Tag: 2024-09 Notes-From-Renate

December 4, 1943. In the spring of 1943, the victorious German armies had already suffered their first serious defeats, which indicated that the war would end badly for Germany. Most of the major cities had been largely destroyed by bombs from Allied squadrons. Leipzig was one of the few exceptions. Although we went to the…

August 4, 1943. In the hot August of 1943, we had come to Sonneberg from Leipzig as usual, and our somewhat stubborn grandmother had to pick currants in the sweltering heat. The result was a stroke, and the very next day she closed her eyes forever in her old apartment at Bahnhofstrasse 4. My mother…

Easter, 1943. Father was relatively safe in the Breslau area, our uncle [Walter] had his home in the beautiful Berchtesgadener Land, and so we even went on a short holiday trip to Bavaria with our grandmother over Easter. It is hard to imagine what it was like on the totally overcrowded trains. There was no…

Winter, 1942. After various failures, i.e. attempts with “Pflichtjahrmädchen” , who were not at all what my mother had in mind, Leni suddenly appeared. My brother was about three years old at the time, and she threw herself with great enthusiasm into the care and education of the little chubby guy, who became her absolute…

Summer, 1939: My clear memories of Sonneberg go back to the year 1939. Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, we spent the summer holidays with my grandmother in Thuringia, and I will try to write down what I remember from this trip. Father had started working for the city of Leipzig at…