October 

Hartmut

Hartmut remembers a lot about the war. He was over 8 years old when World War 2 started and just had his 13th birthday when it ended. Here is one of his memories of an air raid he described in his ‘Life Story’. 

There was a restless humming of voices in the cellar, the air raid shelter. Children cried, because they had been woken up from deep sleep. I myself reacted usually in an obnoxious manner, I hated to be woken up and pretended not to have heard. Mum became very frustrated with me. My sister Siegtraut on the other hand was alert and helpful. The situation improved when the neighbour came to help. Once in the cellar, Mutti gave us coloured pencils and paper and I drew pictures of German bombers dropping bombs on London, pursued by British fighter planes and attacked by British anti-aircraft fire. I also drew pictures of the land war, German tanks featuring in most of those drawings 

Usually, after an hour or two, sirens signalled the end of the alarm. People clambered back upstairs, but for most, the night had been disturbed so badly that they could not return to a restful sleep.