Where Were You During World War II

Fortunately, my father had a productive farm ~

raising crops of grain, corn and fruit orchards ~

and was not solicited personally for war duty.

A couple of times, we drove to The States to procure items, unavailable through war-savings stamps (or at limited supply here at home.) Certain foods, nylon stockings and gasoline for vehicle and tractor ~

the latter purchased in Ontario near the U.S. border.

How a Teen-Aged Girl Watched and Lived

as the Second World War Exploded Around Her

Alex Day, a member of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum's D-Day Commemorative Gala Committee contrbuted this writing. Her experiences, I share with you in 3 or 4 episodes.

“She was 13, the day she was sent into her family's burning apartment building ~ to rescue a feather bed . I was just a kid, said Anna Elisabeth Graumann. But my world was already big. It had to be.

Anna, now 90 and living at the Village of Tansley Woods in Burlington,

was born on April 17, 1929 in the German city ~ being a hub that was home to a massive railway complex that connected the people of Germany. Her father, a First World War veteran, was a police constable. Her mother had 5 children at home. Anna was the eldest of her two brothers and sisters ~ thrusting her into a more mature role right away.

Germany, like the rest of the world, was suffering through the Great Depression in the 1930's ~ and the country was hungry, literally and figuratively for a hero. To them, Adolf Hitler was that man! When Hitler came, he gave all the Germans, work. That's why everybody stood and said Hail Hitler. The same sentiment was echoed by the population after the German blitzkrieg of Poland in 1939.

You would hear it on the radio ~ Germany had won Poland

and everyone was happy about it because it was Hitler! He did it!

“To Anna, then a 10-year-old girl, Hitler was nothing more than 'the talk of the town.' She saw him standing in his car...saluting as he drove past thousands of adoring.cheering Germans in Frankfurt.
To her, it was just exciting news ~ that Germany was thriving again.

But soon, her father was transferred to a government position in the post office in Poland after its fall ~

and that made Anna the oldest person for her mother to turn to. She would take her 4 siblings to the park every day so her mother could rest for a half-hour or more. She would clean the apartment and bathe the kids ~ and even began her love of cooking from her mother.

“Hitler also had a plan for the children of Germany: He often said that they were the future of the Reich ~ and he wanted them indoctrinated in Nazi doctine early in life.The Hitler Youth!

The mandatory attendance for those of age, ensured they got a good taste of Hitler's Ideology.

It was masked by being a group for the 'team-building ' and 'cohesiveness' for young Germans.

Hitler had the youth...the boys and girls.

And we had to go to the meetings...and if we didn't go,

there would be an SS man at our door asking:

Anna wasn't at the meeting today. Why wasn't she there?

When Anna did have free time, she spent it looking forward to any chance she got to visit her grandmother in her second floor apartment. Her grandmother would always ensure to slip Anna a few cents so she could see a local show. That second floor apartment had a row of windows that allowed an easy side-to-side view of the street below. The same street, Anna and her siblings would draw hopscotch on with some chalk to keep themselves entertained.

One day, something strange took place on the street.

Something that Anna and her family didn't understand at the time.

We looked out the window and here were trucks across the street...and here were soldiers...and the people were forced into the trucks. They had to go into the trucks! We saw that they took clothing...snd bags...and feather beds...and they had to go into the trucks. But we didn't know what was going on.

We had no idea ! Later, we found out:

“Those were the Jews living in the house ~ and I'm ice cold when I think about it.

They got the people out of their apartments ~

and took them to concentration camps.

I didn't know anything Jewish...or German...or Russsian...or Polish.

We were all people.

Like those Jews who were across the street ~ they were 'just across the street.'

They were people just like I was.

Be sure to read Part 2 ~ ensuing in my next issue.

Writer: Merle Baird-Kerr...November 9, 2019

Comments welcome: mbairdkerr@cogeco.ca

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