Illa - Part 24

5 Year Old German Girl Remembers Growing Up During WWII

This is a true story, hand-written by Ilse and posted by her daughter on Steemit.

Christmas was coming and the Church was organizing a re-enactment of the Christmas Story. It would feature many angels and I volunteered to be an angel right away.

“Not you” The priest said. “You can not be an angel or anyone in the play because you are not Catholic”.

I went home crying. Mom gave me a hug and asked; “Illa, don’t you remember Easter? On Palm Sunday you were not allowed in the procession either. It doesn’t matter if you want to be an angel or the devil, you are still not Catholic.”

“Mutti! I don’t want to be the devil. I want to be an angel with a long white dress and wings. I could let my hair down and look really pretty.”

“It will not happen. Illa, just forget about it. I will tell you something the two of us can do. We are going to take the train to München, just you and me. There we can watch the famous Glockenspiel and maybe afterwards, a puppet-theater. Since we are going back to Hamburg soon, we may not get a chance at doing that again.”

On Christmas Day, we went to München and saw the Glockenspiel, watched a funny puppet show (Kasperle-theater) and visited the Christmas market. The market was amazing, even in wartime. Most items we saw were hand- or homemade. There were all kinds of musical instruments, toys, different birdcages and a vast variety of arts and crafts. We strolled through the market where children were laughing, adults talking and vendors advertising their goods. We enjoyed every minute of it. Mom was smiling.

The simple pleasures of that day became one of my cherished memories of Bavaria that Christmas.

A Letter from Oma

Opa got a garden for you. It is only three lots from ours. You cannot get a Lei-house. They were only available temporarily. But there is a good sized tool shed on the grounds. It’s big enough to convert into living quarters at least for the time being. Opa has cleared everything out of the shed. He found beams and planks in the ruins of the city. It is amazing what one can find in the burned-out apartment buildings. People go through them like ants. Objects that were meant for totally different purposes are now used for all kinds of basic things.

The beams Opa found probably came from a ceiling or wall. Now they are going to be bunk beds for you and Illa. Opa came home with a half burned table. He trimmed the middle evenly. Now he needs some glue to glue the table against the wall. That way it can stand on two legs. The next are two chairs. Maybe he can build them from left-overs, so you will have a place to sit and eat. Two beds are going to be there. We will keep looking for things. Who knows what we will find.

It has become a different way of life, but we won’t give up. We are always looking for some way to beat the cold.

---

next: Part 25