fight? We had heard of so much senseless defense in the last few weeks, the oldest men had…

March 7, 1945. My main activity in the Hitler Youth during the first two years was collecting all kinds of things. First of all, there was the Winter Relief Fund. I enthusiastically went out into the streets with my box full of boats, flowers, animals, little fairy tale books and whatever else there was to…

February 15, 1945. We were all crouching together in the kitchen. Anna had heard a timid knock in the hallway. Mumbling as always, she went to the door to check. She returned, quite upset, to tell us that there was a beggar standing outside in complete raggedness; she hadn’t let him in. Our mother found…